7 Months - Christmas with the Kidlets

Christmas Excitement

Well, Christmas is pretty much like every other day for a set of 7-month old twins. They don't know the difference and, if you're as busy as a parent of 7-month old twins, you hardly can tell the difference either. The only way you know it's Christmas is the added pressure to be places with extra boxes and with kids who've hopefully had extra naps to help them stay up later to please the rest of the family.

Well, not entirely true, I guess. If you're the Dad of the twins, you know it's a different sort of day because you're stuck on Christmas Eve putting together the new exersaucer that comes in a hundred-million pieces. It takes you at least an hour and a couple of glasses of wine to get the thing to look right. And, when it does, you're so excited to see their faces when they sit in it, you ask your wife at least 4 times throughout the night if you can wake up the sleeping babies so they could try it out. Finally, at 6:00 am she relents. You joyfully bound out to the nursery, pick up the groggy, confused kidlets, and watch through the camera lens to see and record their reactions.

Yes, Virginia, there is excitement, and a Santa Claus, for adults at Christmastime as well!

6 months 3 weeks - Santa Paws Comes to Town

Santa Paws

We are slowly becoming a family again. My sister Ainsley, who has been taking care of our dog Hayden since we've been "outsed" from our San Francisco home, went on vacation this week. This means that Hayden came down the hill from Tahoe to stay with us! We were very excited! And, wouldn't you know, that Santa Paws arrived at the local pet food store just a few days later - definitely good timing.

So, the girls, already dressed up in winter celebration, Hayden and I wandered down during a break in the rainy weather for a picture with good 'ole Santa Paws. Hayden does really well walking on the side of the stroller. Although she'd like to wander, the stroller is sturdy enough to keep her little jerks contained without derailing the stroller or sending it off-course.

The girls continue to do well with their solids. Bananas are a real treat and Ava has adapted the habit of impersonating a little bird, opening up her mouth super wide when she sees the spoon. Tina is still learning - her tongue, always rolled up all fat and slightly sticking out, still gets in the way. If we can get her to open her mouth wide enough, the rest (pushing the food back and swallowing) is a cinch.

We can hardly believe they are almost 7 months old!!

6 Months 2 Weeks - First Foods

Bettina eats her mush

We'd decided that Ava doesn't like carrots.

We've started on other foods besides rice cereal and began with the orange foods first. Carrots were no good for Ava. She'd eat the cereal instead. She did, however, enjoy sweet potatoes and the pears we fixed yesterday.

I bought a baby food processor so that we could make our own food. It's really handy and I love it even more that the mini cuisinart that I already had as it's smaller and easier to clean.

So far, we're eating just one meal a day - in the afternoon - and only a few foods: rice cereal, sweet potatoes, carrots (well, at least Tina's eating those), and pears. We will add new ones every 4-5 days and watch with interest which ones they like/don't like. Their squished-up faces when they don't like something is really funny and cute.

Some things I didn't know about eating solids that are interesting to note:

• They start out eating only one tablespoon of food per meal. (So small!!)
• Babies should drink between 2-4 oz of water after eating solids to help them digest and also to prevent rotting that may occur if the food just sat there on their gums/teeth.
• Even homemade foods should be used within 2 days or thrown out. Babies tummies are tender, I guess.
• If you make homemade juices, you must pasturize (boil for a couple of minutes) them first before giving it to them.

Soon we will try bananas and avocados. We will see what sort of faces they will make with their introductions.