Nine months old. It doesn't seem possible. Eric likes to remind me that that means they are only three months away from being one year old. I kinda want to cry just thinking about it. But we had lots of excitement this month so let's dive on in it!
Their ninth month started off with me taking a little time to attend our 4th annual Wave of Light ceremony. I have the honor of reading off the list of names every year of the babies that have left us too soon. Seeing all these bags lit up is just a breathtaking and heart wrenching site. I can't wait to one day bring Brady and Ashley to this event to help honor their big brother and sister.
Luckily persistence pays off and by the end of the weekend, Ashley was finally actually enjoying being cooped up in that box with her brother.
Amanda took these cute pictures at daycare so I have to share these from Halloween too!
We visited great grandparents that weekend and into the next week as well. It was so fun letting them see how much the twins have grown and all their new tricks.
On November 7th, Ashley decided that she was extra big and started pulling up on the coffee table. She is slightly obsessed with doing it now. We decided that that would be a good time to lower the crib mattresses so there's no way that they can fall out.
We also got to watch their aunt yay-yay (or Erin if you don't speak Grant) run part of her marathon! She was supposed to be running it in Indy, but thanks to Covid it got cancelled. She and Dannette ran it around the country in Effingham instead, and it was fun to be able to cheer her on for a little bit. This picture is from when she saw that Brady and Ashley were there to cheer her on. Babies must be a good morale booster!
The 11th was a day off of school for me, so Eric took that day (and the 12th and 13th) off to hunt. We might not have gotten any deer (or seen many for that matter), but it was fun getting out in the woods with him that morning and evening. I almost killed him for making me sit in a hang on stand in the evening, but after getting over my initial feelings of feeling like I would fall to my death (even though I was as tied in to the tree as I could get), I was able to enjoy the beauty and sounds of the woods that night. I don't know what it is about not having the bar around me like I do when I hunt the buddy stand, but not having that made me feel so much higher from the ground and less secure. (Eric would probably like me to put a big PSA in here about how I was tied in to the tree from the ground up and how he tried to make me feel as safe as possible by tightening up my safety harness as much as he could.)
This month I also took some updated photos of them in the studio. I'm in LOVE with how these turned out. Ashley's scrunchy nose smile and Brady's dimples get me every time.
And now other random things that I don't want to forget about this month:
- Brayden weighs 23.8 pounds and is 28 and 3/4 inches long. Ashley weighs 20.4 pounds and is measuring 28.5 inches long. I would have sworn Brady would weigh more and be taller than that, but I weighed them like 3 times and came up with the same numbers each time so it has to be right. And taking their length measurement is always a crap shoot so at this point it's just a best guess estimate ha!
- Our wake windows stretched to 2.75-3 hours between naps this month. So our new tweaked schedule is wake up at 5:45/6, bottle, eat breakfast around 7:30, nap 8:45-10, bottle, eat lunch around 11:30/12, nap from 12:45-4, bottle, eat dinner around 5/5:15, bottle, bed around 6:30/7.
- We still take 4 bottles a day- one after each time they sleep and then one right before bed. Brady gets 8 oz in his bottle and Ashley gets 7. This month, especially here towards the end of the month, I've noticed that they are leaving a lot more formula in their bottles. Some days, they might leave four or five ounces in a bottle. I'm assuming it's because they are eating more real food and that is filling them up to where they just aren't as hungry for their bottles. I'd like to say I could start making smaller bottles to try to save on formula, but that would be when they would down their bottle and cry for more, so we will just leave it as it is.
- I decided to stop pumping this month, so now the babies get exclusively formula in their bottles. It was said feeding them their last bottle of breastmilk, but I can't say I miss the pumping sessions I was doing every day.
- It's safe to say we still love real food, and this month we have mastered the straw cups! Ashley is a big fan of drinking water, so I often won't offer their cups until they've eaten a good majority of their food. Brayden usually just plays with his cup more than anything, but he does at least know how to use it.
- I will say that Ashley is a better eater than Brayden in that she has figured out how to open her hand better when she gets it to her mouth, meaning more food actually makes it into her mouth as opposed to the food that Brady eats, which usually ends up all over his face, down his shirt, and sometimes rubbed into his hair or ear. Ashley also seems to have a more mature pincer grasp when picking up her food as well.
- We are in size 4 diapers all the time now. This month was rough on us diaper wise. Both babies had the WORST diaper rashes (so much so that Brady's little bottom bubbled up and Ashley would scream bloody murder when you changed her diaper), so we have gone through lots of diapers. I would say we easily went through 12+ diapers a day this month with all the extra pooping they were doing.
- We are in 9 month clothes still, but they are getting pretty snug and I'm sure we will be moving up a size soon.
- Favorite toys this month would probably be the little Grapat bowls and balls set or their Grimms nesting bowls.
- Brayden and Ashley both have their two bottom teeth in, which would probably explain the increase in poopy diapers this month.
- Ashley is a full fledged tummy sleeper, usually up on her knees with her little booty up in the air. Brady likes to sleep on his back, usually with his arms flailed out.
- This month they both became obsessed with our hoodie strings. If you have a hoodie on, those strings will be in their mouths.
- I wish I could pinpoint which one of them talked more, but they each are chatty for different reasons and at different times of the day, so I'm calling it a draw right now. Ashley has started really playing with intonation in her babbles and sometimes it's almost like she is saying something back to you. She favors m's, d's, and y's in her babbling. Brady really likes the b sound, and likes to make different vowel noises too.
- Brady still isn't crawling, but I swear that any day he could just take off and go. He gets on his hands and knees all the time and will rock and push to move backwards. This month he has started picking up his arms and legs and putting them back down, so you can tell he's trying to figure out what to do. Luckily he can get most places he wants by rolling. He has started grabbing onto the edge of the coffee table as well, but hasn't officially tried to pull up yet.
- Ashley on the other hand is army crawling all over the place, and she is fast. Sometimes her legs get going so fast I think she is going to end up doing a somersault because her arms can't keep up. This month we've seen her attempt to take a few crawls on her hands and knees, but this is short lived and she goes back down to her belly to keep crawling. Ashley is a big fan of pulling up on the coffee table, and Brayden is a big fan of laughing when she loses her balance and falls down.
- These two babies LOVE each other. There is nothing sweeter than seeing them eyeing each other in the morning from their cribs. And when you bring one of them over to the other one they will just smile and giggle and reach for each other. My heart has melted more times than I can count. They will reach for each other's hands when they are by each other on the floor, and Ashley loves to crawl over to Brady and climb all over him.
- Favorites for Ashley this month include: bouncing/jumping, being tipped upside down, crawling all over, trying to climb into the wipes box or all over me, pulling up on the coffee table, and biting your shoulder when she is cuddling. (Sweet I know).
- Ashley does not like when you leave the room. She will crawl to come find you. She gets frustrated when she is too tired to pull herself all the way up, or when she falls over from standing up and bonks her head on the floor.
- Favorites for Brady this month include getting his chin tickled, pulling Ashley's hair, shaking his head "no", and any sort of touchy feely book, especially the shaggy ears page in the "That's not my puppy" book.
- Brady still does not like loud noises (even Ashley's random screams will set him off this month) or when he rolls to his stomach while eating and can't figure out how to put his bottle back in his mouth.
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