So far, I've been just wrapping and slinging Keira.  I love wrapping, but in reality, I can only do it if I know she's going to be in there for a while and if it's not too hot out.  It's hard to wrap with Tyler around because he thinks it's hilarious to take off with one of the tails while I'm trying to wrap.  Plus, it has just been disgustingly hot and humid and even my thin, linen wrap feels so hot.  I'm not a big fan of the ring sling since I have to wear on my left shoulder to feel comfortable, but too much pressure on that shoulder gives me migraines.  So when the Beco Gemini got released, I HAD to try it.  The Beco Butterfly is a popular choice, but I hate having to fiddle with the infant insert.  The rest of my carriers are insert-less, so the way you put your kiddo in is completely different compared with having an insert. 

The Gemini doesn't have an infant insert since the body is small enough to not need one. You can cross the straps in an "X" behind your back, which you can't do with the butterfly.  My preference is to cross the straps, so that worked out better for me.  (A lot of people prefer having an insert especially when they start doing back carries since it feels more secure having them already clipped into the carrier)

The bottom part of the body can fold it, making it even narrower so that very young infants can ride with their legs out while being in the correct sitting position (knees above the butt).  When the baby is bigger, you can just unfold the body to make is wider on the bottom. The Gemini has a 4-5" headrest which you can flip up for head support and it extends the body for when your baby is bigger.  But honestly, I put tyler in there and I felt like the body was too narrow for him...I like my carriers to fit knee to knee for better support.

You can do front facing if you want and the baby will still be in the correct position.  But I probably won't since it kills my back to do front facing carries. 

I think this carrier really shines as an infant carrier.  Keira can peek over the top at 1 month (as opposed to be swallowed up in the more standard 16" tall carriers) since it's about 14" tall with the headrest down.

Here are some (terrible) mirror pics:

You can sort of see on the bottom where I've folded the body back and snapped them in place.  Normally the body would extend further out on the bottom.  Her legs are supported well and they aren't dangling.  The headrest is just tall enough to provide head support without completely covering her head.

With the headrest up. She didn't like this very much, but when she's taller, she'll need it if she falls asleep to prevent her head from falling back.

You can see with the black carrier the difference in width between having the body folded down vs. not.

I just realized that since Tyler and Keira's birth dates are 2 days apart, I'll probably combine their monthly updates.  I actually completely forgot it was Keira's 1 month. Oops.  I probably won't even get to take her monthly pics until DH comes off of night shift since Tyler beelines for the camera as soon as he sees it.  He is obsessed with it since he figured out how to turn on the flash unit and will literally climb me to get to it.

TYLER: 22 months
This past month has been a big one for him since Keira came into our lives.  He has adjusted very well, which was a big surprise to everyone since he was acting so clingy right before she was born.  He lights up when he sees her every morning and greets her by rubbing his head against hers.  He loves to help me burp her and will go over to her voluntarily to give her hugs and kisses.  He is also quite "helpful"...so helpful that we usually have to intervene.  If she cries, he'll grab the paci and put it in her mouth (aka shove it in her mouth repeatedly).  He's seen us bicycle her legs to relieve gas, so he will do the same.  If he wants to hold her, he'll climb on the couch and shout, "MORE" and point at his lap.  He calls her, "shee-sha".  It's very cute.

He started to put words together.  Yesterday, he asked where Papa was.  I told him at work.  Then he said, "papa hooome".  It was so sweet.  Then he put on my flip flops today and said, "mama shoes". His pronounciation is still pretty off, so no one really understands him except for us...when the grandparents are over, we are the translators.  We have to give them the run down of his most common words because he will order them to do something and they will have no idea what he's saying.

He sings along to songs now...with the words sung at the appropriate times.  We have a 3 CD rotation that we play the entire day (at his request of course).  We can hear him sing a word/phrase here and there as he's listening.  Do kids develop singing on key, or do they start off singing on key if they have the ear for it?  Because from what he's singing now, he is not going to be on American Idol. hahaha.

