7 Months

Oh dear. Why do you keep growing? So fast, too fast.

7 month facts:

Max:


Weighed 13 pounds 13 ounces at your 6 month check-up, 3 weeks ago, so I can safely assume you weigh over 14 pounds. You big hunk of love! I swear everytime I pick you up, primarily when I am doing it one-handed, you feel heavier. I love it.

You roll over from tummy to back and back to tummy. You are strong! We are learning and practicing sitting.

You have stopped spitting up like a crazy man, now only does so when playing with a crazy daddy or when placed on your tummy after eating, still nothing compared to your geyser days.

Loves to eat! LOVES it! You open nice and wide and happily kick your feet and wave your hands, then promptly put them in your mouth.

Just discovered how to jump in the jumperoo. You love jumping in our laps and anytime you stand.

You like to drink out of our cup of water and grab the cup with both hands and then are shocked when the cold water hits you, yet you keep wanting more.

Kate:


Weighed 11 pounds 15 ounces at 6 month check-up, so safely now 12 pounds. You still feel like a feather weight. You are our pipper, pip, pipsqueak, peanut, etc.

You talk all.the.time. And just the other day you started saying mmmma, mmmmma, over and over. It sounds like you are saying "mama" though I know you have yet to associate me with the word. But it is still cute.

As always your thumb is your best friend. It helps you get to sleep and stay asleep. It also is in your mouth between every bite of food. I have to keep your hand down and am a broken record saying "hands down please" in hopes that eventually it will sink in. I am nothing if not consistent but so are you with that dang thumb.

You like to drink out of my cup. Sippy cups are being bought tomorrow just for fun.



You roll over from tummy to back, now sleep on your back or side. Occasionally you will roll from back to tummy, with some persuasion on our part. You don't like to practice sitting and are rigid or arch your back so you can lay down.

Both:
Nursing is going wonderfully. You are both champs and seriously I just am there and you both latch yourselves on and get busy. And nursing has gotten very busy lately! You are little monkeys most of the time, moving all over the place, looking around, talking to me, each other and your dad when he comes near. Kate pops her thumb in and I have to remove it and get her back to task.

Solids: You both eat bananas, applesauce, pears, peaches, prunes, zucchini, peas, carrots, sweet potato, and green beans. Very little rice cereal.

Sleep: Bedtime is 7pm, we have dropped the dream feed (10pm) and you have just recently started sleeping until 3-4am! Wahoo! No matter what time you eat in the wee hours of the morning, even if it is 4:30, our day starts at 6:30am. Bunch of early birds! We need no alarm around here, we have a Max & Kate.

Gastfreunde (German for Guests)

In the middle of March we were happy to have our friends Tamara & her boyfriend Jan visits us from Berlin. Phil has been friends with the Miebes family ever since Benjamin (Tamara's brother) first came to be a foreign exchange student when Phil was in high school. We have since visited them twice in Germany and this is our second time hosting as well. They are both residents right now; Jan in dermatology and Tamara in pediatrics. It was a rather impromptu trip and we were happy to be on the itinerary as they toured around the Southwest. They had a heck of a time getting here thanks to some nasty east coast weather that turned their almost direct flight into a 4 or 5 city "tour" as their plane kept getting redirected. We spent 3 days hosting them.



Tamara loves babies! A good thing since she is going to be a pediatrician. Here we are in our morning glory.



One of the days Phil took them out to see our desert in bloom. They went out near Tortilla Flat, ate a nice lunch there and then headed home through Globe and sampled some real Mexican food.



Shooting guns was the highlight of their day.



Jan is a real sportsman and loved shooting. It is frowned upon in Germany so he was grateful to get to do it here. He is quite the sharp shooter for not having any experience. Tamara shot a few times and that was enough for her.



On their last night with us we wanted them to sample some "American" food. So naturally we grilled hamburgers, I made vanilla ice cream, individual apple pies and we topped it with a homemade dark salted caramel sauce. Um, divine! We were all in heaven.





Since our international travelling days are a long time coming we are excited for their next visit to the States whenever that may be!

The Everyday

There is much to catch up on and I will, promise. For now let's take a look at our typical day.

Exhibit A above:
Two adorable nakey babies playing, semi-nude because I do so much dang laundry as it is between mealtimes, drool and the occasional spit-ups.
The ever present laundry, waiting, always waiting.
The running shoes also waiting. I had good intentions yesterday, we managed to squeak in a quick mile at the track once Phil got home since our once predictable schedule has been MIA lately.
Imagine to your left dishes waiting their turn and various mail/clutter on the center island. I try, I really do.



The front room currently houses a craft table burgeoning with loads of felt and a sundry of sewing supplies waiting to be crafted into two, yes, TWO!, separate quiet books. Because I am crazy. Hopefully they will be done before the kids' second birthday. I kid. Maybe. I have almost 4 pages done for Max's book.



One delightfully delicious boy who grows chubbier by the day. I love it.



One chatty little girl full of spunk and fire. She's our pip, as in pipsqueak in reference to her size, just barely 12 pounds now.





Please note the rubberband wrists, double chin, luscious thighs and roly poly arms with dimpled elbows.



Further evidence of messiness and our new dress code for meals. She puts her thumb in her mouth after almost every bite. Love her.

Neglected

Oh this poor journal. I want to write, I do. I think of it often and mentally start compiling my thoughts and the days (weeks) events and then naptime abruptly ends or the dishes, laundry, email, bills, exercise, etc. anything/everything else calls my name and another day goes unrecorded.

