Twenty-four months old

I feel like I have so many cute stories to remember, I'll never get them all down. Not to mention our 18-month report (for Vietnam) is due. As usual when I have too much obligatory paperwork, I have just been ignoring it all. Since this post is already a week late I'm just going to write SOMETHING.

I read on another twin blog how she taught her kids how to take turns by counting to ten. "What a great idea," I thought, because the desperate need for both boys to have the exact same toy at the exact same time occurs practically every 3.5 seconds around here, even if said "toy" is a broken margarine lid and they are surrounded by $8000 worth of actual toys.

What I neglected to consider fully was the need for someone involved in the dispute (ie a twin) to be able to count to ten. Otherwise it would be up to the nearest adult to count to ten, and having to stop what you are doing and carefully count to ten every 3.5 seconds is not a lot more satisfying than listening to the shrieks (although it is admittedly nice to have the option).

"Nevermind," I thought, "I have patience, I can count to ten over and over, and the bonus is, the more times they hear it, the sooner they will learn it..." But "sooner" does not necessarily mean "anytime soon", as any elementary school teacher can tell you.

What Vanh has learned is "1, 2, 1, 2, 1, 2..." while Max prefers "8, 9, 10! Max's turn!" And it works between them. However, they are still confounded when they hand over their favourite pail or race car at the playground, only to discover that the random spouting of numbers as an indication of turn taking is not understood by their little playmate.

Maybe they can't count, but wow my boys can read (pictures). This is their favourite book and they know every truck. They know more specific names of vehicles, machines, etc than I did a few weeks ago. They both like to sit and look at books and name everything they see. They never seem to get tired of being read to (as long as it's a picture book, preferably either naming or rhyming). They certainly never get tired before I do. At least our persistent repetition of, "We already read this one - get another one" has paid off, and our boys don't expect us to read the same book over and over again.