11 months

We have 2 extremely mobile 11 month olds.  It is pretty amazing how quickly they learned to crawl once they got the hang of it.  On rare occasions, they will even do their mom a favor and crawl in the same direction. Their personalities are also starting to change and it is really fun to interact with both of them in such different ways.

I have no idea what their heights and weights are because we have gone 2.5 weeks without a single doctor's appointment for either of them!  This is a new record!  I think we went two weeks without a doctor's appointment once before around Christmas, but having 2.5 weeks off feels great.  We've had lots of time to play, go on walks, hang out with friends and enjoy Texas in the spring.  

Carter is our independent boy.  He loves to crawl and inspect anything that he probably shouldn't, including, but not limited to, outlets, cords, remotes, cell phones, coffee cups, metal objects which turn on the gas to a fireplace (what kind of horrible mother leaves those things laying out), his brother's diaper, etc.  He certainly knows the word "No" and will even occasionally listen when we say, but his typical response is to turn, look at us, give us a huge cheesy grin, and then proceed to do exactly what he wants to do.  He's got a little bit of a strong will already.  Although we have dreams that he has gained tons of weight, he's still pretty little and it is pretty amazing to watch a 15 pound baby crawl around.  Additionally, it is difficult to baby proof for spaces where a 15 pound baby can wedge himself.  He can pull himself up to his feet, but hasn't made much movement once he's up there.  He enjoys staring at himself in the glass door of the fireplace for hours and giggling about what a funny baby he is (I am only about 50% sure that he knows its him in the reflection, not another hilarious baby who bears a striking resemblance to himself).  He still only has two teeth, but the doctor believes his top teeth should be coming in soon.  He continues to believe he is simply too old for milk and prefers to eat all solids; even several bouts of extreme constipation and copious amounts of prunes cannot deter him from his stance that milk is for babies.  He likes to eat chicken, black beans, cheese, avocados (still probably his favorite), green beans, spinach, sweet potatoes, quinoa, brown rice, squash, peaches, pears, apples, yogurt, hummus, puffs, yogurt melts, and graham crackers.  He was not super excited about blueberries, strawberries or cherries, but I need to try and puree fresh ones rather than frozen.  

Anderson is our little snuggler.  He is happiest playing with a toy while in our laps, or laying over our legs.  Contact with an adult is pretty essential.  He is also crawling very quickly and pulled himself to his feet almost immediately after learning to crawl.  He is starting to inch his way along things while holding on and tries to take a few steps while holding on to an adult.  He may break the trend and learn how to walk before Carter.  He is very interested in climbing up the stairs, so we will be purchasing some baby gates in the very near future.  He typically does not get into too much other stuff that he isn't supposed to because he tends to look back at us for affirmation after about 2 minutes by himself.  He also loves to stare at himself for awhile and test out new facial expressions.  Anything involving the tongue being out is generally well received.  He will drink a decent amount of milk, although still nowhere near what he is supposed to drink.  He also has liked almost every food we have given him, including all the ones listed for Carter.  He also seemed to like the cherries.  

Overall, they are both doing great health-wise.  We had a mini-outbreak of hand, foot, and mouth disease, but luckily neither boy got the blisters too badly and neither got them in their mouth which is allegedly the most painful part.  Carter's blood work from the immunologist came back completely normal, so we are hoping we will not need to go back and see her.  We are getting excited for their first birthday and celebrating our two little guys!  

In honor of their dad being out in California for work this week, we decided to take the 11 month pictures in special outfits for him.  Here they are:

We started off so well, smiling and everything

And then of course the siren's song...the sign

And Carter steals it from Anderson (is this looking familiar?)

Anderson is contemplating stealing it back

But alas, whatever the thing is over his left shoulder proves to be more interesting

Then Mommy takes the sign while Anderson isn't watching; Carter is shocked that I would shut down his fun

Anderson looks skeptically at Carter, pretty sure he still has the sign and is just hiding it.  Carter is likely laughing diabolically inside and planning world domination

And then Anderson sees the sign on the floor, remembers he knows how to crawl and dive bombs for the floor, thus indicating the end of our photo ops, as I felt it was more important to catch him than to catch the entire moment on film.  Let me know if you need any other parenting advice, I am apparently full of wisdom.

Just a little brotherly chat

People often ask us if the boys communicate with each other and interact with one another.  They always have in some very minor ways, but lately have begun having what seems to be little conversations.  We took this video probably a month and a half ago (before anyone was crawling) to capture some of their early "conversations."  Please feel free to interpret for us, as we have no idea what they're talking about.

Trip to Florida (Part 2)

We had a few more pictures of our trip to Florida on Ty's phone.  We got to see Ty's sister and her family very briefly in Tampa and the cousins had a great time hanging out.

Megan and Crew

Sadie "holding" Carter, with just a tiny bit of help from her mom

Megan, Sadie and Crew

Ty, Sadie and Crew

We also took some pictures of how we entertained Anderson at a restaurant.  He became obsessed with Ty's hat, so we let him wear it and style himself however he saw fit.

Trip to Florida

Ty and I took the boys to Florida to visit their grandparents (Ty's parents) and great-grandparents.  It was a great week to relax by the pool, see the boys swim for the first time and realize what life is like with two mobile babies.  That's right, they both learned to crawl fairly well, just in time to crawl right towards a pool.  Vacations aren't quite as relaxing with two infants, but we had a great time.

