Twins - 9 months old!

9 MONTHS OLD!!!

They are seeming less like babies and more like toddlers! I can't believe the growth they've made these last two months.

Nicknames

Savannah: Sue Sue, Stinky Cheese, Savannah banana
Oliver: Ollie, Ollie bollie, Super Dude

Weight 

Savannah: 19lb 14oz     76%
Oliver: 19lb 5.5oz         44%

Height

Savannah: 27.5in      43%
Oliver:28 1/4in         44%

Head circumference

Savannah: 17.5in            67%
Oliver: 17 1/4in        16%

Teeth

Oliver has been cranky off and on, leading me to believe he has more teeth in the works, but nothing more yet.

Savannah got her first tooth at just barely 9 months. She was what they call a "hot mess" all day and I knew she was getting a tooth. It came in that day. That girl cried and cried and CRIED all day for no reason. It was quite a horrible day. But she got the tooth and was back to her happy self. It only lasted one day (unlike Oliver who was cranky for months before getting his - but he wasn't a total mess the day he got his teeth) and then she was fine. Then 3 weeks later she did the same thing - cried all day - and got her second front tooth. Its SO DANG CUTE - she has her left tooth much higher than her right, so she looks so goofy. I don't know why but it reminds me of a troll smile or something?

Mobility

This month Ollie went from making a bridge and rocking on his knees to completely MOBILE! He still isn't officially crawling yet - he pulls himself where he wants to go. He's going to get some crazy biceps! :) He moves pretty quickly and and is in to everything!!

He loves to stand up. He will sometimes take steps when you hold his hands. He is hyper and loves playing.

Savannah Since Oliver has gotten more mobile, she's changed a lot. She rolled over for the first real time at like 6 months or so? And then never bothered to even try again until very end of 8 months or beginning of 9 months. Now she rolls all over! She isn't trying too much to crawl, but she rolls everywhere. She scoots like a boss on her back. She especially loves to scoot when we are changing her diaper.

Curiosity

They are noticing toys more now - in that they are choosing which toys they want. Their favorite thing is for me to put all their toys in the bin, and put it in front of them. They then take all the toys out and play with the ones they like best. Within an hour the whole living room floor is full of toys from them taking them around.

A couple of weeks ago we went to Grandma and Grandpa Orr's, and their cat was very curious about the twins. They noticed the cat but weren't overly interested. Last week we went over and Oliver was obsessed with the cat. He crawled (aka - pulled himself) at least 20 feet to get to the cat. He followed the cat throughout the house. I've never seen him focus on something like that.  Nor has he ever tried to crawl that far.

It has been so fun to watch them get more curious about their surroundings and explore.

Eating

They are hit and miss with eating. Savannah will sometimes let us put food in her mouth which is helpful - she's starting to figure out chewing.

Daddy gave them spaghetti squash the other night for dinner - they LOVED it! They did eat some, but mostly loved picking it up and throwing it around.

Communication

Oliver doesn't really jabber much. He does growl at us - which is hilarious. He will nibble on our feet and growl. And where he pulls himself around, while growling, he really resembles a zombie coming after you. He screams happily sometimes. When he wants to communicate he's done eating or done doing anything, he just starts crying. Like really, really crying. It's over the top dramatic. We've been signing "milk" and "sleep" since they were 6 months old. He shows no recognition for the words or signs. He definitely is more into moving and discovering than communicating.

Savannah, on the other hand, is more into communicating than moving. She's been shaking her head "no" for months now, but until recently I didn't think she had any idea what she was "saying" But she definitely does now. When she doesn't want a certain toy, doesn't want more food, doesn't like what we are doing - she will shake her head no. If we are feeding her and she doesn't want more - she will hit our hands away. A couple of times when she's been drinking milk, she has signed "milk". She hasn't used sign to tell us anything yet, but she's discovered her hands recently and will look at them as she moves them, so I think she will start signing soon. She definitely knows the word and sign for "milk" - when we say or sign it and she's hungry, she will start freaking out until we give her a bottle.

She jabbers all day. We love it! She makes lots of sounds and vowels. She loves to scream!! Happy screaming, thank goodness!

Sleep

Oliver is a much better sleeper when he isn't teething - and he's almost always teething so he's almost always a pain in the royal behind to put to sleep. The only way we can get him down for naps or night time is to give him a bottle and he drinks himself to sleep. I would much rather put him down and he goes to sleep, but he will just cry. And when he starts crying - he doesn't self soothe - he gets more and more hysterical. The whole "cry it out" routine would never work with Oliver. He gets out of control upset crying and doesn't stop until we get him. Still won't take a binkie the last time I tried, which was a while ago.

He sleeps through the night about 50% of the time still. 

Savannah continues to be a great sleeper. We put her in her bed and she goes to sleep. And takes great naps. And sleeps through the night. She still refuses a binkie - and I haven't tried to give her one in a long time. If she can sleep and self soothe without it - all the better!

They are down to two naps a day - ideally two two hour naps. Sav usually follows that, but Ollie is such a wild card. It is hard to take them out with the two nap schedule.

