The twins turned 6 in January, and now they have to hold up 2 hands for fingers!
These 2 get crazier and better by the day. They can both now read entire books by themselves and are loving full-day kindergarten. I was the mystery reader in their class one morning recently, and they were so excited to see me walk into their classroom. This age is so much fun as they are learning more “big kid” schedules and responsibilities with full school days and everything those entail, yet are still the snuggliest of my crew, always coming to Mama for everything. I know those days are numbered, so I soak up every single second. Even the very loud, annoying ones.
Nat is still all about Mario, Cuphead, and pretty much any video game relating to those characters that he can get his hands on. He is crazy about cats, and I couldn’t figure out until just recently why that is. Della told me one day that it’s simply because it rhymes with Nat. No way, that can’t really be why, I thought, so I asked Nat. Yep, that’s the exact reason why. Well duh. He loves mac and cheese and pizza, bananas, strawberry whip yogurts, Lucky Charms cereal, and his favorite color is red. He told me a few months ago that he wanted to sign up for soccer, so they are going to take a little soccer lesson clinic this spring. Not a team yet, just learning the basics. We’ll see if he actually likes it, or if he just said that because he heard someone at school talking about soccer. He is incredibly athletic like Morrison and Lana, though, so he might take right to it.
Avit is the perfect complement to Mario and Cuphead with his Luigi and Mugman, but is much more into art and creating than video games. He’ll still play them, but he’ll grab a piece of paper and start creating first. He loves cocktail weinies, cuties, pancakes, and his favorite color is yellow. I don’t think he’s going to be nearly the athlete that Nat will be, but his artistic ability will for sure rival, if not surpass, Lana’s. The stuff he draws and thinks to create already is far beyond what she was doing at age 6. It’s crazy and mesmerizing and amazing. I told those 2 they should open some sort of art gallery or shop together someday. It would be incredible.
They are both doing so well in school. Their teacher said they are both kind, responsible, good listeners, and very respectful in class. I could not be more proud. They will probably be finished with their speech class after this year as well, which their speech teacher said is so unusual – kids normally have to go for a number of years, not just a little over 1. They’ve both made good friends at school, yet they are always each other’s go-to. I have a feeling they always will be.
It still blows my mind sometimes that we have twins. The years are 100% getting easier the older they get, as we are finally out of the bleary days and nights that were their infancy and toddler years. I much prefer it on this side!
Happy 6th birthday, Nat Jennings and Avit Jerome! We love you more than you could possibly know, and your snuggles, hugs, and lap cuddles make every single day amazing. You 2 have made our family big but complete, and I can’t wait to see where we all go with you! We love you so much!!
The twins turned 5 last month – 2 hands full of fingers!
ETA: We FINALLY had their 5-year checkups in June, so here are their official 5-year-old stats:
Nat:
Height: 3′ 9.67″ (85%)
Weight: 44 lbs. 3.2 oz. (63%)
BMI: 14.90 (33%)
Blood Pressure: 99/58
Avit:
Height: 3′ 10″ (88%)
Weight: 43 lbs. 6.4 oz. (58%)
BMI: 14.42 (18%)
Blood Pressure: 100/62
It’s so funny watching these two grow up. I’ve said from the beginning that every baby and little-kid milestone that we pass is so much less bittersweet since we’re doing everything twice this time around, but it’s exactly what I needed. I hated growing out of phases and leaving the baby years behind with the big 3, because I always thought of myself as a baby and little-kid mom. But watching the twins go through all of those phases now, I think I’ll be a pretty good all-kid mom.
They are hilarious and 2 little balls of unrelenting energy. Nat always wants to be called Mario, his absolute favorite character. If he could actually BE Mario, he would. I think he might even be part Super Mario Brothers, because his gaming skills are ridiculously good for a newly 5 year old. Cuphead does come in a close second, though, and he’s a whiz at that game as well. His favorite color is still and I think always will be red, his favorite foods are mac and cheese and pizza, he hates to lose and loves to run (fast!), and his guys are still his snuggle go-to (snuggies blanket, Boo, and Cuphead).
