What a mess, times two

In no way am I complaining. Actually, most days I have to look in wonder at the mess two little people can make in a matter of 20 or 25 minutes. Baby, plus finger food equals big mess. Big mess times two equals, well, sometimes I'm not sure how to describe it. "Mess" just doesn't do it justice.

God bless them, we're down to each Trace and Alysse drinking one bottle during the day. It gets served about 6:00 p.m. as Alysse starts her "I've got to have it" grunt. Trace then gets his since once he spies a bottle he too thinks he must partake. Other than the formula served a la nipple in the evening, all other bottle drinking is reserved for nighttime hours. Yep, given our track record we've still got months of that ahead.

However, in place of all those bottles, we now serve pureed baby food, finger foods (Cheerios, puffs, biter biscuits, squished goldfish crackers) and table food broken into baby-sized morsels (they love black beans and any bread product). I'm ecstatic. During the height of our bottle drinking days we'd wash, dry, fill and serve between 16 and 18 bottles per day. Our inventory of 30 bottles kept us a day ahead, accounting for dirty; filled and waiting; and filled and being used bottles.

As we've advanced up the food chain, we now throw away eight empty baby food containers each day. And that's not taking into account the empty cereal bowls they practical lick clean each morning. They are lean (well, sort of), mean (not really), eating machines (yes, that part is definitely accurate).

The messes are impressive, and their patience always limited when it comes time to clean up. To date they've mastered losing Gerber biter biscuits by somehow getting them stuck to their shoulders, storing nearly half a dozen puffs under their chins and managing to pack an ear practically full of Gerber chicken noodle dinner. Delicious.