1. Beaba Babycook Pro. Despite the annoying instructions in French, this is my favorite kitchen gadget. It will steam fruits or veggies in fifteen minutes and will then puree them. I make big batches of baby food to freeze, while other foods that aren’t as good frozen (pears, avocado, bananas) I make fresh for the girls in a snap.
2. Farm Roller by Infantino. Grandma bought this for the girls when we were in Utah and they were instantly fascinated. Their love for this toy is going strong, except now, instead of me rolling it to the girls, they roll it to each other! I love that it will keep them busy so I can run and grab a snack!
3. Stackable rings. The girls will take all the rings off and suck on each one…then, I’ll re-stack the rings and they’ll start all over again. Minutes of entertainment! I reallllly want this onesie for the girls:
http://www.etsy.com/listing/98574756/lord-of-the-rings-inspired-by-lord-of
4. Stacking bowls. Same thing as the stackable rings. I’ll stack them or clip them together to become a ball, but all they really care about is trying to eat these things. I’ll also put an object under the bowl and have them lift it up to grab the object. Object permanence skills!
5. Any kind of box, but specifically, the girls’ owl box in their nursery. The girls loooooooove boxes. Take any toy they could have cared less about five minutes ago, throw it in a box, and BAM! Instantly their favorite toy in the universe. The girls love taking things out of boxes, as well as sucking on the boxes themselves.
6. Nosefrida the Snotsucker. I was really skeptical about his at first, but after reading all the reviews praising this thing to the high heavens, I broke down and bought it. It is definitely way easier and more effective than the bulb syringe in getting out snot and I used it a ton at the beginning of October when the girls were sick. Plus, it’s Swedish!
The stats:
Samantha: 22.2 pounds, 29.5 inches in length.
Amelia: 20 pounds, 28.5 inches in length.
Feeding: the biggest change in this area has been eating solids! The girls started eating solids around 5 1/2 months and have slowly increased types and amount of food they eat this month. For almost the entire month, they ate three meals a day: oatmeal and prunes, banana, peaches, apples or pear in the morning; squash, avocado, sweet potato, carrot, or green bean, plus a fruit for lunch; and a veggie for dinner.
The girls have gotten way better at opening their mouth and swallowing their purees, although they still manage to get most of it all over their faces, hands, and high chairs. Cleaning up after them takes forever! Samantha and Amelia’s favorite part of meal time is getting a drink of water from their sippy cups…I’m not sure why they like it so much, but they go crazy as soon as they see me putting the lid on the sippy. The girls also love eating out of their mesh feeders and typically eat from those once or twice a day.
In addition to solids, the girls have kept up their “snacking” on their bottles. They will typically drink 5 ounces first thing in the morning, and then they will snack throughout the day every few hours, taking in 3-5 ounces at a time. These girls absolutely refuse to drink an 8 ounce bottle in one sitting! That means a lot more making bottles for me, but oh well. The girls are getting about 26-30 ounces of formula a day combined and 25 ounces of breastmilk combined.
Diapers: Size three diapers reached the end of the line toward the latter half of the month and the girls started wearing size 4!
Clothes: Samantha wears anywhere from 9-18 month sizes and Amelia wears 9-12 month.
Sleeping: Sleeping has been crazy! I miss those few months where the girls slept through the night every night! I don’t know if it’s teething, or the introduction of solid foods, or them being sick at the beginning of October, but the girls did not sleep through the night once from their 6-month birthday to their 7-month birthday! It was either one or the other every single night who wanted to get up at random hours….sometimes midnight, sometimes 3 a.m.
Many nights, they would “sleep through the night,” only to get up at 5 or 5:30 a.m. ready for the day. In addition to their weird wake times, the girls threw a fit if they were not put to bed by 6:30 p.m. Even though they were waking up super early, I have to admit, I loved the 6:30 bed time! I got so much more done when they were in bed by 6:30 than I had when they were in bed at their normal 7:30 p.m.
