7 and 8 months old!

Well the 7 month update just slipped right by me..ha!  The twins were 7 months old on November 27 and I completely forgot to take their picture.  It has been a whirlwind the last couple of months so I am just going to combine these two updates and go with it!  I don't have much time to blog but I do want to document some things here so here goes!  

8 months old on December 27!

FEEDING:  The babies eat great.  They nurse 7 times a day but some days just 6 as we are trying to head in that direction.  

We started giving them solids at the beginning of November.  The first thing they had was acorn squash.  Benton LOVES food and Emery is not the biggest fan.  He will eat anything I try to feed him but Emery has to be in the mood.  Besides squash they have had carrots, green beans, peas, apples, bananas, and sweet potatoes.  I can usually get Emery to eat a couple of bites and then Benton just eats the rest of it.  

We got highchairs for Christmas and I LOVE THEM

This was when we were out for breakfast at our favorite place.  We gave them gravy since it was the first thing Blakely had.  Sappy, I know.  Benton wasn't sure...Emery loved it.  Since then totally opposite.  (no gravy though!)

I am making the baby food just like I did with Blakely.  I spent one afternoon boiling, steaming and baking all the food.  Then I puree it and freeze it in ice cubes trays.  Once frozen, I pop them out and put them in ziplocs in the freezer.  So easy and makes a bunch so I have only had to do it once in 2 months.

SLEEPING:  Oh these babies are so different in this category.  Whew.  Benton sleeps great for naps during the day.  Emery fights naps but eventually gives it up.  They take 3 naps per day with the last one being a cat nap in the evening (Emery fights this one the most but she just can't make it to bedtime without it).  

The night sleeping.  Oh the night sleeping.  Emery has always been great at this.  Put her down at 830 and she sleeps until 7-730.  Benton wakes up at least once to eat.  Then they got sick in December.  Both had ear infections.  Emery would not sleep laying down...I guess the pressure on her ear or something?  Anyway, so she's been waking up multiple times a night.  Benton got an ear infection about a week after her and started waking up multiple times at night.  I couldn't just let them cry because I knew they didn't feel good.  So it has been a REALLY rough 6-8 weeks of no sleep for me.  

Benton is finally better and off his antibiotics.  Emery got another ear infection and is on a second round of antibiotics BUT no one is sleeping.  I am pretty much at the end of my rope on the no sleep.  I feel like a zombie every single day and it is really wearing on me.  I am determined to make them sleep at night...New Year's Resolution!  Ha!  

When I feed them early in the morning between 6 and 7 I just put them in bed with me and lay down to nurse.  Sometimes they both fall back asleep and those are the best snuggles in the entire world.  I will miss it so much when they stop doing this.  

CLOTHING:  They both wear 9 month clothes but if they don't have a cloth diaper on then those are too big.  Emery can really fit in 6 month stuff if it weren't for the big booty diapers.  

DIAPERS:  Cloth diapers during the day and a (size 2) disposable at night.  

WEIGHT: I am guessing Emery is about 14 pounds and a few ounces and Benton is getting close to 16 pounds.  We've been to the doctor for sickies a couple of times and they weighed close to that with their clothes and diaper.  

HEIGHT: Another guess but probably an inch or so long her than at their 6 month check up. SO Emery 26 1/2 and Benton 27 1/2.

HAIR:  Benton's hair appears to be darker that Emery's.  Hers is growing super fast and hangs down over her ears now.  

EYES:  both have blue eyes with Benton's being a darker blue.  I think Emmmers is going to have the bluest eyes of any of us.  

These babies think I am hilarious!  

A few things about Benton:

• he is the sweetest boy.  I mean seriously.  He just smiles at me and it kills me every time.  

• he is so content.  I can set him down with a toy and he is happy to play with that toy for a long time.  
• he has 2 teeth.  He got the first one (bottom left) on 12-15 and the second one (bottom right) on 12-20.  
• he started sitting up unassisted just a few days after Thanksgiving (right at 7 months old)...a few days after his sister!  

