Pigtails

Aubrey has a nice head of hair for a 9 month old so I decided to see what I could do with it besides put it in a clip or head band. On Saturday after seeing Santa she let me play around with her hair and here is her first set of pigtails. I think she looks like Cindy Who from A Grinch Stole Christmas...

First Visit with Santa

Aubrey and Anthony met Santa for the first time yesterday and they LOVED him! We really thought we were going to get the hysterically crying babies photo with Santa, especially since they have both been very hesitant around anyone that is not mom and dad. Both of them loved sitting on Santa's lap and also staring up at him and hos big white beard.

We should have gotten better photo's but the mall photo guy took the photo's after they were smiling and after they were both looking at Santa. But overall I am so happy how their photo's came out :) Here are the 3 photo's we got...

We Are Doomed...

Marc has been off this past week and this is the week my little tiny babies turned into very mobile babies. They had figured out how to pull themselves into a kneeling position not to long ago but a little over a week ago they both figured out how to stand and it has not stopped since then. They can pull themselves up on anything. Nothing is safe in this house.

Besides standing they have both figured out how to cruise and Aubrey is now being more adventurous when she hits corners of holding on with one hand to the gate and then using the other hand to reach for something and pulling herself over there. Talk about scary... I am thinking of asking my doctor for a script for xanax because I am afraid of what is to come in a few months.

Our nice, safe baby jail is not so safe anymore. We can't keep anything on the couch because they can reach everything on there and they are both trying to figure out how to climb onto the couch. Once they figure that out we are in big trouble. We had done light baby-proofing in the house because we had set up the baby jail and figured we had tons of time until the whole house needed to be baby-proofed but we learned this week that the baby jail isn't going to last as long as we thought it would. So now I am making lots of list of stuff to buy and more lists of what furniture needs to be moved out of certain rooms.

As scary as this all is, it has also turned our little tiny babies into babies with personalities. They babble to us and each other. Anthony calls for me and the other night when he woke up and had fussed a little, I was sitting in my room listening to the monitor to see if he was really up or just moving around and then he called out "Mum.......Mum" because I wasn't in there yet. Sweetest moment ever. Marc has become the fun parent. As soon as he enters the room the two of them get so happy and have insta-grins and start giggling. As scary as it is with them starting to become so much more mobile I am really loving this age.

I am Spent

After last night and today, I am spent. Today brought back all of those fuzzy memories from when Anthony & Aubrey were newborns.

We had big plans for today. The wonderful cleaning people were coming so I was planning on getting up at 5:30am so I could shower before Marc got up and showered. Then I was going to feed and dress the kids and then we were going to run lots of errand while the wonderful cleaning people cleaned my house. Well NONE of those things happened with the exception of feeding and dressing the babies. My out and about day was ruined before it even started.

Anthony had a rough night and woke me up almost every hour last night. He needed his binky and his mommy to rub his back for 10 minutes. I finally asked Marc to get up around 4:30 because I was so exhausted but he only wanted his mommy - and that is not an awe moment. So once 5:30 rolled around I was exhausted and took advantage of sleeping for a little longer which then turned into the babies waking up and no shower for me.

After the no shower, I figured we can still run all of our errands because I was looking forward to having the wonderful cleaning people come and make my house all nice and shiny - even if that meant embarrassing my children by being a stanky, grimy person while we did it. I mean I spent all day Thursday straightening up the house just so the wonderful cleaning people can come. So I fed the kids breakfast and finished up some last minute tidying because I don't want the wonderful cleaning people to think I am a slob. Then all hell broke loose.

Aubrey has been fussing really badly because her two top teeth are coming. Well today she took it the next level. After her bottle, I noticed she was unusually tired so I figured we could put our plans on hold for a little bit so she could get a small morning nap in. After I bring the babies upstairs and dress them I put Anthony in his crib so I can tend to Aubrey. Aubrey started to cry this cry that I have never heard before. You can tell it is a cry saying that she is in pain and she is now crying hysterically. She did this for over an hour. It was the saddest thing and I could do NOTHING to comfort her. Finally, I had to pin her down on the changing table and shove the orajel on her gums and then pry open her mouth and give her some tylenol. After this, she finally settled down about 30 minutes later and passed out. It really was so bad. I was waiting for her head to twist around (think Exorcist) because I have never experienced crying like that. As horrible as I felt, it took every ounce of patience that I didn't even know I had to try and console her.

So now you are probably thinking, well at least those wonderful cleaning people you keep mentioning are still coming by to make your house clean. Let me stop you there. I was so worried about Aubrey because she has never been like this before and I honestly was thinking she would wake up any minute and start crying like that again that I would either have to take her to the pediatrician or to the ER (remember, I am a first-time mom...I am allowed to freak out with thoughts like this) that I had to CANCEL the wonderful cleaning people. And the kicker is that they still CHARGED ME. Now I have to scrub my own house and they get paid for doing nothing. AND Aubrey woke up all smiles. They will now be referred to the not-so-wonderful-cleaning-people. I truly am spent.

9 Months

Yay for mommy & daddy surviving another month with Aubrey and Anthony! That is actually wrong of me to say because these two are so much fun and we fall more in love with them everyday :)

What does 9 months mean for Aubrey and Anthony... I am gonna recap what both of them are now doing

Teeth
Aubrey has two bottom teeth
Anthony has 6 teeth - 4 on top and 2 on the bottom (and they are sharp!)

