Eight Months!

Ok, several days late this time luckies, but you know what's been going on around here- a whole lot of crazy! At least I'm getting it up in the month of June.

First, I have to say this...please, please, please remember to slow down from time to time and maybe hold up on the growing, just for a little while.  You both have truly taken off, in your own ways, in the development and growth this month.  It's truly amazing to watch you each learning and becoming your own little people.  Your personalities are shining through in a beautiful way more and more, and I'm loving exploring all of the nuances of my two wonderful children.  You both have very distinct and different characteristics and you are sure to show them off at every chance.  I'm having an absolute blast watching you grow, little ones.  I just beg not to grow too fast! I'm already afraid to blink!

Gracie, my little love bug. You're like a little kid nowadays. It's, it's really just... mind blowing.  All of a sudden you've just taken off and decided to take this world by storm, to show us what you're made of.  And Miss,  you're made of pure gold.

This month, well actually today, you started to crawl! We've been watching ever so closely the past couple of weeks as you began finding your balance and getting up onto your knees.  Then the rocking started and the reaching...and of course then came the frustration.  You knew how close you were and you were ready to get there! Today, you took your first crawling "steps", one hand in front of the other and the knees crawling right behind! You mastered the hands first but couldn't figure out the legs part until today.  You always ended up flat on your tummy everytime you reached too far and your legs didn't follow.  You started crawling a bit backwards before forward, but today you took a couple of good "steps" on your hands and knees right toward me.  I snatched you right up and cheered so loud! What a big day, little lady!

You've been having a lot of fun with this exploration of just what you can do this month, including a new sophistication in how you play with toys.  You figured out that certain "buttons" make the toys do fun things and you will reach for those buttons to get your fun result.  You also started banging toys together to listen to their sound and you have a renewed enjoyment of rattles for the added bonus of the rattling that comes when they are banged together!

You are in a bit of a slapping phase and you love to smack everything with your hands- I think you like the noise that makes, too.  You're obsessed with the cat, so we have to watch out that you don't smack her as well!

One of my favorite developments this month has been your voice.   Your brother was taking the cake as our little talker but this month you've decided to try to catch up on that front.  You started truly babbling with all kinds of bahbahbah's and dadada's! You started doing the dadada's around your daddy, so I've decided that you know he's "Daddy" now and you're trying to tell us, even though that might not actually be true. I'll also confess that you've been crying "mom mom mom" since you were a tiny baby- it was just the sound you made when you got really sad and wanted attention. For no logical reason, I've now decided that it's not just the sound you make, but rather, you're actually calling for me specifically.  Just humor your mother and go with it, ok?

You've decided to add some physical growth onto your list of "leaps and bounds" this month and have now gotten too tall for many of your 6 month clothes! You're wearing 9 month pajamas to bed most nights and I finally picked up some 9 month outfits for you to wear out and about as well.  We keep you in your diaper most of the time that we're at home though, it's just too hot for anything else around here (plus you're so cute in your diaper)! You still wear your little size 2 diapers, though- you don't seem to be close to growing out of those. You've got a tiny little waist! You're eating really well right now, but that comes and goes. You've been pretty steadily eating about 5 ounces for most bottles (5 per day) but sometimes you'll chug down 7 ounces and sometimes only 3.  You have baby food at least once per day and I'm trying to make it consistently three times now- although that has yet to actually work out.  You've had and enjoyed rice cereal, carrots, squash, sweet potatoes, mixed veggies, bananas, pears, peaches, apples, chicken and brown rice pureed.  You do not enjoy green beans, sweet peas, mashed avocadoes, or prunes pureed.  You had your first finger food yesterday in the form of cut up banana- you dug it! Of course, it's not easy to pick up that sticky, slimey banana so it wasn't the most successful thing we've ever tried, but you got a couple pieces in your mouth and I think you even swallowed one! It was definitely a fun time, though.

