Sometimes I look at Lydia and Eden and think to myself, "Whose children are these?!?!" They are just growing and changing so fast, I hardly even recognize them. I'm a little late on the post since we were on vacation last week, but our babies are now 10 months old! I'm excited to have some beautiful pictures to share of them. Nate's cousin, Carly, took some family photos for us a few weeks ago and I was so pleased with how they turned out. It's not an easy task to get two little ones to look at the camera and even somewhat smile!
Eden: Our Little Peanut weighs about 15.5 pounds. She loves Ollie and I'm convinced she even says dog, although it sounds more like "Dah." Ollie loves her too, especially around lunchtime! She has started doing the sign for "more." It's usually more like clapping her hands, but we know what she means. She is often giggling and still loves to do her fake laugh to make us laugh. She is really into faces and likes to pinch lips, noses, cheeks as she explores your face.
Lydia: Lydia weighed in just under 17 pounds. She has turned in to quite the imitator. She'll smack her lips or blow bubbles if you do it first. Lydia doesn't really like to play with toys unless Eden has it. Then, she immediately thinks she needs to steal it. Eden seems to have figured out that Lydia will quickly get bored and toss the toy to the side, so she can snatch it back pretty quickly. I've also noticed that Lydia likes to lead the music in church. As soon as she hears the organ playing, she'll start waving her arms to conduct the music! Lydia is also into head-butting. When you hold her she likes to bonk her forehead into yours and if she is on the ground and wants to be picked up, she will head-butt your legs.
Eating/Nursing: Both girls are still really good eaters. They normally eat whatever we're having for a meal and we haven't found many things they don't like. Although, sometimes they are a bit finicky about eating their vegetables so I have been known to get creative (spices, dipping in pear juice, even a bit of brown sugar on the carrots!) They prefer to feed themselves and can get pretty mad if I try to feed them, especially Eden. She'll swat my hand away, spit the food out, and scream if I attempt to feed her. Self-feeding can get pretty messy (hence, Ollie loves mealtime!) but it keeps the girls happy. As they are eating more, they seem to be losing interest in nursing. They still nurse four times a day, but they're easily distracted and are pretty quick to finish. However, I plan to continue until at least their year mark, possibly a bit longer. We're planning a trip to Disney World in October and I'm debating whether it will be easier to still be nursing them or tote around milk with us. Any opinions?
Walking? Nope; thank goodness! I'm not ready for that yet! Both girls will pull themselves up on their knees but not their feet yet. I think we're a ways off from walking, but I guess you never know with how fast they change!
Sleep: I don't like to write about sleep because it makes me depressed! Neither one of my babies take consistently good naps, especially Eden. Anywhere between 30-45 minutes is typical for her. So if your baby takes two, two-hour naps a day, keep it to yourself. I don't want to hear about it! I've come to the realization that all I can do is be consistent and set the stage for good naps. Eventually, I hope they get the memo and we can have at least one long nap a day! The days are long but at least they are usually good sleepers at night. (Except when we're on vacation and out of our groove.) This month they decided to move their wake up time to 5:30-6:00 AM. I'm not a fan, let me tell you. The nice thing about their routine being thrown off with our vacation is we get a chance to reset things and I'm (desperately!) hoping to make 7:00 AM the normal wake-up time again.
While the girls aren't perfect, we do think they're pretty much the best kids we could have ever asked for. We love them so much and look forward to each day with them!
