Video Post: Two Years Old

Happy Birthday to Colin and Jake! Here's a look back at this second year set to the music of Ben Harper's rendition of Beautiful Boy which was originally done by John Lennon.

20 Months Old

“Looks like they started ‘The Two’s’ early.”

The above exclamation recently came from the woman at the front desk of our condo in Tahoe as Colin bolted out of the elevator with an emphatic “Go!” and Jake chased after him only pausing to point out that there was indeed a “phone” on the wall and could he have it. I’m not sure whether the comment from the woman was a compliment on our two boys advanced “life skills” or if she was wearily anticipating the wave of destruction that was to follow over the course of the next six days.

The “Terrible Two’s” obviously has its negative connotations. I still believe that they are not in the midst of them yet, but they are becoming more of a handful these days! They have begun to understand that the power of their words and actions can provide them the results they are looking for. This is basically a roundabout way of saying they understand now that if they scream and stomp around they have a better chance of getting what they want!

They are going to start daycare this month when Age goes back to work. The plan is for them to be there four days a week from 8:00 – 4:00 with Fridays at home. They have been visiting a few days a week with Adrianne to start getting used to it, but it’s going to be interesting to see how they react without the safety net of mommy around. We think that experiencing new people and things in a controlled environment will be good for them, but we shall see!

As mentioned earlier, we just got back from Tahoe for a week vacation up there (a big reason their monthly blog is 10 days late!). It was certainly a different trip than the one we took with them last summer when they were seven months old. It was great to watch them experience new things and see things through their eyes, but it was exhausting (see opening paragraph) and not much of a vacation for the parents! They kept us jumping the entire time we were there. Luckily we had help with Grandpa Spencer and Nana Kathy for a few days at the beginning and Grammie all day on Friday to shoulder some of the load. We took them hiking in backpacks to a nice alpine lake up off Carson Pass, visited the beach a few times, went bike riding towing them behind us, took a lunchtime paddleboat to Emerald Bay and went up on the gondola overlooking the entire lake.

There is a ton of video from this summer and this last trip. I’m trying to find the time to put something together soon! Take a look at the Tahoe photo gallery or some of the individual pictures from the last month.

19 Months Old

[ed. note: This post was originally started just before their 19th month date, but has been neglected and is obviously a little late. Please accept the full apologies from management]

It’s almost July and the summer is in full swing here. Adrianne is off from teaching and the boys have a full array of activities keeping them busy from morning to night.

On Tuesday’s they have swimming lessons. Wednesday is Music Together with Mama and Grandma and in a few weeks, they’ll add a Friday Gymboree class with Grammie and Mama. Their still getting used to all this morning activity (they spent their entire 20 minute first swim lesson on Tuesday crying!), but they usually become more comfortable after a few classes.

They both are usually a little leery at first in public settings, but Colin is always the first to venture out. It’s interesting to see because in private settings around people they know, Jake is the one auditioning to become a stand-up comic. To put it into sports terms, Jake is the leader in the clubhouse, while Colin is the leader on the field. When we are at home, Jake usually initiates something with Colin watching closely and following whatever his brother just did. But when we’re out in public or going to a new place where there are people around, Colin jumps right out in front and takes the lead, while Jake turns into a statue clinging to our legs. They have so many similarities that it’s fascinating to see this ying and yang part about them.

Language is at an all-time high lately. We’ve discussed in this blog before all the new words each of them have learned. That part hasn’t changed (and they continue to add new words to their repertoire), but what has begun more recently is what can only be described as incessant, incoherent babbling. Each of them will spend major parts of the day having “conversations” with nobody in particular. They mimic the cadence and tone of a normal, adult conversation but replace most of the words with gibberish. It’s really funny because you’ll hear them having this little conversation and real words will creep in and out of the stream. You’ll hear “Gabba itch’l toma mon toat. No, mama. Itsmon lot keen. Scout. Baaal.” We’ve been trying to get it on video because words doesn’t do it justice. You really have to see and hear it, but they clam up when the camera comes on!

Our goal this summer is to post more videos. It’s getting harder to write monthly recap posts, when things start sounding the same each month. They are growing and changing so much each month, but again, you have to see it more than read about it each month. So for now, the best we can do is some new photos! Check out the galleries below for some of the latest snapshots.

