The twins are now both walking and talking. Of course, their receptive language skills developed first. A couple months ago Chris was putting both of them to bed when he said rhetorically “Go to the bookshelf and get a book and we can read it for bedtime”, and he was pretty surprised when they both did it! Everyone was also surprised in October when Gabby and Grandaddy were visiting and someone asked aloud where Teddy’s pacifier was. Gwen found it, pointed at it, picked it up and gave it to him.

Gwen started talking first – for many months she has been making a sound like “wassis”, which we think meant “what’s this?” Then she started adding a few more words (such as “Tede” for her brother) while Teddy seemingly took no interest in talking until about a month ago when he started adding words by the day. Gwen was also the first to discover the power of the word “no”, although the way she says it is more like “nnnnnnnnnnNNNNo!!!” Once she got the hang of that she started experimenting with other styles, like saying no and shaking her head, or saying no and turning away, or saying no and holding a hand up dismissively. Yesterday she upped the ante a bit by saying “No Dada!” when Chris was doing something she didn’t approve of. This has become a running joke with Everett. He now says to us “Ask me something and I will pretend I’m Gwen,” and before we can finish a question he says no just like she does.

Meanwhile, Teddy has learned to express yes by making exaggerated nodding motions with his head while looking at what he wants. Only in the last couple days has he started to say no, and nowhere near as forcefully as Gwen. However, he has developed quite a vocabulary and has started spontaneously identifying things like his teeth, arm, hand, the car, the chair, etc. He is also the first to come up with a name for Everett: Daa Daa (not to be confused with Da Da). Finally, he has started saying “Hi!” to us and to strangers. He recently learned to do this when he wants to look cute after he has done something he wasn’t supposed to.

Here are some other words they say on a regular basis:
up, down, deer, puppy, owl, cheese, apple, sock, eye, ear, nose, baby, uh-oh (especially Teddy), snow, cup, trash (Teddy likes putting things in the trash)
go = Pepperidge Farm goldfish
owside = outside
mo = more
base = I want to go play in the basement (both of them)
pees = please (both of them)
baa = bath (both of them)
mmma = milk (though Everett has been trying to get them to say gnkn)
bi? bi? bi? = I want a bite of your food (both of them)
keeku = thank you (Teddy)
dedee = ducky pacifier (Teddy), though he now identifies the tiger pacifier with the same name
ba-ee = bunny (Gwen). We have had some heavy snow over the Christmas holiday and there is a bunny who now shows up often on our front steps. If we ask Gwen about the bunny she runs to the front door. And if she sees the bunny she exclaims “Oh! Oh! Oh!”
pow = pounce (on Dad)
nainai = night night (before bed)