Back in the saddle

One of my biggest fears about adding Claire to our family was how I was going to manage to get everyone where they needed to be early in the morning with a newborn who would be keeping me up at night. But when Paul went back to work last week and the boys went back to school after the Thanksgiving break, everything just fell back into place. In fact, some mornings I was even showered and put together by 7:36, the time at which we must leave to take Sam to school. It's not like I was sleeping in anyway, since the new addition likes to fight sleep most of the early morning hours. In fact, she's not too fond of sleeping at all unless she's being held tight, jiggled, her hands held, and/or pacified. Try cooking dinner over a hot stove/oven with a newborn strapped to your chest in a Snugli, bouncing or swaying her, and holding her hand, all without burning her. Now that's some serious multitasking. But, I digress.
It felt so good to get back into a our old routine, atleast in the morning. And it felt even better when, this week, I sat down, planned out some dinners, actually got groceries back into our house, and went back to cooking dinners. I was so ambitious that I even tried out a new recipe this week, and a risky one at that. Not only was the main ingredient one which I had never actually eaten before (acorn squash), but the entire dish was without meat. Any time that I try a new recipe that I fear the spouse will reject, I find it best to keep it a secret until it's too late, at which point he's so hungry, he'll eat whatever is placed before him. Much to my delight, I think we both equally enjoyed this new recipe and I, for one, can't wait to eat it again! I served it along with my favorite salad, and we found it to be quite a filling meal.

Acorn Squash Stuffed with Mushrooms and Rice   
recipe from Martha Stewart

Ingredients

2 acorn squash (1 pound each), halved crosswise, seeded, and bottoms trimmed to lie flat, if necessary
Salt and pepper
3 tablespoons olive oil, divided
1/2 pound cremini or button mushrooms, trimmed and diced small
1 medium yellow onion, diced small
3/4 teaspoon dried thyme
1 cup long-grain white rice
2 cups vegetable or chicken broth
1/2 cup grated Parmesan (2 ounces)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees. On a rimmed baking sheet, season cut sides of squash with salt and pepper, drizzle with 1 tablespoon oil, and turn cut sides down. Cover sheet tightly with foil and roast until tender, about 35 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, in a medium straight-sided skillet, heat remaining 2 tablespoons oil over medium-high. Add mushrooms, onion, and thyme; season with salt and pepper. Saute until mushrooms are golden, 8 minutes. Add rice and broth and bring to a boil; cover and reduce heat to low. Cook until liquid is absorbed, 20 minutes.
3. Remove squash from oven and heat broiler. Carefully scoop out 2 to 3 tablespoons flesh from each squash half and stir into rice; season with salt and pepper. Divide rice mixture among squash halves, sprinkle with Parmesan, and broil until melted, 2 minutes.

Highs and Lows

I appreciate honesty. I find it helpful and comforting to my psyche when others openly acknowledge their own flaws, not because it makes me feel better than they are, but because it can be comforting to know someone else has had experiences similar to mine or that I'm not the only imperfect one. So here's my truth.

Having a new baby isn't always all gumdrops and lollipops. Not to be misunderstood, we are deeply and completely in love with Claire. All of us are. She is a little drop of sunshine. Yet sometimes there are challenges that come with having a newborn that are no fault at all of said baby. I've seen a statistic that 70-80% of new moms experience baby blues, yet I've seldom heard anyone talk about experiencing it. I don't know if my own personal experience qualifies as "baby blues", but I do know that the first week (or so) home has been challenging for me all three times. And, for me, I feel that it has always been triggered by breastfeeding. Or, to clarify, my inability to do so. With Sam, I never considered that there was an option other than breastfeeding....until it failed and I was forced to consider the other option. When I failed with Nathanael as well, I swore that, should there be another child, I wouldn't even attempt to breastfeed, hoping that by not even trying, I wouldn't feel as much guilt when it didn't work. But lo and behold, my whole pregnancy with Claire, I intended to try yet again, and this time I was certain it would work! She and I were alone most of the time our 2 days in the hospital, so I nursed that little baby constantly. Then, the day after we went home, she had to go in for a weight check and to check her bilirubin levels. Well, at 3 days old, she had lost a pound (11% of her weight) and her bilirubin levels were up (though not dangerously). They said as long as she was having a wet diaper every 6 hours, there was no need to supplement. Only, she wasn't having any wet diapers. Long story short, I quit. And it makes me feel extreme guilt and sadness. During that week, Sam asked me occasionally "why do you cry every day now?" When I managed to get out to him that I just felt a little sad, he replied "because you feel like you're a terrible mom? You're not a terrible mom. You're not perfect, but you aren't terrible." All the while, he was giving me the hugs I needed. I love that kid so.
So there it is. I'm a bottle feeder. These boobs just weren't made for milkin'. Will the guilt follow me forever? I feel like it's possible; I still feel the guilt 6 and 3 years later. Does it make me less of a mother? Logically, my brain tells me that it doesn't affect the quality of my parenting. But emotionally, it makes me feel inferior.
Next up on the list of blues inducers was the fact that I came home from the hospital sick. Just a cold, but a really bad one. Not only did I feel awful, but I was terrified that Claire would get sick, too. And really, how could she not? With her primary caregiver and two older brothers puffing germs all over her, the odds were certainly not in her favor. And sure enough, at 2 weeks old, Claire came down with her first cold.

