23 Months!

On May 29 the boys hit their 23 month birthday. They are still such happy boys, although we are getting a few more temper tantrums thrown into the mix.

They are starting to understand more, and actually getting quite helpful. They can understand some two-part instructions, such as “pick up that X and throw it out in the garbage.” They are actually a good help in feeding Nya, and able to scoop out her food and put it in her bowl, but needs supervision because if it was up to them they would just keep feeding her because they love her reaction to food. They also love feeding her treats, and are always sad when we put them away. They help me sometimes making food in the kitchen, although usually it doesn’t end up being very helpful, But we still do it because it is cute, I know that they are learning and I just enjoy doing different activities with them!

This last month, they have discovered that they are tall enough to close doors, and that is their new favourite thing to do. They rotate between closing all four doors upstairs, and love it when Richard and I open the door again so they get another opportunity to close it! They will grab the side of the door and close it right to the point where they would pinch their fingers and then they stop, stand up on their tiptoes to grab the door handle, and pull it shut. They haven’t mastered opening the door yet, but I’m sure it is only a matter of time. Philip has actually taken to walking around on his tippy toes sometimes, which is so cute to watch.

Both boys have started eating a bit more meat this month. Philip’s new favourite meal is ham.

We bought them a wading pool for the backyard, so that has been fun to go out every day when they get home from Dayhome and play in the pool. One of their favourite things to do is to take an empty jug, fill it up with water from the pool, and dump it onto the garden.

They have learned some new words this month, including hot, happy, more and please. They are understanding so much, and making new sounds every day. They may have more words than I realized, but I may just not be able to understand them, but they certainly seem to understand each other.

They also now smile for the camera, which is so cute. You can see from these pictures below that they are doing a posed smile rather than the natural ones I’ve been able to capture in previous monthly photo shoots, but I love their little boy smile’s.

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22 Months!

I can’t believe that these little boys will be 2 in just 2 months; time is flying by so fast! They both have several words that they use regularly: mama, daddy, jump (as they jump up and down on the bed), ball, thank you, no (that one may be the most common!), yeah and Nya. They also repeat a lot of the words that we say, but won’t necessarily say them  on their own: yellow, blue, Grandma, Grandpa, Grandad (those 3 sound the same), Nana, bum, poop (most often repeated when we say “do you have a poopy bum?”)

They are the silliest little boys and love to run, laugh and launch themselves onto the ground, pillow, couch…whatever is nearest, and roll around. They love to be tickled! I wonder at what age they will outgrow that, as I don’t know any adult that likes to be tickled, but for now while it’s still one of their favourite things, we tickle them all the time.

Both boys are more mature with their interactions with other kids now; it is so fun to see them sharing with other kids and picking up on different ques. When we were in Florida with their two older cousins, they played “Ring Around the Rosie” and it was so fun to see all 4 kids (all 4 and under) holding hands and turning in a circle, and when it came to the “we all fall down!” part, Philip and James quickly learned to follow Elena and Tristan’s lead and would fall down and laugh.

They both have started doing “somersaults”…or at least they think they can! Philip actually did a perfect somersault on his first try while we were in Florida. Everyone applauded; he had the biggest smile on his face and then tried again, but just managed to roll onto his side. He hasn’t been quite able to recapture his initial somersault prowess, but that doesn’t stop him or James from trying frequently and loving it every time!

We spent a ton of time outside this month! Besides being in warm and sunny Florida for 2 weeks, where they were outside every day, usually playing in the pool, ocean or splash pad…or sometimes all 3…we were also able to take advantage of some beautiful weather in Calgary before the snow hit us again on April 27 (and even then they still insisted on going outside in the snow in their snow boots and snowsuits)! They absolutely love being outside and exploring the different textures (dirt, stones, snow, sand, water, you name it) and sounds (Philip loves to spot airplanes once he hears them), and seeing all of the wonders outside – especially the animals! They loved seeing all of the birds in Florida (ibis, pelican, sand stork, etc.), going to the Brevard Zoo and seeing some new animals there, and watching the squirrels who live in our backyard.

They are still working on learning their animal sounds, and now have started adding in vehicle sounds (helicopter, ambulance, monster truck, train – all from a book called Things That Go which is Philip’s new favourite). For body parts, they have added shoulders, knees, bum, teeth, tongue and chin to their repertoire.

