Category: Twins

Posted on

Twins 18 month stats

The twins are now 20 months old, but we just had their 18 month checkup a few weeks ago. Here are their official 18 month stats:

Nat

  • Height: 33.25″ (63%)
  • Weight: 23 lbs. 12 oz. (36%)
  • Head: 47.7 cm (53%)
  • BMI: 15.1 kg/m2 (22%)

Avit

  • Height: 34.5″ (93%)
  • Weight: 27 lbs. 5 oz. (82%)
  • Head: 48.8 cm (82%)
  • BMI: 16.1 kg/m2 (52%)

The heights are definitely off again because they are not over an inch apart in height, but everything else looked good. Growing right along!

So where to even begin with these two right now… I alternate between marveling (still) at the fact that we have twins and how I could not love 2 little simultaneous boys any more, and the utterly soul-crushing frustration that comes with trying to control, corral, teach, and raise 2 little simultaneous boys. Plus their 3 older siblings. And these swings often happen every 5 minutes, all day long. No wonder I always look like the walking dead!

I’m home with just the twins in the mornings now while Morrison is at school, and they have actually gotten to the point where I can put on PBS kids, let them play, and get a couple things accomplished in those few hours without worrying every second that they’re going to destroy everything or seriously harm each other. Baby steps.

I’m also trying very hard to keep them awake all morning now, but they are so very fond of that morning nap. When we walk to school they usually do fall asleep when I go back to get Morrison around 10:30 and are then asleep for about an hour, which generally screws up the afternoon nap that I need all 3 boys to take. Nat will go back down fine in the afternoon when that happens, but Avit usually won’t. (that picture below of Avit’s bed with a big green lump in it is him – one day during his nap i heard him start crying pretty hard, went in, and found that he had gotten himself all the way under the fitted sheet without getting any of the corners up. how??) If we drive to school, they can usually stay awake the whole time, which means a good chunk of 2-3 hours when they’re both asleep in the afternoon while Morrison naps, too. It is glorious, but I don’t want to give up all the exercise I’m getting walking 6 miles a day with the 3 trips to/from school.

They do still go to bed by about 6:00 in the evening, and the middle-of-the-night wakeups for a pacifier or just to cry out or whatever have dwindled significantly. Avit does talk in his sleep, though, which is hilarious. However, their new morning wakeup time is 4:45, which does not jive with me. On school days my alarm goes off at 5:30, so when they wake up too early I put on Daniel Tiger and they happily sit in their cribs learning life lessons while I sleep. I thought this early wakeup time was due to the summer light, since that’s when it started, but now I don’t know why it’s sticking around. Changing their bedtime doesn’t make them wake up any later, either. Sometimes they’ll sleep until 5-5:30, but I can’t get them to stretch it past that yet. No wonder they’re exhausted by the end of the morning – they wake up too damn early! Coffee, coffee, coffee.

They love to run back and forth across the house, which is hysterical to watch because they often get going too fast for their own feet and crash into each other. If you give them a box, they could play forever, and they are really good about getting their little toys and books out and occupying themselves. When it gets too quiet in the living room when I’m here with just them, I always walk out expecting to see a disaster, but usually it’s just a lull in their action to watch whatever is on PBS. It’s always PBS kids these days, no more Little Baby Bum. And Daniel Tiger is definitely their favorite. Sometimes I do catch them up on the couch messing with Ryan’s stuff, but thankfully nothing major has been demolished yet. (knock on wood!) They have so much fun playing with each other now, but oh, do they adore their big brother and sisters!

Avit chatters and babbles all day long, saying “Hi truck!” and blowing kisses to everything he sees pass by the window, but most of it is completely unintelligible. All of it, however, is completely adorable. He does have a very distinct version of “thank you” and knows quack-quack for ducks and night-night. He is also an incredible cleaner-upper and will put on any pair of shoes he can find and clomp around the house in them. Nat doesn’t make quite so much “talking” noise, but good lord can his screams pierce an ear drum. It is literally an enraging sound, and it takes every ounce of motherly calm I possess not to strangle him when he goes into one of his screaming fits. Which is often. Very often. More coffee. And wine.

Nat is really good at mimicking words you say – bath-bath, night-night for bed, eat-eat while signing “eat.” please while signing “please,” puffs, something that sounds like Mommy even though they all call me Mama so he never hears the word Mommy, quack-quack, and poop. Of course poop.

