12 Months Together

If you saw the cute pictures of the boys alone with their puppies, you were probably wondering where the picture of them togehter was.  Let's just say it's going to be a while until we get one of those pictures again.  The combination of wild, diving Ruslan and cranky, hold-me-all-of-the-time Wyatt while entertainng, not exactly what I was looking for.

Brothers, together, is this what I have to look forward to?

But entertaining...here is a collection of what I captured in the process.  Scott was in charge of making sure no one ended up on the floor...

One Year Later

One year ago today I wrote the following:

"It is still hard for me to believe that I am going to be coming home from the hospital with 2 babies; I guess it won't be a reality until they put them in my arms. I wonder what they will look like - will they look the same, will I have trouble telling them apart? What type of temperment will they have - calm, good sleepers :) Will their personalities be similar or completely different? How big will they be - my guess between 7 and 7.5 lbs. How will we adapt to the change in our household? How will we survive the sleep deprivation? How much will our daily lives change as we transition from a family of 3 to a family of 5?  Ready? I guess as much as we are going to get. I'm excited to finally see the boys and welcome them into our family!"

I was packed and ready to go to the hospital early the next morning for an amnio followed by a scheduled c-section later that day.

After a year...

• I have no trouble telling them apart and their personalities are completely different. 
• Overall they are calm and easy-going.  Everyone who spends time with them says they are such good babies, we are definitely blessed with babies who are quick to smile and easy to calm when they are upset.
• My guess on weight 7 - 7.5 lbs: 6-8 and 7-7 - not too bad
• The sleep deprivation - I still wake-up much earlier than I would like, but in general they sleep great.  The first 3 months were really, really, really bad - there were days that I didn't think it would ever get better.  But it did, sloooowly.  Gradually they started sleeping and eating at the same time and went longer periods at night.
• Daily life - what a change!  Getting 3 kids ready in the morning, managing dinner, baths and bedtime...it's a challenge making it all work and we continue to make improvements and work togther to keep everyone in our home happy and healthy.
• Adjustments - we have had plenty of those.  Juliana had a very tough time with the change.  She was mad a me for a long time and then eventually accepted it to a point.  She still complains about sharing me and will ask me to put the boys in their play area and play with her.  I do my best to spread my attention around and spend time with her after the boys have gone to bed at night having some special mommy time.

Ruslan woke up extra early this morning and fussed and just wouldn't go back to sleep.  I picked him up and snuggled him for a while tyring to appreciate the fact that he is still small enough for me to hold in my arms.  As all parents know they grow up so fast.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Toy Fight

Sharing is a difficult concept at this age.  They see a toy they want and take it.  Usually whatever toy Wyatt has, Ruslan wants it and vice versa.  Since Wyatt started crawling, apparently he has been busy using his new skill to take toys away from the other babies.

On this occasion, Wyatt was playing with a new toy and Ruslan wanted it.  After taking the toy and then Wyatt taking it back, Ruslan resorted to pulling on Wyatt's ear and then knocking him over in the process.

10 Months Old

Month 10 was a busy one for Ruslan and Wyatt - so much changing and growing!  The biggest development - crawling,  After 2 months of only crawling backwards, Ruslan started forward motion about a week ago.  And being perfectly happy to sit and play with toys and occasionally pull himself toward a toy, Wyatt suddenly started crawling 2 days later.  Wyatt tends to sit back and watch Ruslan figure out how to do something and then he is ready to go a few days later.

During this past month:

• Ruslan went on his second round of antibiotics for his left ear and Wyatt got his first ear infection also in his left ear.
• They are sleeping well enough and mostly staying in one place in their cribs, so we started covering them up with a blanket.
• They each got 3 new teeth and have a total of 6 each - 4 on top and 2 on the bottom.  Ruslan's came in one a week over the past 3 weeks; Wyatt's all cut through on one day.  And Wyatt - he likes to bite.
• We stopped the mid-morning bottle so now they are down to wake-up, mid-afternoon and bedtime bottles.
• They had their first night away from home - we stayed with Scott's parents one night while our power was out.
• We survived (barely) 4 straight days of daycare being closed for snow while I had to work and take care of them as well.
• They tried new finger foods with mixed results.
• I packed up the 9-month clothes.

10 Months with Puppies

Let's sub-title the pictures for this month: When the boys learned they can escape and there are way more exciting things to do than look at the camera.

Wyatt had some very brief cooperative moments when he was alone in the chair.

This is his "stop making me sit back in the chair, I want to dive head-first on to the floor" expression.

He decided to lick the stuffed animal and was not thrilled with the taste.  However that didn't stop him from trying again.

Ruslan had no interest in looking at me or smiling. 

The ceiling fan, even turned off, is way more exciting than mommy and the camera.

This is my favorite one.  I am singing and he is dancing back and forth - I love his head tip and straight smile when he "dances".

The two of them together.

Wyatt spent most of the time trying to escape from the chair.

Eventually Ruslan got tired of chasing after him.

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%)

Toy Fight

Ruslan and Wyatt both really like this new toy...it certainly won't be the last time they fight over a toy.