8 Months

Well, another month has passed! The girls are 8 months old, so hard to believe.

This is really such an awesome age! They are hitting so many milestones and are, in general, really happy babies. They will play with each other and their toys on their tummies for pretty long lengths (long enough for me to throw in a load of laundry at least!) and do a good job of keeping each other, and me!, entertained. They are so inquisitive and want to touch everything! Then they want to put it in their mouth, haha! They are mesmerized by the dogs. They love to "pet" them and thankfully the dogs oblige happily. Catherine LOVES taking "bo back rides" on her dog Bo! Emily is neutral about it, haha!

They have started babbling and love to say "da da da da" over and over. Brian loves this! Now we just have to get them to start saying "ma ma ma ma"!

Catherine has her two bottom teeth completely in, and her top two are really starting to come in. They have definitely broken through the surface! Emily has her bottom two coming in. One has broken through the surface and the other is just on the cusp. Emily had an especially cranky day yesterday so I wouldn't be surprised if the one on the cusp is going to break through very soon.

They eat solids twice a day. Normally in the morning we have a fruit mix. Usually a frozen cube of whatever I have made - peaches, blueberries, apples, pears, prunes, etc. mixed with a banana or yogurt. I make them organic oatmeal as well, and sometimes we eat that. In the late afternoon we have a veggie puree - butternut squash, sweet potato, green beans, and parsnip are all favorites. Sometimes I try and give them meat but they seriously hate it and gag when I try and give it to them. I really want them to get the iron though, so I have to keep trying. But I guess who can blame them for not liking whipped meat?! We also tried "pastina" the other night (tiny pasta), and they seemed to like it! They always get a baby "cookie" (a baby "mum mum") at the end of their meal, which they LOVE!

They are on 100% breastmilk for their bottles and have been for a while now! It makes me very happy! I even cut back my pumping sessions during the day to every 3 hours instead of every 2 and it's going great! I just have to pump a little longer, but I'm getting just about the same amount of milk. It's very freeing after having pumped every 2 hours these last 8 months!

At night they sleep wonderfully, as usual! I have noticed thought that on days when they are cutting a tooth, one of them will tend to wake up at night for a paci or something, but they fall back asleep within minutes. I can't complain about that because I know it could be SOOOO much worse!

They absolutely love their daddy. We try and sneak him in when he gets home from work without the girls seeing him, because if they do and he says hello and kisses them and then goes into the bedroom to change and wash up, they just freak out and have a melt down! They get so mad when he comes home and then "leaves" again - they don't realize it's just for a few minutes! Catherine is especially sensitive to this. I think it's adorable how much they love him and how much their faces light up when they see him come home from work!