Avit is the total sidekick to Nat’s Mario and Cuphead. He’s the perfect Luigi and Mugman, he’ll talk your ear off for days on end, and his gaming skills don’t even compare. However, he can kick your butt in Wii bowling. His crafting skills have EXPLODED recently, and he comes home from school every single morning and creates and creates and creates, until every single tape roll, piece of construction paper, and toilet paper tube in our house are gone. His imagination and creative eye have become serious forces to reckon with, and I could not be more impressed. Nat always used to be the artist of the two, loving to color and draw to his heart’s content, but Avit’s creating has taken over. The world’s greatest engineer has nothing on this kid’s Marble Run building. His favorite colors are yellow and blue, his favorite foods are cocktail weinies and tiny broccoli florets (at least that’s what he’s asked for for his birthday dinner the past 2 years in a row now), he can build every single Lego Mario set known to man and even those yet to be invented, and his guys still rule as snuggles supreme, too (snuggies blanket and Mugman).
Last nap!Last nap!
They are in morning K4 this year, so half-day kindergarten. They have the same teacher as all the big kids had for K4, which is amazing. They are both so fastidious with their projects in class, often taking longer than everyone to finish up because they work so hard on them. They come home singing the songs from music class each week and they adore their P.E. teacher, who they see every morning after we drop Lana and Morrison in their lines because he’s holding one of the other doors open that we walk by to get to the twins’ lines. They love school, have made friends with everyone in their class, and their heads about exploded with excitement when they got to show me and the big kids around their classroom during Open House night last week. They just started speech class last week, too, so they’ll be doing that once a week now.
They run, they jump, they play, they’re learning to spell, they write really well, and they are starting to read the smaller words that they’re learning to spell all by themselves. I honestly don’t remember any of the big kids being able to read and spell as well in K4 as these guys are doing right now. They would count to a billion if they could, they’re constantly asking what’s this plus this plus that plus that minus this and that and on and on. I’ve spelled practically every word I know for Avit as he’s written letter after letter and card after card and note after note and made project after project. They are absolutely wondrous creatures, and watching 2 of them do all of this together is pretty spectacular. As they grow into the little humans they are, the similarities and sheer differences amaze me. Avit is often the sass and the mouth and the decibel volume, but the hilarity as well. Nat is much quieter and his naughty is always under the radar, but oh, it’s there, too. But the heart and soul and love that these two possess blows any of that out of the water every day.
Happy 5th birthday, Nat Jennings and Avit Jerome! I truly can’t put into words everything you two are and everything you mean to this family. Watching you grow through life is an incredible adventure, and I’m so glad we’re the ones who are on it with you. Daddy, the big kids, and I are so very, very proud of you guys, and we love you to infinity and beyond! Keep creating and running, my littlest loves – life will take you far!!
Nat and Avit just turned 4, and it’s hard to believe there’s only 1 more year until they’re a whole handful of fingers old!
ETA: We had their 4-year well check on February 24, and here are their official stats:
Nat
Height: 3′ 6″ (83%)
Weight: 38 lbs. 6.4 oz. (70%)
BMI: 15.31 (39%)
Avit
Height: 3′ 6″ (83%)
Weight: 39 lbs. 3.2 oz. (75%)
BMI: 15.62 (50%)
Life gets easier with them by the day, which is saying a lot for how hard the first 2 years with them were. They’re full-blown little kids now, no more babies. It’s so much easier to do things as a whole family now instead of Ryan taking the big kids to do something and me staying back with the twins. I absolutely loved the newborn and baby phase of all of our children, but having the last round be 2 at once makes growing out of each baby phase much less bittersweet. It was just so much harder!!
Last sleeps as 3 year olds!
They are funny, smart, crazy, fast, energetic, loving, and I swear I can see them growing taller by the day. They got an extra-special week surrounding their birthday this year – Grandpa came to town for a couple days, then Grandma came right after him. Lots of grandparent fun for these guys!
Avit especially is kind of a whiz. He knows all his letters, can pretty much count to 20, and can read us The Very Hungry Caterpillar (i.e., he has it memorized 😉 ). He also gives excellent snuggles. Nat knows most of his letters, is also good at counting, and is a great artist. He has been coloring and drawing for years now, whereas Avit isn’t into that as much. We need to get them to start practicing writing their names. All 3 of the big kids were able to write their name when they went to K4, which is happening this fall for these 2!
