Eleven months, I don't even know how it is possible. Eric and I were talking a few nights ago about how they literally were just born. They honestly can't almost be a year old, can they? This past month sure was one to remember, so let's look at all the fun we've had!
This past month started with Ian's sixth angelversary. Six years gone, it's hard to believe. Ian sent Brayden and Ashley their first snow that day. It wasn't much, and was basically melted by the time we got home from daycare that night. But there was a nice little patch by the tree we planted for Ian in our yard- I don't think that was a coincidence.
The weekend of the 20th we started our Christmas festivities at Dan and Theresa's house. We got royally spoiled, and they loved every minute of it.
A few days later we went and visited my Grandma Blievernicht's house to wish her a Merry Christmas.
Christmas Eve we went to my Grandma Wolf's house before church that night. It was so different not having grandpa there, but I'm glad that Brayden and Ashley were able to bring smiles to grandma's face that evening.
Christmas Day was pure magic. Not the "look at all the presents that Santa brought" magic, but the "stay in your pajamas and cuddle and play all day" magic. I want to spend every Christmas for the rest of my life like that, and I hope that Brayden and Ashley (and our future children) will love spending this day at home together as much as Eric and I do. And if you are curious on what our Christmas looked like, I have a whole post on that here.
The 27th was Christmas at my mom and dad's house and we were spoiled once again.
The rest of Christmas break was spent in our pajamas, cuddling on the couch watching Christmas movies, and enjoying some peaceful time together before it was back to work in January.
We spent New Year's Eve with some friends, and while the babies didn't make it to midnight, we still did a little celebrating with them beforehand.
Since then it's been back to the old grind of work and daycare, but we haven't let that stop us from still having fun!
And now for other random things from this month:
- Brayden is weighing 26 pounds and is 31.25 inches tall. Ashley weighs 22 pounds and is 29.75 inches tall.
- We've still been following a 2.75-3 hour wake window (though over break we probably followed more of a 2 hour-2 and a half hour wake window- sleeping in apparently doesn't affect their nap schedule at all). We get up at 6, bottle, breakfast around 7:30, nap 8:45/9-10, bottle, lunch around 11:30, nap 12:45-4, bottle, dinner around 5:15/5:30, bottle, bed at 7/7:15.
- Bottles have also stayed the same this month with four bottles a day, Brady at 8 ounces for his first three and Ashley at 7 ounces, and then 4 ounces for their last bottle. Sometimes they get distracted while they are taking their bottles and don't even finish all of them. Hopefully that means it will be an easy transition off of the bottle here soon.
- We've still been in size 4 diapers this month, but the last few days both babies have been peeing out at night, so we are bumping them up to size 5 diapers at night. This month was rough on us diaper wise due to Ashley having a yeast infection this month and constantly changing her diaper to try to get rid of it (which we have, yay!). So I would say that we easily went through 12-13 diapers a day this week.
- We've been in size 12 clothes all month, but I've gotten out their 18 month clothes and am about to change them over. Their onsies are getting tough to snap and they are SNUG in their jammies.
- Favorite toys this month would be any remote they can get their hands on, their shape sorter (mostly the shapes as they have beads inside so they like to shake them to hear the noise), and the stick people from their pop-up toy (they are apparently the perfect size to chew on). They are also still big fans of their stacking bowls.
- Ashley still only has two teeth and as of right now, I don't feel any more popping through. Brayden is up to 5 teeth, the two on bottom, and then three up top-which he basically got all at the same time.
- This month, Brayden is pulling up to stand and has started cruising along the side of the couch and coffee table. He has gotten adventurous and has started letting go of the coffee table to hold something with both hands. Sometimes this ends up with him losing his balance and falling on his behind, which usually ends up in some tears. We've discovered our Brady bug is quite the little empath and is pretty sensitive. Brady still sleeps on his belly, but he now sleeps with his knees tucked under him like Ashley does. Brayden can also give high fives and clap his hands.
- Ashley's new skills this month include cruising along the couch or coffee table, giving high fives, and being able to hold on to a high ledge and lift her feet off the ground. I've decided that she is definitely saying "hi" with her big waves. She is still a big tummy sleeper with her little booty up in the air. When I go in to wake them up in the morning she is almost always sucking her thumb as well.
- Communication wise, like I mentioned, Ashley has the word "hi". They both understand the word no- I even made Ashley cry by telling her no when she was chewing on the side of her crib. They understand the words "come here", "mommy", "daddy", "puppies", "eat/food", "bottle", their names/nicknames/each other's names. Ashley will come up to you and smack her lips when she is thirsty. I think they are realizing that "mama" goes with me since they will crawl up to me and start babbling mamamama. And I swear when Eric came home last night and I said, guess who's here?, Ashley started babbling dadadada.
- These two both love to eat, and I've noticed that they've been able to eat more and more during meal time. Neither one has any huge dislikes. I would say that Ashley still prefers fruit over anything else and would probably only eat fruit if we would let her, but she does do a good job of eating her vegetables too. Brayden eats about anything you put on his plate. Ashley loves water and will drink almost her whole cup at each meal. Brady, on the other hand, hardly touches his water. He will drink some if you offer it up to his mouth. But then he has a bad habit of drinking a lot and then spitting it out. He thinks its hilarious. Mommy and daddy do not.
- Favorites for Brayden this month include being on the couch. He loves to stand at the back of the couch to look out the window, but he also loves to just crawl back and forth across the couch too. He likes giving mom big, wet, open mouth kisses, and on that note, using that big open mouth to eat his sister's hair (though I swear she doesn't mind because I've seen her take her head away only to put it back to his mouth so he can do it again). We rearranged our entertainment center under the TV so that it mostly contains their books, and boy does Brady (and Ashley for that matter) like to stand at the shelf and pull all of the books out to put them on the floor. At least they like looking at them once they are done, right? Brayden is also a fan of opening up the cabinets in the kitchen.
- One big dislike for Brayden is waking up in the morning. He's usually fine waking up from a nap. But boy oh boy has he been a cranky one first thing in the morning lately. He's getting like 11 hours of sleep at night, so I'm not sure what his deal is on that one. He also hasn't been a fan of diaper changes recently. Once that diaper is off he is wanting to get back to whatever it was he was doing before. I'm often putting on his diaper while he is standing up or crawling across the floor. Another dislike for Brady is looking where he is crawling. This guy will crawl right into the coffee table or the fridge because he has his head down crawling full speed ahead.
- Some favorites for Ashley this month are remotes. She really likes to chew on them, especially if she knows she isn't supposed to have them. She loves to shake the shapes from her shape sorter to hear the noise they make. Like I mentioned in Brady's likes, she will help him pull all the books off the shelf. And she still loves to steal whatever toy/book/thing that Brady has. Here lately she is liking to crawl and look behind her at Brayden and then laugh and start crawling faster. I'm assuming she thinks he is chasing her and she is getting away, but Brady has no clue that that's what he's doing. He just doesn't like to be left in a room alone. She is having fun with it at least, and one of these days he really will be chasing her and she probably won't be able to get away from him fast enough! Ashley also likes to dance to music- right now she prefers pop/hip-hop/90's rap songs.
- Dislikes for Ashley include having a poopy diaper. I've noticed that when she is poopy she is extra whiney and comes up to you and wants to be held. She dislikes when she is told no (we are in for a real treat with this one!). And this month she has also not liked when I leave the room. At daycare in the mornings when I leave she often starts crying and tries to follow me to the door.
