My notes

Just noticed, this is post 500!

Had another playdate with the quad mom (Hi M!) and I brought K along.  Her little boy seemed really happy to have another guy around during the day and pretty much stuck to him like glue.  Very affectionate, even I got a nice hug.  I'm jealous.  My babies don't hug and aren't snuggly.  They are moving away in a couple of weeks which totally sucks for me, it's my favorite playdate household, especially since her kids are the exact same age as mine.  And what do moms do at playdates when the kids are the same age?  We compare notes!

In the spirit of comparing notes, I bring to you basically every bit of information about how my household is functioning so you too can compare notes.  As always, I make no claims that I'm doing things right or wrong, this is just how I'm doing things.

Girls age - Almost 15 months

Sizes - I weighed Teeny Tiny the other day and she was 20lbs2oz.  I suspect Middie Biddie is about 21lbs.  Just moved up to size 12m clothing but a lot of 9m still fits.  Also just moved up to size 4 diapers.

Teeth - I've lost count.  Both have some molars, Teeny Tiny is cutting one right now and whining a bit about it.  I know I'm supposed to brush their teeth every night but it doesn't happen.  That's totally my fault.  They actually enjoy it, so the only reason it's not happening is because I'm not doing it.

Car Seats - Still well under the weight limit of 30lbs but they've outgrown the height.  I ordered new car seats this morning.

My post-partum body - I was back to my pre-pregnancy weight within a few weeks of having the girls.  I have since gained 30lbs.  I was pumping until 10 months and gained about 10lbs during that time, and the other 20lbs have packed on since I stopped.  I'm currently having my second post partum period, 2 months after my first one.  This is shocking to me since with my PCOS, I usually only have 1 period a year, and that's usually medically induced.  So having 2 natural periods?  This is new and unpleasant!

Pacifiers - Teeny Tiny never took one.  Middie Biddie never seemed to have a moment without her wubba hanging from her face.  We started weaning her from this about a month ago.  It's now no longer allowed outside of the crib, and every week or so I run a needle through it a few times.  This makes the suction far less satisfying and we no longer see it hanging from her face when we get her out of the crib.  She still likes it, but she's no longer dependent on it and is rapidly losing interest.

Baths - They happen about twice a week.  Gee, K gets two days off per week.  Any correlation???  Yeah, I'm going to have the smelly kids in school.  We'll do this more when they can walk and get in and out of the tub themselves.  Until then, I'm still doing baths in the baby bath in the sink.

Walking and talking - Lots of babble and experimenting with sounds.  They are real chatterboxes at home, but not in the presence of anyone else.  I think they think they're talking, but no English yet.  Just about everything is referred to as "Da Da!!"  Both are firmly cruising.  Teeny Tiny is experimenting with standing up unassisted, or flinging herself from me to something else to grab onto, but no unassisted walking.  She will walk around laughing holding onto my fingers.  Middie Biddie can do both of those things, but she's not very interested in them.  Still expecting both to walk across the room any day now, but we've been saying "any day now" for a month.

The girls living space - 
I keep the girls pretty limited.  In the nursery, they are only in their cribs, they have yet to be in that room when they are not being held or in their cribs.  Here's a quick tour of spaces my girls occupy during the day.

The living room.  A good portion of their day is in this room.  I cleaned up last night and they haven't been in there yet today, but normally it's got that tornado hit it look to it.  Going from top left corner and working clockwise - the kitchen (gated off) is behind where you see the stuffed dog on the couch.  The room being gated off is our other living room/dining room (windows are covered with sheets right now in an attempt to keep the sun from heating the house).  We basically haven't used that room for anything but crap storage since the girls were born.  Then you see toy bins and the TV.  That window/door to the right is our deck where we used to feed the cats (they're gone now).  You see a bit of K's desk in the corner, then the wall of gates, and circling back around to the pack and play.

Here's the girls feeding table on the other side of the gates along with a litterbox, garbage can, generally stuff I don't want the girls to have access to.  You can kind of see the bar in the upper right corner, the changing area is behind the bar.

Here is what used to be my office which is now the morning play room.  I took this picture so you can see it in context with how it's attached to the living room.  That's my chair and desk so I can sit just outside the morning playroom and the girls can't get to my computer.  I can also see the tv in the living room when I'm sitting at my desk but the girls can't.

And then the morning play room just beyond my chair.  The exersaucers are going to go soon.  We haven't put them inside them for over a month, but they still use them for pulling up and cruising and will play with some of the toys from the outside.  The main reason I'm reluctant to get rid of them is that the one in the back corner is blocking the girls from getting to things like the modem and router.

Discipline - Still too young to really implement any discipline, but I'm starting to say NO when Teeny Tiny steals something from Middie Biddie.  I say No, take whatever it is and give it back to Middie Biddie.  Sometimes I have to physically block Teeny Tiny from being able to get it again and she is NOT happy when I do that.  I'm doing my best to convince her that she wants something else, but she really is the jerk who just wants what her sister is playing with no matter what it is.  

