Nine Months Old!

Wow, this is the furthest behind I've been in getting one of these posts up! It must be because I have two fully mobile children now... :) It's been a big month around here! We weighed in at the doctor, Henry was 15 pounds 9 ounces, and Holden was 16 pounds 10 ounces. Henry is in the 2% for weight, which worries me, but doesn't concern the doctor. And as my mommy friends reassure me, "someone has to be in the 2nd percentile!" Henry is 27 inches tall and Holden is 27 1/2 inches tall. We got a clean bill of health and seem to be hitting most milestones right on target! We did have our first major illness this month. Holden had a temperature of 102 for a few days, and then Henry got a fever as well for a few days after Holden. I was surprised the fever hung on that long, but the doctor just told us to give him motrin to bring it down and that she'd see us if it went on a few more days. So that was miserable for all of us, because we didn't feel good, and we couldn't leave the house and be with our friends because we didn't want to infect them! I'm sure we'll always be passing some illness around now that they're crawling and can get their hands into anything.

Speaking of milestones...both boys are crazy crawlers now! We've had to step up the babyproofing and probably will have to do more as they get more adventurous. Henry just likes to crawl around, but Holden immediately wanted to pull up on things. So he was the first to stand up at the coffee table and the first to stand in the crib. (An unwelcome milestone, but Daddy lowered the crib! :) They're not clapping or waving or saying any real words yet, but maybe by 10 months. They definitely talk and babble, and notice each other more and more. Seeing them laugh at each other is the cutest thing ever!!! They play pretty well on their own unless they're feeling clingy or sick. They'll still play in their jumper/exersaucer, but not as long now that they want to get around on their own. Poor Lanore is not crazy about them being able to follow her now, but she's still much faster than they are! So she's safe...at least a little while longer.

Sleeping is going ok. Still pretty good at night, but they're waking a little earlier in the morning. (I think they hear Alex when he's getting ready for work, and they used to settle back down but now they don't go back to sleep. Bummer for me.) Still at 3 naps; the doctor didn't really have any advice for us on how to get down to two, but I think we're working towards that. They don't always fall asleep in the car anymore, and they do have trouble falling asleep in the stroller. I used to just be able to do errands and they'd fall asleep if it was nap time, now they really whine and fuss if they're tired. It's great that they like to sleep in their cribs! It just makes it hard for me to get out. I love that we have them on a pretty good routine, it's just hard to find time in the routine to leave the house between all the eating and sleeping we do!

Feeding time is getting more exciting. They're starting to pick up food and feed themselves; they still choke on puffs sometimes but they're getting better and more adventurous. Henry still loves everything, Holden seems to be getting more "picky" about what he wants. I need to get more creative with finger food ideas they can try. That's the one thing that seems so funny to me, that Henry really loves solid food and eats like he's starving (he cries if we don't shovel it in fast enough!) and yet he's still so much smaller than his brother. Teething has been hard on me, because they hurt me when they nurse and they're usually extra clingy or fussy. It seems like they're not as bothered with some of these teeth, like maybe they didn't hurt as much as the first bottom two. Henry got a top tooth on the side, which looks funny sticking out (and is very sharp). Holden got both of his top two teeth pretty close together.

In general, they're still happy, sweet boys! They love to be outside on the blanket, and we've gone swimming a few times in our baby pool or bigger pools. They like walks and playdates with their friends. I know we've got a lot to look forward to in the next few months! I'm planning their first birthday party, and I can't wait! Sorry for all the pictures, I couldn't decide between my favorites. Daddy and Grandma Gina must have been making them laugh! It's harder and harder to get them to sit still for a picture. The sign is pretty much demolished at the end of all of our sessions now. :)

 

 

Father's Day



Both boys smiling! Woo!



Well, it's late, but here are the pictures we took for Father's Day! Since I've started working evenings, it's hard to find the time to get on and blog! So I'm behind again, but oh well. My friend Christie gave me the idea with the letters, and took the pictures for me. I put them in a three-opening frame for him to take to work and keep on his desk. (I put them in the collage like this for the blog.) We also got a few cute ones of me with the boys, which is nice!

So we're very lucky to have Alex as a great husband and dad. He does an amazing job with the boys and always helps me out, even when he's tired from working all day. And he takes great care of me, with doing most of the cooking. :) I'm sure it'll get even more fun as the boys get older and we can do more and more with them. So thank you, Alex, and we love you!

Twin Cousin Birthday Party!

Ah! So behind in posting again. I know I always say that. But truly, the boys were sick and now this week I've been sick. But here's how we spent the weekend a while back!

My cousin Jenni has twin boys who just turned two. So she's been my "twin mentor", which is awesome. :) Nice to have someone to ask questions and vent to and fun to see what my boys will be doing in a year! (And I know all the "good stuff" to get or ask for, like her double stroller and her wagon! She tests everything out for me.) I remember at my baby shower last summer the boys weren't quite walking...and now I don't know how she keeps track of them both!

