Rice Cereal = Delicious

That is a lie.

Rice cereal does not equal delicious. In fact, it equals the opposite. Believe me, I tasted it. BUT, babies seem to like it, so...what can you do...

Last Tuesday, we took the gremlins to see Dr. Reminds...who, I am getting a little closer to figuring out who he reminds me of...right now, I'm going with Daniel Farraday/Widmore from LOST. Still not quite there, but that's as close as I've gotten so far. Anyways. They weighed and measured them and gave us their percentages.

Harper:

Weight - 15 lbs. 3.5 oz. - 80th %

Length - 24" - 50th %

Head - 16.5" - 80th %

Piper Lee:

Weight - 14 lbs. 8 oz. - 70th %

Length - 24.5" - 60th %

Head - 16.75" - 90th %

The only measurement they're average in is their length. Other than that, they're THE WORLD'S MOST GIANT BABIES. Not really. But, look at their heads! I told you they had big noggins. And, you have to take into consideration that they were born a month early. Dr. Reminds was super happy they were growing so much. He said it normally takes a year for premature babies to catch up to their full-term buddies. And the girls have caught up with and passed that. Which is insane, because as I've said before, David and I are both Hobbits, so I don't know where they get the size from. Although, David has an uncle who is really tall. And three of my uncles are really tall. And my great-grandmother was like 6 ft tall and my cousin Sam is 7 ft fall and Noah is like a circus freak, so...who knows.

But either way, they're doing great. They had to get their 4-month shots. :( But I did better this time and stayed in the room. I hunched in a chair in the corner and squeezed my eyes shut and covered my ears, but at least I stayed in the room. And as soon as Nurse Evil Needles finished torturing my sweet angels, I ran over and scooped them up and kissed their precious bald heads and said, "Mommy's here...Mommy will never hurt you..." as we all three simultaneously scowled at Nurse Evil Needles while she nervously hurried out the door.

Dr. Reminds said we could start them on solids if we wanted to...maybe try rice cereal first. I'm a little hesitant about the rice cereal because I heard it causes constipation. Is it bad? I was thinking of maybe waiting until they were 5 months and then just giving it to them once a day. Because, they sleep 11 hours at night...well, they sleep about 10 and then they're awake and playing for the last hour. So, I didn't see a need to give it to them at bedtime. I thought about in the morning, followed by a bottle. Is that what you do? Any advice in this area would be much appreciated. Shane, I know you have plenty of helpful hints. So, thanks in advance. And then later, we'd throw in the orange veggies and fruits. He said as long as I started them on solids before they were 6 months, they'd be fine. Apparently, if you wait until after 6 months, it's harder for them to learn to eat with a spoon. Weird, huh. Didn't know that. Sara, is that what happened to you?

This past Saturday, David and I decided to venture out for the first time ever by ourselves with the girls. We've gone other places by ourselves with the girls, but the destination always had people that could help us. Saturday's destination was the mall. Woo hooooo! The girls' first shopping trip. We took pictures to document this occasion.

And being the Daddy's girls that they are, David gave them each some spending money. But they were so sweet and gave it back to me so I could buy Uncle Noah's graduation present.

How about Piper Lee would NOT give her dollar back. I'm like, "Hey, kiddo. It was for the picture only. You're not old enough to make reasonable decisions when to comes to making purchases. Fork it over." I had to pry it out of her slobbery little hand. Death grip. And please excuse my mad scientist expression.

We had such a good time. I was amazed by how many people stopped to ask questions. In our multiples birthing class, the instructor told us we'd get asked a lot of the same questions and we did! Are they twins? Why are there two? Are they sisters? Are they the same age? Are they identical? Did you have both of these at the same time? Most of the time, people just stopped the stroller...like, mid-stroll...and looked and said, "Aww...two." Not many people actually said the word "twins." Which made me laugh. It was always "two." The lady at the Clinique counter in Macy's, her name was Kathy, made me promise to bring by them again so she "could watch them grow up." A little creepy...but sweet. The girls did great and stayed awake pretty much the whole time. My little shoppers. I can't wait to take them big girl shopping one day. Mom used to do that except Sara and I hated it (I think most kids go through an I HATE SHOPPING! phase), so she would bribe us with a Hello Kitty surprise...shopping then became a lot more fun. And now it's one of my faves.

So, back to the rice cereal...Sunday afternoon, we decided to see how the girls liked rice cereal...just to see. They semi-liked it. They were more hmmm, this is interesting than I HAVE TO HAVE IT ALL IMMEDIATELY. They kept leaning forward in their Bumbos. They usually sit straight up in them, so I don't know if their bibs were too heavy...not...or if they were just particularly wobbly that day. Either way, it was more funny than an actual feeding session. Harper was getting the hang of it and they were kind of hungry, so we ended up stopping and just feeding them their bottles. David likened the situation to Beast learning to eat with a spoon on Beauty & the Beast.

Did I already tell y'all they're roll-over champs? Harper rolled over at 3 months and Piper Lee rolled over a little less than two weeks later. I was so proud! And then we kept putting them on their tummies to watch them do it again and again...they don't like that. And now, they're THISCLOSE to rolling over the other way...back to tummy. They can get up on their side...they'll literally be at a 45º angle to the floor and then use the energy to swing back over onto their back like "Oh gosh...I was too tired to just go that extra inch." Geez.