The Willms: Nine Months Old!!!

Being nine is fine! Katherine and Matthew turned 9 months on November 27th. Like I say every month, I can't believe Kate and Matt are nine months old! Time is very much flying by us month by month. We are absolutely head over heals in love with the two of you!

Mommy and daddy had fun with this month's photo shoot. You two were in great moods!

So much excitement to be 9 months or maybe she's lovin' daddy's silly faces.

Love it!

If you know Kate this is a typical pose! She makes me smile in this picture! Future cheerleader?

Pout face. Had enough of these pictures mom.

Katherine Ilene

Weight: 20 pounds 15 oz. (80th %tile)

Height: 28 inches (70th %tile)

Diaper Size: Size 3's

Clothing Size: 6-9 months, 9 months, and some 12 months

Sleeping: Again, Katers, you are such a wonderful sleeper for your parents! You usually sleep 12 and sometimes 13 hours a night. You will typically go to bed between 7:30/8:00 and sleep until 8:00 the next morning. It is a rare occasion for you to wake up in the middle of the night. You only do if you are woken up from Matthew or you're on your tummy and you need help rolling back over. This month you've started sleeping on your stomach. You roll a lot to your tummy before falling asleep and will cry because you need our help to roll you back over. This month we have moved you to the pack-in-play in our bedroom to help better sleep train your brother. We don't want him waking you up in the middle of the night! You don't seem to mind sleeping in a different crib or room. You have been taking on average now 2 naps a day for about 2 hours a time. You go down for your morning nap around 10:00 and then again in the afternoon around 2:00. In order to help you fall asleep you still love your pink, furry monkey blanket and your lullaby CD. You still prefer sleeping on your back or on your left side.

Eating: You are still drinking four 7 oz bottles a day. We can just hand you your bottle and you can hold and feed yourself. Sometimes even one handed! Your bottle schedule is every four hours at 8:00 a.m., 12:00 p.m., 4:00 p.m., and 8:00 p.m. You are eating baby food twice a day with a snack in the afternoon. You will eat fruit mixed with cereal (a whole container yourself) an hour after your morning bottle and then a fruit and a vegetable (splitting a container of each with your brother) around 5:00. For snacks you like yogurt, puffs, or frozen fruit in your mesh feeder. New things you have tried this month are mashed potatoes at Thanksgiving, cheese, different yogurt flavors, fresh bananas and sweet potatoes. You still love all of the food you've tried! You are still experimenting with the sippy cup.

Dislikes: You get upset when mommy leaves the room. You just want me to hold you all day. (Same as last month) You don't like it when I wipe your face after you finish eating baby food. You get over anxious when you see us preparing your bottle. You hate it when the car stops, Matthew takes your paci, being on your tummy too long, and when Matthew wakes you up in the middle of the night.

Favorite Activities: You still love to JUMP in your jumperoo!!! You go crazy in there. It's so fun for mommy and daddy to watch how excited you get. If someone isn't holding you, you like to sit and play with toys. You still love it when we changed your diaper. (We thank you for being so cooperative..unlike bro.) You love to babble and play peek-a-boo and patty cake. Playing peek-a-boo with mommy, daddy or family can get you to giggle really loud. Hearing your giggle is one of my top 10 favorite things!

Nicknames: Kate, Katers, Taters, Kater-Tot, Hamball, Punkin' Head, Kater Gator

Talking: You make sounds all of the time now! You like to talk to yourself as you fall asleep. You make sounds like "da da", loud happy screeches, "hi", "yeah", and "hey". You're 'Da Da' sounds real so we might make it official. :) You like to coo and have a conversation with us. We find you talk most often when you have your hand or paci in your mouth.

New Adventures: You had your first Thanksgiving and celebrated at Grandma and Grandpa Dufel's, the Hills', and Grandma and Grandma Willms'. Your cousins Lizzie and Lauren babysat you while mommy and daddy watch Aunt Jenny play volleyball. You attended your twin friends', Julia and Fiona, first birthday party. Grandma and Grandpa Dufel watched you a couple of days while mommy and daddy went to visit Great Grandma Ilene at Mayo. You had a bad cold virus so we took you into the doctor to make sure you didn't have pneumonia like your brother. Let's just say you had a lot of messy diapers...crazy times/new experiences at the Willms' house!

New Skills: You are doing so great at sitting up on your own. A couple of times you have gone from sitting up to laying on your tummy. You still don't love tummy time, but you've been rolling over a lot more. While on your tummy you kick your legs back and forth like you want to move. You like to stand up along side the exersaucer or ottoman. More of the sounds you are making sound like you're putting together a sentence. You still love to see Daddy walk in the door when he gets home from work!