18 Months Old

Eighteen months have gone by since Colin and Jake graced us with their presence….a year-and-a-half…wow, who could have known how much can happen in such a short period of time?! Well, I guess our parents or friends could have filled us in, but that would have taken all the fun out of it!

The very existence of this blog is basically a recap of how much has changed in the past 18 months, so we won’t bore you with the details of all the changes. But one fairly significant change has occurred since the Month 17 posting. We’ve documented the growth of each of their vocabulary these past few months, but this past month has seen an explosion in communication.

We are not at the point where we’re all sitting down for dinner and having conversations, but it’s safe to say that our communication is becoming a two-way street. For instance, Jake will look at us with his arms up in the air quizzically and ask “Paa? Paa?” looking for his pacifier and we’ll say “I think you dropped it in the kitchen. Go look for it.” Off he’ll go into the kitchen and come back around the corner with a big, goofy grin and a pacifier in his mouth!! Or Colin in the bathtub the other day laughing mischievously after I told him to “Pour the water on your brother’s head” and he looked at me with a “really?” expression before pouring a glass of bath water on Jake’s head. I know there are people studying linguistics and how children learn language and I’m not breaking any new ground here, but it is so amazing and interesting to watch each day.

It has also been a good month watching them interact with each other and to see how much they enjoy each other’s company. There are moments where they both would rather they didn’t have a brother hogging all the attention, but for the most part they like playing and being around each other. This video of them in the bath was taken back in April, but is a good example of their love for each other and how much they are understand these days.

The summer is here and they have been spending a lot of time outdoors. They are the quintessential little boys playing with dirt, water, sticks, rocks and whatever else they can make a mess with.

What is it with trucks that fascinate little boys so much? Thursday morning is the best because that’s the morning that the trash and recycling trucks come. They usually show up right around the end of breakfast and we’ll slide them in their highchairs over to the front window to watch the garbage truck come and take our cans. If they have finished their breakfast already, you should see the sprint to their chairs when they hear those trucks come rolling down the street!

With the summer here, that also means Age is almost done with the school year. To keep her sanity slightly intact, we’re in the process of signing the boys us for swim lessons, Music Together and Gymboree classes. It’s going to be interesting, but I think both of them are really going to enjoy being around other kids and doing fun, physical and different activities a few times a week.

So 18 months are done and we move into the stretch run before the “terrible twos” if there is such a thing!

17 Months Old

Once again, the monthly blog update is late. Thankfully, this one is a case the Warriors playoff run holding things up and not their illness again.

After recovering from their bout with the flu last month, it seemed as if both boys where shot out of a cannon into this month.

Their energy and enthusiasm has been off the charts lately. They really enjoy doing new things, being outside and mixing in the occasional wrestling match with each other. It’s really starting to sound like a broken record, but each month they seem to be growing into little boys more and more.

Their personalities, expressiveness and especially their communication skills are developing by leaps and bounds. On the flip side of all these positive things, they are also beginning to understand that their assertiveness can get them things as well. They know what they want and aren’t afraid of letting us know it either!

For the past month, Jake has started this new trend of getting up between 5:45 and 6:30 a.m. There was a time when both of them would sleep until 6:45 on most days. Now only Colin sleeps in, while his brother yells out to be picked up at the crack of dawn. We rotate who has to get up with him and sometimes he’ll go back to sleep or sit quietly on your lap. But once he’s up, he is ready to start the day! After a quick bite of Cheerios and some juice, he’s off to the races.

Colin enjoys a nice leisurely wake-up. There have been times that we’ve gone back to their room to just check and see if he’s up yet and he’s just sitting in his crib quietly waiting for someone to come and get him.

It’s been mentioned before, but his temperament is so relaxed sometimes. He recently got an eye infection and on the first morning when we went in to get him his eyes were caked with goo and mucus. He didn’t seem to mind that he was temporarily blinded and couldn’t pry his eyes open in the morning! He just casually waited while we washed his eyes off with a wash cloth and started his day as if nothing happened.

It’s still an elusive video to capture, but when the music hits the both of them; it becomes Dance Party 2007 in our house. Both boys get boppin’ and shakin’ to the music. It’s so funny to see and this written blog doesn’t do it justice. We promise to post a video as soon as we can get it while their not looking.

