Julie and Alex are now 10 months old.  They are more and more like kids every day instead of babies.  They have a ton of toys that they play with all the time.  We rotate through them to keep them interested.  They are standing with assistance.  Julie is just taking her first crawling steps.  Alex can roll around if he wants to get somewhere.  They take toys from each other and get mad when the other takes a toy from them... well, at least Julie does.  They're eating all sorts of solids and showing their preferences - guava and spinach are not hits.  They laugh, they smile, they squeal.... Julie has just started saying dadadada and babababa.  We're still working on the sign language, although Alex did sign milk at least once now.

 

They started wearing 12 month sized clothes.  They have a full wardrobe at that size, but they don't have a lot of 18 month sized clothes yet......

 

They are very happy babies and such a joy.

 

One thing I find interesting is that lots of people give the comment "it must be so hard to have twins" or "I can't imagine how much work it is to have twins".  I don't know if they don't have anything else to say, or if they truly believe it's a terrible amount of work.  I personally think it's great having twins and I don't see it as that much more work.  More expensive, but we don't but 2 of everything, so it's not too terrible.  They are developing at different paces and we certainly see their different personalities, but it makes it a lot of fun.  We cut down on the "work" by keeping them on a schedule.  In some ways, I see us having an easier time than some of our friends with just one baby.  I attribute it to not having a choice but to be organized and not being able to spoil one baby.  They have to learn to share attention.  Anyway, I guess the short of it is, I'd take Julie and Alex over having just one baby or having two different ages of kids any day of the week.  I do need a good reply for those people who do say this to us though!

I've been saying it for a few months now... any day now, Julie will crawl.  She's been crawling backwards for a couple of months, and recently she started crawling sideways.  She gets up on her hands and knees and rocks back and forth.  She just hasn't gone forward.... until today.  Around 7:30 am, while Marc was watching her, she moved both her knees and her hands forward.  It was tentative and she didn't go very far, but it's the first "step".  I imagine she'll be off to the races in a couple of days. 

 

Alex hasn't been as interested in crawling as Julie.  He rolls from place to place.  He recently started going backwards and sometimes rocks on his hands and knees.  He hasn't started going to the side yet.  If he takes the same amount of time for each skill as Julie, he will probably crawl in a month or two.  But, maybe he'll see her doing it and be inspired to try sooner.  Or maybe he'll just walk before crawling since he already loves to stand!

 

Teeth count -

Julie now has her two top front teeth.  She's up to 4 teeth.

Alex now has his four top front teeth.  He's up to 6 teeth.

You may remember back in January, Laure went on vacation and we had a backup nanny from a service.  It didn't go as well as we would have hoped, but the upside was that various family members offered to help us in the future.  Well, the future was here this week.  Laure was off to New York, and we needed help.  Kristi came out to take care of the twins during the day.  It was such a relief to have her here and I didn't have to worry about their care while I was at work.  Kristi did a tremendous job and the twins were in such good moods when we got home.  Lately, both of them have had a bit of separation anxiety and Julie has a little "stranger danger" going on, so it was great to have them like her immediately and happily play all day.

 

During the week, Julie and Alex had their last Kindermusik class of the series.  It was fun because I normally don't go and Kristi had never been either.  They sing lots of songs and do lots of activities.  On Friday, the weather was beautiful and I was able to take the day off.  We took Alex and Julie for the first time to the zoo.  It was a lot of fun, and Julie and Alex got to pet goats.  Otherwise, we just chilled all week.

 

On Monday, we got "Bob" the double stroller.  This is the crème de la crème of strollers, and is it ever so sweet.  It's the stroller where people write reviews saying forget buying other strollers, buy this one.  Well, we had 5 strollers before this one.  But, in my defense, only one of those was a double stroller which also had high reviews.  But, now that we have Bob, which you can easily push with one hand, even though there's 40 lbs. of baby in it, so the old Maclaren will get sold.  Kristi was lucky enough to get to take Bob out for the maiden voyage.  She said that she could push Bob up a hill with one hand while talking on the phone.  This was impossible with the old stroller as it was a lot of work to push it up the same hill and there's no way you could use one hand.  It was also great to have Bob at the zoo because the sun shields are really good.  All in all, it was an excellent purchase.

 

During the week, we also went up in the tooth count.  Julie now has a top front tooth, so she has 3!  Alex got another top tooth, so now he has 5!  They each have another tooth very close to popping through.

One of Alex's favorite games is to play peekaboo, so we're trying to capture it on video.  He likes to use his bib and since he still drools all the time, it is always available.  He has a couple versions of the game - in one version, he covers his face and waits for you to take the bib off.  He will adjust the bib to make sure it's over his face, and if he doesn't get it quite right, he still closes his eyes so he can't see.  Other versions of the game happen when you cover his face or when he uncovers his face.  When his face gets uncovered there's always a big grin and usually a big squeal to go along with it.  He doesn't tire from this game and will keep playing and playing until you make him sit up.  There's some new video of two versions of the game.

