Almost 7 Months

Hattie and Tille are getting better at playing on their own now.  They can sit up and play with toys and stay busy for a little while, and they're both great at rolling around.  Tille is really good at doing an inch worm crawl, and can get all over.  She especially likes playing with/sucking on the phone charger cord, and about half the time I plug in my phone, I get an error message saying moisture is detected in the port.  So that's pretty fun.  Hattie can also get all around, but she moves by rolling to wherever she needs to get.  It's getting pretty cool to see their personalities and their interests come out. We have all their toys on shelves in the tv stand, eye level to them when they're on their stomachs.  It's fun to see them go over to the shelves and pick out the toys they want to play with.  They have a few favorites that they always go for.  A few days ago when I got home from work, Tille immediately started army crawling over to me.  And almost any time we leave them in the living room to go to the kitchen or dining room, they'll try to follow us.  So at least we know they like us :) Unrelated, but something I keep meaning to write down so I remember- the first day I went back to work, when I got home I just wanted to hold and cuddle my babies.  By the time I got home, Matt said they had just gone to bed.  Of course I wasn't going to wake them up just to play with me, but I was bummed.  But Hattie woke up a few minutes later.  Matt handed her to me and she just clung to me and cuddled for like half an hour.  I was making dinner, washing my lunch dishes, etc, and she just held so tight to me and I held so tight to her.  It was the best. 

One of my favorite ways to play with the girls is to build a little play pen with my legs.  I put both girls in my legs and then pile a bunch of toys in, and the girls will play with each other and their toys for a long time so I can work on my computer or pretend to sleep.  Now that they can sit up and move around, they're a lot better at playing by themselves, but they still like to have me or Matt nearby.  So the leg play pen works out nicely. (Hattie facing me in pink, Tille in stripes)

Tille facing me in pink, Hattie in blue

Tille loves feet.  She loves playing with toes, untying shoe laces, and just looking at our feet.

Matt's sister sent me this picture one day while she was babysitting.  Tille played so hard that she just fell asleep in the middle of all her toys.  I think it's so cute how she's clinging to that billy goat doll.  She usually likes sucking on its ears, but I guess she likes hugging it too.

Both girls feel asleep on me while they were eating.  (Tille on left with flower pjs, Hattie on right with stripes).  Lately, the best and most sure-fire way to get them to sleep is to nurse them.  Sometimes at night that's the only way they'll go to sleep.  I know I should break them of this habit, but when it's late at night and I need to sleep, I have a hard time feeling really strongly about them learning to go to sleep on their own.

A couple Sundays ago we were getting ready for church.  Matt checked on the girls and called me in.  He said they were just staring at each other and smiling, but by the time I got there to take a picture, they were more interested in what we were doing. (Hattie on left, Tille on right)

A little sisterly love yesterday while we were getting ready for church (Hattie in blue, Tille in grey)

Ok, there's some real sisterly love.  They've done this more and more lately.  It's kind of their own hug style.

Our year so far

We've had an eventful year so far. 
Around the beginning of February, I had a job interview with a company in Clearfield, about 15 minutes from home.  The interview went well and the job seemed really great.  Two weeks later they made me an offer.  I kind of had a feeling that this was the best offer I would ever get, so I prepared myself to quit my job the next day.  Another guy on our team had quit a few days earlier, and he did it in a really horrible way, so this was bad timing for me to quit.  But I was ready for it.  The next day I mustered everything I had and told my boss I had an offer and would be leaving in 3 weeks.  He just sat there shaking his head, saying he totally understood and he knows how hard it is to commute so far and leave kids home.  But then he asked if it would make a difference if I could work from home sometimes.  It definitely would.  The new job would mean a much better commute, but 5 days solid at the office every day.  So my boss talked to the CFO and got him to agree to let me work from home Tuesdays and Thursdays.  The CFO hates letting people work from home.  He's all about wearing ties every day and being at your desk all day every day.  I know plenty of companies work that way, but it doesn't seem really necessary in our company.  I can absolutely do my job from home, so driving 2+hours a day does't make sense.  My boss also got me a little raise to make up for the fact that our benefits are worse than anybody else anywhere.  So I stayed.  I know I'll regret staying on days when I really hate my job, but for the most part it's a super easy job, and working from home twice a week is great.  It gives Matt a chance to have full days for meetings and appointments and just to get away from the babies for a little bit.

