Oh... cwag reminded me... I don't actually wash the pump parts during the day.  I rinse the shields before I leave for work, so they are clean for my 11ish appt with the pump, and then I go again about 3:00, and clean when I get home 4:30ish.  BM is good at room temp for several hours, so I was never really concerned about bacteria growing.  Somepeople get grossed out, but it doesn't bother me.  Keeping the parts in the fridge isnt an option for my set up, but if you can that is an excellent compromise. 

Also, when DD was 5mos and I was starting to struggle to keep up, I added an extra session at work (which was tough) and also started eating oatmeal with brewer's yeast and ground flaxseed every morning.  The brewer's yeast and flax did an absolute miracle.  I upped what I was making per day by 2-4oz. 

Memes...this is beyond weird.  I was just logging on to ask the EXACT same question.  My DS will be 2 Saturday, so just two months behind your daughter. He knows so much; letters and numbers and when I say "that is a plane", when I ask him next time what that is, he'll know "plane". He stares blankly at me whe I ask him what color?  He knows adjectives, big and small, hot and such, so it's not that he hasn't gotten the hang of descriptive words yet. He has a toy John Deere tractor, his absolute favorite. I say "green, John Deere tractor" all the time, but when I ask him what color... He looks at me for help. If I say "what kind of tractor?" he'll say "JohnDeere" but has yet to ever get the color. So I'm concerned also.  His 2-year pediatrician appt is next Tuesday.  I'll be sure to ask and report back. I was just online reading and seems like color blind tests need to be done a bit older when they can understand a bit more about what they are looking at.  It does say 1% of women and 8% of men have some form of color blindness. 

Thanks, cwag re color blindness - I didn't know there was a kit and kaboodle form of color blindness.  oh, and my friend bf'ing her triplets mentioned the same thing yesterday about hydration that you did.  She downs tons of water a day or her supply dips and she's parched.

My nephew took a long time to learn his colors. He, too, would just answer blue all the time and then once and awhile throw out another color when you kept asking. We did practice learning the word, "same." He was able to put all the red Legos together and then all the blue together, so we knew he understood. He just wouldn't tell you where they were red or blue. The AAP says 3 is when they should name a color.

I was at training last week and one of the instructors mentioned that he was almost totally color blind. The only color he could see was shades of blue - everything else was black and white like an old movie.  The man is highly respected in his field and is doing well financially. While it would be sad if a child could not see color, it shouldn't otherwise limit him/her in life. 

Memes/IPW:  my 2.5 yr old knows colors, but I can't remember when she started.  I want to say that around 22-24 months she'd still say everything was green.  I remember this because I'd ask her about the colors on her little brothers exersaucer when he used that.  These things fascinate me so I googled it, and it seems like it more of a milestone for 36 months, so I wouldn't worry!  Now we're trying to teach counting, she knows numbers up to 20, but when we ask, "how many?" she'll just count up to 20 regardless of how many things there are.

Pugs:  Don't worry about making 8oz bottles.  Both my BF kiddos never took more than 6oz, but mostly 5oz.  Even my chunky monkey FF nephew never took an 8oz bottle!  The solids will be what you increase rather than the breastmilk/formula.  Both my kiddos started solids at around 5 months.

Memes/IPW: I wouldn't worry about it.  My DD (26 months) does know them, but at parent night at her daycare the other night, the teachers mentioned it's something they'll *start* working on this year.  Also, colors are hard!  My DH and I will differ over whether something is green or blue if it's aqua - they're a continuous spectrum, so it's not so black and white (pun!).

I think someone else mentioned this, but you could put together some activities of asking them to put together the shapes that are the "same", without having them actually name the colors.  This would get to whether or not they could distinguish between them.  (This is actually one of the tasks on the early intervention evaluation, although I believe it's still rated at older than your kids are.)

Pugs: my DD never ever took 8 ounces at one time.  5 or 6 was the max.  And if you are lucky (and well hydrated and fed!) then yes, your body will hopefully adjust based on supply and demand.

