The Frenches: 'Inching' Forward Quickly

This past week has been huge in development for both boys! I am amazed at how much has occurred these past several days. Here is a glimpse as well as some other things I want to record about the boys:

As I mentioned in my last post, Gavin and Wyatt have discovered that they have a brother to laugh and smile at. They have also discovered that their brother always has the 'cooler' toy! Both boys reach for the toy the other one is playing with; both boys have actually taken the toys from each other at times. I'm lucky though, there are no tears yet.

Gavin's hair is much lighter than when he was first born; it's' almost the same color as Wyatt's right now.

Gavin is no longer showing signs of a temper that I mentioned a couple of posts back. Wyatt has become more 'clingy' and 'wiggly' this past week. He's also become a lot more vocal. He is exploring just how high pitched his voice can get. Trust me, he can get pretty high! I'm hoping this doesn't last too long.

The boys have been belly laughing so much these days. They get truly 'tickled' and are just so joyful. It warms my heart to see and hear such joy from them!

Both boys love story time. Gavin gets so excited and often begins to talk and laugh!

Gavin and Wyatt started to kick their legs and wiggle a lot when on their tummies. On Jul 22, 2011 Wyatt moved about 6 inches towards a toy by doing the 'worm'; or modified army crawl. He did it again later that day, the next and now wiggles all the time! He won't stay on his back. Rolls on his tummy back and forth, and honestly, just LOVES to move ALL the time. He even moves all the time when he sleeps. He turns 180 degrees one way, then back, then 360, then 360 the other way. He then scoots his butt up against the crib and falls asleep with his legs up in the air against the rails. He then scoots and sleeps on his tummy. If you get what I'm trying to get at, he moves ALL the time now. As far as 'crawling' is concerned, he is getting great at the leg motion, but not quite there with the arms yet. He's still moving across the floor though. Gavin on the other hand is doing excellent pushing up with his arms and moving himself around in a circle while on his tummy (and back). He's really enjoying tummy time too. Both boys reach for toys, pull them towards them or scoot towards them and plays while on their tummy. If you combined Gavin's arm movements with Wyatt's leg motions, you'd have a crawling 4.5 month old! I can just see the fun they will start to have once they are in motion (and continual motion I believe it will be).

The boys love peek-a-boo now. They belly laugh continuously as we play; even for about 5-10 minutes sometimes.

Gavin still loves cereal; rice is great but he loves oatmeal the best you can tell. Wyatt has really been enjoying it again the past few days! If Wyatt continues to enjoy it and eat more the next couple of weeks, we'll start introducing real foods! Veggies first and then fruits.

The boys were sleeping through the night very well for about a week. They started waking up once a night though several days ago. Some nights they'll sleep through the whole night, others they will wake up and cry for 30 minutes then back to bed; other nights it can be 1-2+ hours. They are back in the same room now 100% of the time, so we've had many nights of back and forth yelling. They eventually ignore the other one though and stay asleep. Last night they slept all night though, so we know they are heading in the right direction. Honestly, I think the 'set back' is the fact that they are developing so much so fast this past week or so. They love to be awake and play. When they wake up at night, they aren't hungry, but you can tell just want to play.

Anyways, because of the huge variance in sleep patterns their 'first morning meal' has been somewhat more of a variant than normal. We used to eat between 7 and 7:30 am, but now it's anywhere from 6:15 - 7:45 it seems. I feel it's okay for now because it seems necessary depending on the day/night. I am 'saddened' however because it seems like both boys (Wyatt more so) are early birds and like to wake up on average about 6am... Sigh. Once they sleep consistently all through the night though, 6 am will not be a big problem. We will see how the next couple of weeks go.

Naps are still variant. They take 3 naps a day; ranging in time from about 30 min to 2 hours. As long as they have one 1.5 hour nap a day I'm very pleased; this doesn't always happen though. Gavin is a 'better napper', but neither boys have a 'pattern' yet. If one does not develop in the next month once nights become more regular, then I will start to sleep train them for naps too. My hope is that this occurs naturally this next month though as it often does in 5-6 month olds. All in all though, our boys seem to sleep about 10 hours at night and 3-4 hours during the day.

Gavin's tooth still hasn't poked out further; I guess it's stuck (jk!). Wyatt has two new white dots on the top of his gums, but you can't feel anything yet. Both boys have their fingers or toys in their mouth about 90% of the time it seems. Wyatt actually 'gums' very aggressively. He's actually sucked/gummed blister like caluses on 4 of his fingers (two on each hand).

The boys seem to show frustration when toys aren't doing what they want them to do. If they can't get a toy to their mouth correctly or moving the way they want, they seem to become agitated.

Gavin and Wyatt love to be moving all the time. They typically only like their bouncers now right before nap time when I read them stories, or a random play time for about 10 minutes. Other than that they are on the floor playing (Wyatt on his tummy most of the time), in the jump-a-roos which they LOVE and BOUNCE BOUNCE BOUNCE in, or in the activity centers upstairs. They love to sit up; mostly in your lap or using you to help balance them a little, but the Bumbo seats are good too. My days are getting a little more interesting as I'm learning to balance both boys activity and needs. Loving it though and so very thankful!!!