3 weeks ago on a Saturday I had just gotten home from grocery shopping with a fridge load of groceries.  As I was putting them away, the fridge started beeping.  Usually this means the door is open too long.  I closed the doors and it kept beeping.  We checked all the doors and levers and read through the owners' manual but couldn't get the fridge to stop beeping.  And the temperature indicator showed the temps of the fridge and freezer were going up pretty quickly.  After messing with it for about an hour, we had a quick conversation to decide between calling a repair man, knowing he probably wouldn't be able to come for a few days and it would be expensive and the fridge would probably only last a year or two longer anyway (it came with the house and is 10ish years old), or we could buy a new fridge and hopefully avoid extra costs later.  By this time it was late afternoon- the appliance store was open for one more hour.  So Matt sat with the girls and I ran down to the appliance store.  We texted about what features we wanted, I sent him a few pictures of the fridges that looked good, and I bought a new fridge.  We had to live out of coolers in the backyard for a few days (yes, it was February, but it still got to the high 50s each day so the ice in the coolers melted faster than we expected), and the new fridge was delivered Monday afternoon.  It's great.  It's nice and big and does the job.

The next weekend we all got sick.  I think I probably caught it from work.  When one person gets sick in my office, we all get it within 1-2 weeks.  I was on the tail-end of this one, but I still got it.  It was just a bad cold, but still not great.  I was super sick Saturday, Matt was super sick Sunday, and the girls got it Sunday night into Monday.  They only had runny noses for a few days, but it was still gross and a bummer weekend.

Last weekend we had all sorts of house cleaning and projects we were going to do.  Matt went downstairs Saturday morning to do something and came up a few minutes later saying, "we have a problem, there's a bit of water in the basement."  He went back down to vacuum and towel out our storage room.  I went down a little while later and when I stepped on the carpet, my socks were immediately soaked.  We probably had about an inch of water in the storage room and out into the carpeted area a few feet. Matt couldn't tell where the water was coming from, so he called the handyman that he works with a lot through the properties he manages.  The handyman (Shane) came right over and they worked together to find the leak.  They finally decided it was probably a leaky spigot on the back of the house, so Shane left to get tools to cap that spigot off.  Meanwhile, Matt had shut off the water in the house and was still vacuuming water out of the basement.  Once Shane got back, they realized it wasn't the spigot (I was with the babies all this time, so I don't know the whole process they went through to figure it out).  It turns out, the main water line running from the street to the house had broken somewhere near the house.  Matt called his brother-in-law (he owns an excavating company and has all the equipment you could want to tear into any ground, and used to work for a utility company so knows about repairing water lines).  He came and looked at it that night and said he'd be back in the morning with his equipment.  So we turned on the water for just long enough to fill some pitchers, make bottles, and get ready for bed, and then Matt turned it off again and vacuumed the water out of the basement again.  The next day, Matt's bro-in-law (Jake) came over and dug a piece of our driveway out right next to the house.  Then he tunneled under and into the house and replaced the broken pipe.  He ended up spending all day there, but by the end of the day, we had running water again (hallelujah!!!).  We still have a section of concrete missing in our driveway, right in front of the door, but that's nothing as long as we have water.  I think we have to wait til it's a little warmer to re-pour the concrete (of course that was the week winter hit finally).
I was a little wary going into this past weekend, wondering what new disaster would hit.  But we're safely on the other side now and we had a good weekend. 
Here are a few more pictures of babies, because they're super cute.

Tille and Hattie holding hands while they relax before bed

In the past couple of weeks, Tille has gotten really good at scooting around on her stomach, but she can only go in circles or backwards.  So she spends a lot of time stuck under the couch.  Hattie has gotten in on this action too in the last few days.

Both babies are starting to learn about different toys.  Rather than just suck on everything, they know that this toy can be pushed and will roll, vs rattles that they shake or animals that they squeeze.  It's so fun to see them zooming this car around on the carpet.

Tille is really good at playing by herself on the floor.  Sometimes she'll be good for 15-20 minutes, just entertaining herself.  She'll scoot around playing with various toys, and every minute or so she'll take a break, where she rests her head on the floor for just a few seconds, and then she'll pop back up and keep scooting or rolling. She also looks like she might crawl any day now.  She'll get up on her hands and knees and rock back and forth for a few seconds before falling down again.  Hattie likes to be on her stomach more.  She'll scoot around and she's really good at rolling from stomach to back and back to stomach. She'd rather sit in someone's lap all the time, but she's pretty good on her stomach.  Hattie's also just started a thing where when somebody is holding her against their chest she'll rock and jump, like she's dancing.  It's pretty cute.

