Running, Table Eating, and Couch Climbing: new things my babies can do!

Is it food time?

 

Ben thinks so.

 

 

Looks like Alex is hungry also!  Alex started doing the finger to his mouth when he wants to eat.  My poor babies aren't getting enough language from me, they are developing their own sign language.

 

Ben...?

 

Laughing

 

Posing

 

I was sitting on the couch one day doing something.  I looked up and this is what I saw.  Both babies licking the glass on the back door.  Weirdos.

 

Ben nearest the camera.  You can actually see his tongue licking the glass in this one.  I should probably clean my glass....

 

The babies have really taken off on solids.  They are eating pretty much whatever we eat.  This includes my super spicy taco meat.  They do not enjoy eating in their high chairs with the tray, so one day when Cody was away on business I gave them a plate and scooted them right up against the table.  Ever since then it is amazing how much they have eaten.  The week Cody was gone, the babies and I ate all the meals that Cody wouldn't like.  Here they are eating roasted chicken and quinoa.  Quinoa!  Yum!

 

Alex laughing

 

Ben laughing with Alex

 

The newest baby trick:  climbing on to the couch by themselves.  These little monsters love to climb.  Now I can't sit on the couch without being joined by one or more little wiggle worms.  Here they are wrestling.

 

Uh Oh, Looks like Alex is upset.  The dark spots are from baby moisture: tears, drool, saliva smears while screaming and rolling, etc.

 

Ben watching Alex spin around throwing himself around in a fit of rage. 

 

Alex finally gives up and gets off the couch.  Luckily, learning to climb on the couch coincided with learning to get off the couch by spinning around and putting their feet down first.  Alex has been doing this for a little while, but Ben was happy sliding off the futon with his arms straight out in front of him.  This mostly made him roll over and not hit his face on the floor.  The couch is taller though, so I'm glad he is spinning around now.

 

Time for a book!  Ben left.  Alex right.

 

Helping turn pages and move flaps and stuff

Ben.  Relaxing with his pacifier

 

Ben left Alex right.  The quality is not great because it was on my cell phone camera with not so great lighting. 

 

Alex and the remote

 

Creepy eyes!

 

Alex likes to sit on the couch bouncing against the back.  This has created a lot of static electricity in his hair.  They have a lot of hair to stand up.

 

I bought them a first builder sort of lego set.  First, they tried to put them together but it was difficult.  Next, they just started to chew on them.  Then, they would take apart things I put together.  Now, they are actually able to get some together.

 

Ben's beautiful curls/waves

Today was so nice.  The babies got to hang out outside for a while.  Please excuse the roll of carpet tossed in our back yard.  Also, the oddly placed toy bag and some old sponges for tiling.  Ben in black and white.  Alex in blue.

 

 



 

The babies have started doing a lot of funny things.

 

They have finally, finally started clapping.  They will now clap when they get food they like or if they think something is funny.  Sometimes when I make a bad joke, one of them will give me a slow, sarcastic clap.

 

They have started hiding things.  More specifically, they put things away.  They just don't know where "away" is.  I find toys in random drawers.  I find cell phone chargers in their toy box.  What I can't find is the keys to Cody's pickup.  I've been looking for those for over a week! 

 

I've been trying to get them to wave at me for months.  I'm pretty sure my babies are just not friendly enough to wave.  Once or twice they have given me a pity wave, but I'm pretty sure they think it is stupid.  I know they can wave, they are just choosing not to wave.  What they are good at doing is giving a high five.  So now we just high five.  They think high fives are hilarious.

 

They are down to 1 full bottle a day.  They get 2 other partial bottles.  The rest they drink from a sippy cup during the day.  They are almost fully on whole milk instead of formula.  I'm now the crazy lady with 3 gallons of milk in her cart.  3 gallons of formula (powdered) takes up so much less space than milk.  I still give them an occasional scoop of toddler milk powder just because.  I'll ask the doctor if it actually helps any next time we see her.  I figure it has some added nutrition and it shouldn't really hurt.  At least it isn't the chocolate powder that daddy likes!

 

They have gotten good enough at walking that they are starting to run.  RUNNING!  They are also stable enough and smart enough that I don't really worry about the baby gate over the stairs like I used to.  They are able to go up and down stairs.  I still keep it closed most of the time for safety reasons, but if it has to be open for some reasons, I'm pretty confident it will turn out fine.

 

They are getting increasingly lovey, which is nice.  They love on us and on each other. 

