11 Months Old

Even though they will be 12 months next week, this post reflects their activities at 11 months.

Month 11 was the month of mobility and exploring lots of finger foods.  They are a bit like puppies, crawling all over the place, chewing on everything, and making lots of noise.  Sometimes they travel as a pack around the house seeking the same ball or other toy and on other occasions they are on their own traveling in opposite directions.

During month 11:

• The gates were installed at both sides of the main living area and if they are not latched completely they can get them open and escape
• We switched to bigger car seats
• Ruslan continues to blow kisses and still sucks his left thumb and holds his right ear
• Wyatt makes clicking noises and ear-splitting yells
• Both pull themselves up to stand and cruise along the furniture and walls
• Wyatt is especially interested in electrical outlets so we are extra careful to watch out for them when we are somewhere that they might not be covered
• Ruslan's reflux finally started to end to the point where we no longer have to keep him in a bib all day for spit-up.  We started the process of switching him from the reflux formula to the same brand that Wyatt eats.
• They both love chasing balls
• Ruslan started clapping and blowing razzberries
• We bought their first pair of shoes, but we still keep them barefoot most of the time
• We worked with Wyatt to get him to put himself back to sleep when he was continuing to wake-up at 2:00 am many nights - now everyone sleeps all night
• New finger foods: egg yolk (scramble and hard boiled), blueberry waffles, toast, green beans and peas

We are starting to get to the point where they entertain each other and I can start to see the advantage of having a built in playmate as they grow-up.

Wyatt's Latest Trick

It's been about a week now and I still laugh every time he does it - Wyatt claps!  He is so pleased with this new skill.  There is one song that the farm plays that will always start the clapping.  He will often start to clap when he is excited to see someone walk in the room - and who doesn't like to be greeted with applause and a big smile.

Weathering The Storm

Life goes on for the boys in this snow filled day.  Ruslan has a new favorite face that I half caught in this picture - the super cute fish face - and sometimes that fish face ends with a kiss :)

Wyatt has joined the backwards crawling fun, but he prefers to be standing if possible.

And a few pictures of the snow...

9 Months Old

9 months is such a fun age and my favorite part about the boys being 9 months old is definitely watching them interact.  They sit next to each other and play, and I am hoping they learn to share soon.  Generally Wyatt is happily playing with a toy and Ruslan decides he wants it and takes it away.  Wyatt will get mad and either start to cry or lunge at Ruslan in an attempt to take the toy back - a tug of war over the toy may be involved. 

We didn't buy lots of presents for the boys at Christmas. Their one big present was the Fisher-Price Learning Farm and they play with it everyday.  Since it is double-sided they can each play on one side and watch each other through the doorway.

They also love to grab at each other - ears, mouth, feet - I don't know what they think they are going to do with their brother's ear once they get a good grip.

Ruslan's third tooth came in this month - top-left, middle and Wyatt has a third tooth on the top as well.

They continue to eat their way through all of the 2nd foods as well as puffs and rice cakes.  And they still have 4 bottles each day.

Both boys had their first sick + fever episodes at the end of December / beginning of January.  Wyatt is extermely miserable and needs to be held for hours (even at night) when he has a cough and sore throat.  Ruslan developed the first ear infection at the begining of January and started a second round of antibiotics a few weeks later when his left ear was still infected.  At their 9-mo appt Wyatt was diagnosed with his first ear infection (left ear) and started antibiotics.  Ruslan was home for 2 days while Wyatt was at daycare - this was the first time they have been separated for more than a few hours.  Wyatt was much fussier than normal on those days and so very excited when he came home and saw his brother.

They are both sitting well now and Ruslan continues his adventures in backwards crawling.  He gets where he wants to go, it just takes a lot longer than going forward.  Wyatt gets around as well, but not on all 4's quite yet.

They are having their nighttime bottle and going to bed for the night between 7:00 and 7:30.  And at least one of them makes it until morning each night.  Often times one of them wakes up and is sad enough to need to be comforted back to sleep.  We are trying to give them time to fall back asleep on their own and the past few nights have been good.  They wake up between 6:00 and 7:00, hoping that shifts closer to 7:00 everyday soon.  And over the past month, they have finally started taking longer naps at daycare.  Previously they would only nap for 30 mins at a time even though they napped for hours at home on the weekend.  Now they are both getting at least one nap longer than an hour and usually two.  That makes for much happier babies in the evening.

Did I forget to mention that Wyatt says mama now - he said it on Christmas Eve for the first time - generally he says it for 10 minutes straight once he gets started :)

9-month stats
Ruslan - Weight - 19 lbs 3 oz (25%) - Height - 28-1/4" (47%)
Wyatt - Weight - 18 lbs 13 oz (20%) - Height - 29-1/2" (84%)

Ruslan Crawling

Ruslan is getting really good at crawling...unfortunately he only crawls backward.  He crawls as far as he can until he gets stuck somewhere, like here when he crawled under the couch.

6 Months Old

6 months old and becoming more fun each day.  They seem to be learning a new "trick" every week. 

Ruslan figured out how to blow bubbles and of course his favorite time to do that is while eating; he loves the sound of his voice (will all of my children have this trait); his feet have become his favorite toy; and he is showing some signs that he might be the first to crawl.

