What Feeding Yourself Looks Like at 18 Months

After talking about Caroline and Ellie's whole "learning to feed myself" stage that we're in right now, I thought we'd should add a few more descriptive photos.  

They love to eat out of a bowl or plate, but Ellie is the worst offender when it comes to throwing her mealtime paraphernalia on the floor or dumping all the contents on her tray, or on herself.

The funny thing is, she absolutely knows that I'm not okay with this.  Now, when she throws something on the floor, she immediately looks at me and taps the table with her hand.  I often ask her, "where does __ go?  It goes on the table."

So now, I guess, just to speed up the whole conversation, she preempts my question with just giving me the answer by pointing to the table.  As if this makes it okay, and I should give it back to her.  Sigh.

Caroline, on the other hand, is focused.  She will work the food in that bowl until its gone...or until Ellie reaches over and takes it from her...and then of course, ends up on the floor.....

....where most things of Ellie's ends up.

Well, what can I say, at least they're cute.

Do it Myself!

We have started to let Caroline and Ellie feed themselves...and they love it!

Not too much food actually gets in the mouth but they are figuring out how to use a spoon and fork and they're getting better at it everyday.

Both girls seem to be right handed, which we were wondering about since I am exclusively left handed when it comes to these things.

In this whole process of feeding themselves, the messes have exponentially increased...not only on the floor and the high chairs, but also on their faces, heads, and clothes!

They are also much happier though that they can do it themselves.  Meals take a little longer and it's a little bit of an aerobic exercise for me as I go back and forth behind each chair trying to help each one out with each bite.

Ellie loves to be helped with each bite, and Caroline likes to be helped out depending on the day.

We also tend to have major mood swings with the eating.  Some meals, the girls are are elated and so proud of themselves, and on other days, it's total melt-down city around here.

These days, one girl seems to be crying during every meal.  Blake and I feel like we were given a gift if both girls make it through the entire meal with both happy.

Reasons for melt-downs:
1.  I want to sit in Mommy's lap
2.  I threw my cup on the floor and I want it back
3.  My sister has more Cheerios that I do
4.  My sister took off her bib and she's trying to rip mine off
5.  I am trying to feed my sister and she bit my fingers as I shoved a piece of (insert food choice here) in her mouth
6.  My sister stole my spoon
7.  My sister stole my bowl
8.  My sister stole my cup
9.  I want to eat with colored spoon/bowl/plate that my sister is using
10.  I'm tired and just not feeling like eating right now

Suddenly, it's all coming clear to me of why meal times are not my favorite part of the day...but these pictures do remind me that there are times when everyone is in the zone and we're having a pretty good time together!

And Just Like That....

...Caroline and Ellie turned 1 year old on Saturday.  I just need to pause and take that in for a second...

...or maybe two since we are talking about twins here.  

To celebrate, we had my brother and two other families that we've become friends with over for breakfast out in our backyard.  

We had a cold front come in the night before.  We woke up with weather in the 60's, and just like that it felt like fall was in the air.  It was the perfect excuse to use our fire pit, that of course all the kids loved.  It was a wonderful morning to celebrate Caroline and Ellie turning 1.  

This was the first morning that the girls did not eat their oatmeal and bananas for breakfast...they got to eat pancakes, sausage, hashbrowns, etc like the rest of us that they scarfed up as if they were wondering why we've been holding out on them for so long.

I made each girl a little cupcake and they hesitantly dug in.  

After a couple bites, Ellie dug in and ate all the icing that she possibly could.  

She wasn't all that into the cake part, but the whole thing kept her occupied for a long time.  

Caroline, on the other hand, wasn't all that into it.  Blake and I were both really surprised because she normally attacks all of her food with both hands and shoves food in her mouth with each fist.  

I guess I'll have to remember next year to cover Caroline's cupcake in Cheerios and Peas, and then she might really go for it!  

Our next door neighbors that joined us for breakfast have a daughter, Annalee, that was also born on the 19th.  She turned 9 on this day, and so we also sang to her, had a little gift and had candles for her to blow out.  It was cute, and we think she enjoyed it too.  I asked her later if she had fun, and she said that maybe we could do this again next year and call it the "Triplet Birthday Breakfast Bash".  

How can you say no to that?

Caroline and Ellie did great the whole morning.  They seemed to just be observing all the commotion and they most certainly were not suffering from a lack of attention.  

We opened gifts out on a picnic blanket.  Our friends, the Snyders, have 4 kids, and their 2 year old, Annaka, is really into babies.  She gave Caroline and Ellie her full attention almost the whole time, and the girls loved it.  She helped us open all the gifts.  Totally adorable.  

They both sat on Rick's lap toward the end.  They love their Uncle Rick!

The whole morning, I kept thinking about the verse in Luke 2:19 after the Shepherds come to visit baby Jesus, and it says, "Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart."

This is how I felt.  

I'm learning that as a Mom, there is something so sweet and special about watching other people love on your babies.  I can't believe that a whole year has gone by....a year that the Lord brought us indescribable joy through our two beautiful babies.  

Thank you Jill and Jessica for you and each of your families being wonderful friends to our family.   

What a wonderful morning celebrating Caroline Kate and Ellie Rachel turning 1 year old.

A morning that Blake and I will never forget!

Dinner for Two

The girls are eating really well and like just about everything we try to give them.  The usual consists of a mixture of bite size pieces of chicken, salmon, bananas, green beans, peas, squash, apples, pears, etc.  To keep this up, I'm at the grocery store at least twice a week.  We go through about 15-20 bananas a week right now.

Caroline on left, Ellie right

Their all time favorite is the trusty ole Cheerio, or "Ohs" as we are trying to teach them to say or at least respond when they hear the word.

Ellie enjoys feeding herself at the beginning of every meal, but always prefers to eat off a spoon if we offer that to her.  She is great with sharing, and if you ask her, she will always give you a piece of whatever she's eating.

Ellie

Caroline really enjoys feeding herself and usually dives in with both fists as she stuffs her mouth one handful at a time and always looks like she has chipmunk cheeks.  She absolutely refuses to share her food right now.  She smiles when we ask her for one of whatever she's eating, but she never gives us one.

Caroline

Both girls always reach for food that is on each other's tray and neither seem to mind.  I guess its a twin thing.

Our favorite is watching them drink water out of these cups that are just about bigger than their head.

I have yet to learn the secret of how people keep their cups from cracking and leaking all the time after being thrown on the ground so many times.  I think each girl is on their second or third cup.

Its tough to keep things straight of which baby gets which _____ (fill in the blank with cup, toy, pacifier, bunny, etc).  Since birth, Caroline has always been the one with the pink pacifier and now that transcends better to sippy cups.  Caroline gets the pink one, and Ellie gets the one that "doesn't have quite as much pink".

Although, I'm always feeling like I have more to keep up with than is realistic, so in most cases, we just have a free-for-all.  We live by the motto, "Your germs are my germs".