 

Their fights over toys are sometimes pretty epic.  They do this scream/cry thing like a dog growling to warn another dog against taking its bone.  Usually, the warning scream/cry works and the baby gets to keep his toy.  Sometimes, the other baby tries to take it anyway.  Those fights get pretty crazy.

 

One of the things that makes me laugh the most is when one leads the other around like one is on a leash.  It happens when they each hold on one end of something like a phone charger cord.  They absentmindedly walk together, each chewing on an end.  One baby will realize he can lead the other around, so one leads and the other follows.  As long as nobody tries to take the cord from the other, they can hang out like that for a surprisingly long time.

 

 

 

 

NICU Graduation Anniversary

One year ago today we finally got to bring our boys home from the hospital. It was the best birthday gift ever.

It is funny to think how long it feels since their first birthday. That was how long we were at the hospital. Crazy.

I'll add pictures when I'm on a computer.

Super Updates. SUPER!

Alex.  The babies have a little bit of curl to their hair.  Just the ends though.

 

 

Alex stole my phone.  He managed to trigger the camera.  Here is Alex's first self portrait.

 

 

Alex's 2nd self portrait.

 

I'm pretty sure the babies are going to be dentists when they grow up.  They are never as happy as when they get a hand in your mouth.  Here is Alex inspecting Cody's teeth.

 

 

The babies have learned the joys of drawers.  They now open the bottom 2 drawers and empty everything on the floor.  Eventually Alex decided to crawl in to the drawer.  They sat like this for a while chatting.  Ben now also crawls in to the drawer.  I've emptied the bottom 2 drawers and put toys and other baby friendly items in there instead.

 

Alex wanted my phone that was on the recliner.  He is too short to climb on it from the front, so he figured out a solution.  I didn't catch the first part of this stunt.  I looked up and saw him when he was standing on the plastic storage box.  I grabbed the camera once I realized he was stable and wasn't going to fall on his head.  The real kicker is he happened to be diaperless at the time.  Naked baby in the recliner!

 

I covered up the bits for a congrats baby shot.  Good job Alex!

 

The ice cream cake I made for Cody for his birthday.  It looked a little better in real life.  Last year, I asked for an ice cream cake.  Cody got me one from one of the big ice cream fast food chains.  It was completely not what I expected.  I wanted cake, ice cream, and a crunchy cookie layer.  This year, I decided to make one for Cody.  This has 2 layers of chocolate cake, 2 layers of ice cream with a layer of crushed oreos inside.  It was topped with an ice cream frosting and crushed peanut butter cups.  Basically all of Cody's favorite things.  It was delicious.  I figured out how to do the layers better after I had already made it.  Next cake will be even more awesome.

 

We had a really, really awful Christmas- New Year's.  Both of the babies got a stomach bug of some sort.  I spent every. night. for like 9 nights getting thrown up on.  While they were sick, they were very tired.  Here they are on a blanket together. 

 

Playing with toilet paper.  I think Ben in stripes, Alex in solid blue.

 

I think Alex

 

One of their gifts from their grandma.  Ben stripes Alex solids.  It took a lot of effort to get them to sit there together.  Even extremely tired, they managed to wrestle with each other on it.

 

Alex was sick, so Ben took the chance to steal from his pacifier.

Sleepy Ben



 

Ben Blue Alex white.  Christmas morning.  They were not very excited by their gifts.  We actually didn't buy them anything that we wrapped.  Everything under the tree is from someone else.  Oops. 

 

I didn't put any ornaments on the tree to avoid them getting hurt.  They wouldn't hurt most of our ornaments, but they all have the little metal hooks on them.  That metal hook would have been extremely exciting for them.  Our cheap fake tree from back in college days sure has been through a lot.  It looks a lot more sad with no ornaments.

 

Alex was not excited by opening things up.  We tried to build excitement, but they were not having it.  They were both sick at that point, but still.  I figured they would love the wrapping paper at least. 

 

Ben

 

His favorite toy:  a fake key to suck on.

 

Our wonderful neighbors dropped by one day and gave the boys bedding sets for Christmas.  They said we wouldn't use them right away, but it will come fast.  We ended up opening it on Christmas and using it for them to hang out on while they were sick.  They had thrown up on all the other blankets.  Gross.

 

Ben

 

The boys like sitting in the bouncer from when they were newborns.  They will crawl up in it and sit there with a toy.  Sometimes this happens.  Both babies in one bouncer.  I can't believe it can support that much weight.  Neither baby was very happy to be touching each other.

