Nicolas and Zachary with their Tonka Trucks

GG (one of Steve's grandmothers) bought the boys each a Tonka riding truck. It is so cute and should provide them with hours of fun. It is not only a ride toy but also a push toy that picks up blocks that is in its path on the floor. It is going to be so much fun to watch them grow with this toy!

Zachary:


Nicolas:

Christmas

Christmas is over and thankfully the holidays went very well. The boys travelled much better than we expected and did reasonably well in the sleep department considering they were so out of routine and not at home.

All of the grandparents were very reasonable in the gift department. We want to make sure that the boys learn the true meaning of the holidays and that it is not only about receiving presents. They got some great toys, some awesome books and some cute clothes. Here is a picture of Zachary and Nicolas opening their gift from Aunt Kiki (my sister).

This is just a cute picture of the boys playing at Nana and Papa's house (my parents - our first stop)...


The only down side so far is that Zachary seems to have caught a cold. He has a very runny nose and gets all stuffed up at night. So, needless to say, he has not been sleeping very well.

Santa

Finally, with only a few hours to spare we made it to see Santa for the very first time. The boys were nearing their nap time and I was fearful that they would cry simply because they were too tired. But when we got to the mall there was no one waiting to see Santa. We literally walked right up, snapped a few pictures and left. The boys were great and did not shed a single tear. I guess that will come next year!

Nicolas is in the red and Zachary is in the green...

Sleeping...

Well, it seems that we are making some substantial progress in the sleep department. I have the boys down to one feed per night and usually it is not really night time anymore when they are up for their feed - usually around 4:00-5:00am. That is much too early for me to start my day so I feed them and put them back down and they generally sleep until 7:00-7:30.

Letting them cry it out (as much as it almost killed me to do it) seemed to really be what they needed. I also think that the extra protein they are getting during mealtime seems to be helping as well. The last two or three nights have had very little crying and a lot of sleeping! Last night was our best night.

They were both in bed by 8:45 and Zachary woke briefly looking for his pacifier at 1:00 and once he had it, he did not wake up for a feed until 5:00. He then slept until I purposely caused a lot of noise in getting Nicolas up at 7:30.

Nicolas did not wake up at all until almost 3:30. I then fed him and put him back down. He was awake and ready to start his day at 7:00. He played happily in his crib until 7:30 when I went in to get him.

Hopefully the trend continues and we can go from 8:30 pm until 7:00 am without any waking up at all. I am very optimistic since every night has been getting better and better...

Raspberries

Today, I had the boys try my favorite fruit mixture when I was little. Actually, having tasted a little while I was feeding it to them, it is still my favorite. It was apples and raspberries and they love it!! It was all gone in seconds and it wasn't because I was sneaking some for myself!

Here are the pictures from this new fruit experience...

Zachary:

Nicolas:

Chicken

The boys tried some chicken today. It went over better than the beef, but they still didn't seem too crazy about it. However, mixing it with some sweet potatoes seems to do just fine.

Zachary:

Nicolas:

Can't you tell how unimpressed both of them are? Especially Nicolas....

How cute are they?

I love to sit and watch the boys interact with one another. It is really precious. With every passing day, they seem to interact more and want to be close to one another. They love sitting on the couch next to one another. Generally, they just end up swapping pacifiers. But, a lot of the time it is usually while they are sitting there that the cutest things happen...

Pay close attention to behind Nicolas' back. That is Zachary's hand, he has his arm around his little brother!

Nicolas is trying to eat his brother again! But it makes for the cutest cuddly pictures of the two of them together...

(Zachary is in the red and white and Nicolas is in the grey and blue...)

Beef

Well, today was the day to start introducing meat. So, for no particular reason, I decided to start with beef. I started by feeding it to the boys straight up. I don't think they were too crazy about the taste but they ate it. I had a side dish of sweet potatoes and carrots to go with it and eventually I just mixed the beef in with it. That, they enjoyed.

I went out and bought some meat from La Mère Poule - a local company that makes all organic food. The food is packages in small quantities and comes frozen. I had some gift certificates from them so it essentially cost me nothing. The gift certificates were given as part of a gift package for a Baby Shower hosted by Q92 that I was invited to when I was pregnant with the boys. At the shower, they had a game in which some mommies-to-be had to be blindfolded and guess the foods they were given. So, I tried a few of the foods and they were excellent! So I figured I would try it out on the boys and see how much they like it.

