We FINALLY have walkers. Yes, the girls have been able to walk for a few months now, about a month ago they finally decided to commit to walking and they are now buzzing all over. It's so strange to see them walking all over the house instead of crawling.

They have also become very talkative. They try to repeat every word we say and love to try to count. They try to help me count to five but usually only make it to three (one, doo, fee) and Emily holds up fingers for 1, 2 and 5 but she can't really hold up the 3 or 4 fingers yet.

Abby gets especially vocal when she's upset. She tries to yell at whatever is upsetting her, but she does it all in babble...it's really cute and hard to not laugh at. She will usually throw a "no, no, no" or "yuk" in with her screaming babble.

Emily loves to chastise. Like Abby, one of her favorite phrases is "no, no" but Emily also likes to wave her finger at you when she's saying it. This morning Abby woke her up and she didn't seem very interested in talking to me when I got her out of her crib, so she said "shhhh" with her finger to her mouth. She also does this to Abby when she's screaming or crying.

Abby loves to have her bald head rubbed. Sometimes we'll see her rubbing her head, which seems to be a sign to Emily that she wants a head rub because Emily often goes running over and strokes her head.

A few weeks ago Byron was sharing a banana with Abby and Emily. When it was gone Abby wanted to play with the banana peel. She decided to eat the peal instead - it was hysterical.

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The girls (especially Emily) have been obsessed with accessorizing lately. They love hats and sunglasses. They also love walking around with only a diaper on. The combination of their monkey hats and diapers is hysterical. They also like to wear dress shoes and fluffy socks.

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A few weeks ago Emily got up on the couch and found that our candle decoration has little rocks in it. She proceeded to throw them down to Abby who would collect and eat them. As expected, the next day Abby had lots of smooth little pebbles in her diaper. No, we did not wash them off.

The girls personalities are really developing. Abby is very busy. She likes to build towers with blocks, dance, climb on top of her play kitchen and repair her little push/ride-on toy. They both love to play with their little people farm. They sit together and make the animals walk all over the room...I love it when they play together. One of Emily's favorite activities is playing with her baby doll. A few weeks ago I was cleaning up after dinner while the girls were playing. When I finished cleaning up I found Emily with her baby and a diaper on the floor. She was trying to put the diaper on the baby. She then went on to feed the baby milk from her sippy cup and rock and cuddle her.

Abby Climbing:

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The girls love going to the park while Byron flies his remote control plane:

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One Day Emily fell asleep on her horse with her blankie in her mouth:

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Abby shows off her legs:

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This is one of my favorite pictures of Emily ever:

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The girls love to help clean the house with wipes:

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Abby drinking on St. Patrick's day:

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She got a little sick:

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Emily wasn't really in the mood to party.

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Last weekend we had some gorgeous weather - it got up to about 70 degrees and the girls had a great time being outside. Abby was playing with some sunscreen and Emily decided that she wanted. The pictures show the events that unfolded:

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Abby won!

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Wait, no, Emily won!

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Not much has changed in the past few weeks. We've pretty much been sick this whole time. The stomach bug turned to a nasty cold that has been lingering for weeks. We're finally just about over it and getting back to normal now. The girls are still able to walk all over the place but for the most part they choose to crawl, although they seem to have had a bit of a breakthrough today and have really improved their technique. They have been walking around most of the afternoon.

The girls enjoy throwing bread on the deck for the birds and watching them eat it.

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They like to climb over the end table and hide in the corner.

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This usually ends in tears though.

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Abby stays very busy. She turns her cart upside down and works on it like a mechanic.

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Emily LOVES hair. She is constantly touching it and likes when we style it, especially when we give her a Mohawk.

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She shows her hair if you ask her:

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When the girls were very little we started taking their picture on one of their blankets to show how much they had grown. We haven't done it in a long time. Here's a picture we finally took today. They are a bit more mobile now, so it's tough to get them to sit still.

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Here's the first picture we took - the girls were about 3.5 weeks old with their friend Lydia Krans in the middle.

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Byron and Abby playing with the girls' toy phone.

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Abby likes to show off when she wears sunglasses.

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Neither of them will sit still long enough for me to get a clear shot of their flower sunglasses.

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Emily on the phone:

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We already have a texter. I think we're in for some big cell phone bills someday

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Abby Used the Potty!

Tonight Abby went flying across the house screaming and busted into the bathroom still screaming at the top of her lungs. I didn't know what was wrong, but I thought she might want to go to the bathroom, so I pulled off her pants and diaper, sat her on the potty and she peed right away!

About a month ago she started bringing diapers to us and when we'd start to change her she'd pee...so we figured she was aware that when she needed to pee she should get the changing process started ASAP. So, I got her a potty chair so she could get used to having it around. The girls played with it for a few weeks and last week we moved it into the bathroom. I started telling the girls that they could play with it again when they were ready to pee on the potty like big girls. Since then they've pretty much ignored it until tonight. Abby was pretty proud when it happened but Emily was acting VERY jealous. I celebrated with Abby while trying to not hurt Emily's feelings. Could it be that the end of diapers is in sight? We're not going to push it, but we're certainly not going to discourage them either. We'll play it by ear at this point and see where they take it as they are still very young (15 months).

In the month since I last posted we've been very busy with the girls. They are always on the go now, and are very funny to be around. Some of their new favorite activities include:
- reading
- building towers with blocks (Abby enjoys building, Emily enjoys destroying)
- singing and dancing
- pushing furniture around the house and rearranging the dining room
- playing hide and seek around corners
- climbing
- unloading and reloading things (baskets of laundry, toys, blocks, etc.)
- doing handstands and other gymnastics
- identifying body parts (they currently know head, hands, feet, legs, belly, eyes, ears, mouth, nose)
- making animal noises (they know cow = moo, dog = woof, lion = roar).

After Christmas the girls made a fort in the corner with a box. They enjoyed their hideout for days:

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The girls loved their first time playing in the snow:

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A new development in our house is that the girls do not like to know that I (Taryn) am home and not have me in sight. This is especially true for Emily. If I go upstairs and she doesn't, she camps at the gate, usually crying. It has gotten better over the past few days, but for a couple weeks it was nearly unbearable.

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The girls got a toy horse for Christmas that they love jumping on. When they are a little older we can connect it to the TV so they can play interactive games with it.

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Emily LOVES shoes, especially her snow boots.

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They also love to play in things. They have a large tupperware container that they love to sit in and drive around in. They think it's really fun to push each other around the house in it and make car noises.

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Wearing buckets and banging on each others' heads is another favorite activity

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That usually gets a little too violent after a few minutes, though:

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We recently went to Chuck E Cheese for dinner. The girls LOVED watching the show and going on the rides.

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But then Abby decided this ride was scary and she wanted to leave.

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A couple weeks ago the girls got a stomach virus that they shared with us. One morning Byron and I were too sick to prepare a real breakfast and we wanted to minimize the spreading of germs so we got Dunkin Donuts for the girls' breakfast. They had a muffin left over that I put in a bag on the table. We later fell asleep on the couches while the girls played. They discovered the bag on the table. They've realized that they can run chairs into the table from across the room to knock things down that they want. I woke up and thought it was too quiet in the house and found that they got the bag down they emptied it out and played with the muffin all over the floor.

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Though they get into lots of trouble, they are also very sweet. They love giving kisses and hugs. They are big snugglers and are happy to just sit in our laps and be with us. Even though I dislike cleaning their messes, I do have to admit that I enjoy taking pictures of all the things they get into. I will also enjoy sharing the pictures with their children someday and giving them ideas of how to torture Abby and Emily.