There hasn't been any biting.  I'm told by everyone out in public that they are remarkably well behaved because they pretty much just patiently sit and wait for their food and then quietly eat it when it arrives.  Basically, I haven't really had to do any discipline because they haven't misbehaved yet.

Sleep habits- 

Bedtime routine - we don't really have much of one.  Bedtime bottle, a lullaby while I get them in their sleep sacks, turn on the light mobile (now mounted across the room), kisses and good night.  When K is home, we'll do bottle and lullaby while rocking them, but they aren't snugglers, it's a total wigglefest.

They sleep in sleep sacks and will until we move up to toddler beds.  They can't climb out of the crib with those things so I'm going to use them until I simply can not use them anymore.  We might add lightweight blankets once the weather turns because they are very adept at uncovering themselves now.

Their cribs currently butt up against each other.  We might change that today because I think they are playing too much and it's preventing them from falling asleep.  

They've had a variety of loveys and stuffed animals in their cribs, primarily because anything that starts out in Middie Biddies crib quickly finds its way into Teeny Tiny's.  The theory was give Teeny Tiny several things so she doesn't want to steal and give Middie Biddie plenty of back ups for when they are stolen.  But I've now found some of Middie Biddies toys on the floor outside the crib so she's throwing them out, she's not the poor victim here so we cleared everything out except one lovey each.  

Once they fall asleep at night, it's usually 12 solid hours.  Yes, you may hate me now.  Sometimes we'll have a wake up after being asleep for 30-60 minutes, but singing over the monitor usually puts the woken one back down without waking up the sleeping one.  

I think they should be going to sleep around 8pm, they seem think they should be going to sleep around 9:30pm.  Guess who's winning that argument.

Naps are where things are going all kaflooy.  Middie Biddie really wants to be on a one nap schedule but Teeny Tiny is still firmly in two.  I can't tell you what exactly we're doing because kaflooy is really the best way to describe it.  Every day K and I are having discussions about what to do about their sleep schedule and every day I end up flying by the seat of my pants anyway. 

Yesterday was K's day off so he had the kids while I did everything else a person does in life.  He decided to go according to Middie Biddies schedule and they had a single one hour nap in the afternoon.  That seemed to work out ok yesterday so that was the plan for today.  We woke them up shortly before 9am (trying to move their overall day a little earlier) and I figured when they showed tired signs, I'd put them in the pack and play with just a couple of toys (no noise makers) so they could just kind of veg out before getting a second wind to energize them for another hour or two before a single afternoon nap.  

When they started getting a little cranky, I moved them back into a play space figuring they were ready to play again.  Middie Biddie was, but Teeny Tiny was very clearly tired.  Climbing on me and dropping her face onto my chest because she didn't have the energy not to drop her head.  So they went down for a morning nap and both promptly fell sleep at 11:15am and stayed asleep for 90 minutes.  Will they take an afternoon nap?  I don't know.  I'm pretty sure Teeny Tiny will, but will Middie Biddie whine the entire time?  I just don't know.  But I couldn't keep Teeny Tiny up any longer because she was kind of miserable.

Girls Toys and Activities - 

We don't get out of the house much.  We should probably go for more walks and do more things like going to the zoo, but we don't.  I take them out to family breakfast (my parents and some aunts, uncles, a cousin with her kiddo) every few weeks, but generally we just stick to the house.  I'm such a homebody.  Ya know, if society were suddenly all under house arrest, with the internet and delivery services, I probably wouldn't even notice for a month or two.

In terms of toys, they are at an awkward spot where baby toys are too simple but toddler toys are too complex.  Most of the baby toys have become filler stuff to be discovered.  They go inside of empty tissue boxes, or something plastic will go into an old formula or puffs container.  They like to shake various things like water bottles with something inside it. A favorite is a box with about a 3 inch hole in it and all the plastic rings I can find inside.  They'll sit at that box and dig out rings, bring them to me, then go back for more.  Oh yes, bringing me things is a big one right now. They are very amused with pulling an item out of a container so anything that they can put in their mouths without dying (the sippy cups we didn't like, measuring cups, blocks, tupperware type containers) is tossed into a basket or bin in their playroom.  They are also big on using blankets to play peekabo so there's a stack of baby blankets in the cabinet under the tv.  

They beeline for my phone or the remote if either is within reach so I don't keep them within reach.  Baby selfies with my phone is always a hit when I don't know what else to do with them though.

Middie Biddie thinks gravity is the most awesome thing ever so she'll often amuse herself with throwing a stuffed animal on the floor over and over again.  

