Iron Chef-Baby Style

Caroline and I had decided before the babies arrived that we were going to try to make our own baby food. Our initial foods were sweet potatoes, pears, and carrots. 

We sliced and diced.







 

We steamed.

We burnt(I would suggest ommitting this step)

We got out every high powered kitchen gadget we owned, and even borrowed one too. 

The one on the left is the Beaba BabyCook Baby Food Maker.

The one in the center is the Vitamax Juicer/Blender.(This thing is a blender powered by a jet engine)

The one on the right is the Cuisanart Food Processor

We made stuff into mush.

 We froze said mush.  

And...voila.  1 oz. baby food servings.



Oh yeah...we drank too.

We Have a Diva On Our Hands...

It's true...Addison is a diva.  We've been suspecting it for a while, but it became official last week.  Addison has always been the toughest one to feed.  She always writhes around, gags herself on the bottle, just wasn't fun to be around during feeding time with Caroline and I.  Typically when we were feeding her she would eat about 3 oz. to 6 oz. per feeding. (Tyler was chugging 8 in each setting)  We asked Alem(nanny) if she would have problems feeding her and she always said, No, and often said Addison would beat Tyler.  Hold up, what?  Beat the Sultan of Slug? NO. WAY.

So I decided to go on a recon mission.  I was working from home a week ago, and decided to step in on a feeding to see how Alem was doing it. And I must admit..it is quite a set up.   

Addison is strapped in the Nap Nanny, blanket wrapped around her, burp cloth propping up the bottle, and no one can touch her. You think, I'm kidding...I'm not.  We did this all weekend and she beat the Chug Master every time.   I'm not sure what it is about her not being held, or the bottle not being held...but it works.  I'm also not sure how Alem discovered this feeding method, but my guess is she possesses nanny-super powers.  

This puts her in Diva category right? Feed me how I want to be fed, or I won't eat.  I'm sure this will eventually turn into, "Daddy, buy me those clothes or I won't wear any" or "Daddy, buy me this car or I'll get a ride with the older boys"

Which clothes do you want, and name the color of the car. 

 Im. Screwed. 

Text From an Old Fart?

I received a text from my dad this morning, and all it had was this picture.  

Study says kids at lower risk of injury if grandparent is driving



My first inclination was, "OK, he wants the babies to be safe and feels he should chauffeur them around at all times"  Cool, where's the dotted line, I'm in.  But then as I actually read the article, I think he was sending more of a subtle message.  The last line in the article has a quote from the professor that did the study and it reads: "Grandparents today are not that old, and don't fit the image of an impaired older driver," he said. "None of us should represent grandparents as kind of hobbling to the car on a walker." I get it, he doesn't want to be portrayed as the Old Geezer grandpa. Other than his really gray hair, his ownership of roughly 1,000 pair of reading glasses, and the fact that he still "takes" the newspaper...I don't really think of him as the OG(Old Geezer). 

It got me thinking, my dad is hip in some ways I never thought he would be...He has an iPhone(although sometimes he is seriously user challenged), plays Words With Friends(I beat him more than he beats me), he texts(sometimes it takes him hours to respond), and more often than not uses LOL, GR8, and OMG.(Although I did have to explain to him what LMFAO meant)  The man is on Twitter.(Twit handle is @heazle but he only tweets to people on The Ticket and SteveMartin so don't expect any riveting/life changing tweets.) And he reads my blog. (But he is still convinced the only way he can to get to it is through my Twitter profile and "can't find it on Google") 

So Pops, whenever you're ready 2 retire and become full time chauffeur, text me, tweet me, or leave me a comment on the blog, because I've got 2 car seats ready 4 U.  The only thing is, the pay isn't GR8. LOL.  

Dual Feeding Wednesday

Mornings are typically easy around the house.  Baby's up at 6:45, feeding completed by 7:15 and Caroline's out the door, Wonder Pets until 7:35(note, Wonder Pets has the most addicting theme song yet, and they sing it at least 3 times in a 25 minute episode), play time on the floor until 8:00, down for nap, then shower time for me, nanny arrives at 8:45.  Sometimes those 2 hours pass like 15 minutes, others they pass like days. 
Today. Was. Rough.

Caroline had to be out the door at 6:30, which means I was all by my lonesome for this morning's events.  Out with the man-to-man defense, in with the Zone-Defense...and I forgot to make coffee.  Epic fail. 

Dual feedings are not my favorite and I try to avoid them at all costs(I can usually barter my way out by offering a nights sleep monitor-less in the guest room, not this time, as work called for C)  Dual feedings usually end with spit-up all over me or the couch(usually both), pissed off babies(usually both), and me threatening to punt a dog over the back fence(usually both).  I'll say it, Caroline won't, dual feedings suck.

So here we go, 6:35 and right on cue, both babies begin their morning talking.  They first part of the morning is usually my favorite, both babies are smiling, talking, and just really happy.  Change diapers, which were really full of pee this morning(too much info?), jammies back on, strapped into Nap Nannies, bottles made, and I take my reserved seat in the middle of both of them, shove the bottles in...and we're off. 

Dual Feedings typically require cooperation from one baby.  If one baby cooperates, you can usually fend off the other screamer for a few minutes.  Well this morning, Captain Cooperative(Tyler), turned into Captain I Want To Make Daddy Miserable...

About 15 seconds into it, I can hear Captain I Want To Make Daddy Miserable pooping. Tyler loves to eat, and usually nothing stands in between him and bottle chugging.  Well today, the Captain decided his explosion was going to stand in the way of it.  Only dilemma, Addison is not the easiest of feeders, and she was on a roll.  (My quick math shows that in 5 months they've been on this earth, we've fed them roughly 2,200 bottles, and he has never lost to her, ever.  He's like the Babe Ruth of bottles) Of course, she was ahead of him at the halfway point, and I'm in it to win it with her. Then she poops. And let me tell you, at 5 months, if there is one thing I know about my baby girl, it's that poop in diaper = stop everything and change me or I will scream until I'm clean.  To give you a time stamp, it's already way beyond Wonder Pets time.  I have to change them both now, and, of course, both poops were type that Haz-Mat uniforms could have/should have been worn. Diapers changed, feeding re-started, and by the time it was all said and done...spit up was everywhere, babies were pissed off babies, but luckily the dogs were still on our side of the fence...and it was nap time.

 

Bathing-Pt Deux

Well, we happened upon one of the greater bathing inventions of all time. The Safety 1st Bath Chair And luckily for us, this device requires little parent assistance, less space than the swim rafts, and absolutely zero adult entry into the tub! 

This is the last 30 seconds of an Addison Giggle-fest that went on for about 3 or 4 minutes. We would squirt her with the bath toy and she loved it. Shocking I know, but bathing hands free/adult free can be a little more entertaining for the kids.

I'm still convinced that Daisy wants to be a baby, or at least get the attention of the babies...further proof.

Yes, those are paw prints at the bottom of the tub. I saw these when we came into clean up. I'm pretty sure if I would have caught her in there, she would have been sitting upright in the bath chair waiting for her turn to to be scrubbed down.

PS-we also tried the Bumbo Seat as a bathing apparatus...no dice. At first you can suction it to the bottom and it works great, but just as they get comfortable in it, the suction loosens, and the Bumbo turns into an inner tube ride. Tyler no likey.