Seven Months Old

Colin and Jake celebrated the big seven months by taking a trip to Tahoe (see pictures). This little adventure marked the first of many milestones for the two of them….first extended car trip, first night away from their own bedroom, first time playing blackjack….you get the picture. With all these curveballs life and their parents kept throwing at them, they kept responding with a little “bring it on” attitude.

I’m assuming most new parents probably go through the same thing at the beginning and try to stay in that comfort zone as much as possible. Especially with twins, I think both of us didn’t want to stray too far from the normal “routine” in the thought that one or both couldn’t handle anything new. But this month especially, they were taken out of their element more and more and each time showed us that they are ready for something else. It’s such a little thing, but a trip to Target with the both of them and only one parent has the recipe for disaster if one starts to melt down. After a few of these small positive outings the boys got through to their cautious parents that everything was going to be OK. That’s not to say that these guys are two little angels every second of the day, but capping the month off with this Tahoe trip really helped get it into our heads that the show must go on and we can finally come out from the “early parent” haze. One thing is for sure, that as parents we can teach them all we want, but as this month proved sometimes it’s going to be them teaching us.

This past month featured the introduction of solid food. Jake hasn’t turned away anything we have thrown at him….Colin, not so much. We started out the month feeding them oatmeal when they wake up from their morning nap. Jake lapped it up the very first time we put a spoon in his mouth. Colin couldn’t quite get the concept down of what he was supposed to be doing. He would gag even before the spoon would get to his mouth. Apparently this is fairly common when you first introduce solid food. Some kids can’t quite get their tongue out of the way and gag themselves. After a few days of trying he was fine, although he is very picky about what he is served! He’ll have none of that oatmeal stuff. He makes this scrunched up face and spits it out as soon as you put it in his mouth. Feed his some strained peaches, pears or any kind of fruit and he’s happy as can be.

Each day you get a glimpse of what seems to be their personality. Time will tell if these things we perceive will continue on and it will certainly be interesting to see if these early hints will become part of who they are. As it is now, Jake has a crazy amount of energy. He is the early riser of the two and usually wakes up on the worst days at 5:30 and on his best days (or our best days!) around 6:30 a.m. Colin on the other hand - if given the choice and isn’t woken up by his brother - will sleep until 6:30 or 7:00. As you can see from this video post, Jake loves to jump around in his Jump A’ Roo. Contrast that with Colin who will visually dissect every inch of his surroundings and is content to just sit there with the toys on his activity saucer. Colin is a little better at adapting to new situations, but Jake is getting better everyday and proved on this trip to Tahoe that if given the chance, he’ll figure out on his own how to calm himself down.

Raising these two guys is exhausting and poses so many challenges, but the returns have out gained any negatives. Let’s be honest, in those first few months it was hard to understand how anyone would ever have kids. Now being with them all day will still turn you to drinking by 5:00, but you are able to enjoy each moment with them. There is so much on the horizon for us and these two boys. Each month brings so many new things it’s hard to keep up. If month six was the month that they turned the corner, month seven was the one that the parents finally grasped that everything was going to be OK.