Sniff, sniff

Today the boys are 6 months. Where has the time gone. Such a cliche, but so true. They are growing up so fast and I'm so sad that we'll never be at this age with them again. Well, I'm going to try to change my attitude because I know that each stage and age will have it's joy.

So what are the boys up to these days?
Luke has turned into such a silly boy. He loves to blow raspberries and most often has drool running down his chin and on his chest. I don't have to do much to get a smile out of him. He's very interested in his brother. He's rolling like crazy and in the last couple weeks has actually rolled off the nursing pillow twice while I was getting Micah situated on the pillow. He only hit the couch, face down, so no damage was done, other than to my heart which almost stopped each time. (This tandem nursing thing will probably not work out much longer.) He's doing a little scooting, forward and backward, mostly backward when he's on his tummy. He doesn't seem to mind being on his tummy anymore and actually sleeps that way now. We had to transition him to a sleep sack because he was breaking out of his swaddling blanket and rolling around. The sleep sack is much safer and he doesn't seem to mind. We had taken his pacifier away, but gave it back about a week ago. He's not so dependent on it, though he does like it for falling asleep, he doesn't wake up when it falls out. He likes to be outside, but doesn't like walks. He's usually good for about 15 minutes on a walk before he starts fussing. He has big blue eyes and a thick patch of hair in the front and center of his forehead that sweeps to the right. He notices the cats now and will watch them walk past. I weighed him today on our own scale and he was 16.2 pounds. He's a very distracted eater, especially on the left side for some reason. We're still trying to get the sleep figured out. At nap times, I put Luke in the swing next to the rocker and he swings to sleep while I read a book or two while holding Micah. Once he's asleep, I move him to his crib. Sometimes, okay most times, he wakes up too early, so I'll put him back in the swing to finish his nap. He loves his feet and just recently figured out how to get his foot in his mouth during diaper changes. I have to almost fight him to get his leg down to put on the diaper.

Micah is no longer the only silly one. He still smiles a lot, especially at Glen and me and he laughs easily. It's been very difficult to get him to smile for pictures, though. He seems to especially smile at his daddy. Micah went through a phase where he didn't like being on his tummy and so just wouldn't do it. But he's back to rolling both ways and will spend a significant amount of time playing on his stomach. We recently transitioned him to a sleep sack at night because he was breaking out of his swaddle and rolling around, or just getting stuck on his stomach. He still needs the swaddle for naps otherwise he doesn't seem to know it's time to settle down and sleep. Micah loves watching the cats. He loves his brother. He loves going for walks and often will fall asleep while riding in the stroller. One funny thing he's been doing is kicking his left leg in the air, almost to a rhythm. Glen started humming the Can Can while Micah "shook" his leg. It's very funny.

I think they are both working on teeth. Luke's been at it almost a month and Micah has been about a week so far. They haven't started solid food yet, but we're hoping to start that next weekend. They still want to eat two times a night and 4-5 times during the day. They take three naps each day. They are wearing mostly 6 month clothes and are in size 2-3 diapers.

They are such a joy. They make us laugh several times a day and I can't count the smiles they bring. I thank God for them every day.

Laughter

This morning the boys woke up too early (5:50), so we brought them into our bed to hang out for a while. I love that time in the morning. They are happy to be with us, we're able to relax a little more than if we'd brought them to the living room, and it's just a gentler way to wake up. So I was holding Micah, and Glen had Luke. Micah started blowing raspberries and it sounded really cute, so Glen laughed. Micah gave Glen a look like he couldn't believe his daddy was laughing at him which made me laugh. So Glen and I are laughing because Micah has this dumbfounded look on his face. Luke apparently thinks it's funny to hear Daddy and Mommy laughing, so he started laughing too, which of course made Glen and I laugh even more. All the while Micah looks like he can't figure out why we're laughing. Glen says, "Yes Micah, we're all laughing at you." Poor guy. This was the first time Luke has laughed unprovoked.

