Gracie and Bailey's Mom: 18 months

Gracie and Bailey turned 18 months old on 2/02/11. I had a very hard time believing that my babies were a year and a half old! Where did all the time go and more importantly where did my little babies go? So we are big kids now and we are loving being more independent and doing big kid things. We are learning how to eat with a spoon and a fork. I usually put the food on the spoon and they are pretty good at getting it to their mouth. Gracie and Bailey take one nap a day from 1-3 and I love my "mommy time" during those hours. We have become very active in our twins group and other play groups and we usually have about 3 outings with friends a week. Gracie and Bailey continue to sleep in the same bedroom and they are pretty much sleeping around 11-12 hours. Gracie sometimes will wake up and cry a little bit but her brother sleeps straight through it. Mommy and Daddy no longer come upstairs during the night and thus Gracie and Bailey and learned that crying doesn't get a reaction during the nighttime. We love doing new things like coloring. The first couple of times they did try to eat the crayons but now they do art each day for about 10 minutes and will say "art please" while pointing to their crayons. Both Gracie and Bailey can say a couple 2-3 connected words like "more milk please" or "go out Dixie." I was so excited that the twins did not have to get any shots at their 18 month apt.
Gracie weighed 20.6 pds and is in the 5%. She is 31 1/4 inches and is in the 40% for height. She loves pretending like she is a mommy and I have actually caught myself reminding her a couple of times that I am Bailey's mommy and that she is his sister. She is a big help around the house as she loves to help with chores. She hands me all the dishes out of the dishwasher and loves to wipe the front of the kitchen cabinets. She puts the diapers in the diaper genie and follows me with the dust pan while I sweep. She loves to take care of her brother and will bring him his paci, blankie or his favorite books. Gracie has recently has had a "light bulb" moment with puzzles and she loves to all five of her puzzles every day over and over again!
Bailey weighed 24.2 pds and was in the 30% for weight. He is 32 3/4 inches and in the 60% for height. He continues to eat all of his food and whatever Gracie does not eat on her plate. He is obsessed with blueberries and he loves any type of fruit. Bailey always seems to be giggling or laughing at something. His biggest interest now is trains and he begs for me to set up his Thomas the Train track. He likes to carry Thomas around the house with him. Bailey also enjoys music and he likes to play his electric piano and guitar. He will make a drum out of just about anything in the house. Bailey and I have a special "dance time" each day where I turn on his favorite cd and we dance around the house.

One of the things that I love the most about this age is that Gracie and Bailey are really starting to care for one another. They pay attention when they other is sad or happy and they will try to help each other out. They are playing well together at most times but we still have to work on sharing at times. My favorite thing is to watch them hold hands while walking as it is the sweetest thing ever.

Holding hands walking while walking into the playroom