The twins turned the big 1 on February 27th. (I know I'm a bit late getting this post done but things have been busy here with sick kids, family visitors, and traveling back to Iowa.)
Taking their monthly pictures have definitely proven to be a challenge now compared to the beginning months. You'll be able to tell this when you get to the pictures of them together. I am a little sad to be done with the month sticker pictures, but I think I find it more of a relief. Once the kiddos became mobile the pictures were a lot harder to take on my own and more of a struggle to get them to sit in one place...especially sitting together! But I am sooo glad I have these moments of each month of their first year! Definitely worth it in the end!
12 Month Photo Shoot:
This one is my favorite!
And I like this one a lot too. This is a true Kater expression!
Miss Katherine Ilene
Height: 30.5 inches / 90th %tile
Weight: 23 lbs 5 oz / 75th %tile
Head: 18.5 inches / 93rd %tile
Diaper Size: 4's daytime diapers and 5's in nighttime diapers
Clothing Size: 12 months and 18 months
Sleeping: You have been a constant sleeper and are still sleeping 12 hours a night. We put you to bed around 8:00 p.m. and you will wake up the next morning around 8:00/30. Some nights you are a bit of a night owl and like to stay up playing quietly by yourself which works out great while we get your brother ready for bed. This month you were up several times in the night with coughing spells. After a month of coughing and a runny nose the doctor put you on medicine for sinus infection. You felt a lot better after you were on the medication, but soon after you finished you caught a cold virus. Both you and Matthew were sick which made for some tough nights and days. Your nighttime routine is to eat a bottle between 7:00-7:30, get your diaper changed, pajamas on, and then put down in your crib. You must have your pink monkey blanket when you sleep. You still MUST have your pink monkey blanket when you sleep! You love to feel it with your hands while you start to fall asleep and you use it as your pillow. You like to sleep on your tummy or your left side still and have started moving around a lot in your sleep.
You are still taking 2 naps a day. Your first nap is in the morning around 10:30. You will sleep for and hour to 1.5 hours. Your afternoon nap is usually around 2:30-3:00 and you will typically sleep longer ranging from 1.5 to 2 hours or more. You still took some of your naps in the pack-in-play in our room and I also started having you take an occasional nap in your room with Matthew. You typically will wake up earlier than you would normally because you hear him wake up. Hopefully you will start to get use to his noises during nap time. For both naps and at bedtime we can put in your crib awake and you'll put yourself to sleep. Thanks for being an awesome sleeper Katers!
Eating: About half way through February you started to drink whole milk. No more formula! At first you didn't like the taste so I mixed half of it with some formula to get you use to the taste. It didn't take long for you to transition. I also started taking away some bottles then and replacing them with sippy cups. So you take a bottle in the morning when you wake up, a sippy cup of whole milk at lunch, and then a bottle of milk at night before you go to bed. You will drink juice or water in a sippy at supper. You definitely like taking milk from the bottle in the morning best. You're still working on mastering how to drink from the sippy - it can come out fast and end up all over your shirt. You have been eating mostly all table foods now. You are still a bit picky/fussy with textures. Some days you like chunks of vegetables and fresh fruit and some days you just spit it right out. I feel like so much of your food ends up in the highchair or on the floor lately. You love cheese, yogurt, peanut butter sandwiches and toast, waffles, lil' crunchies, goldfish crackers, grilled cheese, and bread. You eat three meals a day and have a snack with water or juice in a sippy cup in the afternoon.
Dislikes: You don't like it when people leave the room or when people put you down on the floor to play instead of holding you. When you want to be held, you want to be held and will cry until someone comes and gets you. You don't like it when your brother cries. You will try and cry louder over him and think you need mommy or daddy too. It's still a struggle to try and wipe of your face when you're done eating. You get so upset!
Favorite Activities: You love, love to look at books. You will sit and turn the pages and make talking noises like you're reading the book, too! Now that you can stand up you like to pull yourself up on the ottoman and play there. You still like riding on "you car" and you get so excited when someone (or your brother) will push you around. You like to dance, play peek-a-boo, patty cake, following around your brother, coping noises other people make,
Nicknames: Kate, Katers, Sister, Taters, Tater Tot, Hamball, Punkin' Head, Katester
Talking: You still haven't officially said your first words, but we feel their are lots of babbling sounds you make which sound a lot like some words: daddy, mama, yeah, and yes. We're waiting until you know the context of these words to say their official. You love to talk or jabber while in your crib at night before you fall asleep. You also study our mouths as we are talking like you're watching how we form our words. You like to copy funny sounds or noises we make with our mouths. You also love to laugh and will laugh out loud when you hear some else laughing in the room.
New Adventures: You celebrated your first Valentine's Day and Grandpa Willms' Birthday. Grandma and Grandpa Willms came up and babysat you and Matthew for a night while Mommy and Daddy went to a MN Timberwolves basketball game. Great Aunt Jan, Great Aunt Mary, and Great-Grandma Ilene came to visit for a weekend and took you shopping in your new stroller. You had your first birthday party on February 25th back in Iowa at Grandma and Grandpa Dufel's house with all of our family and friends.
Teeth: Bottom right tooth at 10 months. You got in the bottom left tooth this month at 11 months. You had two teeth at your first birthday!
New Skills: You now can pull yourself up into the standing position. You are still working on how to walk around furniture. While you're stand up you can lean over and pick up an item from the floor. You can now go down the step out of our living room! It took you awhile get the confidence to try to crawl down the step. At first you weren't too sure about how you should tackle going down, but it didn't take you too many tries before you figured it out.
