TWINS ARE DIFFERENT!

Although they may look alike, there are several differences in twins.  Being 4 months, I'm starting to be able to distinguish more easily between Max and Leo.  Max, for instance, has more feminine features..as much as he probably doesn't want to hear that.  His eyelashes are incredibly LONG!!  I think they look pretty... unfortunately, people have mistaken him for a girl a few times.  His eyebrows are also more groomed and a little darker than Leo's.  Lastly, Max has long hair (well, longer than Leo) and is a tad bit curlier.  Leo, on the other hand, has more fuzzy eyebrows and more hair that make up the eyebrows.  His hair is also shorter and mainly fuzz on the top of his head.  


They both squawk and talk a lot, but Max tends to be the more calm baby while Leo loves to stay active and grab our attention ALL of the time.  He's also a fussier eater.  But he loves to be held!


It's still a little difficult to tell apart their personalities.  I can't wait until we start to see more differences in them.  


Max (left), Leo (right)

Leo, "peace"

Max....definitely starting to be the plumper one.

His belly is sticking out, although it's hard to see in this picture.

Leo

$1.00 ELMO DOLLS!!!

I got these Elmo dolls for $1.00.  Seriously!  I love getting good deals, and always check Twitter daily to find what's happening, where the deals are, etc etc...  


Well, one morning, there was a deal from a Groupon clone, DealPulp, where you could get $15.00 credit (or something like that) with free shipping for just $1.00.  I was hesitant and thought it was too good to be true, especially since I could only spend it on one particular website which I've never heard of.  After doing research, I quickly jumped on it and whipped my credit card out!  To this day, I regret not creating more email accounts and purchasing more of that deal...  :(

Well, here are my three Elmo dolls!  Plus, I got an elmo guitar and DVD.  I decided to wash the dolls once and read that you should NEVER put plush toys in the washer machine.  People said you can maybe get by putting small toys in the machine, but good luck with large ones because they will for sure never look the same.  Well, I don't know what toys they washed, but I just threw all three of them in the washer, on high speed, hot water, heavy duty hot air drying... pretty much the worst washing situation you could put these guys in.  After I took them out, they still looked the same!!





Max fell asleep next to the Elmo dolls.  I wonder how long it will be before he is bigger than the Elmo doll.



Here's Max again with small Elmo.  





Max with medium Elmo.

I did recently find out that TV is the worst thing for a baby under 2 years old.  Eeek!  It causes aggression, ADHD, and all sorts of other things later in their life.  Plus, they did a study and found out that babies who watched TV knew 10 less words by age 10 than those who didn't watch TV as a baby.  So, we don't let them watch anymore.  This time below was just an exception since I was doing laundry and couldn't hold Leo (which makes him stop crying).  I hope we don't end up having really angry kids later in life.  

Leo with small Elmo watching TV. 

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SQUAWKING BABIES, PASSED OUT BABIES

The twins are officially going through a growth spurt.  They are now 4 1/2 months!  It's amazing how their milk intake can double so quickly.  Max has finally hit the 13 pounds mark and Leo is just slightly under by a few ounces.  They're still sucking their fingers ...24/7.  Even when we feed them the bottle, they manage to find a way to stick a finger in the side of their mouth and suck it at the same time.  That usually slows the feeding process down by at least a few minutes.  


Here's Leo in the swing sucking like crazy on his one finger.  He's a finger sucker, not a thumb sucker.

Their feet and hands are getting so big.  I had to take a picture of them so I don't forget that they were once this size.  They always look like little angels once they fall asleep

The twins have been crying and squawking and yelling like crazy since this past weekend.  I heard around four months babies start becoming more aware of their vocal chords and like to play around with them, especially when they figure out that it gets your attention a lot quicker!!  

My husband and I definitely agree that it's AT LEAST 10 TIMES worse than just crying.  It's a piercing yelling noise that's so sharp.  Sometimes I think that they just like to make that noise... 

Also, they're teething, which has resulted in double the amount of drool all day.  Feeding them has become a serious procedure since they are crying a lot more now.  But it's reassuring to always read from other moms that it will pass, even though it may seem like forever.  

Well, now they cry and have become 50 times more active, they pass out right by the time we actually manage to feed them.  Unfortunately, their naps only last 20 minutes.  Here's Leo... passed out and snoring halfway through the feeding.  Whenever I see them like this, it makes all the crying and stress-inflicted events totally worth it.  :)

 

4 Month Growth Spurt

Ever since the twins were born, everyone (doctors, nurses, friends, etc.) kept warning us of growth spurts.  We considered ourselves lucky; the twins started sleeping through the WHOLE night by two months and never once woke up to be fed until the next morning.  Yes, we suffered more in that first month than we did our entire lives, but it passed... just like everyone told us it would.  