My happy, healthy little girl turned into a sad little sicky over night. We spent an entire night awake, watching to make sure she was breathing after a few episodes of her gasping. In the end, the worst passed in just a few days and she is still dealing with some digestive dysfunction from antibiotics she is taking for an ear infection.

Despite the tears and challenges, these few weeks have been filled with much joy. My heart overflows with love and adoration for Claire. She is definitely our little princess. Everyone argues for their turn cuddling her. And she eats it up. She is a snugglebug. She loves to have her hands held. Her face is very expressive, just like Sam's was as a newborn. She likes to curl up into a small ball when she's laying on your chest. I love how tiny and soft she is. I love her squeaks and goose-like noises. She's a sweet little thing and oh so cute. The boys love to hold and touch her. Sam always says to her "look how cute you are!" or "I see you looking at me, Claire". Nathanael says "hey, girl" or "she's so beautiful". This morning he told me he wanted her to stay in her "jamas" because she was so cute in them. I can't believe it's already been three weeks. I can already feel her growing up too fast.

Bringing Home Baby

I have a bad habit. Ok, maybe I have a few. But one of those bad habits is wishing away experiences in my life instead of savoring the sweet moments and embracing all aspects presented through those experiences. When I learned that I was pregnant in March, I vowed to myself that I would treasure up all the sweetness and magic that is pregnancy, in anticipation that there shall be no more for me. But I'll be darned if the moment I started noticing changes to my body that I found to be unpleasant, I didn't start wishing the months away.

I don't know where they went, the past nine months. Time goes so quickly, and before I knew it, I was within weeks of my due date. Somehow, I just expected our little lady to join the family early, as in when I was around 37 weeks. Ha! She must have known what she was getting herself into and tried to hide out as long as possible. As the weeks ticked by and my obstetrician suggested setting a date for induction, I held out hope that I would spontaneously go into labor before my due date. I really hate choosing my babies' birthdays by planning an induction. It just seems so....unnatural. But then, a week away from that all-important due date, I caved. We set my induction date for November 14. I still had time to go into labor on my own, but it wasn't to be. So early in the morning, Wednesday November 14, Paul and I headed to the hospital and left the boys to be sent off to school with Mimi. The labor was nearly perfect, really. It was the most relaxed experience of the three. I officially got started on the Pitocin around 7:00, was able to manage the pain quite nicely through breathing and mentally convincing myself that the pain wasn't that severe, and finally decided to accept the epidural before I was out of my mind in pain. Epidurals and I, we aren't the best of friends. Epidural #1 (Sam)- got it too late, didn't get to even use it, ended up with a spinal headache. Epidural #2 (Nathanael)- it only took on one side of my body. Epidural #3 (baby girl)- also only took on the right side of my body. So, the anesthesiologist hand-injected a much larger dose of medicine to try to force it to spread out to the left side (which it never did even out, though I was able to become comfortable), thus resulting in a numb arm, chest, and a Frankenstein eye which did not look nice in those first pictures of baby and me. After the epidural, I was able to rest for a very brief time before the baby was ready to be born. My nurse, becoming aware that I was about to give birth, left my room to go look for my doctor, who had been in surgery delivering another baby. Nurse told me to press my call button if anything happened while she was out. No sooner had she left my room then I had my next contraction and pressed my call button. She and my doctor came rushing in and three contractions later, at 12:42 pm (right in time for lunch, hallelujah!), weighing in at 8 pounds 9 ounces (that was a surprise) and 21 1/4 inches long, my beautiful baby girl was born.

