How are the girls doing?

I thought I'd just run through a bunch of the small but significant things going on in the babies' life. This entry is mostly intended for family.

Lenora currently has three teeth, but will have more soon. She is going through some really tough teething, and has been taking infant painkillers almost constantly for about three days. We can tell as soon as the painkillers wear off, day or night. Iliana is taking a break from teething, and has two teeth at the moment.

Iliana might be trying to say her first words - the great-grandparents on the Maier side think they may have heard her attempt at "good" and "Lenora". I myself could swear that she was trying to say "duckie" when playing with her favorite bath toy. It sounded like a normal "duh" sound, followed by a vague "geh" sound. Lenora is picking up verbal skills much slower, probably because she is too busy moving to talk. Today she did the first babbling I have heard from her - finally!

Both girls are crawling like champs. Lenora has been crawling since early December, and Iliana seemed to get tired of being left behind by her sister and worked it out just after Christmas. On the first day that Iliana really had the hang of crawling, she and Lenora were inseperable! They crawled all over the apartment together and played nicely together all day. Since then, they have only been growing closer. I was very surprised to see this sisterly behavior show up so soon.

Shortly before Iliana learned how to crawl, the girls learned to get themselves into a sitting position. Lenora only learned this skill a couple of days before Iliana did. Then Lenora learned how to pull to a stand around the time Iliana learned to crawl. I think it took about another week before Iliana pulled into a stand as well. Now both girls do some limited cruising and love to have someone hold their hands so that they can practice walking.

Iliana has also picked up a few new skills during the last couple days. I saw her stack one block on top of another several times yesterday, and she has suddenly started putting toys inside of things. Laundry baskets, the bottom of a set of open drawers in our kitchen, cardboard boxes, grocery bags - anything may end up with a random toy thrown into it these days!

Eating skills have been picked up quickly, and solids are becoming easier as the girls are able to eat food more and more like what Bjorn and I eat. They've had some of almost everything that isn't considered a major allergy risk. Cooked fruits and veggies, small pieces of meat, bread, and cheese are all parts of their diet - not to mention a disproportionate amount of Cheerios!

We've been trying out the baby sign language, and I have to say that I'm a fan. While I think Iliana's first clear word isn't that far off, Lenora will probably take a little longer to talk. However, Lenora signed the word "milk" during early December when she wanted to nurse (and then forgot it), and has shown that she understands several sign language words. Iliana signed the word "milk" yesterday while nursing, and also shows that she understands signed words nearly as well as Lenora (I think Lenora is a little bit better at understanding sign language). Hopefully the sign language will cut down on the frustration of the pre-verbal months. Apparently it's twice as useful for twin moms - at least, many of the moms in my twin moms group, Eastside Mothers of Multiples (EMOMs) rave about ASL for babies.

We're working on creating a photo gallery of the more recent girl pictures using a free service that will make the process easier than creating our own gallery. We're still working out what, though. Highlights include babies in the snow, babies unpacking groceries together, and lots of babies in high chairs.