Liva and Laia are 9 months old today, and how they have developed over the past month is just incredible!
They both stand up using any furniture or anything else they can grab hold of - our legs, their stroller, each other... Laia walks by holding onto furniture, and loves walking holding our fingers. She sometimes lets go of whatever she's holding onto and practices her balance - she can manage a few seconds before falling over.
They can both pick anything up from anywhere, the smaller the better. Liva puts everything in her mouth, Laia just picks it up and drops it again.
One of their favorite past-times is taking toys out of boxes, Liva loves putting the toys in the box and then taking them out again. I can leave them on their own to entertain themselves or each other, but I do have to keep an eye on them the whole time - they are extremely quick, and know exactly where they shouldn't be. Like in the kitchen eating catfood.
They love playgrounds, especially the swings and slides. They love being where there are other children, sometimes it's enough to just place them where they can see other kids and they'll laugh out loud watching them play. They can also stay entertained for hours watching pigeons, parrots or dogs on our walks.
They understand "no", but react very differently. Laia looks at us with a cheeky smile and continues doing whatever she is doing. Liva gets all upset about having done something wrong, and looks at us with a sad face for the longest time.
Laia doesn't seem to be afraid of anything, Liva is afraid of strangers and loud noises.
Though Liva is the more careful and scared one of the two, she seems to be the one hurting herself all the time - she choked on catfood a few days ago, she fell off their rocking horse and hurt herself, she's constantly falling over when she tries to stand up, and she seems to have a new blue mark daily. Laia is just much more agile, and better at keeping her balance to avoid falling. Laia crawls really well and really quickly, I've seen Liva crawl a few times, but she still prefers dragging herself zombie-style along the floor.
They love our walks, and many times they don't sleep when we're out, they're too busy looking around.
They eat really well, and eat most things we serve them. It's great that they can eat banana, cookies and bread on their own, that keeps them busy in their stroller when they start getting cranky. They both hold their bottle when drinking milk, and are getting really good at drinking water from sippy-cups.
Their sleeping patterns are changing a bit, they still wake up around 6:00/6:30, sleep again around 8:00 for 30-45 minutes so I can shower. If they sleep again in the morning it's normally only for 20-30 minutes, instead they nap for 1½ hours in the afternoon, which is great! They normally sleep at the same time, which is the most important for me!
Though Liva was a lot of work as an infant, and we thought she'd be the more difficult one as they got bigger, she's such an easy baby. She can sit on the floor and play with her toys for the longest time, she "crawls" around and picks up different toys, plays with one for a while, then takes another, chases the cats a bit, plays with toys again, and is generally happy. If I (or Albert, my mother-in-law, Heather, whoever) sit on the floor, she loves playing giving and taking toys. Laia, on the other hand, is hard work. She wants to be with someone all the time! If we sit on the floor to play with them, she crawls all over us, pulling our hair, jewellery, glasses, whatever she can pull. If we sit on the couch, she's on her feet pulling at our legs, trying to climb up. She can't, so whines. If I try to do some work at the computer, she's next to the chair, on her feet, whining, wanting to sit with me - so she can pull my hair & jewellery. We ignore her most of the time, she has to learn to be on her own or with her sister.
Laia teases Liva all the time; when Liva has a toy, Laia takes it from her. When Liva tries to stand up somewhere but struggles, Laia will climb over right next to her, stand up, and look down at her. Liva cries easily and Laia knows exactly what she has to do to make Liva cry. Since Liva is much more developed with her speach, we believe that as they get older, Liva will know how to get Laia back verbally - it will be interesting to see how they'll get along when they are bigger.
They are tall girls, wear size 12-18 months clothes, and Liva is very heavy! On Moday I have a doctor's appointment with them for their 9-month check-up, I'm looking forward to that.
I'm doing well, keeping busy with combining work and being a mother. It's all working out great still, but I'm starting to realize just how exhausting being a twin mom is! Liva and Laia crate a lot of work, besides the obvious of feeding, dressing and changing 2 babies, there are also bottles, laundry and dishes to clean, food to cook for 2 lunches, fruit to prepare for 2 snacks, and 2 little lives to divide my love evenly between. As much as I love seeing them smile, hearing them laugh, watching them take in the world on our walks, I also love when Heather or my mother-in-law come and take Liva and Laia off my hands for a few hours. When they sleep and I think I can get a break for a few minutes to watch the news or have a coffee without them pulling at my cup or needing me to hold them becuase they've hurt themselves, they wake up the moment I've switched on the TV or finished preparing the coffee. Only in the afternoon when they take their long nap do I get some time off, and in the evenings after 19:00 (after cooking, cleaning the kitchen, doing the laundry and preparing bottles and lunch for the following day).
I've lost 2 kgs, not a lot, I know, but a start and a great motivation. It's wonderful knowing that the scale isn't frozen on that same horrible number that I was seeing for months! Another 4 kgs to be back at my pre-pregnancy weight, 6½ kgs to be back at my wedding-day weight, but I'm not sure that will happen again... The goal is the pre-pregnancy weight.
Albert and I are doing great! Just as good if not better than before Liva and Laia entered our lives. I love my evenings with him, and we have loads of fun during the day at the weekends when we can all 4 be together. Being a little family is working out great, and is even better than I had ever imagined it would be!
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