The best part of New Year's eve is the helium balloons. 

Becky noticed, when she was here, that the boys were duplicating the rhythm of words perfectly, down to the accent of certain syllables, even if they didn't say the word perfectly.  That was only a week ago.  I observed that now they break the words down into syllables that they annunciate perfectly down to syllabic emphasis.  Ba-na-na, piz-za and wa-ter (he emphasizes the T) now have every consonant in place.  Ma-ma and Da-da are being replaced by Mom-mee and Dad-dee.  They sound like someone learning a foreign language.  If you ask a dumb question, they now answer like they think it's a dumb question.  When you ask, "are you finished washing your hands?" Nathan will respond, "no."  And to "Do you want to dry your hands?" the response is "no."  You're left feeling slow and out-smarted.  What's even more interesting (to a grandmother) is that they're deliberately making the change.  I've seen how intently they watch us as they emphasize each sound and gain more control over their environment.  On/off and up/down are repeated over and over, while they hone their verbal skills.  Either that or they're testing Gramma to see how often she will actually repeat the same activity before she wears out.