Babies' eating habits

I just wanted to write a quick post about Gabi and Alexi's eating habits as far as solid food is concerned as it has been a hot topic around here.
Alexi has been eating from a spoon like a champ pretty much from Day 1, which was almost 2 months ago at age 4 1/2 months. We started with simple pureed fruits and Alexi is up to eating solids 3 times a day now and enjoying every bite!
Off the bat Gabi was reluctant. She was disinterested and would spit most of it out, but it seemed mostly due to a tongue reflex. So, here we are 2 months into 'eating solid foods' and Gabi won't even open her mouth for the spoon.. well not willingly at least. We just about did everything short of cartwheels to get her to laugh or smile so we can slip a spoonful of whatever mush we had at the time into her mouth. She is mastering smiling with her mouth closed :-(. And she is so fast.. as soon as she sees the spoon coming... she SHUTS her mouth.
So, over the last few days we made an amazing discovery. Sunday morning as I was eating my waffles I realized that she was staring at me while I ate and she started opening her mouth! So, we ripped off a small piece and held it out to her. To our astonishment, she opened her mouth and reached out her hands!! (Of course we didn't feed waffle to her). She did the same thing when she saw Giagia drinking water from a glass; she opened her mouth. We have given her little sips here and there form a glass and she takes it! Today, we held out a banana to her and she -very excitedly- started sucking on it! Apparently, we are going to skip the whole pureed baby food stage with Gabi and go right into safe, soft finger foods.

Below is a picture of some of the pureed food I made for the babies tonight. I freeze it and everyday I take some out to defrost for that day.

What you see below is a variety of things. I steam the fruits and veggies and then puree them in the food processor.
The orange ones are carrot/pear and sweet potato/apple. The green-ish ones are peas/apple/pear.
The 3 little glass jars on the far right contain steamed pieces of apple, pear and sweet potato. I plan on trying to give them to Gabi tomorrow. Wish me luck!

Happy Thanksgiving!

6 months old!!!

Links to Videos

I have been trying to upload 2 more videos for 2 days now to no avail. I assume it is due to their large size. They are of 1- my final attempt to put Gabi down for a nap (continuation of yesterday's videos) AND 2- Alexi's attempts at crawling.

Click on the links below to view the videos.

Alexi is trying to master his technique, at this point. He is very good and very determined and can move about 1 yard in either direction. (He was a bit cranky in this video, but I don't get a chance to video them very often, so it will have to do. Most of the time he really is so happy and giggly.)
Gabi is not as motivated yet to crawl. She is still more interested in analyzing things and people. She needs to see everything and cannot miss a single beat.

As they approach the 6 month mark, the differences between them are more and more apparent. He is a tough, active little guy while she is gingerly and dainty. They are both so sweet, fun and lovable. They're keepers! :-)

Gabi: http://www.mediafire.com/file/mht22oytknz
Alexi: http://www.mediafire.com/file/tqd02zlmijm

Videos: My failed attempt to put Gabi down for a nap :-)

This is just a glimpse of some fun I was having with Gabi today. They are becoming more and
more playful all the time.

First 2 tries....

Our 1st Halloween.. and the week leading up :-)

We are 5 months old!!!

I can't believe it.. 5 months!

Gabi and Alexi are so much fun now! They are also much easier for me to handle on my own as they can entertain themselves quite well.
They can both roll over. Although, Alexi is much more interested in physical activities. He rolls over just about every time you place him on his back and as of yesterday he has started trying very hard to crawl. He is making quite good progress too.. it is rather scary as I cannot leave him alone for a second anymore. He is very strong.
Gabi is more interested in analyzing things and people. She has very intelligent eyes. We all agree that she is wise beyond her years, or months in this case :-). She seems to understand quite a bit. She loves sounds and is always twisting this way and that way to see what is happening. She doesn't want to skip a beat! She loves to focus on people and 'take part' in conversations. She can be very vocal. And she even said 'Ga-Ga' the other day.. Alex and I almost fell off of our chairs :-). She started trying to put sounds together as opposed to just screeching.. it is very amusing!
A few weeks ago we started slowly trying some fruits and rice cereal. Alexi eats from a spoon like a champ! Gabi is not as interested yet.. we have to keep trying with her until she gets the hang of it.
They both love to smile and laugh a lot!! (Video is of Gabi cracking up. I will tape Alexi too and post it soon)
They bring us all tons of joy and entertainment!

In other news: we recently first met and spent time with our great Uncle Zoltan and our Grandfather, Zoli-tata. Pictures below.

Fall is here..

We are now well into our 4th month and doing great! Well, except for having some restless nights lately due to teething (after finally almost sleeping through the nights :-( ... but so far, we are hanging in there.
We really are happy babies.

Here are some pix of us playing around, bundled up in our stroller and celebrating Nagymama's Birthday!

Our first professional photo shoot - 9/8/09

We weren't sure how the babies would do and how patient they would be but, as the pictures illustrate, they did so well!

Labor Day Weekend! 9/5/09

Here are some recent pictures of us hanging out and playing with family and friends. We had fun with our big cousins Eniko and Tibi. Also, we discovered that it is fun chewing on things. We are getting very good at holding toys.