ETA: I mentioned DD knows colors, but I should also mention that she took a particular interest in them a while ago, so we talked about them A LOT.  There is other stuff that she wouldn't know and a lot of other kids do.  Believe me, with her not walking until 19 or 20 months, I definitely understand how it feels to be wondering what's up with your child!

Trouble... that's cute.  We have the same.  "How many books?" "1,2,3,4,5,7,8,9,10!"  Somehow 6 always gets left out... but he counts at lightening speed and then smiles the biggest smile ever, even if we are just looking at just 2 books!  I think they know that they learned something and they love to "show off" what they know :-)

Sorry for writing a lot!  I think development is fascinating, and I have a particular interest in number.  My DD is also into just saying the counting numbers - I think counting in one-to-one correspondence with the actual number of objects (as we say in the biz) is a skill for closer to 3 years old.  (Ref: http://www.pbs.org/parents/childdevelopmenttracker/two/mathematics.html)

Also, I love this: DD will "count" to 20 (not counting things, just repeating the words) and will do "eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, FIVEteen, sixteen..." -- I love that!  She's okay with 11, 12, 13 because they're their own thing, but once you start that FOURteen pattern, FIVEteen is the sensible thing to do!

I love these little things, and I need to write them down because you just turn around and they're gone.  She always always said "aminals", and the other day I noticed she said "animals".  I don't know when it happened, it just went away.  One day I'll just realize she's saying fifteen.  :(

IPW i think we must have the same tractor. I am tempted to super glue that yellow seat back down as it keeps falling off when we lift it. Funny - even when we say the John Deere tractor, he won't say John Deere or seem to understand the use of John Deere as a descriptor. So we just call it the tractor now.

It is interesting to see how other kids are learning numbers. DS counts only to five, which I found interesting... I wonder if it is because so many things tends to be in groups of five like the five little monkeys song, five toes and fingers... And he can recognize the symbols up to 9 although 9 and 6 sometimes get mixed up. But I can tell he only understands one and two and I suspect two to him is more than one but two, three, four are all just more than one and interchangeable as far as I can see. Right now, we are not concerned that he seems to be learning them in an odd fashion since he is still just two. But I still wonder why he won't count above 5 even though he can recognize the written form of numbers from zero to nine.  So we get the 1-2-3-4-5 then silence  or back to 1.

Our daycare offers extra sessions - Learning Adventures (extra cost of course) for phonetics and math when they are two or three but we have no interest in those since we feel as long as he gets the basics he needs for kindergarten by the time he reaches kindergarten, there is no rush to try to get him to learn earlier, and those sessions are during outside time and we feel that it is more important at his age to ensure he gets outside time than focus too much on academics since social, emotional and physical milestones are equally if not more important to us at this time. 

I love watching how their little brains work. DS#1 is 3 and he can now count to 100. It was fascinating first watching him make the leap to 21+, then to 30 and beyond. For a while, when he hit 31, he would say "thirty-twenty-one, thirty-twenty- two, etc." He still slips into that pattern if he's tired or distracted.

cwag - I agree COMPLETELY about extra academic sessions - social/emotional/physical are way better uses of his time at daycare.  Particularly because most of us on here are already talking to our kids about letters and numbers and whatnot - that's really all they need academically at this age.

Also, FWIW, I don't actually think he's learning his numbers in an odd way.  I've read a lot about child development and number (it's related to my work), and it's pretty clear that kids develop unevenly across different ideas of number (e.g. the symbols, the "out loud" words, the actual number of objects in a set).  For example, my DD will "count" out loud to 20, but she is extremely dicey on whether or not she recognizes a written number.  She will usually pick out 0 and 3, but others are totally hit or miss - so kind of the opposite of your LO.

Frankly, I think a lot of the out loud counting is more to what extent a kid is into repeating words and songs.  It's like the counting is a kind of "song" that DD knows to sing when we're dealing with a lot of something (stairs) or we ask her to "count".  I think it speaks more to the kid's interest in repeating songs than it does to any actual understanding of number.  It seems exciting to adults, but doesn't actually mean much about real counting.

So, so so much to catch up on!

