Tricks my kids do... part two

I'll be the first to admit we haven't fully baby proofed our house. We've set up blockades and moved furniture around, but we haven't gotten totally serious about it because 'easy' baby proofing was working-- mostly.

Until today.

I was laying on the couch icing my back -- which is still a little sore from the back issues I experienced a couple of weeks ago. The boys were in and out of the living room, back and forth to the playroom. It got pretty quiet and then came a ridiculous amount of laughter from both boys. I was as quiet as I could be as I inched around the corner into the playroom. One of the blockades we'd used was an ottoman holding up a large pillow covering the bottom of a bookcase where we house some office supplies. A had gotten up on top of the ottoman before to press the printer button over and over and over, but that wasn't what was happening today.

Today BOTH of my children where standing up on a relatively small, slightly angled leather ottoman playing what can only be described at the baby version of king of the hill. I laughed first, just for a second-- then I saved their lives.

Seriously, each day we don't have to make a trip to the ER I count as a win! I'm still very skeptical we'll make it to 2 without stitches or some other dramatic event. Boys will be boys I guess!

Packing up

It is holiday travel season, and traveling with kids is HARD work! While hard, it is totally doable with a little extra preparing. For us, making a list is key, and thinking of each part of our day while we are away is a big deal. I find that if we can keep up with our routine as much as possible it makes our days and more importantly nights, easier. Not to mention the transition back home again. So, here is a bit of our list for our boys at 15m.

• Pack-n-play -- the place we are staying already has one crib for the other boy.
• Lovies and lollies-- don't cross my babies at bedtime.
• A portable highchair-- both homes we will be eating meals in has either one or two high chairs so our portable will supplement.
• TOYS! One home has an insane amount of toys, the other has just a few, so we will take a good sized basket of favorites with us.
• Food. We'll pick this up when we arrive, but it is so important to have things the boys will eat. When you're away from home, so much is already different, food can be one thing that stays consistent.
• Obviously clothing and shoes.
• Medications and a thermometer. Nothing is worse than thinking your kid feels hot when you're out of town and having to run to Walgreens in the middle of the night!
• Any and all of the things that help your kiddo sleep. For us that means music and the firm little pillow H uses at night.

Most importantly take your camera or phone and snap some pictures of family and friends loving on your babies!

Baby Dance

I watched a movie a few days ago while I was laying around with a sore back. It was called 'Baby Dance' and was, from my perspective, a pretty good movie. I'm not an adoptive parent, and even though I read several adoption blogs- I haven't lived it, and can't speak too much to how it all works, or doesn't work. What I DO know, is that when I watch a movie with an infertility theme, if it isn't done just perfectly and doesn't capture the emotion/heartache and speak about things in an inteligent manner I HATE the movie. So, keep that in mind if you decide to watch it.

I think it showed a lot of the things people don't talk about when it comes to adoption. Like all of the millions of feelings that go into making that choice in the first place, what you would do if the baby you were matched with ended up having some sort of issue, how you deal with the birth family, differing emotions from the waiting mother and father, etc. The movie was older and was probably set in the 80's-ish and I really have no idea what adoptions were like back then. But, as I watched all I could think was, I don't think I'm strong enough to do that.

It certainly isn't the norm from the stories I've read or heard from people I know, but my goodness, if that is how it once was, I can't even imagine. So, here's to you adoptive parents-- even though this was just a Hollywood glimpse for me into adoption I commend you for your strength when it comes to the choices you have made.

Feeding time...

I need more food ideas for the boys- I'm going insane. I know there are tons of things I could be giving them, but I draw a complete blank when I'm at the grocery store and end up buying all the same things. I do not want my kids to end up as those super picky eaters that eat a PBJ or grilled cheese for EVERY SINGLE MEAL!

Here is what they eat now-- please oh please, give me more ideas, or at least say your kid doesn't eat any better!

BREAKFAST:
Pancakes - plain, no butter or syrup-sometimes with fruit mixed in
Waffles- same as above
French toast- again without butter or syrup
Fruit & spinach smoothie
Kashi fruit bar
Any fruit
Sometimes scrambled eggs- H more than A
Toast- dry, sometimes with a little homemade jam

LUNCH:
Grilled cheese sandwich
Flat bread pizza
English muffin pizza
Cubed cheese
Plain flat bread
Fruit
Smoothie
Pouches of puréed veggies
Cheerios

DINNER:
Basically everything on the other two lists, and sometimes a bite or two of whatever we are eating. They've recently decided they don't care too much for noodles, meat in most any form, beans or most veggies in finger food form.

Meal ideas to try? Snack ideas? Come on, help me out, I'm in a serious rut!

Uh-oh!

