The TTC Twin: October 2012

Happy 1/2 year birthday to my two little loves! I can't help but sit here and think about how at this time last year I was spending most of my time puking or attempting not to puke due to the two little beans growing inside me! Now, I spend most of my time cleaning up little puke (spit up actually), but oh boy how different our world is just one short year later! I wake up most every morning to the sounds of cooing and laughter (I say most because every once in a while someone will be awake sitting in his crib waiting longer than he wants to, which leads to the "Get in here and pick me up already" cry). And as my hubby said just the other day, it's crazy because even if one of our little guys has a bad night, they still wake up so stinkin' happy! I love that! So where has the time gone? How did we make it this last 6 months? Lots of help, love, hugs and cuddles, and a little crying here and there from most all parties involved!

Two of the happiest, sweetest 6 month old boys I know!

This past month has definitely tested our family. Going back to work after being off for pretty much the first five months of my little guys' lives was tough, for many reasons. I have so much respect for moms in general, and such a huge respect for stay-at-home moms, but wow has my opinion on working moms changed exponentially! Talk about just being plain 'ole exhausted. I didn't realize how much I should have cherished taking a little nap during the day after having a bad night. Now, I find myself sitting in class right after lunch and yawning nonstop! But, I don't think I would change it. I love my students. They bring me such joy and I think it really makes me appreciate my boys so much more when I pick them up from the sitter and have my few hours with them in the afternoon. Don't get me wrong, I am heart broken that I am missing some of the big things that are taking place in their lives right now, but I still feel joy and pride when I get to see it for the first time myself! Speaking of milestones, wow are these boys growing up and doing some amazing things! So...guess I should get to that!

Landon,

My big boy! You continue to grow big and strong! Everyone jokes how you must be the one hogging all the food (oh, if only they really knew huh buddy?! LOL!)! You have started to sit up unassisted now, as long as someone or something is beside and behind you. We joke how your plumpy midsection definitely helps you with that! =) But you enjoy it too and are constantly trying to do it on your own. It's like it gives you a different perspective of your cozy little world. And once you started rolling over on to your tummy on your own, there was no stopping you! I think this has helped you sleep a little better at night too. The down side is, you have always been our stuffy nosed little man, so sleeping on your tummy sometimes leads to one runny little nose, which equals one unhappy camper and quite a collection of boogers on your pjs. But you are learning to cope and I am happy to say that just in the past two weeks, you have only woke up one to two times at night, and for the most part go to sleep either right after being fed or after just a minute or two of crying, falling back asleep on your own (oh how that makes Mommy so happy!).

Speaking of falling asleep on your own...we finally decided that we were going to do Cry It Out with you with the encouragement and support of some of Mommy's friends, because you were having a hard time getting back to sleep mostly throughout the night and you were starting to wake up so much (every hour or two). Usually getting you to sleep wasn't a problem, but in order to embrace CIO 100%, that would mean starting it the moment we put you into your crib. I am not going to lie, this was hard on us. Daddy and I definitely needed each other's support. Fortunately though, you picked up on it fairly quickly. We started the day you turned 24 weeks old and decided to start with naps instead of braving it at night right off the bat. You cried for about 25 minutes and then miraculously you were out! You took about an 1 1/2 hour nap in your crib, at one point waking up and crying for about 10 minutes, but then falling back to sleep. It didn't take you as long the 2nd nap or even at bed time that night. Thank goodness too, because I had heard stories about some babies crying for hours...and I must say I worked up in my mind that I would be prepared for an hour or more of crying, but thankfully you didn't make me test myself. The crying at bed time lasted about 2 days. We were stunned when on the 3rd night we put you in your crib, you talked to yourself for a couple of minutes and then you were out! Aaaahhhh...that helped solidify the CIO method for us. I think you just needed it, to know that you could cry a little (which you have always seemed to need to do, that or talk a lot just before falling asleep). The first two nights were tough too, just to hear you cry and not go in and rub your back or give you your binky, but I think we were just were creating bad habits. So as of right now, if you wake up between 10-11pm, I'll feed you and change your diaper, but after that, you have to cry a little. And wouldn't you know, the craziest thing...you stopped waking up for the most part! Wow! You haven't needed a feeding 2 out of the last 3 nights. You did wake up last night around 2:20am (which seems to be your time, almost down to the minute) but then went back to sleep after a couple of minutes, then woke again in between 4-5, but didn't really get up until 5:40am. You are getting there buddy! Actually, you are in the midst of a good 2 hour nap as I am typing!

