Love is Golden: Ten Months!

Month Ten! Lots of "firsts" this month...

Our First Arts & Crafts Project:

We made Valentines for our cousins and grandparents! Neither Charlotte nor Jensen cared too much for card-making...however, eating the crayons was delightful!

We experienced our first "real" snowfall:


"Hmmmm...what is the meaning of this?"

I actually lost count of the snow days...was it four? Five? All I know is that it was too many!

We had our first experience eating popcicles:

I made them by blending strawberries and yogurt, then freezing them...but I didn't have any popcicle sticks so I used plastic spoons. The babies don't seem to mind!


Jensen is double fistin' it!

It's funny to give the babies popcicles...Jensen really lacks the patience required to eat them. He loses interest and ends up banging the popcicle on his highchair tray then throwing it on the floor. Charlie, on the other hand, loves them. She always finishes hers.

And last but not least, this month was the first time I looked at the baby monitor and saw this:


I love it...their faces clearly say, "Busted!" Also, this is a random side note, but look how sad and almost institutional their nursery looks now that all the lovely bedding is gone! :(

Charlotte wasn't great at pulling up until this month...now that she's mastered it, the two of them stand up in their cribs and "talk" to one another. Whoever wakes up first will crawl over to the corner and start yelling and banging on his or her crib until the other wakes up. We actually videoed the first time they did it (and if I could figure out how to post a video I would, because it's so funny...Brian tries to sneak in there with the camera and Charlie notices him and gets really excited and yells, "Dada!").

Anyways, this has led to separate rooms for naps...which is going surprisingly great (knock on wood).

Charlotte Anne at Ten Months:

(17.3 lbs three weeks ago)

Charlie-Bug: This month our dramatic little Peanut has really developed a flair for performing. She loves having all eyes on her...being the center of attention is what this girl is all about! She has recently learned to "dance"...she stands up, holds onto something, and shakes her booty up and down. Every once in awhile, she kicks her leg out to the side for good measure (a la Elaine from "Seinfeld"). It is hilarious...we listen to music during the day, and I guess she has already developed her own taste in music, because there are definitely some songs that she finds more "dance-able" than others.


Here she is "dancing" to the music played by her music table. She periodically looks over her shoulder to make sure you're watching.

Charlie also still loves to point with her little pointer finger. If you point at her, she will usually touch her pointer finger to yours.

Pointing with Daddy.


Talking to her finger.

Charlotte really is our happy little bug. She makes the funniest faces and is always scrunching up her nose:


No idea what this face is all about.

Lately, Charlotte seems to be growing so fast. The other day I walked into the room and looked at her and it just hit me how old she looked...I could hardly believe it.

The shirt she's wearing in the pics below is actually a dress from last fall (much too short to be worn as a dress now!).


What a big girl!

Charlotte hasn't had a perfect month, however. She continues to have sleep issues...she does a weird talking/moaning/whining thing at night. Sometimes she's awake when she does it, and sometimes she is completely asleep. But it can be quite loud, even with the volume on the monitor as low as it will go. We aren't quite sure how to deal with it; sometimes we go in and give her teething medicine, we've tried rubbing her back, rocking her, you name it. Nothing works...in fact, going in her room usually wakes her up more and therefore makes it worse. And when I describe it to people, no one has ever experienced anything like it with their baby. So we are kind of at a loss and have resigned ourselves to just listening to her on the monitor, which can make for some long nights. Brian woke up the other morning and said he felt more tired than he used to when the babies were first born. Ouch.

Anyways, let's end on a happy note with a few more pics of our happy little Peanut!

Oh...wait, let's try that again: Pictures of our happy little Peanut!

Much better.

Jensen Todd at Ten Months

(Weighed 20.9 lbs a few weeks ago)

First things first...The Toothless Wonder is no more! Mr. Jensen got his first tooth this month...to be honest, it's just barely poking through his gums...but it counts! Whenever I'd tell people Jensen hadn't yet gotten his first tooth, they'd inevitably have some horror story about a baby they once knew who never got teeth/had to get his gums cut open so his teeth would come in/etc. so I was very relieved to see that first chomper poke through! Jensen has had a bit of pain from teething, but nothing too terrible.

Jensen continues to be a laid-back little dude. He has such a sweet nature...sometimes, I will be doing something with Charlotte and she will be laughing, and I will look over and see Jensen smiling so big. It's like it really makes him happy to see his sister happy. He still loves his sis as much as ever (and he still loves to tackle her as well!). Jensen is still a man on the move, and sometimes I worry that I won't be able to teach him things because he is too busy playing to listen to me! However, this month he has seemed to enjoy books more than he previously had, so I am excited about that development.

Jensen is like his dad in that he takes a loooong time to wake up in the mornings. It's so funny to get Charlotte and Jensen out of bed, because Charlotte is all perky and excited, whereas Jensen kind of looks confused for a good half hour or so. As I mentioned in an earlier post, Jensen took his first tiny step this month...so exciting! He is being more cautious than I thought he would be, so he hasn't attempted many more steps, but I figure it's not far off. He is the speediest little crawler, though...when he's really determined to get somewhere (i.e., he spots an open baby gate!), he puts his head down and gets going so fast that his hips swing side-to-side.

Here are a few pics of my handsome dude:

Napping with Grandma.

He has started doing his yoga pose again! He looks through his legs at whoever is behind him and cracks up laughing.

And I guess that brings us to what Charlotte and Jensen have been up to together this month. They have become quite the duo! They've been interacting with one another for a while now, but this month they seem to be really understanding each other. Every once in awhile, they'll just look at each other and laugh...and I have no idea why! It's so cute and it's definitely the first time I've ever been thrilled to be on the outside of an inside joke! The other night as we were getting them ready for bed, they started "chasing" each other around the chair in their nursery. Then, one would stop, turn around, and wait for the other to come around the corner. When they'd meet face-to-face, they would both crack up laughing. It was seriously hilarious, and watching them was one of the best moments I've had so far as a twin mom. (And I really don't know if Jensen is ever as happy as he is when his sister plays with him!) They have done their little chase/peekaboo game just about every night since, and I don't think that watching them will ever get old! We just love our little stinkers so very much, and watching them have fun together is the most amazing feeling.

Here are a few pics of C and J together...

Wrestling. As usual.

Proud Mommy and her babies.

A new favorite game. Charlotte loves her brother...and she especially loves when he can't quite reach her!

Playing in Mommy's suitcase before Girls' Night Out.

You may notice that there are hardly any pics this month in their "10 Months" onesies...that would be because we were pretty much having the worst day ever. But since I'm a stickler for taking the pictures on the actual day, we plowed through and took some. They are seriously terrible...here's a sampling:

Okay, that's not so bad...

This isn't bad, either. Any chance I get to show off those great legs, I'll take it!

But Peanut was just not happy.


Not happy at all.

So my mom, for some reason, decided to amuse them by pulling out the entire box of parts from the good 'ol Medela pump. This did amuse them for awhile, but I can't really do much with pictures of Charlotte and Jensen holding up breast pump tubing and breast shields, ya know? Not exactly facebook material, but I guess it's okay to post a few here: