Mostly June, July & August 2010, Part I

I realize this post will seem very similar to the Meet James and Julia at 6-12 months ones. It was poor planning on my part. The other posts were meant to be more about their personalities at that age. This one is more about what date they first flipped, crawled, etc. I tried not to have too much overlap between the posts. Enjoy?


The Move

The big family news for these months was that we bought our first house! James celebrates move-in day by producing his first turd. He's a precocious boy with the bowels of a boy months older.

Mark and I pose with the babies two weeks after we move in. The field behind us is where 50+ houses will be built in the next year. (8 1/2 months)

Move-in day is August 12th, which is also Mark's and my third anniversary. Two days before was my appearance on Jeopardy! which involved a car trip to LA and bringing a breast pump to the studio. It was a busy couple days to say the least. It was also our first overnight trip away from the babies. Grandma said Julia looked towards the front door as though looking for us, and that she was mopey and James was difficult the first day we were gone.

The first night in the new house the babies were up every 20 minutes, and needed to be rocked to sleep. I suspect it was because they were in a new house and needed reassurance, especially since Mark and I were recently away.

I had an infection for a month which I didn't realize until later that made pumping very painful, so I had to pump at a lower level of suction, which meant I produced less and less milk. When I was only producing 1/6 of one of the babies' total daily intake (even before the infection I only produced less than 50% of the babies' intake), I made the difficult decision to wean. They had long since rejected the breast so my last pumping session was on 9/13. Later I also found out we had been feeding the babies 33 oz. of milk/formula a day when they should have received 16-24 oz. This might help explain why we were told the babies were gaining weight too fast at their 6 month well-check appointment.

Visits
Grandma and Papa visit off and on (mostly on, thankfully) during these three months, and Bubby visits at the end of July. Mark also takes his last week of paternity leave. We Skype with Papa and Robin (my brother's friend, my parents' IT support, and eater of an entire loaf of bread in one sitting) as well as Bubby for the first time in early July. Our friends Kelsi and Drew and their son Ari see the babies for the first time at their house, along with Lila and Brendan who see the babies in a non-sleeping state for the first time.


Bubby and her grandbabies. (8 months)

Kelsi with James; The twins meet Ari (and Kelsi and Drew), which gives Julia a chance to show off her jean diaper. (7 months)

The babies visit (instead of just strolling around) a park for the first time, and lie on a blanket there for their first playdate with Ronan at Oak Meadow Park in Los Gatos.


Playing at a park for the first time with their friend, Ronan. (6 months)

In mid-July James discovers grass and pulls out big clumps of it. During one of our first park playdates, a loose dog approaches so I scoop one twin up in each arm. They also visit a mall for the first time (Valley Fair Mall so Mommy can buy an outfit for Jeopardy!) and make their first trips to Target (Cupertino), Costco, and a favorite restaurant of their parents, Zeni.


Mommy holds Julia while James plays with the grass... (7 1/2 months)


...Then James takes a chomp out of Julia. "Mmm... Pilloff-y." (7 1/2 months)

Flipping

The babies - well, mostly James - begin to get mobile. On 6/16 James turns over from his back to his tummy while trying to grasp the hanging giraffe on the activity mat. He repeats this trick two more times that day, once crying out because he landed on his arm. Julia *mostly* rolls over to her tummy reaching for the cube toy on 7/1, but makes it completely over to her tummy on 7/4. Once she does it she performs her new trick three more times, decides that's enough, and she doesn't do it again until she's a year old! Meanwhile, James is a boy obsessed. He constantly flips over - even when I put him down for a nap. He cries out at night because he sleep-flips and doesn't know how he got that way or how to flip back. One time James was so fixated on flipping he did it while drinking his bottle and didn't understand why milk wouldn't come out while he was laying on his tummy.

Julia's pre-flip over ballet pose. (7 months)

Diapering James is crazy between him trying to flip over, the solid food poops, and fighting off his hand which wants to grab "Li'l James." Sometimes I wish I could hog-tie him. Julia is less mobile, but even more wriggly on the changing table! And their monthly posed photos used to be so simple. Now it's like herding cats. I'll put James down and he'll flip over before I can get the camera.

This is a more recent photo but shows how hard taking pictures of them can be. Julia's already flipped over before we can snap the picture. (15 months)

Pre-Crawling and Crawling

Julia hates tummy time and often ends up with a mouthful of blanket. James, on the other hand, can't get enough of it. On 6/17 he starts doing a self-created exercise in 10 second spurts (we call it "swimming") where his feet move really fast (but his body goes nowhere) and then he pushes himself up and looks at me proudly for approval (see the video). And then he does it all over again. Since April, James has loved to kick when he's happy. Mark says James's legs rubbing together will start a fire.


A rare happy moment of tummy time for Drool-ia. (6 months)

In mid-June James likes to do 180 degree turns while trying to crawl, but he doesn't move forward. By the end of July, James can really travel but we're not sure how. He doesn't exactly crawl, but he does flip and rotate to get around. By 8/5 he can pull himself around slowly, and the next day Papa gets James to crawl 3 feet by putting an empty milk bottle in front of him. The following day he crawls all over the living room.

