9 Months!!! ...or so...

OK, 9 & 3/4 months now since I took so freaking long to finish writing and post this. I've been working on it off/on since July 8th...

9 Month Picture!!!

Stats from their June 30th pediatrician appointment-

Simon: 21lbs 12oz 72%

28.5" long 62%

Linus: 18lbs 3oz 13%

27" long 14%

Dexter: 21lbs 13oz 72%

29.5" long 87%

I can't even begin to tell you how fast these boys are growing up. It seems every day brings a few more ounces or a new skill or another tooth. Speaking of teeth, Simon has 8 now! 4 on the top and 4 on the bottom. Linus just popped his 3rd and 4th teeth this week putting an end to the question of whether or not he'd get them in the same wacky order as Simon. The answer is yes, we have a new vampire redneck in the house. :) Dexter popped 3 teeth this week in a strange, but unique order. He got a top side incisor, then the middle 2 incisors. Strange boys we have here.

Simon still leads the pack in physical prowess. This past month he started crawling, then pulling up, now cruising. There is literally no stopping this boy. He's already bloodied his mouth a few times as he's found his 2 footed balance. I thought for sure he was going to have his first black eye today. He was cruising down the hallway wall and didn't stop when the wall did. His little face lurched forward and hit the corner. It was swollen for a bit, but it all faded away by tonight. He's also already had 2 haircuts. This boy is a champ at growing hair. Simon is such a happy baby. I adore his whole body laughs. He has the deepest voice of his brothers and has now started this baritone "singing." It's adorable! Simon is our best eater. This kid can pack away some food and is rarely picky. The only thing we've found that he won't tolerate is cheddar cheese.

Linus is continuing on his rockstar path. He's gone from a totally floppy baby to one that can sit up unassisted. He's also reaching out for toys he wants and can correct his balance about 75% of the time if he starts to topple over. He's rolling from front to back and back to front. Just yesterday he supported his weight on all 4's in the "crawl position" with very little help from us. He was PISSED about it! Physical therapy is not his bag. He acts like he's being murdered. :) Unfortunately PT is going to be a big part of his life until he catches up. At his original PT eval, he scored between 3-6 months on his skills. I'm not sure what he's at now, but he's not wasting any time mastering new things. Linus's biggest issue, aside from his wonky ticker, is his lack of feeding skills. After a very intense feeding trial, the most we were able to get him to take by mouth was 9oz spread out over an entire day. He's required 26oz a day to meet his caloric needs. 9 times out of 10 he will vomit up anything he takes by mouth. We've made very little progress in his eating purees either. Sometimes he starts gagging as the spoon comes towards him. It's so disheartening. We met with a GI specialist at the urging of our cardiologist. Linus has had an indwelling NG tube for 7 months and this is known to cause problems such as sinus congestion, reflux, oral aversion, esophageal erosion and so on. Linus was displaying all of these things. He needed the NG removed, but unfortunately he couldn't be weaned off of the tube feedings yet. Add to all of that the fact that the tape from the NG was tearing up his face. His cheeks were so irritated they would crack and bleed. Last, but not least, Linus had taken to pulling out his NG tube any chance he got. His record was 3 times in one day. Having to drop new tubes and retape him that often was a nightmare for all involved. It was decided that he should have a g-tube placed and soon. He was scheduled for surgery on Monday July 11. I'll write a separate post about this, but I will tell you it went fine and all is well.

