Sam and Anna have a new favorite activity that is oh-so-cute: they love to race each other down our hall. Each one moves as fast as possible to get ahead, and then turns and giggles at their sibling, teasing them, seeing how close behind they are. It is frickin' adorable, and yes, I do have a few videos of it.
This also means I have two crawlers.
And boy, oh, boy do things change when you're outnumbered by crawlers. When Sam started crawling, Anna was a pretty happy independent player. I could plop her down in front of a interesting toy and go fetch my adventurous son away from whatever trouble he was about to get into. Now things are much more interesting. We divide and conquer as much as possible- "Honey- grab Sam- he's about to tip the humidifier!" or "Watch Anna so I can grab Sam before he shuts the door on his fingers!" and so on.
While Anna is getting more adventurous, Sam is fearless. Over my winter break, he learned how to climb a few stairs, pull up on everything, open drawers and cabinets, shut open doors, etc. and don't forget he discovered a way to climb out of an exersaucer right before the holidays, too. If he's not doing one of those things, he's headed for a cord that we can't hide or eliminate or the fireplace doors that I can't figure out a way to babyproof. He's always into something, and I can't baby proof everything. Anna just delights in following her brother in his explorations... or sometimes veering off in a different direction on her own adventure (usually precipitated by where our dog is at that moment). They are really keeping us on our toes now- but at least we aren't usually outnumbered for more than an hour or two at a time.
However, this week will be my third solo parenting expedition since Sam and Anna were born. My husband leaves Wednesday and returns late Saturday. Gone are the days when I could leave a baby laying on the floor and confidently change the other in one swift motion with my back turned, knowing the floor baby would be just fine. Olympic level diaper changing also happens now, which means it can take up to 10 minutes sometimes to get the darn thing on correctly on a wiggly baby who wants nothing to do with laying still and wants everything to do with crawling or climbing and attempts to do one of those things every second during a diaper/clothing change.
I know I can do it all by myself because I have before, but I have a new layer of worry that didn't exist before this time. I'm more worried than ever that we won't all make it to Daddy's return unscathed. Will Sam shut his finger in the drawers, will Anna get trampled by a 60 lb dog, will a baby fall several feet from some piece of furniture? I have nightmares that Sam will soon figure out how to climb out of his crib. That day is coming- and what on earth do I do when that time is here? This is also the first trip where no help is coming for even part of the time. It is the first time I have to get all 3 of us ready and out the door by 7 am, in the winter to boot and for several days in a row. (I'm only a little sheepish to share that I chickened out last time, and took two personal days off of work so I wouldn't have to do that by myself.)
I can't wait to type the post explaining how it went much better than I thought and that not only did we survive, but we succeeded. That post will also mean that my latest solo parenting experience will be over.
Then I get a week break before being outnumbered again. The end of January is looking pretty attractive right now...
Showing posts with label crawling. Show all posts
Showing posts with label crawling. Show all posts
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Thursday, December 30, 2010
Growing Up and Letting Go
We're in a time of rapid changes. They both have one tooth at last. Sam and Anna are crawling all over the house, and making me fear the day they both are walking all over. Sam is pulling up/climbing on everything in sight, cruising the furniture and doesn't want to sit or be held still for a second. They interact for longer periods of time while playing together - hearing them laugh at each other's antics is one of the best perks of twins. I will have to imprint these memories in my brain to recall when toy stealing and temper tantrums punctuate their playing together more often than giggles.
Both are adding words to their vocabulary- they will say Mama and Dada, and repeat some words we say. Anna's first and most frequent word to say independently is "Bella" while Sam's is "Anna." Anna has learned how to drop food off of her tray to feed Bella. While I miss the days when this was purely accidental, it is cute (right now) to hear her call "Bella" and then uncurl her tiny fist to drop a yummy goodness from the heavens (as far as our dog is concerned) into a waiting mouth. Both babies are starting to show an increasing disinterest in eating "baby food" i.e., the pureed stuff, so our plan is to start moving towards 100% table food once daycare starts back up again next week. I am concerned that they won't be eating enough once we do that since their weight has never had any "wiggle room," but I think it is a step that Sam and Anna seem to be ready to take.
When Sam and Anna hit 9 months, we finally stopped tracking every single bottle amount throughout the day (anal of me, I know- but soooo hard to keep track for two babies at the same time when eating enough has always been one of our biggest concerns). Now this week, we are attempting to wean them off of their 3 doses a day of Prevacid (via Buffer Babies) to see if they have outgrown their severe GERD. To say that this has make me scared is an understatement. I never want to relive the days of uncontrolled reflux for two babies at the same time ever again. But I know that if we are ever to finally move on from their reflux, we need to be willing to see if the medicine is not needed any more. We successfully dropped one dose, and are now attempting to drop another. If all goes well, we'll try to stop the final dose soon, as well.