Oliver loves Savannah so much. He just wants to be near her and love on her. But he doesn't know how to be gentle. He is constantly scratching all of us. The twins are both covered in scratches these days. She wants her own space, and she doesn't love how rough he is. He will just crawl to her and pull her hair and maul her face. She cries so much. I feel like so much of my day is full of saying "Oliver! Leave Savannah alone!" "Oliver, don't touch Savannah!" "Oliver, be gentle!" "Savannah, fight back!" "Savannah, buck up darlin'!" I really hope he can learn to control his own strength and roughness so she will want to play with him and not just cry when he gets close to her.

They do love to play together when they are both in their exersaucers. They can play with each other and they get so hyper - but Oliver can't touch her.

They love playing with their toys, but we really do need to get some more advanced ones. The baby ones aren't cutting it as much any more.

Oliver loves to be rough housed with. Thrown in the air, held upside down... all of it. Savannah does NOT love either of these things.

She's started to grab our faces in her hands - we LOVE it! Oliver does this too sometimes, but he's so rough it usually hurts. She will also put her lips on ours to give kisses.

They have started to get a little more clingy, in that if I walk into the kitchen and am too far away, or if they can't see me - they will more often than not freak out. 

They are getting so fun!! Every month I think they are so fun and getting so big, and then the next month it gets even better!

They LOVE when we sing to them. "Head, shoulders, knees and toes" is their favorite. When I sing that they get so excited, smile so big and wave their arms frantically. One day they both laughed so hard every time I would sing it. Oliver laughed so hard he fell over two different times. It was so fun! I would start singing another song and they would calm down. Then i'd sing "Head, shoulders, knees and toes" again and they would light right back up.

Twins - 8 months old!

8 MONTHS OLD!!!

Oh how they have changed this month!! Especially Oliver.

Teeth

Oliver got his first two teeth at the same time. He'd been insanely cranky for MONTHS (MONTHS, people!!!) so I knew it was coming. We went to Grandma and Grandpa Orr's house one night right after they turned 8 months and Grandma goes, "oh, he's got his teeth in!" SAY WHAT!? I had felt his mouth that morning and nada. Between then and night, he busted out his two front teeth. And immediately after went back to our amazing, cute, awesome sauce little man.

Savannah is still gumming through life, as cutely as ever.

Mobility

Oliver is amazing! He has come so far from that little sensitive, calm 3 pounder! It's so crazy because Oliver was the easier baby at first. He was so content to just lay in his bouncer or on the floor. He didn't like bathing with Sav because she splashed him and it upset him. He was so tender and sensitive. Savannah on the other hand had to be sitting up from a young age. She wanted to be looking around and hated laying down. She loved the exersaucers first and would go crazy in them, while Oliver much preferred laying in his bouncer. He wasn't in a rush to sit up. She held her head up during tummy time so much better, she sat up in the bumbo much sooner, she sat up on her own way earlier. So we were sure she would be the active, crazy trouble maker and Oliver would be our quiet, sensitive follower.

OH MY HOW THE TIDES HAVE CHANGED!

This month he's started to put all his weight on his hands and toes and arch his back like a bridge. He does it all the time! Once he did that for sure we though he would be crawling by the end of the week. We said that each week all month and he's still not crawling - but he does make little bits of progress. He can move - it's just really, really slowly and not far. After making the bridge, he figured out how to go from the arch to his knees. He still can't figure out how to move on his knees, but he'll get on his knees and rock. He only moves backwards though.

He is so hard to take out to restaurants. He has to try and touch everything, grab glasses off the table, grab our food, slides off our laps, screams, attacks our faces... he's a monster! He just wants to move, move move! Savannah on the other hand will sit so sweetly in our laps and eat the food we give her - like holds a pickle and eats it the whole time. 

Savannah developed so much more quickly at first, but Oliver has just taken off. More than anything though, I think it's personality. She hasn't cared to move. She just lays on her back completely content for us to entertain her and bring toys to her. She doesn't even look for toys. She gets over being on her back or tummy really quickly and still prefers sitting or being in her exersaucer. 

Curiosity

This is hard to really document, because they changed daily and weekly right now with their progress.

They are starting to make messes!!! This is fun to see but I am not quite ready for it! Right after Easter Oliver got ahold of his Easter basket and spread the paper confetti around the whole living room floor - such a pain to clean up! The same day Savannah got ahold of a pack of open diapers and spread them everywhere. Their favorite thing is to play with their diapers.

Oliver LOVES LOVES the tub. Bath time is his favorite. He kicks and goes completely crazy on his back. He loves to turn over on his tummy and move. This is where he learns all his moves. He always discovers tricks in the tub and then does them on the carpet after bath time. It's so weird and funny.

Eating

Oliver has taken off in eating as well. He doesn't like to feed himself - but he eats everything I give him. He's got those two big front teeth and chews things really well. He drives me crazy because he is a chipmunk. He hoards food in his mouth till it's completely full and then he slowly eats it. By slowly I mean really, really slowly! For 20 minutes or more he will just have pools of food in his mouth. 

Savannah will only feed herself. She will not let me feed her. She makes such a huge mess and doesn't actually eat much. She sucks on food and plays with it, but doesn't really get the chewing and swallowing parts. So she loves food way more than Oliver and has way more interest in eating, but he actually eats much more than she does.

These little sweeties are growing and learning and make us so happy!