I'll be doing their 18 month update in about a week or so, but thought I would share a few quickies.

Yesterday we picked up their glasses.  Coen already seems to be doing well with his prisms.  The assistant there said to watch him for any behavioral changes.  That the prisms can sometimes cause young children to become very irritable because the extra light reflections can bother them, and being so young they can't tell us there is an issue.  I thought to myself, wow this can't be a worse time to watch for behavioral changes!  Coen has begun teething again and is having sleeping issues so he's been quite the grump the past week.  Anyway, he seems to be adjusting well already.  After only observing him for the few hours he's had them, his eyes don't seem to cross as often.  Maybe it's my wishful thinking, but they appear to be helping correct the eye turning issue already.
Liam has been doing amazingly well too.  I think he was excited to have glasses like mommy and brother.  Yesterday afternoon he only took them off twice and only once today so far (it's still morning though).  He likes to touch them.. a lot, but he keeps them on much better than Coen did when he first got his.  (Of course Coen was 5 months younger.)  One super cute thing and a reason I think he likes having glasses is, when he touches them he'll look at you and grin and then keep on playing.  It hasn't even been 24 hours, but I'm hoping they work well for the both of them.

Ok, now on to bubbles!!
For my Mom's side of the family we just had Christmas this past weekend.  The boys made out like bandits and received lots of cool gifts from their Aunts, Uncle, cousins, Grandma and Grandpa Rick.  One of the gifts was a Finding Nemo book with sound buttons.  (You know the one, as your reading you match the pictures in the book with the picture to the right sound button.)  The story was finding the hidden bubble.  One of the buttons is Nemo saying "bubbles, cool!"  The boys just love this book.  I think it is quickly becoming a new favorite.
The other day I heard Coen trying to say apple.  I worked with him to help him along, and he kept saying app or pulpul.  I figured, close enough, he'd get it when he was ready.  Well today, I hear him saying abul.  I thought 'wow, he's getting closer to saying apple'.  Nope!  I was wrong.  This whole time I think he was trying to say bubble!  He was sitting with the Finding Nemo book and hitting the button where Nemo says "bubbles, cool!".  After he'd hit the button he would say abul.  I think all this time he didn't want to say apple, I think he wanted to say bubble.  Maybe he wants to say both apple and bubble since they have similar sounds, but in any case I'm glad that he's trying to sound out what he's hearing.  It's just too cute to watch them learning.

The most recent news is both boys will have glasses.  Coen went in for his 4 month follow up and Dr. Mark has decided to change his RX and will be adding a prism in his lenses.  This will force him to use both eyes together instead of switching what eye he's looking out of.  Dr. Mark said they would eventually ween him off the prism so he'd return to regular glasses and may also end up having to patch an eye also.
We noticed just over a month ago that Liam's eyes were starting to turn in as well.  He didn't seem to want to use his left eye anymore.  We're not sure why this started, but seemed to get worse in a short period of time so we made an appointment for him as well since we were taking Coen in for his follow up.  Turns out Liam will need glasses too.  His RX isn't as strong as Coen's and his eyes don't appear to turn as badly as Coen's so hopefully the glasses will be just the fix that Liam's eyes need.  So we'll be ordering new lenses and glasses for the boys this coming week.  Will post pics when we're all set with our new glasses.

The boys are as wild as ever!  They are into everything.  Climbing into their booster chairs, into our chairs, onto the kitchen table, on their chairs and table (new gift from Aunt Janet, which they love!  They've even been sitting at their table for their snacks the past few days.)  They are the energizer bunnies.  They go and go and go. 
Just the other day, Milo and I were sitting in the living room and we hear Coen and Liam yelling.  (They like yelling and being boisterous when standing on things.  I think they're objective is to get your attention so you can see what they're up to... and they also just like being loud.)  So they're being very loud and we find Liam sitting and Coen standing on our dining room table.  You can't help but laugh at their adventurous nature, yet it's so dangerous.


As part of our bedtime routine we've been brushing the boys teeth.  They've never really protested, but don't seem to really enjoy it either.  Here recently, when it's time to brush their teeth, we ask them, 'are you ready to brush your teeth?' and Coen will head straight for the door and say 'ahhh'.  (Not all the time, but more often than not.)  They really seem to be enjoying recently.


One thing that really amazes me about them is their willingness to play on their own.  I will often find them sitting together reading books and playing with their toys.  These are the moments that I can get some housework done.  :)  A few other things that keep them entertained for hours at a time:  belts, blankets, climbing (that's a given at this age), our bed, laundry and laundry baskets, bowls/cups with a spoon.  I am very blessed to have such independent boys.

