Milk Time!

Usually we fed them milk on the coach, with a pillow support their back at a 45 degree angle. They would sit then lean back and open their mouths and the bottles in. They would try to grab the bottles, not holding it, but bang on it with their little hands. When I was alone feeding both girls, I put a pillow on top of their bodies to support the bottles. It worked when they just focused on drinking. Lately, both of them were bangging the pillow and the bottles got moved. I would tell them please not move the bottles but as you know they just kept on doing it. They seemed to like the sound the pillow was making when they striked on it. 'Well, as long as they were drinking the milk, I was OK with the additional noise :-P

HY lately had a very relaxed and lazy pose when she drank her milk. She used her right hand holding onto her right toes in the air, leaning her body on her left side. Her left arm was supporting her body to remain balance to drink from the bottle. EY was too busy bangging on the pillow with her hands, both hands, as if she was playing drums. Multi-taskers!

Practice standing

Our girls love to stand up. Yes, it was with our help. How did they get us to help them? Well, first, if they were sitting up on their own, they would fall on their backs where there were pillows. Then, they cried for help. I thought they just wanted to sit back up, but, the moment I tried to lift one of them up underneath her arm pits, she would straighten her back, waist and legs like a pole. When I tried to sit her up, I was not able to do so because her body was straight. Both of my hands were occcupied so I couldn't bend her body into the sitting position neither. The result of it, she was lift up from the floor with her toes touching the floor and the rest of her body would remain straight vertically. She tip-toed first then she landed her feet on the floor. She did not bounce up and down but kept her knee straight. She was very stable with the arm pitt support. Then she had a big smile on her face and often looked down at her sister who was likely still sitting next to her on the floor. She declared her success on getting up to stand with a high pitch coo or giggle. Then, she would look around the room at a much different perspective.

Knowing them like to stand, our rewards to them after changing diapers, we helped them to stand on the changing table. You can always find the fasinating expression on their faces. They certainly loved the view up there:-)

Diaper time = Fun time

Our girls love being diaper changed . Well, because it is fun time! We would lift them very high up with our arms and did a few ups and downs. They opened their mouths wide open to laugh. Sometimes WY lifted up HY too high and quickly, HY had a scared expression on her face instead. No matter what expression they got, they would receive a cheerful "yeah, diaper time" announcement from us.

Once we laid them down on the changing table, they immediately fixated on the radio by the changing table. They grabbed on the knobs but not able to turn them yet. The girls also loved to grab onto their feet now. They were able to put their feet in their mouths. Luckily, neither of them seemed to be interested in licking their own feet yet. Knock on the wood now.

I would get very closed to their face and let my hair dangle above their little chubby face. They would give me a very gentle smile, a slow blink, and "ahh, ahh" to communicate with me. They would use their little hands to play with my hair. Sometimes they would try to grab my hair instead of just a gentle touch, I would quickly lift up my head and let my hair escape. Ohh yeah, if I were too slow, it would hurt very much. I got trained to react fast.

WY would count their toes for them "one, two, three... and ten! You got ten toes!" Of course they giggled every time.

Now, they would lift up their legs in the air for us to wipe their butts. When we were done wiping, we put the diapers down and had to push their legs and remind them to let their legs down. Once they dropped their legs, they would stretch those thighs and feet and toes. The lines were perfect for dancing! They would also arch their back and curved it with pointy toes, like they were practicing their dance moves. I love to squeeze those chubby chubby thighs :-)

Diaper time equals to fun time for us, the girls and the parents. I am so glad they enjoy it. Because of the fun, that made the smell less bothersome which was hard to ignore always:-P

sleeping habits in 7th month

EY all of sudden could not sleep through the night about one month ago. She needed a pacifier to fall in asleep. We have been given her the pacifier to help her sleep. But, when she woke up at the middle of the night, she didn't know where the pacifier went. Sometimes she pulled it out of her own mouth and not knowing how to put it back in. She tried but no success so far. Then, she cried for help and we had to get up to look for the pacifier and put it back in her mouth. Luckily, most of the time she went back to sleep. Unfortunately, she usually wakes up 3-4 times at night now so we had to get up 3-4 times. Lately, after the second time getting up, I just put her next to me knowing she would need the pacifier assisting again. But we don't want to make it into a habit for her to sleep in our bed.

