9 Month Stats & Milestones



The only way I could capture the two of them together with their sign this month - I need an assistant!!
Oh, and I take zero credit for the "Whoo" signs - my good friend Kristin used that theme for her twins 1st birthday party and I thought it was toooo cute.

 A little behind as usual on my stat/milestone posting. But hey, at least they get up here at some point :) In  my defense, I haven't been feeling well because of the lemon-sized cyst on my ovary. Finally had surgery today so hopefully things will be looking up in a few days. Fun times. I did take a 3 hour nap during the day today - and for the life of me, I can't remember the last time I had 3 hours to myself just to take a nap. The positives of being sliced open, I guess :)

Our 8th and beginning of 9th month has been filled with all sorts of little milestones and "first time" events. I have to say that I am loving this age. The twins are discovering new things every single day (some that bring me immense joy (ie: crawling) and some that scare me (ie: learning to pull up on the crib). I can also say that I am exhausted by the end of each day! It was one thing to have that physically painful exhaustion in the beginning from not sleeping - but this is a whole new level of exhaustion. It's the exhaustion that comes with feeding constantly, cleaning constantly, playing as much as possible, and trying to figure out their new schedule and how I can make it fit with a nap for mommy. Almost every night I fall into bed dead tired and am asleep before Chelsea has even finished interviewing her "B" celebrity guests.

Anyway, some big events for both kids - we took our very first trip out of town to Austin. That was a good one to start with considering it's only about 2 1/2 hours door to door from our house to Matt's moms,  so we were able to time it pretty well to coincide with their morning nap and the only time we had to stop was so Mommy could refuel on diet coke. Obviously it goes without saying that I had a very detailed packing list and I am proud to say that we did not forget anything of dire importance. And Barbara totally hooked us up by already having diapers, wipes, bowls, spoons, cheerios, puffs, an exersaucer, highchair and even an pack 'n play all ready to go when we got there. What a blessing! Her new house is precious and we so enjoyed our time there with family. I was scared how the babies would sleep, given that they have really only slept in their cribs and Ryan never much cared for the pack 'n play in his early days. But they did wonderfully and slept through the night without a problem, thank God! So check first trip off the list - next up is Dallas in less than 2 weeks and I pray they do just as well.

They both are transitioning to having 3 meals a day now, plus bottles. So far, so good. Quinn has dropped her bottle intake a bit since we started giving larger portions, but she eats solids like a champ. Ryan was less than enthused at first with lunchtime but now tolerates it pretty well. The main challenge now is just fitting it in appropriately with their nap schedule and bottle schedule. Some days we are able to stretch to only 4 bottles, but sometimes we need to do 5 - mainly because Ryan is a bottle man. He loves bottles. I think he may go to college on a bottle if we aren't careful.

They are both crawling fools. Quinn is still a mean army crawler but is starting to do the half crawl with her knees and butt up. Honestly, I just don't think she has the patience to try to figure it out - she just wants to go and she figures the army crawl gets her there the fastest. Ryan is all about the "real crawl" now just in the last week or so. It's precious! Still a little unsteady but he is so proud of himself.

Ok, so onto the stats and other fun stuff...

Ryan: What You Are Up To @ 9 Months Old

- You weigh 18lbs 6oz (16th percentile, adjusted for prematurity - 28th percentile. You are 26.75 inches long (8th percentile, adjusted is 17th). Your head circumference is a whopping 18.5 inches (90th percentile. We aren't even going to adjust that one)

- You wear all 6-12 month and 6-9  month clothing and some 12-18 month stuff depending upon where it's from. We are about to move you into 12 month sleepers to give you some extra space. I love dressing you in bigger clothes because we have so many more choices! Your friends Joseph & Grayson have passed on a lot of their precious clothes to you so you have even more clothes than your sister. I always try to dress you up even if we are just running to the mall because, well, it's just so much fun for me. You wear a size 2/3 diaper and will move into a 3 soon.

