Apr 04
Everyone,
This week’s question of the week is about dinner.
What are your Go-To meals? Please include recipes/links if possible.
My go to meal is Macaroni and Cheese. The Kraft kind. Or Annie’s (the one with the bunny) if I get it on sale. We probably eat that 3 times a week for lunches. The kids love it. Pirate is not a fan of cold cereal in the morning and sometimes he eats that for breakfast. Or if they won’t eat the dinner I cook, they have mac and cheese. Very healthy, I know.
If I’m strapped for time, we often have pancakes or eggs for dinner. Sometimes we have spaghetti and meatballs. The one meal that I know I can count on everyone eating is pasta with goat cheese. It come from my favorite cookbook, “The One Armed Cook“. I seriously use this book at least 2 times a week for super fast, easy, and tasty meals.
- Pasta with Goat Cheese Sauce (or pink pasta as Butterfly calls it)
1 jar (2 cups) of spaghetti sauce
4 oz goat cheese
noodles
Cook the noodles according to the package directions. In a medium pan, heat up the spaghetti sauce. Cut the goat cheese into chunks and add it too the sauce, stirring the whole time until cheese is melted. Serve over noodles.
See? Super easy. We have it with bow tie pasta noodles because that’s what Butterfly wanted one day. Now we can’t have this meal with out it. The boys LOVE it and inhale as much as their little tummies will hold. It is really tasty. I like to sprinkle some parsley over the top of mine and add a little garlic. With bread and a salad on the side, it makes an amazing meal in about 10 minutes.
One of the sub-questions of this week’s question is:
Do you have picky eaters? How do you handle it?
Yes, I have ONE picky eater. Professor loves anything with sauce, but will only eat the sauce. He will eat noodles on occasion. He likes hot dogs, butter, chips, and crackers. Oh, and ANYTHING sweet. Cakes, cookies, ice cream, yogurts, whipped cream, etc. Anything else is flat out refused.
I try very hard not to stress over his eating. He’ll eat when he eats. It’s not like I can cram food into his mouth and make him eat it! Then he won’t eat anything (yes, I have actually tried) and cries for a long time after that. So I offer him what the rest of us are eating, and take it away when he tries to throw it on the floor.
This could be the reason why he is several pounds lighter than his brother, and also several inches shorter. I do worry about him and not eating enough through out the day. But seriously, I can’t force him to eat things so I really just don’t make a big deal out of it.
This summer, my goal is to make smoothies a lot at home (he will drink those) and add things like spinach and avocado to them to get him more veggies. To get them ALL more veggies.
When I have time (and Juice to help me out) I love to make a big meal. Today for Easter we are having ham cooked in the crock pot, home made rolls, steamed green beans, roasted asparagus, salad with home made ranch dressing, parsley potatoes, and fresh strawberries for desert. Yummy!
Safire
Safirefeeding boys, food, giveaway, questions, recipes
Mar 03
Everyone,
Doc B was not in his office today so we have an appointment with him first thing tomorrow morning. Hopefully.
(Lots and lots of nursing talk going on here. Look away if you don’t want to think about this!)
I’ve had several people ask me how I’m doing nursing the boys. I loved loved loved nursing Butterfly. She was a dream to feed. Always latched on (when we finally figured it out probably 2 weeks after she was born) and was content to just sit there and nurse. I think that’s probably why she was so enormous. I would fall asleep nursing her and so would she. I hated giving up nursing and would have continued if we hadn’t wanted to have another baby sooner rather than later.
With the boys, it was easy at the beginning. I had the lactation consultant visit me in my hospital room to refresh my memory, but we were doing great. The boys ate, pooped, and grew. I fed them separately until I came back from my trip to Utah. I think they were about 5 and a half months old. But I had help through out that whole half of the first year. Someone was always willing and wanted to hold a baby while I was feeding the other one. (Flower and Bee…I miss you!! Anyone want to come back to Maryland with me after my trip to Utah this summer? Please?)
Once we got back it was a whole different ball game. I had fed them together a handful of times for their first few months. I have a twin nursing pillow that I used all the time. But I felt like I had to have another hand just to adjust the pillow over and over again, let alone hold onto the boys! Once Professor learned to roll over, there was no keeping him on that pillow and I figured I had to do something else.