HY in other hand, figured out how to suck her fingers to sooth herself to sleep. That was nice. We didn't need to wash more pacifier and she woke up and put her fingers right into her mouth and sucked. She made a quite loud sucking sound. I was just grateful that she didn't need night time assistant much. Once a while though, she did want the pacifier, more for playing. She loved to pull it out and threw over the crib and landed it on the floor and made it difficult for Mama who has short arms to reach the abandon pacifier.

I wonder when EY could finger out how to sooth herself or how to put the pacifier back in her mouth. Yeah, we want our sleep:-)

Evening walk

EY had some constipation and I was told that plum would help. Since I didn't know how to make puree plum, I had to get it from Safeway. Normally, we would took them out on the stroller but it was very cloudy and we didn't know what to do if it started to rain all of a sudden. We decided to sling them to safeway instead.

This was the second time that we sling them facing outwards. They got to see what we saw. It was windy so we covered them with the "peanut shell", a brown thick and warm shell-shaped blanket. They were covered from their neck down, with their little heads popping out. It was very funny and cute. EY was so excited and curious that she could not stop screaming. Her eyes were wide open so was her mouth. She had her neck so straight and turned her head to the left and right quickly so eager to see everything out there. HY was excited as well. She opened her mouth widely with her little tongue sticking out half way. They looked at each other and laughed, opened the little mouths even wider briefly, squeezing their little noses bridges to wrinkle.

A lady at Safeway saw us and said they looked like little butterfly pocking their little heads out of the pupa.

Love Rub

I loved to squeezed them in my arms and put my chin onto their foreheads. To show me their affections, they would rub their eyes across my chin back and forth. Specially when they were tired, instead of rubbing their own eyes, they tent to lean on my face and rubbed their forehead or eyes on my chin.

They did that to each other as well. When they were sitting up on the floor to play, they shared toys and cooed to each other, and smiled sometimes. When one of them was tired, she would lean on her sister's shoulder then slide to her sister's back, rubbing her own forehead onto the back of her sister's head a few times. Eventually she would loss her balance and fell onto the pillow behind sister's back. Then, she will play with sister's clothes or back laying down resting. When her sister was also tired, she knew her sister was behind her, so, she would fall to her side and landed her body on sister's legs. Then, they got themselves in trouble and screamed for help. We always broke out in laughter when we saw that.

miss each other

On Thursdays and Fridays, the girls go to daycare. Haven't seen them all day, I always missed them very much. I couldn't wait till I got home and hugged my little birds. When I opened the door, just like me looking for where they were sitting, they were looking at the door to see how was coming. When I saw them, I called their names with a big smile on my face. In return, they also gave me a big big smile. They were happy to see Mama. They must wonder where I went. When I approached them to hold them, they were so excited that they would kick their little chubby legs and laughed. That always melts my heart! I held one of them up to swing her around and said hi to the other one who was usually held by Baba. They giggled together when I swing one of them. It was funny that the other one who was watching had fun watching and giggled just as loud as her sister.

The Lion and Elephant of the swing

The swing has been our best friend in the past months. The girls love it and always enjoy riding it. They were about 2-3 months old when we asked to borrow their cousin TY's swing. It was because I was having trouble taking care and holding two crying babies at the same time. I figured if they liked it, at least one of them would be calm and sleepy swinging to her dream land while I could take care of the other one.

They always fell in asleep in the swing for the first month. There were a lion and an elephant attached to swing. They didn't care much about them. They would always stare at this yellow local on the swing and fell in asleep.

As time went on, they started to notice the animals. They looked at them as they swing and swing. They had no interest of touching and reaching out to the toys. They eventually fell in asleep again. Sometimes, it was the only way that HY would stop crying by sitting in the swing.

We stopped using the swing for a while when the girls had flat heads. We focused on the exer-saucers which their heads were not being pressured at all.

They knew how to play with toys and they played on the floor sitting up. We took off the lion and elephant from the swing for them to play. HY somehow found herself in the swing again lately because she was not napping while sister was napping. I put the two animals back onto the swing. Now, HY quickly reached out and touched the animals, then, grabbed and pulled them off. At first she would take one off at a time. She got so good at it now she used both hands and hanged onto the animals and then snapped them off at the same time.

EY didn't play with the swing much cuz she was able to nap when I put her down. Wonder whether she liked to pull off the animals like sister did.

The new record in 6 months

Two nights ago was bad. HY woke up at 2:30am and was not able to fall back in asleep on her own. Hubby offered the pacifier but rejected by her. He couldn't get her quiet down. I was so tired that I was going to sleep through the cry. Well, I got kicked a couple of times signaling me to help. I got out of bed and checked on this loud crying baby. She was quite awake. She seemed to be hungry. Well, milk would always put them to sleep. I made her a small bottle and fed her. As expected, she felt in asleep after finished the bottle. 45 minutes later, we both went back to bed.

