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It’s been an eventful month.  We had visits from our friends Ron and Jacque from Baltimore, my mom, Mimi Susan, and David’s dad, Saba Jerry.  David came home from a business trip to New Hampshire with a pinched nerve in his back and a bad cold.  Unfortunately, the cold was contagious, and Noah and Jesse came down with it.  They were miserable, and they made us miserable, for a good long while.  They are feeling better now, though, and last night, for the first time in a long while, slept all the way through the night again.  Here’s hoping they continue getting back to normal.

Despite their colds, Jesse and Noah recorded a few major milestones this month, and they’re all keeping us on our toes.

Teeth. Noah has 4 now, and Jesse has 8.  Yes, 8.  They are using those teeth coming in as an excuse to whimper, whine, and generally be grumpy (not to mention keep us up at night), and we are ready to be done with the whole teething experience.  I’m sure they are, too.  But the teeth are helping them mow down food they wouldn’t normally be able to…we’ve been feeding them nice big chunks of fish, fruit, cooked veggies, bread, pasta, etc., and they are loving it.  They’ve also learned to feed themselves their own bottles and sippy cups.  It gets messy sometimes, but it’s fun to think that I won’t have to keep making special baby food for them much longer.

Talking. No real words yet, but these guys are noisy!  They really vocalize a lot, and they mimic each other’s sounds.  They don’t say anything on purpose, but it’s fun to think they do.  “Mama” and “Abba” are in their vocabulary – if only they really meant it.  More importantly, they both understand the word “no” when we say it to them.  It seems that Jesse really gets it – perhaps because he hears it the most.  But he really responds – he knows what it means, and stops doing whatever it is that we’ve indicated is not okay.  He usually cries about it, too.  But the reality is…we are starting to discipline them already.  And so far, so good.  It’s all downhill from here, I’m pretty sure.

Crawling. Yep.  Our guys are mobile.  Noah’s still a little tentative about it, but they can both cover some serious ground when they want to.  Jesse even climbed two stairs the other day.  Needless to say, our busy lives just got busier, as these guys now require CONSTANT attention.  The days of sitting quietly on the floor playing with toys are over.  Now the toys are strewn all over the house, wherever the boys take them.  And it is not uncommon for one or both of them to quickly crawl up to David or me when we enter the room, pull themselves up on our pantlegs, and stand there looking up at us expectantly.  Bang to the heartstrings.

Standing and cruising. They both love love love to stand, and to pull themselves from one object to another.  They can’t stand without support yet, but they are close.  I can tell.  I wouldn’t be surprised if they are both walking in the next 30-60 days.  CRAZY.

I really can’t believe how quickly they went from lumps-on-a-log to mobile, communicative little humans.  The past month especially has brought so many changes.  They’ve even started interacting with each other now – laughing and smiling when the other is laughing and smiling, getting upset when the other is crying.  They do this really cute thing when they’re crawling near each other – they rub heads.  It seems to be affectionate, at least for now.  Some day, all too soon, someone will get a concussion.  Boys.  Sigh.

The Barach boys - Saba Jerry, Jesse, Noah, and David

Jesse loves Saba's beard

Last Saturday was the official 9 month mark…and on Wednesday, Megan (our fearless nanny) and I took the boys to the pediatrician for their well-baby check-up.  The doctor actually laughed at how big the boys are, and the nurse told us to be careful picking them up so we don’t hurt our backs.  Fortunately, they are both tall for their age, too, so they’re not just fat.  But seriously – they are enormous.  I’m so proud.

In celebration of the 9-month mark, we have been giving them some new foods to try out, finger foods, especially.  They LOVE raisins, cheerios, pasta and biscuits, and aren’t so fond of rice cake and craisins.  We’ve also introduced egg yolks, and lots of herbs and spices, as well as making their food really chunky.  Even though they don’t have very many teeth yet, they are doing a great job gumming stuff down.  My goal is to have them eating what we’re eating by around 12 months, and so far, things are going according to plan.  It’s really fun to watch their faces when you put a new food into their mouths – sometimes they are so disgusted, and sometimes they are pleasantly surprised and start to open their mouths for more before they’ve finished the last bite.  Jesse seems to be more particular than Noah, which is why Jesse weighs a little less…  Noah rarely spits anything out.  He’s totally the kid who, when he’s a bit older, will eat dirt to win a bet while his brother looks on in horror and explains to him condescendingly that the bacterial composition of the soil will do such and so to the chemical properties of the immuno-gastro-intestinal system blah blah blah.  I can’t wait for that.

In the meantime, Jesse is fully crawling.  Fully.  He still goes slowly when he’s on his hands and knees.  His military crawl is faster, and since he’s too impatient to go so slowly most of the time, he still relies on his military crawl a lot.  But when he wants to, he is up on his hands and knees cruising around the room.  Our lives are over.  This weekend, I filmed my two baby boys, each doing what they do best…  Enjoy.

Sincere apologies to those of who come back to this blog often in hopes of something new, and have been disappointed.  David pointed out to me last night that it’s been a month since we last posted.  Sorry about that.  It has truly been a busy time, and I hope you’ll forgive us.  Please enjoy the following updates.  I’ve included lots of photos.