• he is close to crawling but doesn't really care about it much.  Like I said, he is content where you put him.  But if there is something he REALLY wants, like my phone or if he sees a pacifier, then he does army crawl over to get it.  He gets up on all fours sometime and rocks back and forth.  He scooches backwards when he is on all fours and that kinda makes him mad because he ends up backed up against something.  
• we call him Benny mostly but he does have a few other nicknames.  Benners, Benny-boo, and Ben-man are the most common.  
• this boy is finally not snotty.  he had an ear infection but antibiotics cleared that up.  he now has fluid behind both ears but it is not infected.  if we can keep him from getting a cold, etc then that should go away.  PLEASE!
• he kicks his little legs when he gets excited.  Blakely did the same thing and I had forgotten it until he started doing it.  

A few things about Emery:

• she is never still.  this was the best I could get of her laying on the blanket!  

• she is going to make me go gray.  before she could sit up she would get so mad that she couldn't.  Now that she can sit up she is mad that she can't crawl.  She just wants to go places.  Until she can run around as fast as her sister she will not be satisfied! 
• she wants to be in on the action.  if we are in the kitchen then she wants to be there.  Basically she wants all the attention!  

not laying on this blanket, mom

• she has one tooth (bottom right 12-22) but she is working on a few more.  she chews and slobbers on everything
• she started sitting up by herself right at Thanksgiving (7 months old).  

• my poor girl has been snotty for a month.  bless her.  her very first ear infection was so bad.  it came on so quick.  she woke up snotty one morning with no other symptoms.  by the next morning she was lethargic, inconsolable and a fever that wouldn't quit.  i took her in a rush to the doctor when she refused to eat and was so limp I couldn't really rouse her.  it was pretty scary for this mama.  severe ear infection it was and they thought it would rupture but we avoided that.  shot of antibiotics in the office and a bunch of motrin for fever and pain and she was a little better.  we also had ear drops for pain and those helped her a lot.  now we are on our second ear infection but this one wasn't as bad and we are almost done with abx so hopefully the sickies will go away and stay away.  Blakely never had an ear infection so this is all new to me and I don't like it!
• Oh sweet little Emery has a lot of nicknames.  The most common ones we use are Em-doodle, Sue (no idea), Sue-doodle, Rem, Rem-turkey, Rem-a-lem, Emmers and Emmy.  
• she is oh so close to legit crawling.  I give it days.  she gets where she wants by getting on all fours and then pushing forward, landing on her tummy and then doing it all over again.  Sometimes she does a real crawl on hands and knees but she hasn't mastered staying that way yet.  Soon.  oh so soon. 

she has been getting on all fours and even doing a little plank since she was 6 months old.  

The both love their big sister so much even though she sometimes throws them around like rag dolls.  Haha!  Just kidding.  Although she thinks they are big enough now for her to pick up.  I keep telling her no but I have to watch her like a hawk.  They are getting to the age where she likes playing with them and especially making them laugh.  I love seeing them all three together.  I am the luckiest.  

6 months old!

Well my little sweet potatoes are half a year old.  Time is flying, as usual.  Even though I have help on some days, I constantly feel behind at life.  But that is okay.  I am learning to be okay with being behind on lots of things.  As long as my kids are taken care of and the bills are paid I guess we will be fine!  

Anyway, at six months Benton and Emery are so different.  It is amazing to already see how they have their own personalities.  I think it is time to split up their monthly updates!  

BENTON

Sleeping: He goes to sleep at night between 830-900 and sleeps until about 6-7 with one feeding in the middle of the night.  A good night he doesn't eat until 5 and then goes right back to sleep.  A bad night he eats at 2 and goes right back to sleep.  A REALLY bad night he eats at 2 and at 5.  We do have the occasional night where he sleeps right on through until 7 but those aren't the norm.  I know he is just hungry because he takes a full feeding and goes right back to sleep.  He doesn't just nurse for a minute or two and fall back asleep.  I have hope that one day I will get a full night's sleep!  

During the day he is a great napper.  I just give him the pacifier, his giraffe and a blanket and he goes right to sleep.  He takes about 4-5 naps a day but I can tell we are about to make the transition to 2 good naps (morning and afternoon) with a small catnap in the evening.  He also naps in the rock n play but we plan to move naps to the crib very soon.  