** Matthew's pictures are a lot different from Kater's. He doesn't sit still!! You can see from these pics why Matthew got his nickname, Wiggles! **

Sitting so nicely for mom.

Still sitting so nice....and then

gotta start crawling...

"HI camera!" Love this picture because this is our crazy, fun loving, Wiggles!

Happy little boy!

Matthew Edward

Weight: 17 pounds 14 oz (15th %tile)

Height: 29 inches (75th %tile)

Diaper Size: Size 3's

Clothing Size: 6 months and 6-9 months

Sleeping: This month we've been using the "cry it out method" of sleep training to help you become a better sleeper and napper. I think both of us would say it's been a success so far. We've had some hard nights and naptimes but we knew it was a must do to help you not be overtired. We put only you in the bedroom and moved Kate to our room. We went in to get you right away if you woke up at night or at naps so you didn't wake up your sister. This didn't teach you to put yourself back to bed. Now that you're in a room by yourself we can focus on having you learn that skill. So now you've been going down to sleep between 7:30-8:00 and sleeping until 7:30-8:00 the next morning. You will wake up at least once at night but have been able to calm yourself down after a bit. This is 100% better for you and mommy and daddy! You are taking on average 2 or 3 naps a day. You will sleep for an hour or maybe alittle longer at 10:00, 2:00, and then again at 5:00 if you need depending on how long your two previous naps are. I've been working on making sure you atleast are in your crib for an hour to make sure you get enough of a nap.

Eating: You are still drinking four 7 oz bottles a day. We can just hand you your bottle and you can hold and feed yourself. Sometimes even one handed! Your bottle schedule is every four hours at 8:00 a.m., 12:00 p.m., 4:00 p.m., and 8:00 p.m. You are eating baby food twice a day with a snack in the afternoon. You will eat fruit mixed with cereal (a whole container yourself) an hour after your morning bottle and then a fruit and a vegetable (splitting a container of each with your sister) around 5:00. For snacks you like yogurt, puffs, or frozen fruit in your mesh feeder. New things you have tried this month are mashed potatoes at Thanksgiving, cheese, different yogurt flavors, fresh bananas and sweet potatoes. You still love all of the food you've tried! You are still experimenting with the sippy cup. You are starting to want to "do things yourself" such as picking up your puffs and trying to feed yourself baby food by grabbing the spoon from mommy.

Dislike: #1 thing - getting your diaper changed! #2 - sitting still for us to dress you. You had bad diaper rash this month from being sick and your antibotic. This made diaper changing even more difficult and required a two person system. You're still a very happy go lucky kiddo!

Favorite Activities: Crawling anywhere you can - especially in tight spaces. You love to crawl and find us around the house. All you want to do all day is climb up on everything! You've become a pro at crawling back down. You still have some spills every now and again. Your favorite rooms to be in are the kitchen with mommy, the bathroom, and our bedroom. Anything that lights up attracks you. If an activity envolves being around people, there is not doubt that you love it! Oh yeah, and being in Katers' personal space, too. :)

Nicknames: Matt, Matty, Wiggles, Wiggs

Talking: You still love to talk before you fall asleep. You're definitely babbling a lot more and making sounds into sentences. All you want to do lately is buzz your lips (makes a farting sound).

Teeth: You now have your two bottom teeth. This month your right bottom tooth came in. The doctor at your 9 month appointment today said your top right tooth is about ready to come through.

New Adventures: You had your first Thanksgiving and celebrated at Grandma and Grandpa Dufel's, the Hills', and Grandma and Grandma Willms'. Your cousins Lizzie and Lauren babysat you while mommy and daddy watch Aunt Jenny play volleyball. You attended your twin friends', Julia and Fiona, first birthday party. Grandma and Grandpa Dufel watched you a couple of days while mommy and daddy went to visit Great Grandma Ilene at Mayo. You were pretty sick so we took you to the doctor and found out you had pneumonia. You had to be on an antibotic. Mommy and Daddy didn't like seeing you sick, but you tried your best not to let it slow you down from crawling. Let's just say you had a lot of messy diapers...crazy times/new experiences at the Willms' house!

New Skills: You're constantly pulling youself up on anything you can. You've managed to open kitchen drawers and cabinets. You're a pro at getting yourself back down, too. Now you can walk along furniture going from the ottoman to the couch and back. This past month you don't like it when mommy leaves the room so you'll follow me throughout the house (sometimes crying). You now like to hold your bottle when you eat. You can pick up puffs with you thumb and forefinger and feed yourself.

Picture Time together! As you can see our kiddos need to work on keeping their hands to themselves. It was fun to watch them interact with each other. It's becoming quite the challenge to get them both to sit still and smile and the camera...all at the same time. :) I think these are some of my favorite pictures of the twins together. They really show off their personalities.