Ten Months Old!

Dear Jack and Ben,

We have had such a great month! I can't believe how quickly you change and grow up... It is hard to believe that you were born 10 short months ago!

We got to visit Shreveport for Christmas this year and got to see Aunt Katelyn marry your Uncle Joshua. What a blessing! It is a good thing she was a gorgeous bride or you two would have stolen the show. Everyone loved you, of course, and it was great to get to introduce you two to the extended family and so many good friends.

Your breakfasts are now two scrambled eggs with milk and cheddar cheese, about 1/4 c. yogurt and banana for each of you, and a handful of cheerios. The cheerios compete with the yogurt now for your favorite food. Lunches usually consist of a piece of peanut butter bread and a large bowl of pasta with veggie sauce. You are both great eaters when I feed you things you love!

You both discovered an old wooden puzzle (from when I was little!) and you love taking the pieces out and trying to put them back in. You don't quite have the fine motor skills for it yet, but you definitely understand the concept!

Jack, you are 21 lbs. this month. I really can barely lift you out of your crib these days. It is a good thing that we aren't using your infant car seats any more!

You still fit into 12 month pants if you are wearing a disposable (size 3), but in cloth you can't squeeze into them, so it's up to 18 month pants for you. I also can't button shirts around your bottom any more, so you're now wearing big boy shirts in size 12 and 18 months. You are also in 18 month pajamas now because you're too long for 12 months.

Your hair is getting really long, really fast. Mommy gave you your first haircut on December 29, a few days before Aunt Katelyn's wedding. She cut your bangs, the back, around your ears and a little bit of your ear itself... Whoops! (Really it was just a scrape, but man those scissors were sharp!)

You can sign please, milk (which to you means any food), and all done, although sometimes Mommy forgets to instruct you and then you forget how to use them. You generally get your point across with loud screams.

You are a master Cheerio picker-upper. It took you about 15 minutes to figure out the pincer grasp and how to get those guys into your mouth. They never stood a chance against Jack-who-loves-to-eat.

You got your first two teeth this month (finally!). Your bottom right incisor came first on December 23 and then your bottom left incisor came on December 29th. You look so adorable with two teeth!

You did your first real crawling for Mimi and Papa on Skype. Daddy set up the laptop, webcam and cell phone on the floor for our Skype session and you decided that that was enough electronic motivation to crawl for the first time! Crawling really clicked for you this past week and now you are everywhere and in everything. You are so curious and find things faster than I can keep track! For instance, I turned around the other day when I heard a door stop go "thwaaaanng" and you were just about to put the plastic cap from the end of the doorstop into your mouth. Yikes! You can go from crawling to sitting now and then onto your knees. You frequently try to stand up in your crib, although you haven't quite managed it yet.

You learned how to wave this month, without much instruction, and you love to show off your skills to everyone you meet. You waved to Mimi from across the room for your first wave! You also wave to Daddy when you wake up in the middle of the night. Aunt Naomi (Na Na) taught you how to high five and you caught on really quickly to that. You don't hit hands very hard, but you do the correct motion!

You say two words now (albeit selectively), Dah and bah-bye. Seriously, kid, what about me? You know, the one who feeds you and spends every waking moment of your day with you? In other words, "mama"?

I am thinking that you may be a baton-twirler someday. You have got a twisting wrist action down pat, from this noisemaker we have that you have to flip back and forth to get it to make noise. You think that anything that makes noise requires this motion and so you will do it to balls with bells in them, the mallet for the xylophone, Sophie the giraffe (who squeaks). It is pretty cute!

You started sleeping with a blanket this month, one that Uncle Matthew gave you when you were just born. It is white with different types of balls on it (footballs, soccer balls, etc.). You can be crying and mad when I lay you down on your belly, but as soon as the blanket covers you, you are happy and start sucking on your pointer and middle fingers and close your eyes. Sometimes I come in after your nap to find you have covered your head with the blanket and have wrapped it around yourself real tightly. I was wondering why your hair kept looking so unkempt after naps!







Ben, you are 18 lbs. this month. You still feel so light compared to Jack, but you have passed up the Osborn twins who are two months older than you, so you must be pretty big still!

