17 Months

The girls are growing and changing like crazy. I can't believe they'll be a year and a half old soon. Time really does fly when you're having fun!

Lucy- You have turned into a walking fool. As soon as we took the gate down between the living and dining rooms you starting walking laps around the house. You love practicing and are getting so good at it. You're officially walking more than crawling. This past month your speech has really taken off too. You're imitating like crazy, using the following words consistently (mama, dada, up, down, rock, cheese, pepper, Ben-Ben, Pop Pop, Hi, book, stamp, pa-pa for Paci, dog, go, sss for sissy), and also still using about 5-10 signs (eat, milk, water, help, more, music, all done). This past month was huge for you as you stopped nursing (not by choice, but by necessity). You did so amazingly well with the transition and I'm so proud of you. It took about 2 weeks, but now you don't ask for it and you seemed to have forgotten completely. You're drinking great out of your sippy cup and generally eating well. You love carbs and cheese, but also love trying new and different things. For the first time in your whole life you slept 11 hours straight. You're still usually up once a night. It's getting better as you're more willing to let your daddy soothe you at night. Since stopping nursing you're sleeping so much better. You have 11 teeth and are working on your last bottom molar. You know a bunch of clothing items and body parts and love to point to them when we ask. You're understanding so much and it amazes me. You still love in and out type of play but I found you pretending to care for two babies one night and it completely melted my heart. You're wearing mostly 12-18 month clothes and you still don't need and rise snaps on your cloth diapers. You decided you don't want to cooperate for physical therapy again and the therapist is mostly working with Clara. You have been extra attached to your Mama and you and Clara both don't like when Grandma Dukes gets you out of your carseat. You're such a little cutie walking around everywhere. Someone at music class thought you were too small to be walking. You're still our little peanut! 

Just brushing my teeth in bed!

stacking blocks

Our last nursing session :(

Clara- You're also trying to walk so much more like your sister. When you see her walking it motivates you to also try. Unfortunately, you're having a slightly more difficult time. We will probably see an orthopedic to check it out soon. You are able to walk about 5-10 steps most times before falling and have figured out the slower you go the easier it is. You have 8 teeth but feel like you're working on a bottom molar. Your favorite foods are clementines. You would eat them all day long if we let you. You are trying to talk more and imitating more consistently. You say mama, dada, sss (for sissy), cheese, pop pop, and stamp. You tend to rely more on signing and are getting so much better about using signs rather than whining. It's great to see you communicating your wants and needs so effectively. You're still our great sleeper although teething sometimes wakes you up. When you do wake up you generally go back to sleep easily. You transitioned to not nursing easily. I knew you would as you happy to go with the flow most times. You are wearing 12-18 month clothes and have a rise snap on your cloth diapers. You love that you are getting the physical therapist's attention and really enjoy working with her. You're much more outgoing with people you know but still quite attached to your mama in unfamiliar or large public places. You don't want me to put you down during music class and don't like Grandma Dukes to get you out of your carseat. You still love your paci and snuggling with your lovey at bed and naptimes. You really liked playing on your slide and with jewelry and puzzles this month. It's so amazing to see you learn and grow every day and I feel so lucky to be able to watch it every day. 

It's a tough life!

Our last time nursing

drinking and driving

Lucy and Clara play nicely together at times but still fight quite a bit and will try to bite or hit one another when frustrated. The thing is, they use their sign language a lot with us but not with each other so there's still a lot of frustration between them. Opening up the gate between the rooms of the house has given them more space and reduced some of their fighting. It really think it's just a frustrating age because they are able to understand so much but not really express much at all. I'm sure as they get more words they will learn to play together better. There are times when one is upset and the other will get a paci and give it to her or they will hug each other spontaneously and it melts my heart. I know they really do love each other. 

Big girls can do this huge slide by themselves. 

Giving sissy high fives

The biggest thing this month that happened was we found out Lucy and Clara are going to be big sisters. It's really been surprising to say the least. There are times when I feel overwhelmed and scared for having three children 25 months apart, but there are also times where I look at my girls and think about how much I love them. It makes me so excited that I'm going to get to love on another little person soon.