I’m so happy they got into a morning session for K4, too. It was done by a lottery drawing this year because there’s always much more interest for morning than afternoon, and we got it. It just works so much better with our schedule, and hopefully they’ll keep napping until age 5 like the big kids did.
Nat loves Cuphead, Mario, his snuggies blanket and stuffed puppy Boo, being a kitty, and the color red. Avit loves Mugman, Luigi, his snuggies blanket, running around like a crazy person, and the colors yellow and blue. For their birthday dinner, Nat requested macaroni and cheese and Avit requested cocktail weinies and broccoli. They crack me up. They also live in their pj’s, just like Morrison used to before he started school. I love it.
Happy 4th birthday, Nat Jennings and Avit Jerome! We all love you so very, very much, and I can’t wait to see how our twins turn into big kids. You’re going to do great things, my littlest loves!
You cried. You shouted. You kicked your little feet. You tossed off your blanket. You gathered up all your “guys” and came out of the room, telling me you weren’t taking a nap in a tiny little peep.
What do you think you’re doing? Get back in there right now and go to sleep. No longer, little one, will you try to creep.
Your brother is sleeping, somehow oblivious to your noise. You tried to sleep together to start this nap but couldn’t calm down and agree, my silly boys.
“I don’t want to sleep!” you said. “I’m not sleepy!” you said. But with your little lisp, it came out “I’m not thweepy!” instead.
After 30 more minutes, I knew you needed some rest. So I went to you with calm, trying my best.
I laid you back down, snuggled you up with your guys. Exhaustion was close, as the whole time you barely opened your eyes.
I put my hand on your chest. I held you firmly but not hard. Your body is tired, little one, your cries have played your last card.
Within minutes you yawned. A wide shudder ushering in sleep. I could sense your little body settling and your heartbeat slowing down deep.
Your eyes darted back and forth under the lids, and I knew the time had about come. I was willing you to sleep before the big kids’ time playing outside was done.
I set a 5-minute limit, my hand on your chest the whole time. I didn’t even make it to 3, and sleep left you peaceful and sublime.
You fought. You tested. I helped. We rested. A piece of my heart sleeping in angelic physical form on this earth.
The twins just turned 3 and life with them is anything but dull, that’s for sure!
They had a really fun day to celebrate the big 0-3. Grandpa Frank came into town for the weekend since his birthday is the day before theirs, we got a huge snowstorm on their birthday, our great friend Miss Clara came over to sing happy birthday at lunch time, and they got 2 cakes! Della made them a fantastic Uni and Mickey funfetti cake by request, and I ordered an awesome Daniel Tiger cake from my favorite bakery in Peoria that Grandpa brought up.
We don’t have their 3-year well check for a couple weeks, so I’ll update their stats here once we’ve seen the doctor.
**ETA: We had their well check on February 17, so here are the official 3-year stats:
Nat
Height: 39.5″ (90%)
Weight: 34 lbs. (73%)
Head circumference: 51 cm
BMI: 15.3 kg/m2 (26%)
Blood pressure: 96/62
Avit
Height: 39.25″ (87%)
Weight: 35 lbs. (80%)
Head circumference: 53 cm
BMI: 16 kg/m2 (50%)
Blood pressure: 92/60
I tend to use the word “crazy” to describe them, but I don’t want to give them a complex. 😀 They are constantly running, jumping, wrestling each other, chasing after the big kids and doing anything they can to get on their school meetings, shouting and laughing as they tear through the house, and running some more.
They are incredibly smart, and it manifests itself differently in each of them. Avit has glommed onto Morrison’s electronic Lego Super Mario and instantly knew how to control it to earn coins, make the eyes light up different ways, talk, etc. He also figured out how to use all the functionality on the new little cameras they got for their birthdays within about 5 minutes of opening them. Anything with a button he figures out immediately. No tablet or remote is safe when he’s around. He also loves stop signs!
Nat is the artist. He loves to color and was staying in the lines almost perfectly months ago. He also commands the electronics, but his go-to is more often the bag of markers.
