Who are these girls?

When I look at old pictures of the girls I can't believe how much my little monkeys have changed in such a short period of time. Sometimes I don't hardly recognize them because when I picture them in my mind it is almost always how they look today. If try to remember what they looked like in the past, I remember their size so much better than I remember their faces. I'll will always be grateful for the invention of cameras. So much of our lives would be lost without them.

Here is a little refresher for our memories.

Boowwwwl

Caitlin's newest word is bowl. It is so funny when she says it because she pronounces it with a sharp b and exaggerates the ow. I love this learning stage they are in!

In honor of the addition of bowl to their vocabulary, I am posting some pics of them playing in a bowl. They were in the kitchen playing by themselves a few weeks ago. I walked in and saw Isabella sitting in this container I let them play with. Caitlin thought it was too cool for her to be left out so she tried her hardest to get in the bowl with Isabella. Isabella on the other hand had no desire to share her new found spot with her sister. After a whole lot of pushing on Caitlin's part, Isabella decided there was something else more fun for her to do and left Caitlin to enjoy the bowl. Oh, by the way. If you look closely, you will see that Cheerios stick to fleece jammies very well. :)

Rainbow Brite makes everything better.

We are still in the throes of teething hell. The monkeys have 5 or 6 teeth working their way through the gum line. Their top two molars are about half way through and their bottom two have started breaking the gum line along with one or two of the bottom front teeth. Needless to say my little monkeys are in a lot of pain these days. Isabella has been screaming for days. Fun times! So tonight Isabella was inconsolable so I started trying to use the Rainbow Brite doll to distract her. She has been kind of afraid of it in the past, but today she suddenly likes it. That doll gave us 15 minutes without any screaming so I love it! Here are a few pics of Isabella's rough afternoon and my happy monkey with her grandma and her mommy's doll.

Caitlin certainly had her rough periods today. Thankfully, they weren't always at the same time as Isabella's. During Isabella's last meltdown, Caitlin was blissfully occupied.

1 Year

Yes, I know that I'm late with this post. August was a very eventful month and the girls didn't have their well baby appointment until the 19th. They were running behind so we were at the pedi's for a tortuous 2 hours. That is way too long for 1 year olds who missed their morning nap because of the appointment. Fortunately, my brother was in town and went with me since Jeff and mom weren't able to. I wouldn't have survived it without him.

The monkeys are still rocking the charts for their verbal skills. Their fine motor and social skills are right up there too. They are still behind on their gross motor skills. We are working on them though. The pedi did put a referral in for physical therapy and said we could pursue it in a couple of months if we needed to. I don't think it will be necessary as the girls are making progress. Caitlin's weight is still at the bottom of the chart, but the pedi isn't concerned yet. Overall the monkeys are doing very well. Here are their stats:

Caitlin

Weight: 17lbs 11oz - 4%

at birth: 4lbs 3oz

Height: 29 1/4" - 48%

at birth: 17"

Isabella

Weight: 19lbs 2oz - 15%

at birth: 5lbs

Height: 30 1/4" - 79%

at birth 17 1/4"

Here are a couple of pics of the monkeys with Sean right before he went home.

Silent Observer

Our first family photo.

The monkeys on their birth day.

So small! So perfect! So loved!

One night last week I went in to check on the monkeys like I do every night before I go to sleep. It was late and I was exhausted. The floor squeaked and Isabella sat up. I froze in place hoping that she would lay back down without seeing me. She looked around and crawled over toward me. I had a moment of panic thinking I had woken her up and would have to give her a bottle to get her back to sleep. It wasn't me she wanted though.

When she reached Caitlin she stopped and started grabbing at Caitlin's face. I had another moment of panic thinking I was going to be feeding two babies in the middle of the night. Caitlin barely stirred though. Isabella grabbed at Caitlin a couple of more times then she laid back down. I waited a moment for her to go back to sleep. Instead she sat up again and searched around on the mattress in front of Caitlin. Not finding what she wanted, she grabbed at Caitlin once more. This time she was able to get to Caitlin's mouth and found the object of her desire. With a swift tug, she removed Caitlin's paci, placed it in her own mouth and promptly drifted off to sleep once again.

