Lyla & Nixon's 9th Month started on a crisp, beautiful THANKSGIVING day!
Thanksgiving
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| Turkey Trotting |
Trae and I decided to start a new tradition for our little family of 4, of running the Austin Turkey Trot. It's an activity we used to do before we started having babies, and one we really enjoy. Austin is such a fit city, its really fun to get out & get some good exercise in with thousands of other Austinites, before a day of eating yummy treats.
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| All done with our trot! |
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| Happy girls with their papa post trot |
I was a little worried with how the girls would react to all the noise, runners, cold weather since the run was right in the middle of what should be their long morning nap. I had visions of my girls flipping out a mile into the race and us saying "sorry- 4 more miles to go!". Thankfully my little ladies were total champs and loved looking at everyone running by and waving at them (our girls tend to take after Mommy & Daddy and be social butterflies wherever they go). About a mile in, they dozed off and slept until the very end of the event! They woke up all smiles and happy little girls to be heading home to lots of yummy food!
Their Nana had set aside perfect portions of turkey and potato's for the girls to dig into when they got home and did they ever! They liked turkey quite a bit, and didn't care much for the macaroni & cheese (what?!) but the mashed potatoes they LOVED. When Lyla likes something very much she will jump up and down in her seat and flap her hands like a little bird making an "mmm mmmmmm, mmmmmm" sound while Nixon will sit patiently but stare you down until you give her another bite.
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| "More Mashed Potatoes, please!" |
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| Tailgating in style |
After our delicious meal, we all headed down to tailgate to celebrate the football season with our family & friends. The girls got to play with all the other kids, practice crawling around on the grass and "talk" to anyone who wanted to listen. After a busy day, we headed home for an early dinner & bedtime while Papa & Poppy stayed to watch the game. A GREAT 1st Thanksgiving for my loves.
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| Family Tailgate photo, Hook 'EM! |
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| All ready for tailgate for Nana & Poppy! |
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| "Sister, Thanksgiving is FUN!" |
9 Month Dr Appointment
The girls did quite well for their 9 month appointment. Both had to have a shot, but Mommy has gotten smarter after all these shots and came armed with a bottle, which calmed them down immediately after the shot and made for a much better overall experience for everyone.
It shouldn't come as a surprise to us how much our girls are growing, but my goodness- they are growing like weeds! It's more common for twins to run a bit small in their first year, but not our twins! Our twins are above most singletons on the growth chart and growing! I'm guessing once we start getting more mobile and active, their weights will taper off a bit, but until then.. we're just some healthy little girls. I remind them often that Mama & Papa were also healthy babies and that it's just GREAT.
Lyla:
Nixon:
9 Month Updates
Lyla
It's official.. Lyla is crawling. She was so close for so long... we were expecting it to happen earlier since she was practicing anytime we put her on the floor since October. Something clicked around Thanksgiving and sure enough.. away she went!
Lyla is LOVING her new found freedom. If this is any indicator of her teenage years.. I'm in trouble! Of course I hadn't gotten around to baby-proofing my house for the impending crawling... despite seeing it coming for weeks, so when Lyla immediately started crawling towards every outlet in our house and trying to stick her teeny tiny fingers in the teeny tiny death holes I shrieked and stuck her in her bouncer for 30 minutes while I dug out our outlet covers and proceeded to cover up every single outlet on our lower level. Funny how she doesn't like them anymore now that they are covered. Once the outlets were covered, she made her way over to our fireplace to start practicing pulling up. I continually redirect her over to the padded leather couch & padded ottoman to practice pulling up, but she insists to learn over by the hard, brick fireplace. Needless to say, I am on the lookout for something to make our fireplace safe as I write this. The newest spot we're exploring is the dog door. Lyla loves to go over to it and peek out the plastic flap looking for George to come and lick her on the face. Meanwhile I'm diving for my baby while having visions of dogs running her over or her deciding she can stand up and crawl out of the dog door. (yes, I know I'm crazy..)
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| "Look, Mama! I found the dog bowls! " |
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| And she's off!! |
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| "Look Mama! Stairs! I want to go UP them!!! " |
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| Bathtime SPLASH PARTY!!!!!!