And we shall call her Claire Julia. Lest there be any confusion, that's Ju-lee-a as opposed to Jewl-ya. Yes, there's a difference, yes it matters to me, yes I have strong opinions about it. It's my legal name, I'm entitled to strong opinions. Ju-lee-a, pretty. Jewl-ya, gross. Nonetheless, how often will anyone say her middle name anyway?
I love giving birth. I truly do. The whole process is so surreal, but particularly that moment when their little body slips into this world. It's such an awesome experience. Part of me feels like I just can't have experienced that for the last time. But then, you've got to stop somewhere and three seems like the right place for us. I got my daughter. The daughter I always longed for. She is beautiful. She is sweet. We are so in love- her mommy, her daddy, and her big brothers.

Halloween

This year on Halloween, the first grade was asked to dress up as a character from one of several children's books. Sam wanted to be Thing 2 and luckily we were able to borrow some items from a friend to make putting together his costume completely effortless. Nathanael started the morning in a Tiger costume, but had already made his first wardrobe change before I even took him to school.

I had a doctor appointment on Halloween, so I wasn't able to attend either of the boys' class parties which was a major disappointment to me, but I was able to stop by Nathanael's class as they went trick-or-treating in the church.

Having been a little unsure about whether we would actually do much, if any, neighborhood trick-or-treating, in the early afternoon we gathered up Max and Yaya for some grocery store trick-or-treating. We hit Publix and Food Lion, and the boys came home with a pretty decent selection of loot.

Later in the early evening, Yaya called us and asked that we once again join up with Max to test out the neighborhood. Well, thank heavens we had done the grocery stores because, although Max and Nathanael turned into trick-or-treating professionals, my tender-hearted little Sammy was too terrified to even approach the first door. The poor child is afraid of his own shadow, so Halloween decor will just about put him over the edge. He and Paul stayed back while Nathanael and Max learned the fine art of proper trick-or-treating: approach doors only when the porch light is on, ring the doorbell, say "trick-or-treat", receive candy, politely thank the homeowners. The Tiger and Chicken made quite the Halloween pair.

Fall Carnival

It seems that this is the time of year for all of the schools to hold their annual carnival. It also seems that since the first day of school (for both boys at both schools), the school has been hitting us up for money and item donations. Though we did not participate in any of the door-to-door fundraisers, we've contributed pet items for Sam's class basket for the carnival, toys for Nathanael's class basket, and baked goods also to Sam's carnival. Finally, I think we have seen the last of the donations....atleast until they start asking for gifts for poor children at Christmas time.
All along I had intended to take Sam to his school's carnival. I have heard from multiple sources that it is actually a lot of fun and, despite my own tendencies toward stinginess and stick-in-the-mud-ness, I don't want to deny Sam experiences that he wants to have. Besides, I remember my dutiful mother taking me to the carnival at Plain when I was a kid. Well, it just so happened that Sam's and Nathanael's carnivals were on the same night. Sam did say he wanted to go and Nathanael was looking forward to it too. But when Paul got home from work, he immediately set out to persuade Sam against going. That child is so much like his parents it's ridiculous. He is not generally affected by the crowd and prefers a quiet night at home. He was easily bought out of the carnival when I offered him Chick-Fil-A and a Redbox movie. Nathanael, on the other hand, had been sold on the carnival in class earlier during the day when the teachers told them all about the games that would be available. All he could talk about was the fishing game and the duck pond, and he would NOT be dissuaded. So, while Paul and Sam enjoyed their quiet evening, I took my little blondie on a date to his school for carnival games and a hot dog.
I love that Nathanael has several of his church friends who go to preschool with him. We were able to see a few of them at the carnival and he palled around with his friend Myah as they enjoyed most of the games. Of course we went straight for the fishing pond, followed by the duck pond, bean bag toss, cup cake walk, face painting, and there were even inflatable bouncy things.

Then Nathanael was able to have dinner with his friend, Aidan. And, though it was never in question that Nathanael is a lady's man, I met one of his little girlfriends, Charlotte, as she came waltzing out of the face painting room to greet him with a very drawn out "hiiiiii, Nathanael". Nathanael talks about chasing Charlotte and Gabby on the playground every day when I pick him up from school. So, I had to get a picture of those two. So cute!

I'm glad Nathanael and I were able to have a night out together. Better yet, I'm glad we were able to do it without battling the crowds at the elementary school!

A Shower for Baby Girl

On October 13 my sweet friends, Karen, Angela, and Jeabri, hosted a baby shower for me. It was so nice to be spoiled by three of the best friends a gal could ask for. The time and thought that they put into everything was very apparent. They put together adorable decorations, delicious food, and super cute ideas (each guest put together a hair bow for the little girlie!!).