Anyhow, here are the pictures from the beef experience. As you can see, the pictures are not of the first taste. I always take a little video to capture their first real taste of a food. So, this was their third spoonful.

Zachary:

Nicolas:

Sleep Issues

We have been struggling with this topic for a while and I have decided that something needs to be done. Zachary and Nicolas are great eaters and they get a lot of food (both solid and liquid) during the day. I cannot believe that they are actually hungry when they wake at night. Usually the first time they wake up is within 4 hours of them going to bed after having almost 8 ounces of formula! The boys are great sleepers during the day and I know they are capable of soothing themselves to sleep. So, I need to let them do that on their own. And the only way to do so, is to let them cry it out.

I have been avoiding letting them cry it out for many reasons. The main reason is that it is heart breaking! I cannot stand listening to them cry. But I have to realize that it's my problem and not theirs and I am not doing them a favor by not allowing them to figure out how to fall back to sleep on their own.

The other big reason is that I am so worried that one baby will wake the other. This is a real problem with having twins sleeping in the same room. So, to get rid of this problem, we put up the pack-n-play in the basement. When someone wakes up and needs to cry it out, I get Steve to move him downstairs. I then sleep on the couch to make sure that I am close by and so that I can hear him. The advantage with that is Steve can actually get some sleep. He doesn't have to listen to the screaming baby. I also have the baby monitor so I can keep an ear open for the baby still sleeping in his crib.

Last night was night two of this new technique. The first night Nicolas cried off and on for almost 2 hours downstairs. Last night, he slept from 8:45 until 3:15 without waking. At 3:15 I fed him and he went back to sleep until 7:30. Zachary spent a good part of the night in the basement last night. He was in bed at 8:30 and when he woke at 1:00, I had Steve transfer him to the pack-n-play. He cried off and on until 2:00. But then he slept until 6:15. At that time he was fed and put back in his crib and he slept until 7:30 as well.

In chatting with Carolyn (my very knowledgeable sister-in-law) yesterday, she mad me realize that the boys may be waking for food as a sign that they are ready to start eating more complex foods. That is; meats, pasta, egg yolks, etc... The type of food that has proteins and carbs that will keep them fuller, longer. She may very well be right. So today, we start with some meat and see what happens...

Wish us luck!

A silly picture

I was making the boys laugh and this was the result. They are just too funny when they are being silly.

(Nicolas is on the left and Zachary is on the right)

The other picture is of Nicolas trying to eat Zachary. They try and put everything in their mouths, including each other! When I look at this picture, I would like to think that Nicolas is trying to show Zachary just how much he loves him instead!

7 months old!

The boys turned 7 months old on Tuesday. Can you believe it?? They are growing up very fast and are doing wonderfully.

We seem to be on track for sleeping through the night. Zachary had his second night of being in bed at 8:30 and only getting up around 6:00 for a feed. Nicolas was also in bed around 8:30, fed at midnight and then slept straight through until 6:00. I am hoping to eliminate the midnight feed, but we are working on one thing at a time. Last night we were successful in getting him to sleep straight through in between feedings without crying. The next step will be to eliminate the midnight feed. However, I get the feeling he will end up doing that all on his own.

I went and had the boys weighed this afternoon. Here is where we stand at the 7 month mark:

Zachary:

Weighs 18 lbs 14 oz (up from 17 lbs 15 oz - October 30th)

Nicolas:

Weighs 17 lbs 4 oz (up from 16 lbs 2 oz - October 30th)

Swimming

Brenda and I took the boys to the pool yesterday for their very first swim. She is looking for an activity that will help make her feel good during this pregnancy. Since she knew that I could not take the boys swimming alone, she thought she could be my extra pair of arms and it would allow her to relax and get off her bones.

I wasn't sure how the boys would react. They love their bath but it is also a confined, quiet and warm space as compared to a public pool during family swim time. But, much to my surprise they lasted for 15 minutes without a single tear or fuss. We actually took them out before melt down occurred because it was starting to get close to nap time. Zachary looked like he was going to fall asleep in Auntie B's arms at the end so we figured it was time to go. Nicolas was quite content and he even let me put him at arm's length while we were playing around.

Next time we go, I will make sure to get there a little bit earlier. It took us almost 30 minutes to get all four of us ready for the swim. I had not really factored that time into our schedule for the day.

On a side note, we used the Huggies Little Swimmers and they worked wonderfully! What a great product! I plan to make sure I have some on hand this summer for all of our outing to pools...

Sadly, I do not have pictures to go along with this post.