4am, EY woke up and cried. We both too tired to get up, thinking she would fall back in asleep. Well, bad idea, EY's cry woke HY up. Now, we had two crying babies, we had to do something about it. Hubby put the pacifiers in their mouths and they were sucking away with it. Great, back to sleep. Ten minutes later, both crying again. Their pacifiers were out of their mouths. One was holding it in her finger and not able to put back into her mouth. The other one was sucking too hard and spitted it out instead. Well, then, I got up and reinserted pacifiers, praying that they would sleep till morning.

Nope! EY broke out into crying again. HY was sleeping. I immediately got up and took EY to the living room. Didn't want to make the same mistake - allowing one crying baby to awake the other sleeping baby. I made EY a small bottle and fed this hungry baby. Finally EY went to bed again. In my head, I was like please not to wake up until 7am.

The girls were really tested us. Two more times they woke up after than. Hubby had to walk one of them back to sleep and let the pacifier do the job for the other baby.

Total, we were waken up EIGHT times! By the time it was morning 7am, they were up and crying for food again. Ohh mine, that was the record in 6 months.

Sour faces

I was excited to find out that it might be time for the girls to try the snack fruit puff. We were at JR's place and he gave me a couple of Ethan's cherry puff to feed the girls. I broke the puffs into little pieces and put a piece in each girl's little mouth. Ohh, you should see their faces. They first had a sour face - nose and eyebrows wrinkled up :-) They moved their little tongues back and forth testing out this new texture and gave me a look with their doubtful eyesight, "WHAT IS THAT, MAMA?" EY quickly pushed it out and tightened her lids, still had a sour look on her face. I reached over the scoped it back in her mouth. She chewed and chewed but the sour face remained. After HY started to chew, her sour face went away. She enjoyed it and swallowed it. I approached her with another piece and she opened her mouth to welcome it. EY was still doubtful on what was in her mouth. She took the second piece with the same expression. By the third piece, she was enjoying it as well!

When they are mad at Mama...

HY is very funny. Sometimes she is very serious and likes to focus on her own thinking. She looks out into the distance and there is no expression on her face. She also does that when she is mad at me for not picking her up soon enough.

It is difficult to get HY to smile once she is mad. It takes some energy. I will play the "eye catching game" with HY to try to make her smile. Well, I try to "catch her eyes with my eyes". She avoids my eye contact when I hold her. I turn her around so that my face is in front of her eyes. She looks away to the side and I just keep on turning her body to get her to look at my eyes. When she runs out of space and neck room, she quickly turns to the opposite side, successfully avoids my eye contact. Then, I keep on turning her little body so that my face is always right in front of her eyes. Sometimes I even get very closed and right up to her face. After a few rounds of "eye catching", HY stops all of a sudden and looks straight in my eyes. Her face was still straight, as if she is saying "Mama, can you stop that, that's annoying. Give me some space." Once she looks at my eyes, I cheer and give her a sequence of big kisses on her cheeks and her forehead. I make sure I have loud kisses because she loves that. At the end of my kisses attacks, she gives in and smiles. Sometimes she even giggles.

There was one time that she was really really mad. After the "eye catching games" and kisses, she was still made. One more trick, I turned on some music so that I could sing and dance alone the music with HY in my arm. She loved the dance movement with the rhythm of the music. After one song, I got her to give me a second long smile. Well, that meant I had to try harder. Another trick, I let her sit on my tummy facing me. I arched my back up and down so that she bounced up and down. She for sure giggles this way!

When EY is mad, she doesn't avoid my eye contact but her mouth frowning. I have to immediately do my dance move so that she doesn't start crying. Instead, she will break into laughter.

Yes, little babies do get mad:-)

after meal

HY seems to be in good moods after she eats. Lately, after each meal, I put EY and HY on the couch facing each other sitting up. HY always smiles at EY and me and her eyes are so sparkling. She is a happy bird after her tummy is filled.

Their favor game to play after eating is scratching the pillows with their fingernails to make noises. Yesterday I sat them facing each other with a pillow in the middle. As they making their musical scratching, they paused and giggled at each other, then, continued on. I had to stop their fun play because they added mouthful of saliva to the pillow :-P

EY swallow the food!

