Onward Ho!

posted by — THE TWINS

It's a beautiful day!

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.

Who is this guy and what is that stuff on his face?

Roland: We got some nice presents, including a bookshelf for all of our books,

A bookshelf for all of our books

Arthur: and a red wagon!

We'll have lots of fun in our wagon. It even has a canopy!

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!

Hooo hoo! We're owls!

Arthur: We also went to Christmas Eve service wearing our Santa suits. We were tired, so we slept during most of the service.

Ho ho ho!

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!

We can sit up really well now

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's first time in a highchair at a restaurant

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!

Help! I'm stuck under the chair!

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.

It's hard for us to stay away from each other

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?

We're gonna esser-size mommy!

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!

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Eight Months Brings Big Changes

posted by — THE TWINS

Good Morning Boys!

Arthur: We’re really mad at Mommy.

Roland: Yeh. We begged her to help us write our 7 month update and she just kept ‘crasti-nayton.

Arthur: But we have learned to do a LOT of stuff now that we are 8 months old! We’re practically grown up!

This was my (Arthur) first time sitting up by myself!

Roland: Hey Arthur, that’s going a little far, don’t ya think? We can still barely sit up.

Arthur: Ok, ok, but we sure are having fun learning new stuff.

Roland: Where to begin?

Arthur:  Last month we went to a ‘velopmental sessment

Mommy: That’s a developmental assessment Honey.

Arthur: Yeh, that. The doctor made us do all sorts of things and asked Mommy and Daddy a lot of questions. They played with us and talked to us. It was pretty fun.

Our first time in a grocery cart

Roland: They said we are doing things most 6 month olds can do, and that is OK because that is right for our adjusted age.

Arthur: The physical therapist said Mommy and Daddy should do some special exercises with me for a few things, but it was nothing serious. I still like to turn my head one way, so they keep trying to make me turn it the other way. I hate it! Why can’t I just look over my right shoulder all the time?

Roland: We are also still pretty small but no one seems concerned about it. I guess we are just little babies.

I love my exersaucer

Arthur: One of my favorite things to do is to lie on my stomach, prop up my arms and spin around. When I do this, I slide around on the floor backwards but I can’t control where I’m going. That makes me mad. I keep wanting to get to things in front of me but I can’t! Sometimes I scream, I’m so mad about it!

Roland: Arthur looked like he was having so much fun doing it that I decided to try it too. Mommy laughs because sometimes she’ll walk into the living room and we will be all the way on the other side of the room, or halfway under the couch. I hope soon we can move places we want to go and not just by accident!

Roland fell fast asleep. Jumping is hard work!

Arthur: This week I decided to try something even more new. I am trying really hard to pull my knees up under my belly. Mommy says this means I might learn to crawl. I don’t know what crawling is, but it sounds like fun.

Roland: Maybe someday I’ll learn to do that crawling thing too. I try so hard to get toys that are right in front of me but just a little too far away. I reach and reach but can’t quite get to them. Sometimes Mommy helps me but sometimes she keeps making me try. I want Mommy to help every time but she says it’s good for me to try.

Steak - yum!

Arthur: We like to play games too. Mommy moves our arms around and says pat-a-cake, pat-a-cake. That is a fun one. I think I’m supposed to do something too, but I’m not sure what. Sometimes she also covers her face and then uncovers it and says, “boo!” It sort of scares me but sometimes it is funny too.

Roland: We play on the floor too. Mommy and Daddy sit with us on the floor and that is the most fun! They talk to us and help us play with toys.

Arthur: And speaking of toys, we have two new most favorite toys in the whole world. One is called an exersaucer, and we can sit in it and spin around. There are toys on it that are a lot of fun to play with.

I love broccoli

Roland: We also have a jumpy thing that hangs in the doorway. This is my favorite toy of all. I can jump and jump and jump and it is so fun! It is a lot of work though, and sometimes I get so tired that I just fall asleep right there.

Arthur: We are both trying to learn how to sit up. I can do it better than Roland (ha ha Roland!). If Mommy or Daddy helps me get up, I can sometimes sit alone for a while. I am learning to balance myself, but I still tip over a lot. It makes me really, really, really mad when I tip over onto the wood floor.

Our room

Roland: I’m trying to learn Arthur! I don’t know what the big deal is anyway. Why should I bother to sit up if I can play when I’m on my tummy?

