You may (or you may not) have noticed that there hasn’t been a “twins at 21 months” blog update and there is a reason why. I simply could not face writing about the twins at a time when they were driving me literally crazy. Because let me tell you, some 5-6 weeks between my previous post and now-ish have been simply the hardest of my time as a mum. Too many tantrums, too many ill days, too many sleepless nights… I simply lacked the strength to sit down and write about them, when all I wanted to do is cry.
But, hey, things seem to be getting better, and I suppose that being on holiday (this blog post is currently being written from the gorgeous hilly woods of Cornwall) has mellowed all our moods and family life is back to being enjoyable.
So here’s the latest summary:
Feeding:
Not much change here. Elisa is still eating lots, and I mean lots. She will finish off Eric’s food and then eat some more pudding. Eric, however, has started eating a bit more. Not loads, but he is eating more meat and more vegetables. Breakfast is getting better too. Simple things like toast and cereal are now a staple, and sometimes we venture into other things like hot cross buns, spicy loaf bread or even crumpets. I have noticed that they tend to eat more if they are sitting at the table. When at home, I normally give them breakfast in the living room but I think I am going to start sitting them at the table when we go back. They are less distracted and are less likely to throw things around if they are at the table.
Favourite foods have not changed much, but I will only say one word: Bananas. Elisa is crazy about them! She can easily eat two full bananas in one sitting.
Sleeping:
Before we came to Cornwall the sleeping patterns had been pretty much unchanged: Eric would still wake up in the middle of the night (every night) and we would bring him to bed with us where he would settle straight away and we could all sleep in peace. This past week in Cornwall has been very interesting, though, as he has slept through three nights (out of 7)! This is really great news for us, because it has made us realise that he is capable of sleeping through from 8pm to 7am without waking up. We just need to find a way to make him to this at home too! We do know the reason, and it is tiredness. He is so active here, every day we do lots of playing and walking and running around. He is burning off lots of energy and he is recharging at night. We’ll see how we translate this back in our sedentary life in Basingstoke!
No problems with Elisa, as expected. She sleeps through every night and sleeps her naps without a problem too.
Development.
Oh my goodness, this week has seen an amazing advancement in their development. Eric is really repeating words now and has learnt many more just in the last few days. He is now putting “sentences” together, like Daddy’s here or More peas!. Really fantastic. Elisa is also repeating more words, but her babble is not so clearly identifiable. So whilst Eric will clearly say something like “coat”, Elisa’s version sounds more like “cooou”.
This last few days have also been great for their steadiness on their feet. Where we are staying has got lots of uneven paths, muddy areas, hills and rocks.. and the twins have got so much better at walking and even running on these surfaces. The first couple of days we had to hold their hands at all times, but a week later they are doing ever so well.
Socialising.
Before coming to Cornwall we continued going to our usual clubs and soft play and they have had many chances to socialise (on top of nursery, of course). I haven’t noticed them playing with other children particularly, but what I have definitely noticed is them playing with each other a lot. Before they would play alongside each other all the time, but didn’t necessarily interact much. Now, however, they are interacting a lot and it’s great seeing them playing nicely. The downside of this is that they also fight a lot more now.
Health.
We had a very very very bad patch of health the first couple of months of the year, but it looks like we are all getting better finally. The twins still cough a bit, and definitely have had a runny nose for like forever, but at least we haven’t had any high temperatures or fevers for a while (fingers crossed). Last month was really bad, with Eric getting chest infection and ear infection and not being able to administer the antibiotics because he would go mental at the sight of it. Jon and I have decided that the next time that Eric is prescribed antibiotics, we are going to ask for suppositories instead of oral medicine.
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And this is it for now. When we are back I will write about the place we’re staying here in Cornwall, as it is fantastic and it deserves a blog post on its own.
The photo is from World Book Day at the nursery. They went dressed up as Thing 1 and Thing 2 from The Cat in the Hat by Dr Seuss. Book which we have not read or own, but it was the only costume I could easily put together. Jon and I looked online and everywhere else and couldn’t find anything in their size. I really wanted them to go as Curious George and the man in the yellow hat, but no luck getting anything at all! In the end, two red t-shirts and blue hairspray did the job. I hope I can do better next time!
