An Amazing Year in Pictures

Hard to believe that tomorrow is 12.   We love these two more and more everyday!!
 

11 months and 1 week later...

these two little munchkins decided to slept through the night. 

R&B - Thank you for finally coordinating your schedules and letting us get some much needed sleep! Now, please keep to last nights schedule. And, Rooney, we wouldn't mind if you slept in your crib instead of our bed either.

11 Months

Our little busy bees are 11 months today!  Can you believe it?  We sure can't!

I remember 10 months ago taking the first monthly picture.  My biggest challenge was getting them to open their eyes.  At 11 months our biggest challenge is getting them to sit still. 



Rooney trying to get away

 

Brady...and his new favorite activity...climbing.

 

 

Tired after a long photo shoot

They are constant motion and now almost constant talking.  Lee and I get very worried when the two of them are talking to each other in their special language, usually with tons of animation, and then they both turn to us and laugh.   It's as if they look at us and say, "Those two don't have a clue how much fun we are going to have when they aren't looking"!

This month Brady cut four top teeth!  We figured out he has a sensitivity to soy and now that the top teeth have made their entrance and soy has been cut from his diet, we are finally getting some sleep around here.  He still gets us up one to two times a night, but at least they are for a bottle and back to sleep or a quick cuddle and he settles down.  None of that hour after hour of him crying through the night stuff.   He has mastered the walk and now rarely crawls.  And much to my dislike, he is now climbing on our chairs and trying to jump off our furniture.   Just this week he finally started babbling.  We love hearing his little voice!    Brady has the longest arms of any baby I have ever seen and gives the absolute best hugs with them strongly wrapped around my neck.  He continues to be long and lean, despite eating anything and everything.  His palate is more diverse than most adults I know.  He is in the 75th percentile for height at 30 inches and only 10th percentile for weight at 18 lbs 9 oz.

Rooney, sweet Rooney has finally decided that the word NO doesn't apply to her.  She is happy to tell her brother or anyone else NO, but if you say it to her she just laughs and does whatever she wants anyway.  Her smile lights up every room and she knows how to use it to get exactly what she wants.  She continues to be my little shadow and I am certainly not complaining.  Rooney is very particular and deliberate in everything she does.  She does not like a mess and we can even let her eat sans bib because not a drop of food goes anywhere except in her mouth.  Despite not having any teeth, or signs of teeth, she eats everything and chews/mashes her food like an expert.  She never puts new food in her mouth until her mouth is empty and refuses to mix food.  Like her brother, she eats everything!   She is still only in the 10th percentile for weight at 17 lbs 1 oz and 75th percentile for height at 30 inches.

This month we went on another plane trip to attend my dear friend Emily's wedding in Michigan.  R&B are amazing to travel with!   They love the airport and plane and seem to thrive on the whole trip.  We have the travel thing done pretty much to a science and actually don't find it to be to much more difficult than travelling solo...OK, maybe that is because I forgot what it was like to travel solo.  But seriously,  the four of us have slept through 8 of the 9 flights we have been on together.

And now for the month in pictures...

R&B with the newlyweds

Roo loving her time with Grandma



Apples are YUMMY

Checkout her awesome curly hair

Teasing her brother...

Ready for another apple

This is classic, Brady trying to get away and Rooney yelling for us to pay attention.

   

 

And then one went vertical

As I mentioned in the previous post, Mr. Brady is walking.  He gets more confident everyday and Lee and I get more freaked out everyday! 

The World is His Toilet...

Have you ever changed the diaper of a 10 month old?  It's more like a wrestling match than a quick diaper change.   This past weekend, my parents, R&B, Lee and I were staying in adjoining hotel rooms.  My mom took Brady into the empty hotel room to change him and her wrestling skills failed her mid-change.  Out of the room crawled a completely naked boy.  Adorable, right?  Well, he crawled over to the bed, stood up, walked to the night stand (yes, my 10 month old is walking), put his hands on his hip and the stream began.  We all laughed, and there Brady stood giving Auntie Lori the look of death for laughing at him while he was mid business.  I wish we could have gotten a picture of it, but I don't want to forget it, so a blog post seems appropriate.  Oh, that nightstand will never be the same.  I am just happy nothing was coming out the other end!


Our little stinker, who is ALL BOY!

 

We have Grandma...still working on Grandpa

O Canada

Last weekend, we enjoyed a wonderful trip to Canada to introduce R&B to Lee's extended family.  I'll let the pictures tell you about our weekend...