At the last update the boys were getting over a 2 week cold.  They got over it just fine then Liam came down with a 24 hour flu.  It was my first night staying up with him so he could vomit.  We spent the entire night in a chair in the living room cuddled up.  I didn't get any sleep, but he did.  I didn't realize how much he moves while he sleeps.. he was everywhere!  I tried moving to the floor so I could attempt to sleep, but that just woke him up and kind of frightened him I think.. maybe because he wasn't sure what was going on.  So we spent the rest of the night and early morning in the chair.
The following week, I got strep throat.  Once again we were very blessed and the boys didn't get it.  Neither did Milo!  Milo had to take 2 days off work to take care of the boys because the strep completely wiped me out (I slept for two and a half days!).  Luckily he had the time to take off.  We have since known lots of people that have been sick and other than the short flu for Liam and the 2 week cold, the boys have been illness free!  It could be that we don't get them out too often, but when it comes to freezing weather and sick people, my view is, why take the chance?  Taking care of a sick adult is not fun.. throw in a toddler or two... no thanks!  I am just very happy that we've been able to escape a lot of the illness going around.

A few oldies but goodies:
Some things the boys used to do as babies and have either resurfaced or they've held onto.  When Liam is tired and you're rocking him to put him to bed, he will rub the tip of his nose back and forth.  He used to do it all the time as a baby and here recently he's started it back up.  I find it so cute.
When Coen was learning how to sit he would cross his legs.  I remember some friends saying that it was so adorable... well guess what?  He still does it.  That's something that never left.  He doesn't do it near as often.. maybe because he is constantly on the go, but occasionally you'll find him reading a book, sitting with his legs crossed.


They also like to help when getting dressed.  For a while now, they'll actually straighten their arms or legs to make it easier when putting on their clothing, but they'll also pick up their shoes, socks, gloves, hats or other clothing items and try to put them on.  Which means they also like taking these items off.  Usually they'll only take off socks, and hats.  They haven't quite figured out how to remove the other clothing items.  :)

What else, what else... talking, nope not yet.  I think they're definitely getting closer though.  They will mock our sounds (and facial expressions), but they're not really into mocking words yet.
They have learned how to point to the following body parts:  hair, eyes, ears, nose, mouth (still have trouble with this one sometimes), arm, hands (sometimes they'll clap for hands), belly and feet.  We're working on legs right now.. that seems to be a toughy. 


Coen and Liam continue to amaze me daily and I am so proud and happy to be their mother.

With the weather being as cold as it has been, I haven't gotten the boys out of the house for much of anything.  Actually we've stayed in all week.  I took them to Grandma's last weekend for a sleep over, which went really well, and we've stayed in since then.
We decided, since Milo gets off work early on Fridays, we would take the boys out to view the Christmas lights in the surrounding neighborhoods in the evening.  That way we'd be out early enough for it to just be getting dark and not stay out too late for the boys to get too tired.  It worked out really well.  Milo got home, ran some errands and was got home just as the boys were finishing dinner.  We scurried out of the house and started driving.  We wondered if they'd be interested or if they'd even be able to see much from their carseats.  They could see and we're very interested.
It was actually one of the few times that Liam hasn't fallen asleep in the car.  He can fall asleep in the car at any time.  Right after he gets up from a nap even!  He's like his daddy... car = sleep.  However he stayed awake the entire time, pointing and 'talking' about the lights.  Coen did more observing, than commenting but seemed to really enjoy it too.

We went last year, when they were just little guys.  They probably slept in the car.. I can't remember.  (Mommy brain has taken hold of me and isn't letting go!) 
I'm hoping to make it a yearly tradition.  Especially when you visit the same houses year after year and see how much things have changed.  One house in particular is just amazing.  If we venture out again, I'll take my camera and snap a pic.  I've never seen a house so well decorated with lights.  It makes me want to see the inside and how wonderful it must look!

The boys have been sick the past 2 weeks with the same cold from Thanksgiving.  It was almost completely gone about a week ago and it came back again and now appears to almost be gone again.  Let's hope this is the end of this icky cold.  In the past 2 weeks time I've gone through 2 full kleenex boxes, 2 partial boxes and half a pack of boogie wipes.  I thought diapers were bad, but I've gone through tons of tissues in such a short time!  Enough about boogies.

They're still finding new things to climb on.  One day, I will find Liam in his crib.  Yes, in his crib.  He's closer to climbing in than climbing out, however we have moved the mattresses to the lowest position as a precaution.
Liam is learning to run now so they like to chase each other through the house. 
They're also starting to learn to listen a little better.  Sometime situations are better than others, but I'm glad they're finally listening on a more consistent basis.