- You still usually take five 6-7 ounce bottles per day. You get visciously hungry during the day and unless we are busy doing something, you want to eat. You are getting much better with your solids and opening your mouth more and more. You still love peaches, apples, and apricots for your fruits, and your favorite veggie is probably sweet potatoes or squash. Not a huge greens fan but we are working on it. You are tolerating your oatmeal much better now and gag a lot less than you used to :) You like to play with your cheerios but you are not fantastic yet at getting them in your mouth. They usually disappear from your tray in a matter of minutes and end up down your diaper or in the pocket of your bib. But you like the process :)

- You are getting loud! Talking and babbling all the time. You say a lot of things you did last month, just LOUDER. :) I love it. You are such a happy, happy boy almost of the time and still a momma's boy, thank goodness.

- You have learned to clap your hands together and do it all the time now. You were doing it all last weekend at Ma's house and we kept cheering for you and you would give us this look like "What did I do?". So you don't really understand why or when to clap but it's adorable either way. And you are starting to just wave your arms around above your head - sometimes one, sometimes both. It's like you are cheering at some football game playing in your head. And sometimes you time it perfectly - when someone says hi, you raise your arm and wildly wave it around - it makes us both break into giggles.

- Your favorite toy right now is probably your "little stage" that plays music and you can press buttons and things pop up. When you sit in front of it and just smash these buttons down, you remind me of an old man at a slot machine with all the seriousness you play with. So funny. Then sometimes you start jamming out to the music and moving your body all around to the beat. I think you are going to be like your dad in appreciating unique music (mommy is so not musical)

- You are also getting really good at playing peek-a-boo. You especially love to play it in your crib when I go to get you from your nap. You will peek out the slats of your crib and just grin. I love how you are just so happy when you wake up. Quite frankly, it's not anything I can relate to - but that's exactly how your daddy wakes up.

- Your personality is really starting to shine through - you are such a sweet, thoughtful boy. You don't move or do anything until you have really thought about it. I love that about you - you are just like your daddy in that way - always thinking & analyzing the situation. You are also extremely sensitive - you don't like loud noises at all. You can play independently very well but there are times, especially in the late afternoons where you just want momma to be around and cry everytime I have to walk away. Breaks my heart because sometimes your sister needs me. Also, whenever we go somewhere new now, it takes you a little while to adjust. You don't get upset, you just look around and take it all in - and make sure that Mommy & Daddy are nearby. But after 30 minutes or so, you completely settle in and are ready to play and move!

- By the way, son, you are also a HUGE flirt with the ladies. You flash your big, toothy smile and just grin... then you'll look away and peek back & offer up another sweet smile. It's so cute. And I'm pretty sure you know it's cute :)

- Speaking of toothy smiles, your teeth are huge! And your 7th and 8th are about halfway out now. My goodness, when you smile, you look like a little toddler, not my 9 month old little baby! Gigi thinks you look like the e-trade baby and should take his place because of all the funny faces you make.

- Ryan, sweet guy - Your daddy and I just adore you. We thank God for your good-natured and easy-going personality. You are doing so well with everything, growing, sleeping, eating, playing, talking - all the important things. We are so proud of you and could not be happier to have you as a son!

Quinn: What You Are Up to at 9 Months:

- You weigh 15lbs 14oz (7th percentile, adjusted for age, 16th percentile). You are 25.75 inches long (only 1 inch shorter than your "big brother", 5th percentile, adjusted 12th). Your head circumference is 17.01 inches (26th percentile). According to our dietician, you are still perfectly proportioned and still making your way on the "Quinn curve" as we call it. And while your cardiologist would like to see you gain 20grams per day, you are doing just fine and this past month gained 10 (average is 11-13 for your age). So your dietician was pretty proud of you --- for as much as you move and as little as you like to take bottles, you are doing really well!

- You are still my petite thing but we have moved up to 6-12 month and 6-9 month clothes (again depending upon the brand). Actually some of your jeans and pants are still 3-6 months because you have such a tiny waist - the larger sizes still swim on you. But all of your tops are larger now and even some of your Carter's 6 month stuff are getting a  little tight. I love, love, love shopping for you - much to your daddy's dismay. But I have found some great things on ebay for both of you and he just doesn't understand how much money I am saving him :)

- You wear a bow almost every day if we go out so I can avoid the dreaded comment of "oh, you have twin boys!" And sweetheart, you don't look like a boy at all with your petite features and rosy cheeks but sometimes people just don't pay close attention. Plus your bows are precious. However, you have recently discovered (and how I got away with it for 9 months, I'll never know!) that it's much more fun to yank them down and chew on them than to actually wear them but we are doing our best to keep on you.

