They Eat What They Eat

I don't work on Friday's, and what you might think would be a leisurely day at home with the babies usually ends up being a day I take a much needed nap in the morning while our nanny takes care of the boys, followed by a 2-3 hour shopping extravaganza when they go down for their 2 hour nap at noon.  There is a Target and Babies R Us a few miles down the road and within a couple minutes of each other, and that is where I can easily spend 2-3 hours stocking up on basics week after week.  Luckily I can usually meet most of our grocery needs at Target and don't have to hit up the Safeway as well.  I've learned what the routine "deals" are for baby formula and food and find it so crazy that randomly one week it's buy 3 get $15 off and then the next week full price, that I refuse to buy things during the full price week knowing if I just wait a few days it'll probably be back on sale again.  So my strategy has been to literally clear the shelves in Target of baby formula when I happen to be there and it's on sale.  To give you an idea, here's a picture of our current inventory which is actually a bit low on the number of double boxes of formula I buy in one trip!

I buy the gallons of pure mixing water just to be on the safe side and avoid any extra stuff our well water has in it that is good for adults but probably not ideal for little babies.  So anyway, what made me think to write this post was the big sale that Babies R Us has off and on for the organic baby food pouches we use.  It is so random and also hit or miss in terms of variety available that last Friday I felt like I hit the jackpot when I went in and saw both the Plum and Earth's Best brands on sale...with many new "flavors" I've never seen before!  I bought 90 of them and when I got home felt like I had my own little baby food store in my cupboard.

Who knew "butternut squash, pear" existed, or "blueberry, pear, & purple carrot"?  What's a purple carrot anyway?  Well it sounds healthy enough and it's organic so I can't go wrong, right?  Anyway, as I mentioned in a previous post, these pouches are both awesome and deceptive at the same time.  They're convenient, BPA-free, and healthy...but tricky in their naming and quantity of contents.  For example, "spinach, peas, & pear" is really primarily made of up pears, peas, and spinach according to the ingredients listing on the back.  Which is fine, and maybe the difference isn't really big enough to note.  But it's definitely big enough for Owen to realize that he's getting a hefty dosage of yummy fruit with his spinach and to happily eat a whole 4oz package in one sitting at lunch!  They are both really good eaters and as a reward we've started bringing out what we call the After Dinner Dragon that Ryan bought in Canada a few weeks ago.  They jump and squeal with excitement each time they see it.  Especially Oliver, his face just lights up when he sees this silly thing that we feel bad when Dragon time is over and we have to make him fly back out of the kitchen and into his cave in the dining room.