The Dinner Show

The other night the boys flipped Amelia's princess tent upside down and sat inside with their bedtime bottles. As you can see, it turned into a major gigglefest.

Clearly the bottle has become entertainment now. Which is fine, because at 18 months we'll be done with the bottles for good. We're down to one bottle shortly before bedtime, and I can't even begin to count how many bottles we've assembled, filled, and washed in those 18 months. And I even nursed for the first six months, though not exclusively, but it still helped cut down on bottles.

I do remember that in the early days we fed seven times a day. We had 21 bottles so we could get through a 24-hour period without washing, though we never went that long without running the dishwasher with a top rack full of bottles. As soon as the boys turned one, I did away with all bottles except this last one before bedtime. I was so tired of dealing with bottles! Getting down to just three bottles -- total -- in a day was really a dream.

We've hung onto this bottle because it usually keeps the boys quiet (or at least entertained!) long enough for us to have supper.

I'm sure they will find new ways to entertain themselves and us once the bottles are gone for good.

© Trippin' Mama 2010

We've Got A Grip!

The boys are getting so big so fast! *Sigh.*

It's a great thing, but a sad thing at the same time.

I remember wondering when they were just a few months old when they would be able to hold their own bottles. Not that I wanted them to grow up any faster than they were, but there were many days early on when I couldn't help but think how much easier that would make life.

And look at us now.

Sam

Isaac

Alex shows off the one-handed grip.

It has made bottle feeding, if not life, easier now that they boys can hold their own bottles. But of course, we now take three or four bottles a day instead of eight (our max), so that alone changes everything!

And now that we've got a grip (ha ha) on the bottles, and we're fast moving toward that first birthday (is that even possible?) it's time to move on.

Check us out with our cups!

Isaac, Alex and Sam test out their cups.

In no time at all, Jeff and I will have to buy shares in a dairy farm to keep those cups full.

It Runs in the Family

Jeff washed all the bottle parts the other night.

Can you say OCD? When I wash the bottle parts they wind up in a jumbled heap. Since we go through 21 bottles a day, they get assembled as quickly as they get washed, so I don't waste my time on being orderly. I save my own OCD tendencies for other things, so between us we have all the bases covered.

And we wonder why Amelia has to straighten out the boys' play mat and line up her stuffed animals just so. Actually, we don't. We accept and embrace our OCD tendencies in this house. I understand that's the first step to recovery -- though it certainly hasn't worked so far!

Maybe we should have really embraced our problem by naming the boys Oliver, Christopher and Daniel. Other than Alex's aversion to being wet at all, we don't see many OCD tendencies in them yet, but just give it time.

The boys just hangin' out. From left: Sam, Isaac and Alex.