Oh how they grow...

The ladies at Ladies Bible Class were astounded at how much Ryan and Alyna have grown since we last met in mid-December. They are now 16 weeks old.

They both learned new skills over the holidays. Their Aunt Krista and Uncle Adam gave them a play gym (shown in the pictures) that has lots of things to grab. There's an elephant rattle, bird with a spinning wheel, a leaf that rustles, and butterflies that light up. The first few days they played with it they would accidentally hit something and be astounded that it made a noise and moved. It didn't take long before they were actively and purposefully reaching for their favorite objects. Alyna spent lots of time mastering the open handed grab of the bird with the spinning wheel. After only a few days she could grab it and spin it at will. Ryan uses his legs and arms to hit and kick all at the same time and make lots of noise, but sometimes he just grabs the leaf and holds it.


Both are working on sitting up too. They don't want to be cradled in your arms anymore (except at bedtime). They want to sit up in your lap, and they do a good job of it except for a little help with balancing. Ryan likes to lean every which way like he's trying to get somewhere. We've turned his leaning into a stand up/sit down game.

Ryan especially is jabbering away at his toys and at us. He even "talks" more than Alyna now. "Neh" means feed me. And he makes a "hi" sound when he's happy to see you, and makes a "m-m-m" sound when he's sad and wants to be picked up.

Alyna smiles and does her sing-song cooing... except when she's demanding something, as always. She also says "Neh" when she wants to eat, and "Ee-yeh" means change me. A loud, sharp "Eh" means she wants some attention.

(Oh, and Alyna slept for 8 hours straight the other night through Ryan screaming every few hours to be fed or changed.)

People at church think they are perfect angel babies because they rarely seem fussy. It's mainly that they are very easily distracted by all the new things around them. As long as they don't get overtired, they are great babies to take out in public.

We love Ryan and Alyna so much for their different personalities. Though it might be easier to have just one baby at a time, we couldn't pick either one of them that we wouldn't want to have.