Last week, Agnes thought she saw Eleanor get up on her hands and knees and make one small step forward in what might offically be called a crawl. Since that time, I’ve been watching Eleanor closely to see if she actually is crawling to get from place to place. I’ll put her on the floor and wiggle a toy just out of reach from her. She’ll reach, she’ll stretch, and she’ll roll a bit, but she just won’t crawl to it. I’ll also let her just play on the floor on her own to see if she’ll crawl when she thinks we’re not watching, but still nothing. At this point, I guess we can say that Eleanor can get up on her hands and knees, but she doesn’t quite crawl yet.

Doesn’t it look like she’s crawling though?

Ugh. I’ve been cutting the girls’ nails since they were born. I use a pair of nail scissors since I find them more precise than the baby nail clippers that we also have. Every time I cut their nails, I know I’m running the risk that I’m going to cut more than just their nails. It was especially scary at the beginning when they were really small. Anyway, it finally happened–I cut Miranda’s finger tip.

Before you all think that I’m a monster for taking pictures of Miranda after hurting her, this picture was taken about two weeks ago and has nothing to do with this nail cutting incident. One crying picture looks much like the others though.

Anyway, I was cutting Miranda’s nails and, as usual, I was double-checking that all that was between the scissor blades was fingernail. I got to the thumb and before I cut I knew that I also had some skin in there, so I repositioned the scissors. I snipped and immediately knew that it was still wrong. There was a beat, and then Miranda started bawling. I held her for a bit until she stopped crying and then checked her hand. It was bleeding so I applied direct pressure, which of course made her cry again. The cut wasn’t serious, but it still took a little time to stop bleeding.

We put a bandage on Miranda’s thumb and covered that hand with a mitten. We held that arm out of the way when we gave her a bath later, and we checked that the bandage still looked fine just before we put her to bed. Later, around midnight when I was going to bed, I checked in on Miranda again to make sure she hadn’t irritated the cut. The mitten was off and the bandage was stuck to her face. I gently pulled it off of her cheek, and since she seemed to be completely sound asleep, I didn’t bother trying to replace it.

This morning, her thumb looked a little pink where the skin was cut, but other than that, it looked fine. I still feel so bad though.

Thankfully the girls are starting to get better now. I think that Miranda is mostly over her cold, except that she still has a bit of a cough. Eleanor is still congested and she still coughs, but the big sign that things are getting better is that the girls are getting back to smiling and playing again. Their colds have generally made them miserable and so the past week and a half has been filled with two fussy kids. Now, they’ll smile and coo and try to grab things to put in their mouths.

Miranda’s discovered that her feet reach her mouth. Grabbing her feet preceded rolling over, but pulling her feet to her mouth is something she just started today. I had Miranda on my lap and I was getting her ready for her bath and she just reached out and pulled one foot into her mouth. Then the other one caught her attention and she let go of the first to pull the other one in too. We took some pictures, let her lick her feet for a bit, and then gave her a bath.

Today was the girls’ six month doctor’s visit. Miranda is 15 lbs, 11 oz and 26 inches long. Eleanor is 16 lbs, 12 oz and 27 inches long. That means that Eleanor now outweighs Miranda by a little more than a pound and she’s about an inch longer. At four months, they were the same weight and Eleanor was a half inch longer. They have both gotten so long that their legs are starting to dangle over the edge of the examination table when we put them perpendicular to the table. Miranda’s on the left; Eleanor’s on the right.

This picture was immediately after we weighed the girls. Soon after this picture, Miranda started to grab at the paper that lines the examination table, crumple it up, rip it, and bring it to her mouth. We had to hold her the entire time we were at the doctor’s office to keep her from ripping into the paper.

The girls are still sick, so much of the visit was to make sure that their colds were nothing serious. It sounds like they’ve been seeing a lot of the same thing going around for the past few weeks. Sometimes these colds can turn into something more serious, but since the girls are at least three to four days into it, they’re probably past the point where they’re likely to have further complications.

No vaccinations today. Our pediatrician said we should wait a week or two until they’re definitely better before we subject them to shots. We’re considering a flu shot since there’s still some time left in the flu season and the girls are now over six months old. We scheduled another appointment for February 18th so the doctor can make sure their colds are gone and so that they can make up their shots.

Last Thursday, I reported that the girls contracted their first colds. Unfortunately, they’re still sick. Agnes told me that while we might get over a cold in about four days, kids under one year typically take something like seven to ten days.

