Saturday, January 17, 2015

9 months old!


Is this for real?  Have we really been a family of 4 for 9 months?  This is crazy.  Before I know it these babies are going to be little boys!  Month 8 has been full of growth.  I feel like I say that every month, but really.  Both are extremely mobile and verbal and are expressing their unique and fun personalities more with each passing day.  Andy and I say that they are our best friends.  We are so in love with these little guys!

Benji

  • 75th%ile for weight, weighing in at 22 lbs, 2 oz
  • 90th%ile for height, measuring in at 29 ins
  • He has 2 bottom teeth and has a third coming in on the top.
  • In the past week and a half, Benji has advanced by leaps and bounds in many ways--especially in mobility.  He can get where he needs to go pretty quickly by crawling in his fish-flop kind of way.  He LOVES to stand at their new play table, and he has master pulling up to stand almost anywhere.  His pincer grasp is pretty good, too.  
  • He is also quite verbal and loves to babble, especially during mealtime.  Sometimes he's mid-sentence when eating and the spoonful come right back out!  
  • We think he will be detail-oriented because he notices the smallest little things and picks them up, or plays with them, or stares at them.  He notices if you're wearing earrings or a necklace or rings or a zipper or drawstrings... and he will most definitely zero in on it until it's into his mouth!
  • He has grown to take in more textured purees, too, when he used to completely reject them.  He still gags and spits out things that are too lumpy, but he's gotten better and will continue to.  He loves teething biscuits and can get quite messy.
  • He is generally an extremely happy, contented, social baby.  He is happy to be held by pretty much anyone, which is wonderful.  We love his personality.  Such a lovie.  When he is cranky, it's because he's tired.
  • He is a daddy's boy.
Zachary
  • 50th%ile for weight and height:  20 lbs 2 oz and 28 ins long
  • He has FOUR teeth!  The 2 top teeth fully came in a few weeks ago, and they are really cute.  I'm sure all babies' top teeth have a big space in between them, but it just looks so funny and cute.
  • He is so fast when he crawls.  We put up a baby gate to separate the playroom from the kitchen (kitchen is tiled), but I will open the gate up sometimes because he can't stand to be locked in.  I can turn around for 5 seconds, and there he is, right at my heels!  He can crawl up the one step easily.  I am so impressed!
  • He started pulling up before Benji and continues to do so all over the place.  He is a very busy bear... toys don't entertain him for very long... he is so active.  
  • He talks a lot, too!  He says "mama" and "dada" at times, and it is too cute.  He has reached for me several times.  It is heartwarming!!!  
  • He can clap!  When he claps, we make sure to say, "Yayyy!" so he can associate clapping with exclamation and happiness.  Very fun.  
  • He's a good eater, but he still doesn't eat a ton.  It's a good day if I can get him to eat 20 oz of formula in the day.  But his pincer grasp is great and eats puffs like a champ, as well as textured solids.
  • He is very funny, and we can tell he might be a class clown or something like that.  He's also a bruiser!  He got his first fat lip last night :( so sad. Blood on my shoulder and everything.  Also, when he crawls over to the back door, he head butts it one or two times.  Crazy man.  
  • He's a mama's boy!
Sleeping...
So, sleep has been tough, but we are seeing the light at the end of the tunnel!  But let me say that for the past month, we have been extremely sleep deprived. The boys hit a rough spell, as I said in my 8 month post, and had been waking up 2-4 times per night EACH!  What the heck.  We got into a bad habit of resorting to a bottle to getting them back to sleep, which was not helping.  We finally got some amazing help from www.babysleepsite.com and the boys are sleeping way better.  The sleep plan is personalized and easy to follow.  They are now only waking up to eat 1-2 times at night and are learning to fall back to sleep on their own when they wake other times.  The plan helped me to implement cry it out, and it is working.  

They typically nap very well.  They take a 90 minute nap in the morning and a 1-2 hr nap in the afternoon.  Here's their schedule:

7 am :  wake up (we're training them, too, on not waking up for the day before 7...)
7:15 : bottles
7:45: breakfast (yogurt, oats, and pureed fruit)
8-9:15:  playtime til Naptime
9:15 : Nap #1
10:30/11:  Wake up
11:30:  Bottles
12:00 : solids lunch (fruits and veggies)
1:45 : Nap # 2
3:30 : Wake up and Bottles
5/5:30:  Solids Dinner (protein and veggies)
6:30: get ready for bed and Bottles
7pm:  lights out!
3-5 am: Wake for a feeding

What We Eat!
yogurt, baby oatmeal, lots of fruits, lots of veggies, chicken/turkey/beef baby food, puffs, bite-sized pieces of banana and cheese stick and mandarin oranges... we still have lots of foods to explore, and hopefully they'll start taking to finger foods more


We love our table!  
We especially love the part of the table that our brother is playing at :)

Getting up from naps is so fun!
                    


Being crazy and somehow got a line of dirt on his face?


 Being babysat by our friend Amy!


 Get us out of here!

Benji being a daredevil and taking one hand off of the table!



At Emmy's Birthday party



 Benji can be held by anyone and not complain!  This is our friend Hannah.  A mom of three.

Getting them up in the morning is even more fun than after a nap!  
They are so funny and happy.

Wrestling over a binky.


Best buds.


Having a teething biscuit and a chat with the windows open.

Zachary doing typical Zachary things!



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