I was remarking to my friend Rebecca yesterday on our walk that I used to blog effortlessly,words flowed and this was before I had children to write about. She said I need to write for me, no one else. She is right and I know that and this blog has already turned into an ode to Max & Kate, as it should, they are our life right now and that alone is deserving of its own record.

I am going to try to do better, try to record the everyday, the monotony routine and albeit mundane season of motherhood that I am in right now. I say that with happiness though, I like routine, I like the mundane and seemingly endless loop of life that we are in right now. I am fine staying home day in and day out with my littles, catering to naps and nursing, forgoing errands and outings. I am soaking in the little triumphs and failures of each day and ever reminding myself that this time passes too quickly so I need to live it up, enjoy it!

So I will. And I will record it.

Six Months

Indulge me...

Dear Max & Kate,

Where does time go? It seems just yesterday that we were waiting to bring you home. You were impossibly small and fragile.




You came home at 4 pounds 5 ounces Max,



and Kate 3 pounds 14 ounces. What were they thinking sending you home so small? But you were strong and we haven't looked back.



I won't lie, it's been hard. We had a lot to learn and we are still learning. We were tired. I still am.



Max, you used to have hair.



Now you have chubs. Glorious chubs, big baby blues and the sweetest disposition. You are delightful, joyful and calm. You love to eat, you love to cuddle and melt my heart each and every time you lay your head on my shoulder or bury your face in my neck when you are tired. I never tire of your softness and love on you incessantly.





Kate your headbands fit now. You have grown into your big eyes and have a delicious double chin and squishy inner thighs. I love your dimples, your beautiful eyes, your happy squeals and chatter. I love how you light up when we come near to pick you up and you know just what to do to make sure you get what you need!



You are beautiful; full of spunk and life. And yes, attitude.


But most of all you are LOVED.

We are proud to be your parents, blessed to have you in our family.






Happy 6 months! We've come a long way!

Tummy Time

These were taken end of February and we have been working on tummy time. Well someone is not a fan! Max is great and ends up rolling over. Kate on the other hand...



She starts out well and then after a few minutes (if that!) screams like we are torturing her and ends up just giving up, laying her pretty head down and sucking her thumb.



As of today she is doing better, but still doesn't last longer than a 5 minutes at a time or think it is very fun. I am constantly distracting her with noisy toys and talking to her. Bless her little heart.

Sleep Update: Um, yeah. Definitely an isolated incident the whole sleeping from 7pm til 6am. The past few nights have been back to square one. Up at 10pm, 2am, and then wake up at 6am. Little stinkers. I went to them at the 2am feed and they were both on their backs and grinned so big at me, like "Hi Mom! Let's play! So good to see you!". I nursed them, burped, reswaddled and layed them down. Went to bed myself and as I am drifting off I hear little voices. Max talking as he is again on his back playing with his hands. I flip him over and he hollers at me. I ended up needing to rock him and then finally getting into bed an hour after the whole shebang started. Bless them!

And naps have been ghastly. 30-45 minute naps are the new norm. So stinky! Which means I get nothing done and have to entertain them since they don't want independent play time, just cuddle with mom time. Which is okay. This will pass. I think they are growing, so I feed them of course, and the rolling over bit is really cramping our (my) style.

I am proud that I am not freaking out like I would have in my earlier mommy days. I remind myself that this will pass, I need to enjoy the moment and them. They are still happy, good babies. And housework is over rated, right? Right. (But not when I need to prep the house for international company staying with us this weekend!)

Milestones

We have had a big week around here! Yep, we have some big kids now and they have had a taste of glorious food.

First I had to research this vast new territory of solids. Then we had to get all the gear; chairs, baby spoons and some little bowls just right for small servings. Finally we were ready for the big time. Don't they look so big? We placed Max in his chair first and he just sat there all tall and lifted his hands when I placed the tray on the chair. I gushed over him and lamented to Phil that they need to stop growing!



First food: Bananas!

Hmm, strange new texture.





She likes it!


And she knows just what to do with her spoon. Not really, everything goes to the mouth.


Another day of "nanas" and they love them. They now lean towards the spoon and open wide and are quite adept at working it in their mouths. And making a mess of course.


His chubs kill me.


The second and maybe more important milestone of the week:

Sleeping from 7pm to 6am last night! What?! I know! If only I could sleep as well as they did. I sleep with one ear open it seems and now I naturally wake and sleep really light between 1 and 3am, just waiting for them.

I tell ya, I was never so happy to see them this morning! My chest was rock hard and painful. I am not holding my breath for a repeat performance tonight but hopefully this trend continues. Our naps were stinky today though, not sure if it is related but I will do some troubleshooting and hope to have things ironed out by the end of the week. They would sleep for 30 minutes and then wake up and then be crabby pants less than an hour later. Stinkers.

They have learned how to roll over now and Max is always in a different spot. He pops his head right up when I lay him down and can stay perched up just looking around for 15-20 minutes. He inevitably rolls over and I have to go back in, turn him over and convince him to sleep. Today I had to rock him and within 5 minutes each time he would fall fast asleep. We think he now knows that is it more fun to stay up and play and he just fights it.

Kate is happy to lay down. She pops in her thumb which she now much prefers to the pacifier. Dang. I love it because she can soothe herself but then I hate it since it is going to be one mean habit to break. Oh well. Can't win 'em all and I will deal with it when the time comes.



I just love them.