Arthur: Because it makes it easier to sit in the grocery cart and the high chair and stuff.

Roland: Speaking of high chairs…

Arthur: Ooh! We are eating real food now and not just milk! Mommy said she is doing something called baby led weaning, so we didn’t have to do any of that gross puree stuff. She just put us in the high chair and put food in front of us.

Arthur's side of the room

Roland: It is so much fun trying to pick things up and put them in our mouths. We have been doing it for a couple of weeks and we are just starting to learn to swallow the food. We like to smell it and feel it and taste it.

Arthur: We eat everything. We eat chicken and broccoli (one of our favorites!), and sweet potatoes and peanut butter and bananas and omelets and cheese and, and, and… I can’t even remember all the stuff we eat.

Roland: Mommy says I’m swallowing more stuff than Arthur (ha ha Arthur!) and she says she knows because she sees it on the other side. What does that mean?

Roland's side of the room

Arthur: The hardest thing is that we don’t have that pincer grasp thing, so it’s hard to pick stuff up. But when we do, we know right were to put it. Sometimes I make a funny face when I taste something new, but I haven’t found anything yet that I don’t like.

Roland: We love Mommy a lot. Sometimes we get nervous if someone else tries to hold us and we can’t see her.

Arthur: But we love Daddy soooooo much too! Every day when he comes home we are so excited! We kick our legs and laugh and laugh! We watch him walk around and squeal to ask him to pick us up.

Roland's first time in the crib

Roland: We love when our grandmas come over too. They hold us and play with us and give us lots of kisses.

Arthur: And even though we don’t really like strangers to hold us, we like it a lot when they smile and talk to us. When we go to the store with Mommy it seems like everyone wants to talk to us! We must be extra special.

Roland: Well, Mommy and Daddy say that something called Christmas is really soon. They put up a lot of pretty lights in the house and they have bright paper and bows and stuff all over the place. We got to go sit on this guy’s lap who had on a red suit and had white hair and a long, fluffy beard. Mommy says his name is Santa. He was really nice.

Arthur's first time in his crib

Arthur: I liked touching his beard. Mommy asked the elves to take pictures of us with Santa. She said she will post them later.

Roland: Also, Mommy and Daddy said we are going to get presents, plus our big brothers are going to come visit! We are so excited. We even have special clothes to wear to the Christmas Eve church service and on Christmas morning. Don’t worry, we will make mommy post all of the pictures of that.

Arthur: Mommy and Daddy finally have our room mostly finished. We still need a dresser and a bookshelf and a few things like that, but it looks really good. We’re sleeping in there now.

Roland: Yeh, but we’re not super happy about sleeping in the cribs, so Mommy has a mattress in there. We sleep part of the time in the crib and part of the time with Mommy. She says she is working on transitioning us.

Halfway Through Our First Year

posted by — THE TWINS

Arthur & Roland, 6 months old

Arthur: Whoo hoo! We’re six months old!

Roland: We can do so much stuff now, and we’re even cuter than we were before!

Arthur: Is that possible?

Roland: There is no limit to our capacity for cuteness.

That's me, Arthur, in one of Mommy's babywearing things

Arthur: We had our six month well baby checkup and things are looking good. We notice so much more stuff now. I wonder why we didn’t notice before?

Roland: I guess things didn’t seem as interesting. Besides, we needed to focus on growing and making sure our insides finished cooking.

Arthur: The doctor said we’re doing many things a five month old can do, so we’re on track for our ‘justed age. Here are some things we can do now:

• Reach for toys, hold on to them, and bring them to our mouths
• Hold our feet and eat them too!
• Blow bubbles
• Squeal and make noises about funny things
• Turn our heads toward noises

Here's me, Roland!

Roland: They weighed us and measured us and played with us to see how well we can do things like hold up our heads and move our arms and legs around. I now weigh 12 pounds and 4 ounces.

Arthur: I’m still bigger. Ha ha on you Roland! I weigh 13 pounds and 14 ounces!

Roland: We are still both at or below the 1^st percentile in growth but the good news is that we’re still moving along the curve. I don’t know what that means exactly but the doctor said it is ok.

Arthur:  We went to the fair last weekend. It was our first time at the fair and there wasn’t a lot for us to do.