You are too big for 6-9 month clothes any more, so they are all packed away now. You fit nicely into 12 month clothes and pajamas, although I'm not sure how much longer that will last.

Your hair is starting to get really long, although you've rubbed another bald spot into the back because you sleep on your back again. You are next in line for a haircut, although I haven't had the motivation to do it yet.

You are pretty stubborn about not signing. Your method of communicating with Mommy is grunting and screaming your displeasure. She usually figures out what you want that way. Sometimes I think you sign "all done" one time and then if I don't catch on immediately you start the screaming. So perhaps you are just frustrated with me!

You started out getting too frustrated with picking up Cheerios and then just wiping them off your tray all over the floor. But over the past few weeks you have learned how to pick them up and are very good at it now. If you get frustrated, though, you will just bang your (saliva-covered) hand on the Cheerios a few times and pick up about 6 at once. You usually can get one of the six in your mouth.

You got your first two teeth this month (finally)! You got both of your bottom incisors on December 12th (the same day). You look adorable with your scrunched up nose grin and two little teeth in there!



You are not quite crawling yet, but you can go backwards and are able to fling yourself forwards when you want something that is in front of you. You can also rotate on your hands and knees really well. You are so close to crawling! I think the fact that Jack can move faster than you really bugs you and you are ready to figure it out.

You learned how to wave this month. Your first wave was to strangers on the airplane ride back from Shreveport. You are SUCH a flirt! You wave far less often than Jack does, but you love to wave to him first thing in the morning.



You started saying "Mah-mahhhhhh!" when you cry now. I'm not sure if it is intentionally my name, but since I respond to it, I'm thinking you're going to catch on fast that it calls me over. You like being held (especially by me), so if it gets you held faster, I think that will be great motivation.

I think you are going to be a pogo stick champion when you get bigger. You LOVE jumping (you spent the entire plane ride from here to Dallas jumping in my arms) and you can jump for about 10 minutes straight without stopping.

You are now my flipper during diaper changes - you do not want to stay on your back! Mommy has to swat your thigh multiple times sometimes to remind you that you are not supposed to flip. You are just a stubborn boy, like Mommy and Daddy both are.

You started sleeping with a blanket this month, one that Uncle Matthew gave you when you were just born. It is white with airplanes and trains and cars on one side and blue fleece on the other. You sleep on your back now and when Mommy lays the blanket down on you, you grab a corner and hold it in your hand while you suck your thumb. It is so sweet! You finally took your first good nap at church the other day when we brought your blanket with us!



Still doing the worm

I love you both so much. I just said to Daddy the other day that my family is perfect - I can't imagine better kids or a happier life.

Love,
Mama

Nine Months Old!

Dear Jack and Ben,

I get so behind on these posts, but I am doing this one actually on your nine month birthday, so I think it should be more detailed than the others! (It is hard to remember what you were like a month or more after it happens.)

This month has been a fun one. We had a lot of time off with Daddy (Veterans Day weekend and all of Thanksgiving week) and you boys just love spending time with him, so that was a big deal for you! For Thanksgiving we spent a few days in Canton, OH with Brian, Amy, Alaina and Alex Chase and then a few days in Wheeling, WV to see the rest of the Cochran family (Grammy's side). You boys loved your cousins Alaina and Alex and were huge fans of playing with big kids.

You got your first tub bath over Thanksgiving break at Great-Aunt Beverly's house. You loved it, especially because you got to take it together. Jack did slip and hit his head on the side of the tub, though. He wiggles too much and is so heavy to hold onto that Mommy has a hard time keeping him upright in the tub. She needs to buy a non-slip bath mat for you boys! You both try to reach really far for tub toys out of your reach and that is (literally) your downfall.

Today you are trying your first naps together (in the same room, not the same crib) in months. You started napping separately around five and a half months because Jack would cry for a minute or two before settling down to sleep, but that would send Ben into hysterics which would take more than the 45 minute nap to calm down from... So Ben has been sleeping in a pack-n-play in Mommy's room and Jack in his own crib. We tried a couple times before to sleep together with bad results. But today you have gone to sleep like pros together... Ben didn't fall asleep immediately for the first nap, but Jack slept through his talking, and Jack was very upset and cried for about 15 minutes before taking his afternoon nap, while Ben fell asleep immediately. So I guess you two were ready to sleep together again! You always slept together at night, but because naps are so much shorter than night sleep, it was hard for you to both fall asleep and stay asleep for the time that you needed. I think that the separation was good for you because you both had those three and a half months to get really well-rested and good at falling asleep and falling back to sleep before you had to learn how to do it together. Great job, boys!

