Happy 7 Months Little Munchkins!!!

Pics: Clark and Uncle Tom getting ready for the VOLS! Kendall hamming it up. Emma and her cute bow (from Aunt Marsha).

Well, I can't even believe it has been 7 months already. We have commented more than once that the days are LONG, but the weeks fly by. They are growing and changing so much and often we don't even notice some changes since we see them everyday.

Kendall: She has spent this week trying really hard to crawl. We noticed that she is moving around but hadn't really seen what it was she was doing. Today we figured out that she is sort of crawling backwards. Sort of. She pushes up with her arms and then scoots back with her legs. It's funny to watch because she is focused on an object in front of her and seems to want to get to it and then ends up farther away as she does her "crawl". I'm wondering if she will master this thing by the end of the week???? She seems to enjoy baby food - a lot (until today). She has been more than willing to eat peas, green beans, carrots, sweet potatoes and she is the only one who gets rice cereal (though it's usually in her bottle). Today we introduced prunes (for various reasons - we can buy organic, it's a "first food", and quite frankly, we are hoping to keep them all in good "shape" as the other foods seem to be slowing things down a bit). They caught her off guard a little, but then she seemed to be OK with them. She was pretty cranky though when her sister started going off the deep end. She was almost unwilling to finish eating. And this evening, she was gagging constantly while trying to eat our homemade (Mommy and Daddy made it yesterday) peas (organic baby food peas). We are hoping it is just the texture as they are a little chunkier then the usual "first foods" as she has been happy to eat peas so far. We will probably have to save them for her once she hits the "second foods" stage. She is still all smiles much of the time. Most people can get her to flash them a cute smile when visiting. She loves to giggle and dance (my own little "dancing queen" - I hear Abba----aaahhhh). Lately, she seems to be able to occupy herself on the floor mat scooting to different toys and being curious. We also think she will have great abs sometime soon as she spends SO much time on her tummy. Her new talent is also her ability to jump in the jumperoo toys (like Clark). She is chatty at times and has a crazy "hyperventilating-sort-of" sound that she makes when she is excited or bored (we checked with the dr and it isn't anything to worry about). Aside from that, she has sort of a quiet voice and sometimes it sounds very "Total Eclipse of the Heart" (a popular 80's song) raspy. Her eyes continue to be SO expressive and you can see a smile coming on if you just watch them. And they are bright and blue'ish, but maybe hazel is coming??? There is finally a little more hair coming in that we can almost get the hair clip (from Aunt Marsha) to stay in her hair. There is still no sign of teeth, but that doesn't stop her from flashing those beautiful gums!

Emma: She too seems to be trying to get mobile, though she has not been as successful as K. She loves to roll around on the mat and get into everything. She especially loves this safari toy that makes (a lot of) noise and lights up. Pretty much everything she can get her hands on ends up in her mouth, but of course, she does have teeth and more may be coming soon. Her other favorite thing to "eat" is her feet. She is quite flexible and can get her feet up to her face very easily. Speaking of eating, she is not our best baby food eater. She was great at it in the beginning and it appeared that she would be the neat one, but that is not the case any longer. She seems to have changed her tune and isn't happy about baby food. (Or is it that we no longer enjoy feeding her????) Anyway, she now screams quite a bit. She demands more food immediately - no waiting to distribute a mouthful to Clark or Kendall - and ALWAYS requires that her hand (or arm, or bib, or someone's arm) be used to help her swallow her food. It is the weirdest thing. I read that when they stick their fingers in their mouths while eating, it can be helpful for them to learn how to swallow the food, so I wasn't discouraging it. But now, it's just a gigantic mess. And I don't know how much food she even gets down. And the screaming thing...it's gotten to where Clark will burst into tears because he just wants to eat his food and she is screaming in his ear and we are so focused on that that we aren't giving him another bite. But, she's still our Ems. She is SO cute first thing in the morning when we are pooped out and trying to get them all ready for the first bottle. She is cooing and singing and squealing. It is just the most adorable thing. Sometimes it's annoying because we want her to drink her bottle and quit singing, but it's just so cute that you can't help but smile. She is still ahead of the pack in the hair dept. Her hair appears to be pretty dark. And her eyes remain different - one blue and one brown. As I said in the other post, she is our little peanut being about 2 lbs lighter than K and C, but seems to always be doing new things and picking up new "skills" and we are happy about that. We're thinking that she will be into singing (because of her high, LOUD voice), or maybe some sort of sport as she loves to slam her toys around. Uncle Tom would be thrilled if she played baseball/softball....I would suffer through it in silence (I hate being in those bleachers in the blazing hot sun) if it was what she wanted to do. I think there is a chance that, despite her size, she might be more of the "leader" of the three. It will be interesting to see how it all turns out in a few years, but right now, it seems like she calls the shots. She loves to be outside. In the midst of a meltdown, a nice stroll in the yard seems to settle her down quickly. I think she loves to hear the sounds outside. And she also seems to enjoy hearing her own voice outside as she was singing at the top of her lungs when I took the three for a walk this morning. She too has a beautiful smile and a cute laugh.

Clark: Sweet, precious, patient Clark. He is not as quiet as he was. He has times where he is pretty chatty - especially hanging out in his crib when he wakes up and we haven't come to get him. He just lays there sort of moaning and groaning and then sighing and cooing. VERY cute. I've been a little freaked out to find that he has flipped out of his sleep positioner and is up against the crib rails with his mouth around one of them. It's probably about time to take out the positioner and discontinue swaddling him, but we just haven't made the official transition. He has the most gorgeous eyes....big and dark blue. And his little 2-tooth grin is just adorable. We thought that he was taking his time with the developmental milestones - like rolling over, etc, but now he's just rolling everywhere and is actually quite good at sitting up (not entirely by himself, but I wouldn't be surprised if he was the first to accomplish this). He seems to really enjoy music - Daddy's guitar, the music on Baby Einstein videos, the noise that the jumperoo makes, etc. He is getting much taller and heavier and there is more hair coming in everyday. We are so amazed (and thrilled) that he went from being the smallest at birth (just 4lbs and only .4 oz) to being the largest (at just under 16 lbs). He continues to be great at the jumperoo toys and even when you try to get him to stand, he is trying to bounce and jump. I think I'll have to call him Tigger with all of the jumping he does. He has an infectious laugh and gets tickled easily by funny faces and noises. He too can be calmed by a stroll through the yard and usually falls asleep in the stroller when I take him for a walk. He is by far the best eater of the bunch. We still get a nice "baby bird" mouth so that food goes in easily. It seems like he really enjoys the food (even the homemade chunky peas that made K gag). While he can give you a wonderful smile, it is sometimes difficult to capture a photo of this because he gets distracted by the camera. Once he knows it is there, he can't stop staring at it with a "deer in the headlights" sort of look. He loves to kick and splash during bathtime and he is also quite limber because he too is able to get his feet to his mouth (yummy???). I've also noticed that he is now able to get the bar on the bouncy seat popped out of it's place because he likes to prop his feet up there and play with the toys. Beyond that, he is just SO snuggly that you can't help but squeeze him and plant kisses on him.

That's all for now. I just wanted to post a few notes about each baby so you can get a little insight about what is going on with them.

We are gearing up for the start of football season, so I just have to mention....
GO VOLS!!!!