7 Months

Well, I have almost caught up on my blogging. At 7 months the girls have really developed their personalities. Kate is very independent. She doesn't really like to be held much and will let you know by pushing away from you. Jill has broken out of her quiet shell and LOVES to be held and loved on. Instead of cooing she has decided to communicate by way of screaming. It's not a fussy scream, but a loud high-pitched, ear drum piercing squeal. We will definitely have to chat about using her "inside" and "outside" voice when she gets older.

I got real brave and decided to make my own baby food. The first trial was carrots. After 2 hours in the oven steaming at 425 degrees I embarked on my new baby food making skills. I then proceeded to puree the carrots and feed them to the girls. Lets just say that apparently 2 hours wasn't long enough because Jill wouldn't have anything to do with the new texture. She immediately pushed anything out with her tongue. Kate just gave me this look that said, "What the hel*, are you kidding me?" I got no "hmmmmm's" that day. Into the trash went all the carrots I spent 2 hours on. Next time I am going to boil them in low sodium chicken stock. Perhaps that will do the trick to get them as soft as they need to be. My second trial, I decided to mash an avocado. Kate LOVED it. Jill used her fingers to dig every piece of green yuck out of her mouth. She looked as if she would choke on this green mush if she tried to swallow. At that point I decided that instead of torturing my children, I would stick to soft fruits such as banana's to puree. They love the banana's! I had read on one of my twin mom boards that you can mix avocado and banana. Well, let's just say that Round 2 of the avocado went over very WELL! Jill LOVED it. I tried it and it tasted like bananacado. Hey, whatever works, right?!

Both of the girls are VERY close to crawling. Jill gets down on her belly and army crawls everywhere. She hasn't figured out that she can go much further if she uses her arms and legs to crawl. Don't tell her, I am not ready for crawling babies! Kate gets up on all fours, rocks back and fourth and then crawls backwards. She backs into furniture and then gets "all fussed out" because she is stuck. She has figured out that if she needs to go forward she will drop to her stomach and roll towards her destination. She is VERY busy when she is on the floor. So many toys to play with, and good Lord we love to push the shiny buttons on the dvd player and the surround sound.

They have started to get into everything. Nothing is sacred in their path. One day I put them on the floor and went into the kitchen to make some tea. Now before anyone starts with "you left your babies unattended, gasp!" let me just say that our living room and kitchen are attached and open to each other so I can see what they are into. Plus Bailey was babysitting :) . I walked into the living room and apparently the girls had been into their diaper basket digging around. Each of them had a handful of q-tips and were chewing on them. They stuck out from their little fingers like daggers ready to poke an eye out. Big no-no.

Teething...where do I begin? Kate now has 2 new shiny white bottom teeth. She likes to test them out and chew on everything. Jill still has yet to get any teeth. Every day I check her gums and still nothing. She drools like crazy and chews on anything and everything. One of their favorite things to chew on are the foam bathtub letters. Apparently those are great fun and as long as it soothes them for a few minutes, I am game! Also, because of the teething we have some rough nights. Like last night...Kate woke up at midnight, 2 am, 4 am, and then again at 6 am fussing. Luckily I was able to get her back down rather quickly. Perhaps I should try the pacifier method on me to get back to sleep easily?!

We have been to 2 classes recently. I took the girls to a baby sign language class and have been signing to them. I sign things like, hungry, thirsty, more, mommy, daddy, play, dog, stop, no, love, etc. I am hoping that this will help with their communication when they are a little older. We also went to a baby massage class. I decided ahead of time to massage Kate because Jill has a bad dry skin rash and I felt that putting oil on it might irritate it. She has sensitive skin like me. Jill played in her bumbo while I massaged Kate. Let's just say that Kate is a BIG HAM. She was real still and looked like she was in heaven. The other mothers were laughing at her and her facial expressions. She enjoyed the rub down.

As we were about to leave, the PAT (parents as teachers) Educator mentioned that the girls had beautiful blue eyes and light hair, while I have brown eyes and brown hair. I said, "Yeah, I just carried them for 8 months and that was it." It is funny how genetics work. Jason and I were praying for blue eyes. We got that and we got the strawberry blond hair too. We keep saying, "man those Shaw genes sure are strong." Perhaps as they get older they will have some resemblance to me?! Maybe?!

Bath time has become more enjoyable for the girls. They love to talk during their bath. Hey who doesn't like to sing in the shower?! If you haven't noticed already Kate's hair likes to stand on end. She has very fluffy hair. Jill's hair lays flat on her head. One day after their bath, I decided to blow dry their hair since it was a little chilly in the house. Well, Kate's hair turned out exactly like it always is - fluffy. Jill's hair was something else. I posted a picture below!