The Schmitt Family Happenings: E&C 6 Months!!!!

claire and ellie have blessed us so richly these past 6 months. I have definitely had plenty of moments where I thought I wasn’t going to make it to the end of the day. over the past month though the girls are starting to turn a corner. their level of fussing has definitely decreased from what it was and the girls are beginning to have little “chats” and really engage with one another. it is delightful to watch our kids interact and especially to watch ellie and claire when they stare in amazement at their big brother – charlie. the girls’ personalities are becoming more apparent and we are seeing subtle differences between them.

eleanore

weighs 14 lbs and 2 ounces (14%).
she continues to be more patient than her sister and will occasionally lay and watch charlie play or watch claire play with a toy.
likes reading books – whenever we have a chance to actually read them to her.
is days from crawling. she easily gets up on all fours, moves forward awkwardly, “mountain climbs” with her feet, but can’t get forward because she can’t figure out how to move her arms forward.
continues to do planks constantly. she is so focused and goal oriented. I swear all along she has been working this hard to get stronger so she can crawl. she is a living ball of muscle!
is a happy sweet little girl. when she makes eye contact with you she just lights up and gets a huge gummy smile.
can sit well, but can’t be left without a boppy behind her. she will get distracted while sitting and just plop over while continuing to hold on to her toy.
enjoys her bath time more than claire because she is able to relax in the tub (claire has her arms in constant motion so water is always flipping everywhere!)
a bit more gentle than claire.
still spits up – especially after eating solids. yuck!

claire

weighs 14 lbs and 6 ounces (20%)
is not patient. whatsoever! she always gets her bath first so that she can be the first to eat.
will not sit still to look at books. when you try to read her a book it is almost as if she is appalled at you. she will constantly twist and turn and try to look around for something to grab, but she will rarely pay any attention to the book (the exception to this is the big first 100 words book).
loves wrestling with toys. she spends quite a bit of time just wrestling with the jingly lion or moose we have and will just attack it.
can sit well, but can’t be left without a bobby behind her. to really stay sitting though she need to have something that she is engaged in otherwise she will spy a toy somewhere else and just face dive right for it. she has the battle wounds to prove it.
loves playing with charlie’s cars. if you put them anywhere in her sight she will eye them and then work her way over to them and get her little mitts all over them. thankfully charlie is not too threatened by this yet.
most of her movement is by rolling, scooting backwards, or by picking up one half of her body and moving it forward.
when she is sick of eating solids (or full) she will start blowing and playing with her food and it starts spitting everywhere. funny now, but won’t be funny in a few months.
used to be our teenager when it came to sleeping in, but has now decided to be our early riser. she will consistently sleep through the night, but when she gets up to eat at 6 am she wants to get up for the day! ouch!
enjoys watching tv! it is hysterical. if charlie is watching doydge (george) during lunch and claire is on the ground you will catch her staring at the tv totally engrossed. charlie never did this as a child. I even tried to get him to watch a dvd when I was sick once and he would have none of it.
if you even lift up a toy in front of claire her arms instantly come up and her little hands start reaching and grabbing for it.
when smiling she often has her tongue sticking out.

both

are saying “ahhs", “bs”, blowing bubbles and moving their mouths around while making noises.
love squealing! they are such girls. charlie just giggled. it is super hard to get them to giggle. in order to get them to giggle you really have to toss them around.
teething like crazy. they are chewing on anything they can get their mouths on.
eating about 2 meals a day. one late morning and one mid afternoon. usually some cereal with fruit or veggie or both.
really like hanging out in their entertainer or jumperoo. I have moved them both upstairs and they can face each other in them which they really like.
are sleeping really well. we start baths around 6 pm and they take 9 ounces by bottle right after. they fall asleep and we do a dream feed around 10ish where they both take anywhere from 3-6 ounces. on a good night they sleep until 7 am, but often times one of them is up just once to eat.
are not napping as well as they were before. I am hoping that now that we have their nights established and will be going to the rac in the mornings they will fall back into taking a long afternoon nap.

sweet twin things:

the girls are now officially having conversations. I will catch them staring at each other and chatting. one will start cooing or making noises at the other and then they will pause and the other one will burst out in a huge grin and then they will start making noises and it goes in cycles. it melts my heart!! and if you are lucky to catch them talking at this stage (it doesn’t happen that frequently yet) it is quite amazing to see these two little identical people communicating.
this is a bit odd to discuss and someday the girls will be appalled that I am bring this up but it is weird. they have the same bowel movements! they are now in the pooping every 6-7 days or so stage and will both not have pooped for multiple days and then both squeeze out a little nugget. then a few hours later they will both produce another nugget. I am amazed that they can even keep their bms in sync.
when ellie smiles her left eye gets squinty and when claire smiles her right eye gets squinty.
if you place a toy between the girls they both start to go for it. if one of them gets ahold of it first and really starts playing with it the other one will just sit back and admire how her sister plays with it. they really don’t seem to be jealous or continue to go for it (I am sure this is just an age thing, but it is sweet).

ellie and claire wrestling. claire is on the bottom.