Wednesday, April 22, 2015

My Favorite Baby Products: Feeding Edition

Here are a handful of products that I consider essential for feeding the twins, thus far...
Dr. Brown's bottles
1.  Dr. Brown's bottles
Now, bottles are really based on baby's preference, but these are the ones my boys took to the best.  Zachary struggled with reflux and had gulping/swallowing issues early on, but these bottles helped train him the best.  The blue straw part helps keep the air out when they swallow. They come in 4 and 8 oz sizes. Ironically, these are the bottles with the most parts to wash, but oh well!   Which brings me to...
Boon Grass drying rack
2.  Boon Grass drying rack
Oh man.  This has been a life saver.  When the boys are off the bottle, I think my countertop will miss this thing.  We have the flowers and twig accessories, on which I dry nipples and other parts. When I was pumping, I dried my pump parts on here, too.  The grass comes off the tray, so you can wash and dry the actual grass every so often.  I have washed many a bottle and even more parts this past year. Thankful for this product!  It's so cute, too, so it's not an eyesore sitting on your counter for several months a year or so.




Aden + Anais burpy bibs


3.  Aden + Anais burpy bibs
Thank you to Ashleigh for these!  She sent me these as a gift telling me they were great--and they are!  We used (and still use) a LOT of burp cloths around here with Zachary being refluxy and spitting up constantly until about 7 months.  These are my favorites, hands down.  Of course you get the great muslin material that A+A use for their blankets, but also, you can snap these unto baby.  So I started using them when I drop them at the church nursery so if they go in the exersaucer, they can't chew on it.  (Gross). When it snaps on, they look like they're at the barber :)  Also, it's contoured so that when mom wears it on her shoulder, it form fits around her neck.  Smart.


4.  IKEA antilop highchair
At first I thought I wanted really nice, wooden highchairs (a la Eddie Bauer), but when it came down to it, money mattered, and those can be pretty pricey.  So when I found these (I noticed a couple of twin moms on instagram had them), I was sold.  They're only TWENTY DOLLARS!  And you can easily wipe them/spray them/hose them down.  Another thing I love about them is that they have a very small footprint, and when you have 2 highchairs in your kitchen, that's important.  You can take the tray off and the children can join you at the table... this doesn't work for us, though, because we have a high kitchen island, not a table.


Ok, this is another twinstagram find, and I love it!!  These mats are made of high-quality, FDA-approved silicone, and they suction flatly to your table or surface.  The bummer is that they don't fit on the tray of the IKEA highchair, but what I realized is, these are perfect to bring when we eat out.  They go in the dishwasher, can stack on top of each other, and are just cool.  I'm so glad I got one for each babe.  


There are a bunch of silicone bibs out there, but I found these to be some of the best!  They're soft and bendy, and the whole bib is made of silicone, so I can throw them in the sink or dishwasher after feeding.  The crumb catcher really does catch a lot of food--trust me, I have 2 little boys who drop a LOT of bites.  




So, we're still working on transitioning from the bottle to the sippy, so I'm definitely one to talk on this sippy cup situation... but of all the cups I have bought and tried, these have worked the best.  They really are no leak, and the boys are able to easily suck out of the straw, through the valve.  It has a lid, too, so you can keep the straw (somewhat) clean when not in use.  I say somewhat because the cup is on the ground and rolling around before I have time to put the lid on.  Ha.  


Tuesday, April 21, 2015

12 Months Old! ONE YEAR OLD TWINS!


I love these little one year olds so much.  I have been reminiscing a lot over the past few weeks (truthfully, I haven't stopped reminiscing this whole year...), thinking back to my pregnancy, the early days at home with two newborns, and even further back to before we got pregnant.  I just cannot stop giving thanks to God.  How did we get here?  I can tell you that 2 years ago, I didn't know what to expect, but I had hope.  I had hope in God that He would be glorified.  I had hope because Jesus said to me, "If you believe, you will see the glory of God."  I had hope and trusted that God held the deepest desires of my heart in His heart.  I daydreamed about getting pregnant--maybe with twins!--and holding my child in my arms.  And two years later, I am the mommy of not one, but two precious children.  Two boys who have stolen my heart.  God knows our longings, desires, and needs.  He chose our family to place Benjamin Andrew and Zachary Ryan into, and I will forever be grateful!  

Something I would like to do each year is write a birthday letter to my children.  I'll put them all in a journal and give each child his/her journal of letters on their 18th birthday.  This was my own idea--not even Pinterest ;)  I also just got one of those "one line a day" journals that spans over 5 years.  I'm so excited to fill in a few lines from the day each night.  Each page has the date on top and spaces for 5 years worth of entries below it.  So I'll be able to see the mundane and out of the ordinary events that happened each day for a 5 year time frame.  With the boys turning one, I've just had this great desire to cherish every moment, and I thought this was a great and doable way to do so!  


Here are some birthday boy stats:

Benji
23 lbs 6 ozs, 30 1/2 inches.  Head circumference:  18 ins

Zachary
22 lbs, 30 1/2 inches.  Head circumference:  18 ins

These boys are going strong with their sleeping.  Bedtime is around 7, and wake up time is 7am.  Often they are awake before 7, but they play or talk laugh and lounge in their cribs until we wake them up.  

They are great eaters.  We eat lots of fruits and veggies around here--I'm having trouble getting enough meat in them because I don't have enough made around the house all the time!  But I've been giving them turkey and chicken sausage because I can easily microwave it...  Deli turkey when I have it.  Cheese sticks are a daily staple.  Black beans are also an easy protein.  Sometimes I wonder if I'll raise vegetarians because I'm so bad at giving them meat!  There have been so many babies in our church born in the past few weeks that I've been making tons of meals but not for us!  Geez, I'm so bad.  Oh well, they eat great anyway. 

I switched them over to whole milk the day before their birthday.  They took it alright, but I've noticed their little patches of eczema getting worse.  And then poor Zachary got the stomach bug on his birthday!  It's been going around, and he threw up a ton Thursday evening and then once overnight.  Then both of the boys' poops were looking quite odd over the weekend... so I switched them back to formula and will try to transition again.  The little buggers also have snotty, coughing colds, too.  Poor guys--and on their birthdays!

Zachary has taken a few steps but keeps falling forward. He'll get there soon :)  Benji is just now starting to stand for a second or two.  

Their babbling is starting to "truncate"--meaning they're saying (really, yelling!) one or two words after a string of babble.  I made a photo board for their bday party (post to follow), and whenever Benji looks at it, he says, "Bah-b!" Not too sure what or who "Bob" is, but he seems to associate pictures of himself and his brother with it!  Haha.  

Alrighty, here are some pictures from month 11:

Some self-feeding...
 

Benji trying to get my toast

 Zachary just trying to get me :)


 Meeting our twin girlfriends, Everly and Presley for lunch at the mall!

Benji, double-fisting puffs...



Zachary, double-fisting toes :)

Easter 2015, at my parents' house...


                 


Playtime...




Daddy's home!

an impromtu family hike one evening...


Loving their birthday gift from Marmee and Papi!



cutie selfies...



                     
 




Both boys, multi-tasking:
 

a little friendly wrestling...




Waking up our birthday boys on April 16, 2015!


I'm in love with you, boys!!!