This is my sweet sweet niece, Gracyn. I'm posting this pic so that I can enter the i heart faces weekly photo challenge. This is my first go at it. Wish me luck...I'm number 445 (at least at the time of entry).
and Skylyn, you're sweet sweet too. Maybe we can do a photo shoot soon so that I'll have a pic of you to post in an upcoming challenge.
So many of our friends are expecting that I thought I'd share the products that we've come to love over the past 9 months. Mind you we have 2 babies, so everyone might not use these as much as we do/did, but they are/were essential to us.
The Bumbo seat...Great for sitting up the little one until they mobilize.
Baby Bjorn...it's hard to say which is best, this or the Ergo. This only works until they are 25lbs and can only be worn on the front.
The Ergo...more for the long term. Baby can be worn on the front, side, or back. We're getting more use out of this one these days!
Bumkin plastic bibs...great for multiple wears (less laundry) with just a quick rinse off.
The boppy pillow. I used this for propping the boys to feed them, both for breastfeeding and later bottle feeding them at the same time. My aunt makes them...Maggie Lou's Place. Check out her site.
My beloved Canon. This bad boy takes video at 1920x1080 resolution. I have a 50mm F1.8 lens on it.
This video should be watched on day 1 at the latest! I'm not joking one bit.
The Chicco 360 clip on high chair. Comes with a bag and breaks down fairly easily for outtings.
The Rainforest Jumperoo...One of the large plastic entertainment centers that has served as a safe place for me to sit the boys. They couldn't even touch the floor at first, but they quickly grew into it and built strong legs!
Organic white Gerber onesies. Most popular & practical outfit the boys have.
Chicco Pack N Play. This served as the boys' bassinette in our bedroom for the first 3 months. Now the floor is lowered and is a mobile play pen for them.
Podee bottles. This coolness has a tube with a pacifier on the end to allow you to feed your baby hands free. We didn't use this as much as I thought we would, but it's still pretty cool for moms of multiples.
The walker. This plastic wonder was also used as a safe place to sit the boys. Now used for racing.
The Vitamix. This toughness will turn anything into a puree. All the boys' food is made in this toy!
Video Baby Monitor. I love having the video so that I can see which baby is fussing and/or if I really need to go in their room.
The White Noise Machine. Watch the Happiest Baby on the Block DVD and you'll understand. Especially essential for travels.
The Chicco Together stroller. Made to hold their Chicco Keyfit 30 carseats. They snap right in so if the baby is sleeping you don't have to get them out. Definitely essential.
The baby swing. See the Happiest Baby on the Block DVD once again. This also served as a safe place to sit the boys. They napped in them for the first 5 months of their lives. I couldn't tell you how many times we replaced the batteries!
Swaddles. Again, watch the Happiest Baby on the Block DVD and you'll understand. Although, I did have to ween the boys from sleeping in these.
We've been getting all kinds of sounds out of the boys. The most hilarious is Maceo's Froggy voice. I haven't been able to capture it on video, but you'll see it soon after I do. Maybe Enzo can be Alfalfa with his spiked hair! The boys have figured out that talking is done at the dinner table. Daddy and I can barely have a conversation anymore since the boys join in and drown us out. Enzo is really into "dadada", "dodododoo", and "duhduhduh". These two are wild animals!
Maceo standing in his crib
again, blowing bubbles
chatting with daddy about washing the car
Enzo then Maceo...both have their own walker now!
Enzo giving his best scary growl
Mace
cutie
watching daddy wash the car...I imagine they are making fun of him ; )
Enzo- huh?
Sweet Enzo
A few months back I posted a typical day for the boys. It changes every few months and is so different now. Pregnant ladies take note, especially when you are scheduling your baby's next appointment. At the boys' 6 month appt. I scheduled their 9 month and by then the schedule changed so that the appt. was at naptime and made for an awful doc visit. Here's an update:
7ish-wake up and play/talk in the crib...sometimes they stand and face each other and chat.
7:45-breakfast! bottle, yogurt with fruit or just fruit
8:15-10-playtime! we watch Sesame Street, play in our walkers, or our new playgate area. mommy cleans up and checks email. Or we go on a run in the jogging stroller.
10-11:30-naptime. Mommy time!
11:30-wake-up and play again
Noon-lunch! fruits and veggies and bottle
12:30-3- playtime-outside play, walkers, playgate area, books. watch Yo Gabba Gabba. Run errands if we have them.
3-bottle
3-4:30 or 5- naptime
5-6- more playtime
6-dinner! mostly veggies and sometimes cottage cheese
6:30- bath time
7-8- last playtime
8- last bottle
8:30- bedtime
the boys getting down on the piano...yes maceo has a large bandage on his middle finger. he cut it on the oven vents last week while he was exploring in his walker. it was very traumatic for mommy...lots of blood and almost a trip to the hospital, but it's almost gone now!