Jack usually gets to nurse first so that he will be quiet while Ben is nursing (Ben is much more distractible). However, I think Ben is starting to get offended by my always "choosing" Jack first, so I am going to try switching that up now!

You love to roll your toddler-size soccer ball back and forth to each other. You are quite good at it, actually! Jack is super serious about getting the ball accurately to Ben, whereas Ben just loves flinging it wherever it will go.

You have both started grabbing toys out of each others' hands now. Thankfully no one gets offended by this yet! Mrs. Osborn tells me that Joel and Daniel think it is hilarious when the other takes something from them, so hopefully you two will have that same attitude for a while... except that I am worried that you will start taking toys from the other babies in nursery and hurt their feelings!

In between changing each of your diapers, I will put you sitting up face to face in Ben's crib with toys and a hanging crib toy to play with. I often come back from washing my hands to find one of you bending over, with the other grabbing his head and open-mouthed kissing him and a slobber spot on the kisser's head from where the other one got him originally. So sweet! When Jack is feeling cuddly, he will lean in similarly to me so that I can kiss his head.

Jack, you are 19 lb, 11 oz (25-50%) today and 28 1/4 inches long (50%). 30 inches is the maximum height for your car seat, so I am glad you will have your big boy one in less than a month! You are too chunky for 9 month shirts and pants now, so you are fully into 12 month clothing. Sometimes I run out of 12 month onesies and try to get you into a 9 month one, but, man, are they tight on your little pot belly!

You have stick-straight white blonde hair that has fully grown back in now. It doesn't spike like it did when you were a wee baby, probably because it is a lot longer and heavier now. Sometimes the hair on the bottom of the back of your head will curl out away from your head, but that is the only hint of curl I see in your hair!

Poor darling, you had a yeast rash under your neck for the past month. It was just about to go away when we ran out of Nystatin and the doctor wouldn't refill it for us, so we had to switch to Lotrimin, which took a few days before it began working, during which time your rash came back pretty bad again. Now it is just about faded and I am looking forward to not having to torture you by putting that goopy stuff on your neck any more.

You are a great eater. You will pretty much try anything... The only food I have ever had a problem with you eating was avocado, and that was months ago, so you probably would eat it now. You are a really good "gummer" and never choke on your food, even when you get sizeable pieces to gum. You use the sign for "milk" as a sign for any food, which is pretty cute and smart of you - you are making a connection between breastmilk and the table food you get!

You are easily moving from sitting to your belly now. I am fairly certain that getting yourself sitting up will be soon, too! You are often on all fours and have learned how to scoot your knees forward at the same time to propel yourself toward objects. You are still better at crawling backwards, though, and you haven't figured out how to move your hands forward yet.

You call Daddy "Dah" now. You love to enunciate consonants, but no M sound yet... Come on, dude! You love when Mommy repeats your consonants back to you and you get very talkative when she has a conversation with you!

You love to raise your eyebrows at Mommy and she raises hers back at you. We have entire conversations that way, especially when Ben is nursing and you are playing in your exersaucer.

You are really good at the rotary dial on your pop up toy. You love to stick one finger in a hole and revolve it! You are excellent at closing the lids, too. You never had a problem with getting your thumb in the way.

You have figured out where Mommy keeps your toys (in boxes on the bottom shelf of the coffee table) and can pull down the boxes to get out what you want to play with. Smart, sneaky boy!

Ben, you are 16 lb, 12 oz (5%) today and 27 1/4 inches long (25-50%). You are in 9 month clothes still, but have moved up to 12 month pajamas. You are almost as tall as Jack, even if you are a thin little guy!

You have your Daddy's hair, except that it is white blonde (like his was as a baby). It is wavy and will hold whatever shape that it is in when it dries for DAYS. One time Daddy accidentally gave you a Mohawk while drying your hair and it would not stay down, even with a damp rag run over it! Mommy tries to comb your hair to one side like Daddy's now and you look a lot like him that way.

