9 Months Old!

9 Months Old! The girls have officially been outside babies longer than they were inside babies. For me, this is a huge milestone. I was and still am proud of the fact that I carried the girls to 38 weeks. As tough as those last few weeks were, it was all worth it to give birth to two happy and healthy babies.

• They are moving non-stop. They are extremely proficient army crawlers now. Gone are the days of running upstairs to grab something, knowing that they won't get into anything. I picked up a "pen" for them yesterday. I feel better knowing that I can contain them for a few minutes, if need be! 

• Teagan took her first official real crawling steps tonight! She is also pulling herself up on everything she can.  She will pull herself onto her knees holding onto the bouncy chairs and hang out like that. She will often show off and hold on with just one hand. 

• Quinn is always getting into something that she shouldn't. She loves cords. If my computer cord is hanging, she will get to it. If we forget to pull the charger out of the wall, she finds it. She also loves anything dog (as I mentioned in a previous post). She's always going for the dogs' food and water bowls. I usually put them up first thing in the morning. If there's a piece of dust on the floor, she'll even find that...and put it in her mouth. This is why I now vacuum and steam the floors every few days. 

• Teagan has 2 teeth! After months of "teething," a tooth popped through without even a whimper. It's funny how that works. Quinny is still toothless but soon enough!

• Despite only getting one bottle per day, they always hold their own bottle now. It makes solo bedtime feedings much easier. Teagan is a total show-off and will often hold her bottle with one hand. 

• They continue to be excellent eaters. They have still only been eating fruits and veggies, but will be trying beans and legumes this month. Most recently, they tried swiss chard, kale, guacamole with sauteed garlic and onions, mangoes, peaches, cucumber...Quinn, despite having no teeth, has an amazing ability to gum hard foods. I steamed carrots so they were slightly softer but she still managed to gum through half of it. She adores zucchini for some reason and will go through zucchini sticks at lightning speed. She also proved to have an excellent pincer grasp recently but quickly and easily picking up pieces of banana. Teagan isn't as excited to feed herself, but will do it. She prefers me to feed her, especially blueberries!

• They will respond to their names and know the word "no" now. I try to limit how often I use it, but do try to use it in a "warm but firm" voice, as we learned in one of our classes! 

• All of the movement has turned the girls into amazing nappers. They will consistently take 1.5 hour morning naps and 1-2 hour afternoon naps. The morning nap is always taken at home but the afternoon nap is sometimes taken in the stroller or car seat depending on what we're up to for the day.