James is Mr. Independent. He insists on putting on his pants by himself and he’s actually quite good at it! Sometimes he puts them on backwards, and usually he can’t get them over his bum (he only pulls them up from the front), but he is largely able to put his pants on by himself now. He also needs to attempt putting on his socks and shoes before he accepts help, and has even tried putting on his shirts (he can get them over his head but can’t get his arms in) and coat on his own, but will always accept help with these sooner. He climbs onto the dinner chairs or his high chair and waits for dinner. He insists on eating food in large chunks where he takes his own bites, rather than us cutting it up for him. And he usually prefers to walk around without holding anyone’s hand when we’re out…and if it was up to him to go completely in his own direction. He is still very cuddly though, especially when he’s tired.

Philip isn’t so interested in getting himself dressed. He tries to put on his own pants and socks sometimes, but is also happy for mommy or daddy to do it for him. Philip loves to be read to. He always picks out a book and then will come and back up onto my lap so I can read it to him. They both enjoy playing with and in water, but Philip loves it! Whether it was running head first, laughing into the ocean, jumping into the pool, or splashing around the splash pad, the water in Florida was so much fun for him. He also loves to dump water from his water bottle into pots, pans, cups, buckets, etc…or even better to pretend to drink the water and then spit it out into the pot, pan, plate, spoon, etc. It seemed almost impossible to stop him from doing this, so I set up a ‘water table’ for him in hopes to give a specific area where this would happen. Instead it seemed to fuel his desire to do this and now meal times are filled with “Philip, water is for drinking” or “Philip don’t spit that out, swallow your water”, and often ends with him being soaked.

James has all of his teeth, except for the back 4 baby molars. So does Philip because he just got his bottom two canines. They really expressed a lot of interest in sitting at the table with us over the weekend so we tried putting them in booster seats and pulling them up to the dinner table with us. They certainly liked it, but it was such a mess that after 4 meals like that, we decided to put them back in their high chairs for a little while longer. They are okay with sitting in their high chairs still and sometimes will just sit in our chairs at the table for small snacks or just for fun.

And lastly, here are some photos of these blonde hair, blue eyed, happy twin boys!

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19 Months!

I am a couple of weeks late in posting this one, but the pictures are from January 29 when the boys actually turned 19 months old.

They are such active boys, running everywhere and climbing on everything! We no longer use place mats on the dinner table because they can stand on their tippy toes and grab the place mats, and whatever is on the table comes tumbling down. I really don’t know how they do it because even when we put the mats in the middle of the table, they still seemed to be able to reach it.

They love to chase each other and play a version of ‘tag’ – although I don’t think they realize that is what it is called. They copy each other, especially when doing something like spitting water or milk out of their mouths or wanting to play with a toy the other one has. They give each other hugs and kisses…and sometimes it turns into wrestling (or as much as toddlers can wrestle). They are each others best friend and it is so wonderful to see them growing up together and how much they love each other!

Grandma Hodgins came out to visit for a week in January, so they boys got to stay home with her instead of going to day home for that week, which was a nice change even though we do love our day home. Richard and I took a day off of work while my mom was here and the 5 of us went to the pool around the corner from our house. It had been a few months since we had been swimming and the boys were so happy to be back in the water. They love bath-time so much so loved ‘swimming’ and floating in the water. They even tried jumping into the pool with me or Richard there to catch them.

We took them for their second hair cut this month, and I have to say it was less traumatic (for me) taking them the second time. I didn’t experience any of the same sadness with cutting away their curls – in fact I love their short hair! And they again did so well with their haircut; no tears.

They still aren’t talking, but they certainly make a lot of vocalizations. Their most common noise is ‘ah’ as they point to whatever it is they want and continue repeating ‘ah’ at more frequent intervals until we discover what it is that they want. Temper tantrums are happening a little bit more frequently now when we say no to certain things that they want, but they are usually quick to get over them.

Although they aren’t talking, they are understanding a lot of what we say, and they have started doing a couple of animal sounds consistently. They know that a cow says ‘moo’, a monkey says ‘ah-ah-ah’ and most recently learned that an elephant says ‘psfffff’…although they don’t really have the elephant sound down, they raise their arm above their head to imitate the trunk like Richard and I always do.

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For the pictures, I took them right before bedtime so the boys were pretty tired hence their soothers. I didn’t take nearly as many as I usually do for their month-birthday pictures so included one from a couple of days after Jan 29.

Powder Day

Even though it snowed early in October, we didn’t have a sled yet so couldn’t go sledding. We did however get to enjoy playing in the snow; James discovered that he loved to eat the snow, and Philip just wasn’t too sure what to think of it.