Unfortunately you've been on antibiotics for the last ten days for an ear infection.  You started coughing about two and a half weeks ago and the congestion ended up draining into your ears and causing the infection.  You weren't ecstatic about it, but you've really handled it like a champ! A couple of rough nights when you couldn't breathe through your nose and therefore could not for the life of you figure out how to keep your binky in your mouth, but otherwise you've been pretty happy throughout the whole thing. Of course, that doesn't mean that you're not a bit fussy from time to time, just because that's who you are.  You like attention and when Daddy or I are around and not giving it to you, you make sure to let us know.  You've recently started showing us more of that diva side of your personality- if you want something, you want it right.now.  And if I don't give it to you, or if you can't have it, you're going to let me know how wrong that is.  Case in point- Mommy's cell phone or the remote control.  If it were up to you, you'd swallow both of those things whole.  You don't love it that I've begun telling you no here and there when you're going after something that's not good or smacking me in the face.  I think we're going to be a bit in trouble with you when you gain more independence my little princess.

Did you say no, Mom? You must be mistaken.

We started you at a new daycare this past month and it seems to be going pretty well.  You like the teachers and don't seem to have much trouble there. You sleep like a champ there as well, so that's always wonderful! I make sure to wave at you every day before I leave and when I pick you up (and pretty much all the time) and you've started to do a similar motion with your hand from time to time when you're just playing or taking a bottle.  I think you're going to pick up that waving thing pretty soon, as well!

Finally, this month brought our first Father's Day and such a wonderful time! I don't know that anything could live up to my amazing first Mother's Day, but we sure tried to make it great for Daddy.  You made him acute handprint card that said "I love you THIS much" and we got him lots of workout equipment because you obviously know what makes Daddy excited! We all went out to brunch and then had fun shopping together. It turned out to be a great day because you both did so well, thanks for that by the way!

My little Grace Face, my lady bug boo bear, I'm completely enamored by you.  I'm so proud of you and so excited about everything that lies before you, what an exciting journey.  You light me up in such a wonderful way and I can't get enough of your cute wrinkled nose smiles and your giggly belly laughs.  You're growing so fast and learning new things every day and it's actually a little bitter sweet.  I'll never forget my tiny little lady, so helpless and needy.  But I'm so lucky to have this beautiful and strong girl growing up before my eyes.  I love you baby girl!


Caleb, my little dude! You've had an exciting month of firsts, little man, even if some of those firsts aren't your favorite things. Mostly you've started to pick up some motor skills and it's amazing to watch you learn and figure things out all the time.  You're very calculated and you seem to really study things to figure them out- I love that about you!

This month, you started clapping! Daddy and I have been clapping with you for months- it was the first thing to get you to smile!  Whenever you do something new, I'm always clapping and cheering for you, so I wasn't too surprised when you picked it up- it seems you're always observing, even when I don't know it.  You clap when you're playing and you clap when you're hungry...and you clap sometimes when you're tired and can't figure out what you want.  The clapping even comes out sometimes when you're crying, but you usually realize pretty quickly that you aren't in "fun time" and promptly stop! :)  You'll start putting your hands together and when I say "clap clap clap" you get the biggest grin on your face, it's so cute!

You also figured out how to play with toys in a new way and it appears you taught your sister how to maneuver the cool buttons on some of your animated toys.  You figured out how to get them to play music and you do it over and over, you're truly a smart little man! You've also figured out your own way to jump in your jumperoo.  You still haven't quite gotten the whole bending of the knees thing down, so instead of jumping with your leg muscles, you jump with your arms! You throw your arms up and down to get your whole body to move, it cracks me up! You're starting to move your legs a bit more, but you still think it's much better to just go with the arms.

My little talker, you still love to hear all of the different pitches that your voice can make.  You're not really babbling with repeated sounds yet, you still prefer to just oooooh and waaaah with different tones and pitches.  It's like you're singing and I love it! You might sing before you talk.

It's been a little bit tough this month as your sister has gotten more and more mobile and you're still figuring out sitting up.  We've known for a while that she's ahead in the motor skills and you might be a bit behind. We also know that boys tend to develop later than girls and big boys come in last in that facet.  You're pretty much giant, weighing in around 23lbs, so it's not easy for you to balance all of that weight with your little muscles.  You're so much taller than Grace as well- it's crazy to see the difference in your sizes! You wouldn't even know you were siblings, let alone twins.  You don't look like you're the same age at all!

