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! 

Twins - 7 months old!

Happy 7 Months, Twinnies!

These babies are growing into these amazing, cute and wonderful little humans. I'm so smitten I don't even know what to do with myself.

Trevor and I are crazy in love with these guys. Even through all the sleepless nights, poop fiascos, epic pukes and piles of laundry - we have never been happier.

I think one of the biggest things that we saw towards the end of the month was the evening out of Savannah and Oliver. Savannah has been weeks to months ahead of him developmentally since they were born. She was almost 2lbs heavier at birth, and came home from the NICU almost 3 weeks before Oliver. She has traditionally been on track for their birth age, where Oliver has been more on track with their gestational age.

I've often wondered if it is more personality than development, though. Oliver is just calm and contemplative. You can see him thinking, where Savannah is kind of a spaz.

This month though, I feel like Oliver has caught up.  They are still excelling in different areas and are so different - but Oliver has definitely stopped being the underdog.

Talking

Savannah jabbers non-stop! She screeches and yells and screams! She loves to play in either excersaucer and just scream and yell.

Oliver has traditionally only been verbal when he is trying to tell you he needs something. If he's tired, hungry or needs a diaper change, he suddenly becomes very vocal. But if all his needs are met - he doesn't jabber. This has changed a little this month. That is still mostly true - but he has started to jabber more. He will occasionally scream and yell like Savannah does - but that is rare and usually when he does have a need. He probably starts jabbering the most when he is near Savannah. It really does look like they are talking to each other.

Laughing

Neither laughs often - which is a total bummer. They both will occasionally, but still it's rare. They each probably laugh about once or twice a week. Savannah does laugh more than Oliver. Best way to get a laugh from Savannah is tickling under her chin. Best way to get a laugh from Oliver is to hold him upside down.

Smiling

Savannah smiles! She holds true to the movie name. She is a happy, smiley little girl. Her gorgeous blue eyes are just always glittering with happiness.

Oliver smiles... when he wants to. I keep hoping he isn't just a cranky little man. I think he's teething and that is why he is so grumpy so often. He has this cute, sweet little smile. But he definitely does not smile like Savannah does.

Sleeping

Savannah LOVES TO SLEEP. She's been a really great nap taker and go-to-beder since she was a couple of months old (she was a terror to get down before that, while her brother was a sleep champ!).  Traditionally, I'll put her in her bed with her special blankie, her wubbanub and her binkie (she can't use the wubbanub as a binkie anymore because she loves to play with it and pulls it out of her mouth). She will go straight to sleep about 50% of the time. The rest, she will be good for a minute and then will cry and I will have to go in and put her binkie back in. I usually have to put her binkie back in about 2-5 times before she is out. Once in a while it takes 10-20 tries before she's out, but that is pretty seldom. And I know when she is really tired or close to going to sleep, because she holds her wubbanub over her face in the air, and then will rest it on her face. As soon as she's got it on her face I know she's out. She also loves to put her blankie over her face while she sleeps. I have to go in and take it off her face many times while she's sleeping.

But she's started this new thing lately, where we put her in her bed for naps or the night, and she just starts smiling like it's Christmas morning! She will scream and yell (happily) and kick her feet and just all around have a party. She won't even take her binkie (I cannot say how weird this is for her, not to want her binkie when she goes to sleep) she just wants to scream and jabber. I'll be in the living room and i'll hear her happy screaming for a while and then it will stop and she's asleep. She is like her mama - she LOVES sleep! :)

Oh and she's such a sweet, happy girl. But she turns into a complete monster when she's tired. Delaying or missing naps, or putting her to bed too late results in absolute drama and meltdowns and crying and screaming. You do not mess with Savannah and her sleep.

Oliver. Oh Oliver. Take everything I just said about Savannah, turn it to the opposite and you have Oliver. It's been rough for a while with him. He refuses to take naps, but he needs them! He doesn't get emotional and crying/screaming like Savannah when he misses naps, thank goodness. He rarely shows he's tired, but you can tell he just needs to sleep. And wants to be held. But the kid WON'T GO TO SLEEP. To get him to sleep, I have to swaddle him (which he hates and screams and yells) and then hold him and feed him a bottle. Then he will kick and thrash and try to get out of your arms, but you have to just keep holding him and rocking him and eventually he will give up and go to sleep. Most the time he will sleep for 20 minutes or less, which he needs so much more than that!!! Most the time if I put him down, he wakes up screaming bloody murder after 5 or so minutes. This kid has me TEARING OUT MY HAIR. Every day Trevor comes home, I hand him Oliver and just say, "I can't... I can't take him anymore."

