*I am feeling less fuzzy today! Sore throat is better, brain is much better, back is medicated. Not great, but better! Now, on to the fun stuff.*
I think having twins is ideal! We see such a broad spectrum of two little personalities at any given moment. I have a wide view of what an 11 month old child might be like because my two 11 month olds are doing very different things! If I only had one baby, I’d figure they were typical. With two, I can see how special they each are!
Rissa: Rissa LOVES music! I can’t describe it well enough in paragraphs because you really have to see her do it, but I’ll try. Picture her sitting on the floor. She might be perfectly happy to just sit, she might be busy playing with a toy, she might be screaming her head off. All I have to do is pop in any music (she especially prefers Folk Playground, her favorite CD [thank you Joy and Andrew!] but anything will work) and she immediately stops what she is doing, turns herself toward the speakers, holds out her arms and begins bouncing in rhythm to the music. Any prior emotion is forgotten as she basks in the melodies and harmonies and bounces away. When the song switches, she pauses to get a sense of the new rhythm, and starts bouncing again for the new song. She enjoys Hip Hop because it allows for fast and furious bouncing, but she can really appreciate anything. And she shares her Daddy’s single-minded focus; when she is listening to music, she cannot be bothered with trivial things. Beware to Zach who might come over to show her his toy! She gives him a dirty look and begins to grumble until he scoots away as if to indicate, “Can’t you hear this amazing thing coming out of the speaker? Show some respect and let me enjoy it in peace!” Both babies enjoyed the piano at my parents’ house. I think we’ll need one of these soon enough!
Both: Books have a similar calming effect for both babies. It warms our hearts to no end that when they are upset, we can just hand them a book and they are instantly absorbed in looking at it (unless they are hungry, then the book doesn’t do anything for them so we just feed them). They love to sit and pull out a book and “read” it to themselves. Usually upside-down and backwards. They turn each page, go back to favorite pages, and read it again when they come to the end (the beginning, actually, since they like to go backwards). We are huge fans of the “That’s not my ____” series by Fiona Watt. They are touchy-feely books and we especially like the penguin, pirate, mermaid, robot, dinosaur, and monster ones. There are 5 pages of “That’s not my pirate!” and why: “His cutlass is too shiny” or “Her shirt is too silky” and then a final page of “That’s my pirate! His beard is sooooo fuzzy!” Both of them love to touch that shiny cutlass, silky shirt, and fuzzy beard!
They fight over books terribly! Zach has taken to sitting on books so that Rissa cannot turn the page until he is ready. Then he forgets why he sat there and tries to turn the page himself. It can be frustrating to turn a page when it’s tugging at your own butt to do it! Rissa runs off with books and tries to read them alone. She doesn’t want to share information with anyone and she wants to turn pages whenever she is ready! If Zach comes too close, she stops reading and waits for him to pass, sometimes yelling at him. <sigh> They have some smallish sized board books from Gramma and Granpa and there are two of them! Thank goodness! Here they are, both sitting and reading to themselves. Every once in awhile, we’ll discover them pouring over a book together. Books with flaps like the Fisher Price ones (we have the zoo, farm, and cars/trains/vehicles versions) are especially fun to share because there is plenty to do for both babies on any given page.
Zach: Zach LOVES buttons. He will trace the buttons down your shirt. He will poke all his toys in the eye because he wants to touch the small, dark circle that might be a button. He attempts to go for Hooch’s eye, but Hooch always moves too quickly for him. He traces freckles on my arm, touching each one. He likes the sparkly sequins on my tshirt and touches them. He pokes the small circles drawn onto characters in his stories. He is so detail-oriented; he can find a small circle anywhere and uses great coordination to touch it with his tiny little pointer finger (always the right hand). We borrowed the Cheerio book from the library where you put real Cheerios on the pages in the designated cardboard dimples and there are photographs of Cheerios too. He likes to touch all of them right in the middle, but he can tell which ones are real. This obsession with buttons reminds me strongly of Dennis the Menace, the amazing movie starring Walter Matthau and Christopher Lloyd from 1993 (it’s worth renting just to see Margaret threaten to tell on Joey the “Baby rump kisser!”). Dennis cannot resist any button, and neither can Zach. He loves to chomp buttons on clothes, especially pants. He chomps at Matt and I’s waists and we always wonder what the heck he’s doing, and then we realize he is trying to taste the button. Here he is, tasting the button from his own shorts.