I crept back to my own bed with a smile and the joy of seeing first hand how much my babies have bonded during their first year.

Caitlin

Caitlin is such a little sweetheart. She would be happy if her mommy just sat and held her all day. Not in a cuddly way though. She wants to be close, but she usually isn't much of a snuggler. She has so much anxiety. Separation anxiety is still an issue for her. She doesn't like it when I get out of eyesight. Fortunately, she relaxes after a few minutes. Her issues in the car are mostly resolved. Now when she does get upset in the car, she cries but it's not the hysterical cries we were having a problem with. She has learned to clap in the last week. Her cute little style is to hit the back of one hand with the palm of the other. She always has a big smile when she does it. She still only has one tooth, but she has her two canines coming through. It has really disrupted her sleep, particularly around 3 am.

Caitlin reaching for the camera.

She is still so fascinated by the camera and tries to grab it anytime I get close to her. She is really trying to learn to crawl. She gets up on all fours with her head in the air. Then she lowers her head to the floor and uses it for support while she moves her arms and legs. She is so close to perfecting it, that I'm sure she will be crawling soon.

Caitlin playing her favorite blanket over the head game.

My mom usually takes each of the girls outside for a little bit every evening. Caitlin loves being outside so much that as soon as mom picks her up she immediately looks toward the door and doesn't stop until mom takes her out. I love her interest in being outside. Hopefully it will continue throughout her life. We have a big camping trip coming up and I am curious to see how much she enjoys being outside all of the time.

I know this was a random, all over the place post. I just wanted to take a few minutes to catch you all up on what is going on in Caitlin's world. I will try to get an Isabella post up later today.

The dangling carrot.

We have all heard that you can get a horse or a rabbit to come to you if you dangle a carrot in front of it. Apparently, it also works with Isabella. This afternoon I put Caitlin in the jumperoo and Isabella in one of the exersaucers to play while I had some lunch. They weren't far apart, but there was a good foot or so between them I thought. I guess I was paying too much attention to my food and not enough to them, because I looked up at them to see Isabella moving closer to Caitlin.

Somehow Isabella had managed to get herself far enough over the edge of the exersaucer to reach one of the support posts on the jumperoo. She was using the post to pull herself and the exersaucer closer to Caitlin. At first I thought Caitlin was her goal. Nope. The carrot that is attached to the jumperoo was hanging off of the side and she was trying to reach it. When she still couldn't quite reach her goal, she grabbed the post with both hands and angled herself while she pulled to maneuver the exersaucer into the right position.

I was blown away watching her do it. First of all, I had no idea she was strong enough. The bigger thing, though, was the level of thought and analysis she had to use to determine how to get the exersaucer moved while she was in it. It took her less than 5 minutes to figure out how to get to the goal. My babies may not be able to crawl yet, but they sure are smart. :)

Isabella with the carrot a month ago.

Caitlin in one of the exersaucers in February.

Tooth! and My Birthday

Caitlin has her first tooth! She wouldn't let me feel her gums for a couple of days, but I believe it broke the gum line on Monday or most likely Tuesday. Her first one is the bottom front right tooth. I'm so happy we are starting to make progress! Hopefully they will both get the other front bottom teeth through soon so we can have a few weeks without cranky babies.

Monday was my birthday. It was such a nice day! We spent the day at home with the girls and a few friends came over for a b-b-q that evening. It was a very low key day, unlike our normal Memorial Day b-b-qs. Life has been so crazy lately, that a quiet day was extra special. My friend Sandi made this spring fling cake for me:

She also made a second cake that was from the monkeys. She was going to have them put their hand prints in the icing. It was such a cute idea! Unfortunately, Caitlin's hand pulled up a large section of the icing so it didn't exactly work out as planned.

Here are a couple of rare pictures of me with the girls and a couple of the girls playing.

Me and Caitlin

Me and Isabella

Isabella

Caitlin

Eat, eat, eat and No

Isabella's new favorite word is eat. Eat, eat, eat is what she kept saying today. I'm not sure if she understands what it means, but she sure likes to say it. I have been trying to get Caitlin to say it. This evening I asked her if she could say eat. She said no and shook her head. Looks like she knows the word no now. I guess I've been saying it to them more than I realized. Considering how fascinated they are with everything around them, I'm sure I will be saying it a lot more than I want to over the next few years.

