Who knew that Costco is the best place to bring babies? Well, it is. Since we started bringing the girls to costco a few months ago, it has been one of our favorite place to go on weekends. Sometimes we go even when we don't need to buy anything (inevitably we end up spending at least $300). The girls just love it. So much to see! It's almost like being outside, except it's nice and warm.
The girls love their baby bjorn carriers (MUST be outward facing!), so Boris and I typically each where a baby and take turns pushing the cart. They are so happy. This week, we decided to try out the shopping cart, since they have two seats! It wasn't quite as fun for the girls, but they still liked it a lot. The downside? Two cute girls side by side in a shopping cart is apparently too much for most people to handle. We created more than a few traffic jams, as people stopped to stare and tell us how cute they are. Even when we are standing side-by-side with matching babies in carriers, we don't get that kind of attention. Normally only the baby lovers stop to comment. But apparently having them sit in the cart together is just too much.
I mean... they are pretty darn cute. I guess I can't blame anyone?
Giving the girls their first "solid" (mush) food was a milestone I was really excited about. For a few reasons. First, it's fun! It means they are growing up! Second, it's hard to produce enough milk for two babies. I've managed to do it, but it means pumping in the middle of the night, pumping for about 40 minutes at a time, etc. I don't like it! I've always made just enough, but never with much to spare. In fact, while I once had a huge chest freezer full of milk, that extra supply has been slowly dwindling away and I was in danger of running out entirely for a while. Giving the girls some non-milk calories was a great way to take some pressure of my supply.
When we first gave the girls food (rice cereal mixed with breast milk), they were... confused. They sort of licked the spoon, and then all of the food dribbled onto their bib. It was really cute, but not very effective as a calorie-delivery system. They both started to get the hang of it though. Alexis was a pro within a few weeks even though we only fed them solids about once a day. She wasn't super interested in it though. Amelia, on the other hand, would spit everything out almost immediately but WANTED MORE RIGHT NOW OMG. She loved it. She still does. The girl loooooves food.
Here they when they were first getting the hang of the "eating" thing. Keeping them upright in their bumbo chairs was the biggest challenge.
Here's Mikayla trying to help out:
And now we're on to trying to feed them "real" solids. Ie, stuff that hasn't been blended into oblivion. They like banana pieces, but still haven't figured out how to pick them up and put them into their mouth. Which is weird, since they stick EVERYTHING ELSE into their mouths immediately. Apparently food belongs on the floor. As soon as I put food on their tray for them to grab, they both pick it up and drop it straight on the floor, then look for more. And then they open their mouth wide for me to feed it to them. I guess they are just spoiled. Why do it yourself if someone else will feed you?
Little Amelia loves food so much. As soon as we start feeding her, she opens her mouth as wide as she possibly can to get more. It's like she's trying to tell us "look I'm all done! Nothing left! Need some more please!"
They love food so much it's hard to wait sometimes! Impatient babies:
Alexis and Amelia loved to be swaddled. It was the only way they slept for more than 6 months. When they started rolling over from back to front (around 3 months adjusted age), we knew we were in trouble, because we'd have to give up the swaddle soon. We tried swaddling them with one arm in and one arm out as a transition - it worked okay, but they didn't sleep great and we also weren't sure it would give them enough freedom to flip back over if they managed to get onto their tummy.
Luckily for us, one of my friends from a facebook mother's group recommended the "Merlin Magic Sleep Suit," and even sent us two of them that she wasn't using anymore. They look like giant snow suits, so at first it was too hot to use them. But when the weather cooled down, we tried them out and immediately understood the name. They are MAGIC.
At night, our over-tired, fussy babies would cry at every little thing. And then we put them onto their new sleep suits and they both immediately stopped fussing... before the suits were even fully on! By the time we got them on, both babies were grinning from ear to ear. It was SO WEIRD. That doesn't happen every night, but it happens a lot. They really really love them. I always say it must feel like they are laying on a cloud or something.
Look at how much they love them (note that this photo was taken at a time of night that you don't normally get many smiles!)
In the mornings when they wake up, they are so happy and just love to play in their suits. They also love to play with each other, and the suits prevent them from injuring each other. Look at them ooh and ahhh over the pretty girl looking back at them:
Another thing I've been really excited about since the girls were born was to take them to the pumpkin patch! Such a fun place, but a lot less fun without kids to bring along.
The girls loved their first visit to the pumpkin patch in Livermore. Since Daddy skipped the trip to go watch football, Uncle Micah filled his shoes and got some baby-wearing practice. Always a good skill to have!
Mikayla had a great time with nanna on the "Joan's farm" tractor!
The girls practiced sitting... on pumpkins!
The cute "cousin" photo was... not a success. Mikayla still needs some practice holding up babies.
Then the girls practiced sitting in a wheel barrel. With pumpkins! And Mikayla! Mikayla can't resist hugging her adorable cousins.
So fun! Can't wait till next year when they can pick out their own pumpkins!
My cousin Angela got married recently, which was super exciting for everyone. The girls were especially excited to attend their first wedding! We had our night nanny come along to help us out so that we wouldn't miss the WHOLE wedding, which ended up proving very useful.
It was a beautiful wedding. Beautiful couple, beautiful venue, beautiful families! Since my cousin is a professional wedding planner, none of us were surprised that everything was perfect.
Anyway, for such a special event, the girls needed some extra special outfits. Right? We took the opportunity to add some pink poof to their wardrobe.
You are going to see a theme here in the next few posts... they all are really outdated. Sorry.
We went to the Pleasanton Highland games with the babies on Labor Day weekend. I had been looking forward to it for months! Growing up as a Scottish dancer, I went to the Pleasanton games almost every year. And recently, I've started dragging Boris along to it every year since it's so close. Then this year, we moved just a few blocks from the Pleasanton fairgrounds. I couldn't wait to bring the babies! We bought little mini kilts for them and everything. They weren't quite as excited about it as I was (read: lots of screaming), but I still thought it was a successful trip. Just a bit shorter than I would have liked. We got to watch some dancing, see my old teacher Kyla and her kids and husband, and some of the dancers I used to dance with. Great fun!
I'll be honest about the real reason it took me so long to write a post about this trip... I was unsatisfied with the amount of adorable pictures we had from the trip, so I demanded a photo re-shoot. That was accomplished eventually, so here they are in their adorable kilts!
It's official - both babies can flip over in both direction. AHH, THEY ARE MOBILE!
As per usual, Alexis was first. She got so frustrated when she couldn't get onto her belly and just tried and tried until it finally worked. Amelia was perfectly content laying on her back calmly for another week or so. Then she just calmly flipped over. Amelia is definitely the tortoise - slow and steady wins the race.
Here's Alexis flipping over:
And here's a short video of the girls displaying their relative strengths: Alexis flipping over, and Amelia "talking."
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