Once again, it’s been way too long since I’ve had the chance to blog. I feel like the girls have done so much in the past month. Every day it seems that they are doing something new.
Maddie on the left, Lia on the right
Maddie being adorable on our way out to the mall on NYE
Lia loves her new hat!
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We left off just after Thanksgiving. At that point the girls were smiling more and more, laughing here and there and Melia had just showed some interest in reaching and grabbing. What a difference a month makes! Now, they don’t stop smiling – they even wake up smiling! They are talking all the time, and by talking, I mean not only babbling, but making shrilling screams! I really need to teach them about how to use their inside voices…especially Maddie – she’s definitely the talker/screecher. They laugh all the time, and anything within reaching distance is in their hands and then immediately in their mouths. Including my hair, which Melia got an incredible grip on today, started swinging it and laughed in my face as I tried to free my hair from her remarkably strong grip. I keep saying that Melia is no doubt going to be the trouble maker of the two, and that just gave me a little more proof of her evil nature! ;-) They’re definitely teething, though no teeth have quite poked through yet, they are drooling like little saint bernards and constantly have something in their mouths, and if they can’t find something within reach, well, that’s what hands are made for, right? Their temperament hasn’t changed yet or anything like that, but I’m bracing myself for double teething fun in the coming weeks. They’re taking their binkies in and out of their mouths now. Of course, not really knowing how to get it back in their mouths the right way, this leads to some frustration, but they’re getting better at it.
Speaking of frustration, we’ve learned that Madison is, as of right now, the more determined one. She was trying so hard to roll over for weeks…and you could see the determination in her eyes…and when she wasn’t able to do it, she’d get so frustrated. Until one day, it happened! Other than being born first, this is the first thing that Maddie has done before Melia – she rolled over from back to front! The first time she did it she was in her crib (on December 18th) and she had just eaten. I was in the kitchen washing bottles and listening to the usual morning babbles and screeching from the two of them. Maddie started screeching a little louder and differently than usual, so I went upstairs to check on her and sure enough, she had rolled over and couldn’t figure out how to get her elbows underneath her, so she couldn’t lift her head. She was so frustrated! Even though she’d rolled over, she couldn’t quite get the tucking of the elbow thing down. But, nonetheless, she did it!! She made her first big roll – and no one was there to see it! Over the next couple weeks, she would roll over here and there, but never in front of anyone! Then slowly but surely she was doing it often enough throughout the day that Mike got to see her do it, but she was still not letting me see it. I begged her. I set up the video camera and left the room. Nothing. She knew I was watching! Until finally just this past Thursday (January 7th) she gave me the big show! She can’t always get the elbow thing together, but she’s getting more consistent with it. Unlike Madison, Melia has only recently, that being in the past week or so, showed a true interest in rolling over. Up until now, she would try for a second, realize that it would take a lot of effort to get it done and she’d immediately, and happily, give up. She was content with just staying where she was and not striving for that extra goal. But now, she’s so determined to roll over that she’s trying to cheat! Yup, told you she’s a trouble maker – she’s cheating already! She will grab onto the bar of the playmat, the side of the playgym or even grab on to Madison’s hand to try to pull herself over. This move is smart, but sneaky. Haha.
On December 10th we tried spoon feeding for the first time. I've been putting oatmeal in their bottles for months now, and even though they were chronologically 6 months old, but actually about 3 months old developmentally, our pediatrician wanted us to give spoon feeding a whirl and see how they did. It didn't go so well. They both had no idea what to do with the goop in their mouths (which was rice cereal by the way) and they couldn't really understand that we wanted them to open their mouths when the spoon approached. Now that they're another month old, and love putting things in their mouths, we're trying again. Melia seems to be getting it, kind of. Maddie still wants nothing to do with it - but, it's a work in progress. We'll get there.
Another thing we learned is that Maddie loves to be scared! This video says it all….
And to the contrary, Melia is definitely not a fan of the daddy says boo game! I was uploading that video on the computer and had Melia on my lap. As the video came up and played, Melia started watching it and immediately started crying hysterically. She was so terrified – just by watching Mike on video scaring Maddie. I felt so bad for her, but couldn’t help but laugh at her reaction to it. (Okay, so maybe we see where Melia gets her evil streak from) ;-)
The girls had their final appointment with the gastroenterologist on December 29th. Dr. Sunaryo declared them gastro graduates and doesn’t need to see them anymore! What great news! He was so happy with their weight gain since their last appointment a couple months ago – and they hadn’t taken their Pepcid since about December 8th and hadn’t had any acid reflux episodes, so he officially took them off of the Pepcid.
Then of course the girls have been to the pediatrician twice since I last blogged for their synagis shot (RSV vaccine). It’s so amazing to see the girls personalities even shine through in a moment like that. Maddie handles getting shots so much better than Melia does – and we attribute that to all that she had been through in the NICU. Melia sailed right through without a single procedure and so I don’t think that she can handle the poking and proding quite as well as Maddie does. At their last appointment, just this past Thursday (January 7th) they had to get the synagis shot broken up into two injections because of their weight. The have both been doing so well with their weight gain. As of Thursday, Maddie is weighing in at 13lbs 7oz and Melia is 14lbs 11oz – still a little more than one pound between them, but recently we can visibly notice that Maddie is catching up to Lia! They’re in size 2 diapers now and wearing 3-6 month clothing, leaning towards the 6 month side. They turned 7 months old on Tuesday (January 5th) and while they’re developmental skills are definitely parallel to where they should be according to their adjusted age of 4 months, they seem to be catching up size-wise to their chronological age.
The last month has been a busy one with the synagis appointments and other doctor appointments, and of course, with the girls’ first Christmas! We decided not to get professional pictures done for their first Christmas pictures, and in the picture to the right, Melia is proving exactly why we made that decision. Mike worked his usual 24 hour shift on Christmas Eve, and I worked also, but only for what boiled down to a half day. The girls and I spent Christmas Eve at Grandpa and Grandma Rosie’s house and we had a great dinner and the girls got their first Christmas gifts. Christmas morning Mike got home at about 7am and we exchanged our gifts while the girls were still sleeping. Then when they let us know that they were ready to see what santa left them under the tree, we did just that. With their new love of grabbing, I was able to get them to grab a piece of wrapping paper so I could make them “unwrap” their gifts. They obviously had no clue what was going on, but for Mike and I, it was a fantastic morning. I picked up Grandma (my mom) and brought her back to the house for breakfast. Then we all went to Aunt Riss and Uncle Joe’s for Christmas dinner. The day after Christmas was our busiest day, with lots of places to go. We started our day with breakfast at Uncle Jimmy and Aunt Tracy’s house, then had lunch with Aunt Gel and Uncle Bri and then made our last stop for dinner at Nana’s. It was an exhausting, but fun day and the girls handled the car rides, the being off schedule and the general chaos remarkably well. 
Lia on the left and Maddie on the right
The two best gifts I've ever had under my tree
We did make a quick trip to the mall to get a picture with Santa,
unfortunately, all 3 of them look pretty uninterested.
Christmas night...Lia on left, Maddie on right
Maddie on Christmas Eve
Lia on Christmas Eve
Christmas Eve
Lia on left, Maddie on right
Christmas afternoon
Lia on left, Maddie on right
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