Almost one and a half...

How did our twins grow so fast?  I seem to be missing time between them being helpless little preemies to tearing around toddlers.  It is all going too fast. Slow down time please. They will be one and a half years old in March!

Little Beauty

Beyond cuteness

17 Month Update!

Age: The babes were 17 months old on 18 Feb (15 months).

Height/Weight: We decided to weight them ourselves as they are really cooperative standing on the scale.  Not sure how accurate it is as I have been having issues with this scale - but that is another story. So if accurate, Finn weighs 11.3kg and Becky 9.4kg. I plotted the weights on their graphs and both are nicely above the median. Finn is only slightly taller than Becky, but they are definitely growing and many people comment on how tall they are.

Developmental notes: They have gone from being proficient walkers to running along in a toddling sort of a way - very amusing to watch.  They sort of lean forward and go for it at quite a speed sometimes. Both can turn around in circles. Both dance from side to side. Both bend over and reach between their legs. Both climb really well. So all in all great large muscle development going on.

They have so many new words, I can't remember them all. They say hello, bye, car, train, ball, kitty, all gone and more. SO cute!

Eating: They have started using a spoon and fork. Not that great at it yet, but we found these great suction bowls, so they can practice without flinging the whole bowl of food off the high chairs! I do feel that I would be feeding them much more variety if I was at home all day to cook, but now I prepare portions of various meals and freeze them or buy the woolies toddler meals which they like and are so convenient. It would be great to eat at the table together more like a family more often, but they have all their meals while we are at work. 

When they are older, we will try do dinner at 6:30-7pm together, bedtime at 19h30... They are still drinking milk in a morning and bedtime bottle. Will look to dropping the morning bottle soon and replace with a cup of milk maybe - but they love their morning bottle. They only drink milk and water, no juice at all. We brush their teeth every morning and night.

Sleep: Going SO well, with sleep throughs from 7pm tp 6/7am the norm now.  Still in seperate rooms though.  Finn occasionally wakes up for no apparent reason now and then crying - I think he wakes up in the dark and doesn't know where he is so I still think a night light may help. He is quickly settled though and goes back to sleep. It is because of this that I have left Becky in the study as she has happily slept through without being disturbed for months now and never wakes up - even when the house alarm goes off in her room! They are still napping twice a day for an hour each nap.

Sometimes when I am giving Finn his bedtime bottle, he will reach up and stroke my face and the other night he actually said nighty night after I said it to him...no words!

Favourite Things: They now have extra-mural activities lol. On Tuesdays one goes to Toptots and on Thursdays to swimming lessons, and then they swop the following week. Silvs sends us the cutest pictures of them doing cool stuff! I do miss not being able to be mommy doing this with them :(.

Dislikes: Fighting occasionally, being scratched by the naughty cat.

Looking forward to: Moving them into their bigger room and big beds - but I probably shouldn't rush this as I am sure we have midnight playtimes and little feet pattering into our room in the early hours as they will be able to get out of bed lol. 

Mommy and Daddy musings: The cuteness factor is in overdrive  - you are in such a gorgeous stage and we find your antics so amusing and your amazing development so incredible to watch! Becky gave me the hugest hug the other day - my heart melted into a flood of love - so precious.

Weighty issue

Okay. So I need to lose weight.  Quite a lot actually.

But being a hardened yo-yo dieter since my teens, I really needed a lifestyle change that I can live with forever instead of being on and off diets.  I find low fat, low calorie diets so depriving - yes, you get results, but you feel like you are on the deserted island of boring food - like you are being punished or imprisoned.  And once you have achieved your goal, you loosen up a little have the odd treat here and there...and before you know it you've put all the weight back on and more! This is pretty much how it rolls for me.

So now, having pushed the weight gain further than ever before, I recognise that it simply isn't working. I don't have a bad body image in that I still feel attractive per say...but only with my clothes on lol! I am now tired again of looking huge in anything I wear, and let's dont mention the photographs - that's where you truly notice how bad it has gotten.

So. In my quest for a lifestyle answer that we could both adopt (yes DH also wants to lose weight) and still achieve significant weight loss and health benefits, the Low Carb High Fat way of eating starting appearing more and more - also known as Swedish / Paleo / caveman diet etc Essentially it eliminates absolutely ALL carbohydrates including sugar / most fruit / anything high carb. You can eat meat, fats, nuts, cheese, all veggies above ground and berries in limitation.  This way of eating pushes your body into a ketonic state and you become a fat burning machine. Your body effectively self regulates your calorie intake as you are eating nutirent dense and satisfying / filling meals so you eat less! Other nenefits include that you sleep better, have more energy, lower cholesterol (carbs cause inflammation cause cholesterol issues - simple version / more info on blog links), lessens need for statins and other chronic meds etc etc etc

So I have started a blog dedicated to our low carb high fat journey: http://ourlchfjourney.wordpress.com/ - Just thought I had to acknowledge this here and if anyone is interested, you can check out more detail / info on this blog.  I am trying to include links about interesting low carb stuff that will help anyone also eating this way.  We are feeling great so far! Both our blood pressures have stabilised from high, we both have more energy, DH has lost 6kg and me about 5kg in a month. Still a way to go and because it is not a one size fits all diet, you need to make adjustments as you go along to keep weight loss going.

I have been neglecting this blog a little, but will definitely keep up with the twin's monthly updates, so will post the next soon as today they are 17 months old and what little cuties they are!