8 months old today

This is my favorite stage!

Large font is typically annoying and over dramatic, but I really mean it - this is the mostest bestest baby time! 
I love how they just like to sit and play with toys. I love that they're cool with eating a large variety of solids, or just breastfeeding all day. I love that they're sleeping a little better these days and are predictable enough that I can venture out. I love how they don't throw tantrums yet - they're just content little babes.  


I've been looking forward to this ever since they were born. I mean - every stage of childhood is sweet and enjoyable. But this is just my favorite. 
I hope I'll never look back and wish I had just soaked it all up more. I'm pretty sure I'm spending as much time with them as possible, as evident by my overwhelming to-do list that just keeps getting longer and my perpetually untidy home. Courtney and Bennett seem to just draw me in with their eyes-that-never-blink, tempting me to attack them with kisses and tickles. Mid-play I'll have thoughts like "I really should pick up that junk over there" or "If I don't plan dinner now we'll end up having cereal again..."  
Then Brian comes home to cereal and a messy house.
But happy babies! 
Oh well.

More on baby B: 
He's 18.3 pounds, according to my scale this morning. He has two bottom teeth well out of the gums, and a few swollen areas where more might pop through. He's bitten me a few times, and cries like I just seriously offended him when he's corrected for his biting. His hair is super thick and fun to mess with. In my mental-draft-mode is a ridiculously cute collage of bathtime hair-do photos.  He sleeps with a binky in his mouth about half the time. He seems to enjoy rougher play than the girls ever did/do. His big blue eyes and easily prompted huge open-mouth-smile melt hearts. 
Baby C:
She's 17.2 pounds, so says my scale. I wish I knew the percentile, but they won't be going in for a well-check until August. And hopefully no doc trips in between - keeping Courtney's perfect health record! Such a blessing - she's never had any bug worse than a runny nose (knock on wood). Bennett had a minor croup case several months ago, so he can't claim the same. Courtney has one little tooth on the bottom, and she uses it well. This girl LOVES to eat food! Bennett likes it now too (finally), but Courtney will go through an amazing amount of baby mush. My latest concoction of sweetpotato-salmon-peas literally made her smile at each bite. She reminds me of a baby bird - so petite, yet always open-mouthed and squawking. And she can get LOUD. She does an ear-piercing scream. It makes Brianna glare at her and say, "Court, stop it!"   Her laugh is different than Bennett's - it starts as a nasil-y chuckle before turning into rolling giggles. She does a caterpiller crawl - where she brings her bum into the air, then pushes forward or backward. I've asked her to please stop. My babies aren't allowed to be mobile until I'm ready... which might not be until they're old enough to understand and comply with requests to not put crap in their mouths. 
Courtney is Brian's little princess, Brianna's sweet little sister, and Bennett's best buddy forever. 

Together:
They've really started noticing each other. They smile and laugh and make noises directed at one another. It's so fun to watch. Hard to get on camera though, because they stop when they realize they're being watched. They also poke and grab and pinch and kick each other. That's not so fun to watch. And it's the reason we don't tandem-nurse very often. Maybe only once a day. I have to put a blanket between their faces and constantly redirect their pinching fingers away from their siblings' eyes and nose. They also grab and pinch my nose, but I think that's cute (except when I haven't kept their nails short. I have a LOT of nails to keep trimmed in this family!) They're still wearing size 2 diapers. Could probably be in size 3, but I still have like 600 size 2s. Whoops. They unfortunately are quite attracted to Brianna's cartoons. I try to keep them away from it, but they are as mesmerized by Dora as she is. So every time I get a compliment on how well I'm doing this mom-thing, I think, "you wouldn't say that if you saw my kids parked in front of the TV!"   It will get better when the weather's nicer. On the few Spring-like days we've had so far, we spend more time at the park than with PBS Kids. Then I feel like less of a bum-mom. 


Tonight, Brian's in charge of the babes. I'm taking Brianna to the Rec Center pool, after I do a kickboxing/pump class. That's another part about this stage I'm enjoying - even though they don't use bottles, Brian can handle the kids all by himself!