16 Months Old

When you're not looking they're heading in opposite directions these days

The monthly post is a little late due to the boys’ first bout of a stomach virus. Colin started things off Wednesday last week when he woke up vomiting and finally began to feel better by Friday afternoon. Jake picked up right after that and proceeded to throw up a day’s worth of food (conveniently for Age, he did all five times on me!).

In what will be the first of many lessons learned on dealing with their sickness, instead of having both of them sick for three days, they were sick back-to-back for six total days. Obviously purposely making one child sick is not something I’m willing to go on record endorsing, but there is something to be said for not trying so hard to limit their exposure to each other! We spent a lot of time watching what bottle Colin was drinking out of, washing his hands, cleaning pacifiers and in the end Jake ended up getting sick anyway. I think it’s almost inevitable that the other twin will end up getting the same sickness, so why delay? Three days of them both sick at the same time will be tough, but in the end is it better than having the entire ordeal stretched over six days?

With all of that, we are happy to announce that they are back to being themselves. There have been some minor lingering affects, but for the most part they are recovering nicely. It was a very hard ordeal seeing their personalities disappear for a few days and watch them go through this. We sure missed them and it’s great to have them back.

It’s those personalities that have made this past month so fun to watch. Besides this end-of-the-month setback, things had been going great. We have mentioned this many times before, but it’s amazing what a sweet, little boy Colin is. He loves giving hugs to anyone he can. Sometimes he’ll stop playing and just walk over and give you a big hug, then go right back to what he was doing. And of course, the beneficiary of so many of these hugs is Scout! That dog puts up with so much and at the same time he wouldn’t have it any other way. He is very protective of his two little guys and has more than once assumed some “baby sitting” duties when we’ve turned our backs.

Most of the time turning your back means that Jake has scooted off to a new task. The kid is a bundle of energy. In addition to his non-stop movement, he has added a verbal aspect to his repertoire. He is definitely the more vocal of the two and enjoys jabbering away with a constant dialog on life as he sees it. Most of it is his own brand of language, but he floats in the right word as well. You just have to be able to decipher if the “Ba” happens to apply to bottle, ball, brother or some other word beginning with a B. If he points to something and says his word and you don’t understand what he’s saying, he’ll say it again and this time with a little more inflection in his voice. It’s as if he’s saying, “No, I said Ball dummy, not bottle!” Then if you say what he thinks he said, he’ll give you this big grin and be so happy that he just communicated with you and it was understood.

In some of these monthly posts, including this one, we tend to focus on one aspect of their personality and a lot of the same things are repeated. Jake is high-energy, Colin is quiet and serene and we don’t know what we’re doing!

It’s easy to pigeonhole a label on someone, but I think it becomes even easier with twins. The inevitable question always comes up from strangers at the grocery store or friends and family, “Which one is he, the troublemaker or the good one?” Or like we have done here in this blog (see Jake = high-energy, Colin = quiet and kind). There is something to be said for patterns of behavior – hopefully not the “we don’t know what we’re doing” part – but as their personalities take shape as toddlers we’re shown it’s more than that. Just like their adult counterparts there are multiple levels of to their behavior and personality.

When you see Jake pick up a pacifier and offer it to his crying brother with a soft pat on the back or Colin running laps around the living room screaming like a banshee, you know their differences are not that far apart and their similarities are closer than we think.

It’s like we are watching and living in this fascinating human development experiment. Everyday you recognize something new and different to each of them that you didn’t see before. The speed at which these changes and wrinkles in their personalities come at is astounding. It’s as if who they were when they went to bed the night before isn’t reason enough to be excited for the next day with them, but they make each new day a joy watching them grow into who they will eventually become.

15 Months Old

A couple of days late, but Colin and Jake turned 15 months old a few days ago. With only 28 days in February, is their monthly “birthday” February 28th or March 1? Just asking….

Anyway, both boys enjoyed themselves this past month with their newly acquired skill of walking. In the span of 30 days, both of them have gone from quick, little baby steps of 10 feet or so to what closely resembles running! They have really enjoyed the freedom that mobility has provided them and take pleasure in showing it off. In addition to walking up and down our court, they have taken to doing little “laps” from the living room around the kitchen and back into the living room.

