Six Months

So, six months old! How did that happen? I have some excuse for losing track of time because the twins are each quite a bit smaller than Spencer was at this age, but still....

Lizzie and Teddy at six months... Bullet point format because I am sleep deprived:

• They're both sweeties with lovely smiles. It's possible that that's not unusual for babies, but I happen to know that these two are cuter than most.



• Teddy has started rolling over, back to front. Lizzie seems to be trying, but she's somewhat halfhearted about the whole endeavor. I think she'd rather focus on chatting with us.

• They're both incredibly into the Jumperoo and (to a lesser extent) the Exersaucer. If they're sitting in my lap, each of them will rock back and forth, and Teddy especially slams his whole body backwards into my collar bone very energetically.

• Naptime and bedtime sleeping are going well - they each take a morning and an afternoon nap easily, and when I put them to bed at 7pm, they both go to sleep quickly. Sleeping through the night, though, isn't going so well - each of them wakes up to eat 3 times a night, which means I'm up at least 5 times a night (often they both wake up at the same time for one feeding. This seems like it would be better, but actually it's worse - 2 babies crying means it's harder to get anyone back to sleep, and we run the risk of having 2 babies and a preschooler up and crying, which is pure hell.) Unfortunately, the only way I know of to reduce the number of nighttime feedings is to let them cry a bit, but that's tough, with 4 of us crammed in one bedroom.


• We're tentatively starting with the solid foods - one cereal feeding a day is all, right now. The doctor thought it was best to wait a little later than usual, since they were early.
  

• I see more and more small bits of interaction - one of them cries or yells or makes raspberry noises, and the other one looks and reaches out to explore this other person. It's touching to see one of them grab the other's hand - but usually that's followed by him/her trying to shove the extra hand in his/her mouth.

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Teddy - he's my wide-eyed boy, with an infectious grin and eyelashes that go on forever. He was more into snuggling than his sister - but in the last month or so he suddenly has ENERGY! and can't sit still long enough to nurse, even. When I'm giving him a bottle, he can't keep his hands still - they're always batting at me or, more often, batting the bottle out of his mouth, resulting in frustration and mess. He works very very hard to roll onto his tummy. Of course, once he's there he hates being on his tummy. He's smaller than Lizzie, so when I pick him up it seems like he's fragile - but he's clearly the one who wants to be going and doing and, I suspect, joining his big brother in making a big big mess.

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And Lizzie - when she smiles, she smiles with her whole body. She has slightly longer legs than Teddy, so when she gets to jumping, she gets some definite air. When she's awake she wants to be talking and flirting and smiling and laughing constantly - so being left by herself is definitely not her thing. When she sleeps, on the other hand, she stretches out her limbs, takes up all available space, and collapses into sleep.

Happy (belated) birthday, kiddos!