Rolling over...

Well, just as I was finishing my last post I could hear that Zachary had just woken up from his nap. I walked in to find him on his back with a giant smile on his face. He was so proud that he was able to roll over all by himself! He is also very close to rolling from his back to his tummy.

The race is on to see which of my boys rolls from back to tummy first...

Moving forward?

Yesterday Nicolas had lunch around 12:30 and then went down for his nap at 2:30. He did not wake up until 5:15 or so. That means that he went 5 hours between feeds! He has not done this since we hit the 4 month regression. Sadly, it happened during the day and not at night.

Zachary, on the other hand, decided to give me a 6 hour block of sleep last night. He went from 8:00 pm to 2:00 am only waking twice to be given his pacifier back. Hopefully this means we are making some progress.

The only other issue I am now faced with is that Zachary seems to not want to sleep after his second feed of the night. He fed at 2:00 and then again at 5:30. After the 5:30 feed, he wanted to be up and starting his day. Needless to say, that is way too early for me to start my day! Thankfully he played in his crib for an hour or so and then fell asleep for another hour. The only problem is that I am worried that while he is playing and cooing (very loudly, by the way) he will wake up his brother. I need to try and find some way to get him to sleep at least until 7:00 without having to play for at least an hour...

Carrots

Well, I decided that today was the day to start the boys on some veggies. So, at lunchtime, I gave them their first taste of carrots. I must say that I was shocked by the outcome!

Zachary:


Nicolas:


Zachary did not enjoy the experience at all. He was completely unimpressed with the taste of carrots and spit out almost every mouthful. Nicolas, on the other hand, like it quite a bit. He actually ate everything I had taken out to feed both boys. This surprised me because it seems like Nicolas was the more picky eater and Zachary was the easy going baby that would eat anything. I will try again tomorrow to see if maybe Zachary just needs a bit of time to get used to the new taste. He took very well to all three kinds of cereal and I am surprised he did not like this at all. Nicolas does not seem to like the oatmeal cereal and really dislikes it when I mix any kind of cereal with prunes. So, I expected him to not enjoy the carrots.

Nicolas when all was said and done...


I guess I will learn that every time I think I have figured them out, they will throw me a curve ball!

Holding to the bottle

I was beginning to wonder when this was going to start happening. Well, two nights ago, Nicolas actually held onto his bottle. He had such a tight hold of it that all Steve had to do was make sure that it didn't tip over to one side. Here is a picture of Steve feeding Nicolas and a close up of just Nicolas holding the bottle.

If you look closely you will notice that Steve is just barely holding on to the end of the bottle.


I love those pj's. He looks like a little jail bird!

Smiley boys

My boys are such happy little men, especially when they have had a good nap. Steve got two of the cutest pictures of the boys just as they were waking from an evening nap yesterday.

Zachary:

Nicolas:

Learning a new trick

Today both boys discovered how to turn the Fisher Price aquariums (that are on the side of their cribs) on and off. There is a large button on the front to turn it on and off. Since they have discovered this, they have spent the last 15 minutes or so turning it on and then off. Just about every time they do it, they smile. They are so proud of themselves, it is hilarious!

By the way, those aquariums are one of the best gifts we received. The boys love them and could watch the fish and the bubbles moving for a very long time. In the morning it tends to occupy them for at least 15-20 minutes so that I can have time to wake up before getting them out of their cribs. Also, the music that it plays is quite nice and not irritating like most toys. Definitely a must have!

A cute story about dinner time...

I was out with a girlfriend at a concert last night. Grandma and Grandpa were visiting and stayed to help Steve out for the evening. Grandma took it upon herself to feed the boys their cereal at dinner time. When Zach got up from his nap, she fed him his bowl of cereal. All went well (I am not surprised since he is such a good eater). Shortly after she finished, Nicolas woke up so she started to feed him his cereal. Zachary apparently sat next to his brother and watched Grandma feed Nicolas. When Zachary figured out that he wasn't getting any, he started to "yell" at Grandma. Usually I feed them their cereal at the same time (one spoonful for Nicolas, one spoonful for Zach), so he couldn't understand why he wasn't getting any! So, Grandma had to give him a little bit to keep him happy... and he had just had a full bowl!

Here we go....

