Friday, January 23, 2015

#40. 6 Milestones For 6 Months

Clare and Luke hit 6 months earlier this week.
Brother and Sister at 6 months
Clare's happy to be a half year old
Luke wondering 'where did 6 months go?'
Celebrating six months with a twin pile up!
We won't have their measurements to see their growth until our 6 month check-up next week, but we are starting to observe their day-to-day changes happening exponentially faster. Clare is already learning to read. 
Who's reading to who here?
and Luke is working on solving equations.

When do we start Calculus?
Maybe we are getting a little ahead of ourselves, but this post is dedicated to showing some of the actual 'milestones' the twins have reached in the past month or so.  (There are quite a few videos in this post, so I apologize for those trying to view on a device that can't show these.  This post is best viewed from a computer.)

Milestone #1:  Chewing (which essentially means TEETHING)

Everything is going in the mouth these days.

It started with the hand...
which then became the hand inside of the sleeve.
Soon the walker became fair game...
and anything attached to it.
Busted!
The amount of drool is unreal!!
We haven't seen the physical presence of any teeth yet, but we know its only a matter of time.  May our experience be less eventful than some others we have heard.


Milestone #2:  Jumping and Walking

The twins are both loving their 'Jumparoo' and walker.  They spend quite a lot of time in both contraptions each day.  Clare has been jumping for weeks, while Luke took a little longer to figure it out.  The cutest thing is the differences in their 'jumping' techniques.  Clare prefers jumping with alternating legs,
                                          

and Luke likes to pound it out.  Good thing there are no neighbors below us in our townhouse!


The twins are also starting to take bigger steps in the walker.

Which way should I go?
                       You can't keep me in this thing forever!                                 
Luke gets his legs going and is making good progress,

                                          

and Clare is already navigating past the dog (until she finds something to chew on and promptly stops forward progress).



Milestone #3:  Rolling Over

Again, Clare is a little ahead of her brother,

Typical play mat view...Clare up and Luke down
and is days (maybe hours) away from crawling (she's 'scooting' away from the play mat and towards me as I type!).


Luke isn't quite there yet, but he sure gives it a good shot!


Luke has, however, mastered forming a right angle with his legs and torso (currently his favorite position on the floor and in the car seat) which maybe counts for something?!?

Somehow, he finds this comfortable for hours a day

Milestone #4:  Eating Solids (more like blended foods)

Finally, a category where Luke dominates!  
Hey, 2nd born doesn't always mean 2nd place!
We recently introduced rice cereal to the twins, which was met with mixed results.  Clare gave us dirty looks,

                                          

but Luke is enjoying being spoonfed.  He really likes it...

                                          

and we really like the recent diaper changes (I'll leave the picture of this to your own imagination)!


Milestone #5: Grabbing (and reaching...for everything)

Both of the twins have an obsession with grabbing things, especially our faces.  (We have learned the importance of regular fingernail grooming because of this.)

Clare's got dad by the nose
Luke touches his mirror
The twins will reach for anything and everything that catches their eye (and sometimes its quite a stretch!),

Must. Grab. That. Bird.
Luke reaches for the paparazzi
and the game of Peekaboo is officially on (we were bored during the President's SOTU Address)!



Milestone #6:  Talking (more like squealing)

We aren't quite sure what to make of this stage of voice development.  Both of the twins have definitely turned up the volume lately.  Clare is starting to sound more and more like a dolphin (we hope she never gets that full shriek out),


and Luke, I'm not sure what he is, but he sure is loud!


We know we'll see crawling, walking, talking, potty training (we are in no rush for the first of these three!) and more milestones in the future, but for now, we are enjoying watching these babies grow and start to enjoy large portions of their daily life.  It's been a great 6 months for Clare and Luke!