Milestones and such

I don't spend a lot of time assessing whether Leah and Elliot are hitting their milestones according to the charts and books, but I actually think that they are right on schedule and doing really well, especially given that they were born three weeks early.  However, I do want to make a point of writing down what they are doing more often (since I suck at keeping up with their baby books), so I'll try to start making note of their current skills here.  At six months and two weeks they are:

• Sitting unassisted for long periods of time.  They both will topple if they try to reach for something out of range or if they look up quickly and lose balance, but they are really quite stable.  They cannot, however, get into a sitting position on their own yet.
• Reaching and dragging toys towards them.
• Laughing (they have been doing it for a while, but now we can reliably get them to giggle by tickling them or "squishing" them).
• Blowing rasperries and babbling a bit. 
• Staring at books being read to them (and grab and eat them, which is not as helpful).
• Rolling over both ways with ease.
• Trying desperately to crawl, especially when there is a cat within view.  It is hilarious to watch them frantically kicking their legs and waving their arms, but their bellies are stuck to the floor.  They get incredibly frustrated.  I predict Leah will crawl first because I have seen her get up on her knees momentarily and she has a lighter load to carry.
• Holding their own bottles.  Elliot is doing it pretty consistently.  He actually does it one-handed, which is one of the cutest things ever.  He's so chill about it.  Leah can do it, but isn't as interested in doing it all the time. 
• Pulling things off their faces if we cover them (like burp cloths and such).  The beginnings of peekaboo, I suppose.

That's what I can remember for the moment.  We are very close to having mobile babies, I believe, which is frightening in itself.  Craig doesn't think that the babies will go out of their way to destroy all of our possessions, but I'm pretty sure they will.  I hope he is right.  

They are eating their solids very well.  So far, they are fans of sweet potatoes, applesauce, banana, avocado (took a few tries), carrots and oatmeal.    Tonight we plan to try pears and then squash this weekend.  Thanks to Craig for making all of our baby food (with the exception of the cereals).