I Have Six Month Old Twins (a very long letter)

How did that happen? I still can't believe it, it has gone by SO fast.

Actually, they are older than 6 months old, now....but this post is a little late!

In six short months, we went from this:

To This:

The boys had their 6 month check up and things are going really well.

Whoop Whoop went from 23 1/4" and 10 lbs 4 oz to 25 1/2" and 13 lbs, 13 oz.

Grunter went from 23" and 9 lbs, 6 oz to 25 1/4" and 14 lbs, 1 oz.

My boys aren't so little anymore! And Grunter, who used to be our "Little Guy" at a pound lighter than his brother, just blew past him!

They are in the 25% for height and still between 5-10% for weight, but compared to their stats at 4 months, they are really starting to gain on the curve.

I have no regrets about introducing the dream feed bottle of formula and the BM bottle at bedtime as I really think they needed some more calories than they were getting from BFing.

We've been giving them solids for the last month which no doubt helped as well.

They've grown out of all their 0-3/3 months clothes and are firmly in the 6 months clothes now. This past month was the fastest they've grown out of things, including diapers! I never knew how hard it would be to say 'goodbye' to certain little outfits. So sad! I'm happy my little babies are growing and getting big, but it's bittersweet at the same time.

Boys, where do I even begin? This past month from 5-6 months has really been the best month ever. I feel like we've gotten over a difficult newborn/infant phase and we are finally hitting our groove. We found you a really wonderful person to come see you almost every day--she is your Hot Nanny and you love her! She has made our life so much easier and we are thankful every day we found such a gem.

You are so much fun and I am overjoyed every morning seeing your little faces light up with smiles for me and your mama. You are both extremely smiley babies and have really outgrown your fussiness (thank GOD!). The mornings are filled with your chattering voices.

Grunter, you really love to talk! Whoop Whoop, you've been a lot more quiet than your brother, but you are quickly finding your voice as well. What you have learned to do is make a "ptuh" noise, sort of like blowing bubbles. Very cute, but quite messy when you do it with a mouth full of food.

You both love kisses, but Grunter, you LIVE for them. Whoop Whoop, I can always get a laugh out of you by tickling you under your chin. I thought this was such a strange place since you aren't really ticklish all over like your brother. Then, one day I reached over and tickled your mama under the chin and guess what? She giggled just like you! Neither of us knew she was ticklish there either?!

This past month you really discovered each other. Before it was almost as if you looked past each other and only occassionally was there a glimpse of recognition that the 'thing' over there was interesting. Now, you find each other very interesting! You are constantly exploring each other, mostly by Whoop Whoop trying to eat Grunter's hands and feet. Grunter, you are learning to assert yourself by pulling away instead of letting yourself be a chew toy and once you even pulled your brother's hair. Your brother bites down pretty hard with his gummy grasp and I'm never quite sure if I should let you figure out how to save yourself or to save you. I've decided on a 50/50 approach which is going well.

Mobility

You have both lost almost all interest in the play gym and I feel like that's going the way of the classifieds section very soon. For now, we've folded it away and you much prefer to play with all of the toys instead. We have a nice foam playmat and you spend a lot of time surrounded by toys rolling around and listening to classical music. No TV for you! We play little games of putting your favorite toys out of your reach and making you work for it.

Oh, your screeches of frustration! But you are learning to move yourselves around quite well.

Grunter, you have gone to hating tummy time to suddenly flipping over to your stomach almost as soon as we put you down. You constantly practice the 'baby cobra' position and can turn yourself in a complete circle swimming around. You go crazy that you aren't moving forward, but you will, my son, all in due time.

Whoop Whoop, you seem to be pretty happy on your back most of the time rolling from side to side getting your toys. When we put you on your stomach for tummy time, you immediately roll on your back as if to say "no thanks!"

Now that you both finally have solid neck control, the exersaucer has become a fun toy and you are more interested in your bouncy seats than ever before. Whoop Whoop, you love to kick the toys on your bouncy seat and play with them with your feet. If I give you a toy and you lose it, you have learned to scoot it back up with your feet. Very clever, little man!

Speaking of toys, you both are in love with Sophie the Giraffe (good thing we have two, thanks to Lucky Little 13!), soft plastic books (thanks to 2 Girls and Their Family!) and Eric Carle toys such as Fergie, your Frog and Inchey the Caterpillar. Whoop Whoop, you have adored looking at yourself in the mirror for a very long time and now your brother is discovering the joys of admiring his own good looks as well.

You are both fascinated to grab at our faces and love to put your fingers in our mouths. We are getting a nice upper body workout lifting you over our heads playing 'airplane'. Oh how you love this game!

