Time marches on. Ever relentlessly. And time for blogging is scarce, mostly due to fatigue. After about 9.5 hours of work and commuting followed by 3.5 hours of child care the last thing I want to do is sit down and blog about the children. No. I want to watch TV with Tiff or play Dungeons and Dragons.
But I’m on a cabin getaway now so I have a minute and there’s so much to say about these two!
They’re full blown toddlers at this point. Walking, talking, solving problems, creating problems, brushing their little teeth, using the potty, singing, dancing, hopping and playing tetherball.
They can do everything now. They’re practically grown ups. It’s all over!!!!!!!!
PHOENIX
Phoenix just never stops being Phoenix. Willful, Smart, Playful, Anxious, Talkative, Attention Seeking, Social, Mischievous. She has a lot of the qualities that have made me such a difficult rascal over mys lifetime and I just love her for it. It makes me so proud. I see a lot of myself in her, but right now she really looks like her Mama.
Especially if you see pictures of Tiff when she was a little babe.
LIKES: Talking. Phoenix does a lot of long, run-on sentences, a good chunk of which we can’t understand (I’ll address my take on “The Secret Twin Language” below.) But also a good chunk of it that we can. If I were not Tiff or myself I would find this hard to believe because both she and her brother are super shy around other people. But when she’s comfortable, boy does she talk.
Hopping. She loves to hop. Tetherball, Fruit, Putting food she doesn’t want on a separate plate, antagonizing Mercury when she gets bored, having the stroller pushed through the sprinkler, being adventurous with food.
They were both curious about my fizzy water one day so I gave them a tiny taste and they each made a face of pure revulsion. Like nothing I’ve ever seen before. Shock, pain, disgust. But afterwards Phoenix of course looked at me and said “More!”
She likes to experiment with different utensils and likes spreads and sauces. she definitely eats a wider variety of foods than her brother.
She’s great at stalling before bedtime.
DISLIKES: Bedtime, Getting cleaned up after a messy poop, Having her hair washed, having objects taken away from her when she’s abusing them, having to hold hands when she crosses the street, being helped with things when she wants to do them all by herself, most of the music I play, if I sing a song, getting in her carseat after school.
MERCURY
And of course Mercury just keeps being Mercury. Jolly, Focused, Humorous, Smart, Intermittently Loud, Playful, Frustrated, Joyful.
Mercury is a tinkerer, content to pick a toy or activity and really focus on it. I think he would be one of those kids who could entertain himself for hours were it not for his sister.
Right now he’s a HUGE fan of his cars and can quietly wheel them around and park them in lines contentedly.
At the same time he’s the one who’s most likely to march around the apartment wheeling his bee around and shouting at the top of his lungs. Right now he really loves to shout about his Uncle Mike for some reason.
LIKES: Uncle Mike, Pizza, Noodles, Crackers, Carbs Generally, Playing with his cars, shouting, marching, tetherball, wind in his hair, hair generally, jumping in his crib.
Full blown jumping in the crib. He jumps and kicks his feet up so he lands with a butt bounce.
He and Phoenix both actually really love that first hour after they go to bed (once Phoenix gets over the crying phase.) They talk and joke and laugh, bounce in their cribs and throw their loveys back and forth at each other.
Water. He likes water. Not like for drinking, but he likes to see water. When we went to the zoo that was without question his favorite animal. Water. He’ll repeat the words “Water, Boats and Swimming” over and over again.
He loves milk as a means of mitigating spicy food. At some point I taught him that this was the way to go and now everything he eats is “‘picy!’” so that he can grab for that glass of milk.
DISLIKES: Being antagonized by Phoenix, being made to move on to something else before he’s finished doing what he’s doing.
I don’t know. He’s really more easygoing, but when he gets upset it can be harder. When Phoenix gets upset it’s frustration and anger and she can be calmed down and come back and play. When Mercury gets upset you can tell he just feels wronged and it takes a great deal of comforting to bring him back. He’ll just lay there on the floor bawling. Refusing to put on clothes or whatever.
Regarding The “Secret Twin Language”
Perhaps you’ve heard of twins developing a “special secret language.”
I’d heard of this too and being the father of twins, here’s what I’ve concluded:
They definitely understand words that the other twin is saying that neither their parents, nor probably anyone else can understand. This can be frustrating and comforting at the same time. Phoenix will approach and babble out a complete sentence and look at you earnestly awaiting a reply and you have no idea what she said (frustrating.) Then Mercury will come along and repeat part of the sentence and they look at each other and nod (comforting: they have each other.) Then they BOTH look at you expecting a reply (frustrating: why don’t you get it dad!)
So that’s cool, but I don’t know that I would call it a separate language.
I think it’s just toddler babble. Singleton parents have toddlers babble out sentences they can’t understand all the time. But with twins there’s this unique situation where they’re both learning English (or whatever) together, in the same circumstances, and so they’re able to understand each others babble.
At some point in time this all just becomes English (or whatever language you’re learning) and “the secret language” disappears. Because it was never a secret language. It was just toddlers learning English.
THAT’S MY TWO CENTS!!!!!
Well I’ve been writing for about an hour now and it’s time to move on. Mercury and Phoenix I love you guys so much and I’ve missed you while I’ve been away. I can’t wait to come home and see you. You’re the best.
XO – Dad