Two Tooths!

– Oh hi there everyone! 

– Did mommy tell you all my big news? 

– Let's see... what was it again?

– Oh yes. My tooths. They is right here. I have TWO now! They are fun to play with. 

– But I have to make sure I don't show 'em off too much. I's not ready for a visit from that Tooth Fairy lady I keep hearing 'bout. Stay away Tooth Fairy lady!

Mommy note: Nate was having a grand time playing peekaboo with me while I snapped these pics. Peekaboo is a big hit with both boys and they absolutely love it when you "find" them. I get the some of the biggest grins I've seen around here with this simple game.

And now at least one of those grins is getting pretty toothy! I love it. : )

- L.

Showing You All How It's NOT Done

Last weekend M. bought the boys a new toy for ages 6 months and up. It has all kinds of do-dads and fun things on it. It rattles, things spin and it is wonderfully colorful. I couldn't wait to get it out of the box and show it to Nate and Seth – although getting toys free of their boxes these days seems to require a degree in advanced engineering, so it took awhile.

At last I had it ready to go and was just in the process of showing it to the babies when Seth snatched it out of my hand and promptly clobbered himself. : (

And you know that thing babies do when they hurt themselves and they open their mouth to cry but no sound comes out? Well, he did that.

Thank goodness some cuddles and kisses saved the day and he was happy and wanting to play again in less than 3 minutes. I thought for sure he'd given himself a good shiner since you can see a bit of a bruise under his eye in this pic: 

But by morning there was no bruise, just a bit of a red mark where his eyelid got scraped.

*whew*

Or so I thought. The next evening when I went to feed them their bedtime meal, I saw this: 

At first I thought it was a shadow/trick of the light since it was not very bright outside at this point, but no... it's a shiner. I have no idea if it was from the night before since the bruise appeared to be gone by morning, and it doesn't really make sense that it would it suddenly reappear. A new bruise from something else then? I have no idea, but despite all appearances, Seth is a very active baby and it's entirely possible this was a fresher injury.

Ugh.

But wait – it gets worse, because not 2 days later, there was an equally impressive bruise under his other eye.

Oh, Seth.

I thought about taking a picture of that one as well because that would have completed the trifecta of injuries, but his shirt was terribly dirty at the time (we'd just had our peas and bananas and their new bibs can only hold back so much). In the end, I decided against it. 3 injuries in one week, 2 bruised eyes and a dirty shirt?

Too much.

I might as well call CPS myself. *sigh*

What makes this all so confounding is that for the most part, all of their toys are soft, plushy things. And Seth wasn't around any of the ones that aren't when the last 2 injuries happened. And also, they are rarely unattended and if they are it's only for a few minutes while they seem happy and are playing so their mommy can get a bathroom break or grab a quick bite. There wasn't any crying either (other than the original injury) and although the boys do get in a few kicks to the face here and there when they are playing together, no one was in a position to do that when I left the room or when I returned.

So... confusing, confounding and oh, look – there's that mommy guilt again.

Seth, please stop hurting yourself however you are managing it, my son. It makes your mommy worry and I don't like it. I don't like it at all.

- L.

Showing You All How It's Done

Nate has been seriously working on holding his own bottle here and there over the past week, but it still caught me off guard yesterday when he decided it was really time to go for it. I scrambled to get the camera as fast as I could and got a great clip of his antics. Check it out over on our YouTube™ channel!

The middle part is a little long, but something told me to keep the camera running and I'm glad I did since the ending is priceless. Hope you enjoy it as much as I do!

- L.

PS. The camera shakes from time to time were from Seth kicking my elbow while I was filming.

Our 100th Post!

... of 2010 that is. Since I missed the occasion of our actual 100th post back in June I thought I'd do the next best thing and celebrate our 100th post of this year – and what better way to do so than with one of our out-take pics from our 6 month photo shoot? Without further ado, the Oddest Prime presents a rather odd photo:

Do you see what I mean?

What is going on with Nate's bent arm in this photo? Are babies really this... malleable? I've got pretty flexible elbow joints myself, but I can't even come close to this pose – and he looks so comfortable doing it. Does he even have a joint in there? Is his arm broken? How is he doing that? I don't know!

