Bittersweet does not even begin to describe how it is for my babies to turn eleven months old. I love watching them grow and thrive as they discover the world around them and laugh and giggle, getting better and better at communication. And although their babyhood does seem to go by thankfully slower than it did with Elijah, it is still too fast. My babies are closing in on toddlerhood….though in my personal opinion they will ALWAYS be my babies just like my Elijah is.
And just as Elijah, that last several months of the first year, weight gain has slowed down quite a bit. But though they are but little, they be fierce! (A little Shakespeare to liven up your day!). The twins are so very different but both has such strong personalities. The constant in all three of our boys is a sweet, gentle and loving disposition. There is a kindness in all three that I pray will remain with them forever. I believe it is our job to nurture this naturally occurring personality trait because frankly, there is not enough kindness in the world and I would be so proud if our sweet three made the world a better place as I know in my heart they will.
And now for the individual updates!
Rory: Rory is around 17 pounds 10 ounces (depending on how much he easts before I weigh him). He is very active but manages to maintain just a little bit of the sweet baby fat that is so much fun to squish. He toddles around still holding on to furniture but still quite mobile! A Mama’s boy all the way, this boy is happy as long as Mama is within arms reach. (Except on airplanes. Apparently Rory does not like airplanes….an unfortunate Christmas vacation discovery). Rory continues to be a night owl and will often keep me up pretty late to let him play and nurse. Rory is still exclusively breast fed though I do occasionally let both of the boys taste different flavors from the tip of my finger and over Christmas they both got to lick a lemon and some orange pulp much to their enjoyment. As the Exclusive leg of our breast feeding journey nears to an end (I plan to nurse them for two years but will be introducing solids in the next month or so) I have a mixture of emotions. I know that life will get a bit easier when they begin solids but isn’t this what this season of motherhood is all about….being at the beck and call of your child? It is such a short time and I LOVE that I am the sole provider of sustenance for my babies. Still, it will be so much fun to watch them enjoy the food that Mama makes learn more about their personalities through their food preferences and habits.
Rory ADORES his big brother. They ride in the cart together when we go to the supermarket and have such a good time playing. Rory watches Elijah sing and be silly with totally joy and adoration. His eyes light up when Elijah is nearby. Rory now has five teeth and is working on a sixth. But thanks to the awesome amber/Hazelwood necklace that the twins have worn since they were a couple months old (I have a matching bracelet) we have not really experienced much fussiness or drooling with either of them due to teething.
Rory is definitely happiest when he is in familiar surroundings where I can crawl and cruise freely and he knows Mama’s routine and habits. But even when we were traveling and every day brought something new, he was full of smiles and cheer. He is so jovial and fun and it is such a delight to be around him.
Patrick: My little P-funk as I call him remains tiny. Oh how I love it! He has hovered around 16 pounds…sometimes right at and sometimes a bit below…..for a a while and remains at that weight at 11 months. He is happy, healthy, and full of color so I know his growth spurt will hit when he’s ready. Until them, I am totally enjoying my tiny little deep thinker. I think he may experience a growth spurt soon as he has been nursing NONSTOP. Since I have a TON (literally thousands of ounces) of my own milk stored in our deep freeze, I will sometimes offer a bottle of that after he nurses if he seems still hungry. But really it seems like most of the time the excessive nursing is just because he finds it comforting and I love that I am able to provide that comfort to him.
Patrick has really come into his own as far as personality goes. He is ALWAYS smiling. He rarely crawls preferring to cruise along the wall or couch or whatever else he can use for support. I am actually quite shocked he is not yet walking because I am pretty sure he could do if he wanted to. So a typical Patrick siting is him cruising along the couch with the sweetest smile on his face, eyes locked on Wrigley making his way over to nuzzle his head under Wrigley’s. He pets Wrigley and has the most joy in his face when he is nose to nose with his doggie. Patrick is true animal lover.
Patrick is pretty adaptable to new situations and will go to new people without a thought. He LOVES to “talk”. I am so surprised at how vocal he is because he seems like the quiet one but Patrick always wants to be included in conversations and will come over with the sweetest (and pretty intentional) babbles. I love listening to his sweet little voice form these “words”. And when he and Rory start talking to one another, I swear they know what the other one is saying.
It is so much fun to watch the babies as they begin to interact with one another more and more every day! This months photo shoot was done while we were traveling. I didn’t really have a chance to do the whole photo shoot ordeal that has come to be our monthly tradition but I did want to make sure I took some intentional eleven month photos on their eleven month birthday.
Lately Patrick is been the cooperative twin with photo shoots. And Rory….well he just wanted to climb the stairs.
Some of the sweetest moments is watching them interact with one another. They actually hold hands sometimes!
It amazes me how different these two look and yet they both just melt my heart.
Patrick is like “Hold on Rory. Mama’s not done yet!”
He is such a “pretty” baby.
And there he goes….
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