I feel so bad because I know it's just teething and he probably is just hurting - hence the refusing to take naps. But oh my heavens. He is so hard.

He's so sweet though. He's such a sweet little man. BUT HE WON'T SLEEP.

I really prayed about how to help him sleep, how to give him what he needs. And I felt like he needed to sleep after being awake 1 hour - before he got too tired. And that part of the reason he was not sleeping well and waking up screaming is he was hungry (growth spurt on top of teething). So I got the idea to put him in bed with a bottle. That worked WONDERS. It worked for a couple of weeks, and then it didn't as well and it's still not always the answer, but that has saved me. I hate putting him down with a bottle and have to check on him constantly to make sure he's ok - but he goes down SO MUCH EASIER and stays asleep much longer.

Eating

I am doing Baby Led Weaning. We are liking it. Most people give their babies solids at 4-6 months. I was hesitant to start even at 6 months, not sure with being 2 months early they would be ready. So I decided to just wait until I thought they were ready.

Savannah was ready much sooner than Oliver. One day, she just started staring at our food and reaching for it. Then she would throw herself on our food. Trev was eating a peanut butter and honey sandwich and she shoved her hand in the middle of the sandwich and got peanut butter all over her face. Trev didn't know the whole - no peanut butter until they are 1 thing (which I hadn't planned to wait until a year, but hadn't planned on it being her first food) and so he put the peanut butter from her face in her mouth. She did not have a reaction. But after that, I figured what the heck! She's ready to start eating! It was SO SCARY at first giving her food, and I still freak out, but she does so great! She's had banana pancakes, bananas, avocado, sweet potato, squash, broccoli, avocado pasta and cream of wheat. She hates being fed purees or anything on a spoon. She wants to feed herself.

Sav LOVES her milk. When she sees a  bottle, she screams (not happy scream) and reaches for it. Then she takes it and shoves it in her mouth. She can hold her own bottle. She still drops it often but she can hold it.

Oliver is still unsure about food. He's starting to notice our food and reach for it more and more (a whole month after Savannah started, haha). He still isn't crazy about when I feed him. I give him mostly purees because he doesn't show much interest in putting food in his mouth yet. But he doesn't like purees. He will mostly pool the food at the front of his mouth and just let it sit there. So I think he's swallowed and am so proud and feed him more, and eventually it all just comes poring out of his mouth. On the occasion he does swallow - he makes a face like he's eating a lemon. It's so funny. He's had most of the same foods as Savannah. I didn't give him the avocado pasta since he had to chew it and I don't think he's there yet. We're still working on bananas.

crawling/rolling

Savannah lays on her back and doesn't move.

Oliver is starting to get mobile. For a while he's been rolling in his bed. He rolls onto his tummy almost immediately when we put him down. It's funny - he would wake me up screaming a couple times a night when he first started rolling over. He would wake up and want to be on his back, or just move but he was groggy and couldn't so he'd just scream. I'd roll him to his back, feed him and he would go back to sleep.

He wouldn't roll over in the living room though. I knew he could - but he wouldn't. Then it all changed. Now he rolls all over the place and tries SO HARD to crawl. His favorite thing to crawl to is his sister.

Sitting

Savannah is sitting up on her own! She loses balance a lot so we always put a boppy around her. It is less for support and more for a falling cushion.

Oliver can sit up on his own for a couple seconds, but falls over. He isn't very motivated to sit - he wants to crawl.

Dramatic

Their little personalities are developing more and more and it is so dang fun!!

Savannah is a drama queen. This girl! She slightly grazes her head with a pillow and she screams and screams like she's dying. She's hungry or tired and it's like the world is ending.

Oliver falls and hits his head and you can tell it hurts - but he rarely cries. He just bucks up. Trying to get him to sleep results in him screaming and thrashing - but he is so calm otherwise.

First Family Vacation and Sickness

This month saw the first sickness in our house.We have still been mostly in quarantine. At their 6 month appointment, their pediatrician told us to start taking them out. It's been an unseasonably warm winter, and he told us to be careful but to start going on. So we did. We went to St.George for our first family vacation!!!

