Some More Successes

A while ago (quite a long while actually!) I posted about some of the successes we've had in our house.  As I said at the time, I'd love to be able to post pictures on Facebook and on here showing what wonderful little men the boys are becoming, but sadly I can't.  So instead, I'll update you all on some of our more recent successes and achievements in another shameless show-off session!

• Gymnastics continues to be alternately hysterical and horrifying!  But yesterday, after our Christmas break, OB managed to walk the length of the narrow beam (holding one hand) without falling off once, and NB did a real, actual jump off the bench (as opposed to his usual 'walking off forwards and bashing his bottom on the edge of it as he goes down like a sack of spuds' routine).
• OB is soaking up vocabulary like a sponge and learning new words daily, but he still has some lovely mispronunciations.  I particularly like 'lo lo lo lon' (another one), 'saysoop', 'saypoop' and 'paypoop' (all versions of Playgroup) and 'papple' and 'piepapple' (apple and pineapple).  Some words he prounces correctly but in such a cute way that they are worth a mention, for example 'buttons' and, of course, 'mummy'!  Over Christmas he learned 'no like it', which I'm sure I will get tired of very soon, and also managed to string together a few three or four word sentences. Genius!
• NB is also getting to grips with the talking thing.  He can manage quite a few two-word combinations now, including 'my_____' as well as '_____ there'.  I'm hoping the Speech Therapist will be pleased with me when we go again!
• Potty training has been one of our best, recent successes.  NB is dry most days now, and since we discovered that he prefers to use the toilet rather than the potty for his poo, we have been free of messy pants!  With me, he still usually waits to be taken to the toilet, but when he's out and about with other people, or at Playgroup, he will ask, which is a major achievement considering where we started.
• Both the boys have learned to say some numbers and enjoy counting out loud in their own unique ways: two, three, two THREEEEEEEEEE!  This is also a fun game with 'four, six'.  Five and one are quite out of favour at our house.
• We have ditched spoons for most meals and got knives and forks - this is more for my amusement than for anything else :)
• NB can drink out of a big boy's cup very proficiently!
• I have been practising dressing and undressing with NB and now he can get his own pants, underpants and socks off and has a good try at removing his t-shirts.  He can also put his underpants on all by himself, although not always the right way round :)
• OB is getting a lot better at staying with me when we go out and about.  This was previously a major problem as, once given a glimpse of freedom, he would run as far and as fast as possible without fear, showing no concern if he lost sight of me - very problematic (not to mention dangerous!) when you're trying to keep tabs on two of them.  Although he's not perfect and still needs to be chased fairly often, he has improved so much that I now dare to take them out sometimes without the pram, which is great as they are both boys that need to burn off energy by running and walking, not sitting around being pushed everywhere!
• Both boys have a lovely reaction to music.  I bought OB a 'nano' (piano) for his birthday and they have great fun pressing the buttons to make the rhythms come on and then dancing, or playing along on their guitars and drums.  We make a pretty good band, if I say so myself!

Well, that's all for now - I'm sure I'll think of other things I should have written, but I can save them for another post :)