(Sorry for the delayed post… Easter and life in general got in the way!)
Just one month to go until we reach the one-year milestone! These past few months have been manic and have actually flown by.
Here’s the summary of the last month.
Feeding.
Not much has changed in the last month in this respect. They still eat pretty much the same kind of food, although we’re trying to increase the quantities. They’re getting bigger, so their portions have to get bigger too! In the last couple of days Eric has been struggling a bit with “real food” (aka, not mashed food) as he is teething and anything that requires any effort from him, he turns his nose to it… Elisa is still eating beautifully. Tonight, for example, we had steak, mash potatoes, carrot and broccoli, and where Elisa was eating everything, Eric only ate the mash and some of the broccoli (but don’t worry, his steak didn’t go to waste… a little ginger furry friend had a little treat)
Their favourite foods at the moment are: cheese and broccoli, fish fingers (although I eat the breadcrumbs, they only eat the fish), roasted vegetables, oranges, pineapple, mango, melon (actually, all fruit), and fromage frais. They are also drinking water much better now. We struggled for a bit with water. Although they took quite well to the doidy cup, most of the time they would just blow bubbles into the water, or just throw the cup around (and hence getting very wet and not drinking that much in the end), so we have gone back to sippy cups (this type) and they are doing great. They still just want to play with it sometimes, but the water flow is a bit more contained 🙂
We are changing our routine a bit to help bedtime (more details below) and now we all have dinner together at about 6pm. Jon and I always have dinner together at the table (we very rarely eat in front of the TV, only when having takeaway) so now the kids eat with us and this is becoming our new family tradition. So far so good – ish. As I said above, Eric has been struggling a bit lately with real food, so it can be a bit stressful to try to eat your dinner whilst having a baby next to you throwing his food around and not eating anything…
We have now determined that it is almost impossible to feed them without high chairs (or equivalent). We have been to friends’ houses and tried feeding them while we were holding them on our knees and it is just so hard! Eric is a bit more complacent but Elisa needs to reach for everything and touch it all! And trying to feed both of them on your own when they are loose on the floor does not work either. Not when they are proficient crawlers and really curious babies.
Sleeping.
Oh. My. God. This has been hell in the last few weeks. Actually, let me correct that: Sleeping has not been too bad, it’s putting them to bed that has become a nightmare.
It all started when British Summer Time started and the clocks went forward. Their own body clocks must have changed too, because suddenly, trying to keep the same bedtime routine didn’t work. For a few days we kept trying just in case they just needed readjusting, but no luck. So we made makeshift blinds to keep the sun out, but this did not work too well either (we have now ordered custom made blackout blinds which are due to be delivered any day). So our new routine goes as follows.
They have a nap between 3 and 4 (some days they even sleep until 4:30) and when they wake up I give them a snack. Normally half a rusk each with a tiny bit of peanut butter thinly spread (honestly, only a tiny bit to give it a bit of flavour) and a few sips of water. Then they keep playing as normal until we all have dinner together at 6pm. It would take me and Jon around 20 minutes to have dinner, however feeding the kids at the same time makes it a more lengthy process and we don’t finish until about 6:45. Then they have a bath and we take them to our bed for their bedtime bottle. This normally happens around 7:15 and if things go right, by 8pm Jon and I are downstairs ready to enjoy our evening. (I say “if things go right” because they don’t always do. Today, for instance, when we were ready to take them to their cots, Eric started screaming!, and when I tried to settle him and gave Elisa to Jon, then Elisa started screaming!)
At least they are (mostly) sleeping through the night. Eric has been teething a lot lately, so he has ended on our bed a couple of times. I have been lent a book called “the no-cry sleep solution” but haven’t started reading it. I must, because this routine that we have can’t work long term. I wonder if it’ll work with twins, though. A lot of people online advise that you let them cry, assuring me that they won’t wake each other. But I KNOW that they would wake each other if one is crying for 5 minutes. It’s not worth the risk.
Development.
Wow, Eric is really giving Elisa a run for her money! She was the first one to crawl and to stand up, but now Eric does all of that but even better! He even holds his balance for quite a few seconds… so sweet… The funny thing is that sometimes he does it unaware and he may be holding a toy and looking at it, and not be aware that he is standing on his own. When you try to make him do it, he won’t. Or won’t hold the balance for more than a second or two. Elisa can also do this too, but nowhere near as good as Eric.
However, we were recently given a walker (similar to the one I mentioned on my last post, but the wheels on this one are stiffer which makes it harder to push, but it’s much better for the stage that the twins are at at the moment) and Elisa absolutely LOVES walking with it, and she’s so good at it too! Eric, though, tumbles and falls to his knees a lot when trying to walk with it… He’ll get there eventually, and then there will be no stopping him!!
Climbing stairs is next on the list. Eric is getting so good at it! We bought a stairgate, however, due to the way our staircase (and the banister more specifically) is built we couldn’t fit it! Basically the banister is lower than the top of the stairgate, where you would have to screw it to the wall, so it won’t go! So until we find another solution, we have no protection. I let them run loose between the living room and the hallway, but when they go into the hallway to play I have to sit down on the stairs so they don’t go up. Elisa has in the last couple of days also started to climb the stairs, but as she is shorter than Eric it is a bit harder for her.
