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| More twinners. I need to get in the game and get some matching shirts myself. |
I've typically done a monthly post for both kids for their first year, then slowed down on that, but Spencer needs an update post of what he's doing these days too.
-He talks up a storm. He talks in full sentences, but is not super interactive in how he talks. For example, he will not answer a yes or no question. If you ask him one, he'll either not answer or answer it with some kind of description. He seems to have a need to describe what he sees around him, which is fun to watch. He has quite a large vocabulary in that respect, so it's fun to see what he comes up with.
-He has first and second person completely mixed up. He refers to himself as your and everyone else as my. When he says I he is referring to whoever he is talking to. It took Bill and I quite a while to figure this out, but now that we understand that, he's really quite good at communicating what he's thinking. I imagine at some point it will click in his head to switch that around, but for now it's a very endearing little quirk in his speaking ability.
-He also loves technology. He has a number of different games he loves to play on our tablets. I, like most other parents I interact with, definitely question the amount of time he should be spending playing the tablet, but I play it by ear for now instead of having a hard fast rule. That's partly why his vocabulary is so huge because most of his games are vocabulary-based. It's an interesting line to walk and try to figure out.
-He loves to be outside. We don't have quite as good a place for him to play right outside our door, so I'm looking for ways to help him be outside more, but he's in heaven whenever we're outside. Yesterday I took him out on a walk in our complex while Bill made dinner with Genevieve and we walked up to the road and watched all the cars drive by. He told me the color and type of every car that drove by. "Red truck! White van! Blue Car!" He calls SUVs vans. It was rather difficult to convince him to come back home, even though it started to pour while we were out. We had a great time jumping in the puddles and looking at the flowers and generally getting soaked on the short walk back to our apartment. When it rains here, it rains hard.
-Speaking of water, Spencer loves it. If we can, we'll put him in swimming lessons this summer. I'm pretty sure he'll be like a fish in the water. He loves to play in the rain, jump in puddles, loves bath time, loves to play in the water in the sink, etc.
-Spencer loves to climb, jump, roll, etc. He learned how to do a somersault the other day. He's always running all over our apartment. We need to get him a bike and soon. He'd love it.
-He still loves to read. He will spend hours during his quiet time reading all his books while leaning against his bed. He constantly talks to himself and if I listen, what I hear is him reciting lines from his different books. He loves his Dr. Seuss books more than any other, particularly
The Bippolo Seed,
The Sneetches,
Oh the Places You'll Go,
The Sleep Book, and
The Lorax. He also is a fan of
The Little Red Hen, The Three Billy Goats Gruff, and a bunch of others I can't think of at the moment. Oh, he loves the Pepper Book, which is what he calls the
How are you Peeling book his aunt gave him when we moved. Total win there.
-He loves to go to the park. His favorite things there are the big slides and the swings. He seems to have no fear of the height of any slide. He just zooms down them again and again.
-His favorite foods at the moment are graham crackers and peanut butter, wheat thins, and normal toast with butter and honey, all asked for in his cute singsong voice. He loves dessert when we make it available. He likes milk and apple juice, and wants a cup of each with the same amount in each cup. Bill and I never cease to be amazed with how happy he can be when he gets the particular thing he wants. His attention to detail is impressive, as well as his dismay when we haven't figured it out yet.
-He's very tidy. He doesn't like to be dirty. So if he spills stuff on his shirt he wants to take it off. If he gets food on his hands, he needs to wipe them off right away. He'd rather have his shoes off at the park then get sand in them. I can see the logic in that. I sometimes get caught off guard without a change of clothes for him or a rag handy.
-He likes order. He lines his hot wheels cars up in a row. He puts his favorite little books in a pile all in the same direction and exactly aligned.
-He loves his fringed pillow and blanket set from my mom. It's fleece and it's not that he won't sleep without it, but he settles right in when he has it. Sometimes he pulls them out to different places in the apartment and wants to be read to while holding and laying on them. He also really likes his sock monkey from GiGi. We tie the legs in knots and he unties them. We sing Snowman using it as the prop. He just loves it.
-He's recently taken a liking to our bocce ball set, and it's one area where he's learning to share with Genevieve. Half the balls are hers and half are his and he'll remind himself and whoever is around of that whenever he's playing with them. "Spencer's ball. Genevieve's ball. Spencer's ball..."
-He really loves Genevieve. He is so excited to go and get her whenever she wakes up from a nap. He climbs in her crib and plays with her and then bounces like crazy in the crib. He's rather bothered when I take her out. He loves to give her hugs and kisses. He was a bit surprised today when she used him as a climbing station and essentially wrestled him to the ground, but I'm sure he'll catch on soon enough. He has wanted to play with her for months, so now that she is getting better at interacting back, I think he'll learn quickly how fun it can be. I think they're going to be best buds.
-He loves nursery at church. He struggled with it the first few months we were here, but he's a big fan now.
And that's all I can think for the moment. He's such a fun kid. Trying to keep up with him is making Bill and I stretch and grow as parents, but it's sure fun.