Still train obsessed, especially with Thomas which is THE worst kids show around.  It is SO boring.  Lenny now refuses to be in the room when T's watching it because he only wants to watch this one DVD and we are so sick of it.  At the end of every episode, they show a bunch of the trains with their names posted next to them.  T makes us read the names aloud EVERY time he watches it.  This is what he looks like when he watches Thomas...he doesn't move the entire time.

He can put together the train tracks by himself now. So now he is capable of doing everything train set related. WOO HOO. I'm not a fan of playing trains. It is totally a boy thing. Now he can play trains by himself while I read a magazine

He's starting to get into toy cars. He has a small fleet of cars/trains that he will line up all over the house. It's pretty entertaining to watch since he's so meticulous about it.  The line has to be perfectly straight.  Sometimes he'll arrange them so the cars are all lined up in a semi circle around him, all facing him.
 

I got him a box of 2 piece jigsaw puzzles since he can do the wooden peg puzzle easily now. He was able to do them right out of the box (I guess it's similar to putting train tracks together). Although he always tries to carry the finished puzzle around, which of course comes apart. Then he gets mad and runs back to me with them screaming, "BROKEN...BROKEN."

We have finally titrated him up to whole milk.  It took us almost an entire year of slowly going from all soy to whole milk.  No constipation issues now.  We can see the difference since he looks chubbier now.  It's almost 3 times the fat compared with 1% milk.

I gave him a haircut.  It looks awful.  He's petrified of the buzzer, so I had to really quickly buzz the sides.  He wouldn't let me do the top and Papa couldn't restrain his arms and hold his head still at the same time.  So I decided to try scissors.  Um....bad idea.  I cut off the sideburns and cut straight up from the ears to the bangs.  He was thrashing around the whole time so I coudln't even tell what was straight and what wasn't.  We had thomas on and his favorite snacks, but that didn't work.  We like the bangs long on him, but they grow so fast so they're in his eyes in a month.

KEIRA: 1 Month
Not much to report yet.  She sleeps, eats and poops!  She started sleeping well at night starting around 2-3 weeks (I won't write the magic words since I don't want to jinx myself).  She had a stretch of 8-9 hour nights, but now is back to about 5-7 hours.  It depends on her pooping schedule.  It wakes her up when she has to poop.  Stupid poop.  She doesn't really have a daytime schedule, but I'm trying to follow a rough EASY schedule (eat, activity, sleep, you time -except there is no you time when you have 2 kids) but it's so hard to follow any kind of schedule at all.  We've managed to keep T's schedule pretty consistent so we don't have to worry about him.

She loves to be held.  All day long.  She cries when you put her down.  Tyler was the opposite.  He hated being held.  He just wanted to lay on his back and kick his legs like a madman.  I basically wear her when she's awake when Papa isn't around.  You're supposed to froggy a newborn's legs in a carrier, but of course, she hates that.  Luckily, the Beco Gemini just got released.  I've been eyeing it for a while, but didn't want to pre-order it since no one knew when the release date was.  It's perfect for newborns since it has a small body (sort of like the Baby Bjorn), but it has a wide base so the baby sits in the proper position.  I was considering the Beco Butterfly and the Olives & Applesauce carriers again, but I just have no patience for infant inserts.  I'm so used to carriers without inserts that they totally throw me off (but Papa loved the inserts when he first started wearing and needed help with the back carry).  The base of the body folds in so that you can start wearing the baby legs out at a younger age.  It should be arriving this week. YAY!  It's been SO hot wrapping the baby, even in the cooler wraps.

   

She has a pretty strong neck and can hold her head up if you put her in a sitting position and she can lift her head up during tummy time.  I can't wait until she has head control so I can wear her on my back.  It's hard to do stuff with her in front of me.  I have stepped on many a Mega Blocks that I couldn't see (and they HURT).

My parents with the grandkids: