Days Fly By

New Skills

Dominic now claps, and Alex waves with his right hand. They both enjoy dancing to music, and they continue to improve their crawling and wall-walking (walking while holding onto the wall of their Playzone or the side of their cribs). They’ve started crawling and climbing over obstacles, and they enjoy pushing themselves up to stand. They are babbling like crazy these days, and they are just so cute. The Twin-Daddy and I often find ourselves looking at each other and rejoicing in the miracle of our two little boys. We still find it amazing that we had identical twins, and we feel so very fortunate to have them in our lives.

Developmental Appointment

We had a follow-up appointment to check on how our boys are developing this past Wednesday. Most babies don’t have this type of follow-up; it’s primarily for NICU babies, and our little guys did well – testing right on target for their birth age. Considering they were born almost 6 weeks early, that means they are doing very well. Both Dom and Alex moved a block from one hand to the other, pulled the string to get to the toy on the end, pulled over the wash cloth to get to the colorful duck sitting on the far side of it, looked when a toy was dropped to the floor, and investigated when a bell was rung under the table.

Alex was a bit more talkative and answered to his name, while Dom didn’t pay attention when she called his name and talked less (even though he’s normally Mr. Gabby). They both showed off their crawling, sitting and standing skills. We were given advice on how to help them continue to stay flexible and build their muscles. One of the big pieces of advice was to not try to help them walk by holding their hands. Apparently that can hinder them strengthening all the muscles they need to walk well on their own.

Both boys are 27 3/8 inches long, and we also got their weights:

• Dominic: 18 lbs. 14 oz. (8.55 kg)
• Alexander: 19 lbs. (8.6 kg)

Food

The current favorite food is peas. Carrots come in second. They’ve started to warm up a bit to homemade applesauce, and I’m planning to add pears as their next new food.

The Dreaded Cold

It’s been awhile since we last posted, and the days have been passing in a bit of a blur. Two weekends ago an evil cold hit all the boys of the household. (Surprisingly, the cold skipped me, but I’ve been dragging for the last two weeks with allergies.) The Twin-Daddy valiantly held down the fort on Saturday while I worked on my dissertation, but that night the boys had lots of trouble sleeping. The Twin-Daddy let me sleep in to make up for lost sleep, but when I got up, he was looking frayed around the edges. So it was a double-parent day with our boys, and I tried to give the Twin-Daddy some down-time to rest. My guys were all still feeling yucky on Monday, and we had another day of groggy, slightly fussy boys.

During the worst of the congestion at night, the boys took turns sleeping in the recliner on Mama, so they could breathe a bit easier. Alex absolutely hates to have his nose wiped, but Dom is generally more indifferent. They both hate when Mama uses saline to help clear up their breathing. They still have runny noses, poor little fellas.

Teeth

Since last we wrote, the boys have added a few teeth. Just this morning I discovered a new bottom tooth on Dom (that might partially explain his difficulty sleeping last night). That brings him up to 3 bottom teeth and 3 top ones. It looks like his last upper front tooth might be on the verge of breaking through too. I believe Alex has 2 bottom teeth and 3 top ones right now, but neither boy likes for us to check their upper teeth.

With runny noses and teething for the boys and allergies for me, the last couple of weeks have been difficult. I’ve been going to bed early due to allergy-induced exhaustion, but the boys’ sleeping has been pretty disrupted. I’m so lucky to have a partner to pick up the slack. There was one day when Puck got home, and I asked him to take the boys out. I just wanted some quiet time alone at home. He packed the boys up and headed off. They had a nice time walking around a book store and getting lots of attention, and I had some blissful time to myself.