Here we go again, another month is gone!
Feeding
I haven’t noticed much change at all this month, although it is true that Eric is eating slightly better. He needs a bit of encouragement and sometimes he needs to sit on my lap at dinner time in order to get some food in him. But if that’s what it takes to get him to eat, I’ll do it. What I find really funny is that I don’t think that he’s being picky at all, as he will eat most foods when he wants them. I think he just does not have such a big appetite! He is on the skinny side, although he weighs an average weight for his age, so I am not really that concerned.
Another interesting fact that I just discovered is that Eric is the super champion of meal times at nursery. One of the carers told me just the other day how impressed everyone is with him, since he is so polite and good at the table. Apparently he follows all the instructions (like putting his arms on his knees and not on the table before starting, and waiting for everyone to have their plate before starting), he is very polite – using please and thank you all the time too. This came as a shock, as Eric at home is completely the opposite! We have to fight him to sit him at the table, he is rude, he won’t eat, he plays with his food and throws it on the floor… A real shock, I tell you.
Elisa has had a couple of days when she didn’t eat much, but they were really off days, as she still eats very well and has a great appetite.
Sleeping
We have gone a bit backwards in this department in the last month. Until only recently, Elisa was happy to just be put down in her cot and she would fall asleep on her own without a problem. In the last 3-4 weeks, however, she needs me to stay in the room until she falls asleep. I have no idea what caused this change and I wish I knew so we could go back to the old routine. I suppose it is a form of separation anxiety and as such it’s just a phase that will pass. Please let it be that. Because it is robbing me of my evenings again and that’s not cool.
On top of that, our bedtime routine has kind of slipped by half an hour or so, so they are going to bed later as well. And sometimes, they are not tired and won’t settle until way past 9 o’clock at night! By the time they are both finally asleep, Jon and I have hardly time to watch anything on TV, let alone go out with friends or anything like that.
Development
They are doing SO well at nursery. The carers always comment on how well they have settled in the new class and how well behaved they are. Apparently they play very well together and spend most of their garden time together, but they also play well when they are apart. One of the carers says that she’s seen many twins who are either inseparable or can’t get on with each other, but Eric and Elisa have a great balance.
Eric is talking SO much. He is putting lots of sentences together and understands everything you say and will also answer your questions. His new most favourite thing in the world now is Peppa Pig (he is obsessed, actually) and if I ask him which episode he wants to watch he will describe it perfectly. For example his favourite episode is “The New Car” and he describes it like this: “red car, broken! Grandad Dog fix it in garage” He loves Grandad Dog and will always comment on his “red hat, with a car!” His words are so clear, there is no mistaking what his is saying. He does say a few words wrong and we correct him every time, however he keeps saying them wrong… I don’t know why. For example, he says “handles” instead of “sandals“. He is perfectly capable of saying sandals, as he has actually said it a few times, but he keeps referring to his shoes as handles.
Elisa’s speech is also getting much better and she is also talking much much more! We are taking the bibi (aka, dummy) away more and more during the day and that encourages her to speak more. And when we come back from nursery she always has so much to tell! Unfortunately I still can’t understand much of what she says and I feel so sorry for her, because I just nod or say something like “really” just without knowing what she really wanted from me. There are a few words that I have now put in context which I know what they mean, but to the untrained ear they would just sound as jibberish.
Elisa is not that bothered about Peppa Pig, she is happy to just be playing around the living room whilst Eric watches the TV, although there are a few episodes that she loves. The one when George gets the hiccups always has her in stitches 🙂
Socialising
They are doing much better around strangers now. We went to cousin Olivia’s birthday party last weekend and there were quite a few children there and they were much more relaxed around strangers than they were, say, a couple of months ago. I think it helped that cousin Olivia was there and they really get on with her and love her, so they felt a bit more secure, I think.
Funnily enough, at that same party, Eric got his first “toddler crush”. There was a little girl called Tia of roughly the same age as the twins, and although I didn’t see Eric particularly paying her much attention on the day, he hasn’t stopped saying her name since that day. And yesterday I was playing a youtube video of a little girl singing Twinkle Twinkle, and he went “Tia! Tia!”. She did look a bit like her, so it’s not just the name he remembers, it’s also the girl!
Health
It hasn’t been too bad, although it has not been 100% either. At least we haven’t had any calls to collect them from nursery, and that’s what matters the most 😉
Elisa had a couple of bad days, where she had a bad tummy. Well, I only assumed it was a bad tummy when, on the third day, she farted a million times and had two massive poos, and she was all fresh after that. So, yeah, she must have had a blockage of some sort. She also got a bit of a cold earlier in the month, but it was only a mild one. The snuffle baby potion worked wonders again.
Eric had a bit of a temperature and a terrible cough just the other day. We really thought we were going to get the call from nursery, however he was fine all day and only got a tiny bit worse when we got home. Nothing that a bit of calpol could not resolve. He now has a cold too, a fairly snotty one. I was able to teach Elisa to blow her now (of a fashion) but I am finding it harder with Eric, I don’t know why, as I think he understands what I am saying but he fails to deliver.
I took this photo the other day on our way back from the playground. They insisted in walking the long way. It’s a 4-5 minute walk at mummy-speed, however, with these two on foot it can take up to 30 minutes to walk home. Well, it was a very interesting walk, because of, out of the nowhere, they started asking for photos! And they posed for them! They had never done that before, so I assume they must have asked them to pose for photos at nursery, but that’s just a guess, I really have no idea. They were so cute, posing for the camera, holding hands… just beautiful!
In other news, we took Eric to have his hair cut in town the other day, and Oh My Goodness… we had so many tears! The hairdresser was brilliant, actually. You could tell that she’s had this type of sobbing customer before! We were thinking of getting Elisa’s hair trimmed a bit as well, but no way José. We weren’t going to go through that again! Luckily, Elisa has started allowing me to do piggy tails and putting hair clips on her, so her hair looks much tidier now and she won’t need a haircut just yet 🙂
