long overdue updates on the babies

I've been pretty slack about updates ont he babies, so here is where we are at, at 6 months old...

It is interesting to watch two babies develop side by side. That is really one of the coolest things about having twins. One is more advanced in some ways, the other more advanced in others. I don't know if this is a normal difference between boys and girls, but I suspect maybe it is.

Callie is more physically advanced. She is better at grabbing things and picking things up. Not only better at it, but definitely more interested in it. She will now sit in her high chair with a selection of toys in front of her, and choose which one she wants to grab. Of course it only holds her attention for mere moments, then she drops it and picks up the next one. She is very aware of us drinking from a glass or bottle, she wants to grab and have some. And actually she's not half bad at it. After dinner last night she sat in my lap and I let her hold my glass of water - she is very agressive about grabbing it and bringing it right to her mouth. And then promptly pouring water all over both of us as she tries to drink. Probably 10% in the mouth, 90% down her front and mine.

She also is much more interested in being upright - she wants to sit up and stand up. She will pull right up to a sitting or standing position with very little assistance. She is not quite yet able to sit on her own, but we think she is very close - she can stay upright for a long time if we just hold her legs. She has the strength, she just has not quite put all the pieces together. And she loves being in the exersaucer or the jumper - the moment we put her in the saucer, she knew exactly what to do. I'll post some pictures of that soon. As mentioned in a previous post, she just figured out how to roll from her back to her tummy. She has only done it a couple of times, but she tries a lot.

Her vocal repertoire hasn't changed much - lots of coo and goo and ka - but it all has to be said with a mouth full of drool, so it all sounds very gurgly. The funniest thing in Callie's little world is when we make her gurgling gooing sounds back to her - she thinks that is histerical.

They are both pretty good at taking the pacifier in and out of their mouths. Something we will have to wean off of soon. Although Callie mostly likes to play with and chew on hers, she only really sucks on it when going to sleep. Danny however will happily sit and suck away if you let him.

Daniel is more intellectual. He has a broader array of vocal sounds and talks a lot more often. He does what we call singing - a suprisingly sophisticated combination of ooh, ahh, aay, yaya - with a lot spitting mixed in, and what can best be described as making 'farting' noises with his mouth. And of course he still has his very high pitched squeal that he occasionally throws in for emphasis. And he sometimes makes these low pitched grunts or growls - what I call his boy sounds, they sound very masculine, like he's trying to make some big manly point about something. And of course much of this is done while holding on to his p.enis if his diaper is off. I think he is left handed. ;-) And his other hand is usually in his mouth.

He is always a couple weeks behind his sister in the physical front - he is just now figuring out what to do in the jumper, and he's not really all that interested in sitting up unassisted. He recently started to show some inerest in standing and straightening his legs - something his sister has been doing for a long time.

They both will bend up their legs and grab on to them. But neither of them has actually gotten hold of a foot and put it in their mouth yet. Callie thinks it's very funny if you do this for her however. And she appears very interested in looking at other's feet lately.

While Callie will rarely sit still without being entertained, Daniel will happily sit and watch what goes on around him. I wonder what he is thinking sometimes. His big eyes will just fixate on something and watch.

They are great sleepers at night. Bed time is usually around 8:30. We aim for 8:00, but rarely make it. And they usually sleep until between 6:00 - 7:00, sometimes later. It's usually 10 - 11 hours a night. It's great. They aren't as great at napping. Not terrible, it's just that at this age a lot of babies have more regular long naps, and ours still average less than an hour.

They are eating well too, most days. We are now doing two meals of solids a day. They get lunch around noon, and we all have dinner together around 7:00. We are trying to establish family dinner time right from the start. This means that Jim and I usually eat our dinner cold, as it sits while we feed the babies, but that's ok, we're having fun feeding them.

They get cereal, mixed with my milk. We started with rice cereal, but switched to oatmeal because that was making Danny constipated. And then some fruit - always prunes, plus sometimes pears. They've had bananas a few times too, although we don't do that much because it makes them constipated. And just this week we have started eating applesauce. They have had avocado a lot too - that was actually the first thing we tried after cereal. We have also just started some veggies in the past couple weeks. So far they have had peas, green beans, carrots, sweet potatoes, and last night we tried butternut squash for the first time. I am making most of the baby food, specifically all the veggies, maybe I'll tell you more about that later.

Danny is a better eater than Callie. He will eat everything we present to him. He will finish a whole bowl of cereal (5 or 6 tablespoons), plus a few teaspoons of prunes and/or pears, and a few teaspoons of veggies, and last night he had several spoonfulls of applesauce too. Callie eats ok, but she's not as enthusiastic about it as her brother. And her appetite changes from one day to the next - one day she eats it all up, the next day she won't touch a bit. It's hard to predict.

I have tried giving them a piece of apple to suck/chew on a few times. Callie really likes that. She likes to hold things and put them in her mouth, so this suits her just fine. Danny isn't quite as interested in holding things, so the apple didn't keep his attention for very long.

We're having more and more fun every day. They are getting more interactive and fun all the time.