Anders and Hadley at 5 Months

They are both in their cribs. Anders has given up the swaddle and (95%) the pacifier; Hadley still uses both to sleep. They started solids last week and so far are following in their big siblings' footsteps: they love sweet potatoes, peas, oat cereal, spoons, and just generally the whole Food aspect of life.

Anders reaches for Hadley's hand instinctively every time they are next to each other, but especially when they're waiting for food or if he hears her squawking--it seems to be an impulse to comfort her or to be comforted, or to commiserate about how LONG their bottle refills are taking. Or just for the fun of it:

They are both cheerful and relatively calm babies. Anders rarely gets feisty, and when he does it's almost always cured by moving him out of the offending jumperoo/exersaucer, or by rubbing his back for a minute if he's awake in the middle of a nap. His cries never sound sad, just angry--in fact, I don't know that I've seen actual tears on his face more than once in five months. Sometimes he complains himself to sleep.

Hadley's moods are a bit more mercurial; she's clear about preferring to be held than put down and quite vocal about preferring to be looked at and talked to than the alternative. When she cries, she really cries, although she too is easily soothed by a bouncing hug...or just some attention. And she doles out smiles constantly--as I've written here before, she has higher highs and lower lows than her twin bro.

I can't believe it's only been five months, and yet I can't believe it's already been five months. Defined against and alongside each other, their personalities seem so much more detailed than a pair of five-month-olds' should be. And was there ever really a time when these exact people didn't exist in the database? My memories are infused with a future full of them.

And yet, some part of my brain is still stuck on "We're having twins?!?" It's been over a year since I jerked upright at the sight of two white blobs on the ultrasound screen and helplessly told the kind physician that we lived in a three-bedroom raised ranch (which is no longer true). But somehow I can't believe that now we have twins. Five-month-old twins.

Five months! Wheeeeeeeee!