We took the boys to the nursery at church today (as we always do on Sunday mornings). I'm always worried because almost every time, one or both of them have had a hard time in there. Probably at least every other week (if not more) Luke is crying when we go in to pick them up. This week we were told they get stars for being the best babies. Whew, finally a good week! We've been told only one other time that they had a good time in nursery. Of course, optimistic me thinks this is just the beginning of good nursery visits every week, but we'll see. I'm trying to be a realist too.

Pictures of my munchkins

Cats and Babies

I'm a kitty momma. I got my cats in July 2005 in Florida. I grew up with cats but was just never in a position to have cats during our first 6 years of marriage. So in 2005, we were finally living in a place we could have cats so I started scouring the newspaper for free kittens. I made a few calls about various kitten ads, but they were ads for just one kitten. I knew I wanted two and if I could get siblings, all the better. I finally found a sibling group and made arrangements to go pick them up. When I got there, I remember feeling disappointed that they were bigger than I wanted and one was long-haired. Oh well, I took them anyway and named them Poppy and Calli. So now, almost 5 years later, they are still with us and I'm so glad I found these two cats. For 5 years, they have been my babies. Something about getting cats at a time when I was desperate to have a baby led to some "spoiling" of the cats.

I was really nervous about bringing babies into the house. Calli can be very finicky and not very patient with new circumstances. She already goes to the bathroom on the floor too much, scratches the couches, and can be just plain naughty. I really worried that I would have to find a new home for Calli and thought extensively about who could/would take her so I would know she was in a good home and I could see her periodically. I had people warn me about not letting the cats get too close to the babies or they might smother them. Others said their cats stayed away from the babies. I decided to just play it by ear and wait to make any drastic decisions. The morning we left for the hospital for my c-section, I almost felt like I was betraying them. When we came home with the babies, the boys were screaming when we walked in the door and the cats didn't know what hit them.

The cats were fascinated with all the baby gear we brought into the house. They loved sleeping in the cribs. I tried not to let them, but it was pretty cute and I just didn't have the energy to throw them out every time. They hung around when we were assembling the carseats and stroller, cribs, dresser, swing, etc. (I'm totally blog dumb and have no idea how to move the top picture down to this space. So see above for the cats' involvement).

I've been pleasantly surprised with the transition. The cats pretty much leave the babies alone. Once we'd placed the babies in the cribs, the cats were no longer interested in sleeping in the cribs. Same with the pack n plays. That was a relief. The cats will watch the babies, but they keep their distance. I don't think the naughty behavior is any worse than before the babies came along. I'm so relieved. The cats have certainly been replaced as my "babies", but I still love them and hope they are around for a long time.

I'm a bad blogger (random updates)

I stopped giving sleep training updates frankly because I was bored of it. Sleep training itself isn't boring, I'm just tired of thinking about it and doing it. And it's not such a pleasant experience, so I'm not entirely sure I want to remember it. We're still working on it. It's been two weeks now with very little progress. I'm constantly re-evaluating and trying to figure out what's wrong and what's working. It's frustrating to me that Glen isn't as consumed with it. I've asked him several times to read about it so we're on the same page and I'd like to get his knowledgable opinions and ideas. He's more hands-off on this. If it was up to him, he'd close the door at bedtime and not go back in until morning. Maybe that's what we need to do, but I want it to be an informed decision, and right now there's nothing "informed" about it. Okay, enough about this.

The boys are at such a cute developmental stage. They are really noticing each other now. They'll spend a long time staring at each other and smiling. It's so cute. And when they're on the floor together, they play with each others' hands and arms and legs - whatever they can grab. The latest thing, maybe in the last week or so, is putting each others' body parts in their mouths. Pretty much everything goes in their mouths, so I shouldn't be surprised. The other morning they were up earlier than I wanted to be. I turned on the lamp in their room and moved Micah over to Luke's crib (next to the lamp). They spent about 15 minutes in there, looking at the lamp and just hanging out with each other. I'm starting to see how fun this is going to be.

I really wish we could get this sleep thing figured out (here I go again). I just feel like the negatives of the sleeping is impacting my whole experience as a mother of twins. Shouldn't I just be happy with where we're at. They are able to play independently for a while, they play with each other, they smile - a LOT, they're making funny noises, playing with toys, etc. But still when I think of being a mother of twins, I can't view it completely positive yet and that makes me really sad.