Cousins and Food

Yesterday Michael and Liliana met 3 more of their cousins. They met Matt's brother's kids - Elizabeth, Alex, and Kaylee. See picture to the right (Alex, Michael, Elizabeth, Kaylee, Liliana).

They kids had an absolute blast with their cousins. We didn't eat dinner until 7 which is usually the kids bed time. I was amazed at how great they did. We didn't leave Chris and Sarah's house until 8:45 and the kids fell asleep around 9 in the car. We were so impressed at the fact that they were not crabby at all. And we were interested to see how they would do with going to bed so late. Would they sleep in? Answer: Not really. Both kids got up between 6:30 - 7 ... just around normal wake-up time. We'll see how crabby they are today.

Earlier this week the kids met my sister's kids, Emmie and Natalie. Here is a picture from that meeting (Natalie, Liliana, Emmie, Michael).


Many people have asked us what kinds of foods the kids are eating. So, I thought I would give run-down of what we've discovered the kids like and dislike.

Both of the kids eat almost anything. We were prepared to be giving the kids bland food for the first couple of weeks with not a lot of variety. What we've found is that the kids are open to trying lots of different foods and most of them they like. Recently we've discovered that the kids LOVE yogurt. They also like PB&J, hot dogs, pizza, black bean soup, potatoes, hamburgers, pasta of any kind, chicken, oatmeal, pancakes, and all kinds of snacky foods. Liliana does not care for fruit and meat by itself. I have to hide the meat with other food for her to eat it. Neither of the kids will eat applesauce and most veggies they won't eat. However if the veggies are cooked in the meal, they will eat them. At the orphanage, Liliana was taking a bottle and then eating baby food. She has adapted to eating table food very well. We've found that if we give her a bottle, she won't eat her food at lunch or dinner. So we are trying to limit bottles to before a nap or bed. And lately she has been eating so well at lunch and dinner that she has been refusing a bottle.

Liliana loves whole milk and water, but will not drink juice. She does like coffee and tea, though. Michael drinks water or juice and tolerates milk. We give him a cookie or other treat if he drinks his glass of milk (thanks for the tip Ginger!). He is drinking his milk about 60% of the time. Sometimes he'll drink his milk and not want his treat. We think he actually likes the milk, but pretends to not like it because it's a game to him.

The kids are still snacking a lot during the day. They get crabby when they are hungry. Here is our usual feeling schedule:
Breakfast - whenever the kids get up
Snack #1 - between 9-10
lunch - between 11-12
Snack #2 - after nap (around 3)
dinner - between 5-5:30
snack #3 - before bed, around 7.

The kids will often have 1-2 more small snacks between meals and the listed snack times. They are eating a ton during meals. They probably eat more than I do. They also drink a lot of water during the day. We hope to have Michael in 3T and Liliana in 12 month clothes by the end of the summer. We weighed the kids the other day at the neighbors and Michael is 32.2 lbs and Liliana is 18.2 lbs.

We are glad the sun is out! Michael rode the bike my parents gave him yesterday and we took our first trip to the park. More fun outside today as well as our first visit to church.