Mobility
Both of them can pull themselves up to a kneeling position and Aubrey is so close to pulling up into a standing position. Both of their cribs are at the lowest position now. They both can sit, crawl and stand.

Personalities
Aubrey has really blossomed this month. She is still my serious one but she has started to laugh and smile so much more. She is turning into my photogenic baby and will put on a huge grin as soon as she sees a camera. I think she learned that from her cousin Kristin.
Anthony is still my mush. Cuddling, snuggling and laughing are still his most favorite things to do. And he always knows just what to do to put a smile on his parents face.

Favorites
Right now the two of them LOVE Yo Gabba Gabba. As soon as they hear the theme from the show and see DJ Lance, Muno, Foofa, Brobbie, Tutti or Plex they start smiling and bouncing. I thought I would be anti tv until they were at least 2 but we caught this show by accident one afternoon and they got so excited. So now we watch about 15 minutes of the show during each bottle - it's our guilty pleasure in life ;) Both of them love to play with Sulley. They love to stick their hands out of their crib or the baby jail and have Sulley come over and lick their fingers.

We also had our 9 Month Well Baby Visit and they are still huge!

Aubrey
Height: 28" (68th %)
Weight: 20lbs 2oz (74th %)
Head: 45cm (80th %)

Anthony
Height: 29" (76th %)
Weight: 21lbs 7oz (66th %)
Head: 44cm (16th %)

First Halloween

I love fall! Fall always means the start to the fun holidays like Halloween and Thanksgiving and then that leads you into the winter for Christmas, New Years and now I can add the best day to celebrate in the winter which is Aubrey & Anthony's birthday.

I debated a lot about what the babies should be for their fist Halloween and went through so many ideas like Thing 1 & Thing 2, Nemo & Dory, Superman & Wonderwoman, etc... But in the end I had decided on Raggedy Ann & Raggedy Andy. I ordered the costumes and they were so cute but looked big for the size I ordered them in. Well I tried the costumes on them on Thursday and they hated them. They were trying to rip it off as I was putting it on and I couldn't even get a picture of the because they were trying to get it off so I then had to look for another costume on Friday, the day before Halloween. Luckily my Aunt had given me a duck costume and it fit both of them so I only needed to find another costume and found one for $6 at Children's Place. So my two ended up being a duck and a giraffe. Not exactly a cute twins theme BUT they looked adorable!

So yesterday as we were dressing them up, we decided to see about getting the Raggedy Ann & Raggedy Andy costumes to at least got a pic and they obliged us :) But between the hats and the oversized costume we knew they wouldn't be comfortable enough to stay in it for long and then we changed into our duck & giraffe and went off to the mall. They had such a great time at the mall. I think they enjoyed the attention more then looking at other kids costumes - that must be the Marc-sized ego in them ;) We hung out, had some lunch, did some shopping for winter coats for them and then came home and called it a day. Since we must have been gone during peak trick-or-treating time we didn't get any trick or treaters and nw I have a HUGE bowl of candy in my house which is not good! Overall a great first Halloween!

Almost Standing

My little girl is really so great at figuring things out. If you watch her, you can see her little mind working and paying attention to everything trying to figure out how things work. She is big on studying and paying close attention before ever doing something. Now Anthony will just jump right into something and try to figure it out as he does it. Sometimes we call Anthony "Aubrey's Guinea Pig" because he will try to do something and Aubrey will watch him fail at it a few times and then she does it perfectly. Because of this we rarely know when she is about to hit a milestone like rolling, sitting, etc...

Lately the two of them have been LOVING standing and holding onto things. They are starting to fuss now if I don't put them in the standing position or if I have to leave the room and do something like peeing because then they have to sit and play on their own for a few minutes. I have been trying to work with the two of them to show them ow to stand and trying to goat them into it by putting things like the remote, keys, & phones on the top of the couch to see if they can get up to it. Anthony has been trying like a mad man to get up but hasn't had any success yet. But in the corner is little missy watching intently. Then this weekend as they were playing with a toy Aubrey leaned on it and put herself onto her knees in a standing/praying position.

Yesterday as I was changing little guy or I should be saying wrestling with him to clean his little booty and get a diaper on, I look over at Aubrey and she pulls herself into the kneeling position and up pop's her little head. We have the mattress in the crib set to the middle setting and haven't gone to the lowest yet because neither can pull themselves up so I freaked when I saw this because she could easily lean over and fall out. I grabbed Anthony in one arm and then grabbed Aubrey out of the crib (it's not as easy as it sounds with two 20++ pound babies and only two arms). I then had to go back to wrestling Anthony with only one arm to get the diaper on and was holding Aubrey on my hip. People with only one baby have no clue what mom's of twins or more go through for simple things like trying to change a diaper...lol

So now my daughter can get herself up to her knee's and has been trying her damndest to get into a full standing position every opportunity she gets when she is on the floor in Baby Jail. And she is so close!! We have to wait until tomorrow when Marc is off of work to put the crib lower. So between now and tomorrow I am staring at the monitor during naps and at bedtime. Lord, I think I am gonna need a drink tonight.