Eight Months!

Eight months have come and gone with the Doubleshot, and I am thankful for every moment I’ve had with them. Each night I fall into bed feeling like I’ve accomplished something… and I sleep hard.

So much has happened this month. I would attribute a lot of this to having grandparents around for 2 of the 4 weeks! It was wonderful to have time to focus on just one baby at a time – not having to constantly split my attention, premeditate pitfalls/disasters, and have a multitude of contingency plans. The girls blossomed with so much extra loving. And me? I actually had quiet space in my own head, which was restorative. (And I took a vacation from blogging. Did you notice?)

The changes are visible. The girls have all but outgrown their 0-3 month clothing, and they can FINALLY start wearing some of their accumulating wardrobe. They are solidly in size 2 diapers. Elli is losing some of her baby belly with all of her moving about and I’ve had to tighten the straps on her highchair. Their hair is filling in and looks like it will be my color, or a little lighter like it was when I was a child. No teeth yet, and that’s no surprise since my brother and I didn’t get them until we were 10 and 13 months! (They’ve been showing all of the signs they were ready to since 4 months, however.) Their eyes are ever-changing. Some days they look gray, some brown, some green. I think this means they are hazel?

The girls are interacting more and more every day. They will usually roll to one another and be touching, yet still doing their own thing. However, we have had some disagreements and “fighting” over toys. One girl will often watch for the other’s reaction to something (at times that “something” is the intentional taking of a binky or favorite toy.) They “talk” in response to one another a few times a day. Elli always leans over to reach and place a hand on Anni’s high chair whenever she finds a dull moment in her own chair.

Their “talking” is becoming more and more sophisticated. They have begun to include 2 syllable noises in their conversations. For example, instead of just saying “gooooo” , one might say “ahhhhh-goo”. Shrieking in delight is a constant. I’m very certain they are starting to respond verbally to my talking. I’m pretty sure Elli said “hiiiiiiiiiiiii” the other day. And, Anni said something that sounded remarkably like “sh*t, man” last week. She did not hear that from me.

Whereas sleep was so elusive 2 months ago, the girls are now sleeping from 6:30 to 6:30! They needed binkies popped in a few times a night up until a couple weeks ago, when that started to diminish. Now it is rare that I even have to check on them at night. HALLELUJAH. And, Elli was crooning in her sleep a few nights ago. It was possibly the sweetest thing I’ve seen or heard ever. This is the first concrete evidence I’ve had that they dream.

I continue to introduce new foods every few days (videos to come). Since the introduction of puffs on Easter, both girls can now grab a puff quicker than I can set them down. Elli polishes them off so quickly that I rarely see them go into her mouth. Anni has a hard time letting the puffs go once her hand gets to her mouth, so I’d say only about 30% are actually consumed. The other 70% end up elsewhere. (More on that in another post.) Anni took to her sippy cup right away and is a champ at drinking from it. Elli proved she was capable of drinking from it last week, but she continues to dislike it and push the cup away. I will continue trying every few days.

Both girls are always on the move. Rolling, flipping, backward scooting, turning in circles. It all happens so fast that I can’t believe they haven’t been doing it more than a couple of weeks. They don’t seem to think twice about obstacles and can get to wherever they desire without my assistance. No actual crawling yet, but it’s coming. Anni often finds herself in the “superman” (belly on the floor and all appendages flailing) and looks so puzzled as to why she isn’t going anywhere. Elli has started reaching out occasionally to signal she wants to be picked up. Anni today pulled herself up int her book box to retrieve a favorite book (Five Little Ladybugs, if you’re interested). Both girls can sit independently for short periods of time, but don’t really like to. Anni stiffens herself as flat as a board to let me know she is not interested in doing it. Reflux continues to plague the girls a bit, making the sitting a messy business anyway.

If I had to sum it all up, I’d call the girls BUSY . It is amazing to watch them discover new things every day. I can see them learning about cause and effect. (When I snap mom’s bra strap, she howls in pain, and it is funny. When I snap mom’s shirt, it makes a cool whooshing noise and it is funny. When I take sis’s binky and put it in my own mouth, she gets mad, and it is funny. When I push a key on my piano, I must wait until the music finishes to push the key again for more music.) They are definitely observing people and I am trying to be more conscious of my own actions and reactions to things. I started to implement House Rules with our older little friends who come to visit. I am using the girls' fascination with Lucy to teach them about being “gentle” and “rough”, because they will soon be getting into trouble with each other and they need to understand what I am telling them when I say “be gentle”. Everything that can be grabbed is grabbed. Oh, and they love waltzing with me.

Whoa. It's good to be back. Stay tuned for photo and video recaps.