17 months

B&F are officially creeping further into toddlerhood.  First, let me say that I love this.  I love how much personality they are showing.  I love that I feel I am getting to know them better.  I love how they can play and respond and interact.  But this is also proving to be a somewhat difficult stage for us.  They don't understand discipline yet.  It seems impossible to correct behavior that really can't be tolerated (biting each other, throwing toys at the dogs).  They get frustrated because, while they believe they are very clearly telling Andrew or myself what they want, we often have trouble understanding their babbles.  But overall, this age is proving to be full of fun and laughter.  Here's a little glimpse of what they are doing these days:

• Frances is a parrot.  She tries to mimmic everything we say.  Her best and favorite word right now is "car."  If anyone gets dressed, she starts pacing around, going to the garage door screaming car.  This girl is always ready for an outing.
• Barnes has started trying to repeat words as well.  Some of his words are a bit less discernible, but he talks non-stop.  Just this afternoon as we were getting our socks and shoes, we took turns yelling "sock" as loudly as we could.  A hilarious game.
• They are loving animal sounds.  We have currently mastered "arf arf arf" (dog), "quack" (duck), a clicking sound for bunny, a roar/growl for dinosaur, and Barnes can moo like a cow.  
• Frances gets very fixated on certain things.  On Thursday she realized that the pig puzzle piece was missing, and she spent a very long time (even by adult standards) looking for it.  We may have a type-A child in the making (no idea where she could get that).
• They both love stuffed animals, but Barnes is slightly obsessed.  He now has his giant dog and a teddy bear that he carries everywhere.  If we go down to the basement to play, he stands and whines until I go back upstairs and get them.  It's sweet...and a little strange.
• Barnes is not a morning person.  Waking up is definitely not his favorite thing.
• The one nap thing is really not working.  We've given it a month, and it's just not catching on.  These are some sleepy babies.
• Speaking of sleepy, we are trying to push their bedtime back a little (6:00 is just really early), but they are not loving it so far.  We kept them up until 6:10 tonight and Frances acted like she was being tortured.
• Their favorite foods are tacos, spaghetti, and fruit.  Their newest snack addition is pretzels.
• They love each other and miss each other when they are separated.  Barnes, however, was recently discovered riding Frances like a horse.  Probably won't be the last time.