Will and Jon,

Soon, I will need to write you separate letters as you are getting more and more active and starting to show more of your own little quirks.  Today, we went to see Sis. Katie and Leah for the first time, at just a few weeks old, she is heavier than you were when we went home, Jon, but it doesn't seem like you were ever that little.  It is amazing just how much you grow and change in such a short time.  You both scout and roll around.  Finally tummy time doesn't seem so terrible to the two of you especially if you have each other or a sibling in the floor to talk to you.  You both can for short periods push up and lift your stomach off the ground.  You are both such strong boys.

Will you have become such a flirt.  You didn't smile as early as Jon, but you smile far more than he does.  You grin at everyone with that big open mouth and we can't help but smile back.  Jon you are more talkative than Will is.  You sound like a little dinosaur, when you go "rawr rawr, rawr," and grin and wait for me to repeat it back.  Will's favorite toy is the baby mirror.  You seem to find the other fellow great fun to talk to and try to eat.  I don't know if you think it is a toy, another baby, or your twin when you see yourself, but you do like to smile and babble to yourself.  Jon's favorite toy is definitely his glowworm seahorse.  You can be fussing up a storm and we can turn that thing on and hand it to you, and it seems to solve a world of problems.

You have stretched your feedings out in the last month.  The doctor got me all paranoid because Will you dropped from the 9% to the 5%, and Jon is still hanging out at the 1%.  But you know what.  You are both growing and thriving, you both are still meeting milestones, you both look healthy.  So I decided to stick with my gut (and the science) and wait a while longer about starting solids.  You tend to eat about 5 to 6 times a day now, stretching 4 to 5 hours in the day, with shorter breaks in the evenings.  I'm making peace with not having much time to myself for my bible study and planning time for now.  I still nurse you together at times, but it is getting more and more difficult, you both have been in the habit of holding hands while I nurse you, but you are adding in kneeing each other and grabbing at each other so that you spend almost as much time playing and dripping milk as you do actually eating.

Nights are going much better too.  The sleep sacks in part have done wonders in that department, because you aren't waking yourselves up squirming out of the covers.  In the last week we have moved you both into the crib in your room.  We are still having some late nights, but most of the time we are able to get you both down between 11 and midnight.  Daddy gives you a bath and I nurse you one at a time.  Will first because you are easier to get down.  You almost always nurse off to sleep, but even if you don't, as long as you have that milk drunk look to you I can lay you down and you will go off to sleep on your own.  It's a real blessing.  You don't even wake up Jon if he happens to make it down before you.  Jon, you still fight sleep but usually nursing, sometimes followed by rocking and patting gets you out.  But I have to be sure you are really asleep before I try to put you down, or you will have none of it.  For the most part you both sleep until early morning.  Will is often ready for breakfast between 5 and 6:30 but then goes back to sleep in our bed for a few more hours.  Jon, you sleep longer but by 6:30 to 8 you are up, and after nursing are ready to talk and smile and play with your siblings for several hours.

Despite sleeping better at night, you both are still lousy nappers.  You never sleep at the same time during the day, and even when you do it is almost impossible to put you down or get you to nap without being held.  It is making the school week a marathon that leaves me thankful that it's Friday and ready to crash over the weekend.

Perhaps the most exciting development has been you trying to crawl, William.  At the homeschool convention, one afternoon, I had just finished washing my hair, when Daddy called, "Will's crawling."  I told him you weren't, and he insisted no, you really were but didn't take any video.  Twice now, you have managed to pull your elbows together under your chest and push with your toes to rock and fall forward.  Then you pull your arms back up and put them together and repeat the process.  At the hotel you inched all the way across a king sized bed that way.  Here at home once you have managed to cross your blanket in the floor that way.  I'm not ready for you two to be movers and shakers, but I am watching your little personalities blossom.

On that note, there was one other development this month, we discovered that the two of you are indeed identical twins.  I was just sure that you were fraternal twins like your uncles, and so despite the fact that you look so much alike I was a little surprised.  I'm a little sad for you because some people seem to view identical twins as if they are the same person in two different bodies, and as your mother I want everyone to see how unique and special you each are.  On the other hand, the more I read about identical twins and the science that makes it possible, the more amazing it becomes that there can even be such a thing.  It makes the two of you seem even more miraculous, even more of a blessing.  Nevertheless, we love you both dearly and no matter how others out in the world view you, in our home you are both loved for the two special people that you are.  (But that doesn't mean that I'm going to quit dressing you both and your much older brother in the same clothes for Church for as long as I can get away with it.)

We love you,
Momma