12 Months

 

12 Months of pictures (even though month 11 was pretty lame). I so enjoyed doing these monthly pictures, but I think I will wait until 18 months to do the next one and cross my fingers they are more cooperative by then.

They were both in really weird moods for this shoot. Neither would sit still and when they finally did, Alexis wouldn’t sit up and Courtney was 1 second away from diving off the couch. Here is the best I got:

The only one of Courtney by herself that I was able to get!

Better luck in 6 months eh?

One more month

1, that’s it! Just one more month before these girls are a year old! Thinking back to this time last year, I was coming up on the hardest month I think I have ever had physically. The last month of their pregnancy was so difficult. But I have another post in the works for reflecting on the twin pregnancy. This is for these little girls’ 11 month old stats!

This was another month with huge changes and growth in their personalities. I can’t imagine them being any MORE different than they are from each other. Everything about them is different. Courtney is bold, rough, fearless, cuddly, pretty deep sleeper, short bodied, long legged, blonde haired, deep blue eyed, with small hands and feet. Alexis is cautious, careful, dramatic, not cuddly until she is sleepy, light sleeper, long bodied, short legged, red haired, hazel/green/grey eyed, with bigger hands and feet.  I don’t have their weights this month, but they are still pretty much a pound different from each other, with Alexis being heavier.

I am sad to say that it took me almost the entire month to get their pictures taken, And I only got one good one. They just wouldn’t sit still, and I never got around to get

Alexis:

This month she has been teething. She has gone from 4 to almost 8 teeth in one month. Not a fun time for her. She is getting more comfortable and friendly with new people, unless they push her and try to hold/cuddle her too early. She is getting more and more brave about standing up against things and has started cruising along the couch, but not going from object to object yet. She is finally even able to get down from standing against something when she is upset. One of her little quirks that I love SO much, is that she laughs at herself when she is playing. It’s a high pitched squealing laugh, and it’s adorable.

Courtney:

SHE WALKED!! Courtney took her first steps, and walked a lot one day. Here is the video. This was her 3rd or 4th time taking multiple steps, but the first I caught on camera.

It took her a week and a half to try walking again and after that there was no stopping her. She walks everywhere, and loves being so mobile. We are in trouble when she gets better at climbing, because she is fearless.Completely opposite of Alexis, Courtney only got 1 tooth this entire month. She had a nice break and I am so glad I didn’t have two teething hard core.

10 Months. How time does fly!

Double digits! This month has been a huge change both physically and developmentally for both girls. They both seemed to turn into little girls rather than babies. They are so very tall and seem to already loosing baby fat. It makes me a little sad, especially since we aren’t planning for another one for another couple years. Lol, I can imagine that we might not make it that long.



Both babies are crawling pros! They both have their own style, but can chase me down just the same. Their teeth are coming in quick. Alexis has 4 with 4 more quickly coming in. Courtney has 2 and is close to getting a third. I don’t have their weights or heights this month, neither had to go to the doctor at all. They are getting so big and so fun. Their personalities are coming out a lot this month. I can’t believe how different they are.

Courtney:

Courtney is so fearless! I don’t know if I have mentioned before, but Courtney loves the cat! I think she loves her more than Kaylee did, and it’s really cute. She tries to cuddle with her all the time, but it has become more of a body slam than cuddling lately. I try to protect Turtle when I can and am trying to teach Courtney to be soft and gentle with her.




Alexis:
This month Alexis has started babbling and talking! She is also getting more comfortable around strangers. I think the thing that has helped the most with that is just not pushing her. I don’t hand her to people unless she really wants to go to them. And I take her back when she is uncomfortable (before she starts crying) even if she was with the other person for only a few seconds. I don’t try to make her “get used to them” or force her to adjust to being away from me. This girl has tons of teeth coming in. She has 4 at the moment with 4 more on their way in. Needless to say, she is pretty miserable for at least part of most days. When she is happy though, she will sit and play by herself and laugh at whatever it is that she is doing. It is adorable, but every time I turn on the camera she stops.