And then there's Seth's shirt strap. It looks like I've starched his outfit or like it must be made out of some rather stiff material, but these onesies are so soft and stretchy I don't even know how it's possible for the strap to be doing that. I don't get it. It looks like he has an invisible coat hanger in there!

- L.

All Things 6 Months

Nate and Seth celebrated their first half-birthday on Monday, August 1st. They tried out solid food for the very first time and although reviews were mixed, it is a decidedly good thing now. So far we've worked our way through the sweet potatoes and have moved on to peas. The peas are a hit, which surprised me somewhat since they have a little more texture to them. When you make your own you can never get them as smooth as store-bought, but neither of the babies seemed the least bit fazed. We'll be moving on to bananas and avocados in the next few days.

The other big thing we all did that day was a photo and video shoot and if you've already visited us at our YouTube™or Flickr™ pages, then you've already seen what we got up to. The boys did a great job of showing off their moves rolling on the bed. Nate doesn't quite get all the way over in the video, but he's definitely got the hang of it. They are both so close to crawling it's a little scary.

Here's a little teaser in case you haven't been over to see the entire set of Nate and Seth in their 6 month muscle onesies. I thought them most appropriate for the occasion and was so pleased they still fit.

– Whoa Nate! Look out, it's that mommy person with the camera again. 

The other big 6 month update is of course, our 6 month visit to the pediatrician for Nate and Seth's checkup and shots. For the record, I'm so glad we're done with shots for the next 6 months, but this time was pretty easy all things considered since I feel comfortable giving them Tylenol now and what a difference it made! I don't know that I've even seriously considered writing a thank you letter to a company before, but I probably should in this case. The babies were so much more themselves than either of the two previous times they've had their shots and I'm glad I could offer them something other than cuddles to make them more comfortable.

As always, the boys are doing great and the checkup went well. It was noted with much enthusiasm that we have some TALL babies on our hands and certainly they are relative to their weights. Seth is still in the 10th percentile for weight and Nate is in the 25th – but both boys are in the 50th percentile for height. No wonder they're always outgrowing their outfits before they fill them out.

Here are the stats for those of you who like stats:

Nate: 15.75 lbs. or 15 lbs. 9 oz. (7.155 kg) | 27.5 in. (70 cm)

Seth: 14.95 lbs. or so close to 15 lbs. let's just say he's 15 lbs. (6.785 kg) | 27.1 in. (69 cm)

- L.

A Few Changes At The Oddest Prime

You may have noticed a few changes quietly happening over the past couple of days on our blog. The Oddest Prime now has it's own channel over on YouTube™ for you to view all their video appearances. I'll be adding more of the archived videos as time permits, and new ones as they happen.

We also opened a Flickr™ account to store all our best photos, and as with our video channel I'll be adding from the archives over the next several weeks and posting new photos as well. All the images are high resolution 5x7's and are available for download – which is likely very exciting news for anyone who has asked for printed photos of the boys (or for Gammas with a digital frame!).

Here's how to download from our Flickr™ page:

When you've selected an image to view, you should see a screen like this:

Directly above the image on the left is a button called ACTIONS, and if you roll your cursor over it, you will see the option to view all sizes. Selecting that option will take you to a page where you can choose the size you'd like and download it to your computer. Pretty simple, no? 

Hope you all enjoy the new features we've added, and I'll do my best to get more content added as fast as the babies will let me.

- L.

First Solids

I was so excited to start taking pictures yesterday after I got everyone into their highchairs for their first meal that I almost forgot the bibs. Whoops!

Much better. Now we are properly suited up:

Here's Nate after his first spoonful of sweet potatoes:

He wasn't at all sure what to think at first, but after a few more spoonfuls it was a decidedly less than favorable review.

Here is Seth after his first spoonful:

I love the look on Nate's face in the background. You can see he is very apprehensive about the new food and everything that comes with it.

Seth on the other hand seemed to really enjoy his sweet potatoes, although he would like you to know that the spoon is definitely the best part.

And if the pic isn't enough to convince you, there's video:

Sorry for the camera shake, but I had a very squirmy Nate on my lap at this point.

And just in case you haven't had your fill of messy faces, there are a couple video clips of the boys in action. Here is Nate being less than impressed:

And Seth between spoonfuls surreptitiously chewing on his bib:

- L.