Archive for the ‘Posted by Bekki’ Category
The Rest of the Story
So we’ve had video coverage and some action shots of this whole 9 month old business…but where’s the facts? The stats? What’s the rest of the story?
I’ll break it down in three categories:
Things The Boys Do That Are Awesome
- Crawl, climb, stand, roll…all means of locomotion and it is SO fun to see. Especially when one of them makes a beeline for the tallest thing in the room in order to climb on top and then fall off, laughing the whole time. Or even better, when they climb up on you!
- (And I hesitate to put this in writing, because that means it will stop happening, it’s just karma) Sleep. They are sleeping almost 12 hours at night, and it is just grand. Sure, I’d like them to not wake up before 6 am, but really what more can I ask of them? Napping is a somewhat different story, but it’s not bad…just not ideal.
- Play alone, or sort of together. I love the fact that they’re totally cool with hanging out in the playroom, going from toy to toy (to safety hazard!). sometimes they’ll wander in my direction and we play peek-a-boo or sing some silly song, but then they’ll move along to amuse themselves. It is pretty cute when they start chasing the same ball, even if I know it’ll end up with one of them sitting on the other.
Things They Are Really Good At, But I’d Like Them To Stop, Now!
- They have developed a talent for making me want to run screaming from the room. It happens almost exclusively while they are eating, which makes it 10x worse. Ugh, even typing it out gives me the heebee-jeebees. They….rub their teeth together. And it is quite honestly the worst sound in the world. I have to grin and bear it, because if I make a big ruckus, they’ll just do it more, but really, on the inside, I want to hurl.
- Drool. I asked the doctor about it today, because pretty much any picture we have of them has sheets of drool coming out. They drool more than any baby we know. But not to worry, the doctor said it usually starts to taper off. When they’re TWO OR THREE! Not cool, babies, not cool.
- Bonking their heads on the ground or other hard surfaces. See also, scratching themselves. Sometimes these kids look like they’re extras in Fight Club, which gets me all sorts of approving glances out in public (or not).
Things They’re Learning And Slowly Getting Better At
- Feeding themselves. So far they can get some food (as long as it’s not too slimy) to their mouths, but it’s sort of hit or miss if it actually gets in there. Cheerios are more reliable, but most of it ends up in their laps or on the floor. It’s times like this when I wish the dog wasn’t quite so neurotic so HE could clean up the pile of shredded cheese and bits of toast. Oh well.
- Drinking from a sippy cup. As long as they’re laying down, all works well. Sitting up (in a high chair or whatever) turns sippy cups into a toy that drips water everywhere.
(I’m sure there’s like 500 things I could put on the list, but these are the only two coming to mind right now.)
And the hard and fast numbers:
Andy: 20lbs 15oz (50-75%), 29 inches (75-90%)
Will: 22lbs 8oz (75%), 30.5 inches (97%)
Live Video Coverage — 9 Months!
A couple quick videos made in the past few days. It’s hard to believe the boys are 9 months old already.
First, twins provide all sorts of entertainment. From the early forms of wrestling to the double attack, it’s always fun!
Next, Andrew makes his way around the playroom.
Hazard Pay
The babies are mobile and dangerous. Not only are they a danger to themselves, what with the falling over and constantly banging their heads on any number of hard surfaces, I am COVERED in bruises. Apparently I am seen as an excellent indoor climbing structure. They spend a fair amount of time nowadays perched on their knees and clinging to something to keep them upright. My forearm is a favorite, though there are lots of things that work in the playroom.
Crawling is no longer a fun new activity. No, these boys, and Will in particular, are daredevils. Every playtime becomes an excercise in finding something to climb on top of, and more often than not, fall off of. Will demonstrates this fascinating aspect of baby psychology below.
Also, tooth count, Andy has 4.5 (the 1/2 is an upper that’s taking a bit to come all the way through), Will is at 4. They are still drooling so much, I’m surprised we don’t have dehydration issues. Seriously, 24+ bibs, and we go through them in about 4 days. Do ShamWows come in bib form?
247 Days Since a Lazy Weekend
A couple of status report updates:
- Yes, 247 days old. Crazy.