As for purchased toys, they've figured out the ballapalooza so that's a favorite.  They will put other items on the track and see if those will roll too.  They haven't figured out stacking rings or sorting boxes yet so those items are treated like any other random thing they can bang together.  They love anything that makes music and treat music making toys like a radio that has to be turned on over and over again.  They'll get the music started, go to play with something else, then come back to the toy to restart the music when it stops.  Music tables are being used as walkers.  As I type this, Middie Biddie is sitting at a music table holding a tupperware container and one of K's shoes.  She rolls the thing on the music table to make a song go, and then goes back to inspecting the tupperware or shoelace before whacking the table again when the music stops.  And now she's pushing the table across the room.  Oh look, Teeny Tiny just took over the table pushing duties leaving Middie Biddie with just her tupperware and shoe.

Food - I bet this is what we are all most curious about.  So here goes.

We're on whole milk now.  They drink out of straw cups and throughout the day they get a cup of either water or milk every time they eat totalling about half water, half milk for their daily fluid intake.  They only have one bottle a day and that's at bed time.  Sometimes we let them try sipping out of a sippy cup or a real cup, but that's a rare game and not the norm.

They eat about every 2 hours.  I tried meals and snacks, but when they eat, they pretty much always eat the same amount so we're looking at 4-5 small meals per day.  Most foods are finger food, still cut up to the size of a big blueberry (except blueberries are cut in half due to the shape being a choking hazard).

**OMG!  Teeny Tiny just took 2 steps from the ottoman to the couch!!!!  Any day now might be today!  Ok, back to our regularly scheduled topic**

They self feed from pouches really well so I keep a supply of those on hand.  Some from the store, some that I make myself.  When we go out, I always have some of those for the girls but I usually don't resort to using those when we're at home.  I can usually manage to prepare something else.

First meal when they wake up - Baby oatmeal with fruit puree accompanied by a cup of milk and then Cheerios until they're done eating.

Meal after first nap - Scrambled eggs with veggies mixed in.  I season with salt, pepper, and paprika.

Afternoon meal/snack - fruit and cheese cubes.  Sometimes I toss some sort of meat on the plate like mini pepperoni's or chicken, but the foundation of this plate is fruit and cheese.  Yogurt if they're still hungry when they finish that.  Sometimes I'll do a cut up banana and toast with peanut butter.

Those are the consistent meals pretty much every day.  Yes, it's a rut, but it works for me.  By the time we've eaten our rut foods, I know they've had fruit, grain, protein and a smidge of veggies for the day so if the following meal or two doesn't go over well, I can just feed them whatever is easy knowing they've had a variety of healthy stuff already.  The basic rule is that there is some sort of protein on every plate.  If their good behavior is due to anything I'm doing, that's probably what it is.  No blood sugar spikes or crashes to make them cranky because protein helps regulate that.

Dinner - Usually we try to give them our leftovers from the night before depending on what it is.  If it's McDonalds, they don't get any and I have to come up with something else.  Usually it's pretty simple, steamed veggies sprinkled with cheese and some sort of meat.  I keep precooked chicken in the freezer to make this easy.  Pre-diced meats often sold as salad toppings are also pretty easy.  They often have a pasta dish, but I get either the whole grain pasta or the veggie infused stuff, boil it in chicken stock, and their serving is about 50% pasta and 50% diced veggies with some meat thrown in covered in the sauce.  Fishsticks are becoming more common.

A couple of days ago they surprised me by liking the roasted artichoke I made for myself.  I had to keep scraping the meat off with my thumbnail and giving it to them like they were little birds.  When I put a little of the vinegar dressing onto a spoon for them, I expected a shocked baby face reaction but they reacted as if I had given them chocolate!  I had to keep giving it to them as if it were pudding!  I didn't give them a whole lot because I didn't want to make them sick, but just lots of spoons with a tiny amount on it.

I keep a supply of canned diced fruits or veggies in the house for them, including some that K and I don't eat just so we can introduce them to things we may not be overly familiar with.  Maybe today they'll try okra.  I may or may not join them.

Baby mum mum crackers generally stop the cranks when I can't figure out what's making them cranky.  Cheerios often do the trick too.

I do keep some processed crap dinners in the house (beefaroni, those yellow packaged baby dinners) for easy meals, but I try not to use more than one or two of those a week so they don't develop a taste for processed foods.  I grew up on white flour and cream of fill in the blank soup so I'm trying to instill an appreciation for veggies, whole wheats, and foods without fats.  I can eat a barrel full of fruits and veggies and still not feel like I've actually eaten anything until I have a pastry.  I want them to feel like veggies are actually food.

When K is home, we're starting to work on things that you have to take bites from.  He likes to cook so they get a much more adventurous menu when K is home.  He made them pancakes yesterday (I made him plop some pumpkin in them, yay veggies!) and grilled cheese sandwiches.  They are good at taking bites from a banana if I hold it.

-----------------

So, uh, that's it!  That's my life and how we do things.  Did I miss any categories?  How do I compare to what the rest of you are doing?