They have gotten a little less picky at eating, but Avit still prefers meat/protein far more than Nat. I have switched Avit to 2% milk with the rest of the kids since our pediatrician said they could both go to it now, but I still give Nat whole. Little Natty-Nat needs to bulk up compared to Avit. Avit’s feet, I swear, are already almost twice the size of Nat’s! These two really could not be more different.

Avit is so funny. For as bulldog-ish as he appears, he is the sweetest, most snuggly guy, and he gives the most wonderful hugs, back pats, and arm rubs. He was rubbing my arm today with his head on my shoulder before nap, and I could have held him there forever. Nat is a featherweight in comparison, and he is definitely the mama’s boy of the two. Whenever anything is wrong, I’m the one who has to pick Nat up to calm the screaming. Always me. Sometimes Della, never Ryan, but usually me. More wine.

To make up for Nat’s hogging of my attention, I always try to give Avit some extra hugs and snuggles whenever I can. I never thought twin boys could be so lovable, but when these two come running up to me, arms outstretched in love (not meltdowns), pacifiers going, snuggle blanket corners gripped tightly, they’re pretty irresistible.

It’s hard to believe we’re approaching 2 years with these little guys. They sure can make some days challenging, but then others I feel like the luckiest mama on earth.

Posted on

They’re one!

Your whole first year has come and gone,

And now today you are both one.

I never imagined surviving such a feat,

But you have made our family complete.

On the day you were born, first Nat then little A,

The fear I’d been carrying just melted away.

Watching you grow every day, your eyes filled with wonder,

Makes it clear that our headcount of children is simply a number.

You’re both cautious at times, then other times brave;

You have filled to overflowing the love that my mama heart craves.

The last first birthday we’ll celebrate here,

And these moments with you two I’ll forever hold dear.

Nat and Avit are 1!! And yes, that happened a month and a half ago, but you know full well how this blog works. And actually, we just had their 12 month well check last week, so I do always like to put those stats in the update posts when we have them. So there you go, not so late after all.

To start, here are the twins’ official 12 month stats:

Nat

  • Weight:  22 lbs. (53%)
  • Height:  30.5″ (56%)
  • Head:  46.6 cm (57%)
  • BMI:  16.6 kg/m2 (48%)

Avit

  • Weight:  24 lbs. 6 oz. (84%)
  • Height:  31″ (75%)
  • Head:  47.2 cm (74%)
  • BMI:  17.8 kg/m2 (79%)

Ok, so a couple things here. Avit is obviously heavier than Nat when we pick them up, so it was fun to finally see by exactly how much. Also, Avit is definitely not taller than Nat – they were squirming around on the table when the nurse tried to stretch them out to measure height, so that is wrong. When they stand next to each other, Nat is clearly taller, and I even told the doctor those measurements are off. I was instructed to take their daily milk amount down from 30-32 oz. to 24 oz. (they still have 4 bottles of whole milk daily mixed in with their 3 meals of real food, so i’ve just knocked them down from 8 oz. to 6 oz. each). The doctor said this might help with Avit’s terrible dry skin and maybe even out their weights a little. Nat’s head still has its obvious flat spot on the back right side, but I read that kids’ heads have years to round out before they’re permanently fused. The pediatrician has never been worried about it or instructed us to do anything about it, so hopefully it will round. I can’t help but worry about it, but it hasn’t impeded his development at all so far.

Otherwise everything looked great! Avit ran around the exam room in his diaper, which the doctor loved to see, and Nat crawled right on over to the little chairs, pulled himself up instantly, and started walking along the furniture just like he does here, which made her very happy also. She said he’s so close to walking she has no worries at all.

It’s still hard to believe that we have 2 one year olds in the house! These little guys are crazy, hilarious, adorable, and so full of love that I can’t stand it. They both chatter all day long. No real words yet – lots of da-das, ba-bas, little melodic songs, but of course no mama (the only time one of them even came close to something that sounded like mama was after they got their shots at the doctor last week, ha!) – and like I said with the others, I can’t wait to hear what they’re actually saying once they do talk. They both love to snuggle into you when they’re sad or sleepy, and sometimes they just come over, want to be picked up, and just be with you. They both bob up and down dancing; Nat claps; they wave; they play peek-a-boo; they love to blow spits and raspberries; they’re getting good at signing “all done,” “eat,” “milk,” and “more”; they play with their toys all day long; they wake up full of smiles in the morning eager to see you and give you hugs. I love them to pieces.

The onesies I had made for their birthday could not have been more perfect. Avit was “Wild 1” and Nat was “Mild 1.” Any more fitting would have been impossible. I loved it!