She had a really cute party for the boys. She had a circus theme, with games and face paint and everything...including a bouncy house! My boys just got to watch this year, but the bigger cousins had fun! The boys were still grumpy from being sick and teething, and it was a hot day. (Interject here to say how much I hate putting on sunblock...ugh. It gets everywhere, my clothes and their clothes and the stroller...yuk. Plus it turns the boys white for photos since it doesn't rub in! What can you do. Sigh.) But I thought they did pretty well! They got to be held by aunts and hugged by cousins and watch all the action.

It was fun to do our first "official" birthday party as a family. I'm sure they'll be many more as all the boys' friends turn one!  

I like this one. :)

Cousin love

  

 

With Aunt Janet

Random picture post

 

Holden: "What, should I not be pulling myself up to a stand already?"

 



Grandma and her boys!



Crawling for the camera! Love this one, but it's creepy since it looks like they have 3 arms.

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Aunt Lauren and Holden

 

Sick Holden, first temperature, 102 degrees

 

Didn't make it into the pool that day, it was too cold!

Grandpa time!

 

Changes

Well, we have some changes coming around here! The first is a little bit old news, we traded in my car and got a minivan!! I think I'm the first of my mom friends to do so...I was not thrilled about it at first. We'd talked for a long time about what we'd need in a bigger car and I wanted to hold off for a while. I wanted an SUV like a Traverse or something. Alex wanted a third row (in case we had more kids or in case our kids actually wanted to bring a friend somewhere!) and he just wasn't impressed with any of the third rows in any SUVs. He eventually wore me down, since he was right about the third rows being really small. And we have several family members with minivans that highly recommended them. We were still making payments on my Kia, so it made sense to go look at the Kia dealer first! We pretty much saw this one on the lot (2012 Sedona, slightly used, Alex thought for a good price), drove it, and brought it home that day. Our payment worked out to be pretty much the same, so it really did make sense to trade for a better family car. It makes it really nice to be able to keep both strollers (our City Mini and the double snap and go) in the back. And Alex loves to play with the configurations of seats and fold them down, stow them, etc. It's working great for us so far! The gas mileage isn't great, but we don't drive this one as much, since I just take the boys on errands and to playdates. :)

The second piece of news is that I'm starting to teach again. I'm going to be teaching private violin and viola lessons at a music store in town, starting today. I was really hoping to have more students at my house, since that offers the best flexibility, but this seems like a good place to teach. I'm a little nervous, but hopefully it'll be great. My hours will be 3-8 in the evenings on Mon/Tues/Wed, so that'll be a big change. My mom will cover Mon/Tues till Alex gets home, and we'll eventually need a sitter on Wed. For the summer I don't have students on Wed. yet and if I get some, my friends who are teachers can babysit. I was hoping to have a pretty full schedule, but right now it doesn't seem like I have a lot. I guess a lot of people drop lessons over the summer, so we'll see how it picks up. I guess it's a good thing to start slow and build up. I'm nervous about being away from them all evenings and Alex having to do everything himself all evening, including dinner and bottles and bed. But it means that we don't have to use much daycare or babysitters, so we'll give it a try! So wish me luck...hopefully it'll be a great fit. Right now I'm just nervous until I've met all my students and until we get our new routine down. It's depressing to think all of my evenings are busy when most of my friends are free in the evenings, but that's the gig, I guess! :)

First pool day!

 My friend Ashley got a summer pass to use the pool at the Jewish Community Center near us. I'd never been, but it's a fun waterpark with lots of kid areas, a lazy river, and a small baby pool with shaded spots. It really ended up being too cold, but the boys did ok! We'll wait next time until it's been warm for a few days to make sure the water is warmer. Every time the sun went behind a cloud, we were freezing! It was a lot of work to get them there, with packing all their hats and towels and applying all that sunscreen....but hopefully they'll enjoy going to the pool as the summer goes on. I got a couple of good pictures; Henry was smiling! I think Holden liked it better than Henry for the most part.

The worst part was that they'd skipped their morning nap, so I knew they'd probably be cranky before long. So after about an hour we had to call it quits. Later that day, Holden felt really warm, and we took his temperature and found he had a fever of 102. :( So that was his first "real" fever (he may have had other lower ones but we'd never felt like we needed to get out the thermometer and check), and he was pretty lethargic. It was a bummer for me too, since then I couldn't make it to any other playdates because of his fever. He's still fighting it off, and he'll probably pass it to Henry...I'm sure I'll be writing a post about how to survive sick twins very soon!

 

Morning Yoga with Henry and Holden

Good morning! Thanks for joining us today! Yoga is such a nice way to start your day. We'll guide you through some poses. Let's start with cobra pose. This is a nice, easy warm-up. Opens up your chest!



And now, we'll move into a plank! Hold yourself up on your toes. It may seem hard at first, but you can do it!

Now, this one is for the more advanced students. Here's downward facing dog. Make sure to keep your legs straight!

And don't forget to finish with a nice stretch. Soon you'll be flexible like us! Thanks for joining us this morning. Hope you'll come again soon! Namaste.