And finally, you noticed the cat! Anytime the cat comes into your vision, everything stops. Whoop Whoop, your eyes get so big, you make baby gorilla noises and lunge for the cat. Grunter, you are only slightly more restrained. The cat is being very patient and will come over from time to time, but it's good the cat is fairly young and quick, because he's going to get a lot of exercise running away from both of you. That's OK, he's gotten a little fat:)

The absolute favorite toys though are your own body parts! Whoop Whoop, you are entertained by your feet day and night. They fascinate you to no end and it's hysterical to watch you try to figure out why they turn into giraffes or puppys or dinosaurs at night when we put on your footed pj's. Grunter, you are only starting to discover your feet. I think your mommies may have done a little foot discovery damage by keeping both of you in socks for the first 4-5 months. After our E/R scare with the toe hair tourniquet, we became overly paranoid about your toes being exposed and covered them day and night. Finally, I convinced your mama that it was time to unwrap the toes and voila! It was like we uncovered the best present ever that had been right there in front of you all along.

Breastfeeding is still going strong! You are easier to feed than ever before and while I hate, hate, hate pumping, I LOVE breastfeeding you both. I am still able to put you on the double breast feeding pillow and it melts my heart every time to look down and watch you holding hands as you drink away. Whoop Whoop, you are always reaching for your brother. If you can't find his hand, you keep reaching until you can hold on to a part of him. It's absolutely adorable.

You are both getting more and more distracted with the tandem breastfeeding. I have to request all other humans are absent from the room or else you just turn your heads to watch them. But I will keep up with this system until it's simply impossible.

The hardest thing for now is keeping your hands out of your mouth so you can feed!

Grunter, you have discovered your arm can swing up and down and your little hand can slap. Do you know those kitty cat clocks they have in practically every store or restaurant in Chinatown (but I think they are really Japanese) where the arm goes up and down? That's you my boy and you prefer to practice this new trick while you are breastfeeding slapping and slapping and slapping me! It's funny but it does hurt a little!

This month, your mama decided to stop breastfeeding you. No matter how much she pumped or how many little milk pills she took, she just wasn't producing enough milk for a full feed. Since she had to go back to work, it was time to make that decision. She misses it and I miss watching her do it, but it was so wonderful she had that opportunity and we wouldn't change a thing.

I never knew that feeding you solids would be so much fun! We started you off in your bumbo seats, but you weren't quite ready for that, so we've been feeding in your bouncy seats which is so much better. Rice cereal and breast milk was your first meal and while you liked it, we think it gave Grunter a rash on his face. We stopped all solids for one week, re-introduced the rice cereal and he got another rash! Grunter, if you are allergic to rice this is going to make our future travels to South East Asia very tricky indeed! For now, you have eaten: rice and oatmeal cereal, applesauce, bananas (which were like crack to you) and avocado. So far, we are making most of your food ourselves by steaming it and then using a hand held blender to puree. I like knowing exact what you are getting in your little bodies and ensuring it's all organic and pure.

Grunter, you are a very hesitant eater. You make a face on every first bite and even if you had that food the day before and we know you like it, you still act like you don't at first. You are also a very clean eater. Your don't really like the food to get on your face and hands.

Whoop Whoop, you start kicking and slapping your arms when you see the food bowls. You are going to be the kid who never saw a food he didn't like (we hope!). Your preferred method of eating is for us to spoon it in your mouth, you to shove your hand in your mouth and then slap your food and drool covered hand on your face, rub your eyes, slap your legs and possibly shove your foot in just to make sure you are totally covered with food. It's hysterical, but my god you are a mess at the end!

Overall, in most things, you are completely different from each other. It's amazing!

Sleep Training. Well, this one was a hard decision and we hoped to never do it. It deserves it's own post. Suffice to say, we had to do it and we are glad we did.

You are both much better sleepers now and even weaned yourselves from your pacifiers. That was amazing!

We established a firm night time schedule starting at 4:30pm with breastfeeding, a little play, bath, a 7 ounce bottle of BM, and we read you 3 books while you are being fed and then I sing you a song, Edleweiss from the Sound of Music.

You both go to sleep between 5:30 and 6pm and sleep until 6-7am. We are still feeding you a dream feed bottle of formula between 10-10:30 and then you wake up to breastfeed around 2am.

There are very few nights that you 'fuss' after a feeding, but sometimes you do try to host your own late night talk show with Grunter starring as Howar.d Stern and Whoop Whoop as Robin. When this happens, we take our earplugs and go sleep in the living room, because I'm not sure what the topic is, but it is LOUD. We keep trying to tell you that your ratings will go up if you host the show during the day, but so far you are ignoring us. Thankfully, you haven't done this too many times!

As with most things you even sleep differently with Grunter on his stomach, both arms tucked underneath and butt high in the air while his brother is a side or back sleeper.

The bedtime and dream feedings are our favorites as you are such sleepy, lovey lumps. Neither of you are very cuddly babies and this is the only time of the day that we can just hold you on our chests and breathe in your perfect baby smell. Many nights your mama and I will just lay on the bed, long after you have been fed and burped and cuddle you.

We are both keenly aware that you are growing up very fast and we won't always be able to have these moments with you.

For now, we are treasuring every wonderful moment.

Every night, we read you the book "Guess How Much I Love You". We read it to you every night while you were still in my belly and I always tell you that you have no idea how much I love you. You don't. You never will. Maybe, just maybe someday when you have your own children you just might get it. But my love for you is so intense, it often makes me teary. We are so lucky to have you, boys. We love you right up to the moon. And back.