Oh so much to tell

As usual, I'm not quite sure where to start! If I would just blog weekly like I said I would a long time ago I wouldn't have so much "stuff" built up to tell in one entry. So maybe it will be a couple of entries. I have an entire list of updates to share.

We are nearly 21 months of age and man, are these kids active! They wake between 6:30 and 7:00 each morning, hit the ground running and aside from one 90-minute to 2-hour nap, they never stop moving until bedtime between 6:30 and 7:00 each night. When I use the word "active" I think I may be generous. Sometimes it's more like, well, dangerous. At 16 months Charlotte decided it was time to crawl out of her crib (see January post for the details) and Luke followed a few weeks later, so up went the crib tents...see photo below. Amazingly the transition was uneventful and they all took to be zipped in during naps and at night pretty well! As far as the kitchen and family room area, their main play area during the day, I feel like we're constantly revising our "babyproofing" to fit their ever-expanding capabilities. All the standard cabinet latches and locks are on, but about a month ago or so I finally had to remove all the chairs and stools from the kitchen, save the ones that their booster seats are on, because Luke had figured out how to scale them to get on the kitchen table and/or counter. Then, I had to begin strapping the remaining chair and bench to the legs of the kitchen table (see photo) because they could push them up to the counter for continued climbing fun, AND because the boys pushed the bench off the step from the kitchen to the family room and ripped a whole in the couch (see yet another photo). Even with all that, Luke can still scale bench, while strapped to the table, to stand on the kitchen table. Once I found the light fixture above the table actually swinging back and forth, and very proud Luke standing just below it. That light fixture has since been raised up, and Luke and I have a tentative agreement that he can climb (could I stop him if I tried?) as long as doesn't stand on the table. He's mostly content just climbing around among the seats and taunting his brother and sister who have yet to figure out his skill. I'm sure there's more scary stuff, but I'll move on.

So they're not just skilled physically, but verbally too! Everyone is chatting up a storm. They all have a good basic vocabulary and are adding to it daily. Charlotte has even started in with 2-word phrases ("go bye-bye?!?), and they all can say one another's names. Luke has the toughest job distinguishing the two: Sean is "Sha" and Charlotte is "Shao". Charlotte also calls Sean "Sha" but Luke is "Oyo Oyo" and is slowly morphing into "Yukey"...those L's and K's are hard to say! Sean calls Charlotte "Sha Sha" and Luke, well, it's sort of just "Kkkkkkkk," kind of like the sound you'd make if you were imitating the static you hear when your TV reception goes out and you just see snow. As a group they have decided that all eating is a snack, and use the word universally for breakfast, lunch, etc, but it comes out "nack" because we're still working on the "s" sound. In Charlotte's case it's "nack-a", because several of her words end in an a, such as book-a and duck-a.

There isn't much downtime throughout the day, although they are developing an affection for a few things on television, namely Sesame Street, Barney and Teletubbies. They dont' sit long, usually just a few minutes. Sometimes it keeps the peace long enough for me to prepare their lunch or dinner, but not usually. Speaking of meals, we are trying to get going with utensils, starting with the spoon. They're effective but not terribly neat or efficient. I usually save spoons for bath night only, because they all need to be bathed after self-feeding applesauce anyway!!!

We've had a few new adventures recently, including a bike ride with our burley and bike seat, a trip to the zoo, and even more exciting, a visit to see real, live horses!! Our awesome babysitter Kelly owns a horse and invited us to the stable where she keeps him. They were all fascinated...Charlotte wanted to pet the horses immediately, Sean did once he saw Charlotte doing it, and Luke was terrified. However we managed to get all of them to sit on a sweet old pony, and got some good photos.

That's all I can think of at the moment, and frankly I've been working on this post since May 5, so I think it's time to just finish it and get it out. If you've read this far, hopefully you enjoyed!