a few new things

A few new things:

 

-          Callie is making mmm sounds.  Ma.  Mamamama.  Not like she’s saying mama, but just making the sound.

-          Daniel’s current favorite sound is na.  nnnna.

-          Callie definitely knows her name – if you say her name she turns her head and smiles at you.

-          And I think Daniel might think his name is Callie too.  He doesn’t really reply to Daniel, but he does sometimes turn his head and smiles when you say Callie.

-          I think Daniel might be giving me kisses.  When I hold him close to my face, he turns his head and puts his mouth on my cheek.  It’s very wet.  Maybe it’s not kisses exactly, maybe he’s just tasting me.  Although I did just read in one of my baby newsletters that some babies start giving kisses around this age. 

-          Callie is passing an item from one hand to the other.

-          Callie is rolling both directions pretty well.  She’s very interested in reaching for a toy, and will roll to try and get it, but she hasn’t figured out any other kind of scooting yet. 

-          Daniel seems pretty content on his back or tummy these days.  He’s getting pretty good at holding and chewing on a toy while on his tummy, so I guess he doesn’t see much need to roll over.  He does these amazing leg lifts – laying on his back, he will hold both legs straight out and lift them up over and over again – I can’t imagine the ab muscles that takes. Babies are amazing.

 

Remember I said I wasn’t making my own prunes or applesauce – that I thought it easier to just buy that stuff?  Well – I made them.  All this talk of the plastics has gotten me just a little nervous.  I replaced all of our baby bottles already. I know they are saying that the plastic that the baby food comes in is safe, but still it makes me wonder.  So I am figuring that if I can do it another way without a whole lot of hassle, then I will try. Better safe than sorry.  My babies are worth a bit of hassle.  And really it was easy.  The prunes I just soaked in some hot water and then tossed in the food processer and blended up.  The apples I put in a pot on the stove with some water, cooked until really soft, and then pureed with the hand blender.  Easy.  And quite tasty.

 

We also have now tried Mango – cooked and pureed as well.  That’s really yummy.  Blend with some ice and rum and we might really have something!

 

And we’ve started to test out a few more ‘solid’ solids.  These babies still prefer the pureed, and we’ll stick with that as our main foods for a while.   But we will try a few more firm things as well.  Currently they seem to like the feel of it in their mouths, they ‘chew’ and suck, but then start to gag when it comes to swallowing or moving it more toward the back of their mouths.  I’ve given bites of soft avocado to Daniel, he did ok with that.  And Callie has had banana and watermelon.  She liked both for a while, but then spit out and/or gagged.  And the last couple days we put a few cheerios on their tray.  This mostly did not make it in the mouth, it’s just something to mess with on the tray, and practice picking up.

 

 

whoa, 7 months old!

Well once again another month has breezed by.  My sweet babies are 7 months old today.  And what fun they are.

 

They are continuing to be good eaters, we haven’t added any new foods lately, I need to figure out what our next move is there.  I think Callie might be ready for some finger foods soon.  She is very grabby.  She likes to grab at everything and put it in her mouth, so it probably makes sense to give her some food items to try that with, rather than her current choices of phone, tv remote, glasses, and other non baby items.

 

Callie has some new sounds – mmm, ma, ba are among her new favorites.  And her growling continues, along with something sounds like she’s talking like a pirate.  It’s cute, in a sort of scary way.  She’ll roll both directions, and she can rotate herself around on the floor pretty good – I will find her pointing the opposite direction of where I left her.  She plays by herself very well too – as long as she doesn’t see us, she will entertain herself well with toys.  But once she sees us, then of course she wants to be picked up.

 

Danny continues to be a few weeks behind his sister on the physical front.  Not as interested in grabbing yet, although showing progress with his hands these last few days especially.  And not quite rolling yet.  He’s generally too busy talking.  All talk, no action.

 

I think Danny has a sense of humor.  Sometimes it seems like he’s telling jokes.  He’ll be babbling away, and then flash a big grin and crack up.  He thinks he’s really funny.  And he’s still loving his jumper.  Jim says he jump like a cartoon rabbit.  It’s totally true – his little legs look like their dancing.  He keeps us very entertained.  He has the brightest face when he wakes up in the morning – he is so happy to greet the day.  Mornings are his best time, he’s so talkative and happy.  We are not sure where this comes from, and neither of us are morning people.  Callie is more like me, she takes her time and wakes up slowly.

 

So here’s an interesting ‘twin’ thing:  this weekend we put them down for a nap in separate cribs.  It just seemed like they were both pretty wound up and we thought they would keep each other awake with the crib pounding.  (they both will raise up their legs and then slam them back down on the crib).  Callie just would not settle down, which is unusual for her lately.  She was very upset every time I would walk out of the room.  Danny was just laying over in his crib watching her.  Well, after about 3 or 4 times going in and trying to calm her down, I decided to see what would happen if I moved him back over in to the crib with her.  I move her over, laid him down.  She turned her head to look at him, I walked out of the room.  And it was quiet.  They both went to sleep. 

 

They are going to be such best friends, that is so special for them.

 

 

 

 

Firsts and Lasts

Every day is full of excitement and joy at new first experiences.  But there is also a little sadness over the last time we do something.

 

Yesterday Daniel figured out how to click his tongue. Christina said he did it a few times during the day.  And we heard it this morning as he was laying in bed with us.  So cute.

 

Callie yesterday started spitting, Danny has been doing that one for a while.  Callie is also very close to sitting up.  Yesterday when we got home she was sitting with the boppy around her – so not quite on her own, but very, very close.

 

And last night they both slept with both arms outside their swaddling.  I wrapped the swaddle tight around their bodies so they still feel that tightness, but left their arms out.  They did pretty good – it took them longer to get to sleep with their arms free, especially Callie – she thought it was an excuse to wiggle and flap.  But once asleep they did great – Callie slept about 11.5 hours.  Danny woke up a few times, but went back to sleep easily each time.  So this means we have seen the last of our sweet swaddled babies.  I know they’re getting a little big for it, but there’s just something so sweet about how they look when they are swaddled up tight, so innocent and snuggly.  I might fully swaddle them both one last time, so that I can get a nice picture.

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.