Taking care of Brooke and Claire is immensely satisfying and rewarding, but there’s not a whole lot of variety at this point from one day to the next. Both to amuse ourselves and to have some convenient shorthand to get us through our days, we’ve come up with some baby lingo that makes complete sense to us, but would probably leave anyone else scratching their heads at times. Here are some of my favorites:

Yours (That one)/Mine (This one) — Both babies are ours, and we do use their names most of the time and we balance our interaction with both, but when we’re holding or otherwise attending to one baby each, it’s easy to just describe them as yours (that one you’re holding) or mine (this one I’ve got).

Latte — A bottle that is prepared with a combination of formula and breast milk. We’ve learned that we’re less likely to waste any breast milk (which is hard to come by) if we just feed it first and give a formula chaser, but lattes were common for a while.

Chaser — The extra 1 oz. or so of formula we’ll give if a baby has finished her usual amount but still seems hungry.

About to blow — The transition from perfectly content baby to fussing or crying is quick and mostly unpredictable, but if you’re looking when it happens, you can usually tell the fuse is lit from the signs of impending unhappiness written on their face and expressed in body language. That’s a baby that’s about to blow.

Fussin’ Roulette — When both girls are calm or sleeping and we want to pick one up (especially if we’re each taking one), this describes that chance that the one you pick up will start fussing soon, or if both are involved, that the one you pick will start fussing before the other one.

To Poop — Our girls poop on their own from time time, but they still frequently need help in the form of a suppository, so besides the standard usage, we also use “poop” as a transitive verb, as in, “It’s time to poop her because she hasn’t gone in almost two days now.”

Fire in the hole — Sometimes, when we attempt to poop one of the babies, they go immediately upon being stimulated with a Q-tip and some K-Y, or the subsequent insertion of a suppository. Other times, the suppository has to stay in there a while before it has the desired effect, so if a baby has a suppository in but hasn’t pooped yet, she has a fire in the hole.

Zizzy Chair — We owe this phrase to our baby nurse, Helen, who’s originally from Hungary. She’s very fluent in English, but there are occasional gaps in her vocabulary, like the word “vibrate”. A zizzy chair is what we would otherwise call a bouncy seat. Bouncy seats have a vibration switch, so combine that with a gap in one’s vocabulary and a little onomatopoeia, and you get zizzy chair.

So here’s how our conversations go these days:

“I can’t remember who ate when. Did this one eat recently?”

“Yeah, I gave that one a three-ounce latte about an hour ago and she even took an ounce chaser. This one is probably ready to eat soon, though.

“I guess that’s why mine is nice and calm and yours is about to blow.”

“It seems like I lose at fussin’ roulette every time. I don’t think this one has pooped for almost two days now - think I should poop her?”

“No need. She’s already got a fire in the hole.”

“When did you do that?”

“I did it when you were changing the batteries in the zizzy chair.”

“Have you eaten today?

“Nope. You?”

“Nope.”