They both love to read through all the little board books we have, and they have become really good at puzzles, too. Their current overall favorites include Daniel Tiger, Cuphead and Mugman, Super Mario now thanks to Morrison’s Lego sets, Peppa Pig, and Little Angel and Cocomelon (shows very similar to Little Baby Bum, their first dose of baby mind control :)). They love to sing, know their ABCs, Avit can count to 20 and Nat can count to 10, and they each have their own bedtime song – Nat gets Mr. Sun and Avit gets Twinkle, Twinkle. Their words have increased and improved by leaps and bounds since last year, and they both speak in full sentences. I still have to translate often, but they are definitely understandable.
I have finally weaned them down to only using their pacifiers during naps and at night, and they still love all their “guys.” Nat has Uni, Llama Llama, Mr. Bear, Fluffy Nigh-Night, and snuggies; and Avit has Elmo, Mickey Mouse, Mr. Elly (elephant), and snuggies. No, we have not even begun potty training because neither of them shows any interest whatsoever and it’s absolutely impossible to potty train a kid who doesn’t want to, so don’t bother asking. 😉
For as loud and crazy and frustrating as they can be, they are some of the most loving, snuggly little boys in the world. Nat gives the biggest wraparound monkey hugs, and I wouldn’t trade Avit’s slobbery kisses for anything.
Life with twin little boys is definitely harder than anything I ever anticipated, but I still look at them in amazement every day. Their beautiful little personalities and spirits do bring so much joy to this house, even though it usually comes with a lot of volume and occasionally some headaches, too. I love them so much, and fortunately the heart-filling times far outnumber the times they send me fleeing into the basement to escape.
Happy 3rd birthday, Nat Jennings and Avit Jerome!! We love you two so very much, and watching you grow from newborns into kids together is an incredible journey.
And now for the 3-year comparison posts and photos!
Apparently they were not excited for their last night of one
And, as expected, they are acting totally two-ish. Running, climbing, shouting, laughing, crying, dancing, clapping, singing, goofing, and often destruction-ing.
They absolutely love Daniel Tiger, Peppa Pig, and Forky from Toy Story 4. They like to color as much as their big siblings do, and they constantly dive into their bag of Color Wonder markers and paper and start creating. They got a little remote control car for their birthday that they are surprisingly good at driving around, and they adore all their little choo-choo books. Cars, trains, balls, and blocks are their usual toys of choice, and they are very good at playing by themselves. Playing peek-a-boo is one of their favorites, they have learned to start telling knock-knock jokes, and their snuggle blankets and plugs are still their lifelines.
Their vocabulary is getting better by the day. Nat often strings his whole lineup of words together into a funny little sentence: cheese, apple, bye-bye, nigh-night, NO! (how Forky says What?! Nooo! in his shorts). Mama, Daddy, Babo (how he says Daniel for Daniel Tiger), Peppa, snort (like Peppa does), shoes, nuggle for his snuggle blanket, bu for his plug. He’s also good at carrot, banana (or a version thereof), spoon, Elmo, ball, football, hat, choo-choo, baby, ribbit for frog, moo, neigh, quack-quack for duck, a funny little tongue gobble noise for turkey, pa-pa for Packers, hot dog, poop, hoo-hoo, owl, cup, hello, chair.
Avit has much the same, but his aren’t always as clear as Nat’s: all done, thank you, what sounds like all done but means apple, dan-dan for Daniel Tiger, she-she for fish (maybe trying to say fishie? who knows on that one), quack-quack for duck, choo-choo, stop (he has a collection of tiny street signs and stop light that are his favorites, so he says stop to mean he wants to get them all out), star, lights, dye for bye, Mama, Dada, mwah while blowing kisses, here it is!, hot dog, blue (and he recognizes blue now, too!), moo, baa, hi, sit, chair, hat, oh no. He also still does his long strings of unintelligible chatter with hand movements, which are hilarious.
They both do a growly voice for Cookie Monster every time they see him. Avit loves to come running to me while I’m standing in the kitchen, wrap me in a gigantic hug, then turn and run back into the living room while waving bye and blowing kisses. I always play along and say, “Bye, I love you, have a great trip, see you later,” when he goes back to the living room. It is then repeated over and over, and I love it. I’ve started singing Twinkle, Twinkle to him at nap and bedtimes because he adores stars, and it often works wonders to calm him if he’s crying or doing his pre-bedtime crazies when I hold him tightly and sing right next to his cheek and ear.