You are not so interested in consonants still, probably because you still prefer screaming. But I have heard you say "ma-ma" and "ba-ba" every once in a while, so I know you are learning them... You're just taking your time deciding when you will babble.

You love to suck on the pointer finger of your left hand. Whenever you are tired I frequently see you doing this and then popping it out to play with something before sticking it back in.

We are working on "milk," "thank you," "drink" and waving goodbye, but Mommy forgets to sign those very consistently, so you haven't caught on quite yet. But you are now using "all done" and "please" in contexts outside of food, even if you won't sign them when prompted any more. You are a very picky eater and will whine a lot, especially when you are ready to switch from eggs to yogurt and if you don't like whatever Mommy is trying to feed you for dinner. You will purposefully not chew (gum) things that you don't like and choke on them. You are my little punk when it comes to eating! (No wonder you are not growing quite as quickly as Jack.) Also, you have now figured out how to rip your bib off, although you are getting better about leaving it on when Mommy tells you to not touch it.

Your newest (adorable) trick is scrunching up your nose! You do it both when you are very happy and very mad. When you are mad (especially about Mommy feeding you something you don't want to eat at that moment), you rapidly and audibly force air through your nose rather than making any noise, so that Mommy can't sneak any bites of food in there. (You are one smart cookie. Jack hasn't figured that one out yet.)

When you are really excited, you "do the worm" on your belly. You will drop from your position of pushing up on your hands, bury your face in the carpet and wiggle your body while flailing your arms and legs to the sides. It is pretty cute!

You hold your arms up to Mommy when you want to be picked up. It makes my heart feel happy. :)

You are really good at pressing the push and pull buttons on the pop-up toy. You are getting better at closing them, but started out with your thumb in the way and are learning that it can't be below what you are trying to close.

You are lightening fast at emptying a box of toys now. Jack has to think quickly to pick the toys he wants before you steal them all away!

I love you both so much... People are always asking me if I'm SO busy, but I can't imagine life being less exciting than it is now!

Love,
Mommy

Eight Months Old!

Dear Jack and Ben,

Yet another month going by quick as a wink. I know the years of your life are going to flash by my eyes, and so I am trying to live in the moment as much as I can! I love eight months old - you are fun, sweet, eager to please, and smile SO MUCH!

This month was Mommy's first trip away from you... for 24 hours! She visited Boston (for Jennifer Reus' baby shower) from Friday night, October 28th to Saturday night, October 29th and left you at home with Daddy. Daddy did a great job taking care of my boys!

It got too cold to go on walks this month (poor Ben's cheeks get chapped VERY easily), so no more daily outings. But you still love being pushed around in your stroller when we make it to the mall.

You have pretty regular meals now, with scrambled eggs with cheddar cheese (which, after a week, Ben still won't eat more than four bites of) and plain, whole milk yogurt with bananas for breakfast and 1/4 peanut butter sandwich and "beefaroni" (a pureed beef, carrots and potato casserole) for dinner. Mommy has been introducing you to some "chunkier" foods so that you can practice chewing (or rather "gumming," since neither of you has teeth yet!).

Your sleep schedule is synchronized well, waking up around 7 am, your first nap from 9-10:30 am, second nap from 1-2:30 pm, and going to bed at 6 pm. No more third nap! You still breastfeed five times, at 4 am, 7 am, (have eggs and yogurt after the 7am feeding), 10:30 am, 2:30 pm, (have PB sandwich and beefaroni after the 2:30 pm feeding) and 5:30 pm.

Jack, you are 19 lbs. Oh my! Mommy is back to her pre-pregnancy weight (which was actually not my goal, +8-10 lbs. would have been fine!) and I can see why, with such a big boy to carry around. I can barely lift you in your infant carseat, so we are getting "big boy" convertible seats (that stay permanently in the car) for Christmas.

You are in 12 month pajamas and onesies, but still wear 9 month pants and shirts. The arms and legs of the 12 month pants and shirts are just too long for you, even though you outgrew the 9 month pjs in length... I'm not sure how that works! Maybe you just have a long torso.