Feeding: Benton eats 7 times a day plus that one night feeding.  We are making the transition down to just 6 feedings per day because they are starting to nap longer during the day so it is hard to cram 7 feeding in.  My boy loves to nurse.  He just snuggles right in and when he is done gives me all kinds of milky grins.  Gah....the absolute best thing about nursing is those sweet milky grins.  He is very still when he nurses and likes to hold my hand or Emery's hand.  He stays on longer than she does and he would love to sleep right beside me while nursing all night long.  We don't do that because mama is already tired but he would probably sleep all night long if he slept with me.  :/

We haven't started any solid foods or rice cereal yet.  He had not shown any interest in our food until just the last few days so we will get that started soon.  The very first thing Blakely ever had was a little taste of gravy from our favorite breakfast place so we are planning to eat there soon and have the twins get a little taste of gravy too.  Not a lot but just a little off our finger.  Then I will get to making some baby food!  I can't wait!

Clothing: He wears 6 month clothing and can wear some 9 month stuff with his cloth diapers on.  When we took our weekend trip to Fayetteville I used disposable diapers and all his pants fell off him!  

Diapers: Cloth diapers except at night.  I am using a mix of prefolds/covers, Fuzzibunz one size, Bumgenius 4.0 and Bumgenius Freetimes.  I have about 20 or so diapers that I would like to sell and then buy more FB and BG.  I used a lot of different types with Blakely but with 2 in diapers and other people helping me change diapers on some days it is too hard to keep up with multiple different kinds of diapers.  I would like to streamline it down to just 2-3 types that I know I love.  

Weight: 14 pounds 12 ounces.  This is a little less than the 10th percentile.  He has been fluctuating from the 5th to the 10th the last few months.  I guess he is small but he is so much chunkier than his sister so he seems BIG!

Height: 26 1/2 inches.  

Hair:  not much of it there!  It looked really light when he was born but what he does have now seems like a dark brown.  

Eyes: BLUE!

A few things about Benton:

He has a few nicknames.  It seems we rarely call him his actual name.  Benny is the most common one.  Ben-man, Benny Boy, Ben Boo, Biggie.

He rolled from back to front for the first time on 10-19.  I put him on the floor while I took Emery outside to the blanket.  I came right back in and he was on his tummy so I missed it!  He has done it multiple more times since then but he doesn't do it on purpose to get to stuff. He is just happy where you put him.  

He does SO GOOD in the car seat.  Thank goodness.  He plays with his toys and then eventually falls asleep with no fuss.  

He does like his pacifier.  He only gets it when sleeping or sometimes in the car for a long drive.  During the day he doesn't really care about it but good lord at night that boy wants it. I have to get up and put it back in for him at least twice every single night...and that is a really good night.  I hate the pacifier.  

He is so freaking happy.  He smiles all the time.  Most of the time all you have to do is look at him and he smiles a huge smile.  

He takes toys from his sister.  If they are close together on the blanket and he can see her toy then he automatically goes for it.  He doesn't care that she cries after because her toy is now gone he is just happy because he found a new toy to play with.  

He is ticklish.  Mainly right under his chin and under his arms.  Baby laughs are so good.  

He loves the bath.  He has learned how to kick all the water out and makes a total mess every single time.  

He looks adordable in hats.  Gimme all the hats.  

My Benny man.  He is just the sweetest.  He smiles all the time.  He rarely fusses unless he is hungry.  During the day he is a perfect angel.  I joke that he does what he is told.  He is plenty happy playing on the floor with whatever toy you give him.  He can roll over both ways and has multiple times.  He just doesn't do it all the time on purpose...he is happy where you put him.  It you put him in the bouncer he is plenty happy.  When it is time for a nap he goes right to sleep.  He is just easy.  At night he is a little more difficult..ha!  I mean honestly he goes to sleep great.  He just requires more attention at night than Emery does.  He wants his pacifier put back in more than once usually and then he gets hungry too.  He makes up for taking away my sleep during the day though.  The sweetest boy.  It makes me tear up just thinking about his gummy smiles and snuggles.  I love him so very much and I am so thankful for this boy. 


EMERY

Sleeping: Oh my girl is a great night time sleeper.  She goes to bed between 830-9 and sleeps until 7-730.  She would sleep longer but usually Benton wakes up and is hungry so I have to wake her up to eat.  There has been one time she slept until 830 and so did he!  She now sleeps on her tummy at night since she learned how to roll over.  She has to have her arms/hands over her face and eyes when she sleeps.  

