18 months old!

The twins are 18 months old!  Let me try to convey just how exciting this is for me without sounding like a terrible mother.  Confession time: I don’t really like babies.  I mean, I LOVE my babies, but I’m not one of those women who get a sudden urge to have more children every time they see a newborn at the grocery store or on Facebook.  Sure, babies are adorable, but they don’t really DO anything… aside from eat, sleep, poop, repeat.  And after having TWO babies at once, I’m pretty much over the whole baby phase.  I’ve gotten enough newborn snuggles and coos to last me for a lifetime, and enough spit-up and dirty diapers to last two lifetimes.  I’m babied out!

This brings me to my general feeling of elation over the twins reaching their 18-month-old milestone.  Every day, they look/think/act like little people.  They are starting to talk.  They feed themselves.  They play and dance.  They even play with each other.  People ask me all the time (without trying to sound insensitive) when having two starts to “pay off.”  When do the perks of a two-for-one outweigh the cost and workload?  When does it start to get easier?

My answer: 18 months!  This means I can be at home, cooking dinner or writing an email, and they can be “cooking” in their play kitchen or “typing” on their play laptop.  Not only this, but they have personalities, specific likes and dislikes, and they play and dance – with each other! I repeat. They play and dance with each other!  They play contently with each other – or side by side – and I feel absolutely zero guilt about not spending every waking moment playing with them.  They are forced to be more independent.  After all, from day one, they have had to share mommy with another baby.  They let me know when they need mommy time or extra snuggles, but they are just as content playing with blocks or puzzles (until B steals a block from R and our whole world falls apart)!

For as excited as I have been about our 18-month milestone, I have been equally dreading 18-month pictures. I knew I was delusional to think that my two little tornadoes would sit nicely, next to each other, in a spot I picked out, and smile for the camera.  I knew I would get more pictures of blurrs that vaguely resemble a human form, than actual useable shots.

Case in point.  I present to you, the best picture from the whole weekend of R&B sitting next to each other:

That’s it!  And the back of my mom’s head – my poor mom who has to corral these two munchkins while I snap away with my camera. In fact, I think the best picture from the whole weekend came at the most unexpected moment.  It was right after bath time, and my sister was letting R&B look at pictures on her camera.  We love Aunt Loree!

I found that at this age – like it was for their one year pictures – that it’s best to contain your subject.  Last fall, I used apple crates at the orchard. Last weekend, I used swings at the park.  My sister bought thing 1 and thing 2 shirts for R&B, and I couldn’t think of anything more fitting to describe their personalities at this age.

We also went to the park on a different day, and I snapped more pictures of R&B running around and exploring.  Another mommy confession: after this day at the park (and seeing just how fast R can run – clear across the park) I ordered monkey harness backpacks.  I will now be that parent who puts her kids on leashes.  Judge away!  I haven’t used them yet, but I’m sure I will have a few funny stories to share when I do.

And last, but not least, tub pictures.  I eventually want to put some bath time pictures up on canvas in the bathroom.  For now, I have officially put naked baby pictures out in cyberspace – I’m sure R&B will be mortified when they are older!