We're at the fair! Yay! Or not so much. We're both passed out.

Roland: Mommy and Daddy wore us on their backs, so we just slept most of the day. Next year we’ll be old enough to have fun there.

Arthur: Well there sure is a lot of cool stuff happening all around us now. We love to watch Daddy walking up the stairs. He waves to us from the balcony and that makes us giggle.

Roland: The ceiling fan is fascinating too. It goes around and around and around. It makes my head spin.

Arthur: And the dogs! The dogs are so funny! Are they new? Because I don’t really remember seeing them before.

Roland: Don’t be silly. Of course they were there. You just weren’t looking at them!

We always seem to be holding hands when we're next to each other.

Arthur: Mommy and Daddy gave us sleep monkeys to hold when it’s time to go to sleep. They use them to trick us into going to sleep.

Roland: They’re always trying to trick us into going to sleep! Why should we sleep? There is too much going on for something as silly as sleep.

Arthur: A couple of weeks ago Mommy and Daddy took us to a park and a lady took a bunch of pictures of us. It was pretty boring, so we didn’t feel too inspired to smile. Sometimes we couldn’t help it though. Mommy says that the pictures are really nice and that we can use one of them for Christmas cards.

Roland: That first picture on the blog is one she took. I think Mommy will put another one at the end too. She says it’s one of her favorites.

Arthur: Ooh! And Mommy and Daddy are getting a little closer to making our room all finished and decorated.

Roland: They painted a big rainbow on the wall and made a thingy to hold up our quilt.

The rainbow is finished! (Mommy says not to look at her hair)

Arthur: We don’t really want to sleep in there right now but it will be fun to have our own room with our toys and clothes in it and stuff.

Roland: Daddy says he has to do some work on our cribs before he puts them in the room.

Arthur: And Mommy has to figure out where everything should go.

Roland: Plus, Nana is making some neat puzzle pictures for the walls too.

Arthur: They say that maybe they will be finished with all of it by the time we start kindergarten. We secretly hope they don’t, because we like sleeping with Mommy and Daddy.

Roland: Mommy took some movies of us acting silly. Have fun watching them!

Arthur: We’re too tired to talk anymore. That sleep monkey is making my….eyes….feel….so….heavy. Goodnight

It was a pretty day at the park.

Five and Fabulous

posted by — THE TWINS

We're five months old! I'm Arthur and I'm on the left. Roland is on the right.

Arthur: We’re five months old today! (Well, actually it was yesterday, but Mommy didn’t get the blog post up in time.)

Roland: Yep, and everyone says we are really, really cute.

Arthur: We’re growing and growing, plus we can do all kinds of neat stuff now.

Nana and Roland

Roland: I want to tell them what we can do!

Arthur: No! I’m gonna tell them!

Mommy: Now boys, don’t fight. You can BOTH tell everyone.

Arthur & Roland: Ok – here’s some of the stuff:

• Lift our heads and torsos up when on our tummies
• Say oooh and ahhh and gurgle and smile and squeal
• Bear weight on our legs (we like to push off like rockets!)
• Track objects and people with our eyes and also by turning our heads
• Bring our hands together
• Suck our thumbs (and fingers and fists)
• Bat at hanging toys
• Grasp toys if they’re put in our hands
• Bring toys to our mouths
• Coo and blow bubbles when people talk to us
• Roll over from tummy to back (occasionally but we don’t like to do it so we mostly pretend we don’t know how)

Arthur and Apollo

Arthur: There’s probably more stuff but those are the big ones. There are still some things we haven’t learned yet but we’ll figure them out eventually.

Roland: We went to the doctor today just to see how much we weigh. I now weigh 11 lbs 7oz and Arthur weighs 12 lbs 7oz. I am trying hard to catch up but he keeps beating me!

Arthur: And we’re still really little. But we’re super cute, so that makes up for it.

Roland: You mean I’m super cute. You’re just sort of cute. he he he he

Our first time at the Farmer's Market restaurant. Sausage biscuits - yum!

Arthur: Whatever Dude. Anyway, we stay at home most of the time because we get really cranky when we go anywhere. Mommy says it gives her a headache, so we do fun stuff at home. We have some toys we really like to play with, like Octopus, inch worm, links, and our lovies.