Within the past week I’ve replaced the dueling jumpers with the big playpen, which they actually enjoy. I think they like being able to play together when they have to be contained instead of just hanging separately with nothing really to do. I’ve also swapped out the infant bucket car seats and put in the rear-facing convertible seats, so they’re really getting to be big boys! It’s so crazy to watch the daily progression.

Last night as I was getting them ready for bed, I was thinking about how this time around all the baby milestones don’t seem nearly as bittersweet as the others did. Probably because we’re doing it twice at once this time. Probably because I know for sure it’s the last time we’ll be hitting them all, whereas with Morrison I always had the “hmm, I wonder if…” in the back of my mind. Either way, I like not really having that pit of “awww… we’ll never do that again…” in my stomach each time we hit one of their milestones or leave a certain baby phase. It’s nice for a change, instead of feeling a longing for not being able to turn back time. Don’t get me wrong – I absolutely love the baby stage and it is kind of weird knowing there will never be babies born in this house again, but that’s ok. I have no doubt that is how it’s supposed to be, and I feel it with my entire being this time. I’m good. We’re full.

Otherwise, they’re just getting more and more into the groove of being part of a 5-kid family every day. They absolutely adore their big brother and sisters, and hearing the big kids make the babies laugh is the sweetest music ever. They still take 2 naps a day, morning and afternoon, and really neither seems close to dropping either of those. They’re into mostly size 18 month clothes, wear size 4 diapers and size 5 overnights, have finally been sleeping through the night since around 11 months (they still wake for the occasional pacifier replacement, but nothing like it used to be since i stopped nursing them), and generally entertain us daily. They both hate sippy cups and are just now starting to drink their bottles cold, which is driving me nuts. I know I never warmed a bottle of whole milk before for any of the other 3, so these guys aren’t getting warm milk anymore either. Sorry, charlies, cold milk is where it’s at now. They’re getting better at drinking it unheated, but they don’t guzzle it down nearly as quickly as when it was warm.

Twins. One-year-old twins! Definitely never someone I pictured walking and crawling through this house, that’s for sure. But it’s pretty great having them here. And now that we’ve made it through the first year, I think we’ll keep them. These little guys have totally captured my heart and, along with their big siblings, make it overflow every single day.

Happy 1st birthday, Nat Jennings and Avit Jerome!! We love you guys so very, very much, and we can’t wait to celebrate with you two every step of the way!

Here are the big 1 year comparison posts and pictures. I still don’t think any of these 5 look alike. Some resemble each other, yes, but there aren’t 2 who I’d say oh yes, you’re definitely related.

Posted on

Twins 10 month stats

The twins turned 10 months old at the end of November, and Houston, we have 2 crawlers! So there are now babies ALL OVER THE PLACE!

I finally stopped being lazy and actually feed them now, starting around Thanksgiving, and they’re doing great! Maybe they honestly just didn’t want to eat the past couple months when I tried, because now it’s like they can’t get enough. And so far they’ve liked and not had any bad reaction to everything I’ve given them – all varieties of baby food fruits and veggies (but baby food meat in a jar is so horribly disgusting, i refuse to make them eat that. yuck!) in both jars and pouches, Cheerios, puffs, cheese, blueberries, bananas, apples, pasta, meatballs (their new favorite!), oranges, crackers, rice, green beans, sweet potatoes, cooked carrots, stuffing, mashed potatoes. I want to try to introduce peanuts to them to make sure there are no allergies, but I’m not quite sure how to do that yet. They still love their bottles, though, and come crawling when they see me making them. I’m just now getting Nat to hold his own bottle, too, which is fantastic!

Their sleep at night is still horrendous, so we’re working on that. I just stopped nursing them overnight last night, and there was all the crying. I finally left our bedroom and slept on the couch since I don’t have to feed them in the middle of the night and boy, oh boy, do their lungs work. They’ve gotta figure this shit out, though. Almost 11 months is ridiculous. I even read a bunch of articles yesterday about getting older babies to sleep through, and I kept seeing that if it isn’t happening by 12 months to talk to your pediatrician. Even the internet runs out of answers by then. Awesome.

But otherwise, they’re great. These are 2 hilarious little guys to watch, and I love seeing them just playing all day, chattering away and making noises the whole time. They each know their name, too, and they actually respond when you call them. They’re so content to dig into their toy pile and play with stuff, it’s amazing. I really only have to put them in their jumpers for containment when I need to get something out of sight done like shower, laundry in the basement, etc. The rest of the time they’re totally fine crawling around and playing. I just shut the bedroom and bathroom doors, and they’re good. We actually took 2 real babyproofing steps, too, which, if you know us well, you know we don’t babyproof. They just figure it out. 😉 I put a gate up in the kitchen to block access to the back door area and basement stairs, and I put clear rubber protectors on the corners of our new coffee table in the living room because that thing is brutal! 

