9 Months

9 months. I feel a little sad this time around just because my girls are getting so big so fast! In just the last month their development has absolutely EXPLODED. Really in the last two weeks it's exploded. Both girls are crawling, pulling up to knees and sometimes straight legged on low surfaces (like our fireplace), babbling, banging toys together, and beginning to have opinions on things. We've done three rounds of baby proofing, including relocating our TV so that we can hide cords better. This post is going to have a TON of pics because I just can't help myself.

Amelia

Amelia is actually a half pound heavier than Eleanor now. How funny is that? She's all caught up! Our 9 month check up is tomorrow and I'm sure our doctor is going to be really shocked at the ground she's covered since her last appointment. I still pump for Amelia about half of what she gets during the day. I imagine I'll keep pumping for her until she's a year old when we switch to cow's milk and solids full time. But I won't lie-- it's becoming very tiresome to keep up with the pumping. Mostly because we're in the middle of their 8/9 month sleep regression and wonder week so they're up a lot at night on top of having to get up to pump at night. This too shall pass and I have only three more months until making it to my goal of 1 year. 

Amelia started crawling at the end of May and has been practicing ever since! She's getting pretty fast too! She loves to crawl around and see what Eleanor is up to. I've noticed that Amelia tends to follow Eleanor while Eleanor is off exploring. Amelia pulls up to her knees and goes from crawling to almost all the way sitting. I suspect her fluffy butt is preventing her from sitting all the way. Amelia likes to play and be busy! Very seldom does she just want me to hold her in my lap; too many things to see and do! She does like it when I help her stand and jump though. Amelia smiles and laughs very easily, especially when she gets her belly tickled. 

Amelia LOVES to jump in the jumparoo. She gets that thing going so fast and shrieks and babbles the whole time. It's really amusing to watch and listen to. Amelia also cracks up at Eleanor's antics and spends a lot of time interacting with her sister. Her other favorite toys are cloth wipes to wave around and chew on, bongos similar to these, and the Melissa and Doug caterpillar grasping toy.

Amelia also loves to eat solid foods!  She eats a pretty wide variety of purees, but we're moving more toward chunky purees and table foods. She hasn't quite mastered the pincer grip, and mostly mashes table foods around but I think she eats some of them. She seems to like scrambled eggs a lot as well as watermelon.

Eleanor

While I'm not always able to capture it, Eleanor is very expressive. She makes all sorts of faces and makes sounds in order to get your attention. She likes to talk and have conversations with everyone. While Amelia is a bit more independent, Eleanor likes to have me close by and will sit in my lap for awhile. She's also my little explorer. She climbs up on the fireplace, crawls under every table just to see what's up, chases the dog around...

...which brings me to this picture. Eleanor LOVES the dog. She gets so excited and happy when she sees her. Unfortunately, Louisianna is not what I would call a particularly affectionate dog. She's actually pretty aloof and mostly just runs away when Eleanor comes after her.

 Eleanor started proper crawling a couple of days ago. She still mostly does what I call the snake crawl. She army crawls so smoothly she looks a little like a snake slithering a long. She's FAST at it too. Eleanor also pulls up to her knees on low surfaces and just started attempting to stand. She would be pulling up on other furniture but isn't quite tall enough yet. If I stand her up and put her next to the coffee table she will hold on and try to grab stuff off the table.

Eleanor is a bit more of a picky eater. She likes most smooth purees but is iffy on anything with chunks in it. In just the past couple of days she's started doing better. Her favorite is using her pincer grasp to pick up table foods. She doesn't really care for scrambled eggs, but she ate a lot of baked oatmeal, some sausage pieces, watermelon, and even strawberries. She does really well with table foods so I've been trying to increase the amount of them we give her.

My Favorite Thing

 My favorite thing about twins is watching them play together. It's been very sweet watching a little relationship develop between both girls. Eleanor makes noises at Amelia who cracks up and makes a noise back. Eleanor leads the way (into trouble, usually) and Amelia is happy to go with her on whatever adventure it is. They go back and forth with babbles and coos. It's very cute. Probably one of my favorite things to see.

I've really enjoyed them the past several weeks. I think I can safely say I much prefer this age to newborn stage. Don't get me wrong, I have a lot that I treasured about their newborn-ness but this age is awesome. They're so much more interactive and inquisitive. They are always learning, exploring, trying new things. You can SEE their development in more tangible ways. I just have a lot of fun with them these days.

One of the downers, though, is that we've hit another wonder week. That means hardly anyone is getting any sleep. Have you read about the wonder weeks? We've found these to be very very accurate with our girls. When we hit fussy periods and times of sleeplessness it always aligns with a wonder week and the mastery of new skills. Both girls right now are very awake at night-- last night Eleanor was up FOUR times and refuses to be put down in her crib. It will pass eventually but it always makes me feel better to know I'm not crazy-- my babies are really just developing normally and doing what they should be doing. It's super frustrating in the moment when neither of them will go back down for an hour and a half in the middle of the night, but it's oddly comforting knowing that it will pass and that this is a phase. It's nothing I'm doing or not doing-- it's just time for their little brains to be making new connections with their world. I highly recommend the wonder weeks app. We have it on the iPad and it's been great to have! 

And really quickly... I realize this blog has gotten WAY LONG... I wanted to share this baked oatmeal recipe. A friend of mine baked it for me while Brad was traveling for work. It was so good I had to get the recipe! I could eat it all day. When I made it I left out most of the sugar. I think I used less than 1/4 cup of sugar. I bet you could leave it out entirely and it would still be delicious. Go make it, you won't be disappointed!