As you can see from the previous video post, Colin really loves his dog Scout. But we think we may have a future veterinarian on our hands because he loves all animals. One of his favorite words is “bird” and he points them out in the trees or flying by whenever he is outside. When he goes over to Grandma and Grandpa Scully’s house their poor cat is on alert because Colin is constantly chasing him around.

As long as we’re picking future professions for each of them, Jake is on his way to a life on the stand-up comedy tour. His utter delight in making anyone – including himself – laugh is so funny. Once he sees that whatever he has just done has made you laugh he grabs onto that and keeps repeating it. This time with a sly little smile on his face as he goes for more laughs.

I’m assuming everything you learn at this age is mimicry in one form or another. But Jake’s ability to hear something or see something and then try and repeat it is pretty staggering at times. We’re constantly amazed when all of a sudden Jake is next to you trying to repeat what you just said or did.

The harsh reality that they are listening to everything you say now was illustrated very clearly the other day with my choice uttering of a frustrated F-bomb in front of them. I’m not saying I’m proud, but I blurted out the word while running late to work one morning. I was then serenaded with “Fuuuuah”, “Fuuuaaaack”, “Fuuuuaahhh” as each of them tried to work out the word Daddy had just said. It was very funny, but reminded me that we may soon have to implement the use of ear muffs as shown in of one of the funniest scenes (view clip – contains language not for the easily offended) in the movie Old School.

All in all, we both agree this was our best month as a family with these two boys. They have been so much fun to be around. The toddler stage has been great so far for both them and us. It has opened up an untapped world for them and allowed us to enjoy life with them outside our immediate house and yard. Each day they seem to recognize more around them and surprise you with some new skill.

14 Months Old

Boy…that was exhausting (And extremely fun too!). I’m talking about the 30 days from December 29th to January 29th. Or in Colin and Jake’s world, going from 13 months to 14 months old. The changes came at such speed this past month that it was hard to keep up with them!

The first and most visible of all the changes has taken place over the past week or so. Say it with me now….”The boys are walking!” That’s right, Colin started motoring around on two feet around 10 days ago and as recently as yesterday was able to sustain the upright position for a good 10 feet or so. Jake soon followed and takes those baby steps a little slower, but is still able to maintain his balance for a good stretch of land. This is still not their preferred mode of transportation and when push comes to shove they get down and crawl if they really want to get somewhere. But they both seem to enjoy this new-found skill and are practicing all the time.

As we mentioned last month, the boys definitely understand a lot more words than they are able to actually say. I’m sure there are studies upon studies about this somewhere out there and I’m not breaking any scientific ground here, but it is interesting to see how these guys develop language.

They can say the standards, “Mama” “Da-Da” “Baaa” (ball) “Hi” “Bye” and even mix in a little “Tout” (Scout) here and there. But ask them to point to their nose or brother or ask them if they want to go outside and they definitely understand you. This also leads to severe frustration - - more on Jake’s behalf than Colin’s - - because he knows words in his head and just can’t say them. So they’ll spend five minutes pointing and going “Uh, Uh, Uh”, while you go around picking different things up saying “This? You want this? How about this?” until you finally pick the right thing up. Meanwhile they give you a look like what took you so long? You adults aren’t so sharp are you??!

This past month has also shown a noticeable increase in their awareness of each other. They have these great moments that make us appreciate being the parents of twins. The chase game is the one that always gets me. I’ve been trying to get video of it, but can never catch it at the right time. Basically they both “think” their being chased by the other one and end up going in circles either around their highchairs or crawling around the coffee table. It’s so funny to see them giggle or squeal out when they come around a corner and the other one is there. They then go off in the opposite directions and run into each other at the other corner and laugh again.

There have been so many little changes in both of them this past month. They are now officially toddlers and have become little boys. In a blink of an eye they have transformed from 3:00 a.m. feedings and needing help to roll over to these little people that are able to melt your heart with a simple “Hi” when you walk into the room.

13 Months Old

As we sit down to write about what the boys did over the past month for these monthly updates it’s always interesting to look back at previous posts. I took a glance at their one month post exactly one year ago today and couldn’t believe what I saw….where the hell did we get so much time to post 15 times in the month of December!

