The boys are so talkative these days. Joshua has learned how to say “flower”. He will point at all the blossoming buds in our yard and say “flower! flower!” Caleb likes to try to say “will”, which honestly usually sounds like “wuh!” but it’s a start. That is not an easy word, but he seems to have a special affinity for it. There’s a line in one of their favorite books Are You My Mother? (which, I might add, is a 50+ page book that holds their attention even on the 3rd consecutive reading) where the baby bird says “I will! I will!” and Caleb always echoes “will! will!”

Forget the stroller… the boys want to walk everywhere now. They usually take turns pushing the wagon when we go on our walks, now. A couple times I tried letting them both walk down our street on our way to Halmoni and Grandpa’s house, but since the boys each have their own agendas, such endeavors resulted in crying fits, with me carrying one boy and concerned neighbor ladies sprinting from their houses to help steer the other. Joshua is actually very focused and is good at efficiently walking in a straight line. One time he was concentrating so hard on walking that he walked straight into a truck’s bumper. Caleb, however, is more curious and is easily distracted by pretty flowers, clouds, or a bird flying overhead. He does better on sidewalks, but unfortunately most of the roads in our neighborhood lack this novelty.

This evening at Halmoni and Grandpa’s house we were gathered around the island right before dinner, and the boys were in their high chairs. Right before we were getting ready to say grace, Joshua took the initiative to pray on his own. I kid you not- he bowed his head, closed his eyes, said “Adabadabaadabadaa…. Amen!” and lifted his head and opened his eyes. We were all amazed!

Joshua also holds the phone up to his ear now and says “Hi! Bla bla bla…” But for whatever reason he won’t talk if there’s actually someone on the other end of the line.

Since discovering that Safeway sells frozen organic raspberries and blueberries for way less than what it’d cost to buy them fresh, I’ve been making smoothies every morning for breakfast. Berries, frozen sliced bananas, soy milk, and wheat germ… press the button and you’ve got instant healthy yumminess . Caleb and I have been enjoying them for a while now, but stubborn Joshua insisted that everything in my cup must be orange juice and decided a while ago that he didn’t like orange juice. I tried offering him some in a little sippy cup but he didn’t fall for it. Well I finally convinced Joshua to taste some today, and he loved it!

It took me a while to get used to the taste of soy milk, but after reading this article I’ve decided to reserve cow’s milk for special occasions and small amounts, like in coffee, baking recipes, cheese, or an occasional ice cream. And Caleb actually seems to like soy milk smoothies better than the ones I used to make with organic whole milk!

The boys are almost a year and a half old! Their new favorite thing to do is flitter-flutter their hands in the air like twinkling stars to prompt us to sing “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” for them. Halmoni taught them this. They are a most appreciative audience, always responding to our singing with wide smiles and generous applause.

They have learned the following new phrases:

• Oh man! Oh yeah! Oh wow! Do it!

They can almost say:

• Juice. Yes. Shell.

Whenever they sit on a little chair, they say “Shh-shhh” which is the sound I taught them to make when they sit on their little potty. Unfortunately, they seem to think that they can “shh-shhh” anywhere as long as they’re sitting on a chair. Needless to say, we have put potty-learning on hold for the time being.

Caleb and Joshua LOVE to play outside. This recent cold spell has not sat well with them. They would bring me their shoes and their coats and say “Bye-bye? Bye-bye?”, begging me to take them outside to play on the rain and snow-soaked earth. We are anxiously waiting for global warming to hurry up and do its thing so we can return to our daily outdoor romps.

Lately Joshua has learned how to come down stairs the safe way- sliding on his tummy. When he first caught on about a week ago, he did this over and over and over again, proud of his new skill. Caleb can do it if we closely monitor and coerce him, but as with most other things, he still prefers to do exactly what he sees the grown-ups doing, which would be walking down stairs on his feet. 

This past week Joshua and Caleb have teamed up to acheive a rather undesirable new skill- turning on the TV and Xbox to watch a Baby Einstein DVD! Joshua will push the eject button on the Xbox, push it back in (with the DVD already loaded) while Caleb turns on the TV. Then they will clap and marvel at their accomplishment as the Disney logo and intro music exudes from the TV. We usually let them watch only one half-hour movie per day, so if they start to get carried away we’ll flip the swtich on the power strip so that they can’t turn anything on. Hopefully it’ll be a while before they figure that out! Joe remarked that this is probably only the beginning of the many great accomplishments they’ll acheive working together as a team.