Monkey and The Chunk

Wow, it’s been a while! I was looking at my draft from over a month ago (ahem…never quite got around to posting it) and I was talking about them starting to crawl and pull up…and now they’ve long mastered that and I think are getting ready to take a few steps. Crazy how time flies.

Violet is our little Monkey, she’s absolutely fearless and likes to jump and crawl over everything and everyone (you’ll be crawled over if you’re in between her and something she wants). I predict that she’ll be the first to break a bone by jumping out of a tree, or off another tall object. She seems to be first with the physical milestones (turning over, crawling, pulling up), he’s been first with the vocal milestones (first one to say mamma and dada).

Samuel is The Chunk, but really only compared to Violet. At their 9 month appointment, he weighed in at 17lb 4oz (4^th percentile) and she weighed 15lb 14oz (4^th percentile). He continues to be the cuddlier one, he’ll frequently crawl up to me when I’m sitting on the floor and put his thumb in his mouth and lay his head down on my leg.

Both of them are pulling themselves up to standing and “cruising” (walking along the couch or other objects) and occasionally standing up by themselves until they realize it…then they promptly sit down.

A few “fights” have broken out between them – I try really hard not to laugh. It’s typically because one of them has found something that they shouldn’t have and the other wants to play with it too (remote control, mom’s phone, mom’s brush, mom’s laptop cord – anything that belongs to mom).

Both are really good at trying new foods and are having fun trying to feed themselves. I say “trying” because a lot of it ends up being a meal for the dogs. They like turkey loaf, tofu, plums, bananas, shredded pork and scrambled egg yolks (just to name a few).  

We’re fast approaching their 1 year mark, we can’t wait to celebrate it!

A Dose of Humility

I’m not really good at asking for help or admitting that I can’t do it all – silly, right? As I feverishly try to wrap my arms around more and more things (making my own baby food, making everything from scratch, activities for the twins, etc), I realize that I’ve made myself too busy to enjoy the things in my life. So, in an effort to be more forgiving to myself, here’s what I’ll try to remember:

• It’s ok to let someone else open the door for mewhen I’m carrying two carseats
• It’s ok to spend a weekend doing nothing butplaying with the twins (I’ll do chores next weekend)
• It’s ok to occasionally have a dinner come from a box or through a car window
• It’s ok to ask for help!

And since my little brother just got his driver’s license, it’s ok to send him grocery shopping (and the occasional ice cream trip).

We found out at the twins’ 2 month appointment that Samuel has torticollis (tightening of the neck muscle) which resulted in him getting a flat spot on the back of his noggin. He’s been going to regular PT appointments and we went earlier this month to get him fitted for his DOC band in order to correct his head shape (can cause a lot of damage if left untreated – vision, dental, etc). Here he is with his new gear; we think treatment will take about 9 weeks or so.

They are definitely starting to interact more with each other. We can have them entertain each other by laying them on the floor side-by-side. It’s probably just coincidental, but they usually end of holding hands at some point. As long as no one starts throwing elbows then all is good.

We’ve started them on solids, so far they like everything that we’ve put in front of them (just like their mom). Carrots are definitely their favorite so far, with green beans coming in at a close second.

We’re really looking forward to the 6 month appointment in a few weeks, I think Samuel will tip the scale at 15.5 pounds and Violet will probably be close behind at 14 pounds.

Click!

Have you seen the movie Click with Adam Sandler? It’s about a guy who ends up fast-forwarding through life with a magic remote control, one day his kids are pre-teens and the next day they’re grown adults. I don’t have one of those remote controls – but life is definitely moving fast!

The twins are already 4 and half months old and I have already (on multiple occasions) caught myself saying things like “they’re growing up too fast” and “they’re getting so big”. They no longer fit in the same pack-n-play together and it’s much harder trying to carry both car seats at once – they’re gonna give me some seriously buff arms.

They both love it when I sing to them. No really, they do! Although, now that I think about it, it makes Samuel smile really big and Violet will laugh…so maybe they just think I’m funny, that’s much more likely.

We can already see glimpses of their personalities. Samuel is pretty laid back and goofy, Violet is our serious (translation=dramatic) one, but she lights up a room when she flashes that smile.

Every morning when I get up to feed them, I inevitably just stand by their cribs and just watch them sleep for a few moments. It’s still hard to believe that we were so lucky. Corny, right? I’m sure every parent feels this way, and boy, what a good feeling. Make sure to ask me how lucky I feel once they’re teenagers.