Which is worse?

Your 7 month old babies eating beetles or your dog eating 8 chicken wings WITH the bones?  Luckily, I don't think I need to seek the answer further b/c everyone's tummies seem to be fine after their consumption of disgustingness.


To explain, I received the email below informing me of the Similac recall which just so happened to affect my 2 week supply from Costco of baby formula.  So, on Thursday after Andy left (who was in town and stayed for a dinner which included chicken wings), Matt, me and the girls ventured to Target to stock up on new baby formula.  We returned to find pickles, tomatoes and onions spewed throughout our family room, and in turn discovered my missing 1/2 of a hamburger and a completely empty styrofoam container which had once held the chicken wings.  We searched for the bones, called the expert of dogs-eating-stuff-they-shouldn't, Mark, whose dog Ella last week consumed 81 hershey kisses and 22 cupcakes, and called the emergency vet.  Mark came over and helped in the search, and the vet was telling us that the bones could cut Reagan's intestines and other things I won't go into detail about, and that we could either bring her in for an x-ray or 'wait and see.'  If you know Matt and I you know we are more of the 'wait and see' type, and truthfully I was more concerned with the possibility that I may have been serving my girls a platter of beetles 3 times a day.  We waited to see, and luckily the next morning Reagan showed no sign of abdominal pain, and for the past 2 days has been pooping bones.  We were told to make sure of this.  And we (actually Matt) has done the investigative work.

Back to the Similac recall.  Here is the email I received:

Dear Lauren,

We take our product quality and safety responsibilities very seriously. As such, we have initiated a proactive, voluntary recall of certain Similac^®-brand, powder infant formulas that did not meet our quality standards.

We are recalling these products following an internal quality review, which detected the remote possibility of the presence of a small common beetle in the product produced in one production area in a single manufacturing facility. Please be assured that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has determined that while the formula containing these beetles poses no immediate health risk, there is a possibility that infants who consume formula containing the beetles or their larvae, could experience symptoms of gastrointestinal discomfort and refusal to eat as a result of small insect parts irritating the GI tract. If these symptoms persist for more than a few days, a physician should be consulted.

Do they really think that their chosen adjectives of "remote possibility", "small common beetle", "one production area" and "single manufacturing facility" will make people turn a blind eye at the words "BEETLES AND THEIR LARVAE?"  

Dear Similac, as a mother who received this email and all products she was giving her children were on the list of recalls, I can answer that quite matter-of-factually, NOOOOO!!!  Gross, disgusting, spat, barf, puke, blagghhhh.....

Unlike Reagan, we have not seen any evidence of the girls having consumed such (gulp) beetle parts. 

Sports-filled weekend!

It's hard to believe that after a weekend of cheering on the Reds (why does baseball season last SO long?), the Buckeyes, the Hoosiers AND the Colts, we had much time for anything else!  The girls and I actually did not watch any of these games besides the 1st quarter of the Colts game for me, but to dress my little gals up in their sports attire is a fun game in itself!  And they look pretty darn cute if you ask me. 

Diana wanted to suck up to daddy by being a Buckeyes fan for the day!

 "Hang on a sec, mom.  I'm not quite ready."

Now I'm ready.  GO REDS!

 Daddy's girls for the day!  (But Mommy's girls for LIFE!  Ha..JK, Matt.)  BTW, their guts look pretty awesome here!

 It never fails, Lilly is always stealing Diana's toys!

Now it's time to root on the Colts!

L

"Bring it on Giants!!" (Lil is ready for some action!)

Little Clark and Little Manning looking super duper cute :)

 

 Daddy and his mini-me (Lil)

In other news, the girls are getting their first tooth!  Of course it's the exact same tooth on the bottom, but Lil's is sticking a tad further out than Diana's.  Once again it's a check mark for Lil doing something first; however, I am still gunning for Diana to be crawling first!!  She really gets that crawling form down just perfectly!  We shall see...

Diana wants to take off so badly!

O

Once she gets to this point, she just isn't sure what to do next.  I hesitate to encourage her b/c my life will really be interesting then!

 

We also had a busy week playing with our new friends at the gym.  The girls are really warming up to this new experience and the ladies who run the child care center just LOVE when Lilly and Diana enter those doors.  The greetings we get make me feel so much better about leaving them for 2 hrs.!  If it wasn't for the germs they bring home, I would give the experience an 'A' so far!!

We celebrated Uncle Frank's birthday last week with some pizza and cake.  I just coined him Uncle Frank b/c I suddenly realized there are two Uncle Mark's, so to Mark Franklin, I think this new name fits you perfectly!  And on Sat. night, Matt and I had a night out as a COUPLE for Alina and Adam's wedding shower while the girls stayed back with their favorite babysitter Elaine!  The shower was a lot of fun and the man who kept walking around with the wine bottle ensuring no one's wine glass went dry became my best friend that evening! 

Small victories making BIG differences!

What are those small victories, you ask?  Well.....

