Month 8

This is a late posting since we were out of town last week.  My Grandma was in the hospital where they discovered inoperable stomach cancer.  We drove down to Florida to visit one last time.  Plus, I wanted her to meet the boys.

Jim, Lucy, the boys, and I left 10pm Tuesday evening for Bradenton.  Alex and Zach slept all night, with the exception of 2 stops for food.  We checked into the hotel around 8am, unpacked, and everyone took a nap.  A little before lunchtime we went to Grandma and Don's house to visit.  Grandma was resting comfortably in bed with some oxygen.  We took the boys in and she immediately brightened up.  She's always loved little kids, so to have two there gave her something to focus on.  The boys were on their best behavior once we got the seating arrangements straightened out.  They weren't too sure about having my family hold them.

Grandma kept talking about how she had always wanted twins but never got them.  She held out her finger once and Zach tried to chomp it.  Jim pulled him back at the last minute.  Alex was enthralled with her blanket and kept trying to pull it up to his mouth.  Both boys wanted her remote SO bad.  Jim offered up his cell as a distraction.  Pretty soon I hear a faint "Hello?" and realize one of the boys had just called Jim's brother.  Oops!

The boys even ate lunch with her one day.  We took their highchairs in and put them next to her bed.  I sat between them and fed them avocado.  They were very careful not to make a mess and seemed to enjoy the attention.  It was hot in Florida so the boys ran around in t-shirt onesies.  Grandma remarked how soft their skin was and how chubby their legs were (in a good way).  She even managed to sort of hug and kiss one boy while I held him for her.  Both boys showed off their jumping skills on her bed and shared their toys with her.

The last couple of days we were there she was too tired to see them anymore.  She was sort of in a twilight where she wasn't fully asleep or awake, plus she was taking morphine for pain.  She could hear them playing in the living room, though, and at one point told my parents to stop talking so she could listen.  hehe  Typical Grandma, bossing everyone around.

Overall I think the boys had a really good time on the trip.  At the hotel they slept with me in one bed while Jim used the other.  It was just down the street from the house so we went back there for naps during the day and bedtime around 7pm.  We went to Whole Foods in Sarasota and got them avocado, bananas, and mango.  I took our little electric chopper thing with us and made them fresh food for lunches and dinners.  They tolerated the avocado and didn't really want anything to do with the rest.  We discovered that they only really like avocado when it's cold.  Room temperature apparently didn't taste as good.  Don had never had mango or avocado so we gave him a sample.  Thumbs up on the mango, not so much on the avocado.

While we were down there the boys learned some new tricks.  Alex likes to stick his tongue out now, especially when he's concentrating on a toy.  He's also taken to shaking his head from side to side.  We're going to check with the pediatrician, but Dr. Google says it's a normal developmental thing and he'll outgrow it.  Zach has started clicking his tongue on the roof of his mouth.  Both boys are becoming excellent sitters.  Alex has been rocking on his bottom a little and has fallen on his belly trying to get to toys.  Unless his arms are pinned, he can roll over on his back.  Zach expects me to retrieve him from his tummy and waits.

We have whining.  Constantly.  Without end.  Alex started first with the "mmmm  mmmm  mmmm" while he beckons me with arm flapping and hand waving.  Zach thought it looked like fun and picked it up soon after.  Initially I thought it was cute, kind of like them saying "mom" without the "om" but that was when they did it occasionally.  Now it feels like they never stop.  Today it was driving me crazy, especially since I was trying to get a couple of things done, like laundry so there aren't two naked boys running around.  Alex will even "mmmm" while I'm holing him because he wants me to walk him around.

We're going through CIO round two.  The boys are good at going to sleep in their cribs, just not staying asleep there.  They want to sleep with me and their level of anger gets pretty high around 4am-5am.  Last night I took the baby monitor into the spare bedroom with me so Jim could get some sleep.  I also closed their door, which I hated doing because it gets cold in there, but they don't just cry - Zach screams and Alex yells at the top of his lungs.

They also seem to want to eat every hour or two, which is frustrating because I KNOW they aren't hungry.  Our trip to Florida and back proved they only really need food every 3-4hrs.  On top of breaking those two bad habits, I'm going to start having them sleep in their cribs for naps.  If you see me over the next couple of weeks and I look frazzled, you know why.

I posted a few of the boys' 8th month candid shots on their website (pw: jma&z).  Alex has such a nice smile and Zach loves to make funny faces.