11 Months Old!

Yesterday, Thomas and Elizabeth turned 11 months old! They had a pretty good day though they have been a little puny. I took them to the pediatrician on Monday because they have been REALLY fussy and playing with their ears. I thought they might be teething, but being a speech pathologist I was worried they might have an ear infection. Their ears were clear, no new teeth emerging, but they both had really red throats. They were negative for strep (whew!) so it may be viral. The doctor said to watch them and bring them back in if they get worse. Here's to getting better!


The twins went swimming for the very first time on Sunday! Our friends Marcus and Ann invited us over to their house for the afternoon to swim with their girls. They have a beautiful pool area in their backyard. Thomas and Elizabeth loved it! They didn't even seem to mind being coated with sunscreen. Their sun hats stayed on for most of the swim....they are not too fond of them but are learning. I fed them their supper poolside, and all went well until bottle time. That is when Thomas started having a "come apart". That was the moment that I felt like something was wrong with him and possibly Elizabeth.


Let's see....at eleven months what have they learned?


Elizabeth is crawling EVERYWHERE, clapping her hands and pulling to her knees consistently. She has pulled to stand a couple of times now. Bless her heart, she falls and hurts herself all the time now. E has two teeth but chews on everything...maybe more are coming? The bumper pads are out of her crib so she doesn't have anything to snuggle with as she did before. E seems to be doing ok with this but not sure mama and daddy are. It just seems so cold and hard without the bumper pads. Blankets aren't an option -- David says no...he is afraid of suffocation -- besides the fact that Elizabeth sleeps all over the place. There is absolutely no way she would stay covered up, and the blanket would wind up in the floor along with her pacifier. The other day I realized I only had one of her pacifiers in the "clean container".....I found three or four under her bed :) Elizabeth loves to play with shoes especially my tennis shoes and gets so excited when I put them on. She loves my birkenstocks as well, but I don't like to let her play with them because they are 13 years old....who knows what could be on them?! E loves her bed and is so good about waiting for me to come and get her whether it is from her nap or in the morning, and she is always so happy to see us when she wakes up. She is a happy baby and thinks funny faces are hysterical! She sounds like a grown-up when she laughs at our funny faces....such a cute cackle...reminds me of her Poppy. Elizabeth looks exactly like her daddy, and people notice it right away whenever he is holding her. She still clings to me and likes me in the room with her. Now that she is crawling she will follow me whenever I leave the room. I love to hear her hands patter on the hardwood floors....such a sweet sound. Her favorite food right now is strawberry bananas, and she doesn't seem to have a "full spot" when eating them. I recently tried giving Elizabeth formula in her cup, but she refused it. I decided to continue formula in the bottle and introduce whole milk in her cup in a couple of weeks. She does well drinking juice from her cup. Her favorite toys include board books and a duck from a farm puzzle/toy.

What about Thomas? He is really pullling away from Elizabeth in terms of their sizes. He weighs a little over twenty pounds while she weighs 17 pounds and 4 ounces. He drinks around three more ounces than she does per day though their solids are about the same. Thomas has started rolling over to sleep on his stomach which is SO weird! He has always preferred his back until recently. One morning I went to get the twins up from their morning nap, and Thomas was on his tummy looking as if he were swimming in a pool with his legs and arms kicking and moving at the same time. Since then he seems to roll onto his tummy after kicking on his back for awhile. He ABSOLUTELY LOVES his bed and squeals with delight whenever we lay him down. That is so comforting to both of us. Thomas no longer has his bumper pads either, but he was never one to cuddle up to them. He just recently started moving around in his bed while sleeping. Thomas likes to be put in Elizabeth's bed whenever he wakes up. He will sit up in her bed and just laugh and talk. She likes to go into his bed as well. Thomas continues to prefer standing up and has not shown much interest in crawling. He is reaching more for toys that are out of his reach and gets frustrated when he can't reach them. Thomas loves to pat his own belly while playing and continues to clap his hands. His favorite food? He likes most food -- HaHa!-- I don't think I can pick just one favorite for him. He likes bananas, Blueberry Buckle, vanilla custard, sweet potatoes, etc. I have started feeding them my yogurt instead of mixing baby food with plain yogurt. They like it better -- I'm sure because it has more sugar in it. It has bits of fruit in it so I figure it is good for teaching them how to move food around and begin to learn to chew. So far they seem to be tolerating the lactose. He is doing quite well drinking juice out of his sippy cup. I plan on trying whole milk in a couple of weeks. Thomas' favorite toys are board books, a farm puzzle/toy, and blocks. He screams at Elizabeth whenever she takes something from him, but she usually screams back. It is quite fun to watch.

It is amazing how much babies grow and develop in their first year of life. Thomas and Elizabeth have certainly come a long way since their birth. They are very happy babies who make us laugh every day, and we can't imagine life without them.

We are gearing up for their first birthday party and plan to have lots of family and some friends. More on that later.