Now, we are fully winterized, thanks to snowsuits from Nana and Grandad (Richard’s parents), boots from Grandma and Grandpa (my parents) and hats from Auntie Alex. So, when we got our second round of snowfall a couple of days ago, we didn’t hesitate to hit the slopes for some fresh powder (ok it was a tiny hill covered in just enough snow)!

The boys absolutely loved sledding! James had the biggest smile etched across his face when we went down the hill, and Philip would smile with delight and start trying to climb the hill after we got down (once he got used to walking in the snow).

I think we’ll be doing a lot of sledding this winter!

First Hair Cut

I have been pushing off getting the boys first hair cut for a while now. First, I wanted to wait until they turned one. Then, I wanted to wait until after our move. And then, I just wanted to wait because I loved their long hair; James had the most beautiful long blond curls, and Philip just looked adorable with his long bangs and hair. It may sound silly, but I knew that after I cut their hair they wouldn’t look like little babies anymore; they’d officially be toddlers. Walking, talking (or at least trying to), short-haired little boys.

But, I ran out of excuses to not get their hair cut, and after a few too many “aw what cute little girls!” comments from strangers, I booked them for their first hair cut! I debated doing it myself; my sister cut her son’s hair herself and sent me some how-to videos to watch. But my boys are so squirmy, I didn’t have a low-backed chair that I could strap them into, and James’ hair is so curly I didn’t know how to approach cutting it, so I decided to take them somewhere for their hair cuts.

After a quick Google search, I found Beaners Fun Cuts for Kids. And finally, after months of apprehension and stalling, Richard and I took the boys for their first hair cuts yesterday!

I am so glad that we took them somewhere to get their hair cut instead of me doing it myself. And Beaners was built for kids! They had a ball pit for kids to play in, toys all over the place, and fun cars with steering wheels to strap the boys into for their hair cuts. Both boys got the Fire Truck for their hair cuts.

Philip went first, and after about 10 minutes, one comb steal, zero tears and a lot of interest in what was happening around him, Philip was a short-haired little boy. James went next and it was the same story for him. The staff at Beaners were super friendly and gave us “First Hair Cut” certificates for the boys and we were on our way home (after a quick play in the ball pit again).

Luckily for me, not much as actually changed. The boys still make all of their same noises and facial expressions, they just look more like little boys now instead of babies when doing it. I do miss their long, soft hair, but I do love their new short hair-dos too!

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9 Months Old!

Philip and James were three-quarters of a year old yesterday! This past month was a busy one, with a lot of exciting firsts.

One of my favourite firsts that happened this past month, was the first time on the swings at the park. They both loved the swings, laughing and screeching as they swung back and forth. We also tried out the slides at the park for the first time too, but they weren’t interested in that and didn’t even crack a smile. Another thing that they love is going for walks in their forward facing front packs. Now that the weather has warmed up a bit and the wind isn’t so biting, we’re able to take them out facing forwards now. Philip laughs a lot of the time, while James maintains a running monologue.

As I said in my Babies on the Move post, they are both crawling now, so there is rarely a moment of them sitting still (as you’ll see from the pictures). Since I posted that, James has gotten a lot faster, but still isn’t getting up onto his knees to crawl yet. Although, in the last few days he’s started to get up onto his knees and rock back and forth, and then go back to his belly to do the army crawl. James loves to crawl, and he squeals and laughs as he moves to his next target. Philip is such a fast crawler now, and early in the month he learned how to roll from his back to his front, which he does all the time…even during diaper changes. Philip also loves to sit on his knees. So, when he wants to take a break from crawling, he doesn’t go to sitting on his bum like most babies do…he stops and sits on his knees. Which means that he has started reaching things that he previously wasn’t able to get to. And he is starting to try to pull himself up to standing on things, like his activity jumper. This unfortunately has resulted in a few hard falls and some big cries, but I’m sure it’s the first of many for our little adventurer.

James is a little chatter-box. He is always talking. His favourite sounds are “mama” (I can’t wait until he actually knows what he is saying), “dada” and “baba”. Philip hasn’t made those sounds yet, and instead squeals and does a little laugh that sounds like a hooting owl all the time. They both love to blow raspberries…especially during meal times. And speaking of meal times, they eat SO much now! We’ve started feeding them some solid foods, including sweet potato fries, pepper sticks, raspberries and watermelon, to help keep up with their demanding appetites. And Philip got his two bottom teeth this past month, so we have two happy, smiley boys with two bottom teeth sticking up now.