So I pulled out my book from the La Leche League about twins, Mothering Multiples. They have a section on nursing positions with two. So I tried a few out and found one that works for me and the boys. I call it our V position since that’s what it looks like. When Pirate had his cast, it took me a few days of practice to get them to nurse together.
It’s been pretty comfortable up until about 2 weeks ago. Now that the boys are more active, they poke, kick, hit, pull, and squirm while nursing. Professor is my instigator. He can not sit still for a very long time and nursing is trying his patience and mine. If he had his way, he’d be able to do flips and nurse at the same time. I think I went through this phase with Butterfly but it was more manageable. I just can’t deal with him and hold Pirate too.
Last night Professor was making such a ruckus that Pirate got frustrated and bit me hard. There was no blood but there may as well be. I still feel it over 24 hours later. The book talks a bit about fighting twins and nursing. Their biggest thing is to stop nursing and say no fighting and go back to it. But if I do this, Professor does not go back to eating and Pirate screws up his face like I’ve killed his dog and wails. Right now I’m trying all I can do to get Professor to eat and grow and stop being in the 3% on the growth charts.
When I am out in public, I will not nurse them together. It’s just too much of a hassle and really really immodest. Although all my nursing buddies at church (pretty much the only place I nurse in public and even then, it’s in a nice room set aside for nursing moms) wouldn’t care if I did it, I don’t know if Professor could keep his mind on the task at hand. Besides, I nurse them at the end of the meeting and that’s when the other ward that we overlap with is in there and I don’t know those ladies. I’m still thinking this one over.
My good friend Lala is in the process of weaning her newly 1 year old daughter. She is sad and calls me every day crying about the loss of her baby. I keep telling her that you don’t have to wean if you don’t want to! If she is that upset about it, then let her nurse longer! I nursed Butterfly until she was 15 months old, and I will like to nurse these boys at least to that, if not beyond. We are in no rush to have another baby (obviously) so no mommy led weaning for me. If they wean themselves after a year, I won’t force it. 2 years old is my limit although I think at that point they would only be nursing at bed/nap times anyway.
So, in a nut shell, I nurse the boys together about 95% of the time. Professor is a snack and run kind of kid. He is done well before Pirate is. I will put Professor down and watch as he destroys the room and I finish up with Pirate. They fight some. We are planning on nursing past the year mark.
Any other questions?
Safire
Safirefeeding boys, life with twins, nursing
Sep 07
Everyone,
Wow it’s been one busy Sunday. We got up early early (6am I started feeding babies!) and were able to make it on time to 9am church several miles away. My cousin was blessing his new baby boy and we were able to be there. My grandpa mentioned that we took up 4 big pews with our family alone. It’s great! (I think me and my kids and my stuff took up about 3/4th of a pew ourselves. Who knew how much stuff twins generated!)
After, we were able to go to a brunch at my cousin’s house. Butterfly had a great time running around with Bee and Brother Bee and I spent probably an hour locked in the back room nursing babies. I was a little sad I couldn’t be out chatting with the rest of the family, but I was happy my cousin’s wife had a really great book on her bedside table. Has anyone read Emma by Anita Stanfield? I’m interested in finishing it. It’s also reinforced the fact that I really should just carry books around with me and read whenever I am nursing. That way I don’t end up staring at the walls.
From my cousin’s house, we drove over to my SIL’s house and surprised them. (She forgot we were coming.) It was really cute because Butterfly knocked on their door and my bil opened it. She just walked in and he stood there a little stunned and said, “Okay.” We then showed up at the door and he was all smiles and instantly knew who Butterfly was. I thought it was pretty funny that he just let her in.
We had a great time playing with cousins and more twins for the afternoon. Juice played a computer game the whole time (mostly) with Beautiful Rabbit who is 8, and Splats (my sil) and I wrangled the rest of the kids. Good times! We also went to the park and had about half an hour of play before we had to head on off to our next stop.
Yes, we had one more place to go. We went over to my brother’s house for dinner. He had some yummy chicken and soup and asparagus for us. Tasty! We figured out a way to get Butterfly to eat asparagus (dip it in butter, her favorite thing right now) and our little boys played on the play mat. We then played a few songs on rock band (so funny to see my dad try and play the drums!) but we had to cut that short because someone coughButterflycough threw a major tantrum and ripped the drumsticks out of my hands. So then I got a little mad and told her we were leaving until she could say she was sorry. And then dragged her limp and sobbing little body down the stairs and out the door. As we were leaving, she started yelling she was sorry but sadly, the time had passed and we had to go. I really was looking forward to playing more rock band. Maybe another time.
