Owen & Anson at 6 months

Owen & Anson

My heart explodes with joy when I look at these sweet boys together! How six months have passed since we first held them in our arms I do not know! We are thankful each & every day that they are part of our family.  Each month seems to go by more quickly than the last but I do feel like we are truly enjoying the baby stage with these two.  I am over a week late on writing this post & I feel like they have already changed since the official 6 month birthday! Let's get right down to business...

OWEN

Stats:

11 pounds 9 ounces

24 inches long

Size 2 diapers, 3 month clothing

Owen, our born to be mild child when it comes to his interests/disinterests in activities is also commonly called "little lion man" due to his voracious scream when he is really angry. Most of the time though he is easy going, paying attention to what is going on around him & just melts your heart with his grin & squeal when you start to talk to him.  O has completed a few consecutive rolls recently to get somewhere, can "tripod" sit with his arms in front, can hold himself in a sitting position really well in the high chair, grabs toys faster than lightening & puts everything in his mouth including those delicious fingers : ) He is officially all caught up on milestones for being a month early!

Owee is still the little guy but only by a pound & a half now....catching up slowly but surely! At their six month check up last week, they weighed in & were measured.  The results showed that both boys fell off their individual growth curves.  Can I say I love our pediatrician. She is SO supportive of breastfeeding & immediately jumped to making sure I was taking care of myself by eating enough calories a day (around 2,500 for nursing twins), drinking enough water & getting enough rest. Well, those are all hard to do in one day but I assured her that I had taken in enough calories for a few days the night before when I ate almost an entire large pizza, 3 slices in the car on the way home from Dominos. Sometimes I just feel hungry! So, I am trying to eat & drink enough although rest can be hard to come by. The other way to keep these boys growing well outside of ample amount of breast milk is increasing the amount solid food they are eating. At the visit, they had only eaten bananas a few times so we have added in brown rice/oats mix, apples, pears, avocado, sweet potato & peas.  It was really fun to make all the first batches to freeze. I am shocked at how quickly two babies go through the cubes but I will keep up the cooking as long as I can!  So far the favorite combinations are avocado & banana or sweet potato & peas. They are eating two meals a day & are LOVING it as evidenced by the following picture....

A few things about Owen:

• Owen attacks books when you read to him
• He loves being sung to especially if it is "Deep in the Heart of Texas" 
• He likes when I call him Cowboy Small & read him that book with a country accent : ) 
• Mighty O has the strongest core of anyone in this family & should be able to sit up & will probably crawl before his bro
• He is a true tummy sleeper but has ditched the thumb for his ring finger
• He is so content in his crib with the mobile on for some quiet/safe time until Eloise climbs in
• He is even more content in the Ergo
• Owen can stare at Bella for a long time while she is chewing on a bone...we always wonder what he is thinking ; ) 
• His hair is starting to get fuzzy
• This sweet boy still saves his biggest grins for his Daddy

Sometimes after a good meal he rests his chubby cheeks....

ANSON

Stats:

13 pounds 1 ounce

25 inches long

Size 2 diapers, 3 month clothing

Anson, you could say he is the born to be wild child when observing his interactions with his older siblings. We call him Anson, the sheepish lion after watching "Lambert the Sheepish Lion" an old short film by Disney. It goes along with a song that gets this boy to grin every time. Lambert really liked his mommy, just like Anson ; ) We also call him fuzzy wuzzy bear for obvious reasons. This guy stays happy most of the day unless two things occur....One- it's time for a nap & you don't put him in bed fast enough.  Two- you take more than a 1 second break between shoveling bites of food into his mouth.  A along with O is quite a fan of sweet potatoes...

He is a seriously messy eater if you couldn't tell. I let Char feed him the first night he was eating sweet potatoes & thought it was her feeding style that caused him to be taken straight to the tub. I was wrong! The picture above was taken after I fed him his meal.  He just might need a straight jacket to keep his hands from going in his mouth with every bite & then rubbing it all over his face ; ) 

A few things about Anson:

• Every time you lay him on his back he immediately flips over to his tummy, he also rolls to get a toy
• He can somewhat "tripod" sit but due to his smushiness he leans really far forward until collapsing in half
• We have almost forgotten what his mouth looks like because his hands are always in it or blocking it 
• He loves books & gets excited when we read him one that has pictures of all different animals
• Anson figured out how to play peek a book in the past week & will do so when laying on his tummy- hiding his face while you say "Where's Anson?" then popping up with a grin with "Peek a boo!"
• We still lay him down on his tummy but he usually rolls to his side for sleeping & keeps that thumb in his mouth most of the night & day for that matter. Sometimes I hear Charlotte telling him "hey buddy, we are going to practice not sucking our thumb today." We have to remind her that he is a baby & it's okay for him to do that ; )
• He constantly pulls his sleep sack or sleeve up to his mouth to chew on
• It looks like he is about to get his two bottom teeth!
• He is happy to ride on my back in the Ergo most of the time but really loves the front 
• A is a snuggler

Anson found the next best thing to hands.....

Schedule/Routine: A work in progress....always. I feel like I have gotten out of a great routine in the past week because I have been concerned they weren't getting enough to eat. It has resulted in more frequent night waking which I don't think is the solution for weight gain or a patient/non grumpy mama during the day if you know what I mean ; ) So, for now they are nursing around every 2.5-3.5 hrs during the day which falls somewhere around: 6:45, 9:30, 1, 4 & 6:30.  My plan to tackle the night waking other than making sure they are getting enough during the day is to sneak in a dream feed around 10pm & then try to get them till at least 6am. We will see how that goes : ) Prior to the past week they were consistently sleeping 12 hours a night & on occasion would give us a baker's dozen as my friend Cathy would say. They are eating solids around 10:30am & 5pm.  They are currently great nappers which is such a gift! They go down without a fight 99% of the time. They usually snooze from about 8-9:30, 11-1 & 2-4 if we are home. On days when we are gone in the morning they will snooze in the Ergo or car seat for short bits of time, nurse closer to the two hour mark throughout the morning  & then crash for a three hour nap once we are home.  The girls usually take long naps on those days as well which gives me some free time or the opportunity to nap as well.

Our days are filled with laughing, crying, playing, cleaning up disasters, obeying, disobeying & just being together.  The boys observe much of what is going on around them & are already so engaged with their big sisters I think they would be bored with just me around ; )

I asked Charlotte to read to the boys while I took Bella out this afternoon. When I came back, this is what I found...

SO cute! It was hilarious too because Anson kept trying to roll over & look at me but Charlotte would flip him back over & say "Now Anson, you need to pay attention to the story!" I guess she figured if the book was surrounding his head he might stay put...

Charlotte is not the only one who has won the attention & affection of a "baby boa" or two...

E & O

A & E

Six months, SIX MONTHS! I told Rob the other day that when I was pregnant with them I couldn't even picture life past my due date. I definitely had no idea how much I could love two MORE babies at the same time, or how exhausted I could feel at the end of the day or how much I would enjoy precious baby boys. God is so good. I think of his goodness when I see these two holding hands & remember all those ultrasounds when we were concerned about what the outcome might be.

Praise the Lord for Owen & Anson