Brunch in 40 Easy Steps!

Another one of our New Years Resolution was to take the boys out to eat more often. New Yorker's tend to eat out quite a bit and we are no exception. That has been curbed drastically since the boys were born (and honestly, our wallets were happy to take a break) but now we are ready to ease back into our neighborhood restaurants.

It was pretty easy to eat out when they were newborns and after that, we would put them in carriers during nap time and go get lunch. But after 5 months old, things got very complicated! We started solids and nap training--neither of which made it easy to take the babies out to eat. So, we just didn't.

They wouldn't fit into the restaurant highchairs and we would've spent the entire time feeding them and not getting to eat ourselves. With only one baby, you can take turns. But with two...there are no breaks. It just wasn't worth the hassle.

Now, they are eating just about everything they can get their hands on and we want them to get used to eating out and behaving well (oh, we can hope, yes?!).

On New Year's Day, we went out to brunch at a local diner. It went very well. So well that the next day we went to breakfast at a local cafe. We decided the diner had more action, faster food, same quality of food as the more upscale cafe and we spent significantly less money at the diner.

Both times the boys behaved well and we left patting ourselves on the back.

This past weekend, we braved the diner and again had an excellent brunch. It's faster than I prefer to eat, but then again most of my meals for the last year have been fast and furious.

We found the best way to get in and out is by wearing them in the Ergo's rather than taking the two single strollers and then trying to figure out where to 'park them' or fold and store them. If you have never been in a NYC cafe/diner, think small, cramped and crowded!

At Home:

1. Make sure you are dressed
2. Get baby dressed
3. Put baby in snowsuit/bunting with hat
4. Put boots on baby
5. Put coat on yourself, zip up
6. Fasten Ergo around waist
7. Find baby
8. Put baby in Ergo
9. Put on shoes (we don't wear shoes in our house)
10. Grab backpack and gloves and walk to diner!

At Diner:

1. Take everything off baby's side of table
2. Wipe down table with wipes from your backpack
3. Take baby out of Ergo, drape Ergo over back of highchair
4. Put baby in your lap facing away from the table where he can grab everything and take off boots and snowsuit
5. Put baby in highchair while trying not to let snowsuit drop to dirty floor. Realize the baby boots are on the table and are now being thrown to the floor.
6. Find container of O's in the backpack and throw a pile on the table ASAP
7. Once baby is occupied take your coat off before you pass out from overheating
8. Glance at menu, order as soon as possible and ask for check at same time
9. Start cutting up bananas and putting them on the table in front of baby
10. Realize you forgot to put on their bibs. Put them on.
11. Once food comes (it's a diner, it's fast, yeah!) starting tearing off pieces of everything and putting in on the table in front of the babies
12. Start to panic that the babies are eating so quickly, you still haven't taken a bite
13. Remind yourself that next time you should bring more cut up food so you have a chance to eat
14. Eat. Fast.
15. Keep giving the boys food. They seem to be a bottomless pit.
16. Break out the cheese sticks.
17. Keep eating
18. Realize that your 'babies' have now eaten: O's, bananas, blueberries, plain buckwheat pancakes, hash browns, turkey sausage, scrambled eggs, buttered wheat toast, cantaloupe, honeydew and a stick of cheddar cheese
19. Mentally calculate your grocery bill with 2 boys
20. Decide 2 children is enough
21. Pay bill, leave a big tip as you glance at the table and the floor.
22. Give the kids the jam packets to play with while you finish eating. Hope that they don't bite holes in them.
23. Take off bibs, wipe down faces and hands and table.
24. Put on your coat, zip up and pray you don't overheat.
25. Fasten Ergo around waist
26. Start sweating.
27. Take baby out of highchair, facing your chair sideways and put on his snowsuit.
28. Curse that the boots are on the floor, find boots and put them on.
29. Deep breaths as squirmy baby starts squawking
30. Put baby in Ergo, put on gloves, grab backpack. Take a look at table to make sure you haven't forgotten anything and walk outside before you pass out.

