18 Months Already

Well, I have concluded that time is not going to stand still and that my babies are going to continue to grow whether I like it or not. I can now see where people start to get the baby itch around this time, especially when I see friends that have just had babies and those precious, tiny angels just lay there sleeping peacefully. At our current stage of development that is depriving us from a solid night of sleep, we are starting to see that we may have actually gotten more sleep with two newborns than with two toddlers!

This week we went for our 18 month checkup. After a normal routine check, it was concluded that my kids are healthy, just some slight allergy issues, and all this lack of sleep is a "developmental phase" that most kids go through. Unfortunately when you have multiples, it is magnified and sometimes results in only a couple of hours of sleep in one night.

We are beyond blessed however to have healthy, perfectly developed kids. They are still small of course but we are assuming we will not have college bound starting centers on our hands.

One thing that blew my mind this week is I asked the kids if they knew their memory verse from church. I figured we would practice it in the bathtub each night and go to church next week hopefully able to perform with little coaching for our teachers. To my surprise, before the question had even fully left my mouth, the kids both started signing Jesus. Elliot was also saying the word "Jesus" and Keaton was trying his best to repeat after his big sister. They now can sign their entire memory verse of "Jesus Loves Me". It is the sweetest thing and to think that their love for the Lord is already beginning to take shape at 18 months old thrills my soul. God is so good!

Here are our current stats for those of you keeping up:

Miss Elliot:

• Temper of a red head! This little one can already pitch fits with the best of them!
• Now has 8 teeth with all four molars still trying to come in after 6 weeks of cutting them.
• Weight=19.8lbs (below 5th%)
• Height=30 in. (10th%)
• Head still at 50th%
• Can say just about anything she wants. Loves to say Momma, Bubo(for Bubba), Keaton, No, Dada, PawPaw.
• Constantly trying to sing songs with whatever is playing.
• Loves Mickey Mouse, Curious George, Nemo, the neighbors Plasma Cars, playing in the dirt & sand and filling up cups and dumping the water out. She is going to have a blast at the beach!

Mr. Keaton:

• Our little daredevil. This child is now afraid of nothing and can climb like a monkey!
• Has 12 teeth and is just waiting on those eye teeth to come in.
• Weight=20.12lbs (5th%)
• Height=31 1/4in (25th%!!!)
• Head=50th% too.
• Loves to say "Ready, Set, Go!" and "One, Two, Go!". Can also say Momma, Ball, Dada, Je (Jesus), cracker (they both say & sign cracker now for their snack!).
• Also loves Mickey Mouse, Curious George, Nemo, any toy that is over at the neighbors but also loves the Plasma Cars (he can actually ride it down the driveway into the street and down to the end of the cul-de-sac...daredevil I tell ya!), loves bible class and still loves to play by himself more than anything.
• We also caught him this past week climbing up the big slide at the park all by himself and sliding down forward, backward, head first, belly down...just about anyway he could think of.

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So it is a good 7 hours since I wrote the above. What happened you asked? Well, the kids awoke from their nap and I went to change their diapers. I noticed something in Keaton's ear and when I turned his head I saw that his ear was bleeding and had a large clot in the ear canal. So it was back to the Dr. to check it out. Good news is ear drum in intact, tubes are still in and there was just a small laceration deep in the ear canal. They think he may have scratched it with something but after coming home and doing some CSIesque investigating I discovered that the little booger scratched it with his own finger. He has been scratching at it but during nap today he took it to a "Whole Nuttha Level" as Ed Young would say! So nothing much we can do but watch it and put drops in for the next few days to prevent infection. I swear I am a good mother! I don't just let my kids eat off the nasty carts at Wal-Mart or take them to the 9th Street Drop Off (One Fine Day reference for all you girly movie fans).

So goes our new family motto: This Too Shall Pass!

PS...all pics are from last Saturday when I couldn't find Keaton and discovered him out back playing in the puddles that collected from the rain in the curves of the still not put together slide. Of course Miss El had to get in on the actions too. (Had I not had to take photos at church I might just have joined them!)