Jeanne’s blog

Alexander and Christopher sleep in the same room.  Alexander has the crib and Christopher sleeps in a playpen.  Usually at bedtime they go right in and wait for you to put them into their respective beds.  But last night, Alexander dove into the playpen and then wouldn't let me get him out.  Meanwhile, Christopher went to the crib and started putting his toys in it (he likes to bring toys to bed with him).  I put Christopher in the crib and then stood there trying to figure out if there was any reason why I shouldn't let them sleep in each other's beds.  I couldn't come up with one, so I just said good night and left the room.

At naptime today, Robert said that they both walked over to the playpen, but when Christopher saw Alexander going to it, he just went over to the crib.  Tonight, however, Christopher went into their room first and staked his claim on his own bed.  Last night, it really was like they had planned it beforehand!

My husband asked me if I had just gotten them confused.  Um, no, dear.

I took the five younger children to the park near our house this morning.  I had taken the day off from work so that Big Brother Robert could attend an event, so I decided to take the others to the park.

Immediately the girls started swinging, Ryan started climbing and sliding down the slides, and Alexander and Christopher stood around wondering what they were supposed to do.  I realized that they hadn't been to a park in a very long time.  Eventually Christopher climbed up the stairs onto the structure, but he didn't like being so high, so he would climb up and then want me to help him down.  I don't think Alexander ever climbed all the way up.  I was quite surprised that he was so cautious, as he is our daredevil at home!

They did seem to enjoy it, however!

Alexander started something new tonight, inspired by watching Riverdance.  He would run and then jump forward while he was running.  Christopher tried to do it but couldn't jump while running; he would stop and then jump. Then they started doing somersaults.  I have seen them try before but now Alexander can really do it!

I have been wanting to watch Riverdance again for a while, and I really wanted Alexander and Christopher to watch because they like music and dancing.  They did seem to enjoy it.  Alexander and I were dancing around the kitchen, pretending to do the stepping.

Their passive understanding of German has increased, Alexander especially.  Alexander loves to take away anything that is keeping me warm, such as blankets I might be using, my slippers, my socks...So one day he had taken my blanket and my slippers and carried them off.  A few minutes later I asked him, "Wo ist meine Decke? Es ist mir kalt!"  (Where's my blanket?  I'm cold!)  He stopped what he was doing, looked at me, then went into the toy room and came back a minute later with my blanket.  Alexander knew the word "Decke" because he likes to sleep with a blanket, and I always say, "Hier ist deine Decke" when I put him to bed.  But what impressed me about that was that it wasn't right away that I asked him where my blanket was.  He had to think and figure out what I was talking about and then go get my blanket for me.

They love the word "Hose" (pants) and every time I dress them, we chant "Hose! Hose! Hose!" and I have started saying what color they are too.  Alexander always seemed more in tune with the German, but today Christopher twice showed his understanding.  This morning he climbed up onto my lap, and I asked, "Willst du stillen?" (Do you want to nurse?) and he said, "Ja."  They also like to say "Bye!" when they are walking away from you, and so I started saying, "Tschues!" just a couple of days ago.  When I was putting on their sleepers last night, I was saying, "Tschues, Fuss!" (Bye, foot! it rhymes) as I put  their feet into the sleepers.  Today, Christopher was playing and walked away from me and I said, "Tschues!" and he said, "Bye!" so he obviously knows what it means.

Alexander showed that he understood "Socken" (socks, but pronounced with a "z" sound at the beginning so it doesn't sound the same) by pointing to the bin I keep their socks in when I said "Socken."

A list of words I am pretty sure they know:

Ball, Decke, Hausschuhe (slippers), Socken, Tschues, Kuss (kiss), ja, nein, Hose, stillen, possibly springen (jump)

And I did actually manage to read 2 books to them today auf Deutsch.  Normally, they make too much noise to hear me!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gpEJk6h5V1c

We got a new camera for Christmas that also has a video function.  I don't know why this is so dark on youtube, because it is not on the camera. They run around in circles like this every day! At the beginning, it is Christopher who notices that Robert has the camera and kind of shows off by holding out his arm and lifting up his leg. Then Alexander in the red shirt notices the camera and comes over and sticks his face up in it. Then they all run around like maniacs!

oh, and I have no idea why Robert named it 'An Inconvenient Truth" so don't ask!

Yesterday the girls and I watched the movie "Little Women" which they got for Christmas.  During the movie, Alexander started doing one of his favorite things - taking away anything that keeps me warm.  Honestly, if he sees me sitting in the living room with a blanket, he takes the blanket.  If he sees that I have my slippers on, he takes them off.  And then if I happen to have socks on as well, he takes those too.  He laughs the whole time.  Usually he starts it, but Christopher will gladly join in and help him.

So during Little Women, Alexander took my blanket, took my slippers, and then started pulling off my socks. 
The socks are especially fun, because he has to pull hard and then when they come off, he falls backwards.  Have I mentioned on here before that they both love falling?  So Christopher came and joined in, and for about a half hour I was putting my socks back on just so they could pull them off and fall backwards laughing.  Sometimes they did it simultaneously, sometimes they fell on top of each other, and they really had a good time.

Today when Alexander and Christopher got up from their nap, Robert (their very big brother) said, "Twins!"  They both turned their heads and looked at him and said, "Hi!"

I guess they know that they are the twins!

The other day I had to change an extremely messy diaper, and I asked one of my daughters to bring me a Walmart bag to put it in.  Mary gave it to Christopher and he brought it to me.  I was properly thankful, saying "Danke" to him, and he replied "Bitte" (you're welcome) to me.

But that wasn't the end of it.  Apparently it was a lot of fun, so he brought me another one.  Then Alexander wanted to get in on the action!  So both of them kept bringing me bags, and I kept saying, "Danke" and they kept saying, "Bitte" and they had a grand time!

I think I ended up with about 40 bags!

Alexander's crib was moved out of our bedroom and into the room where Christopher has been sleeping!  They are adjusting to sleeping in the same room, and I am so happy to be able to go into my room without waking Alexander up anymore!  Plus it will get them on the same schedule more, because Alexander was waking up much earlier than Christopher, so Christopher wasn't as tired at naptime.  Exciting stuff!

One morning last week the twins ate an entire box of waffles by themselves for breakfast!  That is four waffles each!