I must mention that going UP the stairs is easy peasy. Coming DOWN, however, is still an unknown concept for them, so I must make sure that I am there every time as they would just tumble down!
Their personalities are showing so much now.
Eric.
Eric is happy all the time. He entertains himself very easily. He is attracted to anything that spells t-e-c-h-n-o-l-o-g-y. So the phone, the laptops, the TV, the remotes, the iPad… all are like gold for him. He can be happily chewing on a piece of paper a few metres away from you, but the moment you take out your laptop for like a split second, he’s there, banging on the keyboard. He likes to play on his own most of the time, but sometimes he wants attention. And how does he get attention? By banging on the TV! And I look at him and very seriously tell him “NO”, but he looks at me and laughs! And he does it again… Which tells me that he’s only doing it for the attention. From time to time he crawls up to my legs and wants me to hold him and he gives me the sweetest hugs! They are proper arm-around-my-neck hugs. <3
Elisa.
She’s a happy girl too, but she doesn’t show it as much as Eric. Eric is a free-smiler. You have to work a bit harder at her to smile. But when she does… oh my, the most beautiful smile brightens the room. She is also happy to play either on her own or with Eric, however she needs me to be around. She looks back at me all the time for reassurance and needs holding and cuddling more often than Eric. She is very curious and when she investigates a new toy or anything else, she is more intense in her examination.
Actually, they are both very curious. Their new favourite activity is to sit at the threshold of the front door (with the door wide open, obviously). They attempt to crawl outside most of the time so I have to keep bringing them in, but they just love looking out and really stare at anything going past (be it a car, a bike, people walking their dogs, whatever). If they are cranky or I notice that they’re getting bored, I go and open the front door and both of them light up! Eric even makes a squealing happy noise… so damn cute…
They now also brush their teeth at bathtime. I know I’ve waited a long time, but it’s one of those things that I didn’t think were absolutely essential. So I bought two tiny toothbrushes and baby toothpaste and offered them whilst they were in the bath. Elisa caught the gist very quickly after doing it for her the first time. Now she takes the toothbrush and she does it herself (off a fashion, but good enough). Eric, on the other hand, wasn’t so keen at the beginning and was refusing to even put it in his mouth. After a few days, he is happier now and has started to do it on his own.
Socialising.
Not too bad in this respect, much better than before. We have managed to go to messy play, to soft play a few times, to a couple of friends’ houses and even managed two birthday parties! But as I was saying the previous time, taking them somewhere where they need to stay in the pushchair is hell for them. They’ve got so much energy that they just want to crawl and play! I still take them for walks around the neighbourhood very often, but what I do these days is to try to time the walk with their afternoon nap so they’ll sleep in the pushchair.
Taking them places is getting easier (like someone’s house or soft play) as they are not so shy anymore. They still take a few minutes to get used to wherever we are, but after those initial moments they get going! Something I’ve noticed now too is that Eric doesn’t seem to cry when other children are crying, which is good!
Something that may help them socialise a bit more is taking them to a childminder or nursery. There is a chance that I will get a part time job soon (only a couple of days a week) and they will need to go to some sort of childcare. This will also help them to detach themselves from me a bit, as they are going through a very mummy-centred period. Whereas Jon was able to settle them back to sleep when they woke up in the middle on the night, now they only want mummy. They also only want mummy during the day on many occasions, so it is getting a tiny bit tiring. Mummy needs a rest too.
But we’ll see if the job arrives or not…
Health.
Oh well. The big item here is that they both had either gastroenteritis or norovirus (unsure which one, even if one of those!). But yeah, at the end of last month they both fell ill with very high temperatures, lots of vomiting and diarrhoea. Actually, Elisa got it the worse. She was vomiting and with bad diarrhoea for a good three days. Eric only vomited once and his poo was nowhere near as bad.
My theory is that the got it off the soft play. They touch everything and lick & chew on all the toys, so they are likely to catch a nasty bug or virus from time to time. It hasn’t stopped me from taking them to soft play again, though. We need to build up their immune system!
They are also still teething. Eric has been teething for quite a while, but now Elisa is too! Eric has got four teeth and two top ones coming out, and Elisa has only got two (bottom ones) and one of the top ones coming out. I can’t wait until they both have a mouth full of teeth, as this teething business is a pain in the back!
And, for another month, I haven’t taken them to the weigh in clinic. I can’t believe I keep missing it! I should make more of an effort.. although it’s not like it matters. A couple of my NCT friends have not taken their babies to be weighed since they were about 6 months old!
I also have an appointment with the health visitor for their 8-12 month check up. I thought that this would be done by the GP, like the 6 week check up, but I asked at my surgery and they said to contact the health visitor. My appointment is for May 13th (three days before their 1 year birthday!). And after that, the next batch of vaccine!
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So yeah, next update will be after their birthday. We’re having a small party planned for the family. My mum and my niece will come for a few days, and Jon’s family are also coming down for the day. We’re not doing anything special, but we’re hoping that the weather will be nice so we can have a BBQ. The plans also involve Jon and I baking two cakes! That could be fun…..
Enjoying the front door
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