Taking a break

6 months already (Hattie in purple, Tille in pink)!  They have their next doctor appointment tomorrow, so we'll see how they're doing.  I have a feeling they'll still be on the tiny end of the spectrum- they're still in most of their 3 month clothes, but some of the 6 month outfits are starting to not drown them.  Now that they're 6 months, we're getting more relaxed about what they can eat.  If they're awake while we're eating meals, we put them in their bumbos on the table and give them bits of our meal.  So far they've been pretty good about eating whatever we give them.  They've had broccoli, potatoes, oatmeal, bread, banana, and pancakes.

Lots of pictures

The girls are starting to reach for each other. Sometimes when one is eating, the other will pet her head.  When they're both eating they like to hold hands.  Hattie is petting Tille in this picture.

We've started giving them oatmeal a few times a week.  At first, they would let 2 tiny spoonfuls in and then spit it all out.  But now they'll open their mouths and reach for the spoon and swallow most of it.  I make a tiny bowl at a time and they share it. One gets a spoonfull while the other chews and swallows her last bite. This is Hattie saying, 'No pictures, please'.

Tille is patiently waiting for her next bite.

5 months already!  They've both started sucking on their bottom lip.  They do it all the time (Tille on left, Hattie on right)

Hattie and Tille got this water play mat for Christmas from Grandma and Grandpa.  It helps them get good tummy time in without freaking out, and they'll sit on this for a few minutes at a time (Tille in blue, Hattie in pink).

Hattie getting good tummy time.

I just think this picture is pretty cute. Look at those tiny hands! I'm feeding Hattie, Matt's got Tille.

The girls don't have a ton of Sunday dresses.  I think they each have 2 that fit right now.  So these dresses get a lot of use (plus I think they're super cute). Tille in light blue, Hattie in yellow.

A few days ago I had both girls trying to cuddle with me.  They were super squirmy and snuggly.  Tille kept putting her arm around Hattie, then they would look around, squirm some more, etc.  I was trying to get a picture of them hugging, but they kept looking at the camera.  Sidenote- lately, anytime I hold one or both girls against my shoulder in burping stance, she'll suck on my chin, my cheeks, my lips, whatever.  They just love sucking on my face.  I've been covered in slobber a lot.  But it's fun and I don't mind.

More cuddling.

Tille's petting Hattie while Hattie eats.

These girls love looking at screens.  If I have my phone on anywhere near while I'm feeding a baby, she'll stop eating and try to see what's happening on my phone.  This morning Tille helped Dad send a few emails out. (Bad picture because I was across the room with Hattie trying to eat my face).

Getting ready for oatmeal!

Any time we put the girls in their bumbos, they both go immediately to this position.  Matt said that Tille even managed to get out of it yesterday, so we're going to have to start being careful (Hattie on left in pink shirt, Tille on right in white shirt).  One more little story- the babies have been talking for a month or two.  Hattie likes to growl and babble, Tille mostly babbles.  Hattie's always been the more talkative of the two.  But a couple weeks ago I was feeding Hattie in the living room super early in the morning while Tille was asleep in their room down the hall.  I could hear Tille starting to move around so I was hoping I could get Hattie back to sleep before Tille started crying.  But Hattie was going strong so I thought it might be a little while still.  And then Tille started talking to herself.  She was laughing and talking and growling and babbling, all happy as could be.  And she hasn't stopped talking since then.  It's so cute to hear them talking.  Specially when we have a full conversation. It's the best.

Here are just a few little things I keep forgetting to write down.  Since she was brand new, Tille has purred as she eats and sleeps.  It's kind of like a sigh, but really sounds more like purring.  She'll also bark in her sleep.  It's probably a gasp or hiccup or something, but just at random times while she's sleeping she'll let out a barking noise.  Hattie's more of a growler.  She likes to talk to us a lot, and about half the time it comes out as a growl.

How about some more super cute pictures?

Tille is getting better at rolling over.  Hattie prefers to sit on her elbows and look around.

The girls were so tired after two days of family parties for Christmas!

This is Tille's favorite way to sit.  If she's really tired, when we put her in her rocker her arms just go up immediately and she'll be out in an instant.

Both girls are starting to grab and hold toys.  This is Tille playing with a stuffed dog.

They're learning to pose for the camera.

More posing. This is Hattie.  They love standing up.  When they're laying in our laps, if we grab their fist they'll go into a tummy crunch and then they'll pull themselves up (with a little help).  Even if they're screaming mad, they'll go quiet to do this.