Now that Nat is mobile, too, he’s testing out his strength against Avit. More than once I’ve seen him literally climb up on Avit’s head and try to knock him down. Payback for all those nights Avit slept on top of him in their shared crib. Avit still likes to take every toy Nat plays with away from him, which causes Nat to scream, so we’re trying to teach Avit to stop that. Their interactions are so funny. 

Seeing 2 little bodies crawling around the house at the same time is pretty crazy. This morning I was vacuuming, came around the corner from our bedroom, and both of them were sitting right next to each other in the middle of the bathroom just looking at me with wide eyes. Plotting my future demise, I’m sure, hahaha! 

They could not be more different, both in looks and personality. Nat is still the much calmer of the 2, except, of course, for his high-pitched screams and wails at night. Avit crawls at the speed of light and must figure out a way to investigate or get into every single thing he sees. And he 100% knows when he’s doing something naughty, because when he sees you coming to stop him, he looks at you, smiles, usually squinks up his face and giggles, then crawls away as fast as he possibly can. He’s also probably days away from walking. He takes a tentative step or two on his own, but no actual walking across rooms yet. Nat is much happier to just grab a toy and sit and play with it. Except Nat is the one who’s more prone to make a bee-line across the living room rug to the Christmas tree area. Stinker. Nat falls asleep for naps much better still, whereas Avit likes to flop around in his pack n play as much as possible and grab anything within reach to bring it in with him. Avit shovels his food in from his high chair tray, whereas Nat is happy eating one thing at a time, actually chewing and swallowing his food like a normal person. Nat has the most delicate little pixie face, and Avit is much more Gerber-baby cute. Both perfect for eating baby faces, though!

The big 3 always tell me that my tummy picked the right babies with the twins, and they’re exactly right. They’ve also asked if my tummy had picked only one, which one would it be, Nat or Avit. I have no idea, but it’s hard to picture life with only one of these two. I love them so much, and I can’t believe they’re almost 1!

Here are the 11 month posts for the big 3:

And here are all the monthly pictures – Della, Lana, Morrison, twins, then all twins from the beginning.

Posted on

Twins 9 month stats

Nat and Avit turned 9 months old on Halloween, so this post will be super short since 10 months is just 2 days away. I just want to make sure I get their picture up here.

We did have a well check this time, so here are their official 9 month stats:

Nat

  • Height:  29″ (74%)
  • Weight:  19 lbs. 3 oz. (40%)
  • Head:  45 cm (48%)
  • BMI:  16 kg/m2 (19%)

Avit

  • Height:  29″ (74%)
  • Weight:  19 lbs. 14 oz. (53%)
  • Head:  45.5 cm (63%)
  • BMI:  16.6 kg/m2 (34%)

For comparison, here are the 9 month posts for the other 3:

And here are all the 9 month pictures – Della, Lana, Morrison, twins. Then the usual all-twins montage.

 




Posted on

Twins 8 month stats

Nat and Avit turned 8 months old just 3 days ago. And I’m already writing their monthly post! What?!? I know! (ok, so obviously september 30 wasn’t 3 days ago now, but i really did write this post when it was, so i’m sticking with my original punctuality)

Since I just got around to their 6 and 7 month post a few weeks ago, though, this one will be very short and sweet. Their next checkup isn’t until 9 months, so I have no new growth stats to share, and pretty much everything is exactly the same as that last post.

They still aren’t sleeping through the night. They still show minimal interest in solids, so I’m not wasting the time I don’t have trying to force them and then cleaning up more giant messes. I’ve tried Cheerios with both of them, too, and I’ve never seen babies do a worse job trying to get those tiny circles in their mouths. Avit seemed like he wanted to eat them, but he couldn’t actually get any in his mouth; Nat actually pressed his lips closed and pulled away when I tried to feed him one. Fine then, be that way! I loathe the spoon-fed baby food stage anyway, so I’m just going to wait until they can feed themselves better.

