16 months and counting

The girls are just over sixteen months old now.  They lag behind on some things and surge ahead on others.  This seems to be pretty normal for all babies.  While twins often do experience some delays associated with premature birth, the girls don't seem to have any physical issues.  I think some of the delays are simply because parents of twins just can't interact as much with two babies as compared to how parents of singletons interact with one baby.

We play with the girls a lot.  We talk to them all the time.  It's just not the same as parents with one child who can walk around with that just that baby.  You're always checking in on the other child.  You're often snuggling one and making eye contact with the other.  You have to make decisions all the time about which baby needs you more...even when they're both crying.  If you're alone with them, it's just about impossible to hold and carry two babies. 

On the other hand, the girls do some things that other babies aren't doing.  When I watch the little ones at the sitter's, most of them are playing near each other.  They're playing independently, but close together.  The girls break into games throughout the day.  Currently, they're passing toys back and forth and Calliope is putting them on the shelf or into the basket.  Earlier, they were grabbing toys and rolling until they had their heads together.  The latter is a favorite thing to do, especially with books.

Twin talk.  I'm getting a bit tired of being asked about this.  (No offense intended to the people who've been asking.  Twins are different and wonderfully so!) The scientific terms are: idioglossia and cryptophasia.  The last term being specifically for the language adopted by multiples.  The girls really don't exhibit these languages.  They babble constantly, but there are no patterns to the speech.  The very limited reading that I've done suggests that twin talk is actually an adaptation of poorly pronounced speech.  The twins adopt each others' attempts at words and then have their own "language".  I don't notice this with the girls. Mostly what I see is that they model the inflections we use for everyday speech.  Thank you is almost musical when Thalia says it.  Calli seems to do the same with "doggy". 

And now I have to go because two little girls are both trying to walk!