New Stats

The monkeys had an appointment with their pediatrician today. She was very happy with their progress. They are behind on some of their gross motor skills, but they are rocking the scale on their fine motor skills and their verbal skills. She was very impressed with their vocabulary. Their length is fantastic. Their weight is not great. Isabella's weight is making progress on the charts but Caitlin has lost some ground. The pediatrician is not yet concerned about it though. Here's the skinny of their new numbers:

Isabella
Length - 28 inches, which is the 70th percentile
At birth - 17 1/4 inches
Weight - 17 pounds, 1.8 ounces, which is the 16th percentile
At birth - 4 pounds, 15.4 ounces

Caitlin
Length - 28 inches, which is the 70th percentile
At birth - 17 inches
Weight - 15 pounds, 14.4 ounces, which is the 5th percentile
At birth - 4 pounds, 3.3 ounces

9 Months!

The little monkeys are 9 months old today!

Caitlin wants you to know that being the little sister does not mean that she is afraid to pick a fight with her big sister.

Sissy!

Isabella called Caitlin sissy today! It was sooo cute! She rolled over to the base of the chair I was sitting in. I was holding Caitlin at the time so I held Caitlin over Isabella to let Isabella play with Caitlin's feet. Isabella was looking at Caitlin's face and said sissy. I was shocked! Thinking it might have been my imagination, I repeated it a few times and each time she said it right back while looking at Caitlin. It just melted my heart. I really didn't think either one of them would say it for a few more months, but they do hear it all of the time so I really shouldn't be so surprised.

They are both talking quite a bit. They both say mama, dada and yeah. Isabella has said bye and we think she said hi a couple of times. Caitlin has said uh-oh and nite, nite - well that one came out more as ni, ni - and bob. Not sure where bob came from. For a couple of weeks Isabella was saying dada all day and night long. It was making her momma a bit crazy. Her first word was mama but after the first week of saying it she rarely does anymore. I am happy she says dada so much since I'm sure it makes Jeff happy, but at 3 am I would rather hear mama than dada, especially when daddy is sound asleep. :)

8 Months!

Our little monkeys are 8 months old today! I just cannot believe how fast time is passing by.

Isabella

Caitlin

Why do I keep missing it??

On Friday the little monkeys were not interested in napping. Again. I left them in their crib in hopes of at least a little nap creeping on up on them. I went in to check on them a little while latter. Caitlin was on her stomach. Caitlin who hates tummy time and will not roll over without someone trying to train her to do it was on her stomach. My first thought was - yay she did it all by herself and she is not crying. My second thought was - you have got to be kidding me. I am with the girls all day, every day. Yet I have somehow missed seeing both of them roll over by themselves for the first time. Isabella did it during play time one day when I stepped out of the room to get something. I came back into the room and there she was on her tummy with an expression that said she didn't really know how she got there. Now Caitlin has done it too. I think I am just going to have to become one of those helicopter moms who never leave their kids alone. There is no other way to keep from missing the firsts. Or maybe there is :)

I didn't get a picture so I will post a couple of pics from times when there were actually taking a nap.

Caitlin at 29 days. Isabella at 26 days.

7 Months

Wow, our little monkeys are 7 months old today! Throughout our lives we always hear the old saying about how fast time flies. While I always knew it was true, I did not realize how true until the monkeys arrived. Each month just seems to pass more quickly than the last one. I want to experience all of those wonderful moments that are going to happen as the girls grow up, but at the same time I want them to stay just the way they are forever. They have already changed so much. It makes me so happy to watch them grow and blossom and yet so sad to see a little bit of my babies disappear each day.

On the day we brought them home, Caitlin weighed 3 lbs 14 oz and Isabella weighed 4 lbs 11 oz. At their 6 month check up, Caitlin was up to 13 lbs 6 oz and Isabella was up to 14 lbs 6 oz. Below is a picture of the girls on the day we brought them home (wearing the smallest preemie onesies we had) and one from today.