Mealtime at the Ol' Homestead

You know what never gets old?

Line going, "Uh! Ugh! Eh!" when she wants something. Really, its music to my ears. I especially love it when its accompanied by a chorus from Big Girl that is some rendition of, "Me too! Me too!" Usually this lovely song is a prelude to mealtimes, or snack time, or anytime I'm in the kitchen and there is a potential for food to be shoveled down their gullets. Seriously, I better not let them catch me walking near the pantry.

Recently, it has come to our attention that this little song and dance will only get louder with the addition of two squealing newborn boys. Newborn boys who will (God willing) turn into demanding little toddlers themselves. My dad often likes to remind me that boys eat more than girls to which I quickly respond that I have no ordinary little girls, only 16 year old boys trapped in the bodies of my one and two year old female children.

My dad's helpful comments have started to get D and I thinking, though. You see, we're still cushioned sweetly somewhere between denial and ignorance that, in about four weeks, we'll be proud parents to two more little bundles of pooping, sleepless joy. And about 6 months after that, we're going to have to feed them something other that what comes out of my sadly, irreversibly deformed post-childbirth body.

With Big Girl I was really good about pureeing food and freezing or canning it (I know, first-time mom much?!) and even with Litlte Gril I would puree whatever we were eating and let her work on that. But again, we're not dealing with typial little girls. They both eat more than I do (and y'all, I'm pregnat with twins) and Little Girl often finsihes whatever her sister doesn't. They were in the "baby food" phase for about two months, max. Big Girl had a full grill by the time she truned one, even cutting her molars early so determined was she to enjoy "real" food. And Little Girl, well she just now got her 8th tooth but by month 6 she made it abundently clear that the only way we'd get her to be quiet at mealtime was to chunk off a piece of steak (or whatever meaty protein we happened to be eating) for her to gum to death and just pray she didn't choke on the whole food she insisted on getting. (And if you're thinking a 6 month old can't insist, you have clearly never met out littlest sweet angel girl).

So here we are, at the cusp of being a family of six and already I am stressting about what I am going to feed Thing One and Thing Two. Firstly I have to figure out how to get them food safely without their sisters noticing. (I also have to worry about their older sister eating them, but that's not really a part of this conversation.) Then there's the bigger question of what we'll feed them and how. I'm not talking about spoon versus finger food either; I'm tlaking about financially, how the hell are we going to afford two more mouths, especially if their appetite is anything like that of their sisters.

If I was confident I'd have normal babies then I probably wouldn't think about any of these things (well, minus the Little One wanting to eat them) but I hold myself under no such delusions. If I have two little girls who can eat their parents under the table, how much worse will it be with two little boys? Is my dad right? Will they eat more than my girls? Is that even physically possible?! And if so, that leads to my bigger question of where will D get a second job? 'Casue right now we're living comfortably, but if we have to feed two more appetites like those of our girls, we're in serious trouble. 

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