Twins: 9 months old

Miles and Calvin are 9 months old!!!

Calvin:

Height: 29 inches (79th percentile)

Weight: 20 lbs 12 oz (70th percentile)

Head circum: 18.5 (95th percentile. Yay...first time it isn't 99%)

4 teeth

Size 3 diapers during the day; size 4 at night

Some 12 month clothes; some 18 month onesies

Miles:

Height: 30 inches (97th percentile)

Weight: 21.5 lbs (81st percentile)

Head circum: 18.25 (87th percentile)

2 bottom teeth

Size 3 diapers during the day; size 4 at night

Some 12 month clothes; some 18 month onesies

Here's what we've been up to (Oct. 20th-Nov. 20th):

We went to Charles City to see Great Grandma and Grandpa Guthart.

We also had lunch with Great Grandma and Grandpa Stewart (and lots of great aunts and uncles too!)

The boys celebrated their first Halloween!

Miles wearing cousin Lauren's costume

They were silly little monkeys!

We went trick-or-treating at Aunt Angie and Uncle Doug's, Grandpa Lyle's and a few of his neighbor's houses, and then to Uncle Jason's. We did ALL the work to get candy and mom and dad ate it all. Maybe next year we'll get a taste :)

We also went to storytime at the library in our costumes and attended our first Halloween party!

Miles in his monkey cage (FYI...this is a baby gate..not a cage!)

We are getting to be so much fun and interactive! Mom and dad love tickling us and making us laugh. We love playing peek-a-book and hiding under blankets. Here is a funny video of Miles cracking up!

We are getting really good at eating finger food. We've started eating more table food too. We love eating yogurt melts, puffs, cheerios, toast or anything that mom and dad are eating (especially when dad gives us some whipped cream....yum!). We don't really like chunks of fruit or whole veges yet (pureed is the only way we like to eat it!) 

Calvin with his cheerio face

Calvin is a fast, doubled handed, messy eater and always wants more! Miles is a really good eater, but doesn't get nearly as excited as Calvin. You would think with how much food Calvin eats he would be the bigger baby....but nope....Miles is still bigger!

Crazy Calvin won't sit still!

We've had a rough month with being sick :( And of course with twins.....when one gets it...the other will get it a few days later!

Tuesday, Oct. 30th:  The boys had to have hearing tests done because they were a little premature and Calvin was in the NICU. Calvin passed his hearing test....Miles failed in one ear. They said it could be because of an ear infection, but he didn't have any other symptoms so we didn't take him to the doctor.

Miles snuggling with daddy. So sweet!

Friday, November 2nd: The doctor called and saw the report that Miles failed his hearing test so they wanted him to come into the office to get checked out. Sure enough...ear infection in his right ear! Oops....bad parents! He hated his meds so we had to mix them in with his formula.  

Wednesday, November 7th: Calvin was super fussy all day and I thought it was just "him being him", but as I was going to put him down for another nap I decided to take his temp and sure enough...it was pretty high. Called the doctor and they said to bring him in. Sure enough....ear infection for him too (opposite ear of course....he can't be like his brother!). He refused to eat his bottle with meds mixed in so we had to hold him down and force it with the medicine syringe.  

We gave him his first dose of amoxicillin at 7pm and then the boys went to bed at 8. Around 10:30 I noticed on the video monitor (thank goodness for video monitors...seriously best invention EVER) that he was making a groaning noise and was really uncomfortable. I had Andrew check on him and a few minutes later Andrew brought him downstairs because Calvin was having trouble breathing. We thought he was having an allergic reaction to the amoxicillin (Andrew is very allergic) so we called the doc to ask if we should give him Benadryl. The nurse said she couldn't tell us to do that, but if our gut said to go to the hospital, then we needed to go. Of course I am in tears by this point. We woke up Miles and rushed to the hospital. Apparently it wasn't an allergic reaction though.....the trouble breathing, rapid heart rate, and wheezing were a side effect of his high fever (103 degrees). They gave him some drugs and then we had to wait a while for them to kick in.

Here is the BEFORE picture of a tired, miserable baby

                                       

Here is a picture AFTER the drugs kicked in. Different kid, huh? Once his fever dropped he thought being in the hospital was the best thing ever. He had mom, dad and brother in the same room, in the middle of the night (at 1AM to be exact)....that's called a party!!

But over the next few days he kept spiking fevers :(  You can tell he doesn't feel good because this kid NEVER sits still. He was just laying on the floor watching TV. Poor boy.

Thursday, November 15th: Three days after Miles ends his antibiotic he spikes a fever again. We thought he still had his ear infection.

Friday, November 16th: Both boys go to the doctor for their 9 month checkup and to see if Miles has his ear infection still. No ear infection...yay! I think we are FINALLY on the mend! That was a LONG three weeks!

Look at those baby blues

This sweet boy had another first.....the first time pooping in the bath tub (he did it THREE TIMES in one week!!!) Luckily I wasn't on bath duty for any of those :)

Miles and Calvin had their first taste of McDonalds chicken nuggets

They're pretty proud!