James paints crawls himself into a corner. (9 months)

My friend Leslie M. describes James's movement as an army crawl, and when she returns to visit less than a week later she notes how he's even gotten better. James crawls over Leslie M.'s legs a week later (a first), and goes from crawling position to sitting (also a first). By mid-late August James can really move. Sometimes he gets caught in a corner of the activity gym and drags it around with him.

Don't hook a leg around that activity gym, James! (6 months)

Sitting

In late June/early July the babies can sit up fairly well, but we continue to prop up pillows all around them to protect against the occasional spill. By the beginning of August, Julia is happy to sit up by herself and play.

James sitting on his own with some extra protection. (6 1/2 months)


Julia sits with Papa. (8 months)

Mostly April (a.k.a. the Fifth Month)

James and Julia have a couple visitors this month. First on 4/29 Mark's Uncle Allan and Aunt Linda come bearing pizza (good bribe!). Then, beginning on 5/1, Candice and Dataknife Steve visited twice with their daughter Nora for the twins' first playdate scaredate, as immortalized here. On 5/6 I take the babies around Cornish & Carey, my then place of employment (though I haven't worked there since my first pre-term labor scare). Then I quit. It's Stay at Home Mom-dom for me. When my parents return to San Diego, Mark takes a week of family leave to help care for the twins. When my parents get back up here they're so excited to see the babies that my dad follows the first rule of entering my apartment - take off your shoes - by taking them off in the elevator!


Julia's a tiger!


Mommy and James

For the sixth time in two years we bid on a house, but this time it's accepted! (It's not a good sign when you ask your realtor if any of her clients have taken longer to buy a house and she just hems and haws without actually answering.) With a house the babies won't have to sleep in dresser drawers in our apartment anymore. Actually that's not quite true - we did finally buy a crib for James earlier this month. Which means Julia is upgraded from the bassinet to the Pack N Play. (At first we try putting them both in the crib for several days, and it's cute how they rotate until their feet touch in the middle of the crib. Then once in the middle of the night I notice that James has rotated so his head is next to her feet. After that I declare separate sleeping quarters.) In other personal news I get a blocked milk duct and discover it's very painful.


James, making a guest appearance in Julia's bassinet. He's outgrew his bassinet and his pajamas.


James can't contain his excitement about the new infant carrier.


"Nobody puts ME in a corner!"


Julia, for once, excited to see her brother

James sits for the first time on 4/13 when Mark props him up (he probably could have done this earlier but we didn't try). James starts mouthing everything this month (not just his fist) and Julia starts a few weeks later. Mid-month Grandma and I try to put the babies on a schedule, or at least figure out what their schedule is. They follow a naptime schedule pretty well (10:30 a.m., 2 p.m., and 5 p.m. for 20 minutes each) but feedings are all over the place every 2 1/2 to 3 hours based on when they wake up, which can vary from 4 a.m. to 6:30 a.m. Both babies go through a mid-month growth spurt involving eating more food, more hibernation, and more fussiness. James likes to put his hands on his bottle while being fed so on 4/14 I let go and am impressed as he feeds himself unassisted for 1 minute. (He could've gone longer but the bottle drooped just slightly so I took over.) Julia has been making noises that sound like "hi" and okay" since the beginning of the month. She also likes making the "k" sound (Grandma taught her to k-k-k-kick), and Julia is delighted when I repeat the "k" sound back to her like I understand her. Mid-month Julia starts sitting up unassisted where she pulls herself up to sitting from her reclined position in the Boppy pillow. Both babies prefer to be held facing out so they can see the world and starting 4/17, put their arms out to be picked up, especially James.


James sits by himself for the first time.


"Move aside. My turn."

Julia's a little French girl!

We have a car seat arch that includes a pinwheel that turns if the ball attached to it is pulled down. The problem is the ball is too hard for a young baby to grasp, so since mid-April we've been putting our hand on top of the ball and then James pushes down on our hand to make the pinwheel spin. My friend Leslie, who is a day care teacher, often comes over to play with the babies and tells me that according to the books, babies learn this sort of cause and effect stuff at 4-9 months (and of course James arrived a month early so his gestational age is younger). This is interesting since at 2 months James also figured out the vibrating activity chair (when hanging animals are hit, music and lights come on). Leslie's also impressed that both babies can hold toys and have done so for awhile. (Just a note: I don't write these things to brag, but one day the twins will read these monthly updates and they'll be interested to know this stuff. Also, my kids are better than your kids.)

Julia in the vibrating activity chair with a diaper on her head. I'm not sure what went on here but I blame Mark.


James makes sure Julia knows who's in charge.


Julia's blue period

I notice when James turns four months that his brow turns red when upset or sleepy - it usually means he'll get cranky in five minutes. It's a good poker tell for Mommy. He also has peach fuzz growing in on top so he looks less like he has male pattern baldness. I usually can get Julia to stop crying by smiling and singing her favorite song, "Let's All Sing Like the Birdies Sing" (from The Tiki Room). James's favorite song is "Bicycle Race" which I sing while pumping his legs like he's riding a bike, and "Here We Go a Diaperin'". Mark dances with Music Duck and James tries to join in and moves his arms and legs. James loves books so much he wants to hold them himself and then cries when we close them.


All done!


Our strawberry girl


You can see James's head's peach fuzz growing in as he preps for his role in his next movie, "Crouching Tiger, Hidden James."