6 Months Old!!!

I can't believe our little boys are already 6 months old. Time flies when you're having fun.
They are getting so big and strong and so very clever and funny. They both have very different likes, dislikes, abilities and personalities. Below are a few pics of Ethan that I took the other day. I tried to do it like a photo shoot, but it wasn't as easy as I thought it would be! Hahaha.

ETHAN

Ethan is our happy and usually easy going baby. He smiles a lot and loves his mummies. He is a good sleeper and will sleep 12 hours at night without a peep. We wakes us up at 6:30am talking to himself. He has 2-3 naps during the day and usually goes to bed at 6:30pm. He has recently discovered his thumb and likes to suck it for comfort when he is tired. He will occasionally take a dummy, but not very often. He is usually pretty good at settling before a sleep, but will rarely put on a big fight. Last Sunday and Monday night it took him THREE HOURS to settle and go to sleep. We were exhausted, but thankful that is not a regular event in our lives!

Ethan spends his day rotating between floor time, his exersaucer, his rocking chair and his mummies arms. He enjoys all these places and loves to play with a variety of toys. He is getting better at sitting now, and we are encouraging him to sit with some new toys. He can now sit with his back straight and his arms in the air for several minutes. He often sways off centre but about 95% of the time he can correct his balance and stay upright. He is enjoying sitting upright and gets very excited by his new "sitting" toys. Ethan loves small donut shaped toys that can fit in the palm of an adults hand. He can hold them easily an chews on them constantly. He doesn't have any teeth yet but chews on everything he can and dribbles A LOT!!!!

Ethan is still enjoying him mummies breastmilk and drinks about 200-250mls 6-7times a day. He is not very interested in solids. We have given him rice cereral several times that lead to him being very irritable, unsettled and gassy. We thought he might be having issues with the iron (it's got added iron) so we swapped him to oatmeal which he really didnt like very much either. We read that avacado was a good food to try so he had some avacado yesterday and today. His facial expression said "are you sure about this mum?" but he ate a little - and wore the rest!!!

BENJAMIN

Below are my attempt at a photo shoot with my little Benny.

Benji is a slightly more high maintaince child. He gets bored more quickly than Ethan and likes to be entertained. He also enjoys spending time on the floor, exersaucer, rocking chair and mummies arms. He rolls around the floor very well and is very good at getting him self from his back to his tummy. The problem is, he can't get back!! After about 2 mins on his belly he starts to cry until you come and roll him back. He has managed to roll from belly to back about 10 times, but he's rolled from back to belly about 100, so we must have rolled him back 90 times by now..... silly boy! Benny likes to play with a variety of toys. He still loves his teddy Rodney and books made of material that have some cellophane type thing inside that makes them crinkle when he touches them. Like Ethan, almost everything Benny can pick up goes into his mouth. Benny still has 2 teeth and they are getting bigger all the time.

Benji also sleeps from 6:30pm to 6:30am. He usually wakes up a few times in the night and we have to put the dummy back in his mouth. He goes back to sleep, and so do we. He is still sleeping wrapped up, and is getting very good at escaping from his wraps, pulling out his dummy, scratching himself and then crying about it!! Like I said, he's a silly boy.

Benny is still having problems with his allergies. He is still on the hypoallergenic formula that we've been getting from Tracie's cousin, and we are taking him to the allergy clinic next week. We are looking forward to getting some answers finally! His skin is much better these days, but he still gets red welts when he comes in contact with something he's allergic to. He often breaks out after a trip to the shops, when we forget to wash our hands after eating or when he's at a party where everyone is eating finger food and touching him. We are hoping that after our trip to the allgery doctors we will know how to treat and prevent his allergies better.

We have to seperate his and Ethan's toys as they drool all over everything and Benny is allergic to Ethan's saliva as Ethan is still having breast milk. It makes life more difficult but we have our systems to help. Each boy has his own exersaucer, rocking chair, side of the car, side of the pram, cot, towels, bottles and toys. When-ever possible Ethan has blue and Benny has green items (dummies, teethers, sippy cups, rattles, chairs, blocks etc) It makes it easier to keep each boy chewing on the right toy!

Benny likes his rice cereal. He gets a few tablespoons once a day. We will soon be increasing it to twice a day as he's doing really well on it. He opens his mouth very well and is getting better at moving it backwards in his mouth and swallowing it, instead of spitting it out like Ethan does! We are looking forward to giving him more food once we've had him allergy tested.