We are 8 months now and doing all sorts of new things!  First of all, as usual, we are even cuter than last month!  The proof is in the pictures- and check out those teeth!  Avery now has two top and two bottom teeth, and Aurelia as her bottom two and seems to be working on the top now.

We are becoming adventurous eaters and are having lots of fun trying new things, and even learning to feed ourselves.  Aurelia has a lot of dexterity- she picks up food with her thumb and forefinger so daintily.  Avery handles food in a more manly way- he just grabs with his fist, shoves his whole fist in his mouth, and instead of letting go of the food he just sucks it out through his fist!  Also, mommy lets us play with our food 🙂

We usually get a smoothie in the morning- usually a sort of strawberry/banana/avocado/raspberry/blueberry/mango combo.

Rice is great to play with because we can’t choke on it!  We’ve also been practicing using a sippy cup.

And now we know that Aurelia can take the top off the can of puffs!  No more giving it to her in the car!

We’ve been having fun with family too!

And Auntie Denise taught Avery how to play the drums…

We love the bunnies!  Pitu made fast friends with Avery, who apparently agreed to break her out of jail.

Avery is crawling all over… but only backwards!  He doesn’t let that stop him though!

We got our moccasins and we love them- they are so cute and will be great for us now that we are getting more mobile.

We also went to the park since it’s been so nice out… like summer!  Who knew leaves were so fascinating.

More big news- Aurelia is sleeping so well in her crib!  No pictures of this because mommy is too afraid of waking her up!

Here are some highlights of our busy days playing and hanging out with mommy and daddy.

Such sweet faces!

Aurelia is like a little gymnast in her chair now.  And here is her signature model pose 🙂

This post isn’t a typical one, but it’s one that is important to me- one I’ve been wanting to write for a long time.  This post is definitely about Avery and Aurelia.  But it is also about other babies, other people.  It isn’t just about how cute and how precious they are.  It’s about how much mommies and daddies care about their babies, and how we as families and communities should care about each other’s babies, too.  This can be a controversial subject, but hey, this is OUR blog!  🙂

You’ve probably heard about the recent measles outbreak.  If you are reading from Spain, measles is sarampión, and the current outbreak began when a foreign visitor sick with the virus came to Disneyland (this visitor was NOT an undocumented illegal, but that’s for a different post!)

When we took Avery and Aurelia for their first pediatrician visit, our doctor told us that everyone in our immediate family should get the tdap vaccine, which protects us against whooping cough (and tetanus, so we should get these shots for ourselves anyway).  The pediatrician explained to us that whooping cough is deadly for babies and is most often transferred to them by parents and grandparents who may not know that they have it.  Here is a link to a story about such an occurrence- the mother thought she just had a cough, because it doesn’t affect adults as badly, generally.  The doctor thought she had allergies.  In fact, she had whooping cough and gave it to her newborn, who almost died.  Even if you have had whooping cough, even if you have been vaccinated, you need a booster every 5 years or so.  This baby spent a month in the hospital, and here is a quote from her mother: “The worst part is that you can’t really do anything once you have pertussis. They give you antibiotics just so that you’re not contagious, but you have to just ride it out. We’d stand near Caroline when she would cough and couldn’t catch her breath. It’s absolutely heart-breaking.” Here is a picture of her baby:

And here is a link to the article:

https://www.parentmap.com/article/two-local-mothers-whose-babies-nearly-died-of-whooping-cough-share-their-stories

Now here are my two babies on the day we brought them home from the hospital.  My daughter weighed less than 5 lbs at the time, my son about 5 1/2.  You can see how tiny and fragile they are. The pediatrician told us that a case of whooping cough could easily kill them, and would certainly land them in the hospital.

Now, Josh and I made the very easy decision to ask all friends and family who would be in contact with them to get this important vaccine.  The timing was essential, as the smaller they are the more susceptible they are to getting sick.  We recognize that it isn’t right to force anyone to get a vaccine, or to do anything to themselves that they are not comfortable doing.  So our rule, finally, had to be get the shot if you’d like to be around our babies.  You don’t have to get the shot, but in that case, you can’t be around the babies until they are old enough to have had their full course of vaccinations.  We are their mommy and daddy, and ultimately we are the only ones who they can rely on to protect them.

We realize that our children will get sick.  They will get colds.  They will have to build up their immune systems, sometimes by getting viruses and fighting them off.  But things like measles and whooping cough are a different thing entirely.  Plus, we know there are children who cannot be vaccinated because their immune systems can’t handle it- maybe they are fighting cancer, maybe they have had a heart transplant (as is the case with one of our friend’s daughter), or maybe they have auto-immune problems.  I will always, always make sure that I am vaccinated so that I can protect those who are too little or whose immune systems are too weak to be vaccinated themselves.

I look at the faces of my healthy and happy children and cannot imagine making any other decision than the one we made at that first pediatrician’s visit.  Vaccines can be a touchy subject, and if you refuse to be vaccinated that is your choice, but our choice is that you cannot be around our children.  It is not something silly, it is not something frivolous, it could mean a world of difference to a little one.

We’ll leave you with the pictures of our healthy and happy babies!  Here’s to modern marvels- like vaccines, and people who develop them.  Here’s to cute babies everywhere 😉