According to kellymom.com, a growth spurt is when babies eat more often than usual and act more fussy than usual.  Thus, milk intake increases, but is temporary (unless baby is BF exclusively).  Not only is it due to a physical growth spurt, but also to their newly developed behaviors such as walking, crawling, or talking.  Milk helps develop not only the brain, but also the body.  

By 3 months, the twins were so much easier to handle since they were having fun practicing to crawl.  But it finally happened: they hit a growth spurt.   

They're eating at least double the amount they usually do!  It's so stressful pumping milk and then having it disappear in a matter of seconds... only to result in crying babies again.  The best solution is to breastfeed so it can tell the body to produce more milk... but it's not always the most favorable option.  

Anyways, Max is waking up sometimes around midnight (which is not a problem since I'm still awake).  I actually enjoy night feedings (even though it only happened twice) because they don't cry.. they just eat quickly and pass out!  So convenient!  

Here are the pictures we HAD to take because he was just so cute and SOOOO sleepy.  Don't let his sleepy precious face deceive you... he pretty much attacked the bottle when I put it by his mouth because he was so hungry :)

I noticed my arm looks HUGE, but it's just because Max's head is so tiny still.  No, really... it is.  When they're this little and precious, it reminds me of how much I wish they could stay like this.  My husband were even talking the other night how we don't want them to grow up.  We would be happy if they would just stay babies forever.  :)

Leo (left), Max (right), dear husband (middle...too obvious)

TV-ADDICTED SMILING BABIES

FOUR MONTHS OLD!!!!!!


There are two things that Max and Leo love to eat: milk and their fingers.  Right after I feed them (and I feed them a lot) they immediately shove their hand in their mouth.  Sometimes if they're next to each other, they'll grab the other's arm and start sucking on it.  Yet, Max is the one who always sucks his thumb constantly; Leo just sticks to the whole hand.
We did notice that Leo sucks his left hand and Max sucks his right hand (with the exception to the picture below).  Perhaps it shows whether they'll be a lefty or righty??

ANOTHER thing that the twins LOVE is watching TV.  The second I turn it on, their heads look over so fast to the TV and they just stare at it.  If I let them, they'd watch it for hours probably.  It actually has become a problem because when I feed them, they insist on watching TV at the same time and refuse to turn their head toward me.  Their neck muscle is just too strong!

And if I try to block their eye sight from the TV, they fuss... a lot.  So I've resorted to taking them in the bedroom to feed them where it's quiet.

In the picture below, Max (gray t-shirt) is watching TV.  It wasn't easy getting them both to look at the camera since the TV was on in the background!

ALSO, I love OLD NAVY baby apparel.  I usually don't like their store since the clothes seem over-sized, but these Old Navy baby shirts they have on are so nice and fit well!  Plus, there's no tag in the back (a major plus)!  I have some other Old Navy clothes for them that I like as well.  The clothes there for babies are reasonable when it's on sale... totally worth it!

I tried to match them in green in the picture below.  They look so big!  Well, they definitely feel big when I hold them now.  

My mother-in-law made four baby pillows for the twins.  They're handmade!  She must have spent a LONG time sewing all those tiny patterns (she did it by hand too)... and the butterflies on the bottom!!!  She filled it with these little puffy seeds so it's like a bean bag, but more puffy and ...nicer!  The babies like them a lot.



I put my husband in charge of the babies and when I came back, I found Leo in a pile of his toys in the swing.  It looks like he's sad in the picture, but we've come to the conclusion that that's just how he looks!!  My husband said they get that from me since I always have a "serious" look on my face.  Like mother, like sons!

I was always afraid in the beginning that the babies wouldn't laugh or smile much when they got older!!!  Well, I was wrong.  They smile and laugh at EVERYTHING!  When I feed them, I can't even look at them because they will smile and the milk will pour out of their mouth!  Whatever we do, they think it's the funniest thing ever!  If I look away, and then look at the babies, they laugh and think it's a game.

They go crazy if you tickle them too.  It's like the perfect age for them... so fun!

Leo (left), Max (right..turquoise)

Ok, so I had a cute onesie on Max, and couldn't help notice that he looks kinda girly... maybe it was his eyelashes, or he just has feminine features...?  HA, no!  Turns out I got a girl's outfit instead of a boy's.  You can see the puffy shoulders... it's totally for a girl, not a boy.  Oh well, as you can see, it didn't seem to bother him.