I only have a minute, but wanted to check in and say hi to everyone. I hope you are all having a great fall so far, I love this time of year! DD will be 3 months old on Friday, I can't believe it! She is still a lil peanut weighing in at about 10.8, but she is the cutest lil thing ever!

Just found out two of my friends are expecting their second babies....very exciting, can't believe how much things have changed. And my 30th birthday is on Sunday. Looking forward to entering the 30's! I may be the only one out there who actually doesn't mind getting older!

Happy birthday, Liz!  And, you're not the only one - my favorite birthday so far was 40!

IPW - DD is almost two but she found your son's 6.  She always counts 1,2,3,6!   Hello?  Where did 4 and 5 go?

If you ask her what color something is she always says "blue".  However if you ask her to step on a red, yellow, white or blue circle she can get them right.  It is too funny!

It seems this is just developmentally normal.

Thanks girls!  You girls are always so helpful.  I did read somewhere that BM changes in the amount of calories it provides the baby which I forgot about until you girls reminded me.  Im glad to hear that everyone is also making about the same amount of BM.  I do have a fridge that I can use to store to parts so I can clean them when I get home. That is a GREAT idea!  Im going to check out the kellymom link too!

Welcome back MM - So frustrating!

Arcain - Maybe DD is sleeping later because it's been darker in the morning lately?  But I agree - just when you figure "it" out, it changes!

Regarding getting out of the house in the morning, it got easier once DD started sleeping past 5:45.  I could hop in the shower and then get her up to feed her before I got dressed.  Good luck ladies!  You will figure out the routine that works best for you.

I never specifically asked my daycare provider not to tell me about firsts, but I think she is wise from 20 years of being in this business :o)  It wouldn't shock me to find out DD crawled or first at daycare, but if she did we were blissfully unaware.

AFM - DD keeps growing and changing and cracking us up.  She is 19+ months and her newest word is honey.  She repeated me on Saturday and has been saying it ever since.  Where's animal honey?  Sit honey.  Book honey.  Say cheese - cheese honey.  We took her to the Topsfield fair and she seemed to like seeing the ducks and other animals.  I love the fall... Although I did not like turning the heat on this weekend!

Pugs - seems like you got the information that you needed but just wanted to chime in... I EP (DS is 4 months old) and I'm down to 4-5 sessions a day which is perfect.  I pump at 6am - getting about 10 oz, I try to pump twice at work - 11 am and 3 pm - usually getting 5-6 oz each time and if I miss my 3pm then I pump at 6pm when I get home and one more session before I go to bed (9-10 pm) where I get 6-8 oz. On the weekends I try to fit in an extra session if possible so that I can freeze a bottle or two.

I send 18 oz to daycare and depending on the day he might come home with 2-3 oz left over or somedays he eats it all.  And because he gets picked up by DH at 330 and I'm not home until 6 I leave DH 5-6 oz for that time span.  I have to supplement 2 oz of formula a night.  Finally, we are hoping to start solids in the next few weeks so we'll see if that makes a difference in what he takes in.

One more thing, I totally stressed myself out over formula.  I knew that it was okay to supplement but I still had a lot of guilt over it.  Because of that stress my supply dropped drastically.  Once I started supplementing and became fine with the idea of it my supply shot right back up.  It's so hard to do but try not to let yourself fall into that trap!

All this number/color stuff is so fascinating. One of the reasons I love watching little kids learn is that it makes me think so much more about how my own learning process works. Their little brains are processing so much -- no wonder they get tired so easily!

Happy birthday, Liz! I loved turning 30, though 31 and my upcoming 32 are pretty boring in comparison :-). I love all the pics of your DD on Facebook -- she is so adorable and has great expressions! My friends actually have a 6 month old who is only 12 lbs, so don't worry about her peanut status :-).