You usually nap for 1-1.5 hours, although every once in a while you will nap for two. I like those days, especially when they coincide with two hour naps for Ben. :) You almost always wake up happy from your naps now; I hear giggles and gurgles coming over the monitor, which makes my heart happy.

Speaking of noises - on Sunday, October 30 Daddy came home from church (we were home with colds) and you said "Dada" when he walked in the door. You had been making D sounds for a few days at that point, but that was your first reference to Daddy as such. No "Mama" yet!

You now can sign "all done" (in addition to "please"), but when you do it is up to you. Usually you will do it when you are done breastfeeding and want to get down to play!

Your favorite toy is probably Mickey Mouse. He has the best ears, fingers and nose for chewing on! You especially love to play with him while swinging in your baby swing... which you are just about to be able to dive out of, so not too much more of that! You also love your "Sophie the giraffe" teething toy, the vibrating strawberry and grape teethers and books! You love to watch as Mommy points out Papa, Mimi, Aunt Katelyn and Uncle Drew in your family picture book.

You are so close to crawling right now. You started out last month sleeping on your tummy and when you would wake up from naps you would start pushing up your arms and stretching to see over the crib bumper when Mommy would come in the room. Then you started pushing up on your hands and knees. Then you began crawling backwards (you are quite proficient at that, actually). Now you are able to move your knees a little forward, but haven't quite figured out picking up your hands. For her sake, Mommy is not looking forward to the day you figure that out, although I am sure you will be very proud of yourself!

You also became a proficient sitter this month. One day it just "clicked" and you were able to sit for minutes at a time. Now you can sit for at least 20 or 30 minutes without any help at all.

Your new favorite game is "pull the toys out of the toybox." You take your time with each one, examining it, chewing on it, shaking it, and then drop it to go for the next one. You also love to play peek-a-boo - we can always get a giggle out of you by doing that and Mommy and Daddy will make fools of themselves in public for those giggles.

Ben, you now weigh 16 lbs. You are still growing well, although not as well as Jack is... You just don't appreciate food the way that he does. You are also getting your "big boy" convertible car seat for Christmas because you are almost as tall as Jack and will be out of your infant seat for height in the next few months, even if you aren't as chunky. People who haven't seen you in a few months, though, do call you Jack because you aren't too far behind him in cheek size. :)

You are still in 6-9 month clothing now, but getting close to moving up to 12 months in some things. You are just plain long!

You usually take a shorter nap (45 min-1 hr) in the morning and then a longer nap (1.5-2 hours) in the afternoon. You usually wake up happy, chirping and talking to yourself in your pack-n-play in mommy's room until she comes to get you.

You aren't as interested in consonant sounds as Jack is, but you do love to scream and chirp a lot. I am thinking you are going to be a loud child, like your Mommy. :)

You also can sign "all done" and "please," but you are stubborn and will do it far less than I ask you to. Speaking of stubborn, you are great at keeping your mouth shut when a food you don't like is coming your way!

Your favorite toy is Mickey Mouse. His fingers and ears are where I find you chewing the most! You love swinging in the swing with him, but have started trying to grab the bars and anything else around, so we are giving the swing back to Mrs. Hammer soon. You love to play with our stack of colorful rings (we call them donuts) and to chew on your "Sophie the giraffe" teething toy. You especially love to squeak her!

You have started pushing up on your hands and knees now, although you are less interested in moving right now. You are definitely a tummy sleeper now and sometimes I come in in the morning to find you asleep on your shins and forearms with your arms and legs tucked underneath you and your butt sticking straight up in the air. It is pretty adorable!

You too became a proficient sitter this month; you are quite capable of sitting for a long time now, although you still get excited at times and fling yourself backward straightening your body. Mommy makes sure she keeps a pillow behind you if there is anything to bump your head on!

You love to play "pull the toys out of the box," but Mommy calls you "Hoarding: Buried Alive Baby Edition" because your version is to pull a toy out, stick it in your mouth for about 3 seconds and then drop it and go for another! By the time Jack has three toys on his lap, you have most of the rest of the toybox emptied out! You are still a big fan of Mommy coming at you slowly and then faster and faster until I jump at you. You also love to be tickled and for Mommy to smell your stinky tootsies and say "Uuuhhhh, stinky! You need a bath!"

You boys are so amazing and precious to us. We love being your parents!