I packed all four of us up and into Tim by myself (my mom helped me load some things)! I felt like mom of the year. I'm sure this will become a frequent thing for me, but I'm going to enjoy these first time mom things. I loaded the twinners and we picked daddy up at work. Then we drove to my grandparents to visit them. We hung out, played, fed them - and then at 7, their bedtime, loaded them in Tim for the long drive to St.George. Mercifully they slept the whole way which is what we were hoping and praying for.

We left on Wednesday night - Trev had taken Thursday and Friday off, and we were to stay until Sunday.

It was nice to be away from home. We figured as long as we kept the twins on their napping schedule, they would be completely fine. Not so much.

They were awful. Terrible. Dreadful! On Thursday we said, "hmm maybe we shouldn't stay till Sunday. Maybe we should leave Saturday." On Friday we said, "this sucks. Lets go home tonight."

We were able to see family and Cody and his girlfriend, but the twins just kept getting crankier and crankier and it felt like one was crying at all times. On the way to the hike with Cody, Oliver screamed bloody murder the whole way. It was terrible and so uncharacteristic of him. Then on the hike, Savannah started to wail and wouldn't stop - so we left.

Friday they were just as bad, so after a nice dinner with Mike, Heidi and Hannah we packed up as fast as we could and headed home.

It was really nice to get home. I've never loved our home so much as in that moment. Hopefully when they need less naps and are a little older, taking a vacation won't be so catastrophic. Also, I think the fact that we've been in quarantine since they were born adds to their inability to thrive anywhere but home.

Saturday we hung around home and went on a quick Costco run.

Sunday Oliver was sick. It kept getting worse so later in the week I took him to the doctor and he had RSV. My heart totally and completely broke. In the NICU they scared us silly about RSV. We were on strict quarantine for 6 months to avoid any illness. I literally had no life and rarely left the house to keep these kids well, and Oliver gets RSV regardless. The doctor calmed me down and told me they are old enough to handle it well now, it's not a huge deal and won't have any long term affects on them. He also told us as soon as he's well - to start taking them out again. Ugh. Gave me so much anxiety.

Ollie got pretty sick and it was really not fun. I had to take him daily to the hospital for breathing treatments and to get his nose sucked. He hated it. I'm certain Sav got it too, just not bad. She was cranky and exhausted while he was sick. She was taking marathon naps all day long. Then, my mom got a bad cold (on top of chemo- no fun), Sav got a bad cold, I got the cold, Trev got the cold... somehow little man didn't get it on top of RSV which I am so thankful for. We were really careful to keep things separate, they didn't sleep together, but still I can't believe he didn't get it.

Teething

Ollie is teething and it's horrible. I'm pretty certain it's why he's been refusing to nap and so cranky. Poor guy. I'm hesitant to give him Tylenol since I can't see any teeth and it's just conjecture - but seriously the kid has to be teething! I want me sweet guy back. Sav has yet to show any teething, other than she drools up a storm all day and gets these bright red cheeks.

They love:

Savannah - Her wubbanub, her pacifier and special blanket Teta made her. She loves food (specifically bread - my bread) and milk. She pretty much just loves food in general. She loves playing in her excersaucers. She loves loves the giraffe on the safari one, and will jump to get it. She loves playing the piano and screaming. She loves nap time. She loves sitting up or standing up so she can look around. She loves my water bottle, specifically the straw. She lunges for it every time.

Oliver - He LOVES baths! He kicks and splashes and just has so much fun. He's so amazing to watch. There is this one toy we have he specifically loves. He loves being on the floor so he can try to crawl and explore. He loves his sister! Seriously, she's his favorite. He loves snuggles. He's started to enjoy the exercaucers more, but will often prefer being on the floor to play. He loves to chew on things. Everything. Not food - he wants to chew on your face, the table, your hands - everything.

They hate: 

They HATE having saline up their nose and having it suctioned (who can blame them for that though!?).  They have figured out if they shake their head and wiggle we can't do it, so it's a two person job. They hate getting medicine and will just spit it up. They hate getting clothes put on.

Savannah has started to hate baths (she used to love them so not sure what happened there). She hates being splashed by brother. She hates when brother is too affectionate and won't stop touching her face.

