8 Months

*Tyce & Dax turned 8 months old on October 23.  I'm just a little behind ;-)*

 My little Cougar Fans in some old school BYU shirts compliments of their super cool Auntie Cassie :-)  (Tyce on the left, Dax on the right)

After waaay too long I finally broke down and bought the twins high chairs!  I had be deliberating between a few different kinds (even a funky looking table with two seats built into it) but I eventually just gave in to price and convenience.  These high chairs won.  And we LOVE them.  They are the E-Z Clean chairs from Fisher Price.  I had two major coupons and a gift card.  They really are quite easy to clean (considering that they still are high chairs after all) and my boys are quickly spending more and more of their days in these chairs...

Tycen even got so comfy in his highchair the first time he tried it out that he fell asleep!  (unfortunately, this has yet to happen again)

The last week of September, Chris and I took a much needed vacation - we went on a four day cruise to the Bahamas!!  We went with our best friends, Rick and Allison Tolbert.  For some reason, I have misplaced all of those photos.  Weird.  My mother-in-law and her best friend Heidi came down and babysat our kids!  YAYAYAY!!!  I LOVE THEM!!!  I basically farmed out my girls to other friends of mine the whole time and so really our two bsitters only had to worry about the twins.  But I'm sure that was plenty for them to worry about!  Haha.  Before we left I handed them two pages of this very exact schedule written down practically to the minute for the twins, like when to feed them and change them and give them naps etc.  My MIL and her friend were laughing at me when I gave them the papers (after all they each have raised a few kids themselves) but when we got home a few days later, the two of the them were following my schedule religiously!  As in basically using a timer to keep themselves on track!

hahahahhahahahahahhahahahahahhahaha   hahahahah ahahhahahahaha  HA!

I loved it.  I know that I have said before that I am a semi 'schedule nazi' and it is true.   

BUT THE SCHEDULE FREAKING WORKS PEOPLE AND EVERYONE IS TREMENDOUSLY HAPPIER WHEN THE SCHEDULE IS FOLLOWED!

I think I kept those papers, so I'll have to scan them and post them on here one of these days so that ya'll can laugh at me too :-)  Oh wait, switch me lives for a day and I'll hide my psycho schedule and then I'll be the one laughing!  hahahahahaha (yes, this laugh is a tad bit evil-natured. why? I'm not really sure. I think maybe its just getting late...)

Well, one incredibly huge thing to note here is that during the short four days that Chris and I were away - DAX STARTED CRAWLING!  Stinker.  Just barely seven months old, with a near two month delay, not too mention he is enormous, and he is crawling.  What the heck.  I was not happy about this.  Keeping an eye on two babies is tricky enough when they can't move anywhere, let alone when they are CRAWLING.  Ugh.  I think I have a video somewhere too.

Ok, Note to self, find video of Dax crawling, photos from our cruise and my Nazi Twin Schedule to post on this blog.  Gotta be honest, that probably will never happen.  But anyways, moving on...

As if I didn't have enough messes to clean, I discovered my little artists "painting" in the bathtub one evening...

 haha.  It was just Crayola bathtub paints so it cleaned up incredibly easily and the girls actually took the clean up seriously and scrubbed the whole tub!  It turned out pretty dang awesome for me :-)

Speaking of the tub - check out my twins in their matching baby tubs!  I love the difference in their hair, Dax is on the left this time...

And here's just a quick shot of the boys after the bath, this is one of my favorite times to play with them.  They are both incredibly alert and happy and super interactive.  We have gotten the best deep, belly laughs out of the boys when they are laying in their towels, all clean and sweet smelling and lovely :-)

One of the only pictures of my girls this month (oops!) Here they are sitting in one of their favorite hang out spots in our house - the kitchen bar stools.  The girls sit here and have after school snacks or sometimes breakfast and color or work on homework while I'm cooking or doing dishes.  I love it!  Here they are in their Halloween outfits.  We had just finished decorating our house for Halloween - which is quite the feat around here because WE LOVE HALLOWEEN!!  (lots more about Halloween, the girls and a very special birthday girl in my next post)

One of my friends with twins told me that she 'props' her babies up with their bottles so she can get stuff done!  I had always thought this was such a taboo thing to do so I had never tried it with my girls.  But then I saw how successful she was so one day when Jada was sick with a yucky cold and I was at home with no baby helper - I tried the bottle propping idea.  Loved it.  My babies aren't really babies any more and they literally could/should be holding their own bottles up but they are just too stinking stubborn!  So I don't feel bad about it.  Plus I don't leave them alone with a bottle shoved down their throats.  And Dax can roll over for heavens sake!

Anyways, I have totally sort of perfected this bottle propping thing and I snapped this photo of my boys in the car one day.  If I get it just right, I can prop their bottles up on their toy bar (the toy bar that is one of those awesome things I bought when Jada was a baby and is no longer sold any more, probably because they are dangerous or something.  Just like the sleep positioner I used for all 4 of my kids and love and they definitely don't sell those dangerous things any more...)

