The twins are eight months and some-number of weeks old! (Seven months corrected). What does this look like?
Justine is crawling. It’s still early days. She combines several methods (army crawl, toe pushes, excited arm splats). She gets up on all fours easily 0but hasn’t mastered moving. She can, however, crawl to Jayce and take the toy out of his hand.
Jayce puts himself in up-dog position. This is the yoga move where you lay with your tummy and push your chest off the ground with your arms.
Justine has discovered jumping. In the bouncer, in the swing, anywhere. She loves it.
Jayce can roll in all directions. He still gets his bottom arm stuck. I have seen him cross the entire living room when he feels like it.
Justine objects to my absence. She likes to watch me when I do things. She doesn’t always cry when I leave the room, but it definitely happens. When she is tired she is especially interested in me holding her.
Jayce and I have come to an understanding about nap time. He doesn’t scream and thrash around for 40 minutes before falling asleep for 20. I have accepted Justine will nap about twice as long as he does. They still get a morning nap and an afternoon nap that start (roughly) simultaneously, but I always expect to see him first.
Justine wants to control the spoon. We’re doing baby food at every meal now. It’s been a generally good experience, especially for her. Now she increasingly demands to drive the spoon herself by refusing to open her mouth if I have control. She loves to hold the spoon, smack it to her face, and drag it around until she finds her mouth.
Jayce does not like new flavors. He acts like you’re trying to poison him if you sneak in a flavor he wasn’t expecting. After a few times, the objection dies. He does well in his high chair now and usually eats more than she does.
Both are pooping up a storm. I probably change 8-9 dirty diapers a day. This is a significant increase neither Josiah or I are thrilled about. But hey, I guess their digestive systems are working!
Night time is pretty swell. For months, we’ve enjoyed a terrific chunk of sleep. Kids go to bed at 6 pm, giving Josiah and I from then until about 10 pm to enjoy together time. The kids will wake up between 3 and 5:30 am (usually 5:30) for a bottle. We attempt to go back to sleep after feeding them. Sometimes it works. Sometimes, there is a lot of coffee drinking at breakfast.
They definitely know the other one is there. They are not “playing” together yet. They smile at each other a lot. They laugh and scream at each other which can be funny until it prompts tears. They crawl over each other like they’re pro wrestlers. They love to grab each other’s ears, eyes, throat, face. They don’t know enough to remove their faces when they get kicked by the other’s foot.
All in all, we are concluding this year’s middle and heading into the final three months of Year One. I know that there are big changes right around the corner. They will continue to understand more language, from the word “No” to responding to their names. Their will continues to grow; soon, we will run into issues of “I want this but I can’t have it.” Sharing will become an issue, as will their awareness that just because we’re not in the room doesn’t mean we can’t be summoned by our names.
Things I’m looking forward to? Learning their names. Learning our names. First words. Meaningful play together. Excitement to see and understand the world around them in a way not possible during the newborn age. Recognition and naming important people like grandparents. Understanding spoken language even though they can’t speak yet. Bedtime stories!!