Great Things About Having Twins

As hard as it is some days with juggling two babies who want the same things at the same times there are also so many great things that I enjoy by having twins. Such as...

- They truly LOVE each other. They are always looking for each other when they are playing or in a room. And once their eyes meet, instant smiles which leads to big giggles.
- They play peek a boo with each other in their cribs after naptime and when they wake up in the morning. I will walk into their rooms on some days and see one or the other popping their head up from their bumper and the other one cracking up at this.
- They learn from each other. Whatever one of them is doing the other HAS to do. Aubrey is now almost crawling and Anthony is trying so hard. Now that they are standing and holding on to things for support the other has to be standing too or they will start whining & crying.
- They can be so different, which is just what I need at times. Usually Anthony will be super cuddly and Aubrey will be showing her independent side by playing with something on her own. Then they will switch modes and Aubrey will come over to cuddle while Anthony goes off to start banging and beating up some poor helpless toy.

And the best part...
There is always one baby for me to cuddle with and one baby for Marc to cuddle with :)

I am sure when I go to post this next year, I may have different views and it may be more like begging for someone to help me with catching two toddlers running in different directions ;)

A little preview for Halloween

I am not telling what they will be but here is a little preview for Halloween...

Anthony


Aubrey

Expansion of Baby Jail

When we had created the baby jail, I had always known it would need to grow and get bigger as the twins became more mobile and adventurous. I had always thought that it would only take up a little more space or worse case, Marc would lose his office, a.k.a. Man Cave, and the rest of the house would stay intact. Boy was a I wrong.

Both Anthony and Aubrey were rolling from one side to the other in a few seconds and thus rolling into each other and beginning to pull each other's hair, bite each other's body parts and basically making each other cry (are you getting the picture of what is to come for me in a few years or even scarier to think about - their teen years and fights over the car keys). So I knew it was time to grow and I began my expansion. I really tried many options of putting it in different area's of the house - including the bathroom and kitchen - and trying to avoid the inevitable. Well the inevitable came to be and I have lost my living room.

Back before the babies were here, we had a beautiful 5-piece brown Italian leather sectional sofa, bought a big screen TV, had a sweet surround sound system hooked up, had an Xbox and Wii set-up with in our living room. Can you tell how much I love my living room. It was the one room I put a lot of love into and was a true reflection of Marc and I. The room was minimal with furniture but everything in there was of good quality. Well that room is gone. Now my couch is being used to hold piles of toys and is surrounded by gates that create Cell Block A&A. My TV which used to play all of the new releases now has either Sesame Street, Yo Gabba Gabba (don't get me started on this show) or some other Nick Jr show on.

Hopefully this will help my husband realize how much we need to move into a bigger house - and if that is the case, Aubrey & Anthony will be getting a present from Mommy ;)

8 Months and Counting...

I want to start off by saying Happy 8 Months Aubrey & Anthony!! My fearless twosome celebrated turning 8 months on Monday, September 28th and are now working on turning 9 months. I can't believe how big my babies are getting and how much they have changed in the past few months.

My little girl has really been blossoming. Last time I posted, I listed all of the words she started to say. Well she also added the word UP to her vocabulary and is starting to grasp the meaning of up. If I ask her if she wants to come up, she will put her hands up to me and sometimes will mouth the word. She also made her greatest achievement last week - she called me MAMA. I kept walking in and out of the room because I wasn't sure if she did it intentionally but she did :)

Aubrey has also started a new habit of speaking very loudly. She yells and poor Anthony is not used to it so it upsets him and he starts to cry because he thinks she is upset. She has been turning into my tough girl and he has been turning into Mr. Sensitive. Because of this, don't think Anthony doesn't give her crap back. Their new thing is that when they are on the floor playing they have to be near each other. So Aubrey will start to pull his ear and they crack up at that and then she starts to touch his mouth which makes him bite down and the tears start to fall. I can say from experience that his little teeth are sharp and really hurt. I am happy they are not in daycare because we would be kicked out for him biting.

