Up, Up, and Away

Jimmy and Katie are now both standing up all the time. Our newest addition to the play yard is "the wall", and they have a great time standing on opposite sides of it and laughing at each other. Katie is beginning to "cruise" a few steps at a time along the wall or the play yard fence.

They both have their first two bottom teeth now and are working on the two on top as well. Sleeping through the night was going pretty well until this development, we're hoping that we'll get back into the routine for a while once these teeth pop through.

Lots of new pictures in the Month 10 album!

Spring has Sprung

Happy Spring! NINE months old today!

I know I've said it before, and I'll probably say it again, but I am still amazed at how fast the time goes and how quickly they change.

They have discovered that it's much more fun to stand up in their cribs and laugh at each other than to nap. They're eating everything we feed them -- fruit, vegetables, cheese, yogurt, cereal, toast, even meat and baby ravioli. Every now and then we run into something that one or the other of them isn't crazy about, but they enjoy most everything. They're both working on feeding themselves, too. They have the right idea, but still have a little trouble getting the pieces of food into their mouths instead of dropping it in their laps.

They are also having fun with some new toys. We had a wheeled walker that they have been using for a while now, and suddenly both of them want to be in it at the same time. We picked up a second one, and now they play "bumper cars" all over the kitchen. It amazes me to see their brains working more and more -- when they started using the walker, they would go until they bumped into something, and then we'd have to turn them around. Now when they hit an obstacle, they back up and turn themselves to go around it. That's some serious thinking for such little brains!

The cold we had a couple of weeks ago is still hanging around. Katie still has a stuffy nose, and Jimmy has a little bit of an ear & sinus infection and is taking some antibiotics. We're all feeling a lot better, but not quite up to 100%.

These are a couple of the pictures we had taken last weekend. There are a couple more shots at the end of the Month 9 album, including one with a live bunny!

Catching up

In the past week or so -- seems like all at once -- Jimmy has figured out how to go from crawling to sitting and back again, had his first tooth (finally) make an appearance, and yesterday he grabbed the play yard fence and pulled himself up to standing without any help. Whew! No wonder he's been a little extra fussy at nap time, there's a lot going on in there!

While Katie stands up nearly every chance she gets (fortunately she's also figuring out how to get down without bumping her head, too), Jimmy seems happier up on his knees than either sitting or standing. He still needs to hold on to something to kneel, either the fence or one of the big toys they have. They are starting to play together sometimes, which at this point consists mostly of touching each other without someone crying at the end of it.

They both enjoy some time outside the play yard, too, either crawling or zooming around in their walker. Katie has mastered backing up and turning around after she runs into something, Jimmy is figuring it out too. They're bothing getting more and more vocal as well. Jimmy is using b's, d's, and m's in his "talking", Katie is following right along with "ba-ba-ba-ba-ba". They also both enjoy shrieking loudly when they're having fun, I'm not sure whether just to hear the sound of their own voice, or to see the funny faces Mommy and Daddy make. We are beginning to teach them some baby sign language, and although neither of them have the dexterity to make any signs just yet, I think they're beginning ot recognize a couple of them ("bottle" seems to be their favorite... no surprise there :-).

Katie has decided she likes soft baby food now (before she only wanted things she could chew on)
, and we are finding more and more foods they both like. We give them little tastes of many of the things we eat, and so far there isn't much they don't want more of. They are slowly figuring out how to get pieces of food into their own mouths, which will make feeding time a bit easier for us -- keeping up with two hungry mouths is a challenge!

I took a bunch of pictures over the past few days of them playing together and just doing what they do, they're in the Month 9 album.

Moving up in the world

We knew this was coming soon, but it was still a surprise the first time we looked over from across the room and saw Katie standing up, holding on to the play yard fence. She's pulling up everywhere she can now -- on the fence, on her crib bars, or on whoever happens to be sitting next to her. She's very pleased with herself every time she does it. She hasn't done quite as well figuring out how to get down, but she's getting there. Jimmy isn't far behind, he gets his feet under him, but so far only when he's been leaning on something too low for him to really get upright.

In other news, next month we'll be walking in the local March for Babies to benefit the March of Dimes. Our local parents of multiples club participates every year, and we're hoping to raise over $5,000 this year as a "team" to help fund research, education, and services to prevent birth defects, premature birth, and infant mortality.

Many of the families in our club, ours included, have benefited from work done by the March of Dimes, and this is one way for us to give something back.

Please consider making a donation today!

Sick :-(

We've all been sick with colds for the past week or so. For the first 24 hours the babes were pretty miserable, but they didn't get it quite as bad as Mommy did. They still have stuffy noses, but it doesn't seem to bother them very much. Tylenol and a humidifier in their room at night helped quite a bit. We thought Daddy might escape altogether as he hadn't shown any symptoms all week, but he came home from the office yesterday with a sore throat and couldn't stop sneezing this morning.

They had their Synagis shots yesterday (next month will be the last of those, hooray!), but their weights haven't changed a whole lot since last month. I think they're finally slowing down now that they have done most of the catching up they need to. I'm sure they're also burning up more calories with all the crawling, "talking", and squealing they're doing now!