Jen was at the mall with the kids this week and happened to run into Santa. He was nice enough to stop and take pictures with the kids.

Sorry we haven’t posted in a while. Things are going well and the kids are getting bigger each day. Jen’s been doing a great job at taking pictures and keeping them uploaded. Take a look at the photo page for some November pictures and a few that were added back from October.

1. Naked Lunches

The babies are eating lunch every day – “real food” as my grandma calls it. They get a couple of tablespoons of oatmeal and a jar of fruit or a veggie. This is how it looked the first few times we tried:

It was such a mess and required a full change of clothes from head to toe. So now, we eat like this:

I am happy to report that naked lunches have been successful. They are learning to swallow the food instead of dribble it all back out on the bib. And they’ve liked pears, peaches, and yesterday they both loved squash. I swore I’d wait til 6 months to introduce solids because of allergies and APA recommendations, but Alex’s weight gain was a little low at his 4 month appointment, and I’m desperate to do anything to make them sleep at night, so we started early.

2. Sleepovers

A&A had their first sleepover at my grandmother’s house last Saturday night. She watched them so Don and I could go to a Halloween party. We stayed and put them to bed (we thought) so really she just had to supervise the sleeping. We both were a little nervous – Don that they were going to be monsters for her, and me that I hadn’t left enough milk, since that always shuts them up. But in the end, Avery slept as well as she usually does, and Alex slept as poorly as he often does. He wouldn’t sleep in the bouncy seat that he naps in every day, so my grandmother made him a bed on her couch. He ended up staying up til 9:30 and watching TV (just like I used to do!) and then he drifted off. She said he wasn’t fussy, he just was awake. He woke again when we got back to her place around 1, and he was fidgety from then on. I slept on the couch by him and silently begged him to just be still, but he was having none of that. In all, though, it wasn’t bad, and it was really nice for Don and I to get out with our friends for a night. We’ll definitely do it again.

3. Halloween

I did put the costumes on for a few minutes for Halloween.

But they were in bed by 6:30, as always. We made the house DARK so no trick or treaters would come and ring the bell and make the dogs bark and wake the babies. But two groups came anyway. Who goes to a dark house? Didn’t their parents teach them that dark houses give apples with razor blades in them? We had no good candy since we werne’t planning to participate, so they got candy from our dish that was old and picked over. I am pretty sure a few got Listerine Pocket Packs of those platicky breath thingies. Serves ‘em right.

4. More

Avery is NOT sleeping through the night. It must have been a fluke. She went a few nights waking up only once, and now she is back to twice. At different times than Alex. Of course. She only takes an ounce or so each time, and I probably should just let her cry, but I haven’t. I keep thinking what if she really is hungry or thirsty? ANd the morning nap seems shot to hell too. I used to be able to count on 2, if not 3, hours starting at 8 am. For three days now, it’s been an hour max. I’m typing this and she is giggling and gasping behind me, and Alex is whining in their room. I don’t know what went wrong, but I want the morning nap back!

Also, we never posted their 4 months stats. Avery is (was) 24 inches and 13.6 pounds. Alex is 25.75 inches, and 13.5 pounds. Yes, his sister is shorter and fatter.