Handful of Heppers: Hip Hip Hooray, the Twins are 4 Months Old Today!!

(Well they actually turned 4 months old yesterday, but I was too tired to finish the post before I went to bed so it's up one day late.)

Margaret/Julia

It's hard to believe that Julia and Margaret turned four months old today, but it's true. I don't have any weight or height stats for you because we don't actually go for our 4 month well visit until the 20th. Which is probably good because I'd love for the girls to have several extra days of eating (and hopefully weight gaining) under their belts before we hit the scales again.

Stats aside, the girls are making amazing strides developmentally and of course, continue to be just too cute for words. Both girls can roll over from tummy to back and Julia can roll over from back to tummy. Both girls are grabbing toys, cooing, kicking with excitement, tracking people, sounds, and objects, and have great head control. Both girls have also found their hands, have mastered the art of getting their fingers into their mouths and have developed a great love for those tasty digits.
Temperament-wise, these ladies are fantastic. They love to ride in the car and can be dragged around town when Caroline's schedule demands, they will play alone for quite some time, and they generally receive manhandling from big sister C without complaint.

Here are some differences between the girls...

Julia:
Julia is quite the Momma's girl these days. She prefers to held by me and when she can hear my voice in the room, she'll throw her head up and down and side to side until she finds me. She's earned the nickname "Screaming Eagle" in our house because when she isn't happy, she lets loose a shriek/cry that sounds exactly like a giant eagle might make as it swoops down on a poor helpless mouse. Thankfully, Julia is generally happy so we don't hear that sound too frequently.
Julia is a little further along than Margaret in her ability to grab and play with toys and so she will spend lots of time playing independently. She gets very excited when she sees her family members and always gives a big smile and hearty leg kicks when one of us comes into her line of vision. Julia also loves looking at Margaret and cooing at her.
An area of needed improvement for Julia (that line came directly from my days as a teacher!) is her sleeping habits. Boy oh boy, the girl needs to improve majorly in this area. It's typically around 4 months that you see a sleep regression in infants. Well, that would require some progress to have occurred and with Julia, I don't think we ever saw any. Poor child still tries to get up up to 5 times a night and would love it if a nap was defined as a 20 minute long resting period.

Julia, aka "The Screaming Eagle"

Margaret:
Margaret is what I call a "user friendly" baby. She's the baby that is usually handed over to a friend or my babysitter when I need help because she's pretty happy-go-lucky and will tolerate being held by a perfect stranger if necessary.
Like Julia, Margaret lights up with a huge smile when she sees one of us. She's really into faces and will charm your socks off by batting her long eyelashes and with her sweet coos. As you may have seen in previous posts, Margaret is quite enamored with her feet. She could probably spend a good half hour staring at them, especially if there's something colorful down there.
Margaret is a stellar sleeper. She loves to nap and is able to pull 6-7 hours of sleep straight during the night as long as the "Screaming Eagle" doesn't wake her up.