- Speaking of rosy cheeks, you have a decent case of excema on your cheeks and the back of your legs and arms. It defintely got worse with the sub-freezing temps we had in February combined with the heater running all the time. Now that it's warming up, they are starting to improve and we also got you some special medicine for them. However, I have to think that they hurt you sometimes because you will just scream at the top of your lungs when I am putting the cream on  - either that or you may be a little bit of a drama queen - or a combination of both :)

- You are talking all the time now and will mimic back to me a lot of sounds that I make. My favorite is when you are laying on the changing table and we are just carrying on a conversation. You made me laugh so hard the other day when I kept saying "Mama" and you would think about it, almost form your mouth into an "mmm" look & then you would just bust out "DADA" and laugh hysterically. I really think you are such a smart girl. You pick up everything so quickly, it's scary. You watch what your brother does all the time and have to be in the thick of things. You are definitely my social girl and will probably be my extrovert child. You are not thrown off in the least when you go to new places --- you just settle in and start playing and babbling along. I love that about you.

- You also have about zero fear. Which kind of scares the bejesus out of me. Once you figure something out, you will do it over and over again, consequences be darned. Just like when you figured out how to pull yourself up in your crib and almost flipped over the top several times. You just laughed like it was a big ole game. You also will crawl anywhere and everywhere. And this is truly where you and Ryan's personalities are so differerent. While he will crawl to the edge of the carpet where it meets the tile and give me some warning slaps on the tile that he's about to head out, you just take off. And it only takes you seconds. While Ryan wants me to be looking at all times as to what he is doing --- you would probably prefer I didn't so you can go get in some trouble. :) The other day you took off down the tile, turned the corner to the small hallway and crawled almost to your room before I realized that you were gone. I had just looked at you in the large hallway and figured if anything, you would stay on that path since it's pretty long and wide. But nooo, you went exploring! No FEAR. But I also like that you are fearless in most situations - like I've said in the past, that fiesty spirit and spunk will serve you well.

- And while you may be a little bit of a drama queen : ) , you surely are also one of the happiest little girls I've ever seen. Your sweet belly laughs and squeals of joy bring tears to my eyes. You are so happy to see new people and always smile. You talk incessantly when we are out and about, always happily. You really do not like to be still or in the same place for very long. You are on a constant rotation from floor, to jumper, to exersaucer, back to floor, back to toys and I still think it's not enough stimulation for you! When we go to restaurants, you are good in your little seat for the first 15 minutes or so and then you want OUT so you can look around and see what you are missing. We can usually bribe you with puffs for about 10 more minutes and then one of us typically ends up with you in our arms.But that's ok too. You are curious about the world around you and I love that!

- We have pretty much determined that you are OVER bottles. Now that you have gotten a taste of the good life that is solid food, you would much prefer to have that over your bottles. Your dietician says this is completely normal -- some babies will just fall in love with solids and want to have less and less of the whole formula thing. I am thrilled you are a great solids eater. My only fear is making sure I pack enough in you to make up for the fact that your intake has dropped. You have your 3 meals a day (and they are pretty big ones, even to a grown adult!) and a couple of snacks of yogurt and cereal in between --you still take 4 or 5 bottles a day, but "take" is a pretty loose term. A better explanation, we attempt to give you 4 or 5 bottles a day, but you will usually only have between 2 and 3 good ones. Your best one is obviously your early morning one and the rest of the day is a crapshoot of when you decide you are going to take a bottle. Sometimes it's frustrating for mommy because I know you need the calories, but you are freakishly strong and I just can't force feed you. So I trust that you know when you are hungry and when you aren't. All we can do is offer it to you. And really, who wouldn't prefer a bowlful of vanilla yogurt over stinky formula??!!

- Quinn, your daddy and I have loved watching you grow and blossom this past month. You are doing so well and truly thriving. We could not be more proud of you and how far you have come in a relatively short period of time. We love you so much! I pray that you will always be as sweet and happy as you are now.

WE LOVE YOU, RYAN AND QUINN!!!

 THANK YOU FOR THE BEST THREE-QUARTERS OF A YEAR EVER!