19 months

Today is the girls' 19 month birthday.  We celebrated by giving them dinner and a bath.  In other words, we kept it pretty low key.  By the end of the day we are all ready to fall over, especially Stacey since she is on the job with them all day.

the girls at their 19 month birthday party - brushing their teeth.

They are doing really well and although they can drive us crazy at times, they are also incredible sources of amusement and affection.

One of the best things to see is that they are increasingly interacting as they play.  I think I mentioned before that they can make each other laugh really hard.  One example, that makes me cringe, is when we are changing Lucy's diaper, for example, Clara will come over and stick her finger in Lucy's eye.  They both think that is hilarious.  Another game, which is easier to watch, is them chasing each other.  It is so funny since there are times when the chaser loses track and the chasee continues to run and seek protection from nothing at all.

They are saying just a handful of words, but they obviously know what we are talking about or asking them a lot of the time.  I can be in one room of our apartment and send either of the girls to give something to Stacey.  They love to unload and load things.  A bedtime ritual for them is to dump a canister of Q-tips on the floor and then pick them all up and put them back in.  The love it.

In the apartment complex here in Fort Bonifacio, the staff is incredibly polite to all of the residents.  And there are a lot of staff members around all the time.  There are uniformed guards, doormen stationed at each entrance, a very large cleaning staff who are always mopping the hallways (which are open-air), a gardening crew that comes every morning to pick up any blossoms that have fallen on the walkway over night and to clip the greenery, a medical staff, and on...  There is a very clear hierarchy of employees, so the doormen and guards always say hello and always call us by name (I think they also keep a log of when we come and go).  Anyway, all of this to say that many of the staff know Clara and Lucy and will call them by name as well.  I suspect that we are also pretty known to the people who work in the restaurants and stores nearby - we are fairly conspicuous as we walk around.

The last thing I'll mention in this post is that they are both starting to move pretty quickly now on their feet.  They are not quite running, but walking nearly as fast.  We have been walking much longer distances with them and they seem to really enjoy it.  Stacey was pointing out to me the other day that a challenge for them now is holding up their arms to hold our hands as we walk together.  She noticed that they were switching hands frequently with us.

That's all from Manila tonight.