8 Months!

Hattie's cuddliest times lately are when she's tired.  

Two smiley girls.  Hattie is on the left, Tille on the right

Both girls always sleep in this position (Tille on the left, Hattie on the right).  Usually when they're tired and almost asleep, they'll put their hands behind their head.  That's the magic moment when if we get them right to bed they'll go to sleep without fussing. And sometimes they'll be in the middle of playing and put their hands behind their head for a second before they remember that they're not tired.

My phone was upside-down when I took this picture. This was their first bath together in the big tub.  Their little cheeks are just the cutest!

I tried to get a cute picture of us all lying next to each other.  This is the best I got.  Very typical moment in our living room.

Here, Tille's resting on my leg while she plays.

Tille likes to rest on whatever is nearby.  We were watching tv and she just sat there so nice with her head resting on my foot.  So cute!

Here's Hattie being cuddly again.  I think she had woken up after going to bed and just needed some hugs.

I love this picture.  I was sitting at the table doing some work on my laptop and I looked up and it had started snowing outside and the girls were watching it.  Now that they can pull themselves up to stand, they love looking out the window.  But they don't know how to get back down, so when they're done looking or get bored, they just scream until Matt or I comes to the rescue.  Speaking of screaming, the girls sit in their high chairs at the table every night for dinner now.  Usually we'll give them some baby food first and then give them little bits of our dinner.  If we take too long between bites for Tille, she yells at us.  She really likes dinner and doesn't appreciate having to wait for a bite.  Hattie is pretty patient between bites.  She'll play with the straps on her chair or just look around.

8 months old!  This picture perfectly captures the girls.  Tille smiles with her mouth wide open.  Sometimes I'm not sure she's smiling.  She just opens her mouth as wide as she can and looks at us.  But sometimes it's a definite smile.  Hattie usually smiles with her mouth closed tight.

Hattie's coming to get me at the table while Tille watches.

We bathe the girls in the tub most nights now to help them settle down for bed.  Last night, I was looking for their bath toys and Matt called me over to look.  Tille had gone and sat right under the faucet while it was going (Matt turned off the water by the time I got my camera ready).  She likes to sit under the water and on top of the drain.

Hattie usually sits at the other end of the tub and plays with toys and splashes.
I don't know if the video below is loaded right, and it won't let me add a caption, so I'll caption it here. This is one of Tille's first crawls.  She army crawled for a couple weeks before she figured out how to really crawl.  Hattie is super fast with her army crawl.  Lately, if one girl finds something interesting to check out, the other will follow closely.  So we see them crawling down the hall as fast as they can.  The other day, Tille had crawled over to their bedroom and was playing with some socks in the closet.  I figured they were both in there, so I went to get them, but I couldn't find Hattie.  Turns out she'd gone into our room and was playing with my shoes in the closet.  Matt said the day before he found Hattie under our bed.  Time to baby proof! (and sweep under the bed)

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.