She naps great for the first part of the day.  The last part of the day she fights sleep like you would not believe.  This is one of the reasons we are trying to move down to the 2 longer naps plus an evening catnap for them.  I think she is wanting longer naps instead of more frequent naps.  There are many nights when she skips the catnap around 630 and we have to keep her awake until 9 and she is not happy about it.  But she sleeps great at night so I don't even care!  

Feeding: She nurses 7 times a day and like I said, we are gradually moving down to 6 feedings a day.  She loves to nurse too but is a little more wiggly when nursing.  Her arms are always moving around and she ends up hitting Benton in the head and making him mad.  I usually have to hold her hand out of the way so it doesn't bother him.  

She is now interested in our food and we plan to start solids very soon.  I can't wait to make baby food again.  It was so much fun with Blakely and I am hoping doing it will get me back into cooking for the whole family!

Clothing:  She wears 6 month but can still fit into some 3 month dresses.  

Diapers: cloth diapers.  My BG don't fit her as good as I would like.  Mainly it is just the older ones where the elastic has worn out a little.  The FB fit her perfect so I would like to get a few more of those.  I am mainly still using prefolds/covers for her.  

Weight: 13 pounds.  My tiny girl.  She is growing along the growth curve fine she is just small.  Or "petite".  

Height: 25 1/2 inches

Hair: I can't tell if it is a light brown or a darker blonde.  But I can tell you that it stands straight up off the top of her head!  I call her Fuzz.  

Eyes: BLUE!

A few things about Emery:

She has a LOT of nicknames.  We call her Sue a lot and I have no idea how this got started.  It was Sister Sue and now it is just Sue.  Blakely calls the twins Benny and Sue.  The child is going to think her name is Sue.  Others are Sue girl, Sue Sue, Suz, Em, Emmy, Em-doodle, Em-Bo, Fuzz, Remy, Rem-doodle, Rem-turkey, Rem-a-lem.  Are we the only ones that have super weird nicknames for their kids?!

She rolled over from back to front the first time on 10-22 and she hasn't looked back since.  She rolls all over the place and I can't keep her on her back.  She rolls to get to whatever it is that she wants.  

She wants to be in on the action.  If we are all in the kitchen and she is in the living room she fusses until we bring her to where we are.  She just wants to know what is going on at all times.  We joke because the first 2 1/2 months Emery was the super easy baby and Benton was the one who required so much attention and now it is completely the opposite.  When she is awake she wants to be into things.  

She loves when you talk to her.  She would be perfectly happy sitting and watching someone talk to her.  

She is so smiley.  She will have a really concerned look on her face and if you smile at her then she breaks out the big smile.  She goes from super unamused face to super grin in no time flat.  

Just like Blakely, she loves hearing Lonnie sing.  

She does crunches all the time.  If you do lay her on her back then she does crunches trying to sit up.  Then she rolls to her tummy.  

This girl is a lover of the pacifier.  She takes it out and looks at it and then puts it back in.  She gets it for naps and bed time but also a lot of the time in the car because she does not enjoy the car seat.  Usually if we are just going somewhere across town she is okay but any longer than that and she is ticked.  The issue is that, unlike Benton, when she gets tired in the car she doesn't get lulled to sleep.  She fights it big time.  Which means screaming but most of the time the pacifier can help her get to sleep.  

She chews on her toes!

Emery is quite ticklish on her neck and under her arms.  You can really get her laughing by trying to kiss her neck.  

Oh Emery girl.  I love you so much.  You are such a spunky girl already and you want what you want.  I know you get frustrated because you can't just jump up and run around to check everything out but soon enough my girl.  Your smile lights up a room.  You smile with your entire face.  You want nothing more than to have your Daddy hold you all the time.  It is really sweet.  You can be unhappy and if he comes to pick you up you just smile so big.  You have definitely figured this out because the second you see him make a move for you, you giggle.  We had a few nights this month when you were having trouble getting comfortable in your crib.  It was right when you figured out how to roll over so it disrupted your sleep some.  Anyway, I put you in bed with me and you snuggled right up and slept wonderful.  I loved that so much.  I am so thankful to be your Mommy, Em!  

The twinks are 5 months old!

The twins are FIVE months old!  A little run down of what is happening lately. 

Sleeping: Well, it basically sucks.  We were doing so good in this arena.  I was putting them down between 8 and 9pm and they would sleep until at least 4 and sometimes 5am.  But right when they turned 4 months old they started waking up multiple times a night and just not sleeping soundly.  I have been a complete zombie.  They are both very different in this category so I will split them up.  