Oliver hates eating solids (I don't feed him often since he hates it, and I'm going on his cues. I will occasionally just to see if he's ready). He hates having a messy diaper. He hates being swaddled to force him to go to sleep. Eventually he goes to sleep and it's the only way to get him to sleep - but initially he hates it.

Silly things they do

Savannah - shakes her head "no" over and over. It's hilarious. No idea where she learned it but she'll randomly do it and it's the best. She will get frustrated or angry at us, and she will squeeze her face and blow out her nose really loudly. It's the funniest thing I've ever seen. We have no idea where she learned it! And it's to show us displeasure.  She screams in happiness and kicks when we put her to bed. She loves sleeping.

Oliver - this dude is pretty easy going and he doesn't have this crazy zesty personality like Savannah has. He's so sweet and tender. He does love grabbing my face and putting his wide open mouth on mine. It's so cute.

Well, this will wrap up month 7 for now!!! (I started this right after they turned 7 months, and am finishing it less than a week from their 8 month birthday. Hopefully I did a good job separating the two months, since they all seem to blend together).

Twins - 6 Months Old!

Weight

Savannah:16.14   56%

Oliver: 16lbs 24%

Height

Savannah: 24.59in 14%

Oliver: 25.5in 19%

Head circumference

Savannah: 16.5 35%

Oliver: 16.51 9%

I am so behind it makes me sick. I don't want to miss documenting a moment of the twins' lives, but am so behind. I missed their 5 month post and here it is, a week past their 6 month birthday. At this point I don't think I can clearly differentiate what happened in month 5 versus month 6, so I'm just going to group 5 and 6 together. Right now it feels devastating to do this, but I realize in the future I won't really care what happened in month 5 versus month 6 (I did take their 5 month picture so that is a win)...

These babies! Holy cow. They are wonderful and perfect and hilarious. They are getting so big.

Grandma Johnson got them these adorable Valentines outfits! Savannah's is so cute I want to cry and Oliver's is so dang adorable!!!! He definitely does steal hearts, let me tell you. All the NICU nurses fell in love with him, and it hasn't stopped since! :)

Savannah

This girl! She smiles all the time. She is the happiest, smiliest baby I have ever seen. She brings us so much joy. The only times she doesn't smile are when she is really hungry or tired. She turns into a major drama queen when she gets hungry or tired.

She is a great sleeper. She lasts awake for about an hour and then needs a nap. We can put her in her pack n play with her special blankie Grandma Johnson made her, her elephant wubbanub and her binkie. We can't use her wubbanub as a binkie any more because she loves playing with it so much she pulls it out. She will stretch it straight above her head as she sucks on it and pulls it out. But she loves to cuddle it. She also loves her special blanket. She usually will pull it up over her face. We usually find her on her back, arms above her head, feet froggy style, with her blanket over her face or her wubbanub on her face.

Some times I have to put her binkie in multiple times but for the most part, she just goes right to sleep.

She loves playing with toys. Her green Oball is her favorite. She puts everything in her mouth.

She has started shaking her head no all the time. Fast and furious. It is hilarious. There is no rhyme or reason for it, she just will randomly do it.

She laughed for the first time when she was 5 months old. Trevor got her to laugh in the bathtub. It was fleeting (and I missed it) but she laughed. The next bath night I did what Trev had done and she laughed again. She didn't laugh for a while, and on the day of the super bowl she was playing in her piano and I was folding laundry. I just decided to throw a sock at her, and she laughed so hard!!! I kept throwing stuff at her and she was belly roaring. It was seriously one of the best moments of my life! She kept laughing and laughing. Mikail and Seth were here as was my mom. Everyone got to see, so that was so fun. We were all just laughing at her. She's since laughed a couple more times, but not like that one time.

She loves baths! She kicks and splashes and wiggles and acts like she's having a seizure. She splashes Oliver and he hates it. He cries.

She shows so much interest in our food. She lunges for whatever we had. Her first food was peanut butter! Haha. Daddy was eating a peanut butter and honey sandwich and she lunged for it, putting her little fingers right in the middle. So dad gave her a taste of peanut butter. Good news is she isn't allergic. I've since given her avocado, which she hates. HATES hates. Also gave her broccoli, which she also hates. She's also had sweet potato, which she didn't seem to hate but also didn't love. Even though she is showing so much interest in food and eating, I don't think she's quite ready yet.

