Look! We can sit!

And we have babies that sit!!!!

6 Months

Our Family on Christmas

The picture we sent out in our Christmas Cards

The girls with their Christmas Stockings

Their first fire on Christmas night

Opening their presents from Santa!

Their first taste of food! (Emily on left, Catherine on right)

Our family

Daddy's Girls

How is it possible that I'm writing this already? Are my girls REALLY half a year old?! Seriously???!!!!! I cannot believe they are 6 months already, it blows my mind! Every day with the girls is more and more fun. They are getting so inquisitive and love to learn new things. Let's see - there are lots of new things this month. I hope I remember everything.

The biggest news is that they are now eating big girl food! I make all their food myself. We started around 5.5 months with homemade rice cereal made out of organic whole grain brown rice. They HATED it. Catherine kept spitting it out and Emily just gagged and made horrible faces. I don't know, I thought it was good! haha! So we tried that every day for about a week. Catherine started to enjoy it a little more but Emily was just not having it. Ok. So then we decided to try avocado for a few days. Again, Catherine seemed ok with it but Emily made faces like i was feeding her a lemon and would scream after about 5 minutes into feeding it to her. SO then I decided to try sweet potato. THAT was a winner! Both girls LOVED it and started to open their mouth for it. We did sweet potato for about a week until I ran out. Then we tried banana and oh my gosh they were going CRAZY for it! They just kept their smiling mouths open unless they were "chewing"! And finally, our latest food is butternut squash and again they are in love with it! Both girls are finishing their portions and smiling all through feeding time and opening their mouths and diving into the spoon, haha! Right now I am just feeding once a day but I'm going to start doing twice a day soon. I was worried about doing it myself (right now I feed when Brian gets home from work to help) but now that they eat so well I'll have no problems feeding them in the mornings myself. I think we'll do fruit in the morning and veggies in late afternoon.

Another big event that happened this month is that we celebrated our FIRST Christmas! Wow, how amazing to experience Christmas through your children's eyes. Even though they obviously didn't "get" the concept of Christmas, it was so fun celebrating Christmas with my two sweet angels and my amazing husband. We had a wonderful holiday filled with family. We spent Christmas eve (Polish Wigilia) with my parents and enjoyed a traditional Polish feast! They got spoiled by their grandparents and got lots of toys, some clothes and savings bonds. Christmas morning we all woke up and opened presents! Santa brought the girls a Sophie the Giraffe, an O-Ball, a tea-set and some blocks! Mommy and Daddy put money into their savings accounts as well! Then we went to church in the morning, where they behaved so wonderfully. A little fussy half way through but then they fell asleep within minutes. After that we packed up and drove out to Brian's parent's house where we celebrated Christmas with them! They, of course, spoiled them as well with toys, books, stuffed animals and money for their bank accounts. We had a delicious dinner and had a great time celebrating with them. The girls did wonderfully and had a lot of fun!

Let's see what else - they are still sleeping amazing well through the night. I mean, they don't wake up at night for ANYTHING - not a paci, a cuddle, bottle, nothing. Every night they sleep perfectly. We are SOOOOO lucky. I'm still pumping milk for them and plan to continue another 6 months! I'm glad we made it this far though - it was my "little" goal!

Catherine had to start going to physical therapy a few weeks ago because she has a flat spot on the back of her head. The physical therapist thinks it's because of how she was positioned in my belly (head down) and Emily was pushing down on her, so her head was against my pelvis for months. Anyways, the physical therapist says she has a mild case and she definitely won't need a helmet (yay!) We have to work on WAY more tummy time. I wasn't doing it nearly enough because neither of them liked it, but the therapist gave me lots of tips for helping them enjoy it more....aka I have to be down there with them the whole time! But that's ok, I'd do anything for them! But they are both making a lot of progress and the therapist is very impressed! They can now roll back to belly which is new this month! They can also sit unassisted for about 30 seconds or so...but I have to be there watching them the whole time - they aren't very steady when they sit yet.

Well I think that's it for this month! Sorry for the novel - congrats if you read this whole thing!

5 Months

The girls showing off their Thanksgiving dresses!

Our family - 1st Thanksgiving!

Me and my favorite girls!

Playing with Christmas lights!

Our 1st snow!!!!

Our 1st time meeting Santa!

Catherine's first time in the high chair

We love to roll into each other!

Emily's first time in the high chair

Another month has passed! The girls will be 5 months old tomorrow, so hard to believe! So many exciting things have happened this month! They got to witness their FIRST snow! I was so excited about this because I love snow so much, it makes the house feel so cozy! They also got to meet Santa Claus! They were very good and liked Santa very much! They didn't ask for anything this year, but I know next year they will! :) We also played with Christmas lights for some photos to include in our Christmas cards this year! We had our first thanksgiving, too! The girls were very good and watched us eat our big meal. We spent Thanksgiving day with my parents, then the next day we celebrated with Brian's parents. This was our first "long" car trip with the girls - about an hour to and from. They did GREAT! They were alert but didn't make a peep the whole time there and back, and they did wonderful at their grandparent's house! We also sat in high chairs for the first time. We didn't eat anything, ha, but we thought we'd start practicing sitting in our big girl chairs!