I am so appreciative of each friend who took the time to be there. I can't wait to outfit my tiny daughter in all her new clothes, bows, blankets, and even the diapers. Baby showers for little girls are great, but even greater when hosted and attended by great friends. Thanks, y'all!

Turning 30 and Feathering My Nest

Today is my 30th birthday. It's hard to believe. I feel like it was such a short time ago that Paul and I were in high school....or got married....or moved to Utah...or.... But I guess it wasn't such a short time ago after all. It all happens so quickly. I've never been one who was bothered much by my increasing age. In fact, as a very young newlywed, I wished I was older because I felt like everyone thought I was just a child. And I was. Turning 30 isn't so bad. There's a certain credibility and confidence that comes with age. Or maybe it's that many of my dearest friends are over 30 and I want to be just like them;-).
So how am I celebrating the departure from my 20s? Well, this morning I dropped my little treasures off at their schools and then I went back to Sam's class to volunteer for his teacher. Wednesdays are my volunteering days, and even though it's my birthday, I didn't want to miss that. Later we will go to dinner with my parents and enjoy a nice evening at home. And what gift did I receive? Check out this little, or actually QUITE LARGE, beauty.

And in case there's any question regarding how I feel about receiving a kitchen appliance for my birthday, practicality fits me to a T. In fact, I feel quite spoiled by this gift. I would never buy myself such an expensive mixer. But I sure do love me some baked goods.
As a younger gal I had in mind that I wanted to have all my children born before I turned 30. Looks like I'll miss that mark by just a little. I feel like this little lady could come any day now. Every time I go for a walk, I anxiously expect my water to break. Meanwhile, I guess I've been in slight "nesting" mode. I'm not the typical nester. I don't get some crazy desire to pull everything out of my cupboards and wash down every nook and cranny of my house. I like a mostly clean house and all, but let's not get carried away. For me, nesting comes in the form of baking. Just as I did while pregnant with Nathanael, I have spent this pregnancy baking more than my share of treats. And while doing so, I've found some delicious recipes that will become permanent staples of my baking rotation. Hence my birthday gift. Paul says that bad boy ought to be able to make all my wildest baking dreams come true. Watch out now!
But I haven't only been baking. I've been getting the little girl's room ready. I was fairly uncertain about how my paint job would turn out and how I would feel about it once it was done, but I must say, I love it! The room is far from complete. It certainly hasn't reached my vision yet, but I have a certain suspicion that just might not happen before she's born. So, for now, here is the progress so far.

Fall Break Mini-Vacay

Ever since our last trip to the beach earlier in the spring, I've been wanting to get us back to the ocean for one last romp in the sun and sand before our little addition arrives. But the summer passed quickly, and now school dominates our weekdays and soccer dominates our Saturdays, leaving very little time for fun. So, with two days off school and 1 month till delivery day, we decided to seize the opportunity and headed to Savannah, GA. To be more specific, we actually stayed with Lisa at her new home in Richmond Hill, a nice little suburb of Savannah. She was happy to have the company and the boys were super excited to get to play with her. They also enjoyed the novelty of sleeping on a blow-up mattress that fit just perfectly inside the closet in the room Paul and I stayed in.

On Thursday morning we headed out to investigate a fort we had noticed signs for. Well, after donating $5 to the state of Georgia just to park in their parking lot for about 15 minutes, we left without having seen much. Nathanael, even more so than Sam, did not appreciate the marsh smell (I'm not a big fan, myself), the sand gnats were out of control, and we (maybe just I?) didn't think it was necessarily worth it to pay an additional fee for each of us just to be able to take a peek at another ruined old fort. Maybe if it hadn't been for the stink and the gnats.... But we were able to walk out on a dock to check out the catch of a crab-fisherman. And then Nathanael insisted we read him every plaque on the single display we were able to view. And that concluded our quest for historical enlightenment on this vacation.

Then we were off to Tybee Island. Though the day started off a bit cool and overcast, it was the most wonderful day on the beach. A few clouds remained in the sky all day and the temperature rose to around 80. The boys set out immediately with their sand toys. Paul and Nathanael flew a kite for a bit and Sam declared himself "King of the Waves" as he was no longer afraid to go jump them by himself. At lunchtime, I walked about a block from the beach to a little dive to pick up some lunch which we ate on the beach, and we stayed out there until dinnertime.

