ChezPerky

The babies turned 33 weeks yesterday. They have now been on the "outside" as long as they were on the "inside." It's an odd feeling for me. I waited so long to have babies, I guess I never really expected them to arrive, let alone to grow up! Who gave these babies permission to grow up and get bigger? I certainly did NOT! I know that one of the joys of parenting is watching your children grow and develop into people with strong personalities and independent thoughts, but I am not ready for that, and I definitely did not give my babies permission to start growing up just yet.

Alleged Crawling
Two days ago, super-nanny called me at work to say "Did you know your babies are crawling?" Thankfully, I've seen no evidence of this alleged crawling, because that would be too much for this little heart of mine to take! (The babies do scootch around and do roll all the way across the room – but actual crawling? NO! I remain firmly in denial that any such thing could have occurred!) Super-nanny swears that there was actual crawling that occurred that afternoon, but I still remain unconvinced. Mostly I'm standing here with my hands clamped over my ears screaming, "I'm not listening, I'm not listening! I can't hear you! Nyah, nyah!" Admittedly, this makes it difficult to type and typing with my toes is becoming quite tedious (Why oh why were humans not born with prehensile toes?!?), so I'll unclamp my hands temporarily to continue my story.

Ruthless and Toothless?
One sure sign that the babies are growing up that I can no longer deny, however, is that teething has begun in earnest. After five straight days of blood-curdling screams, Abby cut her first tooth. (Thank heavens for small very large favors… the first baby to get a tooth is the one who doesn't nurse!)That little tooth is a sharp little bugger, too. I mean, I know it had to cut through a gum and all, but sheesh! I totally get why she was screaming bloody murder! Poor baby. Looks like she's got another one coming in right next to it, and it seems that maybe Sam's got a tooth coming in also.

It's almost a relief, really, because the babies have been drooling and chewing on things since January and every time someone saw them drool or chew they would say, "Oh look! They're teething!" which, honestly, got to be tiresome. "Oh they're teething? OR MAYBE they're just DROOLING! You know, like babies tend to do?? But no one would believe me. You'll see, they'd say, as if they knew better. And of course, they'd be right, because eventually a tooth would pop out. But that's ridiculous, because I never said teeth were never coming in. But a little drool didn't mean teeth were imminent. The screaming that started five days ago? That was a pretty good sign that teeth were imminent. So when Super-nanny called yesterday to say, "Hey you're a lousy mother and missed yet another milestone and I got to see it first…" I mean, "Abby's tooth came through!" I wasn't remotely surprised. So I did what any completely neurotic mother would do and I rushed home at lunch time to witness the beauty of my child's first tooth.

I admit, it's not all that much to look at, but golly it IS impressively sharp.

My baby grew a tooth! Without my permission! How dare she!?

New Food
In honor of the new tooth, I decided it was time for Abby to have more interesting food choices. And since she was refusing to drink her bottle at dinner time and since she seemed pretty darned interested in what I was eating (Chinese Food), and so… I gave her chicken. And she ate it! I think she's ready for prime rib, what do you think? I also gave Ellie some chicken, but she wasn't interested. Admittedly, she'd just had a full feeding, so she may just not have been hungry. So far the babies' favorite foods are broccoli and summer squash. They also like sweet potatoes, but they do not care for carrots unless mixed with applesauce (they also do not care for applesauce unless mixed with carrots). Similarly, they do not care for mushed up bananas, unless mixed with avocado, but they DID eat little chunks of banana for me on Sunday (with an odd look on their faces, but they ate it). So they seem willing to take a little texture into their lives, which is good.

My extraordinary pediatrician, who is also a long-time friend of ours asked me when I last saw him whether I'd experimented at all with any solid foods. He had known that I was very hesitant about solid food, so he wasn't putting any pressure on me at all. I told him that I had caved to the pressure, but that I found it to be a very tedious, and somewhat horrifying process… It takes a LOT OF WORK to feed three babies solid food, particularly since they still have to be fed a full feeding of milk afterward (or beforehand, whatever…the point is, they're not getting much nutrition out of these solid food feedings for all the effort they take!). He said the key for me is going to be to capitalize on their independence as soon as possible, so as soon as they show ANY sign of being able to get food into their mouth by themselves, I should let them do so, even if it makes more of a mess at first. That's why I'm trying to get them used to textured foods now. I suspect Abby will be the first to experiment with putting food in her mouth by herself, since she's the baby who's most often putting objects in her mouth, but she hasn't managed to get any food in her mouth yet. Sam does love to suck on his fingers when he's got a spoonful of broccoli in his mouth though, so we'll see.

At any rate, I've also given the babies Gerber Fruit Puffs:

This is the first, and only, processed food that they've gotten, and I've done it strictly to give them another texture that they can try. I've given them to Sam and Abby. Sam loves them and Abby couldn't care less. I'm sure Super-Nanny has given them to Ellie also, but I haven't heard the verdict on her. Still, Sam would rather have spoonfuls of broccoli over even these newfound favorite fruit puffs.

Anywhozit, that's about it for now. Isn't that enough? I'm not sure I can handle more milestones than that!