- Still no actual crawling. Will does this funny frog hop that I can’t catch on video, but trust me, it’s hilarious. They are, however, developing calluses on their elbows from army crawling.
- A few new foods that are going over well: toast, shredded cheese and this weird frozen baby food mix of banana, black beans and quinoa that they LOVE. Same company makes a “baby dahl” with lentils and spices that was not as big of a hit the first time, but we’ll try it again.
- We hit the zoo this weekend with Simone and Anna and it was FUN times. Andy was just about ecstatic in the bird room (the kid loves to look up), and I almost died when a bird buzzed my head. Ugh, birds. AND we even went out to eat afterwards, and the kids did pretty darn good, even though there was a serious lack of napping going on. Makes me relax a little on the whole “outing during nap time” thing. Which is a good thing because I have a feeling there won’t be a whole lot of napping in CA when we fly down.
- One of Andy’s upper front teeth broke the surface about 2 days ago, Will doesn’t have any in sight.
- The playroom is coming together, hopefully we’ll get pictures up soon. All I can say is that I’m SO glad we went with robots/space vs. safari. Much cooler.
What Happens When You’re Locked in the Same Room…All Day
Gratuitous video, in case you wondered what playtime looks like. It also shows you the poofy hair stage. Both of them had this totally poofy spot on the top of their heads for about 3 days. I found the shot of Andy at the end particularly endearing. Melts your heart.
As an aside, we actually escaped from the playroom yesterday and made it out to open gym at Gymboree with a number of other twins and their moms. It was quite a rockin’ good time. Will nearly got stuck in a bucket. The boys were AMAZED by the bubbles and the multidues of 2 year olds that could actually walk…and climb….and not drool gallons upon themselves.
Also, I feel like crawling could be just around the corner. Of course, neither child has any desire to sit up for any length of time, and instead chooses to fling themsleves upon the floor in order to beat their brother to the nearest toy. Because why would they choose to do something useful (like sitting calmly and peacefully for long periods of time) when they have the option to carouse around the playroom. Not these two.
Scrapbooking Is Really Not My Thing
I have never been a particularly crafty person. Adam recounts with great glee about my foray with knitting. All I can say is that the kit was $13 and it came with a DVD. How hard could it be? Not one stitch. I watched that stupid DVD 15 times, and I couldn’t even manage the first stitch. And I have a very bad habit of starting things and not finishing them. My one attempt at a scrapbook made it all of 2 pages in before I lost interest. Right now, as we speak, I have all of the parts for a glorious box frame celebrating my 1/2 marathon completion. Well, it’s glorious in my head, as I haven’t quite gotten around to actually assembling the thing just yet.
This long intro is simply to justify using this blog thing as a baby book, because Lord knows, I probably would have made it about 1 page in (DOB, weights etc) before giving up. So here I get to commemorate at lease some of the baby book worthy notes without a giant scrapbook staring me down.
What does a day in the life of 8 month old twins look like, you might wonder. And if you don’t wonder, I’m not sure you’re in the right place. oBviously, this would be a good day. A day where kids sleep as long as they should. A day where there isn’t teething or itching or general fussiness. In other words, an imaginary day.*
6:15am Wake up, usually in a good mood. Grab feet, scootch around, chew on blankets
6:30am Breakfast bottle. Goes a bit slower now that we can hold our own bottles.
6:45am Play time!! Usually start in one of the containment vessels (Exersaucer or Jumparoo) to try and prevent any post-bottle eruptions. Then we move to the floor to get our groove on with in the toy explosion called our play room.
7:30am Finally, a proper breakfast. For now it’s a choice between squash and sweet potatoes, along with some sort of fruity oatmeal. Banana is a favorite, but also pear, peach, apple, mango, blueberry or apricot are options (or some mix). We also just started yogurt, and that’s going well too.
7:50am Relax with a nice cup of water while we read a story. Dr. Seuss is on current rotation.
8:15am Down for nappies
—–mom crosses fingers that they stay asleep past the 45 minute mark, because if they do, they sleep for an hour 45 or 2 hours—-
10:15am Up again to repeat the morning
10:30am Bottles again
10:45am Play time part 2
11:45am Lunch is some sort of veggie, plus fruity oatmeal again. Maybe a hard-boiled egg yolk too.
