The Seventh Month

The sweetest month. Life is good. The girls are eating well, sleeping through the night, learning new things each and every day. Life is good.

Eating:

They are eating about 6-8 tablespoons of babyfood and nursing about 4 times a day. I have had such a good time making their babyfood.... and I think they prefer it as well. Grandmuggs called to my attention a little thing called the Beaba Babycook from Williams Sonoma. I went to the store and, of course, they were all sold out. I took my mom to the one at Crabtree -- and what do you think she did behind my back? She bought it! Gotta love Grandmas. (sidebar: We've decided that my mother is going to be called Nonna -- Italian for Grandmother. Anyway.) So far, I've made prunes, apricots, pears, applesauce, pea puree, green bean puree, sweet potatoes, spinach, carrots. They also really love bananacado -- blended avacado and bananas. Em and Liv will do just about anything for a sweet potato puff. Really. And they have gotten so good at using the pincer grasp to put the puffs (or crackers as we call them) in their mouths. I am so proud of them! They are now sitting in their big girl high chairs. The bumbos were good at first -- until the girls learned how to buck out of them. So big girl chairs it is.

Emma is so cute - she has learned to pacify herself in between bites (because, with twins, you have to take turns... and sometimes they get a little impatient if I'm not fast enough) by sucking her thumb! As I put the spoon up to her mouth, she takes it out and takes a bite, then promply places her thumb back in her mouth. So cute! Olivia gets really put out with me if I don't go fast enough. She has learned to puff up her cheeks, contort her mouth like a fish and snort. She is so sassy! I love it! Olivia continues to have really strong preferences when it comes to food (remember that she is my child that will NOT take a bottle) and it must be the perfect consistency, texture and temperature. If not, you can expect her to spit out her food. Emma will eat anything I put in front of her.

Sleeping:

Ahhh.... sleep training was the best thing that we have done. The girls go down at 8ish (although, they are ready at 7, we hold them off) and don't make a peep until around 4 a.m. I nurse them in bed (a habit that I don't want to break just yet!) and then they sleep till 7. We all get up at 8. Now, if I could just teach myself how to sleep again...

The girls are also taking THREE naps a day. One at 9, 1 and 4. My little insomniacs have turned into wonderful sleepers! Although, it makes it hard sometimes to get out and about becuase we have to time our adventures around their naps. If they miss one, watch out buddy! They're grumpy and will let you know about it. I really am enjoying the predictability of our day, though. I am a creature of habit. Change unsettles me ... and it drove me nuts not having a set schedule.

Milestones:

Let's see... these girls are movers and shakers! They do not like to be still -- which makes play time on the floor a little challenging since we haven't babyproofed our den yet. I can't keep them in one central location. Rolling and scooting are their main modes of transportation these days, but they are on the verge of crawling. I think they'll be crawling before they can actually learn to sit up on their own. They can sit for several moments, but topple over trying to get to a toy.

Olivia said "ma ma" for the first time last Wed... and the very next day she said "Da da." I know she doesn't know what she is saying, but it melts our hearts just the same. I took a video of it. I'll have to dig it up and post it later. Emma is continuing to say "hiiiii." It sounds just like she is saying "hi!"

They love it when I sing to them and I even made them belly laugh when I danced to the song "single ladies." We just started taking Kindermusik classes which has been fun. I'm the only one with twins and it is a little challenging to divide my time between the two girls. For instance, there is a portion of the class when we do baby massage. I was supposed to rub their shoulders or something like that and instead, each girl got one arm massaged. What am I supposed to do? And another instance, I was supposed to pick them up and dance around with them. The instructor was kind enough to take a baby so one didn't have to sit out (more later on picking the girls up at the same time ...). Anyway, it was fun.

These girls are just smiley happy babies. Life is really, really good right now.

Here are some of my favorite pictures so far from this month: