first park; grandparents leave for Boston

On Saturday the boys had their first trip to the park.  Accompanied by a grand entourage they spend an hour or so on the grass (ok, not really on the grass, but you know, very near it).  The over all outcome is: the park is recovering from a visit of the rather noisy four generations of Kaplans and Manns.

Also, the same night the Boston grandparents went home, with a promise to come back soon.  Guys, you did awesome!  Thank you so much for those two weeks from all four of us!

in the park, with Zev

Now, it has been brought to my attention that we have been very slow responding to calls, e-mails, and especially to kind offers of visit lately.  Perhaps, now is a good time to tell people what it has been like in the last nearly three weeks.  Mind, the boys are very, very reasonable people, and it could have been MUCH worse.  here goes.

Life is cut up into rather neat three hour chunks.  Each cycle starts with waking up and possibly changing one or two of the boys.  One is fed from breast; when he is done, he is burped and switched to formula, while his brother gets the breast.  Number one is then burped again, possibly changed, swaddled, and placed down to nap, while his brother is bottle-fed, while mom pumps.  Number two is the burped, possibly changed, swaddled, and placed down for a nap.
Now, I can just hear people start offering suggestions on how to optimize this process.  For instance - why not feed two at once?  We'd love to, and sometimes do. The difficulty is that while Zev eats like a hungry wolf that he is (ze'ev is 'wolf' in Hebrew), Ben ranges from eating OK to not taking the breast at all, and rather taking his time with the bottle, like a deliberate, substantial bear (Beresh is from ber - 'bear' in Yidish).  Which pretty much negates all time advantages of double-feeding, and makes mom less mobile, while attached to a huge pillow.
Back to the explanation.  The activity runs anywhere from 50 minutes to an hour and a half, based on the size of poops, burps, and general enthusiasm of all involved.  Also, in some cycles a mid-nap change is required   Sometimes for both of the boys.  This leaves 120 to 90 (sometimes uninterrupted) minutes for everything else.  Literally.  That includes sleep, mental rest (i.e. not thinking of baby food or poop while awake), eating, showering (occasionally), all house chores, preparing supplies for the next feeding/pumping, and social life.  And looking for work, for some of us.
Over all, two people can do just feeding and sleeping.  And minimal supply prep.  Zero everything else.  With four people in the house, it was pretty decent - we got acceptable chunks of sleep.  One person cold be out of the house sometimes on a non-baby related errand.  Essentially, four can trade water, maybe swim a little.  With three it is a very slow sink.
Please be patient with us.  We have some help lined up.  We will get better.  To all of you who wait patiently, meet us when and where we ask on short notice, generally put up with us, and still remain our friends - thank you!