Dexter is our biggest boy again. Not too bad considering he was the smallest at birth. People always think Simon is bigger when they see them since he's built like a tank. Dexter is sneaky big. He's so tall and lean, you'd never know he was carrying as much weight as he does. Dexter was 2 months behind on milestones last month. He had us a little worried. Even his pediatrician recommended he be evaluated. This month, he's half a step behind on some things and ahead on others. He was hitting milestones every day for a minute there. He crawled only a few hours after Simon did. Apparently he was just watching and taking notes. Now he's crawling, pulling up and showing signs of imminent cruising. He's even climbing onto the bouncer to "jump" like Simon does. He's no longer the timid guy. He has a nasty habit of taking things from his brothers just to see if he can. He IS still our sensitive one. He snuggles like nobody's business. This kid has the worst separation anxiety and it kicks in randomly. He'll play independently for an hour one day and not let you out of arm's reach the next. Last week he cried every time I stood up. When I actually took a step or two, he would panic and hyperventilate. The tears this kid can put out would melt the coldest heart. He was desperate to be near me at all times. Even Trina wouldn't do. This was our first bout with that behavior. We've been largely interchangeable until now. If he could have tunneled through my vagina and nestled into my womb, he would have.

Now that we have all 5 of us under one roof and everyone is relatively healthy, we've actually been able to do things as a family. On my days off we load up the minivan and take the boys on errands with us. We've been to the tire store, the grocery store, a fabric store, a friends house and a restaurant. They are SO good in public. We had an entire sit down meal with 5 adults and our 3 boys without a single cry. Not even a whimper! No matter where we are, we get a lot of stares and "you must have your hands full" type comments, but several people have said how good they are and how impressive it is that they behave so well. I couldn't be prouder of them. Being able to go out and do normal, boring things as a family is amazing! I like normal. It's taken us 9 months to get here and it's glorious. :)

Now for the pictures...

Our stylish, custom onsies courtesy of Hope.

We won't make it to a water park before they outgrow these adorable swim trunks so they just played with sand toys in the baby cage. Now I just need someone to photoshop in a beach scene...

Who wants to eat when there are all of these things to explore? Even Linus tossed his bottle and pushed himself into a back bend.

Papa and his handsome grandsons. Doesn't Simon look JUST like him?

The boys having a chat about their toys on "plaid shorts day."

One of his first pull-ups. He's so proud.

This look of concentration kills me. He's got amazing balance. It's all in the tongue.

For a while Linus could only grab one foot at a time.

Now he's mastered the double grab.

Our little guy can finally sit up on his own.

Dexter is crawling like a champ.

Dex likes to "play" this sun like a tambourine. It's adorable!

Eating lots of colors is healthy and fun.

A rare shot of Linus actually taking food from a spoon.

Dex loves cereal.

Blueberries!

Linus likes it best when he's in charge of the spoon. Not much gets in his mouth, but it's still good practice.

Both Simon & Dexter are mastering the pincher grasp.

There is a lot of teething going on here, so we're seeing these faces more often.

Everyone loves frozen binks for sore mouths.

Poor Linus's cheeks are so raw from the NG tube tape. He's also got acid burn down his chin from vomiting so much. :(

Our bad assed Adventure Buggy at the tire store. We got SO many looks/comments with this thing. Not many folks have seen a double decker stroller. :)

Our crew at the grocery store. We LOVE these cart covers sent to us by Three Little Miracles.

Just hanging out in these comfy seats.

Love this coy little smile.

Simon is a very studious comparison shopper. Notice the teething drool?

This is why having a cart cover with it's own safety straps is so important!

Linus is still the happiest zipper chested baby on the block.

It's funny to see how often these two are in the same position or playing the same way. A moment before this shot, Dex had his toy in his mouth, too. Even their hips are cocked the same way.

These guys are such a team. Simon climbs into the chair and Dexter bounces it for him.

There was a ruckus in the baby cage and I found 2 very guilty looking boys when I went to investigate the noise. Dexter and Simon were fighting over the coveted pink & green sippy cup.

Simon won...this time.

I laid my head on Linus's Boppy during playtime and he gave me a very serious look. It was like "Mom, I need to tell you something."

After our talk he just used my head for an armrest. :)

One thing that hasn't changed is the love of jumperoo time. I'm going to be sad when they outgrow confined playtime. :)

For those of you who've asked, yes, Simon & Dexter still do sqiushy baby yin-yang. :)