Liam's tooth finally poked through although it's not fully in yet.  It appears that the teething game is in full swing though.  He is non-stop drooling and non-stop fussing. 
The past few days he will actually come when you call him.  He still likes to try and make it a game, but we've been working on coming when we call him which is nice.
No more new words really.  Just the same sounds for everything.  Iss, at, dat, das, dut, da.. and what sounds like 'yes'.  It's really cute, I can ask him a question and he'll say 'yes'.  Whether or not he's really saying yes or he understands what I'm saying is disputable, but it's still super cute.  Occasionally he would sound out 'mo' for 'more', but those days are done apparently.


Coen doesn't appear to be teething again, but he's picked up on some of the fussiness that Liam is oozing so the past few days have been interesting to say the least. 
He's combined his words for yogurt and cookie to gukguk.  So I now understand gukguk to be a snack.  He hasn't really picked up on any new words, just like Liam, he'll use the same sounds for everything.  He has picked back up on saying 'da' for done.

Since Milo's work schedule changed, so has their bedtime routine.  Mondays and Tuesdays I do the bedtime routine by myself (bath, dressed, milk, story, then bed).  Milo typically gets home either after they're in bed or just in time to put them down to bed.  On those days Uncle Oliver will help put them to bed, but I still do the story time and milk by myself.  So on those days, we sit on the floor and both boys will sit with me.  Well, now they fight over sitting with me on all days, even when Milo is home.  Sometimes one will go sit with daddy, but they generally will both end up with me.  Cute, but I know daddy still likes his cuddle story time especially since he's not with them every night anymore.  I'm hoping they get over 'me' and want to sit with daddy again, like before.

This brings me to my next topic... jealousy!  I wasn't expecting it this soon.  They've always been together, they've always had to share toys, mama, dada.. everything, but here recently they don't like to share us.  Toys have almost always been an issue with sharing, but now they've learned to 'fight' over mama and dada.  :( 
I always thought the jealousy monster would pop up if we had any more children or if we were cuddling other kiddos, but I never thought they'd be jealous of each other since they've always been together.  I'm not sure why I honestly thought that, but I was wrong.. way wrong.

Well, one last parting note... we have a biter!  Liam.  Liam is our biter.  Way back when, Liam bit Rogan.  I can't remember if it was out of frustration or if he got too close or what, but he didn't start biting then.  Here recently he's been curious about biting.  He will bite his own arm or Coen's.  A few weeks ago, he bit Coen 4 times on his arm!  Coen being the tough one that he is didn't complain or anything until the last bite, which is when we discovered what was going on.  Since then, Liam has been doing his experimenting with biting.  Mostly random, but never out of anger or frustration... until today.  They were playing in the kitchen with some pots and pans and I hear them both start fussing over something.  I glance over and they're fighting over a pan.  I head that direction and about that time Liam screams and bites down on Coen's shoulder.  :(  I was so disappointed in Liam and he could tell.  He gave me the quivering lip and looked genuinely sorry.  Poor Coen, even as tough as he is, lost it!  He immediately went into hysterics.  I finally got a look at his shoulder and confirmed it was indeed a bite, and Liam broke the skin!  No bleeding, but his skin is definitely cut.  Poor guy.  Now I have to make sure I hurry over to break up 'fights' before they get out of hand and I definitely don't want Coen picking up on the biting if I can help it.  (He's the one with the temper and I don't want two biters.)

Up next.. potty training.  I think Coen may be getting close to wanting to try, so maybe after the first of the year we can start practicing again!

I sat down to write their 16 month update and realized I hadn't even written about Thanksgiving yet.

Not a lot happened.  The boys got sick the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, I got sick the next day and Milo just a few days later.  We still managed to host a dinner at our house.  We had Oma and Opa over.  Uncle Oliver and family stayed in AR this year because of having to work. 
It was probably due to their sickness, but they took a super long nap which allowed Milo and me to get everything cooked and prepared for the dinner.  (Which was a huge blessing since I was incredibly stressed last year trying to take care of them and do the cooking.)  The dinner was great, thanks to my helpers and we've decided to host Christmas this year too.  Wish us luck!

The Friday after Thanksgiving we went to my Dad's, as usual.  And again, as usual, the food was fantastic.  My dad is such a great cook!  I always enjoy his turkey the best.  No one... I mean no one's turkey has ever compared to my Dad's.. doesn't even come close.
At Grandpa's, we finally met little Maddi!  The first, and most likely ONLY, girl on my side of the family.  We have 9 boys and finally 1 little girl, thanks to my bro.  He always said he wanted the first girl and he got her... only thing is I think she'll be the last of all the grandkids, but hey, at least we got 1 girl! 
It had been a long time since we've seen my brother, BJ's, family and my sister, Sheri's, family, so it was nice to see everyone again.

I think that about wraps up our Thanksgiving this year.  Nice and usual.  I like!