Big breakthrough for DS this morning. DH reported to me that, when he dropped him off at daycare, DS did NOT cry when the other babies came up to him. In fact, he screeched happily at one little girl! It's so funny -- he loves "big kids" (like 2 and up) but at least at daycare, he seems scared of the other babies! It was actually kind of bothering me, because I couldn't see any reason and of course didn't want him to be upset. And the other babies there are so sweet! But one loves to screech and the sound startles him (of course he does the same at home...can dish it out but can't take it!), and another always wants to give him kisses, which I guess he doesn't appreciate. I wonder if he's aware of just how many other kids are there and that he's the youngest. In any case, hopefully today was an indication that he's getting more confident. One of my consolations in going back to work was the exposure to other kids he's getting at daycare, and it didn't help that he was afraid of the kids his own age!

happy birthday, liz!

To the number/color/learning discussion, I'll add that when my DH was little, he'd recite his family's phone number but always leave out one digit, no matter how many times my ILs would correct him. He later went on to get a perfect math SAT score and is now a software programming whiz....so I wouldn't be super worried at such young ages about knowing things perfectly.

In response to memes98's comment:

In response to Trouble30's comment:

This is because counting by rote (memorizing, 1, 2, 3, 4, etc) is one skill while understanding and producing one to one correspondence is another skill (one to one corr) is being able to point to and count the 3 eggs on the table, fully GETTING that there are 3, not some random number.  So when you see a 3 yr old start learning about 1-1 correspondence, you'll see them start well 1....  2..... 3.... as they are counting the legos on the table, but after they get to 4 or 5 or so they just start counting all of them over again, or randomly, so they can count 5 items as 12 (proudly, by the way).  And you just say, let's try it again, and YOU do the touching the object while they use the numbe r- so they can see that each item gets touched once, not multiple times, etc.  And they'll get it by 5 yrs old.

One thing you can do to encourage the development of 1 to 1 correspondence is do things that naturally need that - setting the table is one thing - each place gets 1 plate, 1 spoon, 1 fork, 1 glass... "setting the table" for snack is often done in preschool (3 and 4 yr olds) so they can work with 1 to 1 correspondence.  And when you walk up the stairs with your child, count each step they step onto "1..... 2... " so they start to physically feel and correspond that 1 number goes to each object.

Counting by rote is still a good skill, so certainly count as you do things, so they know the numbers in order.  Just don't think that the rote counting (or rote saying of the alphabet in order) means that they understand the number-ness of things.  And that also means that even a child at 2 or 3 who can say their alphabet without any mistakes does NOT know what each letter looks like, or can recognize a B or whatever.  They'll get it, it just takes from 3 to 5 years old to get it - and that's what preschool is for! 

Thinking of the color discussion, one of DS' favorite books is "What Makes a Rainbow". Each page opens a colored ribbon that corresponds to the particular color in the rainbow. It's a great way to look at and talk about colors, as well as having good tactile and kinesthetic qualities.

CT - As always, thank you for a very clear understanding about numbers, colors, letters, etc.  As others have said, its very exciting to watch them learn.

I had this overwhelming urge to cuddle with DS last night after he went to bed.  It took everything in my being to not get him up so he could fall asleep on my shoulder.  I think one of my most favorite things is when he falls asleep in the car, and I go to get him out and he puts his head on my shoulder and falls right back asleep.  Maybe its because he has a birthday coming up and I know they aren't little or snuggly forever.  Turns 2 in two days... as DS would say "wha' happen?"

Med - My DD used to say "FIVEteen"  and I love it to.  Reminded me how little she still really is, even though she is soon to be four.  When she used to say it, she would laugh like she knew it was wrong.  Now she says it correctly.   DD knew her colors early on, I cant remember when.   She has also been able to pick things up quickly, I told her once and she would know.  As for DS, he is so much slower.  I have been working on "were is Cams head" for months and he still does not get it.   I have leared that he just is going to be slower than DD.  He has been behind in everything, but always ends up doing.  The doctors have been telling me not to worry since he was 6 months old.  Some kids just pick things up quicker.   I have said it before on here but it is really hard to have a slower child follow a child that acheived milestones so quickly and ahead of schedule.   

DS 15 month check up is next week.  They wanted him to be saying 3 words, which he does.  I just watched a video of DD at 15 months and she said so many more words and new animal sounds.  Like I said, it is hard not to compare.