8 Months Old

WOW....I can't believe my little babies are 8 months old. It has been an amazing adventure. This is my favorite stage so far but I keep saying that so I guess that means that it just keeps getting better.

We have had many new things happen in the past month. It is such a joy to watch the girls learn new things and to see their personalities come out more and more. Sophia and Claire could not be more different. Sometimes I question if they are really twins. Regardless they just love each other. They hold hands while they take their bottles, they laugh at each other and they are always interested in what the other one is doing.

Both girls say Ma-ma, Da-da and Hi. We normally wake up to Claire saying Da-da. I know Matt just loves that. He gets a smile on his face every time he heres it. We have fights over toys on a daily basis. It is cute to watch the tug-of-war in action. They can have 20 toys sitting in front of them but they always want what the other one has. Sophia seems to always win the fight; she is our strong one. It is hard to get a toy out of her firm grip. We also have daily hair pulling which always results in one of the girls screaming hysterically. Sophia actually took Claire from a sitting position down to the floor with a few tugs of her hair. She seemed pretty proud of herself. I can only imagine how this will escalate as they get older.

I am still overly worrisome when it comes to them sleeping. I check on the girls constantly. Matt gets a good laugh from it. After we put them to bed I check on them at least three times before we head to bed. I put my hands on their bellys to make sure they are breathing. I am thinking this will never go away. As a Mommy you can never be too precautious! The girls have such different sleep habits. Claire is always on her stomach with her hands up by her mouth...often times with her butt in the air. It is so cute! Claire does not take a pacifier at all and refuses to have a stuffed animal. Sophia on the other hand mostly sleeps on her side or her stomach with her arms laying every which way around her head. She loves her pacifier and absolutely has to have her rabbit to sleep with.

Sophia loves to blow bubbles. It seems to be her new fascination. She is also pulling up on anything and everything. She is so strong. She loves to pull herself up and peak over her crib while Mommy and Daddy play peek-a-boo with her. Sophia loves to be standing up which explains why she is pulling up. You can tell she really wants to crawl but she can't quite get her legs underneath her yet. As much as I want her and Claire to hit this new milestone I also know it will be nice to have them immobile for a little while longer. Sophia has mastered clapping which she showed off for the first time during the Super Bowl for all of our friends. She has been clapping ever since. If only her adorable cheering would have brought the Colts some luck. Sophia waves hello and goodbye which is so cute with her chunky hands and wrists.

Claire loves using her feet to do things. She plays with toys using her feet quite often. It is really funny to watch. Often times she just lays back on the floor and just kicks the toys in front of her. Claire has also figured out how to make fishy lips and combines it with a cute lip smacking noise. She does this all throughout the day. She loves to wave hello and goodbye. From that she has started to put her hands into fists in the air and move them like she is riding a motorcycle. It is so funny to see. Claire is close to crawling as well but like Sophia she can't figure out how to get her legs underneath her. I am sure it won't be too far off.

Matt had his first long trip for work. He was nervous that the girls would forget him but of course they didn't. Unfortunately the day Matt left Sophia, Claire and myself all got sick. Bad timing but we all made it through. I am lucky that the girls sleep really well when they are sick. Unfortunately for Matt he got sick as well and spent his 4 day trip the same way we were spending our week. At least we got it out of the way all at once.

I can't express enough how amazing this past 8 months has been. I knew we would love these two little girls but it has far exceeded our expectations. Being parents to our girls is a really special gift that we don't take for granted at all. I now see why people continue having children and forget about pregnancy, labor and those sleepless first few months.