An Update of Sorts....

So I failed you all again.  And when I say "you all,"  I mean the three or four people who keep track of this blog.  ;-)  I mostly try to keep up here so that I can look back at the year(s) and remember things that I would have normally forgotten.  The blog, for me, is like my memory book for our family.  So I have been horrible at keeping track of everything these days.  Time to try harder, otherwise, one day I will look back and have trouble remembering all the things I so want to remember about the days/weeks/months of our early family years.  So time to get one it!

So, what are we up to?

Well, both Abby and Jimmy are walking all.the.time now.  It is amazing how quickly they went from crawling to walking.   Jimmy started walking before his first birthday - I believe it was in July even.  So he was tentatively walking by himself around 11 months.  Abby, not to be forgotten, started walking after their first birthday.  She was walking in September for sure.  And when that girl started walking, there was no going back!  She started one day and then decided crawling just wasn't the "in" thing to do anymore.  So now that they are walking, they are climbing onto and into everything.   See below for the proof:

Yep - those are my babes - off to climb Mt. Everest one day. Or maybe just on the counter one day not too long from now.

What else is new... Well, they are sleeping through the night (!!!) now.  Unfortunately, it is the result of some sleep training that had to happen here in our house.  Jim and I really weren't comfortable with doing much cry-it-out, but knew that we had to do something because the middle of the night wake ups (mostly by Miss Abigail at this point) were starting to get out of hand.  Plus with Jim going back to work soon, I knew that I wouldn't be able to successfully rock them both to sleep over and over again for naps and bedtime.  It was just too draining for us all (and no one wants to go to sleep while the see their sister/brother playing in the corner). 

So one fateful day while Jim was at a work meeting, preparing to go back to work, I tried to rock Jimmy to sleep, but in doing so, I had to leave Abby in the game room (she was fenced in) for too long for my comfort level.  So I did it.  I held Jimmy until he was sleepy and then put him in his crib to fall asleep on his own.  Then I did the same for Abby.  And you know what, it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be.  Now, don't get me wrong, it was tough, that first nap, first bedtime and really, that first whole week, was tough and involved some crying on everyone's part, but it worked.  The most anyone ever cried was 45 minutes, but it wasn't straight crying, it was mostly cry/whine/quiet over and over for 45 minutes  And now (two weeks later) Abby usually goes right to sleep at bedtime and will only fuss for a few minutes at nap time.  Jimmy is consistent - he will sit and play in his crib for 10 minutes or so, then lay down and pass out. 

Looking back, I sometimes wish I would have let Abby and Jimmy learn how to soothe themselves to sleep without needing us much sooner, but then I also know that they weren't ready for it yet.  I think it worked out fine they way we did it - and I did (mostly) enjoy the snuggles and cuddles from my babes as they drifted off to sleep.  But now I am thoroughly enjoying having my nighttime sleep back!  Finally.

The naps are still a little bit of a struggle, not necessarily with crying, but because it seems that we are approaching the time to transition from two naps down to one.  For the last week, one or both of them would take a too short nap or refuse to nap altogether.  So I guess it is time to start thinking about going to one lone (hopefully) nap in the middle of the day.  We will see how this works out.

Playtime is more and more fun these days too.  They play independently, they play together.  They play in their little house and they play on the couch.  Abby will grab a little figurine and bounce it around on the ground saying, "hi" over and over again.  Jimmy will "throw" a ball and watch it bounce over and over again all through the house.  They both love to try to get the TV remote, and when they do snatch it without us knowing, we usually will find out that someone had the remote at some point because our DVR will have recorded random shows from earlier in the day.  The hide from each other and chase each other and give kisses and hugs in the midst of their play.  It is so cute. 

Check this out - in the midst of their play, they stopped for a hug:

and then a kiss:

and what's not to love about a little tackle me playtime on the couch:

Abby and Jimmy are awesome; twins are awesome!  It is tremendously fun these days.  Truthfully though, it is still really challenging at times.  Two whining, crying, fighting, toy-stealing, demanding, non-verbal toddlers, dragging on our pant legs randomly throughout the day, is quite challenging, to say the least!  But that is why we always have wine and ice cream in this house!