Love,
Mommy

Seven Months Old!

Dear Jackson and Bennett,

You are seven months old today! Wow! I feel like we just started feeding you solids and then all of a sudden you are big enough to get mixtures and new textures and a whole new world of possibilities. I can't believe how fast this past month went.

So far you have eaten (in order of introduction) carrots, apples, sweet potatoes, pears, avocados, chicken (mixed with sweet potatoes), green beans, peas, spinach (which you both oddly loved and gobbled up, even the first day!), whole-fat, unsweetened yogurt, bananas, peaches, beef casserole (beef, carrots, sweet potatoes), and turkey dinner (turkey, corn, carrots and green beans).

We are weaning you off of your nightly supplemental bottles - you definitely don't need them any more, calorically-speaking, and are just in the habit of getting them now. But Mommy wants to stop pumping every night, so they're getting the ax!

You get bathtubs on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays (and in between when needed!). It makes Mommy's life a little easier when she has scheduled days for baths... She could never remember before how many days it had been since you had gotten cleaned up!

You are both on the same sleep schedule now, which is much better for Mommy's sleep and sanity. You wake up for the day between 6 and 7 and then take a nap two hours after you wake up. You take your second nap of the day around 12-1 pm and then usually a third nap around 3 or 4, depending on how long your first two naps were and when. Your bedtime also got moved earlier to 6:30 pm and you are both so much happier for it!

You both breastfeed when you wake up, then have yogurt+bananas for breakfast, then breastfeed around 10:30 or 11:00 am when you wake up from your first nap, then breastfeed around 2 pm when you wake up from nap #2, have a "dinner" meal (usually a beef or turkey or chicken combo with veggies) before your third nap and then breastfeed around 5 or 5:30 pm before going down for the night. You both usually wake up sometime between 2 and 4 am for your fifth feeding of the day.

Jack, today you are a little under 18 lbs. You keep Mommy's arms in shape, for sure.

You are still in 6-9 month clothes, but have moved up to 12 month pajamas.... They are big boy two-piece pajamas and you look more like a toddler than a little baby in them. Sniff, sniff.

This month Mommy had to change up your eating and sleeping schedule, and you are such a happier baby now! She had to switch you from a 2.5 hour eating schedule to a 3-4 hour schedule... And it only took one short time of playing with you before letting you eat at the 3 hour mark, rather than the 2.5 hour mark. You now can nap for up to 2 hours (although you certainly don't do that every time), whereas before you would only ever make it to an hour and fifteen minutes, maximum! She also had to talk Daddy into letting you cry through your midnight-2 am waking and it only took about 15 minutes of fussing on two nights and you were done waking up then. You feel a lot better after 8-10 hours of sleep, rather than doing the little chunks you were doing before!

You love all food... except avocados. Every picture Mama took of you trying out a new food was a super big smile. But you just didn't get the hang of avocados, even after a few days!

You are still my little talker. You are great at your consonants and I am just waiting for the day you bust out a "mama"! You also were the first to sign "please" back to Mommy. We're working on "all done" and "drink" now.

You love to play peek-a-boo. It's funny because you laugh the hardest when you are the most violently surprised!

You are ticklish under your neck, especially when Mommy puts lotion under there after your bath.

This month you decided that you were going to sleep on your tummy now! You wake up with the cutest red marks on one side of your face from where it rubbed against the sheets. You started out accidentally flipping over onto your tummy during naps and then waking yourself up because you could only roll from tummy to back in one direction (towards your right side) and you would get stuck up against the crib slats. Mommy decided to leave you alone to figure things out for yourself... and you did! I always knew you were going to be a tummy sleeper because when you were little you would conk out about a minute after I put you down to play on your tummy. Now you can roll towards both sides like a pro - the second I put you down in your crib you start flipping over! It's funny to me that you actually prefer to be on your tummy, rather than your back now.

Ben, today you are a little over 15 lbs. You are gaining weight just fine, by the way, your brother is just gaining more on the top of the normal range and you are gaining closer to the bottom of the normal range.

You are now solidly in 6-9 month clothes and are stretching out pretty well in the 6-9 month pjs, so you may be moving up to 12 month soon!