Benton: He was really the main one giving me trouble in the night.  He started waking up at 1 or 2 and really being inconsolable.  I thought, okay, it is a growth spurt so I would feed him and put him back to bed.  But then he wanted to do it all again in 2 hours.  Lonnie took the monitor one night and I said only come get me if you can't console him.  He still woke up multiple times but Lonnie was able to get him to go back to sleep easily.  That told me that he is not hungry he just wants comfort.  So I try really hard to get him to go back to sleep without nursing him.  This means sometimes I am up for multiple hours in a row giving him the pacifier, rocking him, shushing him, just generally trying desperately to get him to go back to sleep.  I do let him fuss but, honestly, probably not enough.  If there were only one baby I would let him get louder and cry a little.   But I HATE for him to wake Emery up and mess up her sleep so I'm sure I tend to him too much.  One night I decided to just let him get loud and I would deal with it.  He did and eventually he was screaming and she was screaming.  Blah.  I keep thinking they will stop waking each other up?  Benton is the lightest sleeper for a baby EVER.  We have a little sound machine that plays ocean sounds but it only stays on for 45 minutes.  I swear he was stirring soon after that thing went off.  So I just bought a good machine that sounds like a fan and you can control how loud it is and it stays on until you turn it off.  We have used it the last 2 nights and he slept until 530.  I had to put his pacifier in twice before that but he went right back to sleep.  PLEASE let this be the thing.  Mama is so so tired!  

He's REAL cute though ;)

Emery:  She is still my better night sleeper.  About 2 weeks after Benton started his wakings she started also but only once a night.  I did feed her because I thought growth spurt but also because she is still so little I figured the extra calories were good for her!  She seems to be back to sleeping through the night now.  But if Benton gets really loud it can wake her up.  Usually a pacifier gets her right back to sleep but sometimes if she wakes up too much she will eat and then go back to sleep.  She sleeps in a sleep sack with her arms still swaddled.  I am gradually trying to wean her off the swaddle but MY GOODNESS the girl wants it.  She flails her arms about and wakes herself up a lot if not swaddled.  I talked to the doctor about if that was okay and he said it was fine to keep her swaddled as long as her legs were not and it was loose enough that she can get out.  

Naps:  Naps are okayyyy.  I mentioned in my last monthly update that we were trying to long afternoon nap now.  They have done pretty good at that.  Benton actually does great...Emery tends to fight sleep during the day.  She is so so sleepy but she will not give it up.  I would feed them around 930am and keep them awake until 12.  Then I would feed them and put them in their cribs for nap.  Benton goes right to sleep and Emery will sleep half of the time.  Usually I end up needing to put her in the swing to finish the nap or she just gets to hang out with me.  

can't resist that cute face!  she just wants to hang out with Mommy!

I had this realization the other day that their nighttime sleep issues kind of started when I started trying to keep them to stay awake longer during the day to get that afternoon nap and to get them super sleepy for bed.  Hello Kelly.  I also looked back on the blog at what Blakely's schedule was around this time because she was totally sleeping through the night and had been for a couple of months.  We were putting her to bed around 9-930 and she would sleep until 7.  I have been putting the twins down for bed about 730-8 because that is when Blakely goes to bed and it gives Lonnie and I time together.  But I decided to change it up.  If we put the babies to bed at 9 then that gives me time to add another feeding during the day and maybe they would drop the middle of the night feeding (any hour for B and typically 4-5am for E).  I have done this for 2 days now (and also used the new sound machine) and Benton slept until 530 and Emery until 7.  So yay!  I am hoping it isn't a fluke!  

Feeding: still breastfeeding.  They eat 7 times in a 24 hour period, except sometimes I have to feed Benny in the middle of the night extra ;)  At our 4 month checkup he said he usually mentions that anytime between 4 and 6 months you can start some cereal and solid foods if you think they are ready.  He didn't want me to do that yet because he wanted them to get all the calories they could from breast milk.  If we put food in their tummy then they won't drink as much milk.  I also don't think they are ready at all.  I remember thinking Blakely was ready because she would watch us eat and grab for our food.  The twins are oblivious that we are eating, ha!  