In all seriousness, it seems cliché to be amazed at how much has transpired over the past year, but reading that post from a year ago really brings it into focus how quickly they change. And at the same time, how much their little personalities have stayed the same. Jake is still the one with all the energy and seems to have something against naps, while Colin enjoys long, leisurely naps and can sit and play by himself for hours it seems.

As parents we’ve gone through some changes as well. There has been a noticeable drop-off in picture taking that’s for sure. The wonderment of new parents I think has worn off and we’ve gone from making exclamations in a cute little sing-song voice of “Oh, you made a poopie! Let me clean you off” to an exasperated voice “[Insert Colin or Jake here] stinks again. Your turn to clean him.” But just when you think you’re becoming jaded as a parent, something will come along and we’re back to new parents mode gawking and cooing over these two cute little guys and some new thing they’ve accomplished.

As you can see from the previous video post, Jake is on the verge of walking by himself. He moves around with the push toys and we catch him every once in a while just standing in the middle of the room not holding on to anything. He’s still a little nervous about putting that first foot forward, but certainly has the ability to.

Colin also has the ability, but enjoys walking while someone is holding his hands instead of pushing something. They both smile and giggle when they are doing this, like they are getting away with some great secret. It’s really funny to watch.

One of the big changes this past month has been their communication skills. When people ask us years from now what their first words were, I’m not sure we’re going to know how to answer. They both seem to know a few words: “Mama,” “Dada,” and the most recent “Hi”. What seems like words slips out on other occasions, but even with the words they know, context is not always right.

What we do know is that they “know” a lot more words than that, but just can’t verbalize them yet. If you happen to say the word “bottle” without having one at the ready, be prepared for a lot of looking around, followed by whining and a look like “why did you say that word if you weren’t prepared to give me one RIGHT NOW!” Same goes for “Cheerios,” “Juice,” and come to think of it, a lot of food related words!

Both boys have been battling what seems like the never-ending cold for the last week or so. With the coughing, sneezing and constant runny noses it has affected them physically, but surprisingly hasn’t changed their moods for the most part. Having their mommy around for the past two weeks for the school Christmas break sure has helped!

We bought a video camera, so hopefully we’ll be able to bring some of these new verbal and physical skills to a theatre near you soon! With the lack of new photos, maybe with a video camera at the ready, we’ll have some new things to show everyone.

One Year Old

Colin Jackson and Jake Peter Spencer entered our lives one year ago. Just typing those words, it's hard to believe. A year ago today we were arriving at the hospital for what would be a long 24 hours of waiting and labor before these two little guys made their apprearance.

So much has happened (and chronicled through this blog!) and this past month has been no exception. The boys are crawling all over the place and it's tough to keep an eye on the both of them. Every day is something new, but instead of recapping this past month like we have in past blog posts we thought with the boys' first birthday it would be best to post a video looking back at this last year.

11 Months Old

If you can believe it, Colin and Jake are one month away from their first birthday and if things keep progressing, we’re in for a wild ride of a year! The photo above perfectly encapsulates their personalities these days. Jake is up to a little mischief, while Colin sits quietly and watches. Obviously that’s an over-exaggeration and Colin definitely has his rambunctious moments, while Jake can be an angel, but it’s not far from the truth.

Since they began to crawl this past month, Jake has been on the go. He is in a constant state of movement always looking for the next thing to do. Despite Colin starting to crawl earlier, Jake perfected the art more quickly. He was on his hands and knees, while Colin was still sliding on this stomach to move. Now he can pull himself up to a standing position. This was an early problem in that he couldn’t figure out how to get back down once he was standing, but has since figured that out. He is absolutely fascinated with whatever any adult is doing and wants to emulate it. You can see his mind spinning as he’s watching you do something and making his own little mental notes.

The opening paragraph makes it sound like Colin just sits around quietly watching the world go by. He doesn’t have the same amount of energy that Jake has, but he is by no means a wallflower either. He loves to crawl around, but his favorite game these days is climbing up on pillows or his big blue bear. We put our couch throw pillows in the middle of the room and he loves to climb up and over them. Colleen got a big, stuffed blue bear that has to be three times the size of him and he climbs up on it’s lap and giggles and squeals.