This one is super fuzzy, but it’s her excited face so I have to share it.

9 months

3 months until we get to celebrate a twin birthday! I am so excited for them to turn 1 year and know that I survived. I may not have been an easy year, and I may have been on my own for a good portion of it, but I survived!

Pictures this month were so difficult! The girls just wouldn’t hold still, and the sticker didn’t show up well at all.

I love that the girls have started interacting with each other more this month. They get concerned when the other one is crying and Courtney even tried to save Alexis from falling out of the swing outside. The more mobile they get, the more fun it is to have two babies….inside the house that is! Going out is getting a little more difficult, but being able to wear one of them on my back while out is a life saver.

They had their 9 month check up and were lucky enough that this was one with no shots! Their weights are still just about a pound different. Courtney was 16 lbs 14.5 oz and 27 1/4” tall and Alexis was 18 lbs and 27” tall

Both girls have graduated from being belly slitherers to crawlers this month! They both crawled for real out on the grass at first, but have figured out that it’s faster inside too. Alexis still prefers scooting for the most part, but I am sure she will be up and crawling soon. Courtney is getting FAST! I love watching her explore.

Courtney:

This girl has also found her voice! She has started babbling, saying ba ba, da da, la la, and ma ma!! She uses dada pretty much to always mean Dad, but mama still seems to be what comes out when she is upset….so I don’t know if she specifically means me, or just wants someone to save her. She wants so badly to be up and walking! She is standing up against the couch and starting to cruise along it. When she falls she naturally sits, which is so much better than when Kaylee would fall stiff as a board backwards! With Courtney’s new skill of crawling has come a huge sense of independence. She will spend many days playing on her own and only coming to me for food or if she gets hurt.

Alexis:

We are still struggling with Alexis being so clingy and having such bad separation anxiety. She has certain people that she likes, but most people have to be around her for a LONG time before they can touch her, let alone hold her. She has also been talking, but not actual word sounds yet. She does this amazingly adorable coo talking thing when she is super content and happy.

I can’t believe these babies are growing so fast!

8 months

 

In 4 months these little girls will be a year old! I can’t believe it has been that long since they were born. They are growing more and more adorable every day, and are learning so quickly. Life is super busy and crazy, but honestly I just haven’t had any desire to blog lately which is the real reason this post is late. I have a bunch of other things I need to post about, but it just isn’t getting done. I hate when I get behind like this because it makes it SO hard to feel like blogging because I feel like I wont ever have time to write/post about everything.

Anyways! The girls are getting big! They are on the very of being in 9 month clothes, and if the waist bands fit they really could be in 12 month pants. They are following in their big sister’s footprints and are ahead one size in pants and dresses.

8 Months:

I didn’t get their weights for 8 months, sorry! I know for sure that Alexis still weighs more, but it seems to be not quite as big a difference lately. Courtney may catch up eventually!

I can’t believe how big they are getting!!

Some bloopers:

 

Courtney:

This girl’s personality has blossomed this month. She is so intense! She also has no fear for her own safety. If one of them skips crawling I could totally see it being her. She is  pulling up on everything and starting to cruise along the couches. She never stops moving! At the same time, she is so very cuddly sometimes. She will snuggle in the crook of my neck and sit there with her head on my shoulder.

 

Alexis:

This past month has been a little rough for our little Alexis. She has had a lot of separation anxiety lately, and it makes the days really hard. Some days she doesn’t even wait for me to leave the room before she freaks out. If I turn around to leave she starts crying and will continue until I come back. But she has also become more mobile this month, and I am hoping it will help increase her independence. It’s hard to have anyone help because then I have to hold Alexis (or wrap her) because she will freak out even more with a strange person in the house. As frustrated as I am with it, I don’t really know how to help her feel more secure. I am hoping she grows out of it soon and starts to enjoy life again.

