Twenty Ten and Toddlers

A new year brings new laughs, new adventures, new milestones, and a new sense of wonder. Madeline and Elizabeth are now 14 months old and really doing well. Their individual personalities are starting to take shape as they continue to discover and learn new things.

Imagine the sound of laughter filling the house when our daughters find joy in the facets of life that we might consider mundane. Cody barking, playing peek-a-boo, rolling a ball back and forth, reading books or chasing each other around the house are just some of the activities that prompt a smile and a chuckle.



Over the holiday break, we paid a visit to our many relatives and loved ones back on the east coast. Maddie and Liz are such seasoned travelers already that the flight went very smoothly. Our adventure began at Grandma White's house on Christmas Eve. Christmas Day we exchanged presents at the Grandma and Grandpa Carlson's house and then made our way to New Jersey. Erica's Aunt Lori and Uncle Vic were wonderful hosts to us and our girls. Everyone was very excited when we were able to stop by Great Grandma Gempp's house for a little while before heading back to LI again.

Saturday was a day to relax and spend time with our friends the Lathams. Sunday more visitors came to the Carlson house. Monday we spent with Pop Pop and Mema Munson and then Tuesday was time to fly back home to Chicago. Throughout all this excitement and commotion, our girls were just laid back and happy as can be to have so much attention and love. They held up better than I did when the flu hit me hard on Sunday. Luckily noone else got sick and we are so glad to have spent the holidays among family.




Elizabeth and Madeline are walking every chance they get now. Once they figured out that it was much quicker and more efficient to simply walk everywhere, there was no stopping them. It's really adorable to watch them toddling around the house. Very often you will see them carrying around one or more objects that they have picked up in their path. Don't be surprised to see Tupperware, toys, shoes, even boxes and dog bowls in hand when they come around the corner.

Spoons and plasticware are the next challenge Liz and Maddie are faced with. They definitely get the logistics behind the whole eating with utensils idea, but often it dissolves into abandoning them for the trusty ol' hands. As you would expect, we do most of our practice on the kitchen tile floor, hah!



More and more teeth keep popping up and causing our daughters to be pretty uncomfortable at times. It looks like our most recent round is almost over and each of the girls have 4 molars!

Still no "official" words to report, but they continue to put more syllables together and really sound like they are trying to hold a conversation at times. What I wouldn't give for a baby language translator on so many occasions. Thankfully, despite the lack of speech, they have been picking up more and more sign language to help us know what they want or express what they are seeing or doing. Baby Signing Time is by far the most entertaining show right now (which is saying something because they usually could care less about the television). Maddie and Liz get so excited when the title sequence comes on and start clapping and dancing.

One of my favorite things about this age is that they are beginning to mimic us and do what we do. It's hilarious to watch them study you and then attempt to do it themselves. Just last night I was smooshing my face against the glass of our office door (oh c'mon you've all done it!). Suddenly they both started doing it back at me. Erica and I were laughing hysterically and they thought it was the best thing on earth.

It's not difficult to get caught up in the way the girls look at the world around them and share in their sense of wonder at everything around us. I believe that we could all benefit from some time spent in the presence of children. Stay young at heart and if you're all really well-behaved we'll post some videos for you to enjoy :)