Getting to know you two!

We've posted a lot of pictures of Claire and Jacob (see the cute baby faces post below), now it's time to get to know the two little people who are such joys in our lives. It's amazing that they've been with us over 5 months, since April 18. They've changed so much since then.Claire (on the right):
- Born first, and for the first 2 months of her life was unmistakably the boss. She has mellowed a lot since then.
- Loves to be outside. If she is upset, going on a walk with her, either in her stroller or in our arms, will soothe her.
- Rolls over, but only 1 direction and hates when she ends up on her belly. We're not sure if she'll learn to roll the other way or to just stop rolling over first!
- Has beautiful auburn hair, but only on the top of her head. And it's getting long on top, too.
- Loves watching soccer games with the soccer moms, especially Mrs. Kim, the mother of a player on her uncle Taylor's team.
- Talks with her mouth closed, actually, more spits while making noise with her mouth shut. We don't know where she got this from.
- Loves to spalsh in the tub, which is encouraged at this age.
- Developed a rash that has spent time on her neck and has relocated to her chin and cheeks.
- Has always been a Daddy's girl!

Jacob:
- Born 30 minutes after Claire, and for the first 2 months was a quiet baby, but has become quite a ball of energy and is not afraid to share his opinion.
- Is quick to give a smile. When you talk to him, his eyes light up.
- Loves attention.
- Loves his pacifier (so do mom and dad).
- Has always been very easy to get to bed (we also love that).
- Has already lost his hair, and is now quickly regrowing it. It sticks straight up, and seems to be noticably longer each day. We can't decide if it's going to be brown or blonde.
- Went through a phase when he sucked on his tongue. He would stick it out, then suck on it (try it, it's fun).
- Likes to talk to himself in his crib, to his toys, and to anyone else who will listen to him. Sounds like his mother.
- Is becoming more of a daddy's boy recently!

Both:
- Developed dairy allergies, sorry mom!
- Are soothed by the following (in order of effectiveness): (1) eating, (2) looking at the baby in the mirror, (3) bath, (4) swinging in their car seats, (5) outside, (6) pacifier/thumb/fuzzy blankets or ducks
- Are small! They're 5 months old and still fit into most of the 0-3 month clothes and are looking tiny in their 3-6 month clothes.
- Sleep in their carseat, with their heads slumped on their chests.
- Have become very good with their hands and enjoy playing with toys and shoving them in their mouths. Jacob loves playing with Claire's ear, but his parents intervene before he shoves it in his mouth.
- Sleep better at night. It is less of a fight, and they typically wake up once during the night and sleep from 9 - 8 then take a nap until 9:30. 

Just Show Me That Baby Face

We will start with the sad/mad ones. They sure do know how to make a sad face.

Jacob sad face, aka it is late and I am not eating yet face.
Claire sad face, aka Jacob is eating why am I not? face
 

New Food Face. "What is this stuff?" Jacob and Claire have had their first experiences with rice cereal and have since become better at eating it and loving it. I think the expression on his face tells all about what he thinks of it.

Super smiley face. As described below, the bigger the smile the more closed her eyes become. It is such a cute picture anyway.
I look like my cousin face. Although he is not smiling like he usually does, we still think he looks like a chubby Breckin (my brother's baby). They are both cute little babies.
Something soft must touch my face. When Claire gets tired she has to have a blanket next to her face (preferably a super soft one). It seems like she won't take a nap without that blanket touching her face. This blanket happens to have a bear attached to it, how fun.
 

Tired Baby face. This poor baby girl was so tired that she was falling asleep sitting up in her Bumbo. She would slowly sink foward and then suddenly sit up and open her eyes, then repeat...poor thing.
Smiley face. She has the cutest little smile, but just can't keep those eyes all the way open when she is so happy.
Well, at least one of the three is happy!
Happy and wide eyed! I love this one, and since she is grinning instead of smiling, we got open eyes for this one.
 

Roly-Poly

Yesterday we told you that they were getting close, and today Claire did it----Yes, she rolled over! This first picture was taken at the beginning of the week because I noticed she was getting close (she was also squealing with her hand in her mouth like that for about 15 minutes straight). The next two pictures are photo evidence from today of her first roll-over. She hasn't figured out how to get her arm out from under her though.


 

The Day my Daddy Dressed Me!

Ok, so one lovely weekend day, helpful daddy dressed both babies in outfits of his choice while mommy was getting ready. Poor Claire turned into a baseball player (the reason there is only one picture of her is because I changed her directly after the pictures were taken). We want to be sure she looks like a girl.
This was Jacob's ensemble.... (he sure looks happy with it)

To translate the shirt (which I haven't decided the original color of....blue? grey? white?), it says "My GOAL is to be as COOL as my Dad" and yes, the O's on cool are sunglass lenses. This lovely shirt mysteriously ended up in the pile of clothes purchased at the last mother of twins sale. And the shorts...yes, they are shorts look more like longs. Look at those cheeks. (Kaci you aren't the only one with a gangster baby).

(there are 2 more new posts below, so keep scrolling down!)

Oh to be a twin!

In the next three pictures you will discover that one of our babies is a bit more photogenic than the other, but that the other is full of crazy faces....but they both are sure cute.



This picture is a display of two exciting things: 1) our babies are on their way to rolling over, see how far on their sides they are? 2) They are really discovering the "other baby." I would like to title this picture "Who are you?" I really wonder what they are thinking.
 

Kirtland

The weekend before labor day we took a trip down to Kirtland. I had never been there, so it was very interesting for me. We started at the Kirtland temple then moved on to the LDS visitors center where we saw the Whitney store and home and the next morning the new Joseph Smith movie. We also went to the Morley farm and the John Johnson farm. It was so great to learn more about church history, and now as I am reading D&C to think that I have been to some places where these things happened. The babies did great in the car on the way to Kirtland and they started out well on the way home, but lost patience and the last 45 minutes were pretty rough! We would do it again though. OH---and as a side note, we would not recommend the Motel 6.

 

4 month pictures

What cute babies!!! (keep scrolling down, there are lots of new pictures)


 

 

Big Baby Eyes

Both Claire and Jacob were wide-eyed for our walk the other night. They love being outside! Claire loves to look at the trees we walk under, and Jacob likes to sit and smile at us while we walk.


We love this picture of Jacob! He has a cute smile.

Claire loves being in her Bumbo. She looks pretty cute for having a little fever this day!
 

Memories of sharing a bed

Claire and Jacob are getting more and more active and are starting to be able to move themselves. One morning this week, Dani went in to check on the babies and found Claire with her head at the opposite side of the crib to where Dani had put her to bed. So, we decided it was finally time for the twins to sleep in separate cribs. It was actually pretty sad for Dani and I to put them into their own beds, they look so little and lonely! But, it means Claire finally gets to sleep in a pink crib!

With that in mind, we will re-visit some of the pictures we have of them sharing a crib!

In the hospital, they not only shared a crib, they were bundled together. We found it funny that, no matter how they were bundled, they always ended up looking right at one another.

This is the crib they came home to on April 24, when they were 6 days old. They look so tiny!

The first signs that they were moving around! They almost always woke up with their heads close to each other. Jacob looks like he's offering a thumb for Claire to suck on in this picture.

Claire is the "Andrew-like" sleeper, she's all over the crib! Then, if she woke up mad, she would start to kick her legs and get her brother revved up. We always liked seeing where Claire was when we woke up!

By the way, our babies were in bed at 9:30 tonight (and back up again at 12:30 for a midnight snack, which is when I'm typing this). We felt very proud of ourselves. Now if only we could get ourselves to bed at a decent hour...