Colds, Teething, Modeling, OH MY!

In the past two weeks, three out of the four family members have been sick. Yes, again!

Tyler came down with a cold, which only lasted two days, Christopher had a mild flu for a few days, and I had some mild version of the flu as well. It seems like the flu season is slowly fading away, but it will be nice once it is gone. I’m just so thankful that when the boys have been sick, it hasn’t been too bad—a few sleepless nights, but not really any vomiting or other bodily fluids that I’ve had to deal with.

The big thing right now is that they are both teething. Tyler currently has four molars and one incisor coming in, and Christopher has four molars coming in. Christopher had the first molar to break through earlier than Tyler, so now it is at a later stage where the larger part of the tooth is coming in, and he also has just had a new molar come in within the past few days. He has been pretty miserable between teething and being sick. He has his hand in his mouth for a good part of the day, and he can get irritable, especially when it is close to naptime, bedtime, or time to eat. By far, the molars have been the toughest on them. They really didn’t bat an eye when their front teeth came in. While these molars still have a long ways to go to come in fully, and with the second set of molars, I’m anticipating a lot of sleepless nights ahead. I guess I can be thankful that both boys are getting them in at the same time, and hopefully they’ll get it all over in a few months, rather than one getting them and then the other, stretching it all out.

The boys went for another modeling ad last week for Fred Meyer. This time, Tyler was able to be in the ad. The photo location is about thirty minutes from our house and the studio was behind in schedule, so the boys had been sitting for probably an hour and fifteen minutes by the time they saw us. I came to find out that it was a stroller ad. I thought to myself, “They had just been sitting all this time, and there is no way they are going to want to sit some more.” The way that it works is that they hire a main model, and then a backup; it works out perfectly for us because they book the boys as both the main model and the backup.

So, when I arrived at the studios, the assistant told me I could get whomever I thought would do best dressed. I went ahead and got Tyler dressed, since Christopher was chosen for the last photo shoot. Pretty much as soon as I put Tyler in the stroller for the photo shoot, he decided he did not want to be sitting down. He was in there for about a minute before I took him out. I was going to let him run around some. I remembered that in the dressing room, there was another “onesie,” so I suggested to the photographer that maybe I could get Christopher dressed in the other “onesie,” and then we can easily switch off between the two of them. They thought that was a good idea, so I went ahead and got Christopher dressed, as well. We tried Christopher and he didn’t mind sitting as much as Tyler, but it still wasn’t working. So, we tried Tyler again. He was more settled down, yet he still wasn’t sitting how he was supposed to be for the photo.

Finally, I had the idea to get some Cheerios to distract them a little and it worked! I was playing a little game with him and he started laughing and smiling. The photographer took about twenty photos and captured the shot he needed. Took about thirty minutes total and we were then on our way home. I will be sure to post a photo of the ad when it comes out next month.

The boys had their 18-month doctor’s appointment and everything is looking good: healthy and steady growth. If you don’t remember, the boys were the exact same weight at birth, 4.8 ounces. Ever since, they have always been within a few ounces of each other. Here are their current measurements. Christopher: weight- 21 pounds-13 ounces, height- 31.75 inches, head circumference- 48.25 centimeters. Tyler: weight- 21 pounds-9 ounces, height- 31.50 inches, head circumference- 48 centimeters. It amazes me to see how close they are with all of their measurements and how close they’ve stayed over 18 months! I had thought for sure that Christopher was going to weigh much more than only a 4-ounce difference.

The boys do not say many words, other than “mama” and “dada.” Well, let me rephrase that; the boys do not say many words that I can understand other than those two. Tyler can say, “ball,” but that is about it. I just recently got Christopher to say “baby!” Now he says it all the time. About three days later, Tyler also started to say it. Just yesterday, Tyler said, “what,” which was by accident because I wasn’t trying to get him to say that word. I did a double take and turned around because I’m not used to hearing them say actual words. I thought he was maybe going to say it again, but it was definitely just by accident.

Just in the past week, they have been babbling so much to each other, using a ton of different sounds that I’ve never heard them use. Tyler is “yapping” all day long. The doctor said that between 18 to 24 months is when their speech will really start to develop and will just start to take off. I know that before we know it, they are really going to be talking to each other with actual words. I can’t wait!

I think it’s so entertaining to watch as it is, I can’t even imagine what it’s going to be like when they are using actual words that I can understand. Ha! Ha! They are clearly having conversations; I just have no idea what they are saying. In the past two weeks, it seems that they have changed so much. These have been by far the biggest changes I have seen in them in such a short period of time. They are so smart and learning so much at such a rapid rate that it is really mind boggling to me to watch them interact with one another, teach each other, work together to accomplish a goal, and get mad at each other. It is truly amazing to me and I feel so incredibly blessed to be their mother, a part of their life, and getting to experience it all with them.

Molly lives in Portland, Oregon, and is a stay-at-home mom with twin 16-month-old boys. She grew up in Southern California and moved to Oregon five years ago with her husband.