You are a touchy napper. Mommy has to get you down at exactly the right time because if she doesn't you will just cry for 1.5 hours rather than nap (don't worry, she doesn't usually leave you that long, she just tried that once or twice to see if you would ever go to sleep). But when you go down at the right time, you are a great napper, usually sleeping for 2 hours for both morning and afternoon naps.

You just learned how to go to sleep without your pacifier and with no crying. The pediatrician told Mommy to make sure you were done with it by 9 months old (you start forming habits by then) and he said that the best way was cold turkey... But first you were so tired, catching up on naps from missing most of them on our Shreveport trip, then you got shots, then you were sick... And Mommy kept rocking and feeding you to sleep until she realized that she had reverted you into a very bad sleeper! So one night (Monday, October 3), Mommy put you to bed without your pacifier and no going back in to comfort you. And you cried hard for 45 minutes, that night and the next two nights, but by Thursday you went right to sleep! You also took all of your naps from Tuesday on without it and did just fine. You look like such a big boy now, sleeping without your bink!

You are very picky in your food consumption. Usually after the first bite of a new food, you clamp down your mouth and Mama has to trick you into smiling, so that she can get a couple more bites in. Usually by Day 3 you have resigned yourself into eating the new food and will eat a decent amount. But you are not afraid of going hungry on Day 1 and 2! You LOVE banana yogurt... You say "Mmmmm, mmmmm, mmmmm," the whole time you are eating it. We are also working on patience and not whining with you. Whenever Mommy is too slow to get you your next bite, you get very frustrated and yell at her. You know how to sign "please" so we are working on saying please rather than yelling.

I feel a little bad posting this, but for the sake of remembering, I wanted to mention that everyone who asks us if you and Jack are twins then asks if you are boy/girl twins... because you are petite and have such a sweet, cute face! (I do wonder what they are thinking, though, especially when I have you both dressed in identical BLUE or obviously boy outfits.)

You love to have Mommy slowly sneak up on you while you are in the swing, jumperoo or exersaucer. She starts out crawling toward you slowly and then gets faster and faster until she jumps at you at last second. You giggle uncontrollably! You also love to be tickled, especially under the arms or under your neck.

We have found you a couple times lately sleeping on your tummy, so I'm not sure if you are changing things up for good, or just experimenting with a new position. But I hope that I can get a picture of your old sleeping position (on top of your two hands) before you stop doing that! It is so unique!

The last couple days you have found your voice again... But this time you are a screamer! You will just randomly yell at the top of your lungs. Not because you are mad or upset, just because you like to yell now. :)

We love you both so much! We are so thankful for our sweet twinkles.

Love,
Mommy

Favorite Baby Products: Newborn

We'll see how long it takes me to finish this series, but here is installment #1 of my favorite baby products!

Amazon Mom (free for three months, up to 9 more months free for each $25 spent in Baby section, Amazon)
You will thank me for this. Free two-day shipping means that you will save many trips to the store when you realize you are just about to run out of yet another baby item. Also, 30% off diapers and other subscribe-and-save deals!

The Miracle Blanket ($30, Amazon)
My 7 lb. baby was able to bust out of a very snug swaddle with a hospital blanket by 2 weeks old. The Miracle Blanket provides a super tight swaddle that even a 14 week old can't get out of and gave us a great foundation for sleep. Make sure you own two, so that you can wash one while your child is napping in the other.

Moby wrap ($45, Amazon)
Desperate to get your baby to sleep? Et voila - the Moby Wrap. While I don't recommend carrying your newborn for all his naps (he has to learn how to sleep on his own sometime!), for those tricky ones when you need to do something and just can't walk away from your screaming baby, slip the little one in this and he will instantly conk out. For preemies through 35 lbs.

Itzbeen Baby Care Timer ($20, Amazon)
These things are perfect for the newborn sleep-deprivation stage. Are the hours blurring together and you can't remember when the last time your baby ate was? Not any more - the Itzbeen has four timers, to keep track of eating, sleeping, diaper changes and a miscellaneous event (such as a medication). Each is separately controlled and able to be set for half hour increments from 30 minutes to 24 hours. When the time is up, the button for that particular task will flash red and an alarm will sound (if unmuted). I am still using mine at 6 months old, although that could have something to do with having twins.

