Abby and Natalie are just amazing. One of the best things about children is watching them discover the world around them and conquer it with delight. When I look at Natalie and Abby, it's just amazing to think that 6 months ago, they were barely sitting up. Now, they are eating solids, babbling and standing. Soon, they will be walking and talking and reading and writing. It's remarkable.
One of the ways Abby has been practicing her standing is to push off of you when you are lying on the ground. Before today, she was just playing around and it would happen accidentally. Today, however, she realized what she was doing and was absolutely thrilled with herself. She would push off again and again and clap and laugh when she was standing. She was so pleased with herself. After she realized what she could do, she would do it over and over from pieces of furniture for the rest of the day.
Abby is just days away from trying some steps. You can see her thinking about it. Sometimes, if she's hanging on to one thing and reaching for another, you can see her thinking about letting go first and then grabbing the next thing. She is also showing more interest in the walker (little car that converts to push walker) and actually tries to push it now. It's really a very exciting time. I'm just hoping she will wait and try those first steps when Ben is home. Oh - not related, but still exciting - Abby has added M's to her vocabulary. So, now it's mamamamamama or mmmmmmmm. Just like with dada, she's not assigning the sounds to me, but at least she has the sounds.
Natalie has skills too! She is letting go more often and standing for longer periods of time. She seems to run a few days behind Abby so she doesn't seem to have figured out exactly what she's doing yet. I'm sure she will any day now. She is walking much better when we hold her hands - picking up her feet and moving forward. Her favorite thing is clapping. She claps all the time. In fact, she can ask her to clap and she will - most of the time. But, she responds enough to the word that she does seem to understand it. She also seems to understand "ball", which is one of her favorite toys. She has one she especially likes and I've seen her rummage through the tent of toys to find just that one. A few times we have asked her to get her ball and she will do it. Both girls understand "no" and will react to it. Sometimes it's enough to stop their behavior, but sometimes they'll look at us and try it again just to see what we will do. They also both understand "hi" and "bye" and will wave accordingly. Today, I was calling people and getting only voice mails. I was telling the girls to "say hi" and they both started waving at the phone instead. Babbling on cue is not yet one of their tricks:-)
Above all else, what I love most about our girls is how incredibly happy they are. They laugh and play and clap and are just delighted by everything they do. They love each other too. They will touch each other and laugh and smile. Sometimes they climb on each other and plant big, wet, slobbery kisses on each other. They do have their moments and sharing will certainly be a much needed skill. Yesterday, Natalie had something Abby wanted. Nat kept crawling away with it, and Abby would chase after her whining. When she couldn't get it away from her, Abby would stop, sit and flail her arms and cry. Basically - a little tantrum. It was pretty funny though. Abby is generally the more aggressive and tends to swipe toys more. But, Natalie is learning how to evade and defend her toys and even swipe a few herself. She started off much more meek and mild, and it's been neat watching her become more assertive in response to Abby. It's so fun watching their personalities emerge and develop and adjust to each other. They have their own minds and know what they want. It always amazing me to watch them dig through the pile of toys to find just the one they want.
Natalie and Abby are really amazing. Joyful, fun, adventurous, happy, thoughtful, and the loves of our lives.
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