A huge milestone during the month was transitioning the girls out of our room and into the nursery. Amelia was first to move to the nursery since we only had one crib. I kept Samantha in the twin pack n play next to my bed since she started rolling over on her stomach at night and I was worried. Once we bought another crib, Samantha moved in with her sister. It was so hard to have the girls out of our room at first, but now everyone’s used to it. I think the girls are happy to have cribs next to each other too!
Another milestone was Samantha starting to sleep on her stomach a lot more. I I always put her to sleep on her back and she would inevitably end up flipped over. I attribute her penchant for stomach sleeping to her love of laying on her daddy’s chest when she was a newborn! Sometimes, she will wake herself up by pushing up on her hands and scooting backwards, which is super annoying!
Naps started to regulate a little bit this month, but were still not as scheduled as I’d like them to be. Everything depended on their wake time. If they woke super early at 5 a.m., they would be awake for 45 mins and then would go back to sleep until 7 or 8. After that, the girls would be up for an hour and a half to two hours and then would go down for a nap for 45 mins-1 hour, and sometimes 1.5 hours if I was lucky. After ending their first sleep cycle, around the 40-45 minute mark, one or both of the girls would start crying. If I was quick enough, I could usually run in the nursery and pop in their pacifiers, which usually helped the girls extend their nap by about 30 minutes. When the girls decide they are up, however, they are up!
Recap of milestones from their 6 month bday-7 month bday:
Samantha and Amelia’s first time it the swimming pool
Samantha and Amelia’s first BYU/Utah game and first time watching football games with Daddy
Samantha anad Amelia’s first time being sick with the croup 🙁
Samantha and Amelia’s first time being bathed together!
Samantha and Amelia’s first time sleeping in separate cribs in the nursery!
Samantha and Amelia’s first time eating three solid meals a day!
Samantha and Amelia’s first time using a sippy cup!
Samantha:
Samantha was cleared to stop wearing her helmet! Yay!
Samantha started sleeping on her stomach consistently.
Samantha could sit up and balance in this position really well.
Samantha could grab toys and then push herself back up into a sitting position.
Samantha started eating more solids (loved oatmeal, prunes, sweet potato, pear; Samantha turned her nose up at green beans, peas, avocado (even though she used to love it!) and sometimes squash).
Amelia:
Amelia got her first tooth!
Amelia started sleeping on her side consistently.
Amelia started sitting up on her own and balancing really well.
Amelia started grabbing toys and pushing herself back up into a sitting position.
Amelia started eating more solids, and pretty much loved everything except for peas and green beans.
Favorite books: 10 Wriggly Wiggly Caterpillars, Peter Rabbit, and Where’s Spot
Favorite songs: Pat a Cake, See See Oh Playmate, Head Shoulders Knees and Toes, The Happy Song, Itsy Bitsy Spider, and All the Pretty Horses
Samantha’s other favorites:
Being active! Playing tug-of-war, hugging, biting and scratching her sister.
Being proactive! If she saw a toy across the room, she would wriggle or roll over to get it!
Being outside, feeling the grass, swimming in the pool and watching kids play at the park
Banging her fists or utensils on her high chair tray
Listening to herself babble! She was very outspoken, much more than Amelia
Being carried in the Ergo.
Amelia’s other favorites:
Amelia loved laying with Samantha, although was generally a little bit more gentle than her sis. She was more content to sit and play with toys that were near her, instead of moving around to grab toys farther away.
Swimming in the pool and the park! She giggle uncontrollably whenever Bandit would run around with other dogs or when she saw kids running.
Walks! Instead of the stroller, she preferred to be carried by Daddy.
Amelia was very content to play with the same teether or feel the grass in her fingers for a big chunk of time instead of moving around from activity to activity like Samantha
Stealing Samantha’s Wubbanub!
Chewing on tags, ribbons, cloth books and Sophie the giraffe! Cutting that first tooth really took a toll on our teething toys!
As you can see, it was a wild month! I can’t believe I’ll be doing this again in a few weeks for the girls’ 8 month birthday! Slow down, time!
Lots of love,
I'm glad you like the Nosefrida! I LOVE it ive been using it since Chloee was first born although she hates it haha i swear babies hate their noses sucked out and getting their faces wiped haha.