 

Ben got sick about 2 days before Alex, so Alex was sick for about 2 days after Ben felt better.  Here is a video of Ben comforting Alex when Ben felt better but Alex was still sick.  It makes you wish everyone could have a brother.

 

http://youtu.be/wu_BwHERKD4        

 

 

 

 

We finally got a new mattress.  The Queen size was just not cutting it with 2 adults and 2 babies.  We now have a gloriously big King size bed.  It is a foam mattress, so the bed frame is taller than standard frames.  The boys LOVE crawling under it.  Only one time did one stop in the middle and cry.  I couldn't reach him from either direction.  I guess I could have done what I did when Little Bunny hid under the bed: grab a broom and push him out to the other side.  I didn't. Eventually he came out on his own.

 

Playset.  Not big enough for 2 babies we've found.  They push each other off of it, or dive on brother and kamikaze to the floor.  Luckily, one or both of us is always there to catch them.  They are getting better, but I still block off the slide and ladder when I'm not around.

 

They don't like touching.

 

They both like the tool box.  Ben especially likes it.  One day he was picking it up and carrying it to a room.  He would then put it down to play with other things.  When he decided to move on, he would pick up the toolbox and carry it to the next room.  All day.  Really cute.

 

Ben heading in to the bathroom

 

Dishwasher.  Constant Battle.  They will now not only play with the door, reach in, grab things, etc.  They will now crawl on to the door and sit there.  Very difficult to get anything done.

 

Ben got a hold of a nearly full box of cereal.  They were Very proud of themselves.  Ben yellow Alex orange.

 

Don't worry Grandma (mom's mom), I may have packaged up anything that wasn't touching the dog bed to feed them later.

 

We stacked up the chairs while working on the kitchen floor.  Ben (I think) crawled in.  He looked like he was in baby jail.  He couldn't get back out, so I had to rescue him while he was sobbing.  He was fine until he tried to stand up and couldn't.  Suddenly he was not  a happy baby.

 

My mom and sister got the boys a Teddy Ruxpin bear and accessory kit.  Apparently the only toy I liked when I was a child was Teddy Ruxpin.  That does sound a lot like me.  He has that boring outfit on, so I gave him one of the onesies from the boys.  It made Cody tear up.  That was the onesie he picked for the babies back before they were born.

 

Alex wearing dad's hat.

 

The first time Ben climbed up the slide by himself.  This is why it has to be blocked off now.

 

The first time he climbed the ladder by himself.  He can do it way more quickly and gracefully now that he has had practice. 

 

Alex red Ben blue.  Playing by the Shop Vac.

 

They like to play with the curtain together.  They play peekaboo with it.  Or one will get on each side and they will poke each other through the curtain.  They will just laugh and laugh.

 

Want to know what it is like to have 2 babies?  Here it is.  One with a hand in your mouth, the other banging their head against yours.

 

Ben started by banging his head on Cody's.  Eventually, he just left it there in a nice little snuggle.  This is right before bed, so they were a bit sleepy.

 

 

Things have been going well.  Other than them being sick for over a week, things have been going well.  They are keeping us busy.  We are working on weaning them off of formula and on to cow's milk.  They are 13 months actual, but they aren't a year adjusted for being premature yet, so I'm giving them a little while longer on formula.  They do okay as long as it is not cold.  They will drink cold unmixed milk straight from a sippy cup, but when they want a bottle it must be at least room temp.

 

We did have to get a new furnace.  I don't know if I've posted since then.  That was a lot of fun.  It is no fun to spend that kind of money on something so boring.  It was not just boring, but our furnace was still technically working, just quite unsafe, so we had no real interruption of service.  It was a bummer to go from having heat +$4000 to having heat without $4000.  We now have a furnace that most likely won't kill us though, so there is that.

 

Our friends across the street had a baby this week.  She is a beautiful little girl that our boys can fight over in 12 years or so.  Our street has 3 houses.  In the last year, it has gotten 3 new babies.  Fun!

 

The babies are sleeping from 8pm- 8am.  I really can't express how much I love them for this.  It gives Cody enough time to see them after he gets home from work.  It allows us a little alone time in the evening before we go to bed, and it gives me a few minutes in the morning before they are awake.  Such great babies.

 

They have also FINALLY consolidated naps.  They take 2, hour- hour and a half long naps at 11 and 4.  It is a lot better than dealing with 4 naps a day.