9 months

Well, Amelia and Mae Parker are closer to being 10 months at this point, but I still wanted to recap their 9th month because IT. WAS. A. DOOZY. 

Amelia weighs around 18 pounds, wears 9 month clothes and a size 3 diaper. 

This month we have seen her hair GROW SO MUCH! She can hold hairbows like a champ, although she wasn't the biggest fan of them in the beginning. Now, she doesn't mind if you can catch her still long enough to get one in her. 

She is getting stronger in her legs finally and crawling everywhere! It's like one day she just started crawling out of the blue and started doing so with perfection. As Riley says, "Mae Parker is crawls faster, but Amelia has better form." #thatkid

She says "Dada" and "Mama". However, she only says "Mama" in moments of distress. Dada she rambles all the time. Figures.

This month she has decided to play bashful with people if I'm holding her and someone starts talking to her, she immediately turns her head and buries her face in my shoulder and gives a small grin dimple blazing. 

She cut her first teeth this month, her front bottom two. She did so rather easily, but it may have only seemed that way because two weeks earlier her sister cut her bottom front two with a vengeance. 

She is a fantastic eater, but is sporadic with taking a full bottle in the afternoons. We have discovered this month that she LOVES watermelon and cantaloupe. She loves going to Bible Class, babbles constantly in the car, gets fiercely mad when her sister pulls her hair, cries when her sister squeals loud, is still an easy napper and loves to play with plastic bowls and lids in the middle of the kitchen floor. 

Mae Parker weighs around 21 or 22 pounds, wears 9 month clothes and a few 12 month, and a size 3 diaper. 

She cut her first two teeth at the same time at the beginning of the month. Once that was behind us, it was literally like she was a different kid. Several of us made mention of how she was just different over the course of a weekend. 

She went from making few sounds and grunting to "talking" our ears off. Unless you're trying to put her down for a nap, she is the happiest baby...all the time! She has so much to say! 

She has just enough hair to hold a hairbow, but she finds more enjoyment in pulling her sister's hairbow out. 

Just this month alone, she has started crawling, pulling up, standing briefly on her own with no support and taking a few guided steps with stand walker or holding on to our hands. She wants to stand...always. She thinks she's such a big girl!

She says Dada and waves bye bye in her own special way. 

She's still great at eating and LOVES her bottles. You just can't get it to her fast enough sometimes. It's hard to tell what her favorites are, because she's equally suspicious her first few bites of anything and then polishes it off with joy like the champ she is. 

She loves to sit in your lap when you read books. She thinks her sister is the funniest person alive. She is a nosey rosey and doesn't miss a beat. She squeals so loud your ears ring. She loves seeing herself in a mirror. She gets some serious air time in her jumper. She loves bathtime, but gets ahead of herself with excitement that she's fallen and semi-baptized herself a handful of times. (p.s. she doesn't like it.) She gets SO excited about everything..she's filled with so much JOY! 

Both girls have regressed on their nighttime sleep. We can get them to sleep rather easily, lay them in their crib and within an hour more often than not, both girls are awake, upset and crying. We've tried a million different techniques to "fix it", but it may just take time. After going back and forth each night for up to three hours with both girls, we throw in the towel because we've got to get some amount of sleep ourselves. Stephen will take one girl with him to our bed, I'll take the other girl with me to guest bed and we'll all sleep the remainder of the night. Yes, I know it may be creating bad habits, but you go back and forth with two fussy babies night after night and let me know what you would eventually do in order to have everybody up, fed, ready and out the door at 6:30 the next morning. 

They were doing great in their cribs and then BOOM not so much. I don't know it's a phase with the teething or something else, but I do know that it's exhausting and most of this month we've felt like we've been running on fumes. 

That being said, you couldn't tell it with these two. They are the happiest babies (except when they're sleepy, hungry, or having their hair pulled). Even with the lack of sleep, this month has by far been my favorite. It's been such a huge month of development, milestones and their personalities are at their peek! 

It's the best thing in the world to watch these two "play" together and make each other laugh. I don't know how many people told us before we had them, "well, they'll always have a friend". I wasn't sure how much agreed with that before we had them, but I couldn't agree more now. I cannot wait to watch these sisters continue to grow and lean on each other and be there for another. To be each other's best friend. It's such an unexpected blessing of having twins. 

These girls are our greatest joy. As tired as we may be going back and forth at 2 in the morning, fast forward a few hours when we're all up, even with just a few hours sleep in us, and the nighttime struggles are overshadowed by their morning smiles and excitement to start the day! The hard moments (i.e. hours) are so easily forgotten. 

Happy 9 Months pretty babies! (Ok, let's be honest, you're nearly 10 months at this point...I'm trying.)