9 Months!!

I am officially the worst blogger ever as it has been MONTHS since my last post, that being said, I’ve been a little busy ; )I am going to try and recap the past 9 months the best that I can as some of it feels like it happened yesterday and some of it I have sadly already forgotten. To say that I am running a marathon at a sprinter’s pace every day is the understatement of the century. I am constantly moving trying to keep them moving and entertained, and most importantly just trying to get through the day with a little enjoyment.

The first few months are kind of a blur as we adjusted to our new family. The first two-three weeks although difficult were not bad as they slept for like 20 hours a day. Then at about a month Jack started crying, and didn’t stop crying for the next 8 weeks! At about a month and a half, Cole started crying and didn’t stop for the next 8 weeks. I was positive the there had to be something medically wrong with them to cause them to cry for up to 8 hours a day, however the doctors dubbed it PURPLE Cry (this stands for Peak of Crying, Unexpected, Resists Soothing, Pain Like face, and Evening). Apparently from 2 weeks – 4 months is the peak crying time for all infants, however some infants just experience it a little more intensely than others….I happened to have two that experienced it to their fullest lung screaming potential as they never wanted anyone to say that they didn’t give it their best effort.

All jokes aside, it was pretty awful. They weren’t hungry, they didn’t nap (I know my mom is shaking her head saying payback), and they didn’t particularly want to be held…they just wanted to cry. The only thing that seemed to make the crying stop even for a second was to walk them around outside which we affectionately began to call going on a nature walk. I am sure that the neighbors thought we were crazy walking up and down the front yard humming and talking about the birds, or the breeze or whatever we could possibly talk about just to make it stop if even for five minutes. On trips home our parents, aunts, family friends would all take turns taking one of the boys outside on a nature walk just to bring the volume down in the house. Our only saving grace aside from our family, was that they slept through the night from 9 weeks on….they may not have slept all day, but they slept each night for 11 hours and that was 11 hours where they weren’t crying. Then at about 4 months it stopped…suddenly, unexpectedly it stopped and they were done. They still cried but only for a bottle or a diaper change…it was a beautiful glorious day!

And today, at 9 months old they are happy (for the most part) and healthy. They can sit up by themselves, crawl everywhere in creation, and pull up on anything steady enough to hold them (and then sometimes even things not steady enough to hold them). They talk (baby talk) constantly and seem to find themselves pretty amusing. The other day they stood across the coffee table from each other talking back and forth, laughing hysterically at whatever they seemed to be talking about…I wish I could have gotten it on video however as soon as the camera, or the iPhone as the case may be, is pulled out, they stop doing whatever it is they are doing: ( It is getting harder and harder to get candid videos of them as they are so aware of their surroundings at all times.

Jack

Jack is sweet and cuddly. He was the first to sit up at 6 months and the first to crawl at 8 months. He will work and work to learn new things and it seems like it takes him forever to get it, but once he does he is off and moving. It took him about 3 weeks of rocking back and forth, picking one hand off the ground and putting it right back down in the same place before he realized “oh, I have to pick it up and move it forward, then pick my knee up and move it forward”. As I predicted he is a methodical crawler, left arm, right leg, right arm, left leg, powering through every move as if he were some sort of linebacker. That being said he is super sweet and will wait for Cole to catch up to him when they are crawling around the house, will cuddle with Johnny every night for story time, and in the afternoons will usually bring whatever it is he is playing with and come sit and play right beside me on the floor smiling up at me every so often just because. He LOVES peek-a-boo and laughs hysterically at funny faces. He tries to get Cole to play peek-a-boo with him by sneaking around things and smiling at him, but Cole just doesn’t get it. One of my most favorite things about Jack is that he is so expressive and a complete flirt! He bats his eyelashes (only at women), gives ladies big huge Jack smiles, dimples and all. At school, he knows that to be picked up all he has to do is crawl over to one of his teachers look up at them and bat his eyelashes and they will pick him up…it is impossible not to respond!

Cole

Cole is goofy and VERY busy. He has taken much longer to do just about everything. He was about a week behind Jack with sitting up, which by the way he did before he ever even rolled over one time, and about two weeks behind Jack with crawling. Cole’s one first, pulling himself up to stand! Until about 7 ½ months we were very concerned that Cole had absolutely no motivation to move…he hated being put on his stomach and would SCREAM bloody murder when you did but showed no signs that he was going to try and roll himself over but instead scream (for like 15 minutes) until someone moved him. However once Cole rolled over at 7 ½ months he promptly began crawling 3 weeks later out of the blue…I looked over and there he was crawling towards me. That very same day to show Johnny that he could crawl; I opened the front door when he pulled in the driveway and called the boys over by saying DaDa’s home. Jack promptly began crawling with Cole following right behind him, but when Jack stopped, Cole just kept crawling right over top of Jack!! He is a complete adrenaline junky. He loves being flipped upside down, tossed in the air, and climbing things to get as high as he can go. He is into everything and LOVES playing with toys and banging them on the wood floor to see what kind of noise they make. He gets under all the furniture and “hides” and likes to pull up the carpet…to see what is underneath it?? He has an absolutely infectious laugh, really more of a giggle that can get everyone going. Of the two, Cole is definitely more stubborn and persistent in getting what he wants, or doesn’t want….don’t know where he gets it ; )