As I said yesterday, H has learned to say uh-oh. It is generally accompanied with a very dramatic two hands over his mouth and worried eyes. It is hilarious.

• When he wakes up, Uh-oh.
• When he sets his car down gently on the floor, Uh-oh.
• When A does something he isn't supposed to in another room, uh-oh uh-oh uh-oh.
• When he runs out of food on his tray, Uh-oh.

You get the idea. All day long. It is the sweetest thing ever, so I don't mind hearing him say the same thing all day. I love these moments, and I feel insanely blessed to be home with them every single day!

15 months...

I decided to start skipping monthly updates on the boys after their first birthday and will just do a larger update for each of their well visit months in their second year.

We're finally off formula... This week at fifteen months! It took us awhile to make the tradition, but I think we've finally done it. A didn't love the switch and we ended up just going slow for both boys because it was easier to keep track of. The boys now have three sippy cups of milk per day- probably between 16-20oz of milk per day. In addition to milk, the will eat three decent sized meals per day and sometimes a couple of snacks. They love carbs and fruit and seem to be coming around to whole veggies, but mostly still would rather have them in purée or smoothie form. Speaking of smoothies- they are obsessed. It's nice because we can get about a cup of fresh spinach in each one, which is great when they don't love finger food veggies! Meat has been really hard, and they don't care for beans too much either. Most protein is coming from dairy products these days, but hopefully they'll come around soon. Until then, we'll just keep offering it.

The boys have been somewhat slow to talk, but babble ALL.DAY.LONG! H can now say hi, mama, dada, uh-oh, yay and we've heard toddles more than once. For now, A us just saying mama, dada and yay. He generally does things about two weeks after H, so I think his language will perk up soon!

They are both loving playing with anything that has wheels. I think their current favorite us a green toys airplane they got as a birthday gift. It is constantly flying through our house accompanied with sound effects- cutest thing ever!

Sleep is getting better. More nights than not they sleep through- and our bed only has two adults in it-- WIN!! They still like music at bedtime and H now has a firm pillow in his bed because he has insanely small nostrils like his mama and with ANY congestion it is nearly impossible to breathe. He also gets saline spray before bed each night which he hates!

Our next major task is getting rid of the lollies. It's not something we are going to take on until after the holiday/traveling season. But it's coming, and I'm hopeful it will be done, or at least even more limited by 18m. Right now they get them in their beds, in the car seat and stroller.

H has 8-10 teeth. Wondering why I don't know? The kid's mouth is on lock down if he isn't eating- which makes brushing teeth a super fun few minutes. A has 10, and seems like he may be working on another, or maybe a couple of those 10 aren't completely through... The drool. Insane!

Our 'Tiny' is no longer the smaller of the boys- he out weighs his brother now by 10 oz! A weighs in at 24lbs 10oz (51%) and H at 24lbs even (42%). H is still taller than A, by a whole 1 1/4". H measures 32 1/2" (86%) and A was 31 1/4" (54%). Their heads are on the big side, which is just like both of our families- A 49cm (93%) and H 49 1/2 (96%).

A's hair is still super blonde and his eyes are a very sweet blue color. He continues to look more like Hub's family than mine, right down to his little booty. H's hair is a bit more brown, and his eyes are floating over to the grey/green side instead if the blue they used to be. H looks a lot like my family and the trend continues for him right down to his lack of a booty!

I can't think of anything else interesting, so I'll finish off with a temporary picture of the little stinkers....

The importance of preparing...

I was recently talking with someone who is in the midst of infertility and on the brink of an IVF cycle. We were talking about the MANY things that go into it, and how much you really have to advocate for yourself, ask questions and become known by both your doctor and his or her nurses. I found it so very important to truly and deeply understand the process as well as the drugs. And I would encourage every single person to do the same. Yes, your doctors and nurses do this for a living and have the education and experience to back them up, but it us YOUR body, YOUR future. 

In just the few minutes we talked, we touched on so many aspects of this journey:

• Making a plan with your spouse about how far is too far.
• Preparing your heart, mind, body and checking account for what is about to happen. 
• Having a plan for number of embryos to transfer prior to the sometimes emotional morning of the transfer. 
• Understanding your calendar and the drugs you will be taking. 
• Making a decision about where your drugs will come from- domestic vs. international. 
• The importance of cool socks. 
• The amount the general public knows about infertility and the IVF process. 
• The scary reality that even some of your IVF (or any treatment for that matter) peers know very little about what they are about to do. 
• The fact that sometimes participating in medical studies doesn't outweigh cost of treatment/sanity. 
• Balancing hope with reality. Having a guarded heart while still experiencing pure joy. 
• Gatorade. 
• Tricks for injections.

If only every person who jumped feet first into fertility treatment was more than consultation appointment educated.