Well, I guess to counteract your lack of sleep, you make up for it by being our "happy, smiley" baby! You are ALWAYS smiling, laughing, just enjoying life. You light up when you see just about anyone, even Daisy! You are so happy you even take full advantage of your jumperoo, really looking like you are going to jump into space! We love it! We don't know how much you're weighing exactly right now (we'll know by Wednesday at your 6 month appointment), but you are probably for sure past the 17 lb mark. And you do certainly enjoy food. You have liked everything we give you from sweet peas, green beans, sweet potatoes, and butternut squash to avocados, bananas, applesauce, carrots and pears. You haven't turned your nose up at anything! How wonderful! And although you never really were the mouth open, hungry little bird type during eating, you have started to show a lot more interest lately...and even are trying to be more independent trying to grab the spoon and feed yourself! Love it! And you started holding your bottle on your own. It doesn't last the whole feeding, but you are getting better. We got these little handles that go on your bottles and they have really helped you! A typical "day in the life" right now looks like this:
You wake up between 5-5:45am, you eat (not sure how much during this feeding because I am still breastfeeding you for this one feeding), then get dressed and ready for your day. You tend to take a nap around 7 or 7:30 for anywhere from 1/2 hour to an hour. Then you're up, play on your tummy or in your jumper, and around 8:30 or so eat breakfast which is oatmeal and usually some kind of fruit, mainly applesauce, but we are starting to introduce you to many more types of fruit. Then at about 9am you get a 6 oz bottle (you get 3 bottles of formula usually throughout the day and 1 of pumped breast milk as Mommy tries to keep up with pumping...we'll see how much longer I can hang with that). More play time, a good nap hopefully around this point, and then up about 11:30am for lunch. This is where we do a nice mix of veggies, then another 6oz bottle around 12 noon. Then depending on how you feel (and where you are, because at the sitter's you don't tend to nap really well), you will take another little nap. Up again, a bottle at 3pm, some play time, sometimes a walk in the afternoons with me just to get us all, including Daisy, out of the house (and with the nicer weather, it is becoming more doable), maybe a cat nap if you're really tired, then one last bottle, 8 oz, at about 5:30pm for dinner. Then it's mommy's favorite time of the day...bath time! You just LOVE bath time. You splash and kick your little feet like an Olympic swimmer! You really enjoy it and so do I. I can't wait for you to really be able to sit up and just play in the bath more! Then it is off to bed usually by 6.

I am absolutely loving watching you grow so big buddy! You are wearing mainly 6-9 month clothes, but fit into the occasional 12 month outfits too. And I think you are getting longer quicker. Your pjs seem to get tighter on your feet faster than your brother's. You have an amazing personality and are such a lover. You lately have been giving your daddy little bear hugs. He just loves them! I think too, you are Daddy's little mini-me! You resemble him so much and seem to have some of his quirks! Can't wait to watch you grow up more and really see your little light shine even more! I love you Landon Douglas! You are my little Michelin Man, as I call you to my students, and you make me so happy! You fill my heart with so much love, I think between you, your brother, Daddy and the fur babies, it could easily explode! I am a very lucky mommy to have you love bug!!!

Typical Landon...full of smiles!

Loving how curious you are getting too! Grabbing and reaching for EVERYTHING!!!

Parker,

My little peanut! You may be smaller then your brother, but boy can you blow his laugh out of the water these days! And you are quite the little yapper! You are constantly talking...to us, to your brother, to the dog, the tv, your toys...you name it! It's the most wonderful sound! Everyone comments on how much smaller you are, but I really don't think you will ever let that bother you! I have a feeling you will easily show anyone bigger, your brother included, who's boss. =) You already seem to be a little more dominant too. Lately, especially with you and your brother really getting interested in toys and reaching for them and such, you have started to take interest in anything you can get your hands on, even if your brother happens to be playing with it first. LOL! Your dad commented today that were we really already having to tell you to share! Yes, we are...and it's great. People still tend to call you the serious one and lately you have been quite hesitant of new faces. Your sitter says you cry whenever someone new gets near you, and I got to see this first hand the other day when our neighbor, who you do know but just haven't seen lately, came up and kissed you on the forehead. You freaked out and started wailing. It was funny. You were fine but just to see you react like that. Ah, will you really be my shy guy? I don't think many people get to see this pretty outgoing personality that Daddy and I know oh so well. Some day!

