Half Birthday

I am having a hard time believing that the boys are 6 months old today, but the proof is in the pudding. I mean in the pictures:

 

 

SIX MONTH SUMMARY:

130 cans of preemie formula: $2080

1820 diapers: $520

32 sleepers,16 rompers, 40 onesies: $426

2 highchairs, 2 car seats, 3 strollers, and gear: $1200

Feeling I get when they smile at me: Priceless

Nonni's Birthday Trip

I gave my mom a U-Haul for her 60^th birthday. With it, I provided a driver (me) and a hotel room in either Charlotte, Atlanta, or Orlando, where she could relax and unwind after an all-day outing at the local IKEA.

If you’ve been to an IKEA home furnishings store, you understand the need for a hotel room. It’s like an adult adventure park, only instead of rides, the attractions are bargains and gadgets and textiles, oh my. The building itself is huge, lumbering in the distance long before you pull into the parking lot, and you almost expect parking attendants to be waving you into your spot when you finally make it to the furniture mecca. Then, when you enter, you are greeted by minions of blue vested characters who are willing to chaperone your kids in playland or provide you with a map (yes! A map!), a ruler, and large yellow bag for all of the items you find while following the yellow brick road through the furniture showrooms. Standing in the lobby in front of that single escalator that leads to adventure, you feel like anything is possible.

If you’ve been to an IKEA but live far away from the store, you understand the need for a U-Haul. You cannot walk out of IKEA with a small shopping bag. No. You will see more things you didn’t know you needed in 5 minutes in an IKEA than you will see in your whole lifetime at Wal-Mart. Those blue-vested greeters give you a big yellow bag knowing you’ll upgrade to a big silver shopping cart halfway through the store and that’ll you’ll upgrade to a big blue furniture cart by the time you hit the warehouse.

So last weekend, Mom, Dad, Lissy, and I threw our luggage into the back of Larry’s truck and towed a U-Haul to Charlotte. This trip wasn’t entirely altruistic; I needed some new bedroom furniture and garage storage shelves, and more importantly, I needed a full night’s asleep away from my twins. And it didn’t hurt that Larry had to play primary caregiver to the twins for 36 hours, either. We were coming off of a week of very little sleep (for me and the twins, anyway), and I thought it would be good for him to see how difficult the nights could be (ironically, they both slept through the night for the first time in 2 months that evening. Go figure).

We spent four hours in IKEA. I easily had another hour or two in me, but we knew when we brought a member of the male species that there was a time limit on our shopping fun. But in that four hour period, we bought enough stuff to nearly fill a 5 x 8 U-Haul. It’s probably a good thing that Dad reigned us all in; the Children’s IKEA had so many more things I wanted to buy. I got the boys a kids’ table and chairs, an easel, a bathmat, outlet protectors, plates, bowls, bibs, and most importantly, highchairs.

I had been researching highchairs for a month, as it was clear that I could not feed the boys in their bumbo seats forever. Grayden’s legs are so chubby he barely fits in the seat anymore, and we really needed something with an attached tray that he couldn’t force his way out of. I was not excited about spending $200 to $300 on highchairs, but that’s what two were going to cost us. Until I got to IKEA and discovered their $20 Antilop highchair. Plain, simple, sturdy, cheap. It’s easy to clean and it gets the job done.

 

Now if IKEA only made convertible car seats….

Daddy Day Care

In an effort to limit the amount of time the boys have to spend away from home, I am working on Sundays. I spend Friday with the boys and Saturday is family day. On Sunday, Larry has the babies all to himself. 

This morning I was in at my desk (working at home is both a blessing and a curse) and Larry came in and whispered "Come here!"

When I made my way to the living room, Grayden was asleep in his jumper. Only this time, he wasn't just sleeping. He was sleeping and bouncing at the same time:

I told you he loved that thing!

Adventures in Solid Food

We started the boys on solid foods as soon as they turned 5 months. The experts at the American Academy of Pediatrics actually disagree on when to begin feeding babies solid food, and their best recommendation is between 4 and 6 months. Then, at our last pediatrician visit, we were told to wait until 6 months, but if we decided to go ahead and feed solids, to start with vegetables. Since the doctor expressed absolutely no confidence in her own recommendation (and since another pediatrician in the office told a friend that starting at 4 months was fine), I wasn't too worried about researching the topic on my own and making a decision based on that research. What sold me on starting sooner than later was a recent study in the British Medical Journal that stated withholding solids until 6 months of age can result in children rejecting leafy green vegetables later in life. However, by presenting vegetables to my boys' developing tastebuds now, I may possibly end the "I'm not eating my broccoli" war before it even gets started.


First up were the orange vegetables (carrots, squash, and sweet potatoes), which didn't go over so well the first feeding, but by the second or third sampling, were a huge hit. I bought a special spoon that actually holds the baby food inside so I simply have to squeeze the food onto the spoon, thus eliminating fussiness while loading the spoon for each baby. When you are feeding two hungry mouths, you don't have time to reload! By the time we made our way to yellow and green vegetables, the boys were expert eaters, although not the cleanest or most polite diners to ever share a meal at our table.


It's important to run through the gamet of vegetables first; if you start with fruit, you run the risk of having veggies rejected after a baby develops a hankering for sweet foods. This became quite clear when we moved to bananas. It didn't matter that I had a special spoon--I could not shovel the food in fast enough for either baby's liking! Apples and peaches have been received equally well, and I again feel like that mother robin, only this time because I have two opened-mouth babes in my nest who have pitched their heads back and are crying for more!


While it's great to see my children enjoy something so much, there are some drawbacks. What goes in, must come out, and my how the exiting vegetables and fruit have changed the game! UGH! But what's worse than what comes out is what doesn't come out. Right about the time we moved to apples, the bananas worked a number on Ren for a day or two. It was nothing a few spoonfuls of prunes couldn't fix, but the poor baby suffered terribly in the meantime. While it broke my heart, it gave everyone else a good laugh:

I am happy to say that Ren is feeling much better these days!