See? Easy as can be.

Curious....where do you put the baby's food when you go out to eat?? If we put it on a plate, they would just fling it over the side, same goes with a place mat. We've tried the suction bowls, but our boys get them off in about 10 seconds. So...we just disinfect the table (we forgot the first time, ick!) and tell ourselves it's good for their immune systems to be exposed to some germs.

Jan 2, 2011. Checking out the menu. Breakfast at the cafe in our P.J.'s

Jan. 1, 2011. First brunch out at the diner. W2 needs a trim. Looks like he's starting to sport a bad comb-over.

Jan. 1, 2011 Diner Brunch

The Magical Raining Lady Bug

Because it's just damn cute to see babies in a bathtub.

No Naps

For me, not them!

We have turned a new page in 2011. I told the boys that their New Year Resolution was to wake up after 6am. They listened!!

I don't want to jinx it, but I am optimistic of the new trend.

Since we moved out of 'their' room, Chicken and I are getting MUCH better sleep. There are no more middle-of-the-night wake ups for us OR the babies. (Or rather if the babies are waking up in the middle of the night, I don't hear them fussing and they go back to sleep).

Plus, my trouble with insomnia seems to be GONE. I am a big 'read in bed before I go to bed' lady and for the last year I have not had the opportunity to do that. Now that we are out of the boy's room, I get to read again! I am reading my first real book (that has nothing to do with sleep habits or parenting or anything baby-related) since they were born. It's fantastic. And I go to sleep with no problems. I'm loving it.

Gone are the 4 am crying jags from Grunter.

Gone are the 5 am wake ups.

Gone are the 6am get-me-up-or-else crying threats from both of them.

They have been consistently sleeping from 6:30pm-6:30am OR even (gasp!) 7am every day for over a week now.

If they wake up before 7am, we let them play in their cribs and then go get them at 7am to start the day.

It's working very, very, very well.

We always said that if WE could get a solid 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep, it would be like a whole new life. And it is! I get up and start my day. I don't go back to sleep. I don't nap with them. I don't nurse Whoop Whoop to sleep at the 9am nap. (I do miss that part.)

It's amazing how great I feel and how productive I am now that I'm not losing my entire morning either grabbing bits of sleep or lumbering around in a hazy sort of half-awake-state.

And now that I'm dropping pumps as well? Geez. This year is gonna be AWESOME. I am feeling like ME again. It's about time.

Sippy Cup Down!

We're done with the sippy cups. As of this morning, I only offered the straw cups and everyone is as happy as can be.

That was easy!

I know it will sound crazy, but I bought 2 sippy cups when they were about 6 months old and those are the ONLY sippy cups they have ever had.

The boys usually (weather permitting) go out for a walk every morning after their nap and we would strap the sippy cups on, then take them off for lunch, then put them back on the stroller if they went somewhere in the afternoon and then back off for dinner.

Sounds crazy. Two cups that I washed off/out multiple times a day.

This is how frugal I am!

For the straw cups, I'm going to do something really crazy. I'm going to go buy two more so I don't have to move them on and off the stroller! Plus, I know they will use these longer than 5 or 6 months, so I will get my money's worth, for sure.

After their first birthday, we'll put milk in them for their meals and see how that goes....

By the way--the brand that we use is Tommee Tippee. BBRUS usually has them buy one/get one 50% off. They don't spill at all and the boys love them. The only thing you have to watch out for is if your kid throws them repeatedly, there is a piece inside which comes loose and you have to unscrew the lid and put it back in. If that piece is loose, they can spill a little bit.

How many sippy cups or straw cups do YOU have for your child?

So Long Titty Vaccuum

I spoke with my LC yesterday and we worked out a schedule for weaning.

Yes, the boys will be one in about 2 weeks and I am SO ready to stop pumping!

