What's in a hug?

Today I got my first spontaneous hug from Alex. I mean we have gotten plenty of hugs from both boys at bed time but it's a ritual and still even then we don't get hugs every night. But today we were playing on the floor and Alex was sitting in my lap. He got up turned around pushed my hair back and put his little arms around my neck and just sat there for a minute. I was touched I could've cried right there. These are the moments that make being a mother awesome. I'll get to experience it AGAIN when Trevor does it. Well I guess that should be an if Trevor does it but I'm sure he will. He's actually more cuddly than Alex.

This whole experience was promptly trumped by screaming, crying, crabby babies who obviously needed another nap today, but for those 60 seconds it was heaven. Then we remember we have twins and twice the screaming. But twice the lovin'.

A trip to the zoo

Friday my sister, Lacey, and I went to the zoo with our kids. She has Kyle, who is 1 year older than my boys, and Brennan, who is 10 months younger than my boys. We walked around the zoo for a while then we stopped to have lunch. Trevor had fallen asleep in the stroller so he stayed there and I had Alex sitting on the bench with me.

Lacey asked Kyle, "Who is that?"

Kyle said, "Alex."

Lacey and I looked at each other amazed that he knew... Then Kyle turned and pointed to Trevor, and said, "That Alex is sleeping."

Lacey and I just bust out laughing. He was so close at convincing us he knew who was who.

Later, I went to the restroom and Lacey was trying to get Alex to say, "Aunt Lacey" Kyle noticed what was going on and looked at Alex and said, "Say Kyle." It's just too cute.

I forgot my camera so I don't have any pictures yet but Lacey did get some. I know that my boys did see the Black Bears because they were actually moving that day and the boys did their sign language for Bear. They also saw the peacock that came to visit us during lunch. They both signed Peacock too. Then while walking with the kangaroos I was trying to show them the kangaroos and they both signed sleeping which is what all the kangaroos were doing in the distance. Other than that Alex pointed out all the birds and trash cans and Trevor just kinda stared around and fiddled with his pretzel stick that Lacey gave him before we left my house.

So close to talking...

I can almost hear words now. Lately, Trevor has started to imitate sounds that Kris and I say. We have him saying, "dewy, dewy, dewy" and "giggity" (Family Guy) and "gaa, gaa" and "naa, naa" Still can't get a "mama" or "dada" out of either one of them consistently.

Alex is more interested in MOVING so he's a little behind Trevor on that. But I'm sure it will be just like everything else and he'll watch Trevor for a while and then he'll prefect it and pass Trevor up. It has happened on every other milestone, crawling, walking, even eating with a fork.

Alex has however, been saying some really weird sounds. I'm not sure what he's trying to say or do but they are definitely very different. It's not the typical, "uhn" that we hear all the time.

Oh and I don't know if I've written about this yet (twinmomesia). But the boys definitely have their own language. There was one day that Kris was on the couch with Alex reading a book and Trevor came over and started trying to get up on the couch. Alex talked in what sounded like gibberish and was pointing away, and Trevor just did an about-face and walked away and read his own book in a corner. Can you tell who the dominate one is?

From spinning to Flipping

Trevor and Alex have gone from spinning to flipping. For awhile now Trevor has been bending over and putting his head on the floor acting like he was going to do a somersault but never quite completing the process. So two days ago now he did that and I flipped his legs over himself. He had a surprised look on his face at first then he started giggling. He got up and ran over to me and put his head down again.

Alex was watching this unfold but he wasn't too sure about it. So I bent him over and flipped him. It scared him so he stayed away for a little bit and watched as Trevor continued his somersaults. Trevor unfortunately stopped putting his head down so I had to start folding him over so that I could flip his feet over.

Well Alex started seeing how much fun Trevor was having and he thought he understood. So he came running to me sat on my lap and put his head on the floor. He was ready. So I flipped him over and he just LOVED it. He giggled and when he gets excited now he runs in place and bobs his head up and down. Silliest thing. So he started do that and ran over to do it again.

Now were at the point where I get to teach them about turns. If Trevor still hasn't gone by the time Alex gets back Alex has to wait. They actually did this very well. I was impressed. Alex still is bending over and putting his head on the floor for me so I just have to flip him. Trevor I'm still working on and I have do it all for him.

It's also pretty amazing at the difference of the THUD between Alex and Trevor. Trevor makes a THUD and Alex makes a bump. I can't believe the difference in their weights and they don't actually look like they should weigh so different.

They are starting to understand...

Yesterday I had a REALLY bad day at work. So I cracked open a Mike's Hard Lemonade when I got home. And being that I don't think I've had an adult beverage in front of the boys ever, this was new to them and they wanted to try it. So they kept making their UHN noise and pointing and sticking their finger in their mouth (drink-sign language). I kept saying no because this is a mommy beverage, it's not for kids (and under my breath I said until your 16...I'm thinking realistically).

So next Alex crawled up on the couch next to me, crossed is legs, put his hands in his lap and smiled up at me. It was just the cutest thing. But I told him no anyway. Then he did a cute little giggle. Well I wanted to give him the world at this point. I still didn't let him get a sip but I let him play with the bottle when I was finished.

Alex is just so adorable and he's starting to understand that being cute gets him what he wants a lot easier than screaming. That at least makes me feel good that Kris and I are doing something right with our parenting styles.