Anthony is turning into quite the momma's boy lately. He has started to get separation anxiety. He isn't so bad with it when Marc is home because he stops after a minute but if Marc isn't there to distract him he will keep crying and whining until I come back - no matter who is there. It may sound cute that your little boy wants you to be with him 24/7 but a girl's gotta pee some time ;)

My mush is also starting to get on all fours and rock back and forth but hasn't figured out how to move his hands and legs into a crawl. So now he will get up on all fours and rock and when I put a toy, or my phone, or the remote out of reach to entice him to go get it he quickly plops down and does his army crawl. It is like watching him swim on he floor...lol

Exciting Weekend

Anthony's Kisses
My little guy is super cuddly and loves to blow kisses. However Anthony has his own way of kissing and it is the cutest thing. Imagine yourself puckering up to give a kiss and then slip your tongue between your lips as you make the kissing motion/sound and this is what Anthony does. He is so cute about it because this huge grin crawls across his face right before he does it and he eyse light up as he watches for your reaction and he will give you about 5 kisses in a row before he starts laughing at the excitement. That is my sweet, little boy.

Aubrey's Exciting Weekend
So you know my little girl has just sprouted her first teeth and said her first word. Well she has done a bunch of firsts from this past Thursday - today. Let's recap...

Thursday - Said her first word...baba
Friday - Sprouted her first two teeth
Saturday - Said MAMA for the first time (I melted and Marc was in the room to confirm she said it)
Sunday Night - Around 10:30pm, she woke up and started moving all around her crib and was making these little cooing & moaning noises. I went in to check on her and she gets on all fours and starts rocking back and forth so I left her in her crib. I am then watching her on the monitor and in a matter of 30 seconds, she starts to CRAWL in her crib and then put herself in a SITTING position and then flopped back down on the bed. She has not crawled or got herself into a sitting position yet. I was in shock and Marc said I am in for an interesting week with her. I guess we really need to finish baby-proofing the house.
This Morning - She added some new words to her vocabulary. She said Mom :) And only said da (not dada) so we aren't counting that one until daddy hears dada.

My girl doesn't just do one thing she does a series of new things at one time.

Aubrey's Firsts

So this has been a great week for my little girl. Yesterday she said her first word - or sound... BaBa. So since yesterday she is saying baba non stop all day long. It is the cutest thing and I have been trying to show her the bottle everytime she says it. So far she thinks I am crazy.

For all those that know my little girl, they now she can be very stubborn and tight lipped. She rarely lets you feel her gums. I am constantly fighting her to get my finger in her tiny mouth to put the orajel in when she is teething badly. I have been joking that when she gets her first tooth, I won't know for at least a week because she won't let you feel her gums or look at them. Well yesterday I had felt her gums and nothing was there but today I felt not one but TWO teeth breaking through. My little girl has TWO TEETH. Her two bottom teeth are coming in and maybe one day we will see them because she still will not let you look at them.

Day in the Park

How sad is it that I JUST found a tiny little park that is 4 blocks from my house. Normally when I take the kids for a walk in our development, I always turn left at the end of the road. For some reason the other day I turned right and as soon as I turned the corner I found this tiny little park that has (2) baby swings, (2) big kid swings, a small jungle gym and a slide for bigger kids and for smaller kids. Plus the greatest part is that it is completely shaded with these huge trees all around it. The park is actually part of the next development but I'll just pretend that I am part of the development if confronted ;)

Marc and I had taken the babies on the swings during the summer at another park and they liked it but both of them were more interested in biting the swing and you can all imagine the gross factor involved in that. There was no amount of distraction we could to get them to stop trying to bite it so we kind of gave up on the park.

Well today, it was cloudy and cool out so I took them for a walk to the park and put them in the swings and they LOVED it. I happened to have Anthony's superman shirt on and you can see it as he is on the swing with a big ol' grin. I can't remember the last time I have seen Aubrey this excited and happy. She was full of smiles and cute little excited faces as I pushed her. After dealing with Anthony not sleeping well at night this week, I really needed this. This has brightened up my whole week and reminded me how lucky I am to be a stay at home mom to these two amazing little babies :)