She loves going for walks. She will sit shotgun in the stroller and just look around at everything. It takes her a good half hour to fall asleep because she loves looking at everything.

She loves looking at everything. She's always got to be moving and looking at everything. She won't snuggle us because she has to be moving all the time.

Seth came to visit for a week, so mom and mikail and Seth were here which was a lot of fun for our little girl. She loved watching Seth. While he was here she was SO HYPER. She was crazy! She made a lot of developments as well.

Her posture on tummy time is amazing. She still hasn't rolled over since the first time she did it months ago. But she tries to crawl and looks so great doing it.

Everyone comments on her eyebrows. And her big beautiful blue eyes.

She is a little jabberer. She talks all the time! She screams and yells and talks and it's so fun! She's started doing this little cough which I think she does for attention.

She loves her little piano. She plays in there and absolutely loves it. She bangs the keys with her feet, plays with the toys and sings. It's so dang funny.

Oliver

Our sweet tender little dude. He is smiling much more now, but still chooses when he will bless us with a smile. He has laughed a couple of times.

He loves to be held upside down. Which I find to be strange, since he's so gentle. He hates loud noises and too much raucous. When Sav plays too rough he cries. But he loves being held upside down. Go figure.

He LOVES the bathtub. We had been using a bath cushion and bathing them one at a time. They are now big enough, we switched to no bath cushion and bathing them together. He HATED the switch. He went from loving the tub to hating it. Savannah loves to kick and splash and he would get water splashed on him and he would just scream and get upset.  But after 4 or 5 baths, he started to love it again and splash and now he splashes Savannah and she gets upset and wants to get out. He's peed in the tub the last two baths and so we had to end bath time early.

I've fed him avocado and broccoli, both of which he hates. He absolutely could not stand broccoli, so I stopped feeding him. I told my mom he hated it and was making these terrible sour faces, and she wanted to see so she fed him some more. He got so upset he started crying. Like, crying crying. It was hilarious. He still isn't eating well, doesn't have the hang of swallowing. So the food just sits between his gums and his lip and he screams. So I have to get the food out with my finger. So I'm going to wait a couple weeks and try again. He doesn't show interest in food like Savannah does.

He loves to just stare at things and look around. He is so tender to Sav when she is upset. He loves to touch her face and hair and just always wants to touch her. He will start screaming if she is crying.

He is such a sweet snuggler. He loves to be held and snuggled.

He rolled over for the first time at 4 months (the day before turning 5 months old) and he rolled front to back, then right back to front. It was impressive! He hasn't looked back since. Now he is a rolling fiend. He is a big time tummy sleeper since discovering how to roll. Now he lasts maybe 5 minutes on his back when he's asleep, and he's rolled over to his tummy. The funny thing is he rolls all night long and changes to weird positions (including kicking his sister! She's been waking up screaming at odd times and I finally realized it's because Oliver kicks her and she wakes up and gets mad. So we've since added a divider to their pack n play and it's made all the difference) but he won't roll over during the day. He will scream and yell and if he wants tummy time to be over, but he won't just roll over which he knows how to do. He'll only roll when he's in his bed.

He is in this stage where he is fighting naps. It's kind of horrible. It really began when he started to roll. I think he gets frustrated he can't get comfortable/in the position he wants. So he will just get so upset and scream and thrash and it's just impossible to get the kid to sleep! 

He still loves sucking his thumb.

He is getting mobile! He crawled backwards the other day. I think he wanted to get to Savannah. So he reversed back to where she was, then turned towards her and started trying to go forward. He actually moved quite a bit backwards. 

He's a little eater. He eats his share and then Savannah's.

He's a little thinker. You can tell he just stares at things and thinks. He is slower to take to things, but once he does something he has it mastered. When he's in the piano, he loves to play with the music notes. He will just sit there and stare at the notes and move them around. He can really focus. 

Savannah is our happy, smiley ball of energy. Oliver is our calm thoughtful little man. They both are so sweet and fun. It's so fun to see their personalities coming through. 

*These aren't their "official" 6 month pictures, but I loved these outfits so much I took a couple. Oliver's face is so hilarious in each one I had to post them all, even though they are nearly the same.*

Twins - 5 Months Old!