Word Play

The girls, with two teeth freshly grown in on the tops and bottoms, are now experimenting with language constantly. One of them has suddenly begun picking up a variety of words and loves repeating them, including "baby" (which usually means her sister), "fish" (usually pronounced "ish"), "more," "Rory" ("aora"), "Dadda" (yes!), "knee," and "ball." All animals are of course "woof woofs." Her sister loves saying "woof woof" too. She has also lately taken to trying to say "fish" and "baby" as well. But her special favorite is "uh ohhh." She enjoys saying "uh ohhh" so much that she often throws things down to justify it. And both girls constantly point at things around them, then look to us for the name of it. At this rate, any day now the girls should be saying "bread maker," "sclera," and "French doors."

Meanwhile, the end of summer's warm days means fall clothing ahead, so with these photos we look back fondly on the games the girls played when clothing hardly mattered, like in their kiddie pool. We have no doubt by next summer they will be saying "backstroke."

Moments

We returned yesterday from a spontaneous reunion over the Labor Day Weekend with the girls' paternal family, and the girls had the chance to be with almost every uncle, aunt and first cousin on that side of the family. A few hours after our return, the girls were in their familiar playpen at home and Danni began crying. She seemed upset that her Mom had gone out of view. This happens sometimes, and we figure the tumult of the busy weekend and the trip back several hours in the van had left the girls a little frayed. Rory, on the other side of the pen, turned to her sister's cry. She walked directly across the pen to her sister, rested her head against Danni's back, and hugged her. For a solid 20 seconds. Then she sat down at her sister's feet and looked up, as if to ask, "What's the matter?" Danni turned, reached out her hand, and patted her sister on the top of her head. Her crying had stopped, at least for a moment.

As the girls turn 17 months-old today, we share this moment of what they bring to our lives and these two recent close-ups below.