Here are some photos of the trip:

Anderson and Bama enjoying the pool

You can gauge how much fun Anderson is having by how much of his tongue is sticking out of his mouth.  The more tongue that's visible, the better

Anderson and Poppy

Anderson loved to fly above the pool

Carter liked to entertain us while we were swimming

Mostly by curving his body into a backwards C (all that baby yoga is really paying off)

Calm, cool, and collected

Carter and Poppy

Carter showing off his Speedo

Showing off his Speedo and a little bit of a plumber's crack

The boys and their grandparents

Coolest Ohio State fan around

Caped Crusaders

I already posted one of these photos on Facebook when I originally took them, but I thought it was also probably important to include them on the blog.  You know, to forever immortalize these little tooshies for the boys (and future girlfriends).

The boys love to play naked in their room after a bath.  One day I left to go clean up the bathroom and came back to find this:

While Anderson was humiliated by the entire experience, knowing it would all be posted online, Carter was quite happy to take a few more pics for the future ladies in his life

Smiling with his eyes

Really excited that we are finally capturing his best angle

International Man of Mystery

Bluebonnets

Although I myself am not a Texan, I do occasionally feel compelled to recognize that my boys are Texans and therefore are subject to normative rites of passage for Texas children. One such experience is being plopped down in a field, with lots of wildflowers, which also means lots of bees and butterflies, which may or may not be close to a very busy road, only to have a few photos snapped by your parents.  Who am I to deny my children this birthright?  As Tom Petty put it, you belong among the wildflowers...

Happy Easter from the Schlegel Boys

Thanks for the sweet hats Dan and Andrea!  The boys will love you for this later in life.

10 months!

Many apologies for the lack of posting for the past month.  The boys are doing great and really starting to get their own personalities.  We have also had some great news on the medical and developmental front.  Since they are so different, let's do individual stats first:

Carter weighed 14lbs, 3 oz and was 26 inches long at an appointment around his 10 month birthday (and is now up to 15 pounds).  He eats 3 meals of solid foods per day and his favorites are yogurt, bananas, mango, avocados, sweet potatoes, apples, carrots, quinoa and squash.  He isn't doing so well on the milk drinking though.  We try to feed him throughout the day and on a good day, he probably drinks about 16 oz of milk.  He is supposed to be getting at least 10 more ounces than that, so we're working on it.  He really just doesn't seem hungry for milk (and we have tried every possible combination of milk, formula, oatmeal, sippy cup, different bottles, etc.).  Perhaps the biggest news for Carter is that he is now CRAWLING!  He started doing it a few days ago and is just starting to really understand it.  And his parents are just starting to understand how different it makes their lives to have mobile children.  We got some of the initial efforts on video, so I will try to post those soon.  Some other cool things that Carter has learned how to do:
- Drink from a sippy cup
- Feed himself small finger foods
- Steal every toy that his brother is playing with
- Wave bye bye
- Talking and yelling much more often
- Sitting up much better
- Has 2 teeth!  It's the two bottom front teeth and the doctor says the ones on top are not far behind.  He loves to use his teeth to bite anything, but his favorite target is his brother's foot

Anderson weighed in at 16 pounds and was 27 inches long.  He is not crawling quite yet, but is definitely close (I know, I've been saying that for 2 months now...).  He does a little army crawling and his scooting backwards has become extremely efficient.  He may never even decide he needs to go forward.  Anderson can also:
- Feed himself small foods (although he'd prefer that you just put it in his mouth for him)
- Cry very loudly when his brother takes away his toys or chews on his foot (and yet he doesn't move away, he just cries for someone to help him)
- Sits on his own really well and is learning how to transition down to laying down without crying

On the medical front, we have been released from several doctors with a clean bill of health!  The eye doctor said their retinas look great and do not need to be checked again until they are 4.  The occupational therapist was so satisfied with their development that she also released us.  Woohoo!  


We did however gain one more doctor; Carter had to go see an immunologist for some concerns regarding his blood work and Immunoglobulin G.  Unfortunately, the lab had not sent over the results of his latest blood work when we went there for an appointment this week, rendering what I am sure was a very expensive appointment very useless (and making their mother quite unhappy).  So we are headed back to the immunologist after his 12 month appointment to see how he is reacting to his shots.  


We also have survived our first real colds and a double ear infection with a torn ear drum (poor Carter; Anderson cried more than Carter though, lots of sympathy tears).  Today we head back to the doctor to check out some rash that Anderson has which will be our third trip to the pediatrician in the past week.  Hopefully its nothing serious.  


We tried to take some 10 month pictures in these awesome seersucker outfits that their Grandma Jean made for them, but they were not super into smiling this morning.  They are also now old enough to rip the sign down, so we may have to think of an alternative way of taking the next two pictures.  Anyways, here are the 10 month photos:

You want us to do what?

Okay, I won't touch the sign, but I won't look at you and I definitely won't smile

I just had to grab it

Look at all of the fine motor skills I am using to do this.  Please celebrate my accomplishments Mom instead of stifling my development.

Oh, what you got there brother?  I am only interested in it because you are playing with it.

Look, we can share it.  See how awesome this is?  Two boys, two sides of the paper

Psych!  I want it all for myself and I've got an evil world-domination grin on my face to show it.  (Please also note that Anderson is shocked and dismayed at this behavior from his beloved brother, even though this exact pattern happens every time Anderson picks up anything and tries to play with it within 10 feet of Carter.  So sweet, it surprises him every time that his brother could do such a thing.)

Carter quickly loses interest and Anderson sees an opportunity.  Carpe Diem!

Sweet Sweet Victory is Mine!