Mommy & Aunt Alli in Charleston outside of McCrady's
Enzo swinging at the beach park
Maceo swinging at the beach
Mace at the Charleston Market
Napping in the solar shade on the beach
At the Beach!
Enzo & Grandma (he just put his finger in the cake)
An after dinner entertainment session. Both boys were pretty tired, but hilarious. The funniest part is that Daddy was trying to watch the news...you can hear the TV blairing in the background.
Over this past month we made a few trips in our new VW Routan minivan (which I said I would never drive...). One to Knoxville to celebrate Grandma's 98th birthday, and the other to Isle of Palms for a vacation. The boys have done very well with travelling and only venture off of their routine slightly. While on vacation the boys are still reaching developmental milestones. I guess they don't take days off. They are now officially crawling, Maceo a little quicker than Enzo. They can also both pull up. And apparently, Lucha Libre (wrestling) comes with mobility. They climb on each other, push each other, pull hair, and bite. Thank goodness there are no teeth, YET. Enzo is usually the one being climbed on, and he does most of the pushing in attempt to get Maceo away. Enzo is the more sensitive of the two and if there is a person on the floor Maceo can't help himself from conquering. Which has me pondering whether I chose their names accurately...Enzo means "ruler of the estate" and Maceo "gift of God". Currently, it appears that we got it backwards.
I guess I should share how they got their names too. I bought a baby naming book and scoured it daily suggesting names to their Daddy. He liked none of them. When I mentioned Enzo, he finally showed some interest. I later found out the founder of Ferrari is Enzo Ferrari, a race car driver. Beautiful. A few weeks later we were in the car and the song "My Cat's Name is Maceo" by Jane's Addiction came on. Daddy said he liked that name a little and so it made it to the top 10 list. The boys weren't really named until they were 3 days old. That's when I decided that since I had experienced both natural and c-section births that I deserved the honor of naming them. Note to pregant ladies: You can probably get away with anything immediately after giving birth. Their middle names are family names. Lewis is my grandmother's maiden name and Rand is short for Randall, my father's name. Naming children is a challenge, as they have to live with it for their entire lives, and you don't want them to hate it or cause them any problems down the road.
The summer is flying by and the boys are really on the move. Maceo can pretty much run in the walker and I have to put the brakes on it often. They also have a round table with multiple activities that has an attached chair with wheels, which allows them to walk around the table to partake in all the table has to offer. This toy is great except for when one of them is in the other walker chasing the kitty, free to go wherever and the other can only go around and around.
The boys are both on the verge of crawling, getting up on all fours and rocking. At this point, they get really frustrated because they always go backwards rather than forward. They have pretty much figured out how to sit up by themselves and tend to roll over or scoot on their bellies to get to something. All this moving around frightens me a little, because I know some accidents are just around the corner. I feel like we will have to do extra extra babyproofing with two of them on the move. It drives Daddy crazy, but my heart skips a beat every time I hear any thud or bang. I always assume it is one of the boys.
Last week Enzo spouted out multiple syllables, shouting out "bababababa" for well over an hour. Then this week, Maceo started his multiple syllables with "mamamamama". As Mommy and a student of linguistics I could not be more pleased with both of their language capabilities. However, hearing "mamamama" melts my heart. Last night at bedtime, I had put Enzo to sleep and Daddy had Mace, while I cleaned up the kitchen. Maceo spotted me and began yelling "mamamama" and reaching out his arms for me. I had to stop with the clean-up and take over. It is so exciting to hear that and I'm sure it won't be long before they are yelling out "dada". Some of the other noises that we hear recently are growling from Enzo, and Maceo grunts and yells at the dogs (probably since he hears Mommy tell the dogs to go back to their room several times a day).
It's awesome to see the boys interact. When they see each other for the first time every morning they smile and start making noises at each other. Then there is usually a wrestling match in our bed. They definitely have different personalities. Maceo is very wild, passionate (quick tempered), and picks on Enzo a little. Enzo is very lovey, laid back, and takes Maceo's picking. I am constantly trying to get Maceo to leave Enzo alone and stop him from eating his hands and squeezing his face. When he does it, he looks at me and smiles a little devilish grin. I should have expected this behavior since at almost every ultrasound the tech couldn't get measurements for "baby B" (Maceo) since he was moving so much and I had constant kicking under my right rib. I think this is why Enzo was ready to get out.
As many of you know, it took Daddy a little while to come to terms with having 2 at once. I reminded him of this the other day and asked how he felt now...His response was "I love it and wouldn't have it any other way". It might be more work but we are truly lucky!
