1. Birds in the Trees Foam Play Mat: This is the play mat to conquer all play mats. I bought it in Utah at Costco and am kicking myself for not buying a second one while there so that I could put it on the hard wood downstairs. The foam is soft enough that I don’t have to place pillows everywhere in case Amelia tips over (Samantha’s fine either way with her helmet!) and it’s so easy to clean. I just wipe it down every night and roll it up in the corner. This is definitely an all-time favorite thing!
2. Munchkin spoons: When they first started solids at 5 1/2 months, Samantha and Amelia weren’t too interested in the eating part, but whenever I’d take out these spoons from the drawer, they’d start flapping their arms in excitement. It’s like Pavlov’s dog or something. The girls love chewing on the spoons and Amelia has been known to stick them too far in her mouth and choke herself!
3. Sophie the Giraffe and other teethers: Even though the girls have been drooling for months, they haven’t been too interested in chewing on any toy that was specifically made to be a teether. They’ll chew on books, ribbon, toys, but not teethers…until this month. Just like every other baby in the world, they love Sophie (what is with that giraffe? It is seriously addicting to babies!), as well as all of the teethers that can be refrigerated/frozen.
4. Mesh feeders: This is another product that causes the girls to flap their arms in excitement. I’ll put a frozen strawberry, piece of cantaloupe, or ice cube in the feeder and watch the girls suck it dry. They love it so much, they’ll start crying when there’s nothing left to suck. Genius product.
5. Jumperoo: Starting around month five, the girls were tall enough to reach the ground in their jumperoo, but have just recently started going to town bouncing. I have the jumperoo and the exersaucer in the hallway next to the laundry room and they usually buy me ten minutes (an eternity in baby time) to wash bottles or do some laundry. I recently obtained another exersaucer from a friend that I’ve put downstairs to keep one of the girls entertained while I make dinner. Our house is quickly being taken over by baby gear! Luckily, I’ve been selling some of the gear the girls have grown out of on Craig’s List and have gotten back what I paid (or more)! I bought the exersaucer and the jumperoo off of Craig’s List for around $45 each, so I’m hoping I’ll be able to sell those back when the time comes. So far, they’ve been well worth the price.
6. Take Along Tunes: The music on this thing is pretty non-annoying as far as baby music goes and it’s useful for getting the girls’ attention for a split second if I need to take a picture or distract them while I clean their ears.
Six Month Stats:
Samantha: 20 pounds 6 oz. There are officially only about ten babies in the world bigger than her.
Length: 28 inches
Amelia: 17 pounds, 12 oz.
Length: 27 inches
I think I feel pretty good about letting my work outs consist of pushing the twins in the stroller since I now know I’m pushing around 37 pounds!
Favorites songs:
Lollipop
Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes
All the Pretty Horses
Doggie in the Window
Hymns in Spanish
Favorite books:
10 Wiggly Caterpillars
Madeline
Baby Animals
Peter Rabbit
Favorite activities:
Being carried
Tug of war with each other
Stealing each other’s Wubbanubs and other toys
Putting things in mouth
Diving for toys (Samantha)
Banging plastic spoons/bowls on her high chair (Samantha)
Eating her spoon (Amelia)
Exploring toys
Being thrown up in the air by Daddy
Raspberries by Daddy
Petting Bandit
Milestones:
This month, the girls became really interactive with me and with each other. If I set her on the floor, Samantha will turn her head and try to find me, will smile, and then will go back to playing. She always wants to make sure I’m there, and will sometimes protest if I’m not.
The girls steal toys from each other all the time and will play tug of war with each other. It’s quite entertaining to watch.
They love to pet Bandit, tug on my hair (and everyone else’s), and babble with each other. The girls have started flapping their arms and making weird, hyperventilation-ish noises when they get really excited and will wave their arms like crazy for me to pick them up. If I place Amelia lying down in the boppy, she is now able to do a crunch and sit all the way up on her own. No more leaving her in the boppy on the chair or bed while I go grab something across the room!
Bath time continues to be a favorite and the girls have started to play with their toys in the bath more. They love toys that can squirt water. Interestingly, they hate going in the kiddie pool on our patio and hated the one time we brought them to a shallow pool at the waterpark in Ladera Ranch. We’re going to try again soon to see if they have the same reaction.
The girls have developed an increasing dislike for being confined to their car seats and high chairs. Instead of walking them in the stroller, we have been putting them in our front packs and walking outside so they can see out. They seem to enjoy that much more than being stuck in their strollers. Their max threshold for being in their high chairs is about twenty minutes.
Samantha started rolling from her back to tummy in her sleep! She seems startled when she does it and often wakes herself up at night by flipping over. It freaks me out when I get up to check on her and she’s sleeping on her tummy! I just flip her back and she doesn’t seem to notice.
Both girls are sitting up really well. Samantha will see a toy from across her mat and will dive forward to get it. She’s also getting prettty good at scooting around–she can make it from one end of her mat to the other, backwards! Amelia can sit really well and will reach for toys, but doesn’t put much effort into reaching for them if they’re across the mat. She seems pretty content to watch Samantha play with new toys as it takes her a while to warm up to new things.
The girls also got their first cold this month, back in August, which wasn’t fun, but could have been worse.
The girls took their first road trip to Utah! It was a lot of work getting there, but the change of scenery did all of us some good.
The girls also watched the Utes games with Daddy for the first time this month! Jake is quite determined to make them into little football fanatics.
It seems to me that the girls are teething because the amount of drool they spit everywhere is ridiculous. I’m putting about 20-30 bibs in the laundry daily just to keep their clothes dry. I can’t see or feel any teeth yet; maybe next month!
