Language Skills

The twins had a fairly large vocabulary by their first birthday. It pleased me to no end that one of their first words was "thank you". I delighted in the cleverness of my twins for being able to communicate at such a young age. They weren't particularly good at walking (they didn't walk until they were 19 months!), but I overlooked their lack of motor skills because I deemed them to be so clever. Sarah doesn't talk. She can say "Mama!". She uses this word to give a "heads up" to the closest adult that she would like something. She can also say "no" and "oui" (she goes to a French daycare). Her "monkey skills", as Sean calls them, are outstanding. She is an expert climber and jumper. Nothing can stop my baby!

I admit that I am concerned. For the past couple of days, I have tried to recall what I did differently with the twins. I'm coming up empty. I know that one time Katie spilt some juice. I said "Crap, crap, crap!" as I reached for a paper towel. The juice made it's way to the edge of the table. More rapid fire "craps" came out of my mouth. Then the babies began playing in the mess. Again, "craps" were my preferred method of dealing with the problem. In the 90 seconds that it took me to clean up the mess, about 180 "craps" were emitted. Mum said to me "Are you trying to teach them to say crap?!". Umm....no. But the word I wanted to say was far more inappropriate.

The twins never did say "crap". However, one time when Bethie dropped a glass candle holder, she did say "Shit-shoot!". Oops! That was probably my fault. Thankfully, their father wasn't around to hear that and she never said it again.

Yesterday, Bethie was in a foul mood. She was screaming and crying and running all over the backyard. Sarah, in an attempt to comfort Bethie, found Bethie's bears and took them over to her. Katie followed closely behind with a flower she picked to cheer Bethie up. Bethie, despite wanting her bears desperately, refused to take them. Sarah became upset and offended. I was fed up! She had been behaving badly for about 30 minutes. She wouldn't let me comfort her, and she wouldn't stop screaming. By refusing her own bears, she made Sarah scream and yell. I was at the end of my tether. I said "Bethie! Take the damn bears!". Katie said "And the damn flower!". Oops. I did it again!