one and one half years old.

18 months is kindof a big milestone right?  They officially get to start going to Nursery at church (hooray!)  What else happens...hmmm... oh yeah, I write a long detailed update on every facet of their little lives. Which will sound like an update on the majority of 18 month old kids, because they're wonderfully average little toddlers. I'll try to make it a little more interesting.
Here we go.

ANIMAL SOUNDS
The most important skill for toddlers to learn, of course. Totally going to be part of their college entrance exams. Courtney and Bennett are quite proficient doing dog, cat, monkey, lion, snake, duck, skunk (PU!), and hyena (laughing).

BODY PARTS
They love to point out their toes, bellies, heads, hair, eyes, bum, knees, feet, ears, tongue, teeth.
While we're talking bodies - Bennett is definitely more solid and thick, while Courtney is much more petite and almost bony. People often comment on how light she is and how heavy he is. Which is completely odd, because they're only about a pound apart - Bennett heavier, but Courtney slightly taller. They have different walks/strides - I can tell them apart just by the different sounds of their pitter-patter down the hall, no joke.

TEETH
They've both got a complete mouthful, minus the 2 and 6 yr molars of course. They both (usually) LOVE to have their teeth brushed, but only with the kiddie electric toothbrush and Tom's Naturals Strawberry toothpaste. Very picky with their dental hygiene choices.

TALKING
Their vocabulary words that I can clearly distinguish from blabblahgagagoodoo are dog, shoe, dadda, mama, apple, juice, go, no, mine, me, I do, I see you (in response to PEEKABOO!), hi, bye, up, HOT, Amen, with more added almost every day!

PHYSIOLOGIC DEVELOPMENT
They love to run. Especially AWAY from me when I'm playing chase with them, and to my frustration - when I'm NOT playing chase with them! They're very advanced jumpers for their age, thanks to the past 6 months of having a mini trampoline with a bar to hold. Now they jump solo on the beds. Which leads to head injuries. Really glad I got that trampoline.

SLEEPING
Can you believe it.... they still wake up a few times each night!  Can't figure out why... oh, maybe because I reinforce the behavior by immediately and consistently responding to them thus rewarding their night wakings. But obviously, I don't care, or I'd have done something about it by now. Brian and I are used to it. It's now been almost 2 years since I've slept for 8 hrs straight. I'm not being facetious when I say sleep is overrated. I've been functioning just fine without it for a long time now  (or so I think?!)  At least the babies take a 2-3 hr nap every afternoon consistently, together in the same darkened room in separate cribs. They have matching brown ruffly blankies they cling to, then fling out at the end of their naps, as if freeing their precious blankies from the crib prisons.

EATING
Quite often I find myself thinking or saying, "[Courtney or Bennett] is the better eater."  Then invariably they switch. So as of today, Courtney is the better eater. She was eating carrots dipped in hummus and greek yogurt with me, while Bennett just wanted crackers. She likes milk from a sippy cup better - he prefers diluted juice  (so diluted it should be called flavored water instead). They have their own high chairs, but only use them about half the time. We make picnics on the floor often. So much easier. How lazy am I, I know. But that's how we roll. Both will try anything they see their parents eating. Of course they prefer sweet stuff (who doesn't?!) so my goal is to get them eating as much non-sweet stuff as possible. They'll thank me later when they're not sugar addicts like their mom.

NURSING
Yep. Still. Quite often in fact - maybe 5x/day. Always tandem (one freaks out if she/he sees the other nursing. It's actually really funny). I have some friends reading this and saying, "well of course they're still nursing. Why would you even use the word still? They're YEARS away from weaning!"  And others reading this thinking, "Whhaaaaatt? You WEIRDO." I could site all the research on how beneficial breastfeeding still is for them nutritionally, developmentally, emotionally, and how the W.H.O. recommends at least TWO years of breastfeeding.... but really, even if all that was bogus... this just works for our family. It feels just as normal as it did from day one.

CAR RIDING
This deserved it's own heading, since it's something they do every single day. Usually just short rides - 5 minutes to the gym, and an errand or two on the way home. They either passively tolerate being strapped in, or loudly protest.  Thinking about switching to forward-facing seats soon. I know I should wait until they're 2, but it's getting cramped. Though it's comforting to know they're much safer facing backwards (or so we're told?). I often give them sippy cup and/or snacks while they're in their seats. Thus we have disgusting messes all over the car from that.

MISC
They're good at folding their arms and bowing their heads for prayer. For 3 seconds. Hoping to work up to 9 or 10 by the time they're 2.  They love mimicking tongue clicks. They love when I throw a blanket over their heads and say, "where did Bennett/Courtney go?!?!"  THEY CLIMB EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE CONSTANTLY. Not safe. Not safe at all. They give me big huge cheesy smiles when I ask for it, or when the camera comes out (usually. Or they run away, or ignore me). They love showers. They love when Daddy comes home. They love using mommy as a jungle gym.

And I'll stop now, though I could go on and on. I worry that I don't do a good enough job documenting their lives... I mean, I have hundreds (thousands?) of pictures of them, and dozens of short videos of them on YouTube...  yet I still feel like I'm missing precious moments that I'll never remember unless it's immortalized on the www.  I have to remind myself that I have all of like 2 picture of myself as a toddler... and I don't really care. So maybe B&C will be happy enough with this.