bye bye bottle

It's official the bottle is gone!!!!! By gone I mean in a box in the basement so not easy to access. I thought it would be difficult to get rid of the night time bottle but it was no problem at all. I give them their cup of milk in their play room or bed room while we read then to bed. I can feel the baby stage slowly drifting further away.

Also it's worth mentioning that I think they have started to speak where we can actually understand them. I have started teaching a new item each week or every few weeks. We started with duck, next we will do ball. It has worked because they both now know duck and can say it. We were at a store and Lily looked at some baby pajamas and said "duh" there was a duck on them, I got so excited!!

So far they have said: duck (du), daddy, momma (momomo), Ash (Ah)
Lily says: that (dat) and points
Preston says: thank you (day do)

I promise there will be more pictures. I have been slacking lately.

meal time

I have been asked about the babies meals so for the past few days I have been keeping track of their menu. I have discovered they eat alot. Seriously! A waffle per kid, plus, oranges and applesauce! The once a day bottle is going great again. They have only had a bottle at night all this week.

Tuesday:
Breakfast- 2 packs of single serving oatmeal, small thing of yogurt, individual container of applesauce, 6 oz milk/formula
Lunch- half a can of green beans, 3 vienna sausage, individual container mandarin oranges, 6 oz milk/formula
Snack- apple water (mostly water with a little juice), cheerios
Dinner- chicken, mashed potato's, back eyed peas, banana
Bedtime- 6 oz formula/milk

Wednesday:
Breakfast- 2 blueberry waffles, 1/2 banana, 6 oz formula/milk
Lunch- ravioli, apple grape sauce, 6 oz formula/milk
Snack- mango/peach fruit cup, apple water
Dinner- meat loaf, mashed potato's, green peas w/cheese
Bedtime- 6 oz formula/milk

Thursday:
Breakfast- oatmeal, applesauce, 6 oz formula/milk
Lunch- alphabet pasta, fruit cup, 6 oz formula/milk
Snack- 6 oz formula/milk (in a sippy cup at the store to hold them until dinner) cheerios
Dinner- vienna sausage, green beans, mandarin oranges, yogurt
Bedtime- 6 oz formula/milk

Friday:
Breakfast- waffles, banana, 6 oz formula/milk
Lunch- Spaghetti with meatballs, avocado, 6 oz formula/milk
Snack- toast, apple water
Dinner- meat loaf, green beans, 6 oz formula/milk
Bedtime- 6 oz formula/milk

Saturday:
Breakfast- oatmeal, biscuit, oranges, apple water
Lunch- hot dog, mashed potato's
Snack- puffs, apple water
Dinner- ham, butternut squash, sweet potato's, cheese bread
Bedtime- 6 oz formula/milk

Weekend fun

Oh the love

Ashley and Lily outside during the birthday party.

Lily chewing on the binky.

Such a sweet girl

Is this how you hold it dad?

This past weekend we had lots of fun. Well I know I did. Friday night I went out all by myself. A friend of mine, Jenn (Canada Jenn not to be confused with Houston Jenn) is moving away so we all had a going away party for her. Let me just tell you my side hurt the next day I laughed so hard. These ladies are hilarious. There were about 12 of us all hanging out talking, drinking, eating and lots of laughing until about 2 am. I had a blast. It is so nice to have made friends here. It makes moving to a new country so much easier.

Saturday Aaron went to the office while me and the kids went shopping. Ashley needed some clothes, as always. We didn't buy much since we are going to Texas soon she can get stuff there.

Sunday we had a birthday party for Beth's 2 yr old, Jayden. Whoa there were lots of kids but it's not bad when there are 15 kids in one place because they are so well behaved. I think I am going to have a party for the babies when we get back from Texas. Since they will be one we are celebrating while we are in Texas but I want to have something here too.

Speaking of the babies we are 11 MONTHS OLD today!!! Where has the time gone? They haven't done many new things from 10 to 11 months. Lily does have 2 bottom teeth now. Preston has zero but still eats everything Lily does. We now only use about 2 jars of stage 3 baby food per day. I have been feeding the stage 3 meals for dinner or lunch since I really haven't been able to find meat to introduce. I have been on the hunt for the Gerber meat sticks but 2 grocery stores I have been to don't have them. Hmmm strange. Yesterday for dinner they had a sweet potato with spinach mixed in. They did not like spinach alone so I created a combo meal. They also had ham. I made a honey baked ham and cut up some small bits for them and they loved it. Today for lunch I am planning on giving them black beans. YUM!!! I figure they can eat anything as long as it's not loaded with sugar and salt and is small enough for them to chew.

This has to be the longest post but I will leave you with a video of bath time last night.

New foods

Here in Newfoundland blueberries grow abundantly. We however have not been able to get out and pick them. So while we were at a farmers market last weekend we bought a few pints of fresh wild blueberries that looked so good. I decided to make some muffins yesterday and let me just tell you these are my new favorite breakfast/lunch/snack food. Anyway my actual point is that I gave some to the babies and they love them. They each ate a half of a muffin for breakfast.
Yesterday I steamed some crinkle cut carrots and cut them up for them to eat. Lily is really good at feeding herself but Preston still hasn't mastered this skill.
Oh and while we were at Costco on Saturday we gave them some samples of cheese bread. My 6 jars of baby food a day are slowly dwindling down as we introduce more and more real food to them. I am not sure what to do about meat though. It seems all the real food they eat is veggies, cheese, bread and fruits. Their meat still comes from the 3rd food meals (chicken and rice, turkey and veggies, beef with pasta)