When we posted last month’s pictures, we included one that showed a white spot on Miranda’s lower gum. We said that it was a tooth starting to poke through. We even said “It’s definitely a tooth”.

It was there for a couple of weeks, and then about a week after we posted that picture, it disappeared. One day it was there, and we were showing it to Agnes’ mom, and the next day it was gone! What in the heck was it? It’s been gone for about two weeks now and we have not seen any sign of a tooth. That’s fine. I don’t care if they have teeth right now, but what was that?

Bernard’s been driving up to Santa Monica for work and getting home late, so I’ve taken over the childcare duties since the kids started daycare in February. I’ve fallen into quite a routine.

I haven’t used my alarm clock since the morning of my schedule C-section. The kids start making noise sometime between 5:15 and 5:45. Usually it’s just talking noises, but my sensitive Mommy ears can pick them up. We never bought a monitor either since I can hear them two rooms away just fine.

I refuse to go to them until 6 am, so as not to encourage them to wake up earlier and earlier for my attention. So I usually take a shower, start the bottles warming, pick out what I’m going to wear for work, and get their supplies ready for daycare.

Then, I go in to get the girls. Miranda, who’s on the right, is upset that I’m taking a picture instead of picking her up. Eleanor is hugging her purple rabbit.

I change their diapers and feed both of them. Then, it’s time to get dressed for school. If I’m running late, I just send them to school in their sleepers, but since they’re starting to crawl, I prefer them to be in their jeans. I only dress them alike about 10 percent of the time. These are some faux trendy shirts that my mom’s friend from Tokyo sent them. I think there’s some fake English written on the front. Miranda is on the right.

Yes, it’s actually cold enough in California for jackets and hats. It’s been about 40 degrees in the mornings here. Doing the whole get-up takes 30 minutes. Don’t even get me started on what happens when one of them spits up all over the outfit that I just put on. Eleanor is on the left.

Most moms, when they get to daycare, just pick up their kid and walk them inside. Since I can’t carry them both at the same time and carry the duffel with their supplies, I have to strap them into the stroller and wheel them in. Miranda is in front.

They’re smiling at their teacher. Eleanor is on the right.

Then, I go to work, which is right across the street. I often look out the window to see the daycare, even though they’re never outside. This month, I’m on the Adult Neurology Consult service, which means I run around every floor of the hospital giving neurological input for patients on the Medicine and Surgical services. Here I am, filling out our infamous yellow consult form.

I pick them up from daycare around 5:30 pm. Then, I begin the evening ritual. Recently, I’ve been putting them in their high chairs to try Cheerios and other solids. Then, it’s bathtime. We call our Superyard XT the “ultimate fighting ring”. Here’s Eleanor playing in the ring, while Miranda gets her bath.

It’s 7 pm and time for their bedtime bottles. Sometimes I feed them one after another, but they’re usually both clamoring for milk by this time, so I’ve been feeding them both at the same time. Sometimes I let Miranda lie on the floor and feed herself, but it tends to get kind of messy, and since she’s just had a bath, I generally don’t do it. This picture was taken on a Saturday morning since Bernard had to be around to take the picture. Miranda is on the right.

By 7:30, they’re done with their bottles and I put them in their crib. They’re generally good about grabbing their stuffed animal, flipping over, and going to sleep. Then, it’s time for the dreaded chores. I have a daily mantra, which is “bottles, dishes, trash, laundry, toys. . .” I repeat this to myself so that I don’t forget anything. The bottles need to be washed, sterilized, and made for the next day. They each have 4 bottles a day, and the little bottles are for milk to be mixed with rice cereal. We still sterilize the bottles even though it’s probably not necessary, but I feel I can be a little lax on the scrubbing if they are sterilized. The bottles for daycare have masking tape on the top with their names and the date. I also try to make dinner, since Bernard and I don’t like to order out.

Daddy’s home! Bernard’s been getting home around 8:15 pm these days, so he’s been missing the girls completely. We have dinner and finish our chores. “Bottles, dishes, trash, laundry, toys. . .” Bernard’s been preparing most of the bottles and doing the dishes. The Diaper Champ needs to be changed, and we do laundry about six times a week, so almost every day. Yes, we actually have a full load that often. I also try to wipe down their toys with alcohol, but I’ve been kind of flaking off on that chore recently. By this time it’s around 10 pm, and I’m about to keel over. We talk, watch TV, and I’m off to bed by 10:30 pm.

Stay tuned next month for Bernard’s Day in the Life. He’s going to have to take over all the childcare duties in April because I’m doing a rotation in Neurosurgery at a hospital that’s 30 miles away. This means I’ll be out of the house before 5 am, and doing long 15 hour days, and getting home at who knows what time.