I'd like to keep up some of the nursing sessions, but cut out the daytime sessions so that I have a bigger chunk of my daytime free.

Right now this is what my breast feeding/pumping schedule is like:

7am BF

9am Pump (when they go down to nap)

10:30am BF (when they wake up)

11:30am Pump

12:30pm BF (when they are done with lunch)

1:30pm Pump (when they go down to nap)

3pm BF (when they wake up)

5:30pm BF (after dinner)

6:30pm Bottle of BM at bedtime (7-8 oz)

7pm Pump

9:30-10pm Pump

As you can see, that doesn't leave me with much time in between pumping or nursing. Quick runs out of the house but always with a "tick-tock" going to rush back in time.

Of course there were days, I simply had to be somewhere (doctor's appointments, etc) but most of the last year has been spent focused on feeding these boys.

I remember my LC saying to me a few weeks after the boys were born: "Don't expect to have a life this year. If you are committed to breast feeding twins, you aren't going to have much of a life."

She was not kidding. It has been hard, hard work, but I'm so happy I stuck with it. I also had the opportunity to stay home and do it. There is no way I would still be breast feeding my babies if I'd had to return to work and pump. My pumping output just wouldn't have been enough for them. I struggle to make the 2 bottles a day. Some days I get 14 ounces total. A lot of days I've had to supplement. But overall, they've been 90% breast fed and I'm beyond pleased with that. It has been the hardest thing I've ever done but also the most rewarding.

Those of you who work and keep this up are the true superstars of breast feeding, not me!

First things first: Drop a pump every 3 days. (If your titties are sore, ice them.)

First drop 1:30pm

Second drop 11:30am

Third drop 7pm

Fourth drop 9am

Last drop 10pm

This should take me to their birthday and we will start to introduce *cow milk in **straw cups as we wean them from the day nursing sessions.

I'm hoping my milk supply will hold when I drop the pumps as I'd still really, really like to continue to nurse them in the morning and evening.

We'll have to see.

If anyone else out there reading has any wise words about weaning, please let me know. I am both happy to stop pumping, but sad that the end of my breast feeding days might be in the future. Ideally, I'd love to keep going but my body will be the judge of that.

Just this week, I gave away my double breast feeding "EZ to Nurse" pillow and I cried a little. Things are changing.

*As an experiment the other night we put cow milk in their sippy cups at dinner. They freaking loved the stuff. Chicken and I go through a gallon of milk just between the two of us every 2 days, so I see a daily milk run in our near future.

**We have been trying to get them to use straw cups for over a month now, putting them out with water at every meal, but they loudly protest and then throw them over the side of the highchair demanding their sippy cups.

Yesterday, I tried something new. I filled the straw cups up with water and put them in their play area. Guess what happened??? Like magic. They drank out of them all day long. Babies are crazy to figure out.

Clap-Spastic Grunter

Clap Your Hands, Say Yeah!

Right before Christmas, Grunter learned how to clap. He was a spastic clapper, mainly swinging his arms around in a circle and hoping they landed together at some point all the while squealing with glee. It's hilarious.

True to form, W2 patiently watched and waited and when he decided to clap about a week later, it was with great deliberate precision. A perfect, delicate clap.

Now, if I ask them if they are happy, they sometimes clap--even though I've only sang the song to them a handful of times. They do hear it in music class so I guess they were paying attention all those months after all.

Last Friday, as I was doing a morning goat feed, W2 popped off, smiled at me with milk dribbling out his mouth and started clapping.

Could my heart swoon anymore?

Why yes, it could.

Because today, Grunter did it, right before W2 and he's got his clapping skills down, just like his brother.

Watching your babies clap as they take a break from breast feeding is joy to the world.

I like to think they are just so happy with the boobies, they can't help themselves from clapping.

Cute. Cute. Cute.

These developmental milestones blow my mind. Every day is a great, precious gift with these guys. I feel like the luckiest person on earth.