 

http://video.msn.com/video.aspx?vid=4dfa2457-b44a-4772-ba15-13dc8387aa33 

 

He also like peekaboo with the blocks.  We have a video of Uncle Chris trying to play the game with the blocks.  You can see Alex sitting forward in anticipation.  When the game is played with exuberence, then he just laughs and laughs.  Chris didn't quite get to that level, so Alex looks over at Dad to see why the game isn't being played quite right.

 

A few weeks back our 1996 Ford Explorer SUV stopped working and unfortunately the cost of getting it fixed was more than the car was worth.  So we decided it was time to buy a new car and at first we were thinking of buying another SUV, specifically the Toyota Highlander hybrid.  After doing a lot of research, we couldn't stop hearing good things about the Toyota mini-van, the Sienna, about how much room it has and how great it is for kids.  Timing seemed good because the 2009 models were on sale, so we figured out what style and features we wanted and headed to the dealership.  Unfortunately the specific model we wanted was very rare, and we were told finding a 2009 would be almost impossible.  We were seriously considering just waiting for the 2010 models to come out when the dealer told us about a 2006 Sienna he had that was very very close to what we were looking for.  We decided to take a look and ended up really liking the car, but felt the dealer was asking too much, so after many rounds of back and forth we left the dealership and told them to call us if they would come down in price.  The next day we got the call and now we have a gently used (but new to us) mini-van with a ton of bells and whistles.  A few of the more noteworthy features: DVD player, remote side and rear doors, all wheel drive, leather heated seats, and after market navigation system with back-up camera.  The car comes with several power outlets (the kind you find in your house) and a place to connect an outside video source (like a gaming console) so kids can play video games while riding in the car.  Oh what Marc would have given to have had this sort of thing when he was a kid.  And the car came with wireless headsets, so people can watch movies or play games without the sound bothering the driver.  If you check out the pictures, the one thing we think looks ridiculous is the wood paneling in the front and on the steering wheel, but Marc has quickly become a fan of the wonderful wood feel, he's just not too crazy about the look.  And please note the Ohio State seat covers for Alex and Julie, GO BUCKS!!!

Today we went to the doctor for Julie and Alex's 9 month checkup.  They passed with flying colors, of course!  Here are their stats.:

 

Alex:

19 lb. - 50th percentile

29 inches tall - 75th percentile

48 cm - head circumference - 97th percentile

 

Julie:

18 lb. 15 oz. - 50th percentile

27.5 inches tall - 50th percentile

45.5 cm - head circumference - 90th percentile

 

The doctor's comment on their head size: "big heads usually run in the family".  They can thank their daddy for that!

We went up to Skagit County twice this year for the flowers.  Our big goal was to get a super cute picture of Alex and Julie sitting in a sea of flowers.  The first time up, the tulips had not bloomed yet, but there were fields of daffodils.  Marc's parents were visiting, so Marc, Susan, Julie, Alex, Uncle Chris, Grandma Daniele, Grandpa Bill and Laure went.  After seeing the daffodils, we went to Deception Pass.

 

A month later, the tulips were in bloom and it finally wasn't raining on the weekend.  Marc, Susan, Alex and Julie jumped in the car and headed up to see the tulips.  While we tried to get a great picture of Alex and Julie, they were really more interested in the dirt.  When we held them, it was pretty bright, so we got more squinting than smiles.  When Marc tried to hold them close to the flowers, they tried to grab the flowers.  I think they liked all the commotion of the tractors and people and color, we just didn't get the perfect picture.  Better luck next year!

Alex and Julie are 9 months old!  This is the first month where they were really moving around during their pictures.  You can see Alex leaning forward and Julie standing up.  Right now, these are the things Alex and Julie really like to do:  They like the "falling backwards" game where they fall back so they are upside down and then come back up.  We sit on the chair to play this game.  Alex and Julie are both shaking toys, and Julie bangs toys together.  That has led her to clapping.  They can lean way over to grab toys and Julie moves all over in her quest to grab things.  Julie is rolling all over the place and Alex has just started rolling around.

 

Foodwise, they pretty much like everything they've tried except for Avocado.  They eat Butternut Squash, Peas, Sweet Potato, Carrots, Pears, Apples, Bananas, Blueberries, and Yogurt.  They tried oatmeal for the  the first time this week, Julie liked it but Alex isn't too sure yet.  They also started eating little puffs that they chew.  These dissolve in their mouths if they don't chew them thoroughly, so they're a nice step to other foods they need to chew.  They still drink formula from their bottles.

 

They are actually in 9 month sized clothes.  We'll find out what their exact measurements are on Monday.