11 Months!

I'm a bit late with this post, but better late than never!  We are now exactly 3 weeks away from the babies' first birthday.  How is that possible?  It truly is amazing how much they grow and the changes that take place in this first year.  From fragile little preemies to almost toddlers!

Can't get enough of these smiles!

Ayden and Rylee are most definitely on the move!  Rylee had been about 2 weeks ahead of Ayden for most developmental milestones, but they've pretty much evened out now.  Ayden is now standing unassisted for long periods of time.  Rylee can, but won't.  She thinks she needs to hold on to something, but every once in awhile we catch her letting go of the furniture and stand on her own.  If we are holding onto her hands and try to let go, she immediately drops down though.  Both of them are able to walk while holding onto our hands, and are even starting to walk with just one hand held.  I have a feeling that once Rylee does start walking, she will be more at a run!  If there is such a thing, she run-crawls.  And she doesn't just cruise around the furniture, she CRUISES around the furniture.  She is a fast little booger.

He's so proud of himself!

They are eating a lot more solids now.  They LOVE to eat!  We are consistently giving them breakfast and dinner, and have phased out one bottle (after their afternoon nap) so they are down to 5 bottles/day.  Soon we will be phasing out their after mid day bottle and doing lunch instead.  We mostly do oatmeal with a fruit for breakfast, but have had scrambled eggs, french toast, yogurt, and pancakes.  For dinner they've had rice, various types of beans, peas, avocado, chicken, turkey, potatoes, tortellini, shredded cheese, tamales, grilled cheese sandwiches, and acorn squash.  Ayden really liked the acorn squash the first time I gave it to them, but since then seems to absolutely hate it!  They've also had bananas and apples.  I tried cut up grapes, but found that they are like squirrels and hoarded the skin in their mouths so I haven't given them grapes again.  Oh, and Puffs.  They LOVE their Puffs!  I've also learned why parents cut the crust off the bread for their kids.  I was never going to be that parent!  However, Ayden stores the crust on the roof of his mouth, later to be found by me.  Sooooooo, I now tear the crust off his bread.

I am now pretty glad that they don't have a lot of hair.  They are happy, but very messy little eaters.  They just love to grab their ears and hair with their grimy little hands.  While they are happy eaters, they absolutely do NOT like being wiped down afterwards.  For some reason they don't mind it while in the bathtub though. Weird.

Rylee now weighs 18 lbs, 9.5 oz and is 27.5 inches tall.  She is wearing mostly 3-6 month and 6 month clothing, but has a few 9 month outfits she is now wearing also.  (I don't understand sizing.  It's stupid.)  She is wearing size 3 diapers.  Rylee has 2 bottom teeth and 1 top tooth with another on it's way.  Teething doesn't seem to bother her much.  I'm thinking it's because they come in so incredibly slow.

Ayden weighs 23 lbs even and is 29.5 inches tall.  2 whole inches taller than his sister!  He is wearing 9 and 12 month clothing and wearing size 4 diapers.  Ayden has 8 teeth total with 4 on the bottom, 4 on the top.  He's also a little beaver with all those teeth, chewing on EV.ER.Y.THING.  His poor crib.  He also slobbers on everything.  One of his favorite pastimes is to lick the sliding glass door. Gross, but funny and strange.  There is nothing that is safe with him around.  If there is a exposed cord, he will get it.  He also has learned how to open the kitchen cupboards.

He's proving that he's too smart for the child proofing!

He still has the biggest smile!

They are interacting more and more together.  They talk and laugh with each other all the time.  Rylee still says dada and Ayden says mama.  I swear that sometimes they are having a friendly argument about who is right because they will say it back and forth to each other.  Ayden also says baba and just recently said dada, but only once.

They've now experienced their first Halloween.  We made a brief appearance at a friend's Halloween party, but skipped out on the trick or treating so the babies could get to bed at least close to their normal bedtime.

They also had their first Thanksgiving spent with lots of family and a little vacation to Sunriver for a few days.

Ayden with his Great Grandpa

Rylee and a cousin

We took advantage of the nice weather one afternoon and spent a few minutes playing in the Fall leaves.

Ayden spent most of the time trying to eat the leaves

He was very intrigued

Rylee decided to give them a taste as well

They still love Winnie the Pooh.

They love helping me with the laundry.  Not really, but I can distract them with the laundry basket!

Now for the best of the 11 month photos.  They are so challenging to get pictures of lately, especially together!  I already shared the outtakes in a previous post. 

Love that smile!

*Please excuse any typos in this post.  I've been wrestling Ayden for the last 20 minutes since he woke up early from his nap, trying to keep him distracted enough so I can finish and hit publish!  No time to proof read!