Six Months Old!

Jack and Benny,

I can't believe you are already six months old! That's halfway to a year! Where has the time gone?!?

You both breastfeed solo now. Mommy misses her little babies who loved to eat together, but it is also nice to get one-on-one time with her sweet boys.

You went into church nursery for the first time this month. Benny went in first one week because Jack had a cold, but then you both went in together the next week. You are very good for them, except that you won't take naps in there, unless you are desperately tired.

We survived both an earthquake and a hurricane this month! Mommy ran into your rooms and woke you up from your naps during the earthquake because she was so scared. Hurricane Irene ended up being a lot weaker than everyone expected and we didn't even lose our power (although a lot of folks in Maryland did).

We visited Shreveport, where your Mimi and Papa live, for the first time this month. You loved it at their house and got to spend so much time playing with your grandparents and aunt and uncle.

You also got your first tastes of solid foods today! You both were great sports eating lots of rice cereal and attempting to drink water out of your sippy cups.

Jack, you are 16 lbs, 10 oz (10%) and 26.5"(25%) long! My big boy, as always. :)

Your schedule is confusing Mommy right now... I think you are ready for a change with your naps. You've stopped taking long naps and are just plain tired! You go to sleep around 7:30 pm and wake up around 1 or 2 am for food, then sleep until 5 am. You eat seven times a day, at 5 am, 7:30 am, 10 am, 1 pm, 4 pm, 6:30 pm and 2 am. Mommy is getting super tired from not sleeping many hours in a row.... So change is a-coming, little boy!

You are entirely in 6-9 month clothes now... But growing quickly out of that size in pants! (Thanks to your cloth diapers.) You are still in red edged (medium) diapers and have to wear two at night so you don't leak!

You love making noises of any kind. You gurgle, do a "Kiki the darling" voice, and all sorts of consonants. You will mimic noises that other people make and love when we repeat back the sounds that you make!

You love to jump in the jumperoo and have already figured out how to turn yourself around in the exersaucer. You have figured out how to scoot around the floor on your back and are really, really close to flipping onto your tummy!

You still won't sit up very well on the ground, but do a great job sitting up on Mommy's lap. The doctor was impressed with how long you could sit up on Mommy's lap, though!

Ben, you are 14 lbs, 8 oz (under 5%) and 26.25" (25%) long. Such a tall boy now! I can't believe you have just about caught up to Jack in height!

You are on a different schedule from Jack... six feeds a day, falling asleep at 7:30 pm, sometimes 8, and sleeping until 4 am and then until 7, with feeds at 7 am, 10 am, 1 pm, 4 pm, 7 pm, and 4 am. Mommy really likes the schedule you are on, so she is hoping that Jack will learn how to mimic you soon!

You still fit in 3-6 month clothes, but Mommy is going to move you up to 6-9 months soon, so that you can match Jack. Plus, it's starting to get chilly and I don't have any warm 3-6 month clothes! You are still in the yellow-edged (small) diapers, but you also wear two at night to prevent leaking!

You have gotten so quiet since Jack started talking more. You no longer do your baby pterodactyl screeches, which makes Mommy sad! Sometimes you will talk to Mommy while she is feeding you at 4 am.

Your sleeping position is so cute - when Mommy puts you down in your crib, you rock toward one side and tuck one hand under your back and then rock towards the other side to put the other hand under your back. I think you figured this out to help prevent yourself from removing your binky and waking yourself up!

You have just learned how to jump in the jumperoo with both feet at once... It's a little bit violent, so you always look a bit shocked when you do it! You can roll both to your tummy and back now, but you usually only roll from your tummy to your back whenever Mommy sets you down on your tummy.

You are a decent sitter - you can sit really well on Mommy's lap, but refuse to sit up by yourself on the ground, preferring to throw yourself backwards.

Starting solids...

Okay, so I know I just posted their 4 month update, but that was a month behind! I'm working on their 5 month one now... They just turned 5 months on Sunday!

Since we are only a few short weeks away from 6 months old, we're looking forward to starting solids in a few weeks. In anticipation of that, what are the must-have items for starting solids? I'm planning to make my own baby food, so recipe books, puree-ers, bibs, spoons, storage materials, etc... We need it all!

Thanks, all!