Both girls love watching tv.  Wherever they are in the room, and wherever they're facing, they'll crane their necks to watch tv. In this picture, Hattie is watching Jay Leno talk about cool cars.

I'm too tired to think of a cute title for this post

We're having a lot of fun with the babies.  In the last week or so, they've started noticing each other.  One will look at the other and smile while the other looks off in another direction.  They both do this, just never at the same time.  But yesterday, I was holding both babies on my lap.  They started looking at each other and smiling, and then they had a little conversation.  One would say something in baby talk, then the other would smile and say something back.  It lasted a couple of minutes and was the cutest thing ever.  Last week Matt's friend Lynden was over helping move some furniture.  I was holding Hattie on my lap and he came over and started snapping his fingers right in front of her face.  She just stared at him, then she smiled, and then she laughed.  I've heard her do little laughs before, but this was a full on baby giggle.  Seriously heart melting.  It was so cute.  And she kept doing it.  We haven't gotten her to laugh like that again, but it was the best. 
We've still been waking the girls up every 3 hours at night to feed them.  A couple weeks ago, on a Friday night, I slept through my alarm and didn't wake up until Matt woke up 3 hours later to feed them.  So we realized both girls had slept 6 full hours and were fine!  Hallelujah!  We decided to try again the next night, and just get up when the girls started making noises.  We made it about 5 hours before the girls got hungry.  Still fantastic.  I was sure this would be the beginning of almost enough sleep again.  But the next night, they only made it about 2 1/2 hours, and the night after that, just 3 hours.  It's so much easier feeding one at a time in the middle of the night, with changing, feeding, cuddling, and putting them back in bed.  If we have to do two at a time, one will fall asleep, then by the time the second falls asleep and we try to move them to bed, the first will wake up again.  It's a bad cycle.  And Matt and I can't both be waking up a few times a night to do both babies at the same time.  So we're back to taking turns waking the girls up for feedings every 3 hours.  I'm sure we'll try letting them sleep again in the near future, but we need our sleep too.

Now that I don't have a full gym just a 3-minute walk away, I've been going running/walking in the neighborhood each morning.  And some days it feels like we live in a forest.  We have tons of blue jays and magpies around our house, so we're getting used to seeing those.  But we've also seen a kestrel (in a tree right by our driveway!), a pheasant just wandering somebody's front yard, and squirrels.  Then on one of my morning walks a couple months ago I saw something in the corner of my eye run across a yard.  As I got closer, I saw a couple more things run across.  And then I got close enough to see 2 raccoons eating apples under a tree.  There must have been 4 or 5 total before I scared them.  I don't think I've ever seen live raccoons in the wild, so I thought it was kind of cool. A week or two later, I was out walking and a family of deer walked out of somebody's yard and crossed the sidewalk right in front of me.  We looked at each other for a few seconds and then all went on our way. 

Where's the baby?

For the first few weeks after we had the babies, Matt and I, in half dream, half awake states, would think we had a baby in the bed with us, and then get scared when we couldn't find her. For the record, we've never had the babies sleep in our bed- they always sleep in their swings.  But we'd (half) wake up in the middle of the night thinking we were holding babies.  A couple times I'd wake up to see Matt patting down the blankets looking for a baby.  We've pretty much gotten over that.  Every now and then, I'll still dream that I'm feeding a baby, and then when my alarm goes off to go actually feed a baby, I'll wake up with my arms folded over my chest and wonder where the baby went.
A couple nights ago, I woke up to see Matt patting around on the blankets. He asked me if I wanted him to make a bottle for 'her'. I said "who?" and he said, "the baby."  I realized he was having another half-waking moment, so I told him the babies were asleep and it was ok.  He kept looking around, lifting the blanket and the pillows, trying to find a baby.  The he asked me where 'she' was.  I asked who again, and he said the baby.  I told him again that the babies were sleeping.  He asked me where, I told him in their beds.  He kept feeling around for them for another minute, and then got up and checked on them in their room.  Then he came back and went to sleep. I thought it was pretty funny.

