Holy cats what a ride. You’ll note that updates to this blog stopped around the time they started moving around. This is no coincidence. As most of the readers of this blog are also caretakers for the P & M; most of you will then know, caring for Phoenix & Mercury is a big job. But thanks to everyone’s teamwork (P & M included!) We’ve made it to one year old.

Uff Da!

MERCURY

Mister Big Guy. Right now Mercury’s pretty good about just occupying his time and playing with toys. Daddy is grateful for that. He’s also a big talker, often to no one in particular, but sometimes in context. He can say “Uh Oh!” “Pat-Pat” and “Baaaa!”

LIKES: Toys, Putting toys up high and then struggling to reach for them, poker chips, spa day with Grandma B, horsey rides with Grandma P, A breeze (or having a person blow on his hair,) dunking his hand in the cup of water, talking, dropping things so he can say “Uh Oh,” blankets, snatching toys from Phoenix, patting things

DISLIKES: Having his face cleaned, having toys taken away after he snatches them, being disrupted from the task at hand

Mercury is pretty good at just doing his thing. He doesn’t care as much about what’s going on in the room, unless something special excites him or grabs his attention. He usually just finds something to get interested in and plugs away. Until he sees Phoenix having fun with a toy and then he goes to take it away from her.

He likes to be up on his feet and likes to put toys up as high as he can….and then struggle to reach them again. He seems to really enjoy setting himself up for this challenge, but he doesn’t always like the results. He also likes to be on his feet so he can pat surfaces and say “Pat-pat.” Which I really, really encourage because it’s adorable.

He’s a big talker and he’ll babble to himself while he plays, sometimes in increasing intensity which I also enjoy. But he doesn’t just babble he’s learned a few words that he uses in context. The first of course being “Uh Oh!” which he learned from Momma during meal times. He really likes to drop things just so that he can say “Uh Oh!” and if one of us says it without thinking, he’ll always join in. “Uh Oh!” As mentioned he also says “Pat-Pat.” And he’s learned some farm animal sounds thanks to Grandma P. “Baaaa!” & “Mooooo!”

He continues to be soft, chubby and cuddly. He’s a little cherub baby.

PHOENIX

Miss Cheekies has definitely taken center stage as the social baby right now.

LIKES: Walking, being picked up, music, dancing to music, seeing the music, asking questions, eating things on the floor, stars, asking questions, helping, doing the bottle herself, being a big girl

DISLIKES: Being on the floor, when Mercury takes her toys, when you try to give her the bottle, being put in the crib

It’s interesting. For a while Mercury was more engaged with others and more anxious and Phoenix was more in her own world and chill….but now it’s quite the opposite. Phoenix is always aware of what’s going on with the grown ups in the room and is in pretty much constant communication. She LOVES being picked up and zoomed around the room and LOVES walking (while holding onto your fingers) but HATES anytime it’s over.

She’s funny about music. When it comes on she loves to dance, especially if it’s “Ghostbusters” or “Another One Bites The Dust” (AKA “Another Shirt Stuck On Your Tooth.”) But she really loves to be picked up so that she can see the music. She wants to be at eye level with whatever speaker is producing the sound and she gets really frustrated and angry if she can’t be. So putting on music is always a dilemma. We both really like it, but I don’t like carrying Phoenix for more than a couple minutes. Regardless, I’m happy she’s a music lover.

Dancing BTW. Merk was the first to dance back before anyone was sitting up and would bob his head and legs up and down. He still bobs up and down. Phoenix moves her head side to side. It’s adorable. And great that they both have their own way of dancing.

Phoenix doesn’t talk as much as Merk, but she communicates a great deal more. She’s very inquisitive and is always asking questions. She has one question. “Ahhhhh!???” She’ll point at things and say “AahhhhH!!???” Things she likes, new things, things that confuse her. She wants to know all about it. She makes a lot of eye contact when she wants help or is about to do something she knows I don’t want her to do. If she’s going to touch the radiator or something else I don’t want her to do, she usually gives herself away by shaking her head “No” before going to commit whatever forbidden behavior she’s a bout to commit. She’s better with the sign language and knows “milk” and “bed” and things like that. She has a sign for “pick me up” / “I want to walk.”

She loves to walk. Walking Phoenix. There’s not too much to say about it, she just loves it. She hangs on to those little fingies and off she goes. She likes to go fast. Especially with cousin Laura. And walking to bed with Sara.

Merk will walk, but he gets tired of it after a few feet. Phoenix is always wanting to walk much longer than anyone is willing to walk her.

Phoenix has become a helper and I’m really grateful for that. She sticks out her feet so you can put her socks on. She kicks her legs through the foot holes of her pants once you have the legs in place. She rolls over in the crib so it’s easier for me to pick her up. She can feed herself the milk bottle and usually prefers to. She helps me find dirt on the floor.

Phoenix went through a phase of putting every gross thing she found on the floor in her mouth. So I’d often have to wrestle out pebbles, particles of dead leaves, bits of old food, clumps of dust, etc. out of her mouth. I really hated this and she picked up on that. So then she started manipulating me by pretending she had something in her mouth or by “putting something in her mouth” when I was looking in order to get attention. I usually got sucked in because it was too hard to tell when she was faking and when she wasn’t. Which I know isn’t great parenting, but….what can you do. I’m barely getting through each day.

But circling back to helping…this behavior suddenly changed! Now when she finds something on the floor she picks it up and holds it up for me so that I can take it away and put it someplace safe! It’s so sweet and it’s really helping me out and something we can bond over. Still true to form she’ll do it even if she hasn’t found anything (pretend to pick something up and hold it for me to take) but I don’t mind. Because it’s so nice.

That’s about all I’ve got man. I’m sure there’s more, but I’m tired. I hope to go back and it least post pictures and memories retroactively for the previous months, but don’t hold your breath.

Thanks for reading about our wonderful babies.