Both my girls LOVE bath time. Thank Goodness. We bathe every single night as party of our nightly routine and it's a fun time every s i n g l e night. Lyla treats it like a splash party, soaking Mama & Papa like we are in the Shamu Splash Zone while Nixon loves playing with the rubber ducks and hearing Mama say "quack, quack, quack".
Lyla is our independent, smiley girl. As long as she isn't exhausted or super hungry.. you will almost always see our girl with a big smile on her face. Even when she is angry, she tends to smile thru it.. almost as if she's saying "I know I'm being silly, Ma.. but it's hard and I'm MAD!" She loves playing games and anything with a song or noise to it will automatically catch her attention. She is very inquisitive and likes to find things out by feeling, touching & figuring it out. She is a true giggle monster and loves to play hard, often wrestling with Mom, Dad, the dogs and of course her twin sister. We love our Lyla-bean, So much.
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Nixon
Miss Nixon isn't crawling yet. She likes to sit and stare at Lyla crawling everyone and Mama chasing after her. While she isn't crawling, she is rocking on her hands and knees and 'army-crawling' around the playmate to get to the toy she wants to play with.
My "Nixie-bear" is definitely my contemplative baby. She likes to analyze situations and fully understand a situation before reacting, unlike her more compulsive twin sister. She ADORES her time with her Papa, always giving big cheeky grins to him and belly laughs when he leans in and gives her bunches of kisses. She LOVES watching Lyla play, talk and do just about anything. If sister isn't paying attention to her, Nixon will laugh or grunt to get her attention, then giggle excitedly when it works. She'll do just about anything to gain attention from Mama, Papa and sister including squealing, giggling or making a funny face. I wonder if my little Nixon will be the joker or actress of our family! Nixon is also my lovey-dovey baby. She loves hugs, kisses and sitting on laps. She does not like to be left alone in a room. If sister isn't next to her and you leave her side... instant cries commence. She really is the kindest soul and we LOVE her so!
Like her sister, Nixon also has 6 teeth (4 top, 2 lower) and is drooling like crazy so I know another tooth will sprout up in the next few weeks. Nixon is such a great sleeper, so I know anytime she starts waking up in the middle of a night, we have a new tooth trying to come to the Schultz party. The past few weeks she has been waking up around 2-3AM so we'll see!
Nixon loves to eat just about anything. If she doesn't care for it, she might make a "yuck" face in the first 2-3 spoonfuls, but will finish it off when sister will turn her head or "whack" the spoon away, spraying food all over Mama & Papa. Her favorites include pears, prunes, sweet potato, tilapia, shredded cheese and greek yogurt.
Additional 9 Month Happenings...
We love our city so much that Trae and I have made it a point to get out and involve ourselves in some of the many children-friendly activities. This month we took the kids to the Chuys parade downtown. It was a super windy day, but it was fun to see all the big balloons come down Congress Avenue with our awesome police, fire and EMS crews with their lights on. L&N didn't seem to care, or even really notice the mammoth sized balloons - they liked pulling our sunglasses off and seeing all the crowds much better. So we'll try again next year.. for now, parades are out.
I make 90% of the girls' food from scratch. I enjoy making them healthy, organic food and knowing they are getting the best nutrients for their little growing bodies. It's really been a lot of fun to see their taste buds mature and watch them try new things. We tried spaghetti this month and were BIG, BIG fans of it. They literally were licking their trays when all the chicken and noodles were gone. So I learned spaghetti needs to be in our rotation and I ALSO learned that tomato sauce stains white trays as I spent hours bleaching their trays long after dinner was over.
We took a trip into San Antonio this month to see Nana & Pop-Pop Young and L&N's Great-Grandmother, Jeanne. It was a fun visit with Lyla crawling all over the place and both girls getting to play with some of my old baby toys that my Mom kept. My mom also kept all the dresses she smocked for me 30something years ago and is now giving me all the dresses I wore so the girls can wear them! I love that L&N will get to wear my dresses made by my Mama all those years ago!