Sam is now too tall/big for quite a bit of his 9 month clothing. This is the first time that some baby clothes are too small to come in his size. This is somewhat of a milestone to me, because for so long I could pick out anything in the baby departments and it would come in his size. I want to know, though, why is it that it is so hard to find lots of footie pj options for 12 month + sizes? Why all of a sudden do the pjs come without feet at 12 months+? It's not like I can cover him with a blanket yet. While our babies sleep in sleep sacks, I still wonder if his feet will be warm enough at night without the footie pjs this winter. I wonder if I should put socks on his feet when he's wearing footless pjs?
We decided that Sam and Anna's New Year Resolution is to give up their pacifiers for good. The AAP recommends not using them after 6 months, but since our babies didn't have any teeth until this month, I figured it couldn't possibly mess up their bite. They've never been hugely dependent on them- we have just used pacifiers to make bedtimes and naptimes easier to transition to sleep. They haven't used pacifiers at daycare at all. Recently, pacifiers seem to be something that they are more interested in at any time of the day whenever they catch a glimpse of one, so we figure now is a good time to toss 'em, before they get too attached. I definitely don't want 2 year olds walking around with plugs in their mouths! I don't think it will be that big of a deal to them- I just hope that they don't decide a thumb is the new alternative.
Both are adding words to their vocabulary- they will say Mama and Dada, and repeat some words we say. Anna's first and most frequent word to say independently is "Bella" while Sam's is "Anna." Anna has learned how to drop food off of her tray to feed Bella. While I miss the days when this was purely accidental, it is cute (right now) to hear her call "Bella" and then uncurl her tiny fist to drop a yummy goodness from the heavens (as far as our dog is concerned) into a waiting mouth. Both babies are starting to show an increasing disinterest in eating "baby food" i.e., the pureed stuff, so our plan is to start moving towards 100% table food once daycare starts back up again next week. I am concerned that they won't be eating enough once we do that since their weight has never had any "wiggle room," but I think it is a step that Sam and Anna seem to be ready to take.
When Sam and Anna hit 9 months, we finally stopped tracking every single bottle amount throughout the day (anal of me, I know- but soooo hard to keep track for two babies at the same time when eating enough has always been one of our biggest concerns). Now this week, we are attempting to wean them off of their 3 doses a day of Prevacid (via Buffer Babies) to see if they have outgrown their severe GERD. To say that this has make me scared is an understatement. I never want to relive the days of uncontrolled reflux for two babies at the same time ever again. But I know that if we are ever to finally move on from their reflux, we need to be willing to see if the medicine is not needed any more. We successfully dropped one dose, and are now attempting to drop another. If all goes well, we'll try to stop the final dose soon, as well.
Sam is now too tall/big for quite a bit of his 9 month clothing. This is the first time that some baby clothes are too small to come in his size. This is somewhat of a milestone to me, because for so long I could pick out anything in the baby departments and it would come in his size. I want to know, though, why is it that it is so hard to find lots of footie pj options for 12 month + sizes? Why all of a sudden do the pjs come without feet at 12 months+? It's not like I can cover him with a blanket yet. While our babies sleep in sleep sacks, I still wonder if his feet will be warm enough at night without the footie pjs this winter. I wonder if I should put socks on his feet when he's wearing footless pjs?
We decided that Sam and Anna's New Year Resolution is to give up their pacifiers for good. The AAP recommends not using them after 6 months, but since our babies didn't have any teeth until this month, I figured it couldn't possibly mess up their bite. They've never been hugely dependent on them- we have just used pacifiers to make bedtimes and naptimes easier to transition to sleep. They haven't used pacifiers at daycare at all. Recently, pacifiers seem to be something that they are more interested in at any time of the day whenever they catch a glimpse of one, so we figure now is a good time to toss 'em, before they get too attached. I definitely don't want 2 year olds walking around with plugs in their mouths! I don't think it will be that big of a deal to them- I just hope that they don't decide a thumb is the new alternative.
Friday, November 12, 2010
Now that we've got a crawler...
The world just got a little bit bigger for Sam. He has been rolling all over to get from one place to another, but not always in a direct path from point A to point B. Now that he is crawling, he is much more efficient to get where he wants to go. He has a penchant for the glass on our entertainment stand... 
Bella's toy basket...
Pulling stuff down from the shelves in the babies' room...
And munching on cords- like the computer cord. (this I do not have a picture of since I thought it was prudent that I hustled to remove said cords from his mouth rather than stop and take a photo because nom nom noming on a electrical cord was "so cute.")
Anna's been pretty consistently a week behind Sam in physical developmental stages (maybe because she was considered as 36 weeks at birth and Sam was 37 weeks?) So I figure I've got a week before she's on the move very deliberately as well. I'm just glad they waited to both crawl until after Dad was home- whew! That was a close one!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)