six months (we're little, but we're sweet)

Annamaria
Eloise
"Good twin/bad twin" has been a total team effort this month on the part of our girls. I swear, it's as if they chat before each nap and each night to decide which one will wake up early -- it's never the same one, but then again it's always one or the other. They just take turns.

Annamaria (L) Eloise (R)
This month has seen great improvements in their sleep, though! One of the biggest changes is that I can now put them in their cribs awake and they'll fall asleep on their own, usually in 15 minutes or less. Also, we've moved towards napping at regular times: 9 am and 1 pm, roughly, with a third nap sometimes depending on the length of the others. Also, about half the time they're awake, but happy and not crying when I go in their room in the morning. That's the greatest -- lots of smiling and kicking and all around general merriment.

Our girls on the deck, with Mt. Rainier in the background.
An unusually sunny day!
Both girls are still exclusively breastfed -- a feat I'm proud of! I realized this week that weaning these two will take me quite some time, as supplying two babies with milk means that it'll take awhile to adjust every time we drop a feeding. I'm planning/hoping to make it to a year. So far, neither girl has been sick, and although a lot of that I'm sure is from being at home all the time, I like to take a little credit too for all those antibodies I'm shoving in.

Annamaria
Annamaria is rolling over onto her front as of Tuesday of this week, and once she figured it out she's doing a whole lot of it! One of her teeth on the bottom is SO close to popping out, but hasn't officially shown itself yet. She finally figured out about a week ago that she should open her mouth when a spoon of food comes her way; she still gets lots of squash or cereal all over her chin from spitting it right back out but seems to enjoy the process. She's very much our tiny girl. Yesterday at the doctor's she weighed in at 11#, still not on the growth chart. Her rate of growth for her head circumference sped up, though. For once, she was the calmer one yesterday... Eloise cried pretty much the whole time we were there, while Annamaria only fussed on the scale and screamed when she got her shots.

Annamaria

Eloise
Eloise is all over the place and quite the strong one now. She rolls over and squirms all around and certainly isn't one to sit still. She was 12# 12 oz yesterday, hanging steady at the 5th percentile. Her length is now between the 25th and 50th, though! She loves eating and is much more interested in watching us at meals now that she's got the food-on-a-spoon thing figured out.

Eloise
Both babies have been happy and content for the most part this month. I love that they're more predictable. Two fun games they've learned are: to pull the other twin's pacifier out of her mouth when they're both on someone's lap, and to stick a hand up in my mouth and grab at a lip (apparently that one's pretty funny -- it always makes them laugh.) There was a phase where they giggled every time we sang the Star Wars theme, so Simeon was often heard saying, "Hey Mama, sing that great star wars song!" They love their exersaucers now, and are so much more alert and distractable (not necessarily a good thing when it's time to nurse or go to sleep.) They've both discovered their feet and love to nibble on them and play with them. As always, though, I think Simeon is their favorite person. He's pleased as punch to have a constant audience, and they are big fans of his silly antics and bushels of attention. I can't believe it's been half a year!