Let's see what else, I'm still pumping around the clock and making as much milk as I can for them! We have to give them 2 oz of formula per day (they are SO hungry at their 6pm bottle!) right now, but I just started a new herb to help increase milk production and I feel it's already working, so hopefully we won't need to supplement much longer.

They still sleep amazingly well, straight through the night! We are SO lucky and blessed.

They both have such different personalities, it's so funny. Catherine is a chatter bug, she loves to babble and talk and make funny little noises, it cracks us up. She is OBSESSED with her jumparoo. She could literally spend all day in it, we have to limit her time spent in it! She laughs and smiles and bounces. She loves it so much! Emily is ACTIVE. She doesn't "talk" quite as much as her sister but she loves to "stand up", play the airplane game with daddy, and roll around. This little girl is going to be walking before we know it, I can tell! They both gnaw on their hands all the time, and have just recently discovered that chewing on toys is fun too! I bought them a 'Sophie the Giraffe' for Christmas, I hope they like it!

Well, we have lots to look forward to this month! Christmas is by far my most favorite time of year, and I am so blessed to be able to share it with my little girls! I hope someday they love it just as much as I do!

4 Months

Sorry for the influx of pictures this month! The girls are just getting more and more fun every day, and I can't help myself from taking HUNDREDS of pictures of them!

Tomorrow marks their 4 month birthday! They are such joys. They are sleeping in their cribs right now and I find myself wanting to go and get them to cuddle with because I just CANNOT get enough of them! But I won't, they are sleeping peacefully! :)

They LOVE to laugh, smile and ham it up for their mom and dad! They like when we do peek-a-boo, and Emily especially loves her jumparoo, even though she's still a little small for it! Catherine loves the song "I'm a little tea cup" and laughs every time I sing it to her on my lap, and Emily likes "The itsy bitsy spider". They also both like to sit in their Bumbo seats! They LOVE their daddy so much. As soon as he gets home from work they start to smile and cannot wait to cuddle with him. They all have so much fun together and watching Brian with his daughters just melts my heart! He is such a wonderful dad and husband!

One thing that is new this month is that they are really starting to notice each other. I often find them locking eyes with each other and smiling. When I walk in their nursery in the morning and they are awake, I catch them staring at each other through their cribs, which are side by side. They are also starting to hold hands which is just the cutest thing ever. However, now when one cries the other does also! I think they can tell if their sister is sad, and that makes them sad too. I am positive these little girls will be the best of friends!

They love to roll from their belly to their back lately! They still haven't rolled from Back to Belly, but I think Emily is close! Catherine would prefer to be on her back I think, so she's in no hurry to roll to her belly!

They still sleep through the night (knock on wood!)! We are still swaddling...heck, I'd swaddle them until they are 10 if I could! They are most comfortable this way and it makes me comfortable because they are nice and secure in their blankets and I don't have to worry about them suffocating.

They are also still on 100% Breastmilk that I pump. I breastfeed every so often, but now they are happy going 3 hours between eating during the day so I don't have to breastfeed quite as much. I'm not sure how much longer they will be on 100% breastmilk though, I am *just* keeping up with their needs so when they start eating more, I might have to give them a bottle of formula every now and then....I'm thinking every few days. But I don't think we'll have to do it for very long because we'll be introducing purees' at 6 months, so that's only 2 months away. I will, of course, be making all their food myself.

It's getting cold here in Northern NY! They are even calling for snow today! I cannot wait for them to see their 1st snow. I am one of the weirdos who loves snow and winter. It's so cozy!

It's so hard to believe that this time last year, I was pregnant but didn't even know it yet! I got pregnant on October 22nd and found out about it on November 5th. It's so hard to believe it's been a year and now I have the two most precious gifts that God has ever given me. We are so blessed!

3 months

Well it looks like we cruised right past a 2 month update and now we're already at 3 months! Seriously, you do NOT know what "time flying" means until you have children! The hours, days, weeks, months all go by SO fast!

The girls are doing JUST wonderful. They are such perfect babies, I don't know what I did to deserve them. They brighten my day every morning with their gummy grins that go from ear to ear when they see me. You just cannot have a bad day when it starts so wonderfully!

My little angels sleep through the night now, thank you God! They actually have been for the last month or so and it's soooo nice. We put them to bed after their 9pm bottle and they sleep until at least 6 when I wake them up because I'm in pain from sleeping all night so I have to pump!

They are also on 100% breast milk! We ditched the formula a while ago and haven't looked back since. I mostly pump and give them bottles of breast milk, but I also breastfeed them intermittently throughout the day. It's the best of both worlds if you ask me, I'm not tied down to exclusive breastfeeding (which is HARD with twins, trust me!), I still get the bonding time, and they always get breastmilk! It works great for us,.

Last weekend they had their Christening. It was such a wonderful day. The weather was perfect and they were AMAZING during the service. Emily slept the whole time and Catherine was perfectly content just looking around and being quiet. They were fantastic and we came home and had a wonderful party to celebrate my little girls!

Well I think that's about it for now! Hopefully I'll remember to update next month!