1)  The girls are now holding their own bottles!!  Many may say "big whoop", but those with twins especially know this IS big whoop!  When out solo, I used to have to feed one at a time b/c I can't very well pull out my boppy pillows in the middle of a store and feed both girls at the same time...OR I would totally avoid all public places during feeding times.  Now I can hand each a bottle and off we go!  And at home, if one doesn't want her food?  Fine with me...you can hold your own bottle!  And yesterday when we were all wailing b/c we were all starving, I gave each a bottle and made myself lunch.  I am pretty sure I haven't eaten lunch before 3pm in about 6 months.  Freedom prevail!

2)  I ordered some bath rings (thanks to the advice of Shonda!) for the bathtub and we can now bathe both girls at the same time!  This especially came in handy this past weekend when Matt was gone.  Bathtime is very much a chore when having to do one and then the other and almost always requires 2 people if we want the girls to get any sort of pleasure out of it.  Now, they can sit and play for 30 minutes if they want to.  They absolutely love it and it's so fun to watch them!

3)  I joined a gym!  This acts as my solution to the post I made a few weeks ago about needing a bit more balance.  We are on our 2nd week at this new gym and so far it's been going pretty well.  Sadly this membership had absolutely nothing to do with a desire to get physically fit, but almost entirely to do with getting more 'mentally fit.'  Or as the nice lady who did my assessment phrased it, "overall wellness."  I like that.  And if truth be told, the child care center that lovingly opens its doors to Lil and Di every day from 12-2pm might have had something to do with it as well.  I also think this is a great way to get the girls out and introduced to other kids and other adults.  Both girls get a little fussy when I put them down and walk away...they stare me down like 'don't even think about it, mom!'...but almost always I come back after working out and find both on the floor playing...and no tears!  I have not yet been paged over the loud speaker (which happens more than you would imagine.)  I am sure now that I said this today will be the day.... :)


Also, we survived our weekend sans daddy with the help of Mindy/Brady & Wags/Aaron.  Thank you guys!

Lilly holding her own bottle when usually she would be screaming her little tail off!  YESSS!

My good eater (Diana) all smiles after some yum yum!

Diana is SOOOO bored with the French Market! (And once again, Lilly mastering the bottle hold!)

 Rub-a-dub...two babies in a tub!

Have you ever seen a happier baby?!

 

7 months old!

1,2,3,4,5,6,7!  Holy moly!

So what exactly are our 7 month'ers up to these days?  Well, for starters, the days primarily follow the same pattern as always:  eat, play, sleep.  The periods of wakefulness are longer and the naps are down to about 2 a day (sometimes as long as an hour and a half, sometimes as short as 20 minutes...we hate those.)  When they play, they love to sit and play with their toys, bounce in the jumperoo, scoot in the walker, play peek-a-boo, listen to a story, go for walks, etc.  When they eat (OH WHEN THEY EAT), they usually eat 2 'real' meals a day, meaning baby food, and take 3 bottles a day.  I say, "OH WHEN THEY EAT" b/c this has become a dreaded chore in the Bajorek household.  There has been improvement, but we have found some difficulty in spoon-feeding 2 babies (particularly when solo spoon-feeding), one who almost always hates my choice of veggie or fruit du jour.  There will be screams and kicks and spitting food out, but after some persuasion and cussing patience on our end, the struggle will eventually be resolved.  Bedtime is around 8-8:30pm, and after a little crying, they sleep like angels for almost 11 hours!

Now to individually describe each little munchkin:

Lilly:  Laid-back, patient, sweet..  When Lilly is fussy, there is generally one of 2 reasons why:  tired or hungry.  She is not the best of the 2 eaters though and she is who we are typically brawling it out with during mealtimes.  She kicks her feet, spits food out, cries, grunts, and won't open her mouth.  It used to be comical, until it wasn't anymore!  She also is my little dependent girl - momma's girl I'd say.  When she is picked up by someone other than me, she typically realizes it immediately and puts her arms out for me, will cry and stare me down until I come rescue her (I guess that makes it 3 reasons why she may be crying.)  I absolutely love this (for now)!  She loves to grab her feet - we often find her with her toes in her mouth when there isn't a toy around.  She is one of the sweetest baby girls around and she can lay in your arms contently and just stare at you with those brown eyes and sweet smile and melt your heart!


Diana:  Spunky, hilarious, curious.  Diana is one you just want to stare at not only because she is so darn cute (personally speaking) but because she is always doing something funny!  She never sits still, is always wiggling around, looking around, etc.  Her head moves from one side to the other faster than I have ever seen before.  She doesn't want to miss anything about the world around her!  She screams (not a cry, just a scream) at the most random times, as if there was so much excitement built up inside she just had to let it all out!  Also, when eating, she typically has her mouth wide open ready for that next bite before she has even finished with the previous one.  She still can be unpredictable and cries more than her sister, and is generally the one throwing us off our schedule.  But that grin...I swear when she is laughing it starts at her head and ends with her toes!  Our little Lady Di...a bundle of energy!

After writing all this, do you want to guess who will have Matt's personality and who will have mine?  Ha!  :)

F

Finding a creative way to keep Diana happy!  Laundry basket does the trick!