Roland: Next month, when we’re six months old, we’ll go to the doctor for our checkup and we’ll also go to a special place where some people will check out all the things we can do. Mommy says they just want to know what we have learned and whether there are things we need to work on more or need special help with. She promises we won’t get any shots there.

Mommy and Daddy carried us all around the farmer's market while they were buying stuff.

Arthur: I’ve decided I like my thumb better than a pacifier and Mommy says she’s glad. Roland still can’t decide which he likes better. He’s not as good at getting his thumb in his mouth as I am.

Roland: I’m trying. I’m better at things like standing on my legs, rolling over and stuff like that. Arthur is better at things where he uses his hands and fingers.

Arthur: Well, that’s what’s going on with us. We keep telling Mommy to take more pictures of us, but she always forgets. Hopefully she won’t wait so long to help us write another update! Oh, and go Pack!

The Wolfpack cubs are ready to par-tay!

Babywearing a deux

posted by — THE MOMMY

My favorite baby-wearing photo so far!

Sling + Mei Tai double carry!

Then and Now

posted by — THE TWINS

We’re four months old now and look how far we’ve come!

Peanut Butter & Jelly, birth-day

Peanut Butter & Jelly, 4 months

Four Months Old

Daddy with the boys, Roland on left, Arthur on right

From Mommy: The boys had their 4 month checkup this week and they’re doing fine. In the stats, I list where they are on the growth chart for both their chronological and adjusted age. Chronological is how they compare to other four-month-old babies. Adjusted is how they compare to other babies who are about 2.5 months old (which is how old they would be if they’d been born on time).

Roland’s stats:
Weight – 10lb 7oz — .38% chronological — 10% adjusted
Height – 22.75 in — 1% chronological — 25% adjusted
Head Circumference – 15 in — .33% chronological — 6% adjusted

Arthur’s stats:
Weight – 11lb 9oz — 3% chronological — 26% adjusted
Height – 23.25 in — 4% chronological — 48% adjusted
Head Circumference – 15.25 in — 1% chronological — 11% adjusted

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sleeping Beauties? Arthur, Roland

Arthur: We are still really little, even for our adjusted age, but Mommy says we are perfect tiny little babies.

Roland: The doctor said that our weight gain is fine and we are developing well.

Arthur: I can find my hand easily now and am trying to learn to control my own movement so I can touch toys and things.

Roland: I don’t really understand how to move my arms, but they move around a lot anyway! Sometimes they hit things that make noise and I like that.

There are a lot of toys on this for us to play with

Arthur: Smiling is fun! So is making noise with out mouths. Mommy and Daddy make really funny faces at us and that makes us smile and talk.

Roland: We love our jungle gym mat. There is so much cool stuff to look at and touch. A lot of the stuff makes noise. Sometimes it sort of surprises me when the things make noise.

Arthur: Mommy and Daddy took us outside and we got to lie on a blanket on the grass! There was a lot to look at outside.

Roland: When we went to the doctor we had to get shots. We hate that! It hurts and then we feel bad for the whole day. Mommy says it makes us cranky.

Arthur: Yeh, how come they do that to us every time we go? I don’t think I want to go there any more.

Roland: Mommy has been adding up how much milk we get in bottles and she says that we are now getting only 25% of our food from formula. We nurse all the time now.

Mommy didn't pose us like this, we just like sleeping this way

Arthur:It took us an awfully long time to learn but we were so little! It was hard! Now it’s easy and we like it. We don’t even have to wait for a bottle to heat up or anything. Mama’s milk is always ready to go!

Roland: We tried sleeping all night but decided that it’s overrated. We think it’s much better to wake up at about 3:30 a.m. every morning. As long as we get to nurse we stay quiet and go back to sleep though.

Arthur: Mom promised us that when the weather cools down we will go for more walks. Yay! There is so much neat stuff to look at outside. We can’t wait!

Roland: Daddy says he’ll believe it when he sees it. Sees what?

Arthur: The doctor said I turn my head the same way all the time and that Mommy and Daddy should help me turn it the other way. She says I need to do something called tummy time:

Tummy Time

But I HATE tummy time!

Tummy time is over!

What I do like to do is suck my thumb.

Yummy!

Roland: Ha ha Arthur! You look like you’re eating your hand!

Arthur: Don’t be jealous Roland. You’ll learn to do it soon. Good night!