We haven’t heard anything recently about Jordan.  My brother reported a week or so ago that the Shahbaz family is keeping on keepin’ on, adjusting to their new normal.  And at this point, no news is good news.  Please continue to keep them in your thoughts and prayers.  Jordan’s treatment is far from complete…

We had a beautiful holiday season with friends and family, capped off by a New Year’s Day wedding on the beach here in San Diego.  My sister Gwen married her sweetheart David Vigil in an intimate ceremony followed by a fun family dinner.  The festivities were graced by, quite possibly, the most beautiful sunset I have ever seen.  We wish Gwen and David all the very best, and eternal marital bliss.

Mr. and Mrs. Gwen and David Vigil

A kiss at sunset

Meanwhile, our boys have gotten bigger, more mobile, and ever more interesting.  It’s so fun to watch them develop into little people.  They have started expressing preferences about food and toys and when they want to be left alone and when they want to be picked up.  They now give us kisses – the open-mouthed slobbery kind.  They love to stand on their legs, supported, of course, and Jesse has started cruising a bit.  Jesse has also almost mastered crawling.  Noah could if he wanted to, but he just doesn’t seem interested.  I think he much prefers it when other people do his bidding and he doesn’t have to expend any effort.  Which is how I know he’s his father’s son.  Both Noah and Jesse talk a lot, and the sounds change all the time.  Currently, they are into “Da – da – da – da – da.”  I don’t think it’s intentional, especially because in our house, David goes by “Abba.”  But it’s adorable.  Oh, and, did I mention BIG?  David weighed them the other day — Noah was 25 pounds, and Jesse was 24.  These are unscientific figures, but still!  They’ll be 9 months next week, and they are outgrowing their 12-month clothing.  I’m not complaining though, because they are making my arms really buff.

San Diego in the wintertime - life is hard.

With cousin Nadia the day after Gwen's wedding - and Jesse guilty of trying to steal Nadia's pacifier.

First time sitting up in the Costco cart

Oh, circles of neglect - we bless thee.

Hi mama!

May I help you?

Play time - Jesse likes to roll around and try to knock Noah over.

Happy New Year everyone!  Much love to all.

While Noah still hasn’t quite figured out how to roll over, Jesse is a man on the move.

Another benefit of the boys being able to sit up on their own is that we no longer need to use a special newborn/infant tub for them and we can bath them right in the kitchen sink. I bought a little rubber mat to put on the bottom of the sink so that they won’t slip and we gave it a shot. It seems like Rachel and I aren’t the only ones happy with the new bathing arrangement!

Both Jesse and Noah have gotten really good at playing on their own recently. They didn’t really play much with anything and then we started putting them in their exersaucers a few weeks ago (see photo). At first they didn’t know what to do with the toys and just banged on stuff, but they picked it up pretty quickly and now know to pull and push on certain things to get the music and lights to work. During this same period they also mastered picking up their pacifiers and putting them in their mouths which, as you can imagine, makes it a lot easier on us.

At the same time that all this was happening, they also got perfected sitting on their own. Combine all that and you get these very cute pictures.

Noah

Jesse

The boys are going to be 6 months old in a few days.  I can hardly believe it.  During the first three months of their lives, I thought the days that stretched into nights that stretched out into days again would never, ever end.  But suddenly, I’m looking back at how fast it all went, and I can hardly remember those long days and nights.  That may be because the sleeplessness caused short-term memory loss…

The news now, apart from the fact that the boys are big and healthy and beautiful and soooo good, is that I am a little bit unwell.  I’ve been having anxiety attacks, excessive weight loss, sleeplessness, sweating (when everyone else is cold), and a variety of other symptoms for a while now – I thought it was the nursing and the having TWINS.  I mean, it seems pretty normal to lose weight when you’re producing copious quantities of fat-filled fluid made just for babies.  And when you have two of them, why wouldn’t you panic a little every now and then?

Turns out, however, that my symptoms are due to a hyperactive thyroid (post-partum Graves disease) – not just the reality of raising two babies at once.  It’s a good thing we figured out what was going on, because some of the symptoms I didn’t mention were actually pretty problematic.  Shaking, itchy skin, serious mood swings and irritability, and worst of all, an extremely elevated heartbeat.  My heart was literally beating 115 BPMs at rest – that’s really high, and if I weren’t young and healthy, very dangerous.  The thyroid can be treated…I’m going in for some more tests next week to confirm the exact problem and determin treatment.  And in the meantime, I’m taking a medicine to slow my heart down a bit.  It’s helping with the anxiety too.

The bad news is that once my thyroid gets treated, I’ll probably gain back a few pounds.  I’m eating lots of ice cream these days, while I can get away with it.

And in the meantime, the boys are amazing – all 3 of them.  I can’t believe how blessed we are – even though we’re tired.  Here are a few pics of my sweet boys…is it just me, or are they just adorable?

These are the real twins.

Play time!

Puppy dog eyes - I can't resist.

Jesse has two new favorite things to do. Observe:

The boys are 4 months old, and yesterday, we went to their 4-month pediatric appointment.  They both weighed in at over 16 pounds, and 2 feet tall!  Big, healthy, bouncing baby boys.  I KNEW they felt heavy.    In celebration (or maybe because they didn’t feel good after the vaccine shots), they slept through the night – from 8:30 pm until almost 7 am!!  There is light at the end of the tunnel…

The photos below were taken by our cousin Eileen while she was visiting last weekend. Thanks, Eileen!

Jesse is checking you out!

Noah and his chubby cheeks