A very busy but fun day. Our last Sunday here!
Safire
Safirefamily, feeding boys, MusicMan, Rock Band, Splats and Fam, trips to Utah
Aug 08
Everyone,
A few ladies in my ward were getting together to have lunch and explore one of the many many place to go in the state: Havre De Grace. It’s a cute little town on a point of land where the Susquehanna River meets the Chesapeake Bay. I thought since Bee was here, we would tag along and see some of the area that I haven’t seen.
So we all got up early, met everyone at the church and off we went. Butterfly happily watched a movie in the van (whose name is Fern Tree) and the boys slept great. Our lead car promptly got lost when we got to Havre De Grace. We ended up going over the Susquehanna River by mistake and I watched the driver of the car have an argument with the toll lady. We really did make a wrong turn and ended up on the bridge with no where to go because of construction. In the end, we didn’t have to pay the toll and went back over the bridge. 
We got back into town, only to turn around yet again. By this time, both boys are screaming because they are hungry and Butterfly is crying because she has to potty. By the third time turning around, I gave up and stopped. I was smart this time and brought our little potty with us and some plastic bags. So Butterfly was able to use the potty, I fed the boys and then took care of the potty. Not my finest moment but at least she didn’t have an accident in the car and I didn’t have to rush around the town trying to find a bathroom for her.
Anyway, we met back up with the ladies and walked around the boardwalk on the river. Pirate was having a really hard time and so I had to stop and feed him again in the hot sun. Ugh…he was covered in sweat because I covered him up so he wouldn’t burn. He did get rosy cheeked and stayed that way all day. He was dead set on being carried all day long and I was never so happy for my wrap. After the boardwalk, Professor was having a hard time so I had to stop again and the ladies decided to go on ahead.
Bee and I decided to walk the town to meet everyone for lunch. It was fun but a little hot. And then when we finally found the restaurant, everyone was sitting outside. I had been carrying Pirate (who finally fell a
sleep!) so I was really hot. I almost asked the waitress to fill up a pitcher of water and ice and leave it for me. I drank quite a bit and filled up our water bottles there. Lunch was okay. All the other ladies had sea food and they said it was wonderful. I do not eat anything that lives in water so I ended up with a turkey wrap. Bee the same.
After lunch, we went our own way and walked back to the van which we left by the light house. We stopped off at a famous ice cream place for something cool. It was good but I have to say our local ice cream place is better ice cream. But it was a welcome break and we sat inside. I fed the boys again and they finally calmed down and stopped crying.
We had a nice time wandering around the light house and taking a bunch of pictures. I ended up feeding the boys (yes AGAIN…they eat a ton all the time but does it stop me? No.) looking out at the river while Bee and Butterfly played. (Something about the cannon from the war in 1812 being a look and listen scope.)
We finally got everyone piled into th
e car, strapped in and Butterfly announces she has to go potty. So I decided to drive to the public bathrooms I’d seen signs for in town. Well, she couldn’t wait and there was an out house by a construction site. Boy was it awful though. So she again used her little potty and I did not have to use a plastic bag this time. Yay.
We then headed home. Both boys slept some, and Butterfly watched more movies in the back. Well, we didn’t leave till about 3:30pm and I forgot it was Friday. Guess what that means? TRAFFIC. Boy did we ever hit traffic in Baltimore. I gave up and went towards Columbia since I know how to get home from the mall there. We ended up stopping at the mall to feed the boys. But then we had to have a potty break (for the big girls) so we loaded everyone up in the stroller and went inside. We had a cookie, came back out and loaded everyone back into the car. The whole thing took almost an hour. Just for a potty break. Ugh.
(An aside…I forgot to lock the wheels on my Bob so when I lifted it up to put it into the car, one of the wheels rolled away. I didn’t notice until I tried to take it off and it wasn’t there. I could not wrap my mind around where it would have gone. Some guy had to come out of his car and get it for me and bring it back because I had no idea where it ran off to. A little embarrassing because he said, “I’m amazed you didn’t see that roll away.” Sleep deprivation is my only excuse.)
After the mall, it was smooth sailing and we were back home. Ahh…home.
My Aunt and Uncle and Bee’s Brother come into town tonight. We have stuff going on every day next week, and then we’re off to Utah!
Safire
SafireBee, feeding boys, sights around DC