Love this little guy's smile! So contagious!
You've been making the funnies faces lately.
Yes, he's teething. So much drool now.
Don't you love how he's sitting or posing? ;)
Such a happy little man!
You had so much fun walking up and down the drive way
All of that walking made me thirsty!
Mr. Matthew Edward
Height: 29.5 inches / 40th %tile
Weight: 19 lbs 4 oz / 7th %tile
Head: 18 1/4 inches / 30th %tile
Diaper Size: 4's for daytime and you're finishing up the 3's nighttime diapers
Clothing Size: 6 months, 6-9 months, and 12 months
Sleeping: You have been an all-star sleeper! You will sleep 12 hours each night. We will put you to bed around 7:30/8:00 and you will sleep all night and wake up around 7:30/8ish the next morning. Once we start your nighttime lullaby music and wrap your blanket around you you immediately will snuggle up and put your head on our chest's. Will lay you down in your crib and you'll roll to your tummy and snuggle up under your blankets and fall asleep. Some nights you'll talk/chatter in your crib until you fall asleep, but nothing as loud as your sister! This past month you have become attached to your own blanket - the one with the green and brown circles. When we go to pick you up out of your crib you bend down and grab your blanket first before you let us get you. Then you'll carry the blanket all around the house as you play.
You are taking two naps a day. Your morning nap is at 10:30 and you will sleep for about an hour to 1.5 hours. Then again in the afternoon around 3:00 for 1.5 hours. You are great at going down for naps. You know when you're tired and will lay down and snuggle up with your blankets when we place you in your crib.
Eating: About half way through February you started to drink whole milk. No more formula! At first you didn't like the taste so I mixed half of it with some formula to get you use to the taste. It didn't take long for you to transition. I also started taking away some bottles and and replacing them with sippy cups. Now you take a bottle in the morning when you wake up, a sippy cup of whole milk at lunch, and then a bottle of milk at night before you go to bed. You will drink juice or water in a sippy at supper. You definitely like taking milk from the bottle in the morning best. You're still working on mastering how to drink from the sippy - it can come out fast and end up all over your shirt. You have been eating mostly all table foods now and don't like it when we feed you food. So far you have liked almost all of the foods you've been introduced to. You are a messy eater because you like to shovel in as much food as you can all at once. A lot of your food ends up all over your shirt, face, and on the floor. You love cheese, yogurt, peanut butter sandwiches and toast, waffles, lil' crunchies, goldfish crackers, grilled cheese, cereal bars, and bread. You eat three meals a day and have a snack with water or juice in a sippy cup in the afternoon.
Dislikes: You still do not like to lay still and have your diaper changed. You put up a good fight for a little guy! You don't like having your face or nose wiped off. Clean up after meals usually ends up with tears. This past month you don't like it when we tell you "no" and you can't do what you want to. You definitely can be a little stubborn.
Favorite Activities: You love to horse/play around with Daddy! You love it when he lifts you high in the air by your feet. You like to sing and dance whenever you hear music playing. Books, books, and more books. You enjoy turning pages and pretending your reading the story like Mommy and Daddy. Playing at your activity table and with your Elefun. You now love to climb into drawer or bin you can. You're such a monkey and enjoy climbing up the couch and playing around in the pillows and blankets. We can mainly find you walking around the house with your toy walker/cart or pushing (or climbing into) your toy car. Those are you two favorite toys right now.
Nicknames: Matt, Matty, Fatso-Mattso, Wiggles, Wiggs, Fast Eddie, Bro, Matt Man
Talking: You haven't said any words officially but many of the sounds you make sound like some words: hi, yeah, mama, dada, bye. You also will shake your head back and forth for no when we tell you no. You can now wave when we say good-bye and hi. You will wave and make noises like you're saying those words, too. You are starting to understand the words we are saying. You can be a noisy little chatter box, always making noises while you play. We love to hear your voice and the stories you tell.
Teeth: 9 months old- top, right front tooth. 10 months- left, right front tooth. Teeth to date: two front bottom teeth and two front top teeth.
New Adventures: You celebrated your first Valentine's Day and Grandpa Willms' Birthday. Grandma and Grandpa Willms came up and babysat you and Kate for a night while Mommy and Daddy went to a MN Timberwolves basketball game. Great Aunt Jan, Great Aunt Mary, and Great-Grandma Ilene came to visit for a weekend and took you shopping in your new stroller. You had your first birthday party on February 25th back in Iowa at Grandma and Grandpa Dufel's house with all of our family and friends.
New Skills: You've been standing more often and for a longer period of time more often. You still aren't walking on your own yet, but you're getting close. You can maneuver all around the house around furniture with your walking cart. You started crawling into drawers and toys bins. You learned how to crawl up the couch and on top of our storage bins all by yourself which is a little scary for mommy! You love to push anything you can across the floor. Your favorites are the kitchen table chairs and the storage bins that are "suppose" to be blocking you out of certain areas.
This was by far the hardest month picture yet!
Okay...the chair isn't going to work anymore! Each kid wanted to go their own way. Where can we put them where we know they can't go anywhere? The stroller!
Happy 1 Year, Katherine & Matthew! We can't wait for all of the fun things year 2 is going to bring. You bring so much joy to our lives. Thank you for the laughter you bring and the love you show.
