The girls getting reacquainted. 
Sitting in their matching booster seats waiting for grub to be served.
Still checking each other out.
Feeding Central.
Both babies seem to have forgotten each other and are more interested in their food.
"But I already took a drink."
"Okay, one more sip."
"Mmm...bananas."
Proud papas with their girls on their laps. Jason & Mara. Uwe & Astrid.
Both babies looking straight into the camera.Jason and I were discussing how it's funny to see our mother's interacting with our daughters. You assume since she raised you that she would be the baby expert but as a parent now you realize that she's no more of an expert than you and in some instances you question whether she really knew what she was doing when she raised you. Jason jokingly asked his mom, "Are you sure you raised me? How did I survive?" His mom's cute respond was, "Sorry, I'm a little out of practice."
When I was visiting my parents recently my mom tried to give Astrid a Ramen noodle. Now Uwe and I spend a lot of money to give Astrid only the best organic foods and formula and we make sure she has a healthy diet with no preservatives or additives. Even her rice cereal is brown rice, not white rice and nothing she eats is processed or bleached. And here's my mom trying to feed her a deep fried, bleached flour, MSG and lard soaked noodle with no nutritional value. I couldn't believe it. I asked, "What are you doing? That's not good for her!" as I swiped the noodle away from her mouth before she ate it. My mom responded, "What's wrong with it? I rinsed it off." Obviously our ideas of what is good for the baby and what is a no no are completely different.
And then Jason told me about a friend's mom who tries to be helpful and thinks he's a clueless dad. One day when he was running Mara's bath, his friend's mom came running over and stuck her hand under the water. Jason gave her a puzzled look and she said, "Oh I just wanted to make sure the water wasn't too hot." And then she asked him what he was using in her bath. She actually thought he was using dishwashing liquid. Haha! I can relate. My mom loves giving me unsolicited advice such as "Make sure she can stand up. Right now she needs to practice standing up." I have to calmly explain that yes I know and that we have a Jumperoo and an exersaucer (which weren't around when I was a kid) which she can stand in and she does everyday. I mean we're first time parents but we're not completely clueless!
Astrid was born on April 19 and Mara was born on April 22, just 3 days apart. They're both going to be celebrating their 1st birthday in 3 months. How time flies!So everyone mark your calendars tentatively for the weekend of Sunday April 23rd for Astrid's 1 year birthday party!
This pic tickles me because it's the snapshot of the reality of having 2 kids. Julie is putting things away in the diaper bag (mommies have to be super organized), Mara is bending backwards and Jason's holding onto his little acrobat, Astrid looks like she's about to cry, and Uwe is smiling. The organized chaos of having kids. One minute they can be laughing, the next crying, the next hungry. You just have to go with the flow as a parent and adapt to any situation as best as you can.
Astrid sitting in her Aquarium swing and Mara playing in Astrid's exersaucer. It was sweet to see them interacting. Mara being in daycare 1/2 days during the week is used to being around other children. She would watch Astrid and listen to her chatter, and then laugh.At times they were both very aware that their was another baby in the room, but then at other times they seemed to be in their own worlds. After feeding the girls and eating (I made a breakfast casserole dish and a hash brown dish) we went upstairs to watch football and let the girls play and interact with each other on the floor. I don't have any pics of that unfortunately but Astrid crawled over to Mara and they got real close and Mara and Astrid reached out to touch each other. Very sweet.
They both went down for naps at the same time in the afternoon and we parents had some time to relax. That is until Astrid woke up crying and woke Mara up. Oh well, it happens.
It's so nice to have girls so close in age. Julie and I can relate to all the same developmental stages and things the girls are doing. And we can relate to being a first time moms and all of the hurdles and joy it brings.
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2 comments:
I understand about the Ramen noodle thing. My story isn't the exact same, but I can relate. :)
When Isabella was about 9 months old she spent the weekend at my mom's house. I called to check in on her, and my mom said that my sister was feeding Isabella peanut butter ice cream they had just made. I calmly told her that since she was under a year old she was not allowed to eat anything with peanuts. On the inside I was freaking out. :)
I was actually surprised to find out that my mom had no clue about the peanuts thing.
I guess when my sister and I were infants my mom was never told anything about staying away from peanuts, and I figured she already knew so I never thought to tell her. I'm just glad I happened to call while she was eating that ice cream, and so far she's not allergic to peanuts.
I also understand how you feel because Doug and I try to keep Isabella away from any junk food. At home we don't give her chips, or pop, or anything like that. But when we go to Doug's dad's house for a weekend I tend to break down and let her eat the junk since his side of the family eats junk constantly.
Like last weekend grandpa Tom asked if she could have a sip of his root beer. I said yes, thinking it was just going to be a sip. By the time this entire event was done she had drank almost the entire glass. Unfortunately, I didn't notice right away until grandpa Tom made a comment about how much she liked root beer.
I think it's really hard finding that balance between giving your kids healthy food and letting grandparents spoil them. Overall though I think the parents definitely should have a say in what should be given to their kids.
Sorry, this is so long. I guess I had lots to say. :)
Karissa,
That was actually on a episode of "Six Feet Under." The grandmother was babysitting when her daughter-inlaw (the mom) came home to find her feeding the baby peanut butter. I think when we were kids no one knew that small children could be allergic to peanuts and anything with peanuts or that touches peanuts could be very dangerous for babies.
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