 

 My boys are just beginning to share toys!  Haha - they don't even know they are sharing yet, but they are :-)  And they aren't really old enough to get upset when the other one takes their toy away.  That will change very soon...

 Tycen's baby hawk debut at church.  Dax was trying to sport the baby hawk too but his hair is just a little bit too thin and short...

This was the first month that my boys did not have a doctor's appointment!  Usually every month they have to go to either their pediatrician or to some other specialist and I have them weighed.  So this month, I just have photos...

I love these pictures.  Here they are looking at each other...
And then Tyce notices the 8 Month sticker on Dax' shirt...

And then Tyce notices the sticker on his own shirt...

And then what you don't see is Dax attacking the sticker on Tycens shirt and then they both end up on the ground like this...

 

Tyce at 8 Months

 

 I love this kid.  He is so stinking cute.  I think he looks just like his daddy.  No wonder I am so in love with this guy ;-)  He developed this habit of screeching at the top of his lungs when he wants something.  Its horrible.  But he can't move and his brother can so that means that when Tyce is playing with a toy, Dax will crawl or roll over to him and take the toy and then crawl or roll away leaving Tyce sitting there empty-handed.  Its kind of funny but also pathetic.  Poor kid.  But the screaming has got to stop!  Fortunately, his smile melts my heart.  If Tycen was my only child, my first baby, I am convinced that I would hold this kid allllll day long.  He is still snuggly and literally just wants to be toted around like an appendage on me.  Unfortunately for him, he spends most of his time not in my arms.  I am sad about that sometimes.  But I think its good for him too.  He usually is really happy to sit up and play with a pile of fun toys...as long as his brother doesn't knock him over or take his things... haha.

 Dax at 8 Months

Trying to get photos of this kid was quite the chore!  I didn't have any photo assistants today so keeping this kid on the blanket was practically a full-time job!  All Dax wanted to do was crawl away from me and eat the grass...

But I managed to get some cheesy smiles somehow!  Haha.  Dax really loves to smile, if you can get his attention!  For months he has been my laid-back, big sweetheart.  He's been easy to please, quick to laugh and usually very content to just sit back and smile.  But this month he learned to MOVE!  Yikes!  Now, all he can do is try to move.  He has been struggling sleeping because every time he is in his bed he is "practicing" his new found skills of rolling everywhere and crawling everywhere.  Dax has such a heavy bum that its hard for him to get up on all fours when he crawls so he usually arm crawls with sheer arm strength, the rest of his enormous bottom kind of trailing behind him limply.  Its awesome.  And with this new skill comes the added bonus of finding every single piece of dust, dirt or Polly Pocket toy on the floor and then eating said treasures.  Love that.  Not only is Dax a human Swiffer, but a vacuum too.  Yet, he's still irresistible... 

 

Happy 8 Months Old Boys!

I love having boys :-)  

8 month wrap-up: the twins take 3 naps a day, eat the equivalent of two 4oz jars of baby food a day, drink 4 bottles a day, have zero teeth, Dax can army crawl and roll over, Tyce can sit unassisted for long periods of time, AND I finally stopped nursing!!  It was a difficult decision one that came with lots of tears but once school started, me and my crazy scheduling self just could not figure out how to fit nursing into my routine.  Plus these boys are enormous, physically the largest babies I have ever nursed even though I nursed both of my girls for a longer time.  I used to nurse both boys at the same time almost regularly but as they got larger I just couldn't quite figure out how to nurse them tandem.  They still are young enough to require lots of attention while nursing so they didn't just do it themselves quite yet   if that makes sense.  Anyways, it was taking so long to nurse each boy individually plus with our crazy morning routine of getting Jada and Kalle up and ready for school and out the door it just wasn't working.  Poor Chris was trying his hardest to do as much as he could but the babies needed me for nursing and the girls needed me for hair fixing and getting dressed.  So, I put a lot of thought into it and I weaned the boys just after they turned 7 months old.  Life is better again.  Our schedules are easier and more balanced now, Chris is in charge of the babies and I am in charge of the girls in the morning.  I love this schedule because I don't see the girls when they're in school so I enjoy mornings with them and Chris doesn't see the babies all day so he enjoys time with them before he goes to work.  Its wonderful!  And I have had a few times when I've been melancholy about not nursing my sweet baby boys any more but for the most part, its been a celebration to have my body back to myself again!

Even though things can be really crazy and challenging around here, we really feel so blessed.  These twins are great sleepers and nappers and eaters and are almost always relatively happy babies!  Plus they make us smile and laugh and bring us tons of joy!! 
 
Who knew that having twins was going to be so much fun?   

Not me, I was such a skeptic.  And I am soooo glad that I was wrong!!! :-)