You are mommy's little sleeper, not always during the day, but boy do you sleep all night! I joke all the time that if I only had you, I'd have had a baby sleeping through the night for at least a month now. Auntie Alisa says that wouldn't be the case, that if I only had one baby, it would for sure be the non-sleeper. ;) Oh how you do the nights well though. You have lately been crying a little when we put you in your crib, but once you are out, you are out! I don't really hear a peep from you until about 4 or 4:30am. Then you fall back asleep for about another 1/2 hour to 45 minutes. Then you wake up and play in your crib for a little while until we come and get you by about 5:45am. And I must say, you navigate all around your crib during the night. It's hilarious to look at the video monitor a couple times before we go to bed and see how you started at one side and will then be on the complete opposite side!

And you are quite our little eater when it comes to the solids! Dr. H said when she told us to start introducing you to solids that eventually you would look like a little bird reaching for food with a wide open mouth...boy was she right. I am trying to get the perfect picture that shows this. We have a couple videos of it too! And you, just like your brother, love every kind of food we have given you! I am very grateful for that. It's been fun too, because I am have been making all your baby food myself. Shocking, I know! It's really because we got this baby food maker, the Beabe from Williams-Sonoma, but there is a great story to how we got it (which I am spacing if I wrote about it last month). Either way, I'll tell it again I'm sure. It lead us to a wonderful new friendship with super cute twins, Tinley and Tristan, and their parents! I'm sure we'll have plenty of stories in the future with them! So...surprisingly, you have only made a funny face when eating the puffs. I don't know if it's because of the texture or the taste, but your face cracks me up. You are definitely the more expressive one when it comes to your face!

And if I had to put my money on who would crawl first, I am betting on you little man. Just last week (Oct. 3) you somehow got your knees under your tummy and started to rock back and forth! It totally took us by surprise! You have been doing it a ton too once you figured it out. I am thinking you will be crawling within the next few weeks! Oh man, then are we in for trouble! For now though you seem content to roll wherever it is you want to go. Just the other day I walked into the kitchen, my view blocked by the bar in between the kitchen and living room, to grab a water. When I walked back around, you had rolled off your blanket and were reaching for the dog's toy! Oh vey! And when I was in the kitchen another time and you were in your bouncy chair, you managed to get almost all the way turned around and were sliding out (mommy made the mistake of not strapping you in, you little booger!). I have a picture of that one that I will have to post. You make me laugh. You are absolutely going to be on the run just as soon as you figure it out!

Thank you little man for the many bright moments. I have loved how you have been reaching for our faces lately, grabbing our noses and lips and just really exploring. It makes me laugh to see you and your brother just really starting to discover this wide world around you! You make me so happy, down to my core. I don't think I have ever really known happiness like this. I feel like my little family is so perfect because of my wonderful husband, and my two perfect little peanuts! You still spit up a lot but I know one day it will just stop and we'll be at a loss! No matter what, we have always called you our happy spitter, because you are...so happy! And our little gymnast too! I love how you always have a foot in a hand...and lately, in your mouth. =) Keep reaching buddy, and reach for the stars! They are waiting for you! I love you Parker Neal. Keep growing strong love bug!

Yup, that is Parker, looking like he is talking up a storm...and like he has something very important to say too!

Always got those toes in hand!

Curious as can be!

And on a final note, you have finally had your first night of being put down by someone else. Mommy and Daddy had a date night and went to see Wicked at the Smith Center (which was amazing and such a great night out). So, we got your favorite twins, Talia and Sophia, with Auntie Lisa of course, to babysit. You both were good boys, so we hear, and had a good couple of hours to play with the girls, eat dinner, take baths, and go to bed. They said you both went down very well! And I had a nice, relaxed time out because I knew you two were in such good hands. Plus, Auntie Lisa and the girls had helped us a couple of times with our bed time routine while Daddy had football, so they were like old pros! One more first was your first time to a soccer match to help support GV Girl's Soccer and Stu Co Pack the Field. You both just LOVED hanging with some of Mommy's favorite students and of course, you relished all the attention. You both were very good boys too! We stayed for a while to watch the girls get a 1 to nothing lead, which kept you up about a 1/2 hour past your bed time, but we came home, changed you into pjs and you both went to sleep quickly and quietly. It was fun to see some of my students who I have had for 4 years gushing over you both. It brought such a big smile to my face! Can't wait to go support GV and Daddy during Homecoming in two weeks! Well, I am sure I have rambled enough. You have a big few weeks and months coming up! I can't wait to see all that you continue to learn and do. I love you both so much!!!