Six Months!!

The boys turned six months old on Friday. I seriously don't know where the time has gone. I feel like yesterday we brought them home from the hospital. It's amazing how our lives have changed since June. I wake up every day looking forward to the boys' smiles, even when it's still dark and the clock reads 5:15am. Jim and I also have a lot more conversations about poop than we ever imagined!

While last week led up to the big 6 month mark, it wasn't all fun and games. We caught some serious sinus colds and were miserable most of that time. Alex came down with symptoms first, followed by Zach, then me. There was no fever but the runny nose and sinus headache made up for it. There were a number of rough nights where the boys couldn't sleep because of their noses. We bowed out of all of our playdates since the last thing we wanted to do was make others sick. That left us bored at home, though, so we were sick and grumpy.

By Thursday I was feeling better enough to take the boys out for some holiday shopping. We stopped by Best Buy, then hit up Kohl's and Wal-Mart. At Wally World, we began our mission to buy a blender. The boys' peas aren't going to puree themselves! So here were are in the small appliance aisle. I'm rocking the boys with one hand while talking to Jim on the phone with the other. I needed some urgent Christmasy input from him. From behind me I hear "Ooooo Look!!! Twins!!!" Over walk a grandma, a mom, and a daughter. The youngest is pretty much oogling and cooing at the boys. The grandmotherly lady launches into 20 questions. Are they twins? Are they identical? Do they run in our family? She then begins telling me her family history of twins and how they apparently multiply like rabbits where she's from. I make a little joke about how her family has enough twins to make up for the lack of them in mine. Apparently this is the opening she needed to tell me about her "woman parts" not producing any pairs of her own.

The entire time Jim's sitting on the phone at work, listening to this rabble. I'm holding the phone to my ear, so it's not like they can't tell I was talking to someone. A woman was coming down the aisle towards us, and these ladies were going to have to move so she could get through. I shot the shopper a look of gratitude, since this was the break I was looking for. Unfortunately for her, she became their new target. They had to tell her all about my twins, and of course their family of doubles. I just sighed, got back to my conversation with Jim, and grabbed the nearest blender.

Friday the boys had their six month check-up. Alex weighed 18.06 lbs and was 26.5 inches long. Zach weighed 17.75 lbs and was 26.25 inches long. This puts the boys in the 55th-60th percentile for singletons. Yay for average! The doctor did note that our boys are looking pretty chunky and working on their second chins. He wasn't worried, though. They'll thin out once they start getting more mobile.

These visits always crack me up in that Jim and I use them as our tie breaker. If there's some non-urgent issue that we can't decide, we ask the doctor and he sways us one way or the other. This time the big question was me making their baby food. I've only made one veggie for them so far - sweet potatoes. They weren't ideal since the baby food grinder left little lumps (thus the story about the new blender). I think Jim's concerns are that by making them food at home, I'm pitting my low amount of baby food experience against the big name companies that have been doing it for years. Obviously Gerber and similar brands know the right foods (marked by "stages"), the right consistency, etc. They have teams of people working on this stuff. And then there's me and a potato I got from Publix. Jim just wants what's best for the boys and I totally get that.

I tried to convince him on my own. I think I successfully made a batch of food (sans the little lumps). I also bought a jar of the stage one sweet potatoes. The ingredients on the label were sweet potato and water, which was exactly what I had in mine. So I set up a blind taste test. The jarred stuff was pretty bad tasting, and Jim agreed. I thought I had won, until the doctor's visit. Jim rats me out that I'm making their food. The doctor replies "That's great!" haha This was not the answer Jim expected. Apparently Mrs. Doctor had done the same thing for their first kid. He even recommended a book for me to read.

Jim did win the battle of the ear swabbing (outside only to prevent wax build-up) and we both got support to get them their H1N1 vaccines in a couple of weeks. The boys got their normal round of 4 shots and one oral dose, although one shot was for seasonal flu. They were knocked out that evening and went to bed about an hour earlier than normal. Near as I can tell they didn't have any other symptoms.

On Saturday we went to Babies R Us in search of a tub of Butt Paste. It's been harder and harder to find it in local stores. They're either sold out or only carry the tubes. With two boys and the frequency I change them, a tube isn't going to last long and they're a lot more expensive for what you get. Of course we couldn't find any at BRU, either. While we were there, I saw some of the new Fisher Price night time diapers. I figured since I've tried everything else and they're relatively cheap, we should probably get some. We've used them for 3 nights and there hasn't been a single leak. Not one. I can't even remember the last time that happened. It seems like one of them always pees out the side (they sleep on their sides, so it's easy to do). So far, so good!

Sunday Chii-Wey came over to do the boys' pictures. Do to a miscommunication (I'm looking at you, Facebook), it was later in the day than I had hoped. The boys were pretty fussy and didn't want to do much of anything, especially change clothes. She still managed to trick the camera into capturing smiles. I don't know how she does that. You can check out their Christmas photos and their candids here (pw: jma&z)!