Updates on Zane:* He is now 36 in. tall and weighs about 26 1/2 lbs, which puts him in the 90%tile for height and 30th %tile for weight. His head size is only in the 23rd %tile.
* His vocabulary is completely out of control and he's basically talking in normal sentences all the time now. We have real conversations all day. He is getting pronouns, verb tenses, and the structure of sentences right...it's crazy! For example, if he wants to take a shower, he used to say, "shower?" Now he says, "I am taking a shower with Mommy. It's warm. I'm getting all wet."
Here are some recent funny and amazing things that he says:
* When something sad happens, he says, "Too bad, so sad."
* He says, "Mommy, I need my ___." when he wants something.
* He says, "That makes Mommy sad or that makes Mommy happy or Mommy's silly or funny, depending on what he does or what I do.
* He tells Emerson what he has or what he's doing, like he'll say, "Look, Emerson, I have a sheep. Or "I'm eating lunch, Emerson."
* He tells me about all his "owies," where they are and how and where he got them. "I got an owie on my knee. I feel down at the park." It hurt."
* He says, "What's up, Mommy?"
* I think he has dreams now, and tells me about them. One morning when I went in to get him, he started telling me that the dinosaurs came upstairs and went in his room and that they scared him. He wouldn't stop talking about it all morning. Another time, he told me about all the animals that had been in his room the night before.
* He know the names of books and movies and can go find them out of a huge pile when we ask for one. He also knows a lot of books by heart and can say the words on the pages without help.
* When he's saying a word that we don't know, he repeats it a few times and says no to our guess, but then to help us out he gives us clues and gives us the context of the word by explaining it. For example, he was telling me about his bandaids and I could not understand the word, so then he started telling me "doctor, shot, I cried," etc. until I guessed it.
* His favorite toys right now are his sand box and anything with water, dinosaurs, cars, trains, and anything to do with sports.
Updates on Emerson:* She is now 23 in. tall and weighs 12 lbs 13 oz., which puts her in the 90th %tile for height and also 90th %tile for weight. Her head size is in the 78th %tile.
* Size 1 diapers are almost too small already and she's wearing 3-6 month clothes pretty comfortably.
* She giggles now a little bit by gasping in while she's smiling. She smiles a ton now, which we are loving!
* She is STILL waking up about 2 times per night to eat. I guess when you are in the 90%tile for weight, you need to eat day and night to keep up! The good thing is that we have started putting her in her bed awake after her last feeding of the night, and she falls asleep on her own. Then she goes right back to sleep after eating during the night.
* She is doing much better at being on her own for small amounts of time, instead of needing to be held constantly, even though she still prefers it.
* She likes being able to sit up and look around instead of laying down and is holding her head up much better.
* She likes baths now and doesn't cry through them anymore. We're making progress.
She was so worn out from the bath, that she needed a nap!
We found another park with fountains, which are Zane's favorite. When he unexpectedly gets wet or the water changes, he does a high pitched squeal of happiness. He sort of laughs and screams at the same time. We went to a different park the other day too, and he had the absolute best time.
In this picture, Janelle and I are laughing at Zane and I'm imitating his hands shaking when he gets happy.
Recently, we have added some new friends to our playgroup. The other day, there were 3 toddlers and 5 babies, ages 1 week to 2 1/2 months. There are more babies soon to come too. Here is Emerson with her friend Addie. 
Emerson is at the top right, the chubbiest and oldest of all the babies.
It was tricky having the babies laying on the ground with 2 year olds playing nearby...we almost had a few injuries. :)