Nat loves to look right at you, nod, and blink multiple times in a row to say yes or agree with something, but his favorite answer by far is no. Even when he really means yes. Morrison loves to play this game with him – ask him every question under the sun and hear him say no to everything, even when his answer would obviously be yes. He is getting better at saying yes when you ask him something that he does actually want, but for the longest time all he would answer to anything was no. The big kids all get the biggest kick out of it.
For as cute as they are, they can be super naughty. Avit’s retort when he gets in trouble is always to spit and try to hit something or throw his toys, which enrages me. Nat has now started copy catting and spitting, too, but his is less of a direct spit and more of a subtle raspberry blowing. Like, I really want to spit like Avit does, but I know I’ll get in trouble, so I’ll just kind of blow a little raspberry to the side and hope I get away with that. Cute, but annoying. I hate spitting, and thankfully none of the other kids ever did it. So where these 2 picked it up, I have no idea. Avit has gotten hot sauce in his mouth for spitting like Lana did when she was his age, it has happened twice, and he hates it. It does deter him from spitting again for a while, so hopefully one of these days it’ll stop for good. They’ve also started climbing out of their cribs and onto my bed when they’re supposed to be napping or quietly watching a show in the early mornings while I get ready before school. NOOOOOO!!!!!
They do a good job playing together and I can still get them to sit in the playpen for a little while so I can go downstairs to ride the bike, although Nat does climb out, run into the kitchen, hear me shout for him to get back in, then run back to the living room and climb back in with Avit until I come back up. Our house is the exact opposite of soundproof, so there is not one ounce of stealth or secrecy in his escapes. They are terrible at sharing, though, and Nat is the worst about stealing stuff right from Avit and making him scream. They adore the big 3 like nobody’s business, and it is pretty amazing to see how much the big 3 love making the “babies” laugh and play. I think in my mind it’ll always be the big 3 and the twins, never the 5. The twins are getting to the age where it’s easier for them to play with the big 3 instead of the big 3 having to hide their stuff when they play so the babies don’t destroy whatever it is they’re doing. That’s a huge step and makes things so much easier.
2 years down. The second was definitely more work than the first due to constant corralling and chasing and cleaning up, whereas the first was hard due to utter sleep deprivation. That has gotten slightly better since the middle-of-the-night wakeups are few and far between now, but they do wake up far too early. On school days my alarm goes off at 5:40, and Nat has usually awoken before that. I make him lie back down until I get up, though, at which point I turn on the TV in our room for them to watch PBS Kids while I get ready and get everything going for the big kids. They do still go to bed around 6:00 in the evening, though, so that saves much of my sanity.
The twins! They’re 2! Crazy. We don’t have true babies anymore, and it’s so strange to me to say that we’ll never have a baby or a 1 year old in this house again. On the morning of their birthday I started thinking about the girls’ 2nd birthdays, and the fact that these two are our last 2 year olds hit me like a tidal wave of emotion. It is definitely less bittersweet because there are 2 of them at the same time and it’s all much harder this time around than it ever was with 1 baby, but it’s still its own version of bittersweet nonetheless.
Happy 2nd birthday, Nat Jennings and Avit Jerome!! You two are an amazing duo, and I still can’t believe we have twins! We all love you so very, very much, and I love seeing the wonderful little boys you are becoming. Our family is certainly louder, but full of so, so much love with you two in it!
Here are their official 2 year old stats:
Nat:
Height: 35″ (72%)
Weight: 27 lbs. 8 oz. (42%)
BMI: 15.8 kg/m2 (27%)
Avit:
Height: 35″ (72%)
Weight: 31 lbs. (82%)
BMI: 17.8 kg/m2 (80%)
Now the weights aren’t the most accurate since neither of them would stand still on the scale long enough, so we’ll just call those close approximations. Avit is obviously still much heavier than Nat, though.
I know I forgot to do this with their 18-month post, but here are some posterity stats: size 5 diapers, size 6 overnights, size 24 months or 2T clothes, Avit size 8-9 shoe (but they pretty much never wear shoes, just slippers), Nat size 7-8 shoe. And here are 2-year-old comparisons with the other 3:
Now the best comparisons, the pictures! As usual, Della, Lana, Morrison, Nat, and Avit. Unfortunately I couldn’t find another one of those Elmo 2 candles that the big 3 all used on their 2nd birthdays, so I got the twins matching 2s instead. We’ll keep Elmo for someone’s 12th birthday. 😀
The twins turned 10 months old at the end of November, and Houston, we have 2 crawlers! So there are now babies ALL OVER THE PLACE!
