9 months

These children are incredible, they really are.

Now that they're good at sleeping in their own cribs, I find myself taking them to my bed more and more often. It happens in the middle of the night, when they wake but aren't necessarily hungry (these days they'll each wake up maybe twice a night, but only one of those times are they very hungry. Since they're eating a lot less during the day, and are a lot more active than they used to be, and their weight gains have slowed, I don't want to deny them a feeding so they've stuck in the habit of needing a mid-night snack). Rather than stay awake myself as I help sooth them back to sleep (yeah, we're not really into that whole cry-it-out thing, it just doesn't work for us, so more often then not the girls fall asleep in our arms), I just take whomever if being cranky back to bed with me, where we sleep very soundly. I love love love looking at my sleeping daughter's face next to me, waking up to her small, warm body and milky smell. I love wrapping my arm and blanket around her and snuggling in close to her.

Eating is an entertaining daily adventure. They make such a mess but enjoy it so much. Last night we tried coconut sorbet (since these days I'll give them a chance with pretty much anything on my plate) and they both reacted with such frightened, unhappy looks in response to the coldness, it was adorable!

Today we had guests over all afternoon and they got along wonderful with them, but when everyone left I took the girls to my bed to snuggle and they had looks of such utter joy at having private play time with just Ima! They smiled and laughed as I kissed them and blew raspberries on their bellies and made faces and hugged them and rolled around the bed cuddling with them.

My daughters are the light and joy of my life.