Arthur: Our first Christmas was a blast! We sat on this guy’s lap who wore a bright red outfit and had a big beard. Someone took our picture there too.
Roland: We got some nice presents, including a bookshelf for all of our books,
Arthur: and a red wagon!
Roland: We got all sorts of toys and goodies from Nana, Grandma, and our aunts and uncles. Everyone loves our owl hats. People stop us everywhere to ask where we got them!
Arthur: We also went to Christmas Eve service wearing our Santa suits. We were tired, so we slept during most of the service.
Roland: Mommy and Daddy said we had to sleep if we wanted Santa to come!
Arthur: In other big news…. we had our 9 month checkup today!
Roland: So how are we Arthur? I’m on the edge of my highchair!
Arthur: It turns out that we are just fine. Yes, we’re still little but the doctor says it doesn’t matter. We are growing and that’s what counts.
Roland: We were sort of nervous about going to the doctor, because we’ve noticed that we get shots every time, and that hurts.
Arthur: But we were very sneaky! We distracted the doctor by being really cute, and he must have forgotten to give us any shots.
Roland: Maybe we weren’t supposed to get any this time Arthur.
Arthur: I think it’s because we made him forget and I’m sticking to that story.
Roland: If you say so Arthur. Anyway, the nice nurse lady weighed us and measured us. I’m now 14 lbs, 4 oz and Arthur is 16 lbs, 4 oz. I wonder if I’ll ever catch up to him. I’m almost as tall as him though. I’m 27 inches tall and he’s 27.5, so ha!
Arthur: I’m bigger now, but don’t worry Roland, I’m sure you’ll catch up to me. I got kind of scared when the nurse lady picked me up to put me on the scale. I was worried she would take me away from Mommy and I cried a little bit.
Roland: The doctor looked in our ears and tickled us and poked us and used a funny thing to listen to our insides. I wanted to taste it to see what it was, but he kept moving it around.
Arthur: We were so tired when we left that we fell right to sleep in the car. Mommy said she spends a lot of money on gas just to drive us around when we are asleep!
Roland: What have we learned since last month? Well, we can both sit up really well now. We almost never tip over. We’re practicing going from sitting to tummy but that still ends up in head bonking a lot of times.
Arthur: We both really want to move, but it’s still hard to figure out how to get to where we want to go. Spinning around on the floor moves us around but not in any particular direction. Sometimes we just end up stuck under the couch or a chair.
Roland: Everyone says they think we will crawl soon. I hope crawling means being able to chase the dogs! For some reason, they move away every time we try to pet them.
Arthur: We’re really into the eating thing now too. I think Roland likes it even better than I do. He uses both hands to stuff a lot of things in his mouth at once. I like to try one thing at a time.
Roland: Mommy is still working on helping us sleep better. We’re trying really hard! We know now that our cribs are nice, comfy places to fall asleep, and Mommy helps us relax there so we don’t have to cry and get scared.
Arthur: Every night we do the same thing, so we know when it’s bedtime. We get night diapers on, change into our jammies, have a story, have some milk, and listen to lullabies. By then we are sooooo sleepy! We hold on to our lovies and go to sleep.
Roland: Staying asleep is not as easy but we’re getting better at that too. Mommy says maybe one day she will be able to move that mattress off of the floor and back into the guest bedroom. But why would she want to do that?
Arthur: We sleep in separate cribs because otherwise we kick each other too much. When Mommy puts us on the bed for naps, she says that no matter how far apart she lays us down, we always end up lying right on top of each other. But we like to be together!
Roland: Mommy got a fancy new stroller and we love it. It even has things she can zip onto the bottom to keep us nice and warm. She signed up for a special class where she can exercise while she pushes us in the stroller. We can’t wait to start because we love to ride and look all around.
Arthur: It’s time for us to go. We have to take a nap and then we have a lot of playing we need to get done before dinner time. We’ll talk to you next month!