18 weeks 4 days

At some point, I'll have to convert my titles away from the weeks and days and more toward months.

Update: Some of the data has started to trickle in on the ads and I think I'm gonna keep them. Since we started:
Page impressions 493
Clicks 33
Earnings $15.34

Not too shabby! It's not quite as intrusive as I'd anticipated, either. AdSense only pays out in $100 increments, though, so we still have yet to see baby formula out of this.

I need to go out this weekend and buy a journal for Nanntastic Cindy (my new moniker for our fantastic nanny - in case that wasn't clear) to log the daily exploits of her charges. I think I'll call it "The Astounding Adventures of Charlotte and Lilah". It's the little things that Nanntastic Cindy notices and we sometimes miss, because we have these horrid things called jobs that keep us apart, that she wants to start writing down for us and I think that it's another great momento for 'the ladies' to have later in their lives. Other than this blog, of course.

For example, in the last two weeks the girls have started ear to ear smiles and even the occassional giggle in reponse to us smiling at them or touching their cheeks. This week the girls finally noticed each other, too. Nanntastic Cindy set Lilah down next to Charlotte on their play mat and Charlotte saw her sister and got wide-eyed and stared at her. Usually they don't acknowledge each other's existence except for the accidental smack here and there. At least, I assume it's accidental. They get the benefit of the doubt until they have more coordinated hand control.

We've been working a lot with the girls physically in the last two weeks, too. I bought an exersaucer and we have a Bumpo and we've been challenging the girls to last longer and longer sitting upright in them. It will hopefully help accelerate building their core so they will sit up on their own faster. This is good, in addition to the regular reasons, because the longer they roll the backs of their heads around on the floor, the more their hair gets broken off - and they don't have a lot to spare. Between the receding hairline, the bald spot they've created, and lack of teeth, they've got the 'old man' look down. Maybe Social Security will start cutting them checks.

Nanntastic Cindy also works with them during the day, doing everything from having them track toys across their field of vision to holding their hands and helping them up to a seated position that they hold for a few seconds. She gave me some good ideas for toys to look for to help build other skills as well. She's going to school for her degree in Early Childhood Education and it just so happens that she is in the infant modules right now. Not only can she try out techniques on the girls, she can try different techniques with each girl and see if there are different results. And the girls benefit from having someone with actual knowledge! (How long would I have let them just lay on their backs before I thought of this stuff? Around the time boys started to come by for dates I probably would have realized that it was no longer such a good thing, I suppose.)

So 'the ladies' are making progress, but still aren't up to age adjusted abilities physically yet. Part of the issue is that they are still so little and their heads are so massive. (I'm not kidding. It's like an orange on a toothpick. Well, that's a huge noggin. That's a virtual planetoid. Has it's own weather system. HEAD! MOVE!) I'm guessing they're about 9.5 pounds, but the official numbers won't be in until their 4 month well visit on Tuesday. If they weigh 9.5 pounds, then 5 of that is noggin, which is a lot to hold up and control for such little bodies! We need to get the ratio down a bit. Sean and I were both pretty thin until around 21 when our metabolism checked out and we could no longer eat anything we wanted without consequence, so there's a strong chance 'the ladies' will be on the petite side themselves. Treasure it while it lasts, sweeties.

They are doing most of the non-physical milestones for their age, like making noises other than cries, but not quite babbling. And they've finally graduated out of newborn clothes and in to 0-3 months! Unfortunately, the generous folks who gave us a wardrobe all had their babies during warm weather and very few of the outfits are long-sleeved or heavy. We're trying to layer and rely a lot on pajamas (which are really just one-piece day-time outfits at this age, right?) Maybe I'll see some cute deals at this weekend's EMOMs (Eastside Moms of Multiples) twice annual sale!