Alexis has the most beautiful redish hair! Some lights make it really red, and other lights it looks more brownish.

Courtney’s hair is still looking pretty curly! I think it will be even more curly than Kaylee’s and I am excited for that.

Siete

 

7 Months!

Haha! I love having twins! This month has tested that statement to the max, but I still love it. The biggest challenge this month has been sleeping at night. Seriously, how lucky did we get with Kaylee? She was consistently sleeping through the night from about 3 months on!! Here we are at 7 months with the girls and on a GOOD night, they are each up twice. That is 4 times for their poor mom (me). Robert is still being awesome and staying up until at least midnight every night to let me get at least a few hours of uninterrupted sleep. The poor man is then up at 5-6am to go to work hard all day. Husband, I love you! Thank you so much for staying up to allow me to sleep!

The girls have gotten so mobile in this past month! Alexis is get very quick in her scooting, and has even figured out how to go over the bar at the bottom of the dog gate in the hallway. The first time she went over it she got super frustrated and upset…and I was a mean mom and left her alone and let her figure it out. Courtney is also getting mobile, but she hasn’t picked up as much speed yet. I am sure she will or she will get frustrated enough with slow scooting that she will crawl. I imagine that Alexis will be like Kaylee and not bother crawling for a while because she can get around fast enough by just scooting.

Another big this this month is that they are getting teeth! Alexis, as of Wednesday has two teeth, and Courtney is SO close to getting her first one. Both have been miserable and not sleeping well (well worse than usual) and have been surviving on teething tablets and Ibuprophan. They have Amber teething necklaces, but I don’t know how much they are working. They seem just as miserable as Kaylee did during teething and she didn’t have a necklace.

Because this is almost a month late in being posted, I am going to keep it short and not to an individual paragraph for each girl. They are definitely each their own little person though!

Alexis

Courtney

A Half Year!

Seriously?!?  Can they really be half way to turning 1?

I am sad and excited at the same time. Sad because they are getting so big, and I have loved having two little babies to snuggle. And excited that soon they will be mobile and be able to more easily entertain themselves.

Things have been crazy lately, which is why this is almost half a month late!

Thinking back to how Kaylee was a 1 year, I am blown away a how much the girls will be changing in another short 6 months. Kaylee was on the verge of walking, was eating all sorts of solid foods, was consistently sleeping through the night (though she started that at 2-3 months) and was beginning to say some little words! I can not wait for that with Alexis and Courtney!

Both girls are getting a little more mobile during tummy time. It is interesting that they do it in different ways. Courtney is very confident rolling. She hasn't figured out how to roll all the way across the room, but she will roll once to get closer to something she wants. Or, she can scoot in circles, but not go forward or backwards much yet because she lays on her stomach with her arms and feet up in the air…I think she is hoping she can fly. Alexis’ mobility has exploded in the past week! She now rolls a lot, and is getting pretty quick at scooting her way across the room to get something she wants. She doesn’t try to get up on her knees yet, but I am sure that will come soon enough.

Courtney has become our smiley girl this month! She smiles all the time, and is such a happy girl. She is going through a little bit of stranger danger, which Alexis is starting to get over, but with her it is pretty slight. When she is worried about who is holding her she quietly whines and whimpers rather than screaming bloody murder. She is so happy to be a little more mobile, and gets frustrated that she can’t figure out how to be MORE mobile. We put her back on reflux medicine this past month to see if it would help her to sleep better. It has made a bit of a difference, which I noticed especially this past week when I missed a few doses. She was miserable! I’m hoping that the reflux will resolve soon so she can be med free. This poor little girl’s hair can’t seem to stay on her head. I think it is starting to fall out for the third time since she was born! It grows a bit and then falls out, grows in, and falls out again. I am pretty sure that what is going to grown in is pretty dark brown with even more curl than Kaylee’s hair! Her eyes are SO blue! Dark DARK blue! I love the color of her eyes.

