Sippy!

Eli got a new sippy cup today and took it out for a spin. Caroline was really hoping to get to "feed" him like it was a bottle, but he knew just what to do with it and wasn't going to be helped. His first try brought a little audience and was a huge success. I'm not a huge fan of juice for babies, but I am a huge fan of red raspberry and peppermint tea, so when there was a little cooled tea leftover it went to Eli. And now he's a huge fan of red raspberry and peppermint tea. And yes, there might have been a little eye rolling from Jimmy when he saw me give our baby herbal tea instead of juice in his sippy cup, but it's certainly not the weirdest thing I've ever given one of them!





The Chocolate Pilot

Today we read a book titled Mercedes and the Chocolate Pilot, by Margot Theis Raven. It is the story of an American Air Force pilot stationed in Germany after WWII who took part in the Berlin Airlift making daily runs into Berlin to drop rations and supplies to the people. This true story tells of how Lt. Halverson began dropping more than just flour and coal during his flights, but also thousands of parachutes filled with candy to the children of Berlin. What started as a small gesture turned into a national effort to bring a little joy into the lives of these children of war. By the time Operation Little Vittles came to an end, more than twenty tons of chocolate and gum had been dropped and Lt. Halverson had made little friends all over West Berlin.  It was a precious story and it gave my kids an opportunity to make fun of me yet again for not being able to make it through without getting choked up.
Little did they know, I had been mentally weighing the pros and cons of staging our own candy drop in honor of the story but before I could be the hero and announce the awesome "learning activity" that I'd thought of they stole my thunder and asked for a candy drop. I couldn't say no so, armed with a baggie of mini-marshmallows and chocolate chips, I played the role of Chocolate Pilot and dropped sweets down to my sweets.
I'm not sure they were quite as grateful as those little Berlin children were 60 years ago, but they definitely thought it was a pretty great school assignment.





Nine months old...

... and his sweetness still abounds. People who meet him briefly in the grocery store ask if he ever stops smiling and, unless one of the kids beats me to it, I answer that he doesn't. Even during his bout with The Cough That Would Not Die he would be coughing and gagging.... and smiling. Seriously. This boy is joy personified.

Happy nine-month birthday, Eli!


The incredible, edible egg!

The first time I gave Jack a bite of egg yolk he broke out in hives all over his face. He did it again when I gave him a bite of yogurt a few weeks later. Those are my staple baby power foods, so I was really hoping Eli would be better able to handle them. Sure enough, he loved every bite of those scrambled eggs this morning! And nary a hive. And he can put away a bowl of plain yogurt with bananas. And sweet potatoes with butter? His favorite. Until recently he's acted like I was trying to kill him whenever I'd offer him food and just like all the others before him it looks like nine months is the magic age. He's loving it!


Just what the doctor ordered

Anyone who knows me well knows that I appreciate the back-to-nature approach to most things. So when our kids got the Cough That Would Not Die this winter I immediately dove into my bag of natural remedies in an attempt to kick it to the curb. I've relied on these tricks for a long time and they've yet to fail me, so I was pretty confident that it would be no different this time. We did high doses of vitamin C in our fruit and yogurt smoothies, elderberry syrup, spoonfuls of honey, lots of special hot tea (red clover, especially for coughs), extra cod liver oil for vitamin D,  coconut and eucalyptus oil rubbed onto little chests and lots and lots of prayer. All of these were helpful in relieving symptoms, but when I finally decided that we were dealing with a bacteria instead of a virus I knew that the answer to our prayers was going to come in the form of a little help from modern medicine.
After more than two months of constant coughing from one of the kids or another, I'm so thankful to report that we're finally on the mend! And thanks to a generous friend, I now have some kefir fermenting on the counter to rebuild all the good bacteria that became collateral damage in the attack against the CTWND.

Three cheers for modern medicine (and for sleeping at night again!).


We voted!

All eight of us. And since it was on a Saturday this year Jimmy got to experience the wonder of voting with so many interested helpers. You can believe that our kids like to have someone to root for and wanted us to explain in great detail why we were casting our vote the way that we were. We braced them for the reality that our guy probably wouldn't win, but that it was important to vote for who we thought would be best. They might have been more bummed than we were when his loss was official. They're counting down the years until they can stand in that little booth themselves and I'm pretty sure they'll know exactly how it all works. After all, they've been "voting" since they were babies.



Honesty

It has become increasingly clear to us that either Jack has no idea what the concept of honesty means, or he just doesn't care.

Mommy: [upon walking into the kitchen and hearing some rustling in the pantry] "Jack? Are you in the pantry?"

Jack: [climbing down from the storage bucket that holds our oats and coming out of the pantry] "Nope!"

Mommy: "Were you getting into the red tin of cookies from Mr. Bob?"

Jack: [holding the red tin lid] "Nope!"

Mommy: "Were you eating cookies without asking mommy?"

Jack: [with cookie crumbs on his face and his mouth overflowing - oh, and a cookie with a bite out of it] "No, I not eating tookies."

Mommy: "Was that cookie that you ate delicious?"

Jack: "It was yummy in my mouf."

Clearly, we have a lot of work to do.


New students every day

That's kind of how I feel each morning before we start school since I never know exactly who Jack is going to be for the day, morning, minute. For this moment in time we had Buzz Lightyear (gnome style) joining Ben and me for our number sorting and counting game. He was a delightful student and is welcome back any time.