As you can see by the main photo at the top, the boys dressed up for their first Halloween. Since there wasn’t any trick-or-treating for them this year, they mainly dressed up for a local street fair that Age took them to on Saturday.

The other big milestone for this month was their first haircuts. For the most part, both of them seemed to handle it pretty well. Each of them had a freak out, but it was brief and calmed down pretty quick. Colin didn’t like the clippers and Jake couldn’t see what was going on behind him!

So, the final month of their first year is upon us and what a crazy adventure it’s been!

Check out the latest photos below

10 Month Post

I can’t believe we are doing the 10-month post already. Time has being moving very quickly these days. With both of us in the full swing of work - - and let’s be honest, the early parenting eagerness to share everything wearing off - - the posts have dwindled to the occasional video post and their monthly post. That’s not to say that each day doesn’t bring something new and great that the boys are doing, it’s just that finding time to post something has become a little harder. As you will see from their photo galleries though, it hasn’t stopped me from taking pictures!!

The big news for Colin this month is that he is crawling. He still isn’t up on his hands and knees, but instead uses his forearms and legs to pull and push himself while his stomach drags on the ground. (I promise to post some video soon!). Over the past two weeks he has really perfected the art and is now to the point where you have to have your eye on him the whole time or he’ll be in the next room before you know it.

This is frustrating Jake to no end. He is bypassing the belly-scoot technique and instead gets up on his hands and knees. The only problem is that he goes backwards instead of crawling forward! He has over the past few days on occasion inched his way forward a few feet and we predict will be full-on crawling very soon.

We had our first taste of what hopefully is not a winter-long bout of illness. Both boys got their first colds this month and it lasted for about two weeks. We know there will be more to come in these coming years – the first flu, ear infections, chicken pox, etc. – but this first taste of them being sick was hard on them and us. Neither of them slept very well those weeks and it was tough to watch them struggle with stuffed up noses and a little cough. Knock on wood that we won’t have too many bouts of illness until they start going to pre-school and picking up every germ known to man!

The big event of the month was their baptism last Sunday. The boys were on their best behavior and I think they really took to all the adoration and attention! The parents on the other hand were a sight to see. With Lizzie in town and staying with us as one of the godmothers, the hour before heading to the church was absolute chaos. All three of us were running around trying to give them baths, change ourselves, get them into their outfits and of course the photo shoot! It was quite the scene.

Everything was smooth once we arrived at the church and at the restaurant after. The boys powered through the day without an afternoon nap and never really got too cranky. They once again proved that all this worrying over them was for naught. They adapted quite well to this new little adventure and seemed to enjoy all the fawning over them!

I promise to at the very least post more video in the coming months as we approach their big 1-year birthday!

Nine Months Old

The boys turned nine months old a few days ago. It was an interesting month compared to some of the past few. As I sit here trying to write this, nothing “significant” sticks out from the past month. Are we becoming jaded after only nine months that nothing surprises us anymore?! I doubt that. With some of the major developments of crawling, walking and talking lurking just around the corner, I think this month was more about the details.

We’ve mentioned in the past that they interact and recognize each other. But this month it really became apparent and showed us how much fun having twins can be. For all the headaches and extra pressure it creates by having two babies, it's so fun to witness the joyful interaction they get from their brother. This one-on-one playtime also has an added benefit. We are gaining a little more time to catch our breath and maybe drink a full cup of coffee before it gets cold in the morning! If you haven’t already, check out the video of them playing and talking together.

August was a hot month and the boys have discovered swimming. They both love to be in the water splashing around. We usually take them over to one of the pools at Rossmoor where Grandpa and Grandma Scully live. They do seem to enjoy it and we’re already thinking of next summer and getting them their first swim lessons. As with everything though, there are some ulterior motives. Usually an hour or so at the pool and out in the sun will knock them out for a nice afternoon nap!

Jake has spent the past month - as in other months – in perpetual motion! He is desperately trying to teach himself how to crawl. He makes it up to all fours and just rocks back and forth on this knees and hands trying to figure out why he isn’t moving anywhere! He has also discovered the joy of taking things in and out of his toy basket. As you can see from the photo, he likes to pull things out of the basket, hold them up for close inspection and then put it back into the basket.

