6 months

My sweet babies turned 6 months old on April 6th. A half year has already gone by. It has been a busy 6 months, no doubt, but the thought that in another 6 months I will have 2 one year olds is a little sad (and a little scary too...) I took them to the doctor on Monday and here are their current stats:

Leah:

Weight: 14 lbs, 11 ounces (25%)

Length: 25 in (25%)

Head: 41 cm (10%)

Alexis:

Weight: 14 lbs 3 oz (10%)

Length: 24.5 inches (10%)

Head: 42 3/4 cm (50%)

It is official for the first time- Leah is bigger! She has always been a pound or a half pound smaller, but she is now a half pound heavier and half an inch longer. She still has a smaller head, which is one of the first things people notice as a difference between them.

Here are a few things the girls have been up to in the past few months:

Lexi has always had more hair, but it is starting to get a bit longer on top. Chloe takes it on as a personal job to "spike" Lexi's hair.

Leah has been our bald little beauty since day one. Chloe has been known to introduce the girls to people by saying, "And this is Leah, the bald one." But just in the last 2 weeks or so, Leah's peach fuzz has started to sprout and although she by no means has hair to brag about, she is no longer bald! (In the picture above, you can see some of the hair sticking up- we love it!)

About 3 weeks ago, we moved the girls into their own cribs to sleep. I would come in after nap time or in the morning to get them and would find them head to feet (like above) or head to head in terribly uncomfortable positions that indicated they were hurting each other by kicking or banging heads during sleep time. They are rolling and twisting and moving so much now that they just can't share a bed anymore and sleep well. They have been doing great in separate cribs and sleep through the night and take great naps.

But with their new found freedom of their own cribs, they have been moving around even more and have found themselves in quite a pickle. I found Leah like this during naptime one day. That can't be comfortable! So I decided to switch her to the other "crib" (our co-sleeper which is a glorified pack and play) which has no bars to get legs stuck in. But the next day I found....

Alexis in the exact same position! Oh well! I now sleep Lexi in the big crib- I can get her out of that position and she'll go back to sleep, whereas Leah would cry if I helped her and then didn't stay to chat or take her with me when I left.

Feeding time has been going well- both girls are mastering it quickly and quite liking it. Leah now leans forward to intercept the food more quickly if she is really hungry- waiting for the spoon to get all the way to her mouth just takes too long, apparently.

Lexi enjoys the food too!

We went out to one of our favorite restaurants a few weeks ago and let the girls try sucking on some honey dew. Leah could not get enough. She was sucking so hard and making such loud smacking noises.

Lexi loved it too, but didn't cause quite the noisy scene with it as her sister did. They were both a sticky mess when we were done.

Tummy time is going well- now that they both can roll both ways, being on the tummy is fun rather than torture. Doesn't Leah look like she could just up and crawl away? My guess is that she'll be my first crawler of the two.

Lexi has made leaps and bounds with tummy time. She used to have the hardest time keeping that big head up, but now can hold it up with the best of them. She loves to roll, too, and can turn circles in any room to try and get to things.

These little ladies love their big sister. They both love to be held by her, carried and play with her every day. Leah thinks Chloe is hilarious and the two of them are my two little talkers in the house. When Leah can use real words and she and Chloe can both talk a mile a minute, I am in trouble!

Ben thinks Lexi is going to have red hair (I am not totally convinced yet). With more hair coming in on her head, Ben is getting more and more convinced. To try and anticipate what she will look like with the Andros red hair, we used Chloe's beautiful hair and plopped it on Lexi's head. If she does have thick, long red hair like Chloe some day, here is what she may look like!

The girls at their 6 month checkup. Can you guess who is who? You probably want to say Lexi is on the right because she is the one with the binky... you would be wrong!

That's right- Leah has now joined the binky world and we could not be happier about it! She has never taken a binky well. The first few weeks of life we could force one into her mouth and the only way we could keep it in was to hold it in, and within weeks she wouldn't take one at all. I always imagined what it would be like when she took one, and it is everything I dreamed of and more! She is definitely still the more emotional twin and needs more comforting and a little more attention, but a binky has helped with that tremendously. We always wondered what it would be like to be able to just pop a binky in her mouth when she was crying (which some days can be a lot) and now we know, and it's amazing! We call this the new and improved Leah. We love her just as much as before, but are loving that she can be soothed eaiser and longer with a binky. She really is a lot more happy and has mellowed out so much in the past few weeks.

Our newest binky friend Leah- you are one of us!

But the good news doesn't stop there- the amazing Leah has one more trick up her sleeve- she now takes a bottle, too! This has been an exciting month for us. I have tried for months now to force a binky and a bottle on Leah and forcing her to do either usually made her even more upset. But one day she just decided to take both of them and our lives haven't been the same since. As the mom, I can taste the freedom! Watch out babysitters (and Ben)- I am no longer the only person in town that can feed this girl. If there is a bottle and plenty of milk around, I may not come home for hours!

I give the credit to Lexi- she probably calmly talked to Leah one night in bed, telling her how much it would mean to the whole family if she would just take a binky and a bottle. And Lexi set the perfect example for Leah in both areas. I mean, really- just look at her. She'll even take a binky upside down and it doesn't bother her a bit. You can even see that when the binky is upside down it covers her little nostrils and it is no big deal to her. Sometimes I think she even prefers to have it upside down.

I just set up the Exersaucer this week and it is a hit with both girls.

I just love this age- it is my favorite age for babies. They are not mobile yet (yea!) and will stay where you put them, but are just getting to the point where a pile of toys can entertain them for long periods of time. They are awake more and alert and happy when they are awake, trying to take everything in, but still young enough to need lots of sleep (which means they still take long, great naps). They can't make messes yet, either, and are fascinated by everything. It is such a fun age and I love every minute of it, especially having two babies to enjoy it with. I still can't get over that I have both of them in my life. I shock people daily that I have twins and they just can't seem to comprehend it, but the truth is I can't get over it myself. All babies are miracles and I have two miracles. That will always be amazing to me. What a blessing twins are, especially these two beautiful little ladies. I wouldn't trade them for anything, not even a nap!