We had a great week last week with plenty of adventures to different parks and a visit to the Exploratorium. Perhaps we had a bit too much fun though as the babies came down with slight fevers on Thursday night; George in particular was super-fussy. Luckily they slept well and George was off just a little until his first nap and then woke up back to normal, but William wasn't doing much better. My mom and I originally thought it was teething, so we went to swim lessons on Friday morning and William had his first meltdown during class. He did okay for part of it, but it was definitely the worst lesson yet. What was odd is that they both had a 2-hour nap that morning (we actually had to wake them up at 10:45 to go to swim class), then they fell back asleep in the car on the way over (another 30 minute nap), then they slept on the way home from class for another 25mins and just an hour later went down for a 2-hour nap.


Anyway, it definitely is more than teething and since then, they seem to have had good days and bad, but I started getting sick on Saturday, having to stay in bed most of Sunday (I honestly don't know how you can take care of your baby on your own when sick, thank God Dave was home). My cold is running its course now, mostly down to a cough and a tired voice. Poor William, who already has congestion problems on a regular basis, now is so stuffed, even when we try to clear his nose, that he can't breath out of his nose while sucking his paci, so he's been waking up at night. Luckily, it's mostly been between 7-10pm, though sometimes multiple times, but amazingly he's still been sleeping well during the night. Poor guy also has a pretty nasty cough. George joins in occasionally but seems to be doing much better overall. Dave has been Super Dad since Sunday, and as it's been 7 days without a nanny (BOTH of our nannies were sick too...), so everyone's excited to see Lolina.

8 months old!

EAT: They're continuing to get more and more efficient at milk feedings, and they're probably starting to eat less too. They're still eating at 7, 10, 1, 4 and 7 and while last month at this time, William was very predictable as to how much he'd take at a given feeding, now it definitely varies. He's still pretty good about taking almost all of the 6.5oz at the first feeding and will usually close to finish the 8oz before going down for the night. Throughout the day though, instead of the standard 6oz, sometimes it's 5, sometimes 3, but usually somewhere in between. George also has times where he's nursing a lot shorter, but seems to be done. Thanks to this natural decrease, but because I'm still pumping after ever feeding, just within the last week, I haven't had to use formula. We'll see if my body balances out and if we're done with it. William still isn't great at holding his bottle -- don't get me wrong, he knows how to, he just gets distracted, wants to play with it, etc, so usually I end up holding it for him. It is nice to have a bit more time in between feeding to be able to get out and do something. An hour used to be the quickest I could get us out the door from feeding time, but now, if I'm really efficient, it's about 40 minutes. I nurse George and feed William at the same time, then have all their clothes and diapers on the floor so that while I pump I can change them and get them dressed.

Solids - I would say that they're doing okay with solids. It's been a little less than two months and while they've tried tons of different things, they really only consistently do well at breakfast, which we serve around 8:15 (they have their first bottle around 7/7:30am). They've had a variety of fruits which I mix a little oatmeal cereal into. They almost always finish and generally get through it without crying. After this meal, they go straight into bed to take a nap. We feed them once more during the day, and have been doing dinner time, testing out different times between 5 and 6pm. They almost always end up crying and sometimes eating okay, othertimes, not eating much at all. I think it's clear they like fruits more and we have tried mixing some of their favorites, like pears, into dinner, but that only sometimes works. I mixed up plenty of tasty options but I know it may take them several times of trying something before tolerating it. It's also nice to know that they're still getting the majority of their nutrients from breastmilk so I'm not stressing about how much they're eating of the solids. I'm more concerned that they're at least exposed to plenty of different flavors now.

Really, what they seem to like best is whatever I'm eating. They'll eat pieces of fish, bites of oatmeal and various other nibbles, but if I offer the same thing pureed up (or even not pureed) later on, they don't go for it.

New foods tried this month: Carrots, Japanese eggplant, cauliflower, cantaloupe, falafal, turkey burger, lamb, cannelleni beans, black beans, tortilla, lavash, pumpkin scone, cheddar grits, tilapia, red lentils, tofu, spinach, raspberries. Some meals from this month:
-Rice and fish
-Pork and carrots
-Chicken tortilla soup
-Black beans, tofu and avocado
-Black beans, squash and pork
-Pasta, butternut squash and spinach

SLEEP: Still doing great here, actually even better. They are going down for the night by 7pm and have been getting better and better about sleeping until 7am. They used to be up and rolling around sometime between 6 and 7am, and occasionally I'll need to get up while pumping to give a paci, but that's rare. Dave, who wakes up with them most mornings, now says it's maybe once a week that they're up at 7, the rest of the week it's later. They've been sick the last few nights, so we have had to go in and give pacis occasionally during the night, but outside of them being sick, we rarely need to do that. I keep thinking that we'll be going down to two naps soon, but they actually slept even better this month, many mornings sleeping for 1.5 hours in the morning, then 30 minutes to an hour while we're out around noon and then at least 2 hours in the afternoon.


