Fooooooooood.
Toby, Eleanor and Callista get to practice with pureed foods once a day most days. They’ve been working on their eating skills for about a month and a half now, and they’re all doing well with it. I’m being a bit slow with adding new foods to their repertoire, but I’m not terribly worried about it.
Moving to the booster seats has been a huge help. Their posture is much better than in their rocking chairs (duh, right?), and they’re much easier to clean.
I was feeling pretty confident today and shot a quick video with one hand while spoon feeding them with the other.
I’m pretty talented, I know.
I wasn’t thinking, so it’s vertical (used my iPod), and you’ll probably try to turn the screen a few times when my subject isn’t completely visible.
You’ll forgive my lackluster videography, though, right?
Damn straight, you will.
I’m writing this with the above as my view, a snoozing Callista on my chest, her giraffe blanket clutched in her sleepy grip.
I’ll have to pry it from her fingers before laying her down in her crib, an act I always do with baited breath. She loves to cling to something – be it the strap of my tank top, the edge of her bib, a wad of receiving blanket – as she drifts off to sleep, and her recent habit of falling asleep in my arms makes the removal game a more frequent challenge I face.
But do I have to? I mean, I *did* break the rules and let my trio sleep on their tummies long before they could roll back-to-front (which they all do now).
I can’t lie, though. The thought of a loose blanket gives me the heebie jeebies.
When did you start allowing your little one(s) to snuggle with something in his/her crib(s)?
(For memory’s sake, Toby so far loves to cuddle with soft blankets but doesn’t show much interest in them for sleep. Eleanor grabs a fistful of her jersey knit sheet with her left hand to hold while sucking the first two fingers of that same hand. Hello, drool puddles. Callista sometimes grips the edge of her sheet saver but usually settles for just her thumb.)
So far, Callista is the only one sporting new chompers. I often do tooth checks on Toby and Eleanor, but so far Ninja Baby is leading the pearly bunch.
We didn’t build our house in 2005 with triplets in mind. With not a ton of room, we never entertained the idea of three highchairs. Instead, we have three booster seats.
We finally made the move from their newborn-to-toddler rockers to their big-kid seats, and they were a hit.
Also? The cute kills me. Slays me, in fact.
Apologies for the horrid quality and backlighting. I shot this with my iPod.
Toby, Eleanor, Callista
Hold me, Internet. We’ve officially entered the land of teeth.
The girls have been total droolbuckets for some time now (a few months? are they really old enough to equate one stage to a few months? be still my heart!), but, despite the “Are they teething?!” questions, I wrote the drool off as active saliva glands, and I wrote off the fingers/hands/feet/clothes/bibs/toys all three constantly nom on as simple exploratory behavior.
Today, Callista was acting fussy at naptime, as she has been on and off for a few days. Toby recently switched from being laid back and quick to sleep to clingy and difficult to put down, so I thought nothing of Callista’s reversal from easy going to cranky.
Development. Stages. Growth spurts. Yada, yada, yada. They all transform the babies we thought we knew into total strangers, so I just roll with it.
Then, as she was yelling with her mouth wide open in my arms as I tried to calm her, I spotted it. Did I spot it? Could that be what I think that was? When I tried to peek at her bottom gumline, she tried to suck on my finger. I fought my way in (it was seriously more difficult than doing this to one of my animals) and, sure enough, Callista has two teeth coming out to party. The center ones on the bottom are making their presence known – the bottom left has just cut the surface, and the bottom right looks like it’s about to.
Finally knowing the culprit for her bad mood, I sprung into action. I grabbed a teething ring from the freezer (smartest place to store them rather than searching though “baby stuff we’ll need later” piles) and the infant Advil from the bathroom. Thirty minutes later, she was fast asleep on my chest – something she hasn’t done in months.
Added to the freezer arsenal is a cloth doll/buddy/whatever that came with footed PJs. I soaked the doll’s head and left it’s cloth body dry. I don’t know why, but I like it better than the frozen-washcloth idea. For now, the Advil and cold stuff seems to be working. I’m considering getting amber teething necklaces and I may try Hylands teething tablets. I also hear soft fruit that’s been frozen and tossed into a mesh feeder (I have both!) is helpful, but that sounds too messy to be a quick fix – sounds like a fix for when I’m prepared for naked, sticky babies.
One suggestion I’ve heard that’s intriguing is vanilla extract on the gums. I don’t know how well it’d work or how safe it is (sounds safe, right?), but I imagine the combination of vanilla extract and sweet, breastfed-baby breath (smells like SweeTarts!) would be incredibly intoxicating.
I already have enough trouble not eating their cheeks and toes and fingers and chubby thighs. Giving them cotton-candy breath sounds dangerous!