12:30pm Naptime again
—–mom does the tribal chants to ensure they make it past 45 minutes again—–
2:15pm A little play time in the cribs
2:30pm What, another bottle!?!? This is our third one already!
2:45pm Short play time or maybe a story
3:00pm We get the heck out of Dodge and run errands or go for a walk.
5:00pm Dinner time. A little pureed (*barf*) chicken, some Baby MumMums, a few pieces of mango and we’re good to go
5:45pm A visit to the spa, complete with a facial, lotion massage and new PJs.
6:05pm Last bottle of the day
6:20pm In cribs, on our way to dream land
—-mom and dad pray to avoid the dreaded 2:00-3:30 am wake up call. It’s not every night, but it’s a real bummer when it shows up—-
Pretty repetitive and boring. But I suppose that 8 month olds aren’t super picky. When scrunching the empty baby wipe container is the highlight of your day, I don’t think they could handle too much more stimulation!
*To be fair, they are actually pretty good about staying on schedule, and being happy lovable kids.
Ha Ha, More Videos
See I promised. All video, all the time. We have two for your viewing pleasure.
1) Andy yells. He yells a lot. This is a minute and a half of yelling. Now multiply that by about 400 to estimate about how much yelling I’m blessed to hear in a day.
2) We have cleaned out the new playroom (aka the downstaris living room) and let the boys loose. The music covers up my incessant ramblings of “Oh, do you want the ball? Look at you go! You are such cute babies!” and an incredibly loud crinkly sound from the empty baby wipe package (their most favorite toy). (It’s the Snoopy version of the song, in case you were wondering. I know, travesty.) (Can I use any more parentheses?) (Maybe)
Rock Band Star Already?
Ah, self-indulgent video of my children. That’s what this blog will soon become.
Presenting Will demonstrating his AWESOME drum and singing skills. All while covered in crackers. That takes talent.
In food related news, recent favorites include zucchini, mango, blueberries and Baby Mum Mums (rice crackers that star in the above video). In semi-food related news, the boys are now able to sit in the grocery cart sans infant car seats. Which is a great thing considering we had to retire the infant car seats, due to the aforementioned food consumption. The babies are approaching giant status.
I Think This May Not Be A Good Thing
Mobile boys. I think that’s all I have to say to elicit fear in most parent’s minds. I offer video proof of their impending world domination:
Terrifying.
And no, I have no idea what prompted Andy to mimic a cow chewing cud. But it’s pretty funny.
I forsee much video in the near future, as my super spiffy Flip video camera came today, and it’s great fun. The video editing software it comes with is so unbelievably easy to use. Lots and lots of video montages await.
Luckily They Have A Short Attention Span
So, our big cross-country journey sans small boys went off without a hitch. The boys stayed perfectly on schedule and were spoiled with attention from grandma and great-grandparents. This morning, I left them playing on the floor while I made their breakfast and I got a look like “Where do you think you’re going missy?” Sorry buds, you’re on your own now.
The thing I was most worried about was either them totally being confused why we were suddenly not there anymore or completly forgetting who we were. I know, how can I be worred about both things happening–they’re total opposites, but that’s how I roll. Worrywart central. However, a good friend said “They won’t know how much they missed you until you get back,” and I think those were wise and true words.
A few newsworthy developments:
1) The lower right incisor is both visible and very sharp in both boys.
2) We set a new record in bib usage yesterday–12. That’s pretty darn impressive when their mouths are oh so small.
3) We actually made it into the zoo, instead of just the parking lot. The boys couldn’t give a fig about the animals (although that may have had more to do with the fact they couldn’t see many of them), but we stayed about 2.5 hours with no major meltdowns. Andy demanded a ride in the Ergo carrier, and both fell asleep as we walked out. I bought us a membership, so I guess we’re going back.
4) Adam and I indulged our inner Gil Grissom (from CSI) and did a DNA test on the boys. The number one question that I get is if they’re identical, and it was always weird to say “Well, we don’t know,” which then turns into a long conversation about how twins appear. Well, now I can just say identical and be done with it. Hooray. And this again proves I am consistently a winner in the medical lottery. Nothing is never “normal” for me!