With that said, you're getting so close to sitting up on your own.  You can do it for a couple of seconds sometimes, if you feel like it, but you tend to fall backward most of the time. You've recently figured out how to push yourself back up into sitting position if you fall forward, so you're right around the corner from this new skill!  We're on the lookout- if you aren't sitting up unassisted by 9 months we'll probably start some physical therapy to help you out.  We want to make sure that you learn all of the skills you need, little man!

One cool skill you have picked up this month is standing up!  For a while we were struggling to get you to put much weight on your legs but now you absolutely love to stand up. But what's even better is that you pull yourself up into a standing position with just a little help from Mommy or Daddy now!  If we grab your hands and put your feet on our laps, you'll pull up on our hands and push your legs from bent to straight to stand up! I love seeing that you're building muscle in your legs- you'll be sitting, playing, and crawling around in NO time!

Now, we can't have a monthly post without your health check-in, and unfortunately I can't say that you get a clean bill of health this month either.  You were on antibiotics for your last upper respiratory infection and ear infection until just a week and a half ago, but you started with a new cough a few days ago and ended up with a bad fever today.  You actually started spasming and doing some random twitching this afternoon and scared the daylights out of me so after talking to your doctor we took you to the ER to get you checked out.  Luckily all was fine and we were sent home, but with no explanation for the spasms. So we have to keep a close eye on it, and your high fever, to make sure there's nothing serious going on.  I think you'll be fine and I'm glad that all of the tests came back negative and the spasms stopped today!

The not so fun first for the month was your first day in a helmet.  We had to get you a helmet because your beautiful little head is beautifully crooked.  Whether it was your position in my belly (your head jammed up into my rib cage) or your difficulty with tummy time or your tendency to turn your head one way while you slept, you ended up with quite the crooked little head.  So we bit the bullet and got you a helmet and you hate that thing.  You didn't seem to mind it much at first but then realized that it wasn't your favorite and it wasn't going away, so you didn't really dig that discovery.  We've had some rough nights with that thing and unfortunately they have to make you a new one because it wasn't fitting correctly, so you have a week without it- which means when we put it back on you you're going to freak out.  At least we get a week of sleep!  I do have to say that I miss your head.  I go to kiss you while I'm holding you and I always get a face full of plastic, I hate that.  So know this, I hate the helmet almost as much as you do!  It looks so uncomfortable, I hate that for you bubs.

On a happier note, you're still our big eater and you seem to love all food.  When you're not sick or teething (you have FOUR teeth now, two on the bottom and just recently two on the top),  you'll finish most of your bottles, usually around 7 ounces 5 times per day, and then finish all of your baby food as well.  You're not getting as much baby food as I'd like, we're working on the schedule, but you've tried and loved rice cereal, green beans, sweet peas, squash, sweet potatoes, carrots, mixed veggies, prunes, apples, pears, peaches, and bananas.  You don't love mashed avocadoes or chicken with brown rice pureed (but, the only time we tried it you were sick, so we'll try again!).  With all of this eating you're still growing non-stop. We have you in mostly 12 month clothes but you fit well into 18 month stuff, too, so we put you in those from time to time. Goodness, you're a big boy! You're still in size 4 diapers- thank goodness! 

Your first Father's Day was such a fun one.  You did awesome all day and loved being out and about as a family. You slept really well most of the time and had fun playing with your toys while we ate. A couple days later you actually got your first try at a high chair in a restaurant and did awesome- and you also rocked out the grocery cart seat as well! Big exciting things happening every day around here. Of course, you had a hand in picking out the cool Father's Day gifts we got Daddy too because you want to be big and strong like him one day- so you made sure I got him some good workout stuff that you can share.  But bud, not anytime soon, ok?  You're still my little guy!

My handsome man, I am so madly in love with you buddy.  I'm having just an absolute blast watching you grow and figure out this world.  I love that you study things so intently and learn in your own time, I'm proud of that little man.  You're an incredibly gentle boy but you've got some fire in you as well.  You crack me up and you adore to smile- it's such a blessing to laugh with you and share your happiness with everyone you come in contact with!  I'm such a lucky mama, and everyone tells me how wonderful you are.  I love you, Bubba!

Luckies, my babies. You're getting so close to growing out of that baby phase and yet you're still so new.  This has been an indescribable journey, one that I am so proud and so lucky to share with you.  I can't wait for what's coming around the next corner and I will never forget the beautiful memories we've already made together.  I love you, my little ones!