Sleeping: The girls are sleeping in different rooms for the time being until we buy a second crib. They are too big to fit in the same pack n play or crib anymore, so we moved Amelia to her crib in the nursery and Samantha sleeps in the pack n play in our room. Her flipping over to her tummy in her sleep freaks me out, so I’m keeping her in our room to keep a better eye on her. The girls still go to bed at 7:30 p.m. and wake up at 6:30 a.m. While they’ve slept through the night pretty consistently since 4 months, they have recently begun waking up randomly at 2 or 4 a.m. a few nights a week. Besides their consistent wake up and bed time, their nap schedule has been pretty sporadic. Once in a while, they’ll take a miracle two hour nap, but most of the time they nap for 45 minutes to an hour, which leaves me basically no time to get anything done. They take 3-4 naps a day and have recently dropped their little 20 minute evening cat nap.
Feeding: Now that I’m chasing the girls around more, I’m pumping a lot less frequently, and, as a result, they’ve been getting more formula than milk. It’s about 60/40 right now. They will drink about 5 ounces of milk in the morning and then the rest of the day, they pretty much snack every 2 hours, drinking 2-3 ounces at a time.
The big feeding event of this month was, of course, starting solids. Technically, the girls started solids at 5 1/2 months with rice cereal, and then oatmeal. So far they’ve tolerated sweet potatoes and oatmeal, have hated rice cereal, peas, and squash, and have loved avocado, pear, watermelon, cantaloupe, and strawberries. They typically have one “meal” a day (usually lunch) and sometimes I’ll give them a frozen strawberry or sweet potato ice cube to suck on with their mesh feeder. They absolutely loooove their mesh feeders and will start to cry when whatever was in them runs out!
Diapers: Size 3 Pampers Swaddlers or Pamper’s Baby Dry
Clothing: Almost all of Amelia’s clothing is 6 months. Samantha wears a few 6 month outfits, but mostly 6-9 months and a few 12 month outfits.
I wrote a draft for their five month favorites last month, but never posted it for some reason. Here it is!
1. Sassy Crib and Floor Mirror: The girls love looking at their favorite people…themselves! They like to play with the little ladybug and toy ball on the mirror as well.
2. Cloth Books: These are perfect for the girls to put in their mouths and crinkle in their hands…basically anything but reading. When they get tired of slobbering all over every page, they will turn the pages themselves and always seemed fascinated that there’s something different on the next page!
3. Water-Resistant Bibs: Lifesavers. These have saved me countless outfit changes from the girls’ drool.
4. Sensory Bags: If I had known the girls would love these so much, I wouldn’t have bought a single toy. These easily rank among the girls’ favorite toys…so much so that they will fight over them. All it is is a ziploc bag filled with hair gel and random small toys, then sealed with duct tape. I think after feeling hard, plastic toys all day, the squishy gel is a new experience, and the gel feels cold inside the bag, which they also like. Even I have fun playing with the sensory bags I’ve made!
5. Lamaze Muffin Moose and Freddie the Firefly: Both girls love all the Lamaze toys. They’re growing out of the little play mat where they used to swat at toys, but we still hook these to their stroller or car seats to entertain them. Putting the toys in their mouths is always a favorite. These are bright, easy to grab on to, and make squeaky or crinkly sounds, which always makes Bandit think they must be his toys.
6. Izon video camera monitor: We have a regular Angelcare sound monitor I carry around with me as well, but I love this video monitor because I can look at what the girls are doing right from my Iphone using the Izon app. It’s pretty useful when I’m downstairs and the girls are napping. If I hear a noise on the regular sound monitor, but want to see if the girls are actually awake before going upstairs, I can look and see what they are doing on the phone. Theoretically, I could also use it to spy on people if we ever have the guts to leave the girls with a babysitter, but we haven’t gotten around to that yet!
Favorite songs:
Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes
Itsy Bitsy Spider
Pat a Cake
Monkeys on the Bed
Lollipop
Rubber Ducky
Favorite Activities:
Tickles
Walks
Being carried around the house
New people
Oopsy daisy
Raspberries
Babbling to themselves
Feeding: Still so random! Both girls eat a ton in the morning and then taper off toward the afternoon and evening. Sometimes they even go to bed without a bottle and don’t wake up until morning.
Sleeping: 7:30 p.m. until 6:30 a.m. Naps are still pretty sporadic. Typically they have a few 1-2 hour naps in the morning and a few 40 minute naps in the afternoon. After about 5 p.m., they are up until bedtime, with maybe a 20 minute catnap in their stroller.
Diapers: Still in size 3
Clothes: Samantha’s 6-month clothes are nearing the point where they will be too tight pretty soon. She has a few 9-12 month outfits in brands that run small. Amelia can still fit into some 3-6 month clothes, but pretty consistently wears 6-months.
Milestones: Both girls are sooooooo much stronger and better at being on their tummies. Samantha’s arms and neck are getting pretty buff holding her head up all the time when on her tummy. Amelia has far less tolerance for tummy time, but is way ahead of where she used to be. Both girls are learning to balance better when sitting up and can usually hold a sitting position (although they bend forward a ton) without anything behind them for 30 seconds before face-planting or tipping over. Their legs are becoming stronger as they are spending more time in their jumperoo and as we hold them up on their legs.
My oh my, months five and six flew by!
Lots of love,
Love this!! So fun to see all the progress!!
They are growing and so cute! Ya Chloee loves the mesh feeder and Sophie the giraffe they are great inventions Andrew and Jake need to think of something haha! Once they start crawling and being more active they may want more naps. Chloee started not taking as many naps around their age too but now that shes crawling and pulling herself up on things she needs more naps she wears herself out! Naps are so nice to get things done!