Look out world....Calvin has his first set of wheels! We borrowed a walker from our friends and Calvin LOVES it! His favorite thing to do is walk holding people's hands, but when mom and dad get tired...the walker does the trick. He is getting into SO much trouble lately (just wait for my next blog post!)

He looks so innocent, right?? He stole the tray off his
highchair and is pretty proud of himself!

November 18th: Miles started officially crawling!  Uh oh...we are in so much trouble now! Luckily he isn't very fast yet and does a pretty good job listening when we tell him no (unlike his brother who just laughs when we say NO)

The boys are starting to interact with each other more. They laugh at each other and want to be right next to each other. I was in the kitchen and I heard Calvin make a funny noise (like the wind was getting knocked out of him)....when I looked in the living room I saw that Calvin rolled under the jumper and Miles was literally jumping on him. They both thought it was pretty funny though!

We transitioned to our big kid car seats. We were getting too heavy for our infant carriers. At first we didn't like them, but they are growing on us. Here's a picture of us in our new car seats enjoying a family trip to Menards. (oh yeah...and we celebrated mom and dads 6th wedding anniversary this day too!)

Thanks for checking in on us! Enjoy the holiday season!!

<3 Miles and Calvin

Twins: 8 months old

2/3 of a year old (8 months!)

Here is what we've been up to lately (9/20-10/20):

Chillin' with dad on the weekends watching Iowa lose football.

Watching Iowa State too! Go Cyclones!

We were sick at the end of September. Knocked us out for over an entire week! Mom loved the extra cuddles though. While we were sick we didn't sleep well at night, but took good naps during the day. Now we are back to our normal schedule. We sleep from 8pm-7am and then take two naps during the day. We go right to bed at nap and night time without any help from mom and dad. We are good sleepers!! 

We don't sit still much anymore. I guess mom and dad need to start buckling us in.

We don't quite crawl yet, but we roll everywhere we want to go. Miles is SO close to crawling, but Calvin might skip straight to walking. He loves to walk while holding our hands and has no interest in crawling....rolling is way faster...although he isn't always graceful with his big ol' noggin!

Mom gave Miles his first haircut on October 5th. It was getting a little wild and crazy and was almost in his eyes. Doesn't it look much better? After we cut it we discovered that Miles has blonder hair than we though!                                                                                                                                               

Calvin is going to be quite the soccer player (or just very destructive!) He loves to kick anything that is in his way....including his brother! We have caught him flipping his brother over with his legs. Calvin is very good at stealing Miles' toys too....one of these days Miles will learn how to fight back and then we are in trouble!!

We are gearing up for the cold weather ahead!  So far we don't mind our coats and hats, but mom and dad might have to install our "big boy" car seats soon because we barely fit in our infant carriers anymore!

We went to the pumpkin patch on our 8 month birthday. We always love getting out of the house to see new things. Mom and Dad say we are pretty good in public (no meltdowns yet), but that may change soon once we start getting mobile. 

Calvin:  Our sweet, quiet Cal is no longer quiet (and sometimes not sweet!). He literally didn't cry for the first six months of his life (we were a little worried about him!), but now he is making up for lost time....he has an opinion lately and wants to be heard! Who knew an 8 month old could whine so well? His sassy attitude lately could be because he cut two teeth earlier this month. He still loves his babyfood and has graduated to puffs, crackers and some "big-kid" food. Whenever he sees us eating he smacks his lips and "begs" for food, but instead of trying to pick up food himself...he whines until you put a bite in his mouth (little stinker! how do we break that habit??) Calvin used to be our chill/snuggly baby, but lately he is very busy and doesn't sit still! He always wants to be held and has a very short attention span with toys. He likes to stand and walk holding our hands and wiggles constantly in our arms. He is very attached to mommy and daddy and gets nervous around strangers (actually...everyone!). He is definitely our night-owl and gets very hyper before bed and does NOT like to be woken up in the morning (he gets that from his mom)!

Miles:  Miles was the high-maintenance child for the first few months of his life, but now he has become very independent. He likes to play by himself and would jump in his jumper all day if we let him. Miles is a quick roller and can usually maneuver to any toy he wants and then studies it carefully. He barely has one tooth poking through, but is starting to enjoy more foods. He loves to feed himself and makes a sour face if we try to feed him (he thinks we are poisoning him....but if he does it, he loves it!)  He is very talkative and loves to scream/screech for joy (his cousin Zachary cries every time he screams....I think it hurts everyone's ears!) He is always quick to flash a smile at people and is a little more comfortable with strangers than his brother, but is still very cautious. He is very sensitive and will cry easily if we raise our voices or if he gets his feelings hurt :) He is super lovey though and will sit on our laps and "chill" forever! Mom is definitely soaking up the hugs, kisses and cuddles from Mr. Miles.


 Sorry this is so late! It's tough writing a blog post with two busy bodies and four curious hands trying to "help" out all the time. I should probably start writing their 9 month blog post NOW! Thanks for reading!!