The Last Week of Infancy...

Astral

Defy

49 weeks

The boys have entered their last week of infancy! They are 51 weeks and in one week they will be one year olds! My sweet little munchkins…

They are rapidly progressing and doing so many new things and perfecting things they’ve been doing for a while. They are responding to simple requests very well and will point to many different body parts when asked. It seems like every day I come home from the office Luke has taught them a new body part to point to. They both say mama and dada but Astral is now saying “bye-bye” while waving!! When daddy counts from one to five and gets to four, Defy holds up four fingers. They also can open doors with great ease (ugh). I think my absolute favorite thing they do is blow kisses!!!!! Such smart little guys…

Astral and Defy love to climb and have us living in constant fear that they’ll fall and hit their heads. Watching them climb up on the couch is absolutely horrifying at times, but so far so good. At times I wish we had carpet downstairs instead of hardwood. We retired “the cage”, or the large play pen and the soft baby mat. This thing was a great while they learned to crawl and walk and were always falling. It also helped us keep both of them entertained in one safe place. Many parents of multiples have the same set up. Those carefree days are long gone. Defy started climbing over the gate and we knew it was time for it to go. He is the expert climber and if it can be climbed he will climb it. DANGER!!! We now use the “cage” as a “fence”…

These boys are VERY strong and will do pull ups on different pieces of furniture. We watch in awe as their feet dangle while they support all their body weight with their arms. I’m not sure if babies are supposed to have this kind of upper body strength, but Astral and Defy definitely do.

We are still co-sleeping in the family bed…all six of us.

DnA are feeding themselves quite well and eat a variety of organic, healthy foods. They love all the random mixtures we make for them. Daddy will throw lentils, strawberries, ground flax seed, kale and mushrooms into the blender with some amaranth and they’ll eat every bite. When they turn a year we’ll start using the juicer that grandma bought for them to make nutritious juices every morning. As they enter their 2nd year of life we know that they will be getting most of their nutrition from solids so we are very excited to come up with fun vegan meal plans for them. We will soon introduce plant milk, though I plan on nursing for at least 6 more months.

Astral and Defy’s most recent additions to their diet:

Puffed Kamut

Whole Wheat Pasta

Puffed Corn Cereal

Sunflower Seed Butter

Bok Choy

Edamame

Broccoli

The weather is getting nicer and daddy and the boys are getting to enjoy the outdoors a bit more. We all can’t wait until spring has settled in and they can enjoy outdoor playtime every day! They are two tiny walkers with a ton of energy.

This year has flown by and we are excited to enter a whole new realm of vegan parenting. I love that our little guys are growing up, but sometimes I’d like to keep them all little, sweet and perfect for myself. Right now I am the center of their universe and completely flawless in their eyes. (Lucas finds it amusing that I wrote that since he is the stay at home parent, but he doesn’t have boobies so I remain the center of their universe!) I know this will not be the case one day, but I’m cherishing it while I can. They will always be my beautiful babies that I carried for 37 weeks and three days, that I laid in the hospital on bed rest for nine weeks with and that I dreamt of my whole entire life.

Love had a new meaning once Astral and Defy entered our world! We hope that we will bring them as much joy as they bring us…