They are interacting with each other so much now. When sitting on the floor, they’ll trade toys with each other and reach for each other, and when in their activity jumpers they talk back and forth. They’ve started imitating each others sounds now and have little conversations where they blow raspberries back and forth. They crawl to each other (and over each other) now too, and get excited when they see the other one enter the room.

Their naps have gotten a little more consistent in the past few weeks, which has been nice. Unfortunately their sleeping through the night was a short-lived phenomenon. They are back to waking up 2-3 times a night, but I’m hoping that is only because they seem to be going through a growth spurt.

It’s been a busy month with visitors as well. We’ve had Nana Suzanne here (Richard’s mom) and Auntie Liz (Richard’s middle sister) which was a lot of fun! And Aunt Kaitlynn (my sister) and cousin Tristan (just 7 months older than the boys) came up to visit yesterday so the boys all had a good play together. And Grandma and Grandpa (my parents) have come up for a few visits too. Everyone (including me) just loves watching the boys grow and learn new things, and interact with each other and the world around them. I can’t wait to see what they get up to next month!!

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8 Months Old!

On March 1 (or February 28, depending on how you look at things), the boys hit their 8 month birthday! Things have been so busy here, so this post is a week late, but the pictures are from March 1 so accurately show what they were up to on their 8 month birthday (because yes…it does change that fast!)

Philip and James are two of the happiest babies I have ever met! They are always smiling and ready to play. James still loves to sit and play, staying interested in the different toys around him for an hour at a time! But, he’s also now started crawling. He’s doing the inchworm crawl – pulling himself forward with his arms and then lifting his bum up high in the air and propelling his lower body forward. He hasn’t quite gotten the hang of putting his knees under his hips to be able to crawl yet, but he’s working on it.

Philip is a little trouble-maker and loves to crawl. He can move from sitting to crawling very efficiently, and he is such a fast crawler now, and he motors over to the things that he isn’t supposed to be playing with – the rolley office chair, the dog’s water and food dish, furniture that hasn’t been mounted to the wall yet…you get the picture. We’re trying to teach him the word “no”, but I think we have a bit of work yet to do with that! He also loves crawling over to James. Sometimes he takes the toy that James is playing with, but other times he’ll just squeal and smile at James.  They are interacting with each other even more than they were last month. They often ‘share’ toys, and really notice each other

James now has two bottom teeth. They’ve both been teething, but neither seem to be in much pain from it, which I’m thankful for. James has also started babbling with new sounds “baba” and “dada”. He loves talking and stringing all of his different sounds together. Philip hasn’t added the new babbling sounds to his vocabulary yet, but still loves talking and squealing.

They love meal time and we’ve introduced some new textures, and some new flavours including cauliflower, zucchini, potato, ginger and orange. They are eating so much now, and as a result they are going longer times between needing to nurse. At first that made me a bit sad, but now I’m enjoying the fact that I have a bit more freedom.

Also and exciting milestone for me this month was that they slept through the night for the first time ever! They went from waking up 4 times a night one night, to sleeping from 11pm to 5am the night the next night. Since then, one or both will wake up only once or twice a night but we haven’t gone back to the 4 times waking, which has been so nice for me!

They are more and more aware of their surroundings every day. It is so much fun to watch them get excited when they see something that they like; their whole face lights up in a big smile! And in the week that I was late in posting this, they have already developed a few more new skills, but I’ll save those for next month’s post.

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6 Months Old!

Today, Philip and James are half a year old. It is hard to believe that I have had these two little bundles of joy in my life for 6 whole months!!

They are growing so quickly! This past month they have become even more alert and engaged. They play with a whole range of toys and will really reach with precision to get the toy that they want, which is going to become a challenge when they both want the same toy. The lesson of sharing will come early for these two! And eating while holding them has become a challenge because they are constantly reaching for the plate, utensils, food, you name it! They are starting to enjoy and touch the different textures in the “Touch and Feel” interactive baby books. And EVERYTHING goes into their mouths right now. They are both loving their activity jumpers too; they thought that they were fun last month, but this month they have taken their enjoyment of the jumpers to a whole new level!

They both also like the view from atop mommy and daddy’s shoulders! Philip lets his hands hang free while looking around with a big open-mouthed grin while James grabs onto the hair and smiles while trying to eat it.