PLAY: The babies are playing together more which basically means that they're usually together, playing with the same toy (if it's big enough) or grabbing the smaller toys back and forth. William has become a lot more mobile this past month, getting faster and more confident in crawling around the house. He still has an interesting crawl, or scooch, where the left forearm is used versus the right hand. George has the whole cross-crawl thing down, but still does the army version. We've gotten multiple new toys over the past month and it's the little activity table that seems to be their favorite. Plus, they love this talking dog that Ma sent months ago, and they've always liked, but now their face lights up every time it starts talking. They now have figured out how to 'make things work', getting their toys to make noise or light up. They also know how to turn pages in a book and enjoy touching the textured components of the different books. Still, I'd have to say, it's the things that aren't toys that are most interesting. They both love paper, though now I do need to keep a close eye as they have started chewing it. George is still a bit more adventurous and will go for exactly what he's not supposed to, but William eventually catches on too.





Both have sitting down and although I'm still a bit cautious and want to sit within catching-distance, they're probably to the point where they're pretty secure. Crawling (or creeping), check. Pulling up, not quite. George just yesterday was able to pull himself up on his knees to play with the activity table and then this morning pulled himself up for the first time. I haven't seen William do this yet. They are pretty strong when standing though (holding on to something, when someone has pulled them up), and they really like standing. We were at my parents house yesterday and George was able to crawl up the single step from the family room to the kitchen. We haven't been anywhere that had a step like this but he got it right away. William continues to be really focus, all the time, but when he's tired/cranky/frustrated, he babbles lots of syllables. Still hearing plenty of maamaas and daadaas but I'm not considering that any first word as he's not associating it with either of us. George continues to get more vocal and I have heard syllables here and there, but it's definitely more rare.








To my princes:




William... before you got sick last week, there were about 4 days where you were GREAT! I mean the best you've ever been. Basically you took over George's easy-going personality. I would put you down and you'd crawl around and play on your own as opposed to whining and crying. You were independent and overall, really happy. It was so great and Daddy and I said, maybe everyone was right, maybe it was teething (okay, 8 months of teething, but still). We were really hoping that you were feeling better and this was actually you're real personality. But then you got sick, and I can't blame you, I'm not in a good mood when I'm sick either. What was so ironic is that when you were in your great mood, George was fussy. It's like you knew that you were going to be on your best behavior because your brother needed to be needy for a few days. But anyway, you still aren't feeling great and have a terrible cough so you're not back to 'normal' (whatever that is). I'm so hopeful that we do get another glimpse of that happy boy, he's the best! Regardless, I'm so proud of how much you're moving around now. You're becoming more curious and even leading the way sometimes to explore new areas of the house. You're just as dependent on your paci as ever, but only because you've been sick. For those magical couple of days, you really didn't need it much. You love feet and looking at painted toenails, or shoes with laces. You also love being on your back; back float is your best at at swim lessons, but also around the house, you like to just lay on your back and play with toys. The jumper is still one of your favorites, and you also like the talking dog. The rattle is always popular too.

Georgie, my little explorer. On the one hand, you're so easily distracted (you always have to break from nursing to check on the zippers on the pump bag... multiple times), on the other hand, you can focus on stuff for a lot longer than I'd expect a baby to. We finally got rid of the coffee table, but you loved crawling through it, crawling under the jumpers, back into corners, etc. Your new love this month is doors. You love flinging the French doors separating the dining and living rooms. You're still a fan of screws, zippers, buckles and the like and I can see the wheels turning as you try to figure out how things work. You were so toy-obsessed early on, and you still like toys, but it's the 'real stuff' that you want now: the remove, my phone, paper of any kind and you're much more fascinated by what you find around the house. You also love wheels. At the park, when I take you out of the stroller to crawl around, you generally stick right by the stroller as you're entranced with the wheels. The new travel stroller was a hit until you got stuck under it checking out all the different wheels.
It was so sad to see you sick, you totally weren't yourself, but luckily it was short-lived. Generally, you're still really easy going and independent. I'd say that last month you were a better eater, gobbling down just about anything. This month, not so much.

No doctor's appt until next month, but some other stats:


William:
eyes: brown
hair: brown, and lots of it
teeth: 4


George:
eyes: still can't really tell. Definitely not blue anymore, but not brown either. Mostly they look grey, but look different in different light.
hair: Dave was telling friends that it's a bit red and I thought he was crazy, but in certain light, I now see what he means. Quite the cameleon, sometimes it looks blonde, sometimes brown and othertimes reddish.
teeth: 0