March 21, 2008

Ok, so right after I wrote the post on Wednesday, Emily decided to crawl.  She is already crawling like she has known how to do it all along.  Too funny again how different they are.  Bethany just went for it no matter how sloppy it looked or felt and then perfected it.  Emily did the wounded soldier crawl, to the commando belly crawl, to a combination of commando and actual hands and knees, to full on crawl.  I have to say it is really fun to have two of them the same age and to watch how completely different each child can be.

  

Bethany is loud and tests everything.  She screams all the time, whether that is playing or if she is hungry, tired, just wants some attention, etc.  They are making the same types of sounds, Bethany just makes them louder.  Emily is so quiet... she coos and babbles to herself and will lay in her bed and play quietly, but when she actually cries she means business.  Something is seriously wrong or needed.

It looks like both of my girls are going to be pacifier babies again.  Emily is actually taking a pacifer ALL day long while she is cutting teeth.  I haven't seen her suck her thumb in weeks.  I finally had to break down and go get more pacifiers so that we would have plenty between the two of them.  Bethany seems to like the ones that Emily takes also (better than her Soothies most of the time).  I am not sure if that is really the case or if she just wants what sister has?

Well, the girls are all over the house now when we don't have them confined to the playroom.  They found the dishwasher fascinating yesterday and Bethany managed to escape from the nursery while I was feeding Emily and decided to share a meal with Boo kitty.  By the look on her face, Boo was not happy to share her cat food at all, but Bethany really seemed to think it was tasty!!  I didn't have my camera in easy reach, otherwise I would have taken a picture.  They also REALLY like the water fountain because it has rocks in the bottom so I have to constantly move them away from it.  I have a feeling it will get moved to another (less accessible) room in the next week or so.  When they are confined it is pretty funny because they stand behind the bars, shake them, and yell "ma, ma, ma, ma, ma, ma!!"

Oh yeah, you need to check out the picture website because I updated it with LOTS of new photos.  We were a few months behind, but should be caught up now!!

March 19, 2008

Whew!  Well, they just keep growing and getting smarter and smarter.  Both girls are old pros at pulling up now and will look for anything that they can find to pull up on.  It is fun to come in after nap time and find them standing up in their beds looking at each other and talking over the rails.  On Friday I put one of their little foam chairs down on the floor for them to play with and use to pull up on.  Emily immediately climbed up in it and stood up.  I got her down and looked back at Bethany who was already on her knees in the chair getting ready to stand.  I was shocked.  I had no idea that they could climb as well as stand up!!  Needless to say, the chair is now out of reach unless Mommy is in the room.  

Emily still does not crawl, but at least her wounded soldier has found the use of her right leg and turned into a full on commando crawl most of the time.  Bethany can crawl anywhere and get there very quickly.  I often put her down in the floor and look back to find her already across the room (usually under something that I didn't know they could get under).  They have been really cute lately because they now look for each other across the room and want to be right next to each other to play.  Bethany still wants whatever Emily has but Emily has learned to kick her legs and "fake" cry to try to keep her away.    

Both girls are "testing" their balance further by letting go of objects and standing with no handholds.  Bethany is getting very good at this and has even figured out how to stand up from something that is only a few inches off the floor.  She can also let go for awhile and then grab hold again if she feels like she might fall.  Emily is just beginning to let go and can only stand for a couple of seconds before she sits back on her rear end.  Oh boy, so I was hoping to keep them from walking until they are a year old.  Well, one can still hope right?    

The girls are also drinking out of a sippy cup.  They have been doing this for about a month or so now, but Bethany just figured out how to hold the cup on her own.  She wants to do it herself now which is too cute.  It is a little bit heavy for her and she can't really get it tipped up far enough to get much of a drink unless it is really full, but she is doing it none the less.  Emily will help hold her bottle and has been working on that for awhile now, but she hasn't figured out the handles on the sippy cup yet.  I leave it in the playroom on the floor so that they can get to it when they want, but for some reason they seem to ignore it most of the time.

March 1, 2008

Wow, lots has changed in a week!!  Bethany is crawling like a pro now.  She actually crawled for the first time at Aunt DeeDee's house last Saturday during Heather and Josh's baby shower.  All for a Frito that John put on the floor to entice her.  I think she should wear a sign "will crawl for food" since that was the only way that we could get her to crawl for the first few days.  Emily is not "crawling" per say, but she can definitely get around fairly quickly with her wounded soldier tummy scoot.  She uses her left leg to push off and her right arm/elbow to pull her forward.  It is hilarious to watch.  Now it is impossible to keep either of them in the play room.  Hopefully we will get a gate up soon and Boo Kitty will have a place to run for freedom!  They are getting faster and faster so that soon she will not be able to get away from them so easily, especially since they find her fascinating.

Both girls are pulling up now.  Emily pulled up all by herself in her crib today but Bethany has been doing it for a little bit longer and I have had to lower her bed down since she is trying to stand on the bumper pad to get out.  Nap times are a bit more of a challenge than they were before with them both so very mobile.  Bethany has every single Soothie pacifier that we own in her bed since she won't go to sleep without them and she keeps dropping/throwing them out of her mouth when she is standing and talking to Emily.  Emily has decided recently that she is no longer a "thumb-sucker" all the time and wants a pacifier for nap and bedtimes.  I thought that was an interesting change of preference, but it doesn't bother me since I figure it will be easier to get rid of a pacifier someday than to stop her from sucking her thumb!   

Here is a pic of the girls standing in the playroom:

Both girls are starting to talk much more now.  Emily is using sounds like "ba ba, da da and ma ma."  She talks all the time, but is pretty quiet and will hang out and talk to herself if nobody is there to listen to her.  I have been working with her on associating waving with "bye bye" since she had started holding her hand up and waving.  Now she will wave sometimes when you say "bye bye," but not every time.  Bethany just prefers to squeal and blow zerberts, although she will try to out-sing anyone who will give her a fair chance.  We keep having to turn up American Idol to be able to hear the actual singing over her "singing/squealing" with or against the contestants!!  She made John laugh really hard first thing in the morning a couple of days ago since we woke up to her blowing zerberts at Emily which we could hear through the monitor in our room.

Both girls are eating really well.  We have tried out just about every pureed vegetable and fruit that they have out and will be moving on to cheeses and meats (which John dreads for the smelly diapers) soon.  So far they have liked pretty much everything but green beans, although they will eat them anyway.  Emily cut another tooth on the bottom left yesterday which gives her three teeth now.  They are so cute when they smile with their teeth on bottom.  I think it will be even cuter when they get the top teeth to go with them.  Although, they should be cutting those two teeth on the top soon which their mama is not quite ready for as Bethany has already decided to take a bite out of me that brought blood.  For you moms out there, it is very hard not to cuss at that moment and your instinct wants to slap that baby or throw them across the room and take care of yourself.  But as I wasn't able to do those things, we just used the "no more, you are done!" approach a few times and it has actually seemed to work so far.  Hopefully I won't have to find out that it has not worked as I have a feeling that I will be weaning at least one baby if that happens again!!