What we're up to these days...

I feel like the girls have been doing so many cute things and I want to write about them before I forget it all!! I'll start with Stella and how she is all the sudden giving real kisses with a little smacking noise and all! It just melts my heart! She has always been the more affectionate one and she has been giving kisses for while but she would just lean real close and put her lips on you. Now it's a full out lean in and smack on the lips! Tonight she even pretended to "tuck" in her baby and gave her kisses too. I know it's just part of her growing up but the fact that she is really getting interested in baby dolls is so sweet too. They put a baby doll in their old entertainer today and they were spinning her around and turning music on for her.
They both have been really interested in this little block set that we have where you have to fit them in the correct slots. All the sudden they love it and they will sit still for several minutes (which is RARE) and put all the blocks in. They are starting to get really good at it too. Sloane can almost always get the star in on her own!
I love that our sweet daughters are also starting to say more words. They try to copy so many more things and I am starting to understand more and more. I have been worried a little because I have known other kids this age that talked more but I asked their pediatrician at the last visit and she said that they are normal. She said they should know 5-8 words and signing is good too. When I started thinking about it I realized that they do know that many or maybe more.
They LOVE to play outside and have recently learned how to climb the ladder and go down the slide all by their selves. I stand close to make sure they are steady before sliding down but usually they don't need me at all. They still love airplanes and birds and spend most of their outdoor time looking up.
One thing that is good (and bad for me) is their climbing ability. They are climbing any and everything. We almost go nuts keeping them from climbing on the kitchen table and chairs. They are fast and can pull themselves up before you know it. I know it's just a phase but this is one of the hardest ones! As soon as I get one of them down the other is climbing up, then I get her down and the first one is back up again. And it goes on until I can find something really fun to distract them from it.
They are still great eaters and pretty much always have been. Every few days they will have a meal or two that they eat less but then by the third meal they are gobbling it all up again. I know I am lucky that they eat all the variety of foods that they do and I pray they keep up over the next couple years.
Its so funny when I think of how different everything was this time last year. I found a video on the camera of them in their bumbos and I had just fed them rice cereal and they were about 5 and a half months old. Stella is "cooing" at Sloane and they are trying to grab each other and it's just the sweetest thing. I teared up watching it because it feels like that "baby" stage went by SO fast. I mean I knew it would, but I think my girls grew up especially fast because they started walking so early (9 months). It's like all the sudden they were toddlers! I can only imagine the difference I will see next year. I need to video them soon so I can remember this fun and challenging stage too.
And my favorite S&S thing lately is them "loving" each other. One will get on top of the other and they will both start giggling and laughing. The they will start kissing each other on the head or belly like we do to them and make each other laugh even more. We love to watch them interact like this and pray they always love each other.
Oh, and they are obsessed with belly buttons! They will try to lift up our shirts and say "bu-bu-bu" for belly button. It's funny because they have no social boundaries so they are always trying to look at our belly buttons at the weirdest time or trying to check out their grandma's and other friends' belly buttons whenever they can. All we can do is apologize and hope they outgrow it soon. :)
We took them to a restaurant for the first time in a long time and they did surprisingly well. Here is a pic of them enjoying some chips and queso.
Have a great Thanksgiving everyone!