5 Months

Sorry this is a little late!

Dear Eleanor and Violet,

Again, I'm amazed at how fast each month goes!! This was another big month in development and learning new things!!

You both are getting SO strong! Ella, you FINALLY rolled over on April 23! You don't seem all that interested in rolling though, because you've only done it 2 more times since then! You're just happy to be on your belly I guess! I know you're not behind developmentally, even though you are not rolling much, because you've also started sitting up unassisted this month!! It takes a little propping, but you can sit for several minutes without support! You did that for the first time on April 29th. Violet, you have finally started to enjoy standing up just as much as your sister! You love standing now! You also continue to try to hard to pull yourself up to a sitting position, and roll when you feel like it.



You both seem to be in love with your feet this month! You both have really discovered them! You love grabbing your feet, and trying to get them to your mouths. Violet, you finally got yours to your mouth a couple days after your 5th month b-day, and then Ella, you got yours to your mouth a couple days later! You also both continue to kick like crazy! I think it's time to install Lily's old kick mat toy to your crib!


Probably the biggest thing from this month has been starting solids! I've already written about your first time eating, since then you have continues to not seem to thrilled about solids! Every meal time was a struggle to get you both to eat a couple spoon fulls. Violet, I was worried about starting you on solids, since you didn't seem ready, but you actually seem to be doing better at swallowing your food than Ella! It was just a few days ago that you both started to actually get the concept of eating solids, and have started to eat more of your oatmeal! I'm excited to start introducing fruits and veggies this month!

Your different personalities are really starting to show lately! Violet, you are always so happy and easy going! You're quite the flirt, and love to smile at people! And people can't help but smile when they see your huge grin! You are such a morning person too. One of my favorite parts of every day is waking up to your beautiful smile! Ella, you are a lot more curious and reserved. You always seem like you're trying to figure things out! We've also seen a really playful side to your personality this month! You love to play in your jumperoo, and shriek with delight when you're in it! You're laugh is just infectious! You are definitely NOT a morning person! Every morning while waking up, you fuss and fight so much to keep sleeping! I'm already worrying about having to get you up in time for school when you are a teenager!

You both have really discovered your voices this month, especially Violet! A few weeks ago you started shrieking super high pitched all the time, especially when we were playing! It's was so funny to see, even though it hurt our ears a little! It reminded us of a pterodactyl! Then you forgot all about that vocalization for a while Violet, and started doing this gaspy, sucking in air noise all the time! (Talk about freaking me out...it almost sounds like you are choking...but it's just you experimenting with your voice!) Now you remembered the shrieking sound, and are doing both that and the gaspy sound all the time! Ella, recently you picked up on the gaspy sound too! Mostly your vocalizations are full of grunts and exasperated sighs! I also swear I've heard you babble mum when you are upset!

Both of you girls are seriously teething right now!! You both have massive amounts of drool, and are chewing on everything you can get to your mouths! Sophie the giraffe and my teething necklace have become your favorite toys because they are good to chew on! You each have had a few really extremely fussy days, where the only thing we can figure is that you were in a lot of pain from your teeth coming up. You both also have puffy gums, and we're starting to be able to feel the first 2 teeth under the surface. We expect we'll be seeing both of you get your first teeth within the next month or so!



I'm so excited to see what this next month will bring for you both! You are both so amazing in every way! I love that you are both so wonderfully different We are so proud of how much you are learning and growing!! We love you girls so much!!!

Love always,
Mommy


Eleanor's 5 Month Photo's:








Violet's 5 Month Photo's:





Violet exploring grass for the first time!!

First Apple Sauce

On May 19th I gave the girls their first real food (after cereal!) Apple sauce!! I still had a container of the apple sauce we had made back in the fall in my freezer, and thought it would be a wonderful introduction to fruits for the girls! We also had just gotten cute new bibs from Uncle Bob and Aunt Michele that I wanted to try out, so I took a few picture pre-apple sauce.

Violet:


Ella:
While snapping a few more pictures of Violet, Lily decided she was going to feed Ella from her own bowl of apple sauce! I caught her just as Ella was taking her first bite! Of course what do I do? Snap a picture of course!


Ella clearly didn't like it very much!


Another bite:


Starting to like it more:


Then Lily gave Violet her first bite:


She liked it a little more than Ella, but still spat out the first few bites:


More of Ella eating:






More of Violet eating:






In the end it would seem Violet really started to enjoy her apple sauce! Ella still needs time to learn to love it!

Eating Is Hard Work

Ella fell asleep in her high chair today for the first time while eating her oatmeal. Lily use to do this all the time! In fact, there was a while there in her first year that she use to take all her naps in the high chair! I'm sure we'll be seeing this from the girls a lot more from now on!

First Solid Food!!

This morning we gave the twins their first taste of solid food! After getting ourselves all set up (which involved putting together the new high chair, cleaning Lily's old high chair, locating the straps for the old high chair, and arming ourselves with a camera in each hand, in addition to making the cereal itself!), we put the girls in the high chairs and gave them each their first bite!

In the high chairs, waiting for their first solid meal:



Lily waiting too:

Violet hammed it up for the camera while we were waiting for the oatmeal to be made:




Ella staring down her new challenge:


This is right after her first bite...she didn't think much of the oatmeal!


Violet's first bite:



And she spit it right back out again!


Neither of them thought much of the oatmeal. I don't think they are big fans yet! :) Both spit out their first bite! After a few bites though they started opening their mouths for us a bit more and accepting the new food. Ella even at one point started fussing because I was taking pictures and not feeding her!

Lily was all excited about this new activity with the twins! I think she's been waiting for this day that she can help with feeding! She jumped right in and gave Violet her second bite of oatmeal!


She did a good job! And then she jumped over to Ella to feed her:



She kept jumping in to help feed the girls! She really loves helping out!

Daddy giving Violet a bite...I love this face...it's the face we all make instinctively to get our babies to open up their mouths! I still do this without thinking when I feed Lily!


Ella being patient waiting for her turn:



Violet really had fun with eating after a while! I was concerned that she wasn't ready yet...but she really took to it and enjoyed the experience I think! (However I don't think she enjoyed oatmeal itself....just the getting fed part!) She had fun getting messy:



And then decided she wanted to take over herself:



The spoon was great for her sore teething gums!



Ella's turn to eat some:


She really was uninterested the whole time! This was her face pretty much the whole meal:


Until she decided that we were done, and she would eat no more:


This was the closet I got to a smile from her:

:) I hope tomorrow she enjoys it better! We'll be giving them oatmeal for breakfast this week, then starting next week I may start adding in a fruit or vegetable. Lily's first real food after rice cereal was sweet potato...any ideas on what I should try as the twins first real food? I've been thinking either sweet potatoes again, or apple sauce, or bananas!

One last picture to prove that Ella is capable of being happy in her highchair, taken this afternoon:

:)