I finally stopped being lazy and actually feed them now, starting around Thanksgiving, and they’re doing great! Maybe they honestly just didn’t want to eat the past couple months when I tried, because now it’s like they can’t get enough. And so far they’ve liked and not had any bad reaction to everything I’ve given them – all varieties of baby food fruits and veggies (but baby food meat in a jar is so horribly disgusting, i refuse to make them eat that. yuck!) in both jars and pouches, Cheerios, puffs, cheese, blueberries, bananas, apples, pasta, meatballs (their new favorite!), oranges, crackers, rice, green beans, sweet potatoes, cooked carrots, stuffing, mashed potatoes. I want to try to introduce peanuts to them to make sure there are no allergies, but I’m not quite sure how to do that yet. They still love their bottles, though, and come crawling when they see me making them. I’m just now getting Nat to hold his own bottle, too, which is fantastic!
Their sleep at night is still horrendous, so we’re working on that. I just stopped nursing them overnight last night, and there was all the crying. I finally left our bedroom and slept on the couch since I don’t have to feed them in the middle of the night and boy, oh boy, do their lungs work. They’ve gotta figure this shit out, though. Almost 11 months is ridiculous. I even read a bunch of articles yesterday about getting older babies to sleep through, and I kept seeing that if it isn’t happening by 12 months to talk to your pediatrician. Even the internet runs out of answers by then. Awesome.
But otherwise, they’re great. These are 2 hilarious little guys to watch, and I love seeing them just playing all day, chattering away and making noises the whole time. They each know their name, too, and they actually respond when you call them. They’re so content to dig into their toy pile and play with stuff, it’s amazing. I really only have to put them in their jumpers for containment when I need to get something out of sight done like shower, laundry in the basement, etc. The rest of the time they’re totally fine crawling around and playing. I just shut the bedroom and bathroom doors, and they’re good. We actually took 2 real babyproofing steps, too, which, if you know us well, you know we don’t babyproof. They just figure it out. 😉 I put a gate up in the kitchen to block access to the back door area and basement stairs, and I put clear rubber protectors on the corners of our new coffee table in the living room because that thing is brutal!
Now that Nat is mobile, too, he’s testing out his strength against Avit. More than once I’ve seen him literally climb up on Avit’s head and try to knock him down. Payback for all those nights Avit slept on top of him in their shared crib. Avit still likes to take every toy Nat plays with away from him, which causes Nat to scream, so we’re trying to teach Avit to stop that. Their interactions are so funny.
Seeing 2 little bodies crawling around the house at the same time is pretty crazy. This morning I was vacuuming, came around the corner from our bedroom, and both of them were sitting right next to each other in the middle of the bathroom just looking at me with wide eyes. Plotting my future demise, I’m sure, hahaha!
They could not be more different, both in looks and personality. Nat is still the much calmer of the 2, except, of course, for his high-pitched screams and wails at night. Avit crawls at the speed of light and must figure out a way to investigate or get into every single thing he sees. And he 100% knows when he’s doing something naughty, because when he sees you coming to stop him, he looks at you, smiles, usually squinks up his face and giggles, then crawls away as fast as he possibly can. He’s also probably days away from walking. He takes a tentative step or two on his own, but no actual walking across rooms yet. Nat is much happier to just grab a toy and sit and play with it. Except Nat is the one who’s more prone to make a bee-line across the living room rug to the Christmas tree area. Stinker. Nat falls asleep for naps much better still, whereas Avit likes to flop around in his pack n play as much as possible and grab anything within reach to bring it in with him. Avit shovels his food in from his high chair tray, whereas Nat is happy eating one thing at a time, actually chewing and swallowing his food like a normal person. Nat has the most delicate little pixie face, and Avit is much more Gerber-baby cute. Both perfect for eating baby faces, though!
The big 3 always tell me that my tummy picked the right babies with the twins, and they’re exactly right. They’ve also asked if my tummy had picked only one, which one would it be, Nat or Avit. I have no idea, but it’s hard to picture life with only one of these two. I love them so much, and I can’t believe they’re almost 1!
