Show Me the Mommy Sunday and various other bits

I went to brunch today for my friend Andrea's birthday and had waaaaaaay too much to eat, including mini cheesecakes, waffles and a bellini! (Yum!)

(Here's my Show Me the Mommy photo -- right before I went into a food coma. That pretty lady beside me is my friend, Andrea. Happy Birthday!!)


Several of Andrea's family members were there, including two handsome teenaged boys, brothers who were 16 and 15, respectively. I could not stop staring at them. (Not because they were handsome, people! I like 'em young, but not that young!) I kept thinking, "My boys are going to be teenagers one day. Soon!" I loved how close the two of them seemed, and I wondered if my boys will be that sweet together when they're older.

And I also was a little freaked out at the fancy clothing they were wearing: North Face and Nike jackets and designer jeans and sneakers I know must cost a zillion dollars. I asked their father if either one of them had a job, and he laughed hysterically! Then he started naming all the "things" they had; iPads and iPods, sneakers and cell phones and...OMG! Who is going to pay for all those things when my two are teenagers???

I think Lester may have to get a second job. :-)

Speaking of my wonderful husband, while I was out drinking bellinis and packing on the pounds, Lester stayed home with the babies and forgot to feed them lunch or put them down for their second nap. Ahem.

So they went to sleep later in the afternoon than usual, and skipped their third bottle. The time change contributed to this mix-up, but it's made me think that perhaps we can skip the third bottle altogether -- they usually only drink a little of that bottle anyway, preferring to eat solid food at both their middle-of-the-day feedings -- and maybe put their second nap off until later in the day.

Perhaps we'll try it this week.

Random other stuff: We gave the babies cottage cheese today. They sort of liked it at first, but then not so much. I think the texture was weird to them. We also introduced thawed frozen peas as a finger-food snack, which they liked a lot. And we gave them mac-n-cheese this weekend. BIG HIT!

Dean is the sweetest baby ever. He just hugs and hugs me and kisses Lester -- all day long.
He also has started waving! It's toooooo cute. We were feeding the boys tonight and he was waving at me while he was drinking his bottle.

Cary is hysterical. He is so silly! He makes funny noises and cracks up laughing at everything. I love how smiley he is when we go in his room to get him, and how he giggles and giggles when he's being tickled, or when Dean makes a funny-to-him sound, or when we sing the ABC song.

Some days, I am tired or stressed and I lose sight of days like this, when I am just so in love with these two little boys! I'm so grateful to God that I'm their mother and that Lester and I get the privilege of raising them. I'll have to try to remember this feeling more often. I am truly blessed.

Contemplating food and flights

Today's menus and dilemmas:

Breakfast: French toast (with wheat bread and no syrup). Verdict: Cary - YES! Dean - Meh.
Snack: Banana YoBaby yogurt. (LOVED IT!)

Lunch: Rice cereal with harvest vegetables and applesauce. (Good ole baby food.)
Snack 1: Baby Mum Mums
Snack 2: Oranges in mesh bags

Dinner: Smushed grown-up chicken, with rice cereal and Gerber green beans and a banana YoBaby yogurt. Verdict: Cary - YES! Dean - YES! YES!

All in all, I think that was a good mix of baby food and grown-up food. And not too bad in the healthy department. But I don't know what I'm going to do when we run out of Gerber baby food in a couple weeks. Ugh.

Dilemma:

We're going to a friend's wedding in West Palm Beach in May and leaving the babies -- for the first time - for the whole weekend. More on that much later.

But in the meantime, the husband of a good friend has asked me to come to New Orleans with the whole family to surprise his wife (my friend) for her birthday. He's going to even pay for us!!! I haven't seen my friend since 2009, so I want to go. But this would be a major, major undertaking. And I'm not sure I'm ready to fly with the babies yet. I'm nervous about so many things: flying with the babies on our laps; traveling through the airport; sleeping arrangements (will they even sleep?); car seat schleppage; packing all their STUFF; keeping up with all their STUFF; their fish-out-of-water behavior, etc. etc.

So I could really use some advice from Moms of twins who've done this before. What do you recommend? Brave the unknown and go on a fun, free trip, or save ourselves the drama and go by myself?

9-month-checkup

The boys had their 9-month-checkup today. It was pretty uneventful, even considering the fact that there was a shot involved! (Last of the Hep B series.)

Here's the basics:

Cary weighs 18 lbs., 5 oz. and is 27 and 3/4 inches long.
Dean weighs 20 lbs., 15 oz. and is 29 and 1/4 inches long.
(When do we stop saying "long" and start saying "tall?" I guess when they can stand?)

Both boys are doing so well, Dr. Bodnar says the boys should be completely age appropriate (in terms of their relative prematurity) by age 1. Whoo-hooo!! I feel really good about that, but I don't know if I'll ever completely stop wondering if prematurity may be affecting them in some way. It might become more and more faint over time...like, it'll be a vapor of a worry as opposed to a huge cloud hanging over my head. But I have a feeling it will always be there just a little bit.

I also learned today that the boys can now eat table food, like 100-percent of the time. Wow! This is a big one for me. I mean, babies eat baby food, right? Hence the name. So this is more proof that my babies are growing up, and fast!

It also poses a bit of a complication. I hate to say this, but baby food is easy! It comes already prepared, in the right consistency and portion size. We buy the organic kind, so it's healthy and not too seasoned or buttery or sweet (the way I like all my foods). Giving my boys table food means I'm going to have to actually prepare their food. When they started on solids a few months ago, I honestly tried to be the kind of mom who made their food. I boiled the sweet potatoes and mashed and froze them in huge Tupperware dishes they could never ever hope to finish. I baked the spaghetti squash, and it turned out too stringy for them to eat without choking half to death. I cooked and mashed frozen peas, but didn't know I needed to de-hull them first. They hated those!

In the end, I determined that it took way too much time and was a major pain (Just my opinion. I really do applaud moms who can and do prepare their baby's food).

But now, developmentally, they don't need the baby food, so I guess I have to step up my game.
The doctor suggested a baby food grinder or food processor, neither of which do we own. So I guess we'll buy one this weekend. Do we need one of those? Advice, please.

I sound whiny, but actually, I'm sorta looking forward to introducing them to real foods. Lester says we're going out for breakfast on Saturday. I see a waffle in my boys' future! And in mine!
Yummmmm!