For some baby updates, we took them to their 2-month check-up last week.  They're both doing really well.  Hattie weighed in at 9 lbs 4 oz (she's finally caught up to what I was at birth) and Tille weighed in at 8 lbs 9 oz.  And they're both on the growth charts now!  They're each between the 2nd and 8th percentile for various measurements.  Except Hattie's head is at 20%!  They're a lot more attentive of us and will sometimes imitate our facial expressions.  If we frown, they'll frown.  If we smile, they'll smile.  So cute!  They have a little stuffed turtle toy that rattles and has a mirror on it's belly. They love it!  We'll dangle it over their faces and they'll smile and bat it around.  Some days, that's the only way to get Tille to smile.  She's a very serious baby.  But she's smiling more and more.  Hattie is easier to get a smile from.  You just have to talk to her for a few minutes and she'll give you a big smile.  Their smiles are the cutest things ever.  Really. Cutest ever. They still love their baths.  Hattie even fell asleep in the bath yesterday.  So relaxing!  I'm sure this is a normal baby thing, but Tille has a cute habit of holding both arms out stiff.  The best is when we're feeding her and all of the sudden her arms will fly out like she's exclaiming something, and then she'll just hold them there. Little weirdo.  They've also both gotten really good at holding their heads up.  Tille's been doing this for weeks.  We'll try to cuddle her on our shoulders, and she just sits bolt upright and looks around the room.  Hattie's gotten more into it.  Last week I took her for a walk, just carrying her on my shoulder.  She spent the whole time with her head straight up, looking around the neighborhood.

Look at that sweet face!

I mean, really, look at that sweet face!

Their 2 month birthday.  Hattie is accidentally wearing a 6-month outfit.  Tille is wearing the newborn outfit that Hattie wore home from the hospital.  They've finally grown into it! So we'll watch to see how well they fill in that 6 month outfit in a few months.

Tille is very excitable when she eats

So cute!

And one last picture.  This is neice 3 being cool (?) at her sister's wedding open house.

So Cute! And stuff

The babies are doing great!  At our 2 week checkup, they were at about the 2nd and 5th percentiles on the growth charts (for various measurements), and Tille was off the chart small for a couple measurements.  Our next appointment is in a couple of weeks, so hopefully they'll show slightly better growth.  I weighed them a few days ago and Hattie was 7.8 pounds, Tille was 7.2 pounds.  So they're getting there!
We're getting used to the new life.  I can't believe it's been 7 weeks since anybody in our house got more than 4 hours of sleep at a time (probably longer, since neither of us was sleeping well for months before the babies came).  I didn't have any expectations for how hard it would be to have two newborns.  I knew it would be hard, but I didn't imagine it any certain way.  So far it's been manageable.  As long as I know the girls are fed and clean, it doesn't stress me out too much for them to cry.  But still, so often I'll be feeding or burping or soothing or diapering, and I think how much easier it would be with just one. We go for a lot of walks and I sit on the couch nursing ALL DAY LONG!!!  But these girls are super cute.  In the past week or so, they've started being really smiley (when they aren't crying).  Hattie is always really smiley first thing in the morning.  Tille smiles more later in the day.  They love cuddling, but they also really like facing forward and just hanging out on our laps.

We've also moved into our new house and are getting nice and settled.  The view is amazing.  The mountains turn pink, gold, red, and yellow at sunrise and sunset.  They're so pretty!  And with all the fall colors, the scenery is even better.  Our ward here seems really awesome so far.  Our first week at church, tons of people came up and introduced themselves after church.  This past Sunday was our 2nd week (since general conference was last week), and even more people came and introduced themselves.  A couple hours after church, one of the bishopric came over to our house.  He just lives two houses away and told us anytime we need anything we can call him.  And his daughter would love to help with the babies.  The ward already has a set of twins and a set of triplets, all about a year old.  This guy's daughter has been a big help to the triplet family, and she said she can totally help with twins.  Nice!  A few hours later there was another knock on our door.  It was a lady from the ward (who I think I met our first week).  She remembered we lived somewhere on this street, so she went around asking people if they knew which house we're in.  Eventually she landed at our door, and she brought us dinner. So nice of her!  So yeah, this ward will be pretty cool.
Here are a few pictures of the babies:

Tille likes to pose for the camera

I was putting Hattie to bed and saw Tille sitting like this.  I hurried and got a picture, but when I checked about 10 minutes later, she was still in this position.  It must be tiring to sleep with your arms straight out and tensed.

The girls love their baths.  They'll dangle their arms and legs over the little hammock part of the tub into the warm water in the tub and just be so relaxed.

This is our view.  Not bad!

The girls love their cuddles.  I'm still figuring out how to go from this position to standing up, carrying them to their room, and putting them in bed without dropping anybody.

Caught mid-sneeze

The girls are pretty good at tummy time. Each of them has even rolled over completely a few times.

She had a rough day