9 months old!

On Saturday, my two little monkeys turned 9 months old. I can't believe that we'll be celebrating their first birthday in a few short months. They are growing up so quickly and changing every day!  It's so fun to see them interact more and more with each other and with us and Griffin.

               

About Baylor

Baylor is very strong and really doesn't like to be still for long.  He isn't crawling yet, but he stays up on his hands and knees for a long time and occasionally rocks hard enough to propel himself forward or backward a bit.  He has just started kind of inchworming his way around a little.  He loves to stand up and it's sometimes hard to make him sit down if he doesn't want to.  He is getting more personality each day, smiling and talking more.  I tease him and say that it's because he got tired of me always saying that Hudson was the smiley baby. Baylor has also been clapping a lot lately, and the clapping is usually accompanied by an excited "aaaahhhhh..." 

About Hudson
Hudson is happy and very expressive.  He has been full of smiles almost as long as he's been in the world.  Everywhere we go, people always comment on what a happy baby he is.  I love when he wrinkles up his nose when he smiles.  And on the rare occasion when he isn't happy, singing If You're Happy and You Know It will quickly bring on the smiles. Hudson is also very talkative and a great cuddler. He also LOVES to eat!  He will eat any baby food we offer him, and he always cries when it runs out.  The funny thing is that he actually starts crying as soon as we start scraping the sides of the bowl, even if he still has a few bites left, because he knows that means it's almost gone.  Hudson isn't making as much progress as Baylor on the crawling or standing, but he knows how to roll around to get what he wants.

Even though people are always asking us if Baylor and Hudson are identical, we really don't think they look much alike.  Here is a picture of big brother Griffin when he was 9 months old--I think he looks as much like each of the babies (except chubbier and with significantly more hair!) as they do each other. 

As slow as Christmas

After counting down for weeks, Christmas finally arrived.  When we got to December 20th, Griffin said it was a "straight line to Christmas" because he was on the bottom row of his advent calendar. 

We actually started a little early when Pop and Chaz came over to give the boys their gifts on Thursday, Dec. 23.  Griffin was so excited to get to open some presents and was excited to get the new Cars 2 game for Wii and some other fun gifts. 

The babies were content just to be held and to get to untie Pop's shoes over and over.  They got cute matching Patagonia fleece suits to keep them warm all winter.  Hopefully we'll get some snow this year so they can really test them out!

On Christmas Eve, Mimi and Papaw Al stopped by our house to take pictures before heading to church.  This was the first time we'd ever put the babies in any kind of nursery, but they handled it just fine.  Griffin stayed with us for the service and it was so sweet to see him holding his candle and singing "Silent night, Holy night" at the beginning of each stanza.

All of Matt's family came to our house for dinner this year so that we wouldn't have to cut the celebration short in order to get home and put the babies to bed.  As usual,  Griffin got way too much stuff and he loved every bit of it!

The next day, we started with a relaxed morning at home.  After Griffin and the babies checked out their gifts from Santa, Griffin was ready to start on the wrapped gifts under the tree.  He couldn't wait to open this big one after trying to guess for weeks what was inside (a Lightning McQueen art desk set).  Mimi, Papaw Al, and Weezy all stopped by at the same time to see what Santa had brought.

After the babies' naps, we went to Mimi and Papaw Al's house to continue the celebration. We attempted to take a picture with Mimi and all 5 grandchildren, but that's not an easy feat.  Even though they are looking at a different camera in this one (and Baylor is looking the completely wrong direction), this is actually the best one I got.  Baylor and Hudson really didn't care about having any more Christmas and both took another nap while we were there.  On the other hand, Griffin was so excited about unwrapping presents that he hardly paid attention to what was in one box before he was asking for another one to open. 

Later that evening, Weezy and Mamere came over for dinner and more Christmas gift giving.  Griffin's big present from Weezy was a tabletop air hockey game because Griffin loves to play air hockey at the mall arcade.  Unfortunately, I didn't manage to get any pictures of Mamere with her great-grandchildren.

Christmas was such a full day that we never got around to letting the babies open their big gift from us so we stretched Christmas out to the next morning.  Baylor really likes to stand up so I propped him up where he could grab at the paper and bow.  Right after I took this picture, he lost his balance and fell toward Hudson.  Even though Baylor was the one who fell, Hudson was the one who cried. 
Knowing that Griffin would like their gift, I'd kept it a surprise from him, too.  It was a ride-on Lightning McQueen car.Right now, it sits on a base that makes it a rocker.   As they get bigger, it has foot rests and a handlebar so we can push them on it.  And eventually they can push themselves on it.  It makes lots of fun car sounds, says  "Kachow" and plays music.

  











As you can see, it was a hit with the babies. Griffin said he wished he was a baby so he could ride on it, too!