16 Months already!

The Boys had their 16 month check-up at the nursing sister on Wednesday. I am glad to report that all is going well. Little man L had his shots, but Little man C will wait until next week to recuperate from the croup episode. She is happy with their progress - their language skills are on track (even slightly ahead) and some of their other skills like building and comprehension are both ahead of target. We are behind on naming body parts (I have sort of forgotten about that) and drawing as they are mostly still chewing the crayons. We will work on those.

We are solidly on sippy cups and straw bottles. Have been actually, since The Boys were 13 months - I just forgot to blog about it because it came so easily. I just gradually substituted each bottle with a sippy cup, and once again (like with their sister), it worked like a charm. No tears! We are working on the pacifiers but I am in no rush to get rid of them.

We have just started with placing them at the big kid table to eat and it works some times. Other times, no sitting still and then it is back to the high chairs. They also like to sit on their plastic chairs and watch some Baby Einstein - for about 5 minutes, and then they are up and about again.

They now prefer finger foods and hate being fed, apart from yogurt which they adore. They are also starting to spoon feed themselves with items such as mash or gem squash. The mess is less than I expected, but maybe my standards are just falling ;-)

We are in the process of moving from two naps to one in the early afternoon. In general they are both sleeping through about 95% of the time. This week has been rough with the croup but last night was a sleep through for all in the house.

We have noticed that they are starting to "know their colours" - we colour-coded them from birth - L with blue (or yellow) and C with green (or red). They will take their own sippy cup or soft toy bunny for instance - the only difference being blue or green.

Little man C:
Weight: 10,43 kg ( 23 pounds) 40th percentile
Length: 80 cm (31,5 inch) 50th percentile

He is not walking any more - he is running! Walking is way to slow! He does from time to time engage in a crawling game of tag with his brother to great entertainment of all in the house.

He has 15 words including things like "vissie"(fish), "teddie" (teddy), "padda" (frog). He is also starting to string words together - like "kyk daar" (look there). He can point out items that he knows on a page filled with different pictures - for instance, he can pick the ball out of a page with pictures of toys.

He is climbing the stairs (under supervision) and is busy learning to climb down. He is starting to enjoy the rocking horse if we help him to get up.

His favourite toy at the moment is a ball - he is besotted with balls of any shape and form. He and his sister have devised a game we call table ball where they roll a ball underneath a chair on a table.

He is building huge towers with the wooden blocks - up to 12 or 13 blocks.

And he loves to climb on the big couch and sit back and relax. We constantly have to tell him to sit and not walk around on the couch.

He had finally overcome his fear of the dogs - this has been a huge issue for us as we love the dogs and we have slowly but constantly worked towards him getting more relaxed around them. Now he and puppy B are big buddies!

We loves the wagons that grandfather made them for Christmas and loves getting into it and packing all and sunder in it.

We call him "Klein Schalk" (Little Schalk) when he wakes up in the morning - huge frown and hair in all directions. Schalk refers to Schalk Burger, a South African rugby player known for agressive play, long blonde hair and a semi-permanent frown. Other nicknames: Chris-jan , Chris-chris, Beertjiie (Little bear) and blonde bom (the blond bomb). He tends to be moody at times and will moan and bicker until he gets what he wants. But he just loves to hug, cuddle and kiss. And yes, you've guessed it - his name is Chris*tian! We hope that one day he will fulfill the meaning of his name - to be a follower of Christ.

Little man L:
Weight: 9,45 kg ( 20,8 pounds) 5th percentile
Length: 80 cm (31,5 inch) 50th percentile

We are not worried about his weight any more as he is constantly staying on the curve and as the neurologist predicted this. He is now standing on his own only occasionally, but walks around objects and corners while holding on to the table etc. He is also walking with his wagon or while holding your one hand.


He has about 13 words (most the same as his brother) and loves to call his "boeta" (brother) or Anne (Yes, The Little Miss' name is Anne*cke). He is doing something that the nursing sister says is exceptional - on Saturday I was busy with C pointing out objects on a page when he crawled to another book, paged through it and found the object that I was Asking C to point out. She says that this is a 2 year plus skill as he not only paged to find something but also remembered that the item was in the book. Just to make sure, we asked him on Sunday to find something else and once again, he paged through to find it.

Although he can not walk he loves climbing, sometimes nearly giving his mom a heart attack. He climbs the stairs, the couch and back of the couch, the slide, whatever. Scary stuff. The child knows no fear.

He is building different arrangements with Mega blocks and likes them much more than the wooden blocks. He loves toys cars, trains etc. And he loves to scribble - more on his sister's scribble pad than with crayons which he still chews mostly.

And he loves the pop-up animals - he is managing to turn the two turn knobs for the animals to come out. Now he has to master the slide and push button.

And amazingly he is the first to master fully riding on their ride-on fire trucks.

We call him Klein Leeutjie (Little lion), Sir Richard (the lionheart) because he is such a brave little boy, the Professor and Apie ( Monkey) - for obvious reasons. He is such a sweet little boy that hardly cries and can entertain himself for hours. He is already a very independent little soul. He is slowly getting used to his glasses. And yes, his name is Le*on - that literally means Lion-like. What an apt name for such a brave little boy.