Niebauer Family: Three quarters of a year!

The twins have made it to the 9 month mark. The months seem to be literally whizzing by us these days. It is hard to believe how fast it is going by. I'm really trying to relish these last baby days. They'll be toddlers before we know it. And though I king of long for the sweet newborn days, I'm not sure we'll ever get to experience that again. (Though I do occasionally make Mike nervous by talking about wanting more babies.)

The big change for them these days is how interactive they are. I know I've said this before, but really, they seem to have really turned a corner on this. They seem to be understanding us when we talk to them. They react to each other so much. Mostly, they get annoyed when one rolls over on the other, or the pull one anothers hair. They definitely feel jealousy when one is being held and the other isn't. And they're already fighting over toys.

Caroline is interacting so much more with them now, and they seem to really love it. For whatever reason, Caroline has taken a shining to Mirabelle and definitely favors her over Julianne. We remind her to be nice and loving to both her sisters... I'm sure the favorites will shift over time... most things do.

Our nanny Kate thinks it is funny that Julianne used to be the high-maintenance one, because Mirabelle has been the more demanding/challenging one ever since she started. Mirabelle has had a tougher time getting down for naps, and just wants to be held a lot. She always crawls over to you and climbs up so she's standing and holding on to your knee and then makes this pathetic whining sound until you feel sorry for her and pick her up.

They are both crawling like mad. Julianne has really started moving and just this week has started crawling on hands-and-knees for real.

Julianne has 7 teeth. Mirabelle has 3 and a half. They're using them well on their food- we're starting a lot more finger food now, which they love. Think we're going to transition away from babyfood at this point.

At their nine month appointments, Mirabelle weighed 16 pounds 9 oz (14%) and Julianne weighed 18 lbs 12 oz (51%). It will be interesting to see if the gap closes or shrinks over time... for now it has just stayed the same. Mirabelle is 26.5 (19%)and Julianne is 28 inches (70%).

They were a lot harder to photograph this month. They were just squirming and rolling and not wanting to stay in one place.

One of the few good pictures of them together