Lilly sporting a very rad mohawk!

 This is just one of the reasons I love our babysitter.  I came home yesterday and woke the girls from their nap and saw little Miss Di's 'pigtails.'  Too cute!

Labor Day weekend

Many people have asked us how we spent our Labor Day weekend, and Matt and I reply each time, "we rode our bikes!"  I think that's because since we bought my bike (on Wednesday) and borrowed Chris and Caroline's double burley (on Thursday), we have taken about 12 total bike rides!!  We rode into Broad Ripple a couple times with Mark, Steph and Courtney; we rode by ourselves (with L & D of course!) to Broad Ripple for dinner; we rode along the canal to the IMA; we rode to the Indiana State Fairgrounds; and other times we just rode with no agenda at all.  Well, at least nothing more of an agenda than keeping the girls happy.  They LOVE being pulled along with the sun and wind in their face, staring at all the fascinating things surrounding them...gravel, squirrels, dogs, parked cars, trash cans...

 L & D getting ready to head to Broad Ripple for lunch!

When we weren't riding our bikes we were doing other things like going downtown to enjoy some ribs, pulled pork and cornbread; listening to some of Matt's favorite bands like Candlebox and Mark's favorite bands like Seven Mary Three and Collective Soul; gawking at the colorful array of people surrounding us, such as the drunk man who came up to play with the girls because he missed his 2 yr. old son ever since he and his girlfriend broke up and she won't let him see the boy; etc.  Where did we find all this fun?  No place other than the 2010 Rib America Fest!  Can't wait for 2011!

T

The crew at the Rib fest!  Katie, Diana, Mark, Steph, Lilly, me, Courtney and Matt!

Diana enjoying a little Diet Coke while listening to Candlebox

 "Mommy, the Rib fest is awesome!!"

S

Aunt Steph and Lilly

Me/Lilly, Katie/Diana

Last week we also had a fun playdate/stroll with all the new moms in the neighborhood...some of who are also going to be staying at home!  We hope to make this a weekly thing, which will be a great break from the day for me, Di and Lil!

 Henry Winings, Diana and Lilly, William Barrett, and Mia Pulley

To my dad...

Happy 60th birthday!  I remember the day you were diagnosed so well, the phone call I received while living in DC.  Every single day after that until the day you passed was reason to celebrate.  Every birthday that came thereafter I breathed a sigh of relief knowing that you were still here by our side.  Today, the 1st birthday to celebrate without you, the big 6-0, is a day that I longed to never come.  But it did this morning.  Instead of feeling the pain of the day, we will try and celebrate the life and love that you brought us for many many years.

Some of the things I remember most...pitching softballs in the backyard; 6 ppl (sometimes more) + luggage piled in our minivan heading out for a road trip; all of us having to take turns rubbing your head and shoulders (oh how we all loathed this); tickle tortures; sitting in the crowd at all my sporting events...every single one of them, away or home; when you would drive me to middle school on your way to work and brush your hair in the car (I always thought that was so weird); making us 'pick up wood chips' around the yard; not yelling at me when I turned over an oreo scooner from Burger King, expecting it to be as thick as a Dairy Queen blizzard, and it spilled all over the backseat of your brand new (as in - you bought it that day!) Park Avenue; the way you used to scream, "TOBY, YOU BE A GOOD DOG" and then pick him up under the couch with gardening gloves on just to put him to bed; calming mom down after leaving me in DC for the 1st time by telling her, "Dianne, it's not like she's going off to the war!"; all the cards and letters you wrote me, particularly the card you must have gone out to buy that said, "Missing You" on the front of it and all the reasons you missed me on the inside; the way you accepted all of my friends into our home as if it was their own; the way you made everyone who met you feel at ease; the way you asked Mark if I was 'dating a metrosexual' after he described Matt for the very 1st time; the way you adored Matt; the walk down the aisle; the hug you gave me in Hilton Head after finding out some devastating news; the hug you gave me at the house after I announced that I was pregnant...with TWINS!; the way you would always call me to ask how my 'little baby girls' were doing; and finally the way you always held your head high, never complained, never feared the end, you prepared us to face the world without you, and even though the world was a better place with you in it...you gave us a lifetime of memories to carry with us each and every day, especially today on your birthday.

Happy 60th Birthday, dad!  Matt and I ate some bang bang shrimp this week in your honor.  Missing you everyday.

For your viewing pleasure...

I finally uploaded some videos today b/c I have officially maxed out all the space on my flip cam.

Enjoy!

Lil on left, Diana on right (clothed.)  Notice Diana never stops moving!!




Trying to showcase Diana's crawling position and Matt being silly with Lilly!  A couple things to note:  Matt chucking toys out of no where at Diana; Darwin, Kelly's horse, making an appearance; Lilly's horrified look on her face when Matt is tormenting her; Matt saying "BLAHHHHH" repeatedly in the background which is his favorite part of the Baby Einstein video; and Reagan's slobbery snout showing up many times throughout!  :)