Twenty Months
Hello! How is everyone adjusting to Daylight Savings Time? I think it’s silly that some states follow DST and others don’t, we’ve adjusted well to the change and I’m loving the extra hour of daylight in the evenings. I’m excited for spring and for long days and sunshine. Seattle has been especially stormy this year, lots of wind and rain, so I think spring will be warmly welcomed in the Pacific Northwest.
Jemma and Zoe are twenty months…..twenty months! I cannot believe they are only four months away from their second birthday. People always say “enjoy this time it goes so fast”, they weren’t lying! I’m loving this age, the girls are so much fun-saying more words, running around the house, walking on their own when we go places and developing their own and very unique personalities.
We recently went to Maui and the trip was so much fun. The girls did great on the flight over. We stayed at the Honua Kai which is a great, family friendly condo complex. The complex has several pools and many are geared towards children. One pool is only 1 1/2 feet deep so the girls could safely play with us in the pool with them. The complex is also very close to the beach, we finally took the girls to the beach and they loved it!!! Our condo had beach toys, so we took those down and the girls played in the sand and let the waves come up over their feet. Jemma loved the waves and was splashing, Zoe was a little more apprehensive. She would shake her head “no” every time the waves came too high on her legs. The sand was a little bit of work to clean off but it was worth it to see how happy the beach made them. We had never done the beach before because up until now the girls pretty much put everything into their mouths. The girls did a lot of walking on our vacation and would happily pick out which shoes they wanted to wear. They would say “hi” and “bye” to everyone we rode in the elevators with and enjoyed running around on the grounds. Zoe loved picking up every flower she saw and would bring a crumpled fistful of flowers back to our condo. While we were in Maui we enjoyed the pool, beach, eating out and relaxing. The flight home was much more challenging, the girls only had about 45 minute naps to the airport and the flight home coincided with bedtime, both girls were unhappy but Jemma especially was having a rough time. It didn’t help that we were surrounded by people who did not seem accustomed to being around children, but we survived and made it home safely.
The girls are saying a few more words since last month, some of their new words:
Ice
Cocoa (my parents dog)
Star
Out
Eye
Ball
They are saying mama, dada, more much often and are signing “more” and “please” regularly. My Mom is also teaching them eyes, head, mouth, nose, ears hands and feet all in Japanese and they know them very well!
The girls are both in size 4 diapers and Jemma is not too far off from potty training. She has gone pee in the potty 6 times and poo once. The first couple of times she would go when I would sit her on the potty and would sit on the toilet myself next to her and would go. The last few times she has actually pulled at her pants and when we take her to the potty she will go! It’s very exciting and of course we have to clap and cheer for her! Zoe likes to sit on the potty also but I think for her it’s more about the novelty and not that she is really understanding the concept quite yet.
The girls are eating more with their spoons and forks and are getting far more dexterous. Jemma seems ambidextrous and Zoe appears to be right-handed. Both Hubby and I are right-handed, but my father in law is a lefty.
Flight to Maui
Beach time!
Being silly and playing
Sharing a coconut smoothie
Kisses!
Home with Daddy when I was away on a girls’ weekend
Playing outside on Daddy’s putting green
The girls are having a few more tantrums and Jemma acts out more-pulling hair, hitting, screaming at the top of her lungs. We are trying to implement some sort of time out/behavior management but I still think the girls are too young. Any advice from parents of toddlers?
We are getting ready for Easter next week. We will be hosting both my parents and my in-laws for Easter brunch. My Mom is especially excited to dye eggs with the girls and to do an egg hunt. It’s so much fun that they are big enough that we can do these fun activities with them. I’m hoping to make it to Easter service as well that day, although I know it will be crazy at our church.
Happy Easter and Happy Spring!
xoxo
hopefulandhungry 
At that age we started doing time outs / time ins / whatever works for you, but it’s quite short. General rule of thumb is 1 minute per year of life, so maybe 1:45 for them. I sat my kids on the bottom step of the stairs right next to our kitchen/living area, and they had to sit there until the time was up. Lots of verbal “you have to sit here for 1 minute to calm down because ____ and that it not acceptable behavior / allowed in our house / whatever.” They definitely figured out quite quickly why they had to sit there and it definitely helped everyone have a minute to cool down!
Thank you for the information. The tough thing is to get them to stay in one spot for a min or a min and a half. Especially with twins, the other one of course wants to sit where the one in trouble is sitting. I tried having one of them sit on a rug for time out, but she would not stay put! Hoping they’ll figure it out soon and hoping we won’t be in this situation too often! 🙂
Yeah, I spent a lot of time re-placing the kids on the step over and over until they finally got the concept. 😉 Good luck!
Such cute pictures! We just got back from the trip to Japan but I forgot to take pictures on the air plane! that would have been a great memory!!
I am so glad your trip went well Im sure your girls were popular wherever you took them. 🙂
It is so neat to read your posts on your girls’ development. It is like I can prepare for the next phase for my boys 😉 Mine are almost 14 months old and they kinda only say one Japanese word now… (dada and mama too but not to us) so it is hard to imagine them talking yet! I only talk in Japanese and my husbans in English to them, so it might slow down their language development… but we will see!
Have a happy easter!! 🐰🐣🐤
Thank you! How did your littles do traveling international? Twins definitely draw a lot of attention, I’m sure yours did as well.
I hope the girls will learn to say words in Japanese soon, they understand them, but aren’t speaking them yet.
That is wonderful that your children will be bilingual, I wish I spoke Japanese so I could teach them!
The Japan trip was so much fun! the travelling was very tiring but the boys managed it much better than we expected. and the good customer service on Japan Air Lines and airports in Japan made it easier.
Thats great that your girls understand Japanese words! Do you know the animated TV show Anpanman? Our boys love that show 🙂 If your girls know Japanese, maybe that will be a fun show for them to watch!
Is your mom from Japan? nice!!
I do not know the show Anpanman, I’ll have to check it out. My Mom is Japanese but she was born and raised in Hawaii. My Dad is Chinese, so they didn’t speak to each other while I was growing up other than in English. 🙂
Your girls are so incredibly adorable! I’ve been dealing with the temper tantrums stuff with my son for a while – we tried time outs and it made him more upset, and it wasn’t effective. I’m currently writing now about what has finally worked for him – positive parenting techniques, such as acknowledging his feelings! It’s a lot of trial and error to see what works!
Thank you! I love your posts, very helpful, I just started following your new blog, so looking forward to more of your great parenting tips.
Adorable!!!!
Thank you!
We did time outs and it worked pretty well. I often had to sit and hold P on the stairs for a minute. I know it’s not easy with twins! It’s so crazy when you say they will be two in 4 months! Summer seems so far off, but it I’ll be here soon! Time has been flying!
Yes, a little tough with twins, Z wants to sit with J when she’s having her timeout! I cannot believe summer will be here in only a few months…..crazy!!!
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