I put the boys down for their afternoon naps like I usually do. Zachary and Nicolas were not quite ready to drift off to sleep, so they began "talking" to the animals on their wall and possibly each other. Well, twice during the process before they fell asleep, Nicolas began crying more than his little "drifting off to sleep" whimper.

So, I poked my head in the door to find him flat on his back both times. He managed to roll himself over and couldn't get himself back to his tummy. I watched as he struggled to soothe himself to sleep. In doing so, he kept wiggling his bum and shifting his weight from leg to leg and many times he came so close to rolling over again.

I guess we now have a new challenge to deal with... helping him get back to his tummy after he's rolled over. That is until he figures out how to get himself back onto his tummy all be himself!

Sleep regression...

Well, it seems like my boys have regressed back to not sleeping through the night. I keep hearing that this can occur around the 4 month mark. It looks like we are there!

They are both waking up around 2:00-3:00 am for a feed and then returning back to sleep. thankfully they are going back to sleep. However, since there are two of them, my nights are not very long and are broken up into 2 hour blocks. It is frustrating since I know that they can make it through the night. Maybe it's a growth spurt? How long can a growth spurt truly last? If it is the 4 month sleep regression, when do they go back to sleeping through the night?

These are all questions I desperately want answers to, but I know that all I can do is wait it out. There are no real answers since what happened with one child will not necessarily happen to all of them. I was just so spoiled with the long nights that now I am finding the nights much more difficult. It's a good thing these boys are so cute and wonderful!

In the car...

On our way home from Grandma and Grandpa we stopped to get a bite to eat and to let the boys stretch a little. They get tired of being strapped into their car seats after an hour or so. Just before putting them back into their seats, we put them in the front seats while getting things organized for the second half of the trip home. Look at the great shot of Zachary...tell me he wasn't happy to be out of his car seat and in a normal seat!

Jolly Jumper

This weekend we were visiting Grandma and Grandpa. I had a 25th wedding anniversary party for one of my uncles and Steve's parents were kind enough to babysit the boys so we could attend the party. Well, Grandma decided that the boys (particularly Zachary) needed to try the Jolly Jumper. She had one for her kids and Steve just loved his. So, we went out and picked one up.

She was so right. Zachary really enjoys it. He hasn't completely figured out how to make himself jump, but when he does it by accident, he gets so excited! Nicolas is still unsure about the whole thing. But, he also is not quite as strong standing on his legs as Zachary. I am sure that this new activity will help build up their leg, back and neck muscles even more.

Here are pictures of the two of them in it for the very first time...

Zachary:

Nicolas:

Meeting Great Uncle Ralph

The boys had the opportunity to meet their Great Uncle Ralph from BC today. I have not seen him since my grandparents funeral (over 13 years ago). He is one of the boys from the first set of twins that my grandmother had, so it was a pretty sinificant meeting.

The boys were good but it can be difficult sometimes to take a good picture of both of them. But, here is one of the three of them.

Zach figured it out...

I have been trying to give them cereal every morning in the hopes that they figure out how to eat solid foods. Well, yesterday Zachary figured it all out. He was opening his mouth and actually swallowing the cereal!

Rolling over

Well, Nicolas just rolled over from his tummy to his back in his crib. Sadly, I was unable to catch it with my camera, but I am sure that I will be able to get it the next time. I knew that he was on the verge and I am certain that he will be able to start repeating this new trick more often.

Zachary is not quite as close to rolling over. I think the added weight is making it more difficult for him to purposely roll. He has rolled before but I think it was more of a fluke.

I will add video to this post if I can get some...

Weigh in...

I had the boys weighed again today. Thankfully, Zachary is no longer gaining as much weight. I was concerned that he may weigh more than some of his older cousins before he is one (the closest cousin is almost 3 years older than he is)! Nicolas is starting to catch up to his brother which is not a bad thing.

The final weigh in is:
Zachary: 15 lbs 12 oz (up from 15 lbs 9 oz - two weeks ago)
Nicolas: 14 lbs 1 oz (up from 13 lbs 11.5 oz - two weeks ago)

4 months already

Well, my little men are already over four months old! Where does the time go??

They are doing so well, I am just amazed. They are healthy and happy little boys that make me smile every day when I look at them. They are basically sleeping through the night which I appreciate a great deal. Usually they wake up with big smiles on their faces. Here are some pictures of my big 4 month olds:

I love how they are slowly becoming more aware of one another. They watch each other play and sometimes even babble to one another. It is really adorable!