Happy Half-Birthday!

I have always been into celebrating half birthdays.  Some years I even managed to convince my family that it was necessary and got them to buy me gifts:) Any excuse to celebrate right?! Yesterday we held a little party birthday party for Ruby (turned one in Sept.), Becca (birthday on the 14th), Lucy (1/2 birthday on 23rd) and Babies (1/2 birthday on 24th).  I just snuck those 1/2 birthdays in:) My generous parents gave us the Lion King on DVD to celebrate. I have been singing The Circle of Life nonstop ever since.  Anyway,  the point of this post is that my babies are SIX MONTHS OLD.  As usual I am in shock.

I am not exaggerating when I say that I adore these babies beyond reason.  I am fortunate enough to just stare and smile at them most of the day.  A lot of people tell me life will get easier after this first year, and I hope that is true because who doesn't want an easier life, but I think life with twins is pretty awesome right now.  The girls have a regular sleeping and eating schedule and play and smile the rest of the time-I'm not sure how that could be improved upon! Here are some details that only my future self will appreciate:

Schedule: The girls go to sleep at about 8 PM after an evening feeding. They usually sleep straight until 7 AM.  They rarely wake up and need their binkie back like they used to. Occasionally one baby will wake up around 5AM and look awake, so I'll wake up her sister and feed both of them a bit. At seven they usually wake up happy and just talk in the cribs until Danny or I get them up. If they had a snack at 5 then they play until I really wake up. If they didn't, then I get up and feed them immediately. They usually play after that for another hour and then take a nap around nine. I put one in her crib and one on my bed to sleep because I find they wake each other up more often during naps, they don't seem to sleep as deeply. I still swaddle them for naps too. They associate it with sleep so it helps them fall asleep more quickly. At night they go in a sleep blanket and do just fine though.

They wake up between one and two hours later, eat again then play. This is when we usually do our outing for the day/take Lucy to preschool.  The girls are great on errands, I really like taking them out and about (except maybe to Costco. My stroller is too small for their goods. I had a traumatizing experience there recently. I don't think I'll go back until the girls can sit up together in the cart.) Then we go home for an afternoon nap. So far these girls nap a lot longer than Lucy (who would take two one hour naps-seriously one hour to the minute-it was weird.) Their afternoon nap is usually an hour and a half to three hours. Awesome huh.  They eat, play and then are ready for an evening feeding (where I breastfeed them then supplement to get them completely full). This last feeding is fun because Danny helps me supplement. We usually catch up with a show on the DVR, it is just fun to get the babes ready for bed together. At bedtime we get the girls in their blankets then each of us hold a baby and sing them I'm a Child of God. It is their serious eye-contact time:) If Daddy isn't there then I sing to each one separately. It is a small amount of one on one time, but they love it. Each girl will just beam at you as you sing to her. I love it too:)

Tricks: Both babies are expert rollers. Lydia especially likes to push herself up while on her tummy-she is starting to poise herself for forward motion (heaven forbid). I have fed them rice cereal maybe twice, and neither of them are very interested-although they'd love to get their little hands on our food. They are getting better at sitting up and when laying propped up they try hard to pull themselves up, but neither can sit by themselves quite yet. Both girls like to jump in the jumperoo or door jumper-although Joycie is a bit more enthusiastic about it. They both have very strong legs-when I sit down I tend to hold them upright, standing on my lap. They are just starting to really notice and smile at each other-which is fun.

Now for stats:
Joyce: 14 lbs 4 oz, 26.6 ''

I was surprised by how low both my girls weights were. They are on track for their growth-but they are only in the 25% range for weight. Skinny girls. They are on the tall side too, which makes them look extra skinny. Anyway, Joyce is an angel. She still likes to scratch her face and head while eating-and has discovered that she can scratch her sister too. I think she looks a lot like me as a baby-I love her smile.

Lydia: 13 lbs 11 oz, 26.8"

 Has a LONG tongue and she likes to stick it out. It is pretty cute. She licks everything-while pushing herself up on her play mat she will stick her tongue out and hope it comes in contact with one of the hanging toys. Pretty funny. She also has started shaking her head back and forth (like in a "no" gesture). I swear she does it to be funny. It is very cute.