From birth, Nico has spent her free time intently practicing on achieving a feat with her body, like getting her hands into her mouth, touching her feet, etc… Her latest accomplishment and obsession is sucking on her feet, especially the right one. In true Nico fashion, after a while she starts to fuss and cry because she gets tired and the foot isn’t as easy to insert.

My next-door neighbor Lisa and I started a group for nearby parents of young twins (there are surprisingly a lot!), around our girls’ age. We meet every Friday and go to a coffee shop or park if the weather is nice.

Here is a video from our last meeting, in which 6 families showed up. That’s a lot of babies! Egads!

Nico and Olive notice, and often smile at, each other regularly now. It’s weird; I knew that being fraternal, they would be different, but I didn’t suspect that they would be so utterly, totally dissimilar. Their dispositions are almost polar opposites. I know that it’s too early to make generalizations, and I don’t want to pigeon-hole them into categories. They are unique human beings and it’s wonderful to watch them transform from newborns into tiny people with personalities, wills, and interests.

Nico has so much energy! She is petite, but physically strong and stands up if you hold her hands. She kicks and squeals loudly and is extremely playful. I love making her scream in delight. She likes to stare at mobiles and bright objects and amuses herself pulling her pacifier, toy, or hands in and out of her mouth. She cries a lot and is less interested in eating than Olive. It is hilarious how she she works herself up in frustration when she can’t get her pacifier in her mouth properly or a toy is too big to fit in her maw.

Olive is very mellow. She is generally a content baby with low energy. She is a natural flirt; smiling at strangers wherever we go. She has recently started laughing, which is hilarious. She loves to hold pieces of fabric rather than toys, and could care less about a pacifier. She loves to nurse and be held. When she looks at me with her crinkle noise smile, I just want to squeeze and kiss her. Lately, she has been carrying on conversations, chatting away as if she was speaking our language.

I love having the opportunity to watch them develop and grow, and Owen and I fall in love with them more and more every day.

Owen has been playing ‘Puff the Magic Dragon’ to them since birth, and I’m pretty sure they like the song now.

With a little trepidation and some mishaps, we successfully returned from our first family vacation to Massachusetts to visit my family. I was a little concerned before leaving because Nico has been having issues feeding (suddenly refusing to breastfeed and generally being colicy). The flight there went well. Olive slept most of the way and Nico was happy and fed ok. By the time we landed, rented a car, installed the seats, drove to New Bedford, the girls were screaming and we were all exhausted.

Overall, our trip was both good and bad.

Good: we spent time with grandparents, friends, and other family members. It was fun to go out in my home town and eat delicious pizza (west coast pizza is terrible. I know you Californians don’t agree) and fresh fish caught in the nearby Cape Cod canal. It was wonderful to have so much help and lots of extra hands. Nico and Olive, I’m sure, enjoyed receiving more attention than they get at home.

Bad: the weather was terrible (cold and rainy and/or gray) just about the whole time we were there, give or take a day or two. I had envisioned a summer vacation spent walking on the beach (my mom lives right near the water), but it wasn’t to be. Rather, we spent our time indoors or driving in the rain. More disconcerting, Nico and Olive also got their first colds. Poor Olive was so congested, she had trouble feeding. The babies were generally uncomfortable and fussier than usual. I had to deal with lack of sleep; both just stopped sleeping through the night, waking up 3 times each to feed. This may have been due to their illness and change of environment. Nico also had a breakdown on the flight home. It wasn’t so bad, as she eventually calmed down, but it sucks when passengers in front of you keep turning around as if to say ’shut them up’.

Anyway, it’s good to be home, although I wish we could have stayed longer. Now I must get down to business hiring child care, figuring out what’s wrong with Nico, and preparing to return to work. Sad!!