They are both sitting without support, but only for short periods of time. Sometimes they can go five minutes or more, whereas other times they’ll topple after only a few seconds, so I can never go too far, but they are getting better at it every day! Philip is so close to crawling! He gets up onto all fours and rocks forwards and backwards, and sometimes lurches forward into a face-plant, but hasn’t quite gotten the forward momentum of crawling. He is moving backwards pretty quickly though. He also likes to to do some yoga; plank and downward dog are his two favourite positions. James is happy to just stay on his tummy, but in the last week, has started moving in circles, and is starting to move backwards a little bit. Neither of them are too interested in rolling from their backs to their stomachs yet, but when playing with a toy, James will sometimes roll from his back almost to his tummy, but the toy gets in the way. We have done a lot of the baby proofing already in anticipation of the imminent crawling.

Also new this month was teething. They have both been drooling a lot since about the 3 month time-frame, but James has started experiencing the pain of teething, which has been really tough on him and me. I can see his two bottom teeth buds coming in, but no tooth has broken the surface of his adorable toothless grin yet.

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They are such happy boys (minus the teething) and love looking around and learning new things every day. These last six months have been such a blessing! Next month we’re going to hit some big milestones, like having their first taste of solid food. I can’t wait to experience that and see what other joys the next month has to bring!

The Difference a Year Makes

One year ago today, Richard and I found out that we were expecting two babies, instead of just one.

We had only settled in Hamilton in May and didn’t have a family doctor yet, so when we found out that we were pregnant we frantically tried to get in somewhere, because we had no idea what to expect from being pregnant, but figured we needed a doctor to keep tabs on me. We were put onto a wait list for a doctor, but were able to get in to see a midwife right away.

I don’t know what I was expecting from that initial visit, but I definitely expected that they would do some sort of test or something to confirm that I was pregnant, but she didn’t. She took the pregnancy test for its word, and gave us a script for two ultrasounds. The first was for an optional 8 week ultrasound, and the second was for the 20 week mandatory ultrasound.

Of course we chose to go to the 8 week ultrasound – just to confirm that I actually was pregnant and that the pregnancy tests weren’t wrong (**Spoiler Alert – they weren’t wrong**)

At the ultrasound, they took me back and left Richard in the waiting room. As it was my first pregnancy and first ultrasound, I didn’t know that Richard wouldn’t be brought back until the end, and I didn’t know that they couldn’t tell me anything during the ultrasound. It seemed to take forever, and I kept asking “Is everything alright? Am I actually pregnant” To which the technician responded, “Yes you are, but I can’t tell you anything else. I’ll call your husband in shortly and show you the pictures.”

Finally, she brought Richard into the room and said “I have a surprise for you!” I immediately thought there is more than one! Because seeing one baby wouldn’t be a surprise since she had already confirmed that I was pregnant.

She turned the monitor to us and said “You’re having twins!!” I will never forget that moment. I have never felt that way before – so elated and in awe of the two little beans (that is what they looked like to me!) on the screen. I started crying, out of joy and shock, and looked over at Richard; his mouth was aghast. Afterwards he said “I was just wrapping my head around the fact that we are having one baby and now we are having two!” But we had 7 more months to get our heads wrapped around that.

And now, one year to the date that we found out that we were having twins, they no longer look like little beans in a black and white picture, but are two fully formed and functioning, beautiful boys. It is amazing to see and experience the difference that one year makes!

5 Months Old!

Today marks Philip and James’ 5 month birthday. It is hard to believe that I’ve already had 5 months with them, and yet at the same time I can’t remember life without them!

We hit some big milestones this past month – they started napping on their own, and sleeping in their own crib at night (to clarify, they still sleep together, just not in our bed anymore). They are laughing at things like being tickled, bounced, peek-a-boo (sometimes), and certain toys. They are being more interactive with people and things around them, and with each other as well! They have always been comfortable around each other (after all they were squished up right next to each other for 38.5 weeks in utero), but in the last couple of weeks they have started deliberately reaching for each other, deliberately comforting each other when one is crying, and looking for where the other one is!

They are still doing great with tummy time and rolling from their tummies to their backs. James is really trying to roll from his back to his tummy, and Philip is really trying to crawl (right now he just goes in little circles). They can sit up with only a little support and LOVE to stand while just holding someone’s hands. They are cooing and ‘talking’ lots. They have such strong grips, and always manage to find my hair even when I wear it up (which is all the time now!).

Philip and James

Philip

James

Philip and James

They are active, smiley, healthy and happy little boys and I am so blessed to have spent these last 5 months with them. I can’t wait to see what new things they will learn in the next month…I have a feeling that I will be writing about at least one of them crawling, if not both!