I tandem nurse during the day in the middle of the night and at the 7am feeding I feed them separately in the bed with me.  

Cuteness overload.  They have started holding hands while nursing.  Omg.  

Diapers:   Still cloth diapers (prefolds and covers).  I am about to switch over to my pockets and all in ones as soon as Benton outgrows this size prefold.  

Clothing:  Benton is in 6 months clothing and Emery is also although some 3 month things still fit her if she is not wearing a cloth diaper.  Benton literally has maybe 4 articles of clothing larger than 6 month size.  I need to work on that because it is bound to cool off here soon and there is not a long sleeve top nor pants anywhere to be found in their closet.  

Weight: Emery weighs 12 lbs 6 oz (5th percentile...my little petite girl) and Benton weighs 14 lbs 4 oz (10th percentile)
Height:  Emery is 25 1/2 inches and Benton is 26 inches...both in the 50th percentile

Hair Color:  Barely any hair for either but his seems darker than hers.  She has blonde eyelashes and eyebrows so maybe she will be my blondie?  

Eye Color:  blue blue and even more blue.  His a darker and hers a lighter.  

A few other things I want to remember:

They have learned how to reach out and grab for toys.  This is wonderful because It is so fun watching them spot something, try to reach out and if they get it put it directly in the mouth.  They concentrate so much and it is adorable.  

Well this has been a hard month.  There has been a lot of crying (from all of us).  I think some of it has to do with they have learned they have hands!  They want to grab everything and put it in their mouths.  But they don't have really good control over them yet so it kind of ticks them off!  Also they just get really irritated about 4pm.  

I spend a lot of time wearing one and carrying the other or just trying to make everyone happy.  Sometimes it is really overwhelming and hard and I cry right along with them and other times I handle it better.  And yes, I take pictures so I can laugh at this in the future and not want to cry like I do now.  

They both love being carried around like this.  

We have had a couple of evenings when the weather wasn't too hot and humid to be outside so we have taken advantage.  The babies like the change of scenery and Blakely loves being outside.  Wins all around.  

We have started taking walks if it isn't too hot (so ready for it to cool off btw).  The babies go right to sleep in the stroller so that is really why we walk.  

 Blakely started in a new gymnastics class and it is in the afternoon after I pick her up from school soooo I have to take the babies with me.  It is not ideal but we are making it work.  I spend the entire hour (there is no ac by the way so a really sweaty hour) hoping the babies won't start crying because I really don't want to take them out of their car seats.  Anyway, a few weeks ago I was looking at Benton and just could not get over how big he was.  I flashed back to a picture I took of him going to our first doctor appointment when he was one week old and he was so tiny in the car seat.  I made this comparison picture and LOVE IT.  

Blakely loves holding her babies.  It is getting easier and she always wants to hold them if they are crying so she can "calm them right down".  Sweet.  

I dug out Sophie the giraffe and let them play with it.  Obviously and not surprisingly, they love it.  It has gotten to the point that when Benton accidentally takes it away from Em she yells out!  

Benton is really close to rolling from back to front.  He can get everything over but hasn't figured out to just lift his he'd up to be on his tummy.  They are certainly getting more mobile when I put them on the floor just by shuffling around on their backs.  

little tummy time lovers

By the time Lonnie gets home from work the babies are over me.  They want new faces to look at and new people to talk to.  So Lonnie ends up holding one of them or both of them the majority of the evening.  He doesn't mind.  :)  They are actually all happy in this picture but they just didn't want me to take the picture but I had to!  My man and his girls!

I took them to the doctor by myself for the first time for their 4 month check up.  It just landed on a day when there was no one to help me so I sucked it up and did it.  My main concern with being alone was the fact they were getting shots.  I feared they would both be screaming and in need of snuggles at the same time.  This is hard to do in a doctor's office.  It worked out and the nurse was very helpful so I got over that hump and now I am not so stressed to take them there by myself!  

When we got home from that appointment I got double nap snuggles!  So wonderful!

Blakely and I are teaching the twins the art of a good selfie!  HAHA.  

This it such a fun time with Benton and Emery.  They are past the newborn stage and can really interact yet they aren't mobile and in to everything just yet.  We spend a lot of time making them laugh and they are starting to laugh at Blakely.  They just love watching her and if she is in their line of sight then they are completely happy.  Can't wait to see their relationship grow!