Oh my goodness. If I could pause time right now, in this season of my children’s lives, I would in a heartbeat.

I love that life for them now is all about exploration and learning new skills. It’s amazing how exciting it truly is to see your child master such a simple task like a tender high-five. I can’t even imagine how my heart will swell with pride for them when they master more difficult things!

Some quick stats:

Abram is currently 21lbs 7oz (75th percentile) and 27 3/4 in long (25th percentile). Madeline weighs in at 18lbs 8oz (50th percentile) and is 26 1/4in long (10th percentile!). It’s amazing how very heavy Abe feels in comparison with Madeline!

They typically take 2 hour-long naps and one shorter 30 min or so nap. We’re working on eliminating the 3rd nap so their afternoon nap is a little longer. I look forward to having more than an hour chunk of time to clean, cook, eat, shower, etc!

They are loving all sorts of foods and are self-feeding. That part has been a blast! A messy blast, that is :) The two of them are very different in how they eat; Madeline scoops as much food as she can into her palm and stuffs that into her mouth, and Abe is very methodical in using his pinchers (thumb and pointer finger) to pick up pieces one by one. This means Madeline eats very quickly (in fact, tonight Grant said she could win eating competitions, haha!) and Abe takes his sweet time! I’m still working on mastering having soft foods ready to go for meal times; specifically having a protein, veggie and fruit ready for each meal.  It sounds simple, but cooking for 4 rather than 2 all of a sudden is such a shift in my thinking, especially when their foods need to be cooked, chopped and soft!
We love playing outside on a blanket. Madeline loves picking grass and trying to eat it, and Abe enjoys staring into the sky. I always wish I could know what he’s pondering! I adore the photos below. Abe raises his eyebrows a lot, and I love this little expression of his :)I wish Grant was in this picture below with us!!Thanks to my parents for taking these pics of us :)Both Abe and Madeline have been babbling like crazy, and mainly the “dadadada” sounds. I love when they babble at the same time, and when they go on and on as if they’re really trying to communicate. It’s one of my very favorite ever sounds! I find it interesting that their cries are so different, but sometimes I can’t tell their babbling voices apart.Just like I wrote about in month 8, Abe is still our happy-go-lucky kid with such contagious smiles. I find him to be most smiley when he wakes up from his nap, during bath time, and playing peek-a-bo0. He loves playing peek-a-boo by himself by covering his face with a burp rag. He waves his little arms and legs like he’s holding his breath, and when he pulls it off his face, he seems quite surprised and pleased with himself. It’s pretty adorable! :) Abe is a sensitive kid; he’s sensitive to Madeline coming near his face/head, sensitive to “no’s”…even when they’re spoken to Madeline. He’s also a bit impatient, especially when he knows food is coming. He seems to have a great interest in instruments – both the guitar and piano. A couple times it really seems like he’s hit a toy to the beat of whatever song is playing. Perhaps he’ll be a musical kiddo!
Taking pictures of these two together is so hit-and-miss these days, as Madeline hardly ever sits still! Playtime feels much busier these days, as Madeline is very much on the move, pulling herself up on anything/everything, and then holding on with just one hand. I have a feeling it won’t be long before she starts walking, yikes!! Abe started army crawling in this past month. He can definitely get to wherever he wants to go, but it’s not a full-on crawl yet. Enough to make keeping my eyes on both of them challenging sometimes!Watching these two interact more has been so exciting. I love when they’re playing together and one of them starts giggling! Or when they’re playing in the playpen, and I look over to find one sitting right in front of the other, as if they’re in a train! Or to see Madeline completely on top of Abe, when they’re both on their tummies! Oh how these two crack me up! I’m so excited to watch their relationship grow and evolve as time goes by. Madeline seems to become even more joyful and spunky as time goes on – she now has this huge smile that takes over her whole face when she’s excited! I think she’s a morning person, as she’s so full of spunk and energy when we go into the nursery first thing in the morning. Each time we lay her down for a nap or bedtime, she immediately rolls on to her tummy, crawls over to the side of the crib adjacent to Abe’s crib, and pulls herself up to look at him. And then often babbles/squeals to him. Adorable! She loves playing tug-of-war, being tickled all over, playing in front of the a/c register, and looking at herself in a mirror. In fact, she’ll look at herself in anything slightly reflective, and grin away at herself :)