I do think this lack of food is contributing to their nighttime wakeups, though, so just yesterday I started giving them an extra bottle during the day. Nat has started throwing in this early nightly wakeup again that is enough to drive me insane. He clearly does NOT need to be waking and having another bottle anywhere between 8-11, because he used to sleep from 6:00 until at least 2 a.m. easily and consistently. So I’m just pumping them as full of milk as I can. I’ve switched their first 2 bottles of the day to be all breastmilk; I’ve added a third bottle that’s half milk, half formula; I’ve switched their last 2 bottles of the day to be all formula; and I’ve changed their bedtime bottle to be 8 oz. instead of 6 oz. like all the other bottles are. So we’ll see.

Avit still steamrolls all over everything, including Nat. He is literally 1 knee “step” away from crawling, and each day I am shocked that he still hasn’t fully figured it out. Don’t worry, he still squiggles and rolls his way all over the place, though. (update – he finally got that second knee going for a real crawl 2 days ago. look out!) Nat is still content to just lie on the floor and roll around. No sitting or crawling in sight.

So that’s about it. They still amaze me daily, and I still can’t believe we have twins. One big thing is that they have their first flight coming up at the end of this week – HEAVEN HELP ME! 4 hours on an airplane with all 5. Twice. Fun. I hope I survive. I will need coffee. And wine. Lots of both. (this has happened now also, but i will have an update on that later)

Here are all the monthly comparisons again:

Lana 8 month post; Morrison 8 month post

Photos – Della, Lana (combo of these 2 this month), Morrison, twins.

Now all twins. Until month 9 (pray for sleep!)…

 




Posted on

Twins 6 and 7 month stats

Clearly I have neglected this blog yet again, since the twins are almost 8 months old. And because of that fact, I’m doing something I’ve never had to do yet – combine stats posts. Oops. Oh well, at least I’m finally getting them written here.

Life is very busy these days. I often think back to when I started this blog after Della was born – I would sit at my desk at work and post daily, sometimes multiple times a day. Ha! Hahahahaha! If only I had that kind of time now. I mean, no, I don’t wish I was back sitting at a desk all day again, definitely not. But now I get to actually sit down for any length of time longer than 5 minutes without that time being spent folding laundry so infrequently, my poor updates are few and far between. I mean well, really I do. I constantly have a running list in my head of post ideas and kids’ pages notes that I need to write. But I only have so many hours in a day, and I do need to sleep. At least try to sleep with these two little maniacs in our room, anyway.

So anyway… I’ll give you their 6 month well check stats, then a quick update on what they’re up to now (since who cares what they were actually doing at 6 months, oh, so long ago), and a bunch of pictures as usual.

Nat

  • Height:  27″ (67%)
  • Weight:  17 lbs. (40%)
  • Head:  43.2 cm (45%)
  • BMI:  16.4 kg/m2 (25%)

Avit

  • Height:  26.5″ (44%)
  • Weight:  17 lbs. (40%)
  • Head:  43.6 cm (58%)
  • BMI:  17 kg/m2 (40%)

We can already see that these two have distinctly different personalities. Avit is pushing himself up to sitting (and has been for a couple weeks now); can move himself around a room through a combination of rocking/rolling/sitting/repeating (everything but crawling so far); loves to grab anything in sight and mess with it or try to eat it, including Nat’s head or arm or buns, my leg (yes, the other day i was standing on their blanket in the living room and Avit grabbed my leg, wrapped his arms around it, and started licking it!), and all their toys; and generally not nap when I’d like him to. And just 2 days ago he pulled himself up on the edge of the coffee table to standing! Good lord. Nat is much more content to just lie in his spot on the floor, play with his toys, roll over here and there but nothing crazy (no ending up on the opposite side of the room or in the corner facing the wall under the jumperoo like Avit), and take his naps like good little babies should. Sometimes they actually get on opposite nap schedules – Nat takes a decent morning nap; Avit does not. Then after lunch I put Avit down and Nat wakes up for the afternoon. Turds.

I just consistently started solids last week. I tried them a while ago, and neither one had much interest at all, surprisingly. Avit loved his first taste of oatmeal and wanted to grab the spoon and do it all himself. But then when I tried other things like sweet potatoes, he would barely take a bite. Nat got his start at solids later than Avit because I was giving them at dinner time to begin with, and Nat was always taking his 3rd nap then (yes, 3rd nap of the day). So he missed out for a while, but once I gave him his first bite of sweet potatoes, he loved them and actually did a lot better at eating than Avit. Now that we’re into the school routine again, I’ve begun trying to give them their solids at lunch time instead, since dinner time always gets so hectic. Some days it works out that way, some days it doesn’t, but they seem to be doing fine with them at either time of the day.