Wyatt is finally growing some hair; it looks like a tooth is going to be arriving soon; he is getting very stable sitting up, loves to be as upright as possible and is close to being able to stand holding onto something - he is almost chest high on Juliana already...guessing he will be at the top of the height chart.

It's amazing how different they are in temperment, overall traits, and varying development.

They are both such calm babies - almost every day one of the teachers or childcare workers and even the other moms stop to tell me how much they love our babies and how sweet and good they are.  They greet everyone with a smile and generally only cry when they are very hungry or very tired.   Even two very good babies require a lot of attention and work, I can't imagine if they were fussy all the time.  I live an exhausted life on most days, but when I drag myself into their room in the morning and they catch the first glimpse of me over their cribs, both babies wave their arms and kick in great excitement, smile and shriek with joy that mommy has come to rescue them...and I feel a little less tired at that moment and smile back at my happy boys...I am blessed with wonderful children.

Some of the details of their lives at 6 months (need to record these details so whenever I do get to work on their first year scrapbooks, I will have the information to include).

Baths are 2 times a week and they are still in the baby tub in the kitchen sink.  I have such a good system down for the kitchen bath, but I think we will need to move to the duck tub in the big bathtub very soon.

Eating - So far the boys have enjoyed the following foods - rice cereal (only for the first week), oatmeal baby cereal, peaches, pears, sweet potatoes, green beans.  And surprisingly green beans seem to be the favorite food so far.  After a few weeks of one meal at dinner each day, they started having cereal with fruit for breakfast as well.

Sleep - They still aren't napping well at daycare.  Most evenings they come home, eat dinner and fall asleep.  At around 8:00, we get them changed for bed (if they aren't already in their sleepers) and then Wyatt gets a bottle, Ruslan nurses and into their cribs they go.  We are still feeding them before we go to bed for the night to get them through until 6:30 most nights - they don't generally wake up for those feedings...just drink in their sleep.  On the weekends, they take nice naps (Ruslan will nap 2-1/2 - 3 hours at a time) and they are so much happier and are awake to play in the evening.

A Few of My Favorite Things by Ruslan

#1 - My thumb - it is with me everywhere I go. I prefer my left thumb, but if Mommy has trapped that thumb in my shirt sleeve while trying to change my clothes, then I will use the right thumb. To get my thumb in my mouth, I press the palm of my hand against my face and slide my thumb along my mouth until it is there. Even if I am awake when Mommy puts me in my crib at night, I just suck on my thumb and get very sleepy. Sometimes I notice Wyatt sucking on his fingers, but not too often.

#2 - Rolling - I learned to roll over later than my baby brother, but now that I know how, I love to roll across the entire room. Mommy puts me on the left side of Wyatt so that I don't roll on him, like my thumb I prefer rolling to the left. Mommy always seems surprised when she leaves us on the floor to play and comes back a few minutes later and I have rolled as far as I can - it's a fun game. Some nights I have to cry for Mommy and Daddy to come help me. I love rolling so much that I do it in my crib at night and sometimes my left arm gets stuck and I can't get my thumb in my mouth. Daddy puts me on my back so I can get my thumb again and then I can fall back asleep.

#3 - Oatmeal Cereal - For the longest time all I got to eat was milk and now I get food from a spoon. The rice cereal was ok, I made a horrible face when Mommy tried to feed peaches to me, and now I have been eating oatmeal cereral - it is very yummy. I open my mouth wide every time I see the spoon and try not to let any come back out on my chin. Mommy says I need to wear my new bib to keep my shirt clean and I do like the bright colored pictures on it; but the bib causes a big problem - it traps my hands. When I try to get my thumb to my mouth I just end up pressing my bib against my face and then I can't see, I smoosh food on my nose and I still can't get my thumb. Fortunately I eat quickly and after Mommy washes my face and I can get out of my chair and roll.

First Bowl of Cereal

After sleeping all night for weeks, over the past few weeks both boys had started to wake up almost every night.  I checked one of the "is your baby ready for solid food" quizes...and the answer was yes for all 10 questions.  So Tuesday evening they each had their first bowl of cereal.

Instead of full size highchairs, we purchased these compact chair-top versions.  They still recline and will work much better for us and our available space.  The boys were very excited when we put them in the seats - they were happy to kick and look around and be amused by Juliana.

Scott insisted that they both get their first bite of food at the exact same moment, thankfully we had another adult on hand so I could take pictures.

Juliana did get in on the fun as well.  After feeding Ruslan 2 bites she was bored and wandered off to play.

Both of them did such a good job, kept most of the food in their mouths and seemed to get the hang of pushing the food to the back of their mouths quickly.  Ruslan was fussy when we got home today, but as soon as I put him in his chair he sat back and smiled.  I don't think that anyone is surprised that Ruslan is excited for more food.  In between bites of food Wyatt was making little noises, asking for more.

When they were done eating Ruslan was happy to sit in his chair and kick and Wyatt was very chatty. (ignore my silly, mommy voice)  Apparently blogger and facebook are not playing nice tonight - click here to view the video until it appears in this post.



10 minutes later, they were both passed out, sound asleep - happy, tired babies.