How do you fill a black hole?

Okay, so earlier today while clearing my head from lots of stuff I've been working on at my day job, I decided to take a peak at the much more frequently updated blog of Austin's second cousin, Henry (although you might know him better as Barnabas Monkeypants).

In the blog, Henry's father laments the fact that Henry is a hoover - sucking up anywhere from 20-36 ounces of milk each day - and that Henry's doctor was none too pleased.

Henry is just shy of 4 months old. Austin is almost 5 months old. So, where am I going with this blog post? Well, if Henry is a hoover, then Austin is a black hole.

You see, when it comes to food, Austin could probably gulp and eat little Henry under the table - in fact, I'm starting to think he might just decide to eat little Henry instead! I guess this could explain why Austin's become a bit more rotund than Tyler was at this age.

For example, here's Austin's intake for today alone...

• Five 6-ounce bottles of formula (with a slow nipple, of course, because Austin prefers to savor his milk and gets really ticked off if you try to pull a "fast one" on him...)
• 1-2 tablespoons of baby cereal
• 1 container of Gerber bananas (level 1 foods) - divided between 2 feedings
• 1 container of Gerber sweet potatoes (level 1 foods)

At least Austin's cut out his last bottle of milk in the evenings preferring to sleep instead (he's out, on average, from about 7:30pm until we wake him up the next day at 6:30am - definitely inherited his mommy's desire for lots of sleep...)

Yes, as stated in a previous post, Austin doesn't just LIKE his baby food, he DEVOURS IT! Lunging for each spoonful like a vulture attacks its prey.

In fact, last night at dinner, Austin's bumbo seat was positioned about 6 inches from a container of carrots that only people with teeth could enjoy. By the end of the meal, Austin was leaning precariously close to the carrot container, had grasped the end of the spoon in his hand, and had opened his mouth as wide as possible in anticipation.

Fortunately, Jeff caught him before he could proceed any further and moved the carrots to a safer distance from the little toothless vulturette - but that just sent Austin into a raging bout of tears. So, I caved and gave him the rest of his baby bananas from the fridge. Then, he demanded more and proceeded to chase it with a full container of Gerber apples.

I'm really serious here... this kid knows what food is, wants it now, and thinks he knows all about how to get it!

Tyler still hasn't mastered the concept of using utensils... but was almost shown up by his 4.5 month old little brother. How sad is that??

So, needless to say, both Tyler and Austin are due for their checkups this Friday (Tyler @ 19 months; Austin @5 months). Should be interesting to see how the little guy measures out on the scale... But, I'm a little nervous about where the results will land!

Should we start taking bets now on what percentage range his weight will fall into?? Hmm....