Hello Auntie Jean



Thank you for lunch, Auntie Jean

Auntie Jean reading our favorite book

Auntie Fazi with her hands full

Off to the farm in the middle of Toronto

Yay, horses

 

 

Our Pupu



Auntie Nafi is so fun



Yay, Pupu



Our cousins are fun

Meeting Shirley Auntie

Brunch with our fellow SCI friends

Uncle Moneer lets him do things, Mommy would never...

So cute!

Auntie Janet is funny

Too cute



Fun with the Hamid family

 

10 Months

Happy 10 Months!

We like beef...

 

 

Fun with numbers

 

 

Rooney enjoying her new puzzle and Brady reading his favorite book

 

Grandma came to visit

 

 

 

Fast, fast, fast, that is how R&B are moving.  Are they walking?  Well, that depends on your definition.  Brady is walking by some definitions, but not ours.  Lee needs two steps and I need a few more.  He has 1.5 steps mastered.  Either way, he gets where he needs to go either cruising, crawling on his knees or walking like a four legged creature.  Stairs are no problem for him and he is very close to climbing on the couch, chair, his "tall" toys and he has unsuccessfully attempted to scale the wall. Ugh.  Rooney stands and cruises around everything, but doesn't quite have the balance to walk just yet.  She has no interest in climbing on anything, I guess its just not lady-like.   

 

Since shortly after 8 months, Brady became all boy!  He quickly figured out any spot that is not child proof.  He is constant fun, but wow does he wear us out.  We love watching our little boy figure everything out.  He needs to bang everything he picks up, pull it apart and chew it into pieces.  Brady seems to keep us up every night.  All of July, we were up for a couple of hours a night with him screaming - it was awful!  I realized much to late that he is still lactose intolerant and the yogurt we introduced was causing him lots of discomfort.  Now he seems to be way to busy to drink is formula during the day, so he regularly puts back 8-12 ounces during the night.  We have tried to eliminate this, but it results in continual wake ups until he gets enough food.  Oh, and the teething, I blame most wake ups on teething, but who knows what is and isn't teething.  He currently has three teeth.  After the bottom two teeth came over 4th of July weekend, we didn't see any new ones until one popped out August 26th.   We see three more on the top and can feel them, but there is still some tissue covering.  The best thing about his sleeping has been that he finally puts himself to sleep for all three naps and night time.  This has made my life so much easier.   On this 9 month birthday, he said "momma" for the very first time.  And the following day, he said "dadda".   Those are the only two words he says, with the except of his loud grunting sound he makes when someone is not giving him the attention he wants. 

 

Ms. Rooney is momma's girl.  Lee calls her my shadow.  She is fun, social and will go to anyone and everyone, as long as, I am in the room.  Rooney mastered the "NO" head shake about a month ago and is quick to use it when she doesn't want something.  She also will use it to answer any question you ask.  Everyone things its adorable, she knows this and uses it to her advantage.  She is very verbal and talks all day long.  She tells long, fascinating stories using her hands, facial expressions and sometimes even her legs.  I need to record one and post it because they are hilarious.  She says, momma, dadda, baby, pupu (dog) and bragy(Brady).  Last weekend, we got into an elevator with a dog and she popped her head out of the ergo to reach for the dog and say,"pupu, pupu, pupu".  The owners were impressed.  When we read their favorite book (see the previous post) she shakes her head no right before all the NOs in the book.  Grandma was shocked.   Rooney still requires me to rock/ergo her to sleep and is often difficult to transfer to bed.  She doesn't sleep well in her crib or either of the two travel cribs, but if you put her in a regular bed she falls fast asleep.  Usually, it takes several attempts to get her to sleep in a crib.  At night, she always eventually ends up in our bed.   She doesn't have any teeth and there is still no indication of any coming soon. 

 

Both babies are still on medication for acid reflux.  I was really hoping at this point we would be medication free, but its clear they both still need it.  Brady continues to spit up all the time, whether he has had formula or solids.  Rooney has stopped spitting up, but she vomits whenever she gets too upset. 

 

Both babies will eat just about anything.  Rooney prefers to feed herself finger foods.  And will refuse any baby food if we are eating something else.  I have been leaving restaurants hungry lately because they both eat all my food.  Indian food is a huge hit and between the two of them they will eat an entire naan or paratha, as well as any curry we give them.   I am hoping this changes, but the only food Brady has refused is mashed potatoes.