Words, words, words

The "verbal explosion" is in full swing for Jimmy and Katie, they are both learning new words daily and putting them together in new and interesting ways. Jimmy still does a lot of talking in his own language, with even longer monologues and more expression. Sarah is starting to make a few sounds that seem intentional, I think I've caught a couple of "mama"s, "buh buh buh" when someone leaves (combined with a little arm wave), and something that may be "more". Katie is really becoming our "little momma" more and more. She knows what the other two aren't allowed to do, and lets them know it with a stern "No! No!"

We're creeping up on potty training time. Jimmy and Katie are already fascinated by the goings-on in the bathroom, and with the contents of their diapers ("Poop?" "No poop in this diaper." "Tee tee?" "Yes, tee-tee"). One day last week Jimmy was looking out the window at the rain pouring down. "What's that?" Russ asked. Without hesitation, Jimmy answered, "Tee tee!" Also, whenever anyone, anywhere passes gas, Katie helpfully announces, "Poop!"

Sarah is becoming quite steady on her feet. She now sets off on her own walking, and often makes it halfway across the room before she loses her balance. It seems like she is making the shift from preferring to crawl to preferring to walk when she can and isn't in too much of a hurry (crawling is, after all, still much faster and easier).

We all went to a local fair over the weekend, and the twins spent most of the time out of the stroller. They had a blast collecting sticks, leaves, and pine cones, but were a little shy when people tried talking to them. It is getting easier to get out of the house with the whole family, especially now that Sarah is eating anything she can fit in her mouth. We have to be careful to give her small enough pieces for her to handle with only four little front teeth, as she will attempt to eat anything and everything (and Jimmy & Katie helpfully try to feed her all sorts of things, edible or not). We are also working with the twins on sitting in their seats at mealtimes for a little while before and after they actually eat, and on using plates and forks, all of which is coming along very well.

Bed time has just become a new adventure, as Katie has defeated the Superyard fence and can now climb into Sarah's crib at will. This makes Sarah very unhappy, and Jimmy too since he can't quite manage the climb himself. For now we have relocated Sarah to a pack & play in our bedroom, tomorrow night we are going to try her mattress right on the floor (with some pillows around it) and then it may be time for everyone to move into toddler beds at once. Thw twins have had one side off of their cribs for a while now, and they're fine that way, except that the mattresses are pretty high off the floor. They don't fall out much, but they do have a hard time climbing back in once they get down, especially Jimmy, so he ends up sleeping on the floor a lot. The toddler beds we're looking at are lower to the ground, which would make the up & down a bit easier on all of them.

There are lots of new photos on the March 2009 page and about six minutes of video that I pieced together from the snippets we captured through the month: