Twenty-Two Months

I'm a week late, but Malcolm and Lucinda are 22 months old!  

We celebrated with a trip to the Natural History Museum last weekend.

In addition to a ton of language development (Lucinda's up to 3-4 word sentences, and Malcolm's adding new words every day), the main thing we've noticed over the past month is that they have a much greater interest in and affection for each other.  Whether we're going somewhere in the car or just leaving a room, they always ask if the other one is coming too, and they always make sure the other one is getting the same thing they are getting.  For example, if Malcolm gets a wooden spoon to play with, he makes us give him a second one for Lucinda.  If Lucinda gets a cracker, she stands there saying "Calco too!" until she gets a second one to give to her brother.  And if we try to sneak one of them out of their room during nap time or in the morning, they turn around as we're leaving and wave and yell "Bye Bye" to the other.  

At 22 months, Malcolm Walter....

• loves trains and birds
• likes hopping, jumping and dancing.  Continues to be a big fan of dancing to the Ghostbusters theme song.  His other favorite song is Stevie Wonder's Sir Duke ("you can feel it all over")
• loves to feed Bailey (our cat) in the morning and evening.  He makes sure Lucinda gets to help, too.
• his favorite book is Go Dog Go, and he continues to love all animals.  A trip to PetSmart is as good as  it gets.
• wakes up first every morning and sits and studies his toes for at least 10 minutes before getting up.  He  also says "night night" to his toes each night before they're tucked into his blanket
• loves his sister, and likes to play with her (on his terms).  He calls Lucinda "ju ju" (I think it's his way of saying LuLu, which I call her a lot), and asks to be put in her bed at night so he can give her a hug before bed.  The past few nights, after he hugs her she says "I need kiss too!" - so sweet!
• likes to be right up in the middle of everything.  He can be a bit aggressive sometimes, and has a bad habit of stealing toys from his sister and nudging her out of the way so he can take over.  We've started disciplining him, and he's  learning to say he's sorry, and to take turns.

At 22 months, Lucinda Jean...

• likes to pick out her clothes, especially her socks.  She also likes to pick out clothes for her brother.
• loves Minnie Mouse, and insists on wearing "Minnie bows" in her hair.  If we turn on Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, and ask if she wants to watch Mickey, she says "and Minnie too!"
• loves purple.  She always picks purple socks, and purple "Minnie bows" if they're available.
• loves her brother (who she calls "Calco"), but does not like when he steals her toys.  
• speaks in 3-4 word sentences and talks all.the.time.  She repeats everything we say.  She said "I'm proud of you" to Matt the other night.  One of her favorite games is  to lay down on the floor and say "I fall down!" then hop up and shout "I get up!"
• likes to be dragged around by her arms. She calls it "draggy thing"
• is more passive than Malcolm, and is more content to play independently.  She's generally such an easy going kid, and is usually really well behaved.  But she can be impatient, and gets frustrated easily.  She hates when Malcolm takes her toys, or even touches something she's playing with or thinking about playing with.  She's also working on taking turns and learning about patience.