Mid-May Updates

May 15, 2016

Mid-May Updates

The boys are just 16 days away from being one year olds! It's hard to believe that a year has almost passed, yet harder to believe how much has changed in a year. Noah and Micah are acting more like toddlers now, and less like infants. They definitely seem to have opinions about what they want to eat or what they want to play with. Sometimes, they will give a swift shake of the head to indicate, "No, I don't want to eat those peas!" or "No, I don't want to stay contained in this baby-proofed area!" It's pretty cute/neat to see these opinions coming out as they start to assert themselves and their independence. They are crawling everywhere, pulling up on everything, and starting to take assisted steps toward walking. We decided to expand their play area from the living room to the kitchen as well, because they want to explore more around the house. We also let them crawl around their room and ours, and they love it. The boys will play with each other, in the sense that they will both want to play with the little basketball hoop or they both will want to play with the stacking toy. Whatever one is doing is what the other wants to be doing too. This can lead to some unmindful pushing, snatching toys out from each other's grips, and some protesting. We try to let the boys be boys, but also are mindful to emphasize sharing, being gentle, and playing with the other available toys. Noah seems to be more interested in exploring and playing on his own right now. Micah has fun interacting and copying whatever new skill or way to play we show him. It's interesting to contrast their behaviors, though we don't want to compare them too much.

Micah now has five teeth, three on the bottom and two on top. Noah has two on top and two on the bottom. They are occasionally a little bite-y these days, to the chagrin of mama and dada, and we also emphasize "no biting" as best we can. With these teeth, the boys are tearing up new foods and moving away from purees a little more at meal times. We now eat dinner together at the same time (around 6:15-6:45 pm), and the boys enjoy eating off of our plates in addition to the mountains of food we heap onto their high chair trays.

Bedtime these days is a little later, because their 2nd nap has gotten pushed out later too. Their days go something like this: Between 6:15-6:45 am: they wake up and play in their beds until we get them around 7 am. They nurse, then play until breakfast at 8:30 am. They play more until nap time around 9:45 or 10 am. They wake up between 11 and 11:30 am, have a bottle of milk, then usually head out of the house for an activity. Lunch is around 1 pm, then they play more until their afternoon nap around 3 pm. They wake up between 4-4:15 pm, have milk, then play until our evening walk at 5:25ish pm. Dinner is at 6:15 pm, then they have their last bit of play time until 7:30 pm. Then we head into their room, do their bedtime routine of diaper changes, pj changes, book, and nursing. They're awake when we put them in their cribs, and will jabber for a few minutes before they fall asleep. It's weird to think that in a couple of weeks, we will be cutting out the nursing, but I think they'll be okay with it.

Anyway, here are some photos from the first half of May!