11 months!

I learned today that monthly pictures now require 2 adults.  These 2 pics were insanely hard to get and I don't really like either one of them.  So when/if I ever get around to attempting to retake them, I'll post them.  If not, at least these reflect the chaos that is life right now!

I'm just not sure where time has gone.  I feel like I blinked and all of the sudden my babies are one month away from their first birthday.  When did that happen?! 

Life has gotten a lot more fun lately.  But along with that fun comes complete and utter chaos.  It's nice that they, along with Brennan, can entertain each other and don't need me at every second of the day.  On the other hand, they can cause so much destruction in a matter of seconds, it's like a hurricane blew through my house.  Their personalities are changing a bit as well, which makes for an interesting dynamic in the house.

This month it was fun to spend time in Michigan and watch our families experience life with the boys.  They are growing like weeds and I was too curious about their weights not to get some rough estimates on our scale at home.  Kiernan continues to outweigh Beckett by over a pound!

Beckett

Weight: 22 lbs 4 oz - 50th percentile

Beckett's personality comes out more and more every week and his "Hambone" nickname rings more and more true.  While he's still a very patient and focused baby, he isn't quite as calm as he used to be.  I think he's just very excited to be keeping up with his brothers now and is making up for lost time.  I think he's also really enjoying the opportunity to explore his surroundings.  While we were in Michigan, I expected Beckett to be the easy one to contain in the not-baby-proofed-like-my-fortress grandparents' houses.  But it was quite the opposite.  Mr. Beckett was actually more often than not the one who was trying to escape and explore other territories.  He is also starting to put up a bit of a fight when he gets knocked around by his brothers.  He used to just let Kiernan take toys from him or let Brennan bear hug him to the ground, but lately he's showing a bit more strong will. 

When we returned from Michigan this month, we met with Ms Leslie, the physical therapist, to see whether or not he would need further treatment.  She was very impressed with his improvement without PT for 3 weeks (and admittedly not much Mommy-physical-therapy either) and deemed him "graduated" from PT!  She feels that he will continue to develop and be just fine.  While Leslie was here, she evaluated his overall fine motor skills as well and was very impressed.  Beckett has excellent fine motor skills for someone his age.  I think it relates to his ability to concentrate and focus.  He's usually very good at focusing on one thing at a time.  The only exception there is books.  He is a complete maniac when I attempt to read him a book, or simply flip through it and point out objects.  He flails his arms and crinkles pages (so he's under  a board-book-only rule) and squeals and has no patience for any of it.  I like to think he's just that excited about books and that eventually he'll settle down … right?

Beckett's rockstar fine motor skills are most apparent when he is eating.  He has a pretty awesome pincer grip and is great at picking up small pieces of food off of his tray.  The boys are eating table foods almost exclusively now, unless I don't have something baby friendly on hand, then they're still receptive to purees.  Beckett really enjoys eating french fries and anything I cut into a french fry shape.  I think he just likes to use his new front teeth.  He now has four teeth - 2 on top and 2 on bottom, and is working on a few more.  He also likes to show off his "vocabulary", especially when he's supposed to be eating.  Mr. Beckett is starting to be specific with "Ma-Ma" and "Da-Da", which is BEYOND adorable.  He also loves to blow raspberries and hum while he "strums" his bottom lip like a guitar (does that make sense?  I don't know how else to describe it).  I swear he repeated me the other day when I said "Bye-Bye" to Daddy and "Hi Bird", but Brian doesn't believe me.  Oh well.  Someday he'll do it in front of his Daddy and maybe then he'll believe me. 

Kiernan

Weight: 23 lbs 10 oz - 50th-75th percentile

Brian has decided on a new nickname for Kiernan - "Honey badger".  If you're not familiar with the YouTube video, you should look it up.  Unless you don't like bad language.  Then, suffice it to say that the moral of the story is that the Honey badger doesn't care about anything.  He attacks bee hives and doesn't care how much he gets stung.  He attacks a snake, gets bitten, passes out from the venom, and wakes up and proceeds to finish eating the snake like nothing ever happened.  And that's pretty much Kiernan.  He blows through life like a hurricane with little to no regard for anything around him.  And he's amazingly charming and cute while he does so.  I maintain that he will be my troublemaker, but will also be able to schmooze his way out of plenty of situations. 

Kiernan had a fantastic time in Michigan.  He was a complete wild man in my parents' pool and successfully climbed Brian's parents' huge flight of stairs all by himself (with one of us behind him of course). His gross motor skills continue to impress.  He is standing by himself for longer periods of time and has attempted a step here and there, albeit unsuccessfully so far, but at least he tries.  It's really more of a flying dive into my arms than a step, but it's something!

While Ms Leslie was here to evaluate Beckett, she did a little evaluation of Kiernan as well.  His fine motor skills are a little lacking, but she believes that he just needs to be challenged a bit more.  He tends to see a bunch of pieces of food and just goes for all of them instead of trying to pick up one.  Who can blame him?  And he's really very efficient at getting a fist full of food into his mouth.  But I've been working with him more on picking up one thing at a time and he's getting there.  He is a champion clapper though, and claps for himself all day long.  It's too cute.

Despite Kiernan's tendency to be a bull in a china shop, he does seem to be getting better at concentrating on things.  While in Michigan, he became the one that would sit and play with new toys while Beckett was off exploring.  And here at home, Kiernan has shown an increased interest in books.  He loves to sit on my lap and look at a book.  His favorite part is turning the pages.  He turns every page with great passion!

Kiernan now has 4 teeth,  2 front top and 2 front bottom, and has a few more ready to pop through any day now.  He turns into a big Mama's boy when he's teething, and he had a virus last week that made him pretty whiny, so we've been getting lots of Mommy-Kiernan time lately.  He says Ma-Ma and Da-Da very frequently, and I think he's starting to get specific with them, but I can't quite tell yet.  He does say "Ni-Ni" to me when I tell him that it's time for night-night.  It's so much fun when they start talking!