11 & 12 Months

Nathan is 19 pounds and Charlie is 20 pounds.


Although I had the entire month of November off and every opportunity of properly doing their 11 month update, it just never happened. I guess I forgot how busy we get around the holidays. Plus we had some family issues that consumed most of my time. I don't know. But here's what's been going on and where we go from here.

Both babies are pretty well on developmentally. Even though we never thought Charlie would even crawl, she is now pulling herself up as well as her brother. Plus she actually practices her balance by raising her hands and then falling back. Nathan just kind of randomly wobbles there. I don't think he understands balance. Both can use the push-walker toy so they will probably be walking on their own soon.

Both are getting more teeth. Poor Charlie got all four of her molars like within a week. That had to be hell. Nathan has one coming in but it's hard to tell because they really don't like you looking in their mouths. And Charlie hates having her teeth brushed. In January my insurance is changing and forcing me to carry them on dental/vision as well as medical so they will probably go visit the dentist for the first time.

Neither are really talking yet, but they make all kinds of sounds. Charlie has been making a "baa baaa baaaow" sound. We're not sure where she's going with it. We don't think it's baba like bottle because we don't call them babas. The best hypothesis we have is she might be saying baby because we call her baby girl a lot. Or it could be nothing. Nathan makes a lot of yells and shrieks and grunts. We call them yeti noises because he got a pair of yeti pajamas for Christmas.

Both are off of formula now and onto just whole milk and they eat pretty much everything. Well, Charlie will eat anything. Nathan is still a reluctant eater but he will eat eventually.

Christmas was really good, though we were all sick. Babies' first cold and fever. We celebrated their birthday on Christmas eve but next year we probably won't be able to do that. They will understand Santa Claus so it will be back to Christmas morning for the family. I don't know if they will understand birthdays by then or if we can combine them one more year. We'll see, I guess. They got a lot of great new toys and clothes but not so much that I feel like they were spoiled. There are a lot of adults in the family and just them for kids so the adults drew names for each other and everyone bought for the babies. It worked well and I think that's how we'll do it in the future.

I'm actually typing this on the 28th, their birthday but I probably won't post until after the doctor's appointment on the 29th. But I'm sitting here imagining this time last year. I woke up, went to the store and watched football and wrote long range lesson plans for most of the day, never dreaming that Charlie was plotting her escape. Now one year later there are two little noisy people playing on their activity table. I don't know if this year has gone fast or slow. It feels like I just blinked and here we are, but at the same time this has also felt like the longest year of my life. Like everything in life there has been good and not so good.

I think going into the second year I have a more realistic idea of what we're in for. We really had no idea last year. All of the parenting classes, nothing really prepared us. We actually saw a parenting class at Babies R Us a few weeks ago and I laughed internally. But hey, I'm sure some of them will have the fairy tale pregnancy, birth and babies they dream of. Good for them. And for others that don't, maybe they will read something like my blog and realize that they're not crazy after all.

Speaking of which, it's unlikely that I will do monthly updates anymore. I know that the dozen of you will be heartbroken. I'll still post major things like walking and talking and stuff like that. If you really think you'll miss me that much you can email me and I'll add you on Facebook. Otherwise, I'll be around once in a while. Thanks for reading and going on this adventure with us.

Jacky