They both have their bottom front 2 teeth and got those about a month ago. And they instantly started biting me with them while nursing, so that’s super fun. Fortunately I only nurse them once overnight and sometimes once around wake-up time now with bottles of pumped milk and formula throughout the day, but that still hurts when it happens!

Speaking of bottles, they’re still on the same bottle schedule that they’ve been on for months – 4 bottles per day (roughly 9:00 a.m., noon, 3:00 p.m., and 6:00 p.m.) that are each a mixture of mostly pumped milk and a little formula. Nat just recently caught up to Avit with having a 6 oz. bottle each time; he had been stuck at 4 oz. for the longest time while Avit chugged down 6 and basically as much as you would give him. Chunk.

Like I said earlier, naps aren’t always the most consistent. Nat can usually be counted on to take 2 solid naps a day if we’re not walking to/from school (I’ve stopped putting him down for that last early evening nap and just stretching things out until bedtime instead), and Avit is happy to take normally just a longer afternoon one. For the past couple days, though, the stars have aligned and I actually have gotten all 3 boys to nap at the same time after lunch for a couple hours, and I haven’t even been giving the twins their solid food. They’ve had colds the past couple days and are all stuffy, so I’m not forcing them to try to swallow mushy food along with all their snot. If they could do that regularly, I’d be happy for them to drop morning and early evening naps all together.

Bedtime is pretty much right after that last bottle, so they’re usually in bed by 6-6:30. No, they are still not sleeping through the night, so everyone can stop asking. They have both done it, sleeping until 5:00 or even 6:00 the next morning, but neither does it with any consistency at all yet. Their schedules are fairly regular with the wake-ups, though – one (usually Nat) wakes around let’s say 1:00 and 5:00; the other might wake up then, too, but lately it’s been in the middle of the other two wake-ups instead, somewhere in the 3:00 hour. So there’s a decent chunk of sleep for the first part of the night, then those early morning hours can get dicey. Nat likes to throw in a crying jag in the 10:00-11:00 hour every couple nights, so that’s real fun, because I know he certainly doesn’t need to be eating then but usually the only way to get him back to sleep is to make him a little bottle. So we’ll see. Hopefully they figure it out soon. Morrison didn’t sleep through consistently until between 8-9 months, so I’m not really that surprised that these 2 aren’t either. And now with school mornings again I get up at 5:30, so I just try to go to bed as early as I can since I know I’ll be up a number of times before my alarm even goes off.

They do make up for my lack of sleep during the days with their smiles and general happy attitudes. Lately Avit has started doing a ton of talking, with “da-da-da” and “ga-ga” sounds and even mimicking Ryan the other night when he was saying hi. Nat does more of a “singing,” with high-pitched little squeals and shrieks like Lana used to do, plus a ton of raspberries blowing and motorboat noises. It’s pretty hysterical. And they both get huge chuckling belly laughs going, which is just amazing. When I pick Nat up, he loves to grab the sides of my neck, pull in real close to my face, and act like he’s going to eat my nose. I love it!

They both still love the jumperoos, being held and played with (obviously), their show on Netflix called Little Baby Bum (i don’t know what it is, but this show has total baby mind control. they can both be screaming crabby, and i’ll put them on the living room floor and turn that show on and they instantly quiet), pacifiers and snuggling into their muslin blankets to sleep, being in the stroller and car, reaching for and grabbing toys now, and watching and interacting with all of us. The big 3 love playing with these little guys, too. I just switched out all their 6 month clothes and brought up everything 6-9, 6-12, and 9 month sizes, and I swear those are all going to be too small soon as well. They’re in size 3 daytime diapers and I just bought the first pack of size 4 overnights. I’m hoping that trying overnight diapers now will help get them through the nights better, too. Yeah, we’ll see.

So, that was more than a quick update, but life is pretty great with these little guys. Like Della said in her note to me last summer when I was so upset when we found out we were having twins, it’s going to be fun! It is a shit ton of work, and every day has to be a very controlled level of chaos or else it can get overwhelming, but I think I’m doing a pretty good job. Plus the big 3 really are excellent helpers, which is a lifesaver. It still sounds so weird to me to hear myself say we have 5 children. I think it always will!

Now for the monthly comparisons. I don’t think I had started writing here when Della was 6 months old, but I’ll give you Lana’s and Morrison’s 6 and 7 month posts:

Lana 6 months; Morrison 6 months; Lana 7 months; Morrison 7 months

And here are all the pictures – Della, Lana, Morrison, then the twins. Whew! Let’s see if I can get their 8 month post written before they turn 16.