Babble

The babies are really starting to babble more.  Orli points at everything and seems to say a sound that starts with the letter of the object.  "la la la" for light.  She's recently taken notice of a white orchid plant that is blooming in our dining room.  She gets really excited when you show it to her.  She says "bha bha" and points to it.  

Zev has learned in the last week that he can manipulate the sounds from his mouth by placing his hand over his mouth and releasing it.  He'll sit there and slap his hand over his mouth as he goes "aaaaaaaaa".  Orli tried this but instead she kept hitting the side of her head and laughing.  Zev was making spit bubbles by saying "mah mah mah" with a pool of drool on his chest as these bubbles formed between his lips.  It must have felt interesting to him because he would go into a trance.  

The babies will make raspberry sounds back and forth to one another, then when they get tired of that they click their tongues.  We try inserting "ma ma ma" and "da da" in there, Orli will copy pretty well, Zev mostly says "da da", he will say it loud, but when Aunt Louise was on the phone the other night he would only whisper it softly "dah".

Both of them like to move to music, Orli tilts her little head back and forth when you or the music table sings "A-B-C" she manages to sway her little shoulders too.  Sometimes Zev joins in with his way of hopping to the beat.

Both of them are crawling and most of the time in two different directions, we are usually stomping after one baby or another.  They like to pause, look back at you and laugh really hard and squeal as they turn forward and launch into a scurried crawl as they try to get away from you.  They seem to be inviting the chase, even when you casually approach.

We think Orli will be walking very soon, she managed to take one very wobbly drunken step toward mommy the other day.  We updated the holding both challenge.

The twins are 10 months old today

Ten months, and they are both crawling.

Orli has been crawling since late December, just over two months now. Zev started crawling last week, he just figured it out one day. Zev can point now as well and yesterday we think we saw him using the sign for "potty". Orli stands on her own often while she's holding a toy with both her hands. She likes to get up on one knee and clap her hands while she's crawling around her toys.
Both are very good at looking back at you and then abruptly facing forward and then they try to crawl as fast as they can away. Laughing the whole time.
The twins are starting to communicate to one another, they do this primarily through raspberries, Zev will start it off and Orli will respond, this goes back and forth for a little while.
They laugh hysterically at each other when they play together in the pack-n-play or crib. All Orli has to do is shake the toys hanging from the mobile and Zev has a fit of laughter. Then to get her to laugh, Zev will crawl over and rub top of his head on Orli's back or side and she'll laugh and laugh and even try to get away, only to pause so he catches up.
One thing that is funny is that Zev takes little tantrums, when you pick him up when he's involved in something he kicks his little feet in the air and cries. He screams really loud to get your attention, it is an ear piercing scream. Orli, when you pick her up and put her in the pack-n-play so you can go fetch something, she makes a really sad face, stops breathing and a few seconds go past, she takes her breath and belts out the most sad pitiful cry.