Miranda was the one who was more sick last week–Eleanor still went to daycare on Friday. For the most part, she seems to be better. Her nose is running less. Her fever lasted only one day. Today her cough became a little more persistent. This also means she’s spitting up everything. We’ll feed her and she’ll be fine. Then she goes into a coughing fit and what seems like the entire contents of her stomach comes spewing out. She’s been going through many outfit changes and baths.

Eleanor wasn’t very sick last Thursday and Friday, but on Saturday, her nose suddenly became very runny. Several times a day, we have to suction out her nose. Her mucus is yellow and her eyes and cheeks looked swollen. We’re worried that she may have developed an eye infection. We also have to change her crib sheet a couple times a day because it gets covered in yellow spots of snot and spit-up. Thank goodness for the Ultimate Crib Sheet, which simply lays on top of the mattress and attaches to the rails of the crib. It’s much easier to change than the fitted sheet below. We have five of these sheets in rotation between the two cribs, and we’ve been doing laundry daily.

Agnes was doing okay last week, but she’s gotten worse in the past day or so. She’s developed a cough, but she may yet fight it off. She’s been trying to go to sleep early.

I’m better, more or less, fortunately.

So we’ll see. Hopefully by this time next week we’ll all be back to normal.

Miranda and Eleanor turned half a year old yesterday. We posted new photos of them for this past month.

Over the course of this past month, the girls ate their first solids, they went to daycare for the first time, and they caught their first colds. So far, Eleanor still doesn’t like her rice cereal. Miranda’s been starting to enjoy it though. We stopped the rice cereal when the girls got sick. Eleanor never got a fever, so she went back to daycare today. Miranda stayed home even though her fever is now gone.

This month, Miranda learned to roll over and both of them have noticed each other a lot more. They tend to get in each other’s way when they both try to roll over. Eleanor has developed kind of a backwards “scoot”, though she can’t control where she ends up.

We’ll have their weight and height on Tuesday after they see the doctor and get their shots. More pictures in another month.

Well, that didn’t take long at all. After only two days in daycare, the girls are sick. We knew that by putting Miranda and Eleanor into daycare, they would be exposed to a lot more germs and that they would eventually come down with a cold (and probably many of them throughout the cold season), but it’s surprising that it happened quite so quickly. What a present for their six-month birthday.

The daycare center called us this morning saying that we needed to come take Miranda home. She has a fever of 101° F and daycare policy says that she needs to be free of the fever for 24 hours before she can return. She has a runny nose and she’s been sleeping a lot. Her appetite seems a little suppressed and she’s been spitting up a lot more today. After I burped her today, I put the bottle back in her mouth–she gagged, coughed, and everything came up. This is a picture of Miranda.

Eleanor seems to be doing a little better. She has a runny nose, but it’s clear mucus and doesn’t seem to really bother her. She’s been sleeping more as well, but otherwise seems to be in a good mood.

I caught the same cold as well. Fortunately, I can take Dayquil to treat my symptoms. I’ve been sleeping a lot, too. So far, Agnes seems to be the only one who hasn’t gotten sick (knock on wood).

I guess we should be consoled that the more colds the girls get now, the fewer they’re likely to get when they go to school. There’s also data to suggest that getting a few colds early on diminishes the likelihood of developing allergies later. These colds are good practice for their immune systems. Six months was pretty good for avoiding their first colds, but now that the first one is here, it might have been nice to wait a little longer.

By the way, our six-month pictures may be delayed by a day or two.

Two nights ago, I had insomnia for the first time since I was nine months pregnant and was kept awake by pregnancy-induced heartburn. And yes, two days ago was the girls’ first day at daycare. I’ve been so chronically sleep-deprived since the birth of the girls that I usually fall asleep within five minutes of hitting the pillow, but two nights ago, I just lay there thinking about the girls and what they did at school. Don’t get me wrong, so far, daycare has been great. The girls seem to like it, the teachers are nice, and Bernard especially likes the little report that we get at the end of the day which documents to the minute every diaper change, every bottle, and every nap. It even has a comment area on the bottom which says “Today I . . .� Yesterday, Miranda’s comment box read, “Today I played with Kendall on the floor. How sweet.� Hmm, who is Kendall? And is Kendall a boy or a girl?

I think I’m just anxious because daycare represents the girls’ first time in the big scary world without me. Last night, I just wanted to go into their room, pick them up, and cuddle with them, but they were already tucked in for the night, so I didn’t. Apparently, it doesn’t get any better. My mom tells me that she lies awake at night all the time worrying about me and my siblings. And I’m thirty-two years old. Sigh.