Part of the reason Jake is trying to crawl is because he’s always on his stomach. He usually reaches for something and tips himself over from a seated position. Colin on the other hand, is showing a great sense of balance. He will sometimes reach for something and start to tip over, but has enough strength and balance to steady himself and push himself back up. It may not sound like much, but after watching them tip over for the past few months, it’s a big step. He also is starting to be able to steady himself on his feet while holding onto something. The other day, he was holding onto the exersaucer while Jake was in it and I pulled my hands away for a good minute.

So although this month wasn’t “milestone” heavy, there were some definite changes in each of them. Sometimes you’ll be sitting there and all of a sudden one of them will do something that they’ve never done before. They may be subtle, but it feels like each one of those daily, little changes are leading to one of those big milestones.

*** A little bookkeeping after their nine-month old checkup – Colin weighs just over 22 pounds, while Jake is tipping the scales at just over 20 pounds. Both boys are healthy and happy and are clear of shots for three more months. ***

Eight Months Old

The boys turned eight months old last week and since we were on vacation, their monthly post is a little late. With some tremendous help from the grandparents, we were able to slip away south of the border for a four-night re-charge in Puerto Vallarta (see photos). We both missed them very much, but knowing they were in such capable hands and wouldn’t even know we were gone made the trip much easier.

It’s starting to sound like a recurring theme, but this past month was a great month for both of them. Each day brings more and more recognition of their daily surroundings and each other. One of them (usually Jake!) will wake up between 6:00 and 6:15 and start the conversation going. It’s usually a slow squeak and jabber which builds into a full blabber by 6:30 or so. At this point both of them are up, blabbering away and giggling at each other. When you put them together looking at each other, they smile and laugh while reaching and grabbing each other. The both reach and grab for everything and a lot of times it’s each other or whoever happens to be holding them. We’ve caught them a few times holding hands in their stroller as we go for a walk.

Neither has started crawling yet, but they both seem to be on the verge. You can sense their frustration starting to build from lack of mobility when they are on the floor. They rock back and forth on their stomach and kick their legs trying to get their body to move and finally have to roll over to grab something. For the most part you can put them into a seated position and they can sit by themselves without falling over. They don’t have it completely down yet, so we’re either right next to them or their in the pack-n-play where they have a soft landing if they tip over.

Although both of them seem to enjoy the presence of Scout, Colin is really taken by him lately. We feed them some oatmeal first thing in the morning and as soon as he is in his highchair, Colin is looking for his dog. He gets fixated on him and smiles every time Scout does something. Ever since he was a puppy, Scout liked to bring a mouthful of food from his bowl in the kitchen into living room to eat. The other night Colin was in his swing and Scout was making his food trips back and forth in front of the swing. Each time Scout passed him, Colin would giggle and smile. The dog meanwhile was completely oblivious to this entertainment show he was putting on.

Jake finally got his front two teeth this past month catching up to Colin. What he lacked in the tooth department he made up for in his hair, compared to his brother. While both have always had some hair, Jake has started to grow a pretty bushy head of hair.

It’s been interesting to watch their mental development his past month. You can almost see the wheels turning in their head when they are really trying to figure something out. It hasn’t happened too often, but Jake sometimes will play a little yelling game with us. He’ll give out a little “Ahhhhhhhh”, then we’ll double it with an “Ahhhhhhh….Ahhhhhhhhh” and he will answer with a double yell too. For whatever reason he really gets a kick out of Adrianne saying “God bless you” after he sneezes. He won’t even sneeze and if we say it, he’ll just giggle and laugh. Just this morning, I swear he faked sneezing so we would say it. The first time I could have chalked up to coincidence, but after he did it again, I’m thinking we have a little jokester on our hands.

That has been the best part of this past month. There is starting to be a real give and take interaction with each of them. They are starting to be able to give back love to you more and more each day. Not that they weren’t loving before, but they recognize your enjoyment in them now. If they are playing or doing something alone and one of them catches you watching them and smiling, they’ll look up and smile back at you. There is much on the horizon for them in these coming months leading up to their “official birthday” and we can’t wait to see what’s next.