Gabriel and Zeke are quickly catching up with their term counterparts. Here are the stats from yesterday’s 4-month wellness check-up:

• Gabriel weighs 12 pounds, 10 ounces; he is 23″ long; and his head is 16″ in diameter
• Zeke weighs 13 pounds, 1 ounce; he is 22″ long; and his head is 16 1/4″ around

Granted, Houston weighed more than 17 pounds at 4 months old, but big brother has always been extremely robust for his age.

Also, Zeke’s umbilical hernia looks like it’s deflating and the doctor confirmed that it is indeed going away on its own. What a huge relief.

“Eating rice cereal is fun,” says Gabriel. 

Gabriel and Zeke started “eating” solids on 2/18 and have already vastly improved their skills since then. They consume 2-3 tablespoons of rice cereal each a day and about 5 ounces of breast milk per feeding. This advanced menu has not only helped the twins grow big and strong, but it has also assisted in getting them both to consistently sleep through the night.

We weren’t able to swing the circus a few weekends ago like we had hoped, but we had a great weekend with Granny, Grumps and Duke dog nonetheless. They even watched all the kids so that Stephen and I could have a belated Valentine’s Day dinner out — our first time to a restaurant since the twins were born.

Granny also helped us get all three kids to church that Sunday; this was the twins’ first trip out from the house for anything other than pediatric appointments. Then the very next day, I packed up all the dudes and took them to a play date … and we were only 15 minutes late! It was at our old neighbor Jessica’s house. Houston was ecstatic to play with her daughter, Gracie, whom he hadn’t seen since they moved from our hood in the fall.

“This is so much easier than a binky,” says Zeke. 

Zeke has always liked binkies … when he could get them going, that is. I decided it was way too time consuming to coach him, so I stopped offering him pacifiers a couple weeks ago. And lo and behold, that boy finally discovered his thumb and the two of us couldn’t be happier. Zeke also recently discovered that fake coughing is a good way to get attention from Mommy.

Gabriel is pretty low maintenance as far as the oral fixations go, although he does fancy munching on his fists. (Combine all that clenching and drool and it’s no wonder why Stephen and I refer to them as his “ass hands.”) I usually have to restrain his hands when he’s eating rice cereal, but at least I won’t have to break him of a major obsession down the road.

And speaking of obsessions, Houston is quite passionate about his binkies. He has been biting and tearing them apart as of late, so they are slowly making their way into the trash. We have informed our little addict that when his stash is depleted, his binky days are over. I’d say he probably has about eight left at the moment, so the countdown is on.

Houston wonders, “What the heck did Mommy & Daddy do with all my hair?”

Houston has also been putting words together to form more complex thoughts. For example, “Daddy vroom vroom” translates to “Daddy rides a motorcycle” and “gocks agua” means “My socks are wet because I stepped in Duke’s water bowl.” (Yes, Stephen is already teaching him Spanish.) 

Click the above photo of the hairless boy wonder to check out all the February – Part 2 photos and the thumb-sucking pic of Zeke to see all the more recent images.