Alexis is becoming pretty demanding. I think she has finally decided that waiting for Courtney to be patient is pointless so she is voicing when she needs something. She has started screeching......like the sound that tom cats make when they fight.....it is fabulous. She screeched for three or four days straight.....it was "fabulous." She isn’t quite as social with people anymore since going through some major stranger anxiety. She is slowly getting more comfortable with other people again, and I am hoping she will be quick to smile again soon. Her hair is starting to thicken up and is still pretty red! Some lights it is a little more of a brown, but in bright light and especially outside it is RED! Her eyes are interesting. Some days they look like they might turn green and other days they look more blue like mine and Kaylee’s. I am excited to see how they turn out.

A big milestone we are reaching for is sitting independently. On Sunday (I think) we had them both on the bed and they were both sitting for about 10 seconds on their own. I ran to get the camera, but after that we couldn’t get them both up at the same time. So, here is the proof that our girls are close to being sitters.

Miss Alexis

The closest we got to both at the same time….Courtney is on the way down!

Miss Courtney

And the bloopers:

I love these girls so much, and love watching them change and grow. Hopefully I can get a couple more posts up before their 7 month-day sneaks up on us!

5 months!

These girls are 5 months old today!! Crazy, but awesome at the same time!
Alexis was not in the mood for pictures this time, and Courtney was cracking up at me the whole time. Pretty much the opposite of what it usually is like.


I think this was part of the reason Alexis didn’t want to take pictures. Courtney kept trying to chew on her.

Finally, after close to 100 shots, one of Alexis smiling….almost

The girls are growing up so fast I feel like I am missing it! Every day they change a little, and a little more of their personalities comes out. I am loving it. I absolutely adore having twins!
Alexis:.
This little lady weighed in at 15.2 lbs today!! She is deceptively small, but very heavy. Her weight even surprises me sometimes. This month she has been going through a stranger danger phase…..oh please let it be a phase! She absolutely flips out when other people hold her. Even with my mom who has been around her the most other than Robert and Me. She can’t calm down once she gets going and it is a bit heartbreaking. I am sure she will get over it soon so I’m trying not to let people make a big deal of it. She is still content to stay on her back or belly without attempting to roll yet. If Kaylee hadn’t been the same way I would probably worry. She is content to just spin in circles and scoot on her back sometimes. No signs of teeth yet, but her gums are changing so I am waiting for the actual teething to begin. She loves to watch me and Robert and then explodes into a grin when we look at her. She is very methodical when she is grabbing for toys and had even figured out how to pull her pacifier out and put it back in (most of the time). She is still the more patient of the two, but when she is done being patient she is DONE!




Courtney:
With almost 2 lbs difference between them, Courtney is 13.4 lbs today! Active, as usual, she is pretty good at rolling both from front to back and back to front. She hasn’t figured out how to roll to get across a room, but I think it’s only a matter of time. She is almost able to sit up by herself, and is only happy if she is either laying flat or sitting upright. She really detests leaning back in the bouncy seats. The jumperoo is her favorite toy in the house. She will often jump until she is tired and then continues to jump while whining to be taking out. It is nice that she has zero stranger danger and can be held by visitors and helpers. It takes some of the pressure off Alexis, which I this will help her. Courtney is getting more and more smiley even though her patience is still pretty short. She often has a hard time calming down after getting upset. If she were an only child I am sure it would be simple to keep her happy all the time, but having to wait her turn gets her upset very quickly. She wants something in her mouth at all times. Pacifier, fist (mine or hers), toys, paper, food, the floor, or blankets, it doesn’t matter as long as it can get into her mouth. I don’t know if she is teething or if its just a personality quirk, but it is pretty entertaining.


I love this one of her!


I was having so much fun taking her picture! She usually is pretty difficult to get a smiling picture of, but she thought I was hilarious this time.