Recently a couple of friends came by to visit and they brought a few gifts for our girls. We got two cute new outfits and rattles in the shape of a duck and a frog. After they left, we unclipped the rattles from the piece of cardboard they were pinned to and gave them to Miranda and Eleanor. Though the front of the duck looked normal, even cute, we soon found it was a MUTANT duck.

We turned the duck over and found that the other side HAD NO EYE! No second wing either. Do we really want Miranda thinking this is what ducks look like?

I’m guessing this saves about two cents in manufacturing to leave off the second eye and wing, but it’s just not right.

I’m talking to a male co-worker whose wife stays at home with their eight month old.

ME: We’re screwed. My kids are starting to combat crawl and we haven’t child-proofed the house yet.

MALE CO-WORKER: Oh, let me give you a link to this company that will come to your house and do a safety evaluation. Then, they’ll child-proof it for you if you want.

ME: Really? Where did you hear about it?

MALE CO-WORKER: Oh, at Emily’s Mommy-and-Me class.

ME: Hmm. I don’t do Mommy-and-Me.

Today was St. Patrick’s Day. I instantly realized it when I brought the kids into the daycare and everyone was wearing green. Neither Eleanor nor Miranda had a speck of green on them. I didn’t feel that bad until one of their teachers said, “I went to Target at 10 o’clock last night to buy this green shirt.”

On Valentine’s Day last month, I went to pick up the girls from daycare and their cubby was full of little “You’re mine” cards and candy from the other babies in their class. I felt like saying, “Umm, did you notice that our kids are six months old and can’t eat heart-shaped candy yet?”

I told my mom who is a preschool teacher what happened and she said, “What! You didn’t bring anything? Did you at least bring treats for the teachers?”

Oh great. I can hear them now–“What’s wrong with Eleanor and Miranda’s mom?”

Back in December, we posted a photo of Eleanor and Miranda sitting on our bed. At that time, they couldn’t sit for more than a few seconds before falling over. Last month, we had a photo where Eleanor had been sitting for a while. While the girls can generally sit for as long as they want these days, playing with blocks or other toys, they can’t push themselves up into a sitting position yet when they’re lying on the ground.

Monday night, as I was getting ready for bed, I heard Eleanor crying. I went in to check on her and I found her doing just that–she was pushing herself up to the point where she was sitting in her crib. Thank goodness we thought to lower her crib this past week. I don’t think Eleanor can reach the top of her crib from a sitting position, but we’re going to need to watch out for that and lower her crib yet again if we see her reaching.

It was night time, so I didn’t want to take a picture of Eleanor sitting in her crib (the flash in an otherwise dark room would be too traumatic), but I included another photo taken recently of Eleanor playing on the ground while sitting. All the movement in the picture is from her thrashing around an empty package of wipes and a pair of Agnes’ socks.

Miranda sits fairly well these days, but she’ll still occasionally fall over while trying to reach for something. No evidence yet of her pushing herself up into a sitting position, but it’ll happen when it happens.

Until recently, we’ve had a Symphony in Motion mobile above each of the girls’ cribs. We bought one and Sophia let us borrow the other. They’re nice–they play three different pieces of music and the dangling animals twirl around.

A couple weekends ago, I heard some noise coming from the nursery. I peeked in and saw that Miranda had reached up and grabbed her mobile and was yanking it over and over. She hadn’t quite brought it down onto her head, but it was pretty close. When I walked in, she stopped her yanking and turned to look at me. She just had a matter-of-fact sort of expression on her face. She wasn’t trying to play innocent or anything.

I straightened the mobile and a little later we took it away. The base of the mobile that plays music is still there, but no swirling animals for Miranda. The mobile itself seems to be undamanged, which is good because it’s the one we’re borrowing. Eventually we’ll need to lower her crib mattress, but for now she seems okay without the mobile dangling above her. She has a rattle that is shaped like a duck in her crib, and when we put her to bed she grabs it and turns over to smother it.

We have a video clip of Miranda throttling her mobile. It’s available in a few different formats. The quality of the video isn’t significantly different from one format to another–just the file size and the video format.

Miranda and Eleanor turned seven months last Thursday. It’s been a busy week at work or I would have had the pictures up sooner.

Most of the month was spent being miserable from their first colds. Agnes and I both caught the same thing as well so we were all sick. I think it took longer than normal to get over being sick because we were all sick together.

Aside from the rice cereal that we were feeding the girls last month, we’ve also introduced bananas, apples, and peas. Miranda is still eating better than Eleanor. It’s a bit of hit or miss with Eleanor on if she’s going to take her solids. We’ll have to write an update about that some time.

In general, the girls have been noticing each other even more. They smile at each other and try to roll and otherwise make their way over to each other. Eleanor can get up on her hands and knees and kind of fall forward. It means that she can make some slow forward progress, but it’s not quite crawling yet.

More pictures in another month.