At the development assessment last week, we learned that Julie's next milestone to roll over several times in a row to move around.  We were given an exercise to do with her to help her with rolling over.  That afternoon, she started rolling all over the place.  Every day now, she just rolls and rolls.  We have to be careful when we open the door because she is often rolling around near it.  She's also stopped whining when she rolls to her stomach in bed because she rolls all around her bed now.  We also had to lower Julie and Alex's cribs this weekend because Julie started pulling herself up onto her knees to look over the edge of the crib.  We wondered what the middle height setting was for, and now we know.  Julie is also starting the motion for clapping.  It started with banging toys together, and now she puts her hands together like she's clapping.  It's all very cute.

 

I also got some cardboard blocks yesterday for the kids to play with.  Alex loves knocking them over as fast as we can build them up.  He also has a couple of new "cause and effect" toys that he really, really likes.  One is a little t-ball stand that when it's pushed it plays a song.  Another toy is flat where he presses some animals and they make sound.  That toy in particular is good because he has to hold himself up on his arms to play with it.

 

Not only is their development different, which is really interesting, they are also really starting to show different preferences for toys and how they play.  Twins are so fascinating!

Whenever someone sees our babies, they almost always tell us how beautiful or wonderful they are.  Now, I know that people love to hear that about their babies, and really, is anyone really going to say something different?  So, I take it with a grain of salt, even though I think they are beautiful and wonderful myself.  Chalk it up to mother's bias.  Well, today, it was confirmed that Alex and Julie truly are beautiful babies.  We took them for a developmental evaluation.  The therapist went on and on about how beautiful they were.  Ok, that's nice, she sees a ton of babies and I kind of expected this.  That way she could ease into any issues the babies were having.  When we were leaving though, she asked if Alex and Julie would be models for her upcoming book.  She kept going on and on about how perfectly shaped their heads are and all symmetrical and everything.  I was pretty surprised that she was serious.  I told her, sure, let me know, and we'll see if they cooperate for a photo shoot.  So, it's confirmed, they have their first offer to become stars.

 

You may be wondering how the actual evaluation went.  We found out that Alex's arms are a little weak, so we have several exercises to do with him to bulk him up.  Otherwise, he will crawl way after Julie and we don't want them to be too far apart.  Julie has some "stranger anxiety" going on and didn't get a full assessment.  As soon as the therapist tried to assess her, her little face would scrunch up, turn red and then she would cry.  So, back to mom she went.  I'd get her happy and we'd try again.  After a bit, we decided it was just too much for her.  Regardless, we were given some homework for getting her to roll over more and how to help her progression in sitting up from laying down by herself and crawling.  The good news is that the therapist was impressed with how attentive they are and their "eye pointing" which we need to encourage even more.  They also sit up quite well and reach for toys well.  I also have a few new toys to buy now for their development as they are ready for more cause and effect toys and Alex needs toys to play with while on his stomach. 

 

So, overall, they are developing fine.  They are slightly on the slower side of normal, but no red flags.  The therapist said that doctors would easily say they were in the range of normal and not too worry.  Her theory is that this is a frustrating time of their development anyway - they want to move, but don't how to yet - so, why prolong it and not give them some extra exercises to help them out?  I happen to agree with her, even though having them stationary is nice for us.  But we can certainly tell that they are ready to move and explore and are getting frustrated with stationary games.

This was Alex and Julie's first Easter!  We celebrated with Laure, Chris, Daniele and Bill.  Today was also Chris' birthday, so Daniele and Bill had come out to celebrate.  Julie and Alex received presents from their godmother, Kristi, Laure and Grandma Daniele.  They now have more books, clothes and toys.  They particularly liked the tags and Alex really liked the tissue paper!  This Christmas, I think I'm just going to get them a big empty box. :-)  We had a very nice lunch prepared by Daniele and we colored Easter eggs.  The family played a new expansion of Settlers of Catan, which took several hours!  There is a lot more going on with all the extra rules and possibilities.

After many starts and stops to learning how to roll over, I think Alex has finally mastered it.  If he's put on his stomach he can successfully roll over to his back every time.  I don't think he realizes he can use the roll over for mobility to get to something, so we'll need to work on that a bit.  I'm just happy he can roll over both ways now!  Julie can roll over onto her stomach, but isn't 100% about being able to get out of the situation.  Sometimes, she can roll back, but often she gets upset and just cries.  We'll keep working with her on this since she's a bit past due on getting this skill completely nailed.

Julie and Alex have created their first artwork.  Not only did they use the pens to draw, but they also added a crumple element to give it more character! 

 

I bought some special paper and markers that only write on that paper.  Laure had craft time with them, and they produced the art work.  The hardest part is keeping the pens out of their mouths!  Finger painting is the next craft they're going to try.

 

I started the last post a few days ago and finally had time to finish it.  I must say, in the last day, things have gotten better.  Julie has stopped teething and is back to normal.  She has two bottom teeth and is adorable.  She's also so, so happy now!  Yesterday, she laughed and smiled more in one day than I've ever seen her do.  She would laugh at apparently nothing - two days ago she was sitting in Alex's crib just laughing away.  Alex was sitting in her crib laughing right along.  I was simply picking out their clothes for the day, so nothing funny there.  Then yesterday, she just laughed and laughed... in the jumperoo, while holding her, in the crib.  Everything is just so funny now.  We always thought she was a pretty tough customer to get any smiles or laughs out of her, but that's all changed.

 

Alex is up to four teeth now with the last top tooth just starting to pop through.  I hope the saliva stops soon so we can get his rear end back into good shape.

 

Julie has also started making music.  She takes toys and bangs them together.  She purposefully holds her rattles up in the air and shakes them (and then puts them in her mouth).  She bangs on pots with spoons.  It's really quite adorable and demonstrates her next step in development.  Alex is still all about putting everything straight in his mouth...  Although he does bang on pots in between gnawing on the spoon.  I'm not too concerned as they seem to pick up skills at different times.

 

I've signed up Julie and Alex for a free Kindermusik class on Thursday.  If it's good, then I plan to sign them up for the actual class.  If it's everything the web site says it is, then I think they will love it.

 

Oh, and carrots - big frowny face for those.  We'll keep trying, but so far sweet potatoes and pears are the winning solid foods.

Who knew turning 8 months old would be so difficult?  Ok, it's probably mostly due to the teething, but Alex and Julie are certainly having a tough time of it.  Their gums and bums both hurt, which makes for some miserable days.  They're swallowing so much saliva that they have this crazy worse-than-diarrhea poo.  It's runny and causes blow-outs, and leads to diaper rash.  We try our best to keep up with it, but YUCK!  And, it just can't feel good.