Pete and Shelley, The Bonus Plan: Look How Far We've Come

As we approach 1 year (less than a month away), I thought I'd look back on how far we've come. So, I'll start with feeding. In the beginning, we fixed about 24 bottles a day. This is a lot of bottle warming, a lot of feeding, a lot of burping, and a lot of bottle washing! When I was home alone, I would feed them simultaneously much of the time......either one in my lap and one in a boppy pillow, both in boppies, both in bouncer seats, or whatever combination of these worked best at the moment. I also spent a lot of time bouncing one with my foot (while in the bouncer seat) and feeding/ burping the other.

I wanted to put together some pictures of Gavin and Emery and the "evolution" of feeding. What I found (didn't find) was surprising to me. There is not ONE picture of me feeding the babies. NOT ONE! I figure (with some quick calculations) that we've fed the babies close to 4500 bottles, maybe more, and it's pretty safe to say that I gave them the majority of these bottles......but not one picture! Then I realized the reason why. If Pete was home, we both had our hands full (both feeding babies). If I was home alone, both of mine were full. So, I guess no one was thinking about taking pictures..... And lets face it, I am the picture nut around here, so if my hands WERE free, I was taking pictures of other people feeding the babies. So, I've included pictures of our feeding helpers. We have really appreciated the help!

Cousin Rachel helping with the double stroller feeding during our trip to NYC (November 2007).

We spent hours and hours (and hours and hours) on this couch feeding the babies.

Feeding the babies during our stay in the cabin at Brown County State Park (October 2007)

Gavin being fed by Grandma, Emery snoozing in the bouncer

Multitasking at it's best

As the babies became more mobile and would roll out of the boppies or climb over the side of the bouncer seat, we usually fed them separately.......except for in the car. For bottles on the road, I would climb to the back seat, shove myself between the two carseats and feed both at once.

Uncle Rob and Gavin

Gavin used to rub the top of his head while he ate. I guess he was really tired because this night was a two hander.

Then came baby food! This was exciting because we thought maybe it would help Gavin's puking problem (no such luck). This was a messy process for us. Let me just say that puked up carrots really stain and puked up turkey dinner is the nastiest thing ever. If we were/are going to be out for the day, I stick to the light colored foods so that the puke is less conspicuous. Yes, this is gross, but it is our life. :-)

This was during one of my "do what you gotta do" periods. They HATED the high chairs in the beginning, so we ate on the floor. Yes, it was messy.....but it got the job done.

Fast forward to 11 months old......They can now hold their bottles on their own. Not just hold them, but tip them up enough so that they get milk and not just air (this was a huge development for us). They can hold their bottles in the car (also huge), drink from sippy cups, and eat lots of finger foods. We currently make 8-10 bottles a day and spend about $300 on formula each month. They will begin drinking milk at 12 months so we are very close to our last can of formula!

Tonight for dinner, we had ground beef, rice and vegetables.

When I was trying to help Gavin with his food, he pushed my hand away and just wanted to practice with his spoon.
My best recent discovery is the "sippy cup leash". They are made with velcro on each end and elastic in the middle. So, the sippy cup can be attached to the stroller, high chair, or whatever. I saw these online and mentioned it to a girl in my twin's club and she made them herself. The elastic is great because it's just short enough so that Emery can't steal Gavin's sippy cup and vice versa. Also, Emery gets the satisfaction of feeling like she's thrown the cup overboard, but I don't have to pick it up a MILLION times.