Well, finally, EY started to swallow the baby food. She still pushed some out with her tongue but she swallowed most of them. It was right before small group(fellowing) starting last Friday. We had to feed them before hand so that they would behave. I was afraid that she would not eat and got hungry earlier and cried later on. I asked God to help EY to master the new skill. We used their car seats as feeding chair. Many things were not the same as home but we managed to start. Surprisingly, the girls were very cooperative. They ate relatively fast and no fuss. Even EY started to swallow and ate most of her food instead of making a big mass on her bib. Thank you, Jesus! Their clothes were a bit messy but who cared. We were able to join small group for the first time in six months!

What a gassy girl!

EY didn't quite like the rice cereal. She has not been swallowing it. She started to make her white beard again. I cut back on her rice cereal amount back to 1table spoon, which was enough for her to practice. She cried for milk often after the fifth to six spoonful. Why was she regressing? Don't know.

On the other hand, HY was surprisingly finishing her rice cereal well most of the time. There were a couple of times that she broke out in tears and screamed in the middle of the feeding and refused to finish. That was odd. I thought she liked the rice cereal. I gave her the bottle of milk instead. It happened again today while she was in a rhythm eating the rice cereal. I was scratching my head what could have triggered it. Her milk was not ready, still warming up. So, I picked her up and tried to calm her down, thinking half of the rice cereal was going to waste. While I was holding her, she was still fuzzy until she had a big burp. After the burp, she stopped crying. Ohh, it could be that she needed to burp. I thought they did not need to burp eating solid?! Guess what, she needed it. We resumed the rice cereal feeding and she happily accepted each spoonful of food! What a gassy girl?!

So, now I know, if she refuses the food, she needs to be burped. It doesn't matter it is the milk or the solid food. She is a gassy girl!

a year ago...

It was a year ago when we found out that we were going to have twins. A year flew by and here we go, we have two baby girls. We were so blessed in 2009 that we were taken on this exciting and wild ride by God with this unforgetable experience - expecting and welcoming and having EY and HY. And now, they are 6-month-old! God is awesome and thank you Jesus! Ohh, hehe, Happy New Year to everyone! --- From WHEY :-)

A fun way to sit

Our girls are learning how to sit up. Their backs are stronger now and they can set up briefly. I usually put them on the couch side by side so that they can practice sitting up. They will swing back and forth, left and right to keep their balance. They topple over to their sides, on their faces. It is always funny to look at them topple over like a doll. Once we help them to reposition and they will try again and again to sit straight and swing their bodies around. They start to grab toys in front of them and they will bravely let go off one of their supporting hand and go for the toy. After many topple over, they start to master the new skill of grabbing the toy without fall over.

Tonight they were crying not wanting to take a nap at their own crib. Instead of taking them back out to the living room to practice sitting up, I put them in a same crib and sitting up face to face. I spreaded out my arms around them to be ready to catch in case they topple over. They both straightened their backs at the same time and looked at each other. They loved the new way of looking at each other. They started to giggle at each other. As they giggle, their backs were not stable. They were swing back and forth a few times then they managed to grab on each others shoulders and gave each other a hug. Ohh, that was just so funny and sweet! Opps, as mama enjoyed the lovely scene, they pulled each other down and fell on their back before mama could catch them. Luckily, the mattress was soft :-)

Mama was on TV?

Our girls love to watch TV. When they start to get fuzzy and we cannot hold them because of house tour, we sit them in front of the couch in the Bumbo seats and turn on the Good Night Sprout show for them. They can sit still for a good 20 minutes before they get bored. They usually have their eyes wide open and focus on the TV with little blinking. They usually do not show any emotions while they "watch" TV.

In the past two days, I noticed HY was smiling at the TV on and off. She only did that when Nina the hostess was on. She smiled at Nina?! But, why Nina? Because her friendly smiling face? No. Everyone on the show had big smiles on their face, why not them, but Nina only? I guessed she just like Nina.

Today, Nina was talking on the TV and HY was smiling while she was watching. I was holding her little hand when she watched Nina. She looked at me and smiled then looked back at the TV. I told WY that HY was smiling at Nina again. WY turned around to look at HY. He started to laugh and told me that Nina was wearing the same Pajama as I did. We both wore red top and pink stripe PJ pants on the bottom. When I stayed home with the girls, that was what I wore all day. Ohh, HY thought Nina was me, haha, that's why she was smiling when she saw Nina. She thought mama was on TV talking to her, haha, haha, hahahaha.