On Friday morning we set out for River Street. River Street has beautiful old trees, lovely old buildings, and delicious candy stores. We stopped in to peruse the first one we came to, Savannah's Candy Kitchen, where we sampled some pralines and bought some other overpriced sweets. On River Street, you just never know what interesting characters you will run into. We were approached by a pirate wanting to save us money on lunch, Nathanael found a cuddly creature he wanted to have his picture taken with (and he wanted to change his shirt too, but we had to convince him those shirts were for buying, not for playing dress-up with the bear), and though unfortunately I didn't get a picture of this man, I believe we had our wedding vows renewed by an old black man trying to sell us sweetgrass roses. Paul said he doubted the man was actually trying to sell us anything, he just wanted to see how long he could get us to stand there and repeat after him. It was slightly awkward, and the kids were confused and wanted their candy.

After meandering down the street, stopping to watch a container ship sail by, and letting the boys chase some pigeons, we headed back out to Tybee Island.

We stopped briefly to walk around the Tybee Island Lighthouse, but Nathanael was pretty disappointed when we told him we couldn't climb to the top or else Baby Sister might make an early appearance. He told me I could just wait at the bottom. He lost that debate.

Our final adventure for the day was a trip out on Captain Mike's boat to look for dolphins. We didn't have to look for long, as there were tons of dolphins out playing in the ocean. It never gets old watching those cute little animals jumping out of the water, but I think Nathanael was more interested in all of the buoys out at sea. After returning to the dock, we ate at a restaurant right off the same dock and then headed for home, with a brief stop by our old neighborhood to show Sam the house he lived in as a baby.

It was a great trip, though maybe just a bit too short. I hope that we will be able to take another adventure sometime soon, but with a newborn I suspect our traveling days are over for a bit.

Nearing the end.

In a little less than 1 month I'm due to have a daughter. That seems surreal. In fact, pregnancy altogether seems surreal to me. On the one hand, I can clearly see and feel the changes to my body. Yet on the other hand it quite frequently gives me reason to pause and think "is this really happening to me? Is there really a human growing inside my body? Is this really my stomach that is stretching into a giant ball?" It seems almost dream-like. Pregnancy, for me, is not terribly difficult. Oh sure, it has caused my body to change in ways that it will never be the same. There are certain discomforts and I like to complain just for dramatic effect, but truthfully, my body handles it fairly well. My self-esteem, however, is another story. But in the end, I get the most amazing gift and I am so excited about that.

These past several months have been so much fun, as one by one each of my siblings announced that they were expecting a new baby. I always wanted to be pregnant at the same time as my sister, but never imagined that the timing would work out so perfectly for all four of our families.

First up, due any day now, is sister-in-law Olympia and brother Paul, with their first baby, daughter Scarlett. Then comes my Thanksgiving girlie, followed by Robin and Chris's Christmas girl. And ringing in the new year with a surprise will be sister-in-law Leslie and brother Ben with their second. Let the fun begin!

Nathanael's First Field Trip

On Monday Nathanael's preschool class had their one field trip for the year (supposedly...though I seem to recall from Sam's K4 class that they took about 10 field trips, so why would the 3's only get 1?). One of my favorite fall traditions to do as a family is go to the apple orchard and/or pumpkin patch. So, I was more than happy that Nathanael would get to go to an orchard that we don't typically go to. The last time we visited Niven's Apple Orchard was when Sam was about 18 months old. It's definitely a fun place, just lacking the beautiful mountain views that I love about Sky Top.
So, we started off our visit with a hayride, and surprisingly enough, there really was hay!! It wasn't just a  wagon ride.

The hayride dropped us off right among the apple trees and each child was given a plastic bag to fill with apples. After searching for a few minutes, we finally found some trees that were full of apples low enough for the kids to walk right up and pick. Nathanael was pretty excited to be able to pick them. He's been very into "baby" things and found several little baby apples that were "so cuuuute". It didn't take long to fill up our little bag, but we fit as many in as possible.

I picked one off the tree and gave it to Nathanael to eat. He gobbled it right up and got another one before we even walked out of the trees. In fact, he even wanted a third, but I cut him off. He did get it later for dinner, however. And 3 days later, between the two of us, our little baggie of apples is gone.

After a quick snack (not that Nathanael needed one after feasting upon the apples) with his preschool friends, it was time to pick out a pumpkin. Nathanael tried out several different ones (including a "cuuute" baby one) before finally finding his perfect pumpkin to take home.

And then there was still plenty of time to play. In the 5 years since we've been to Niven's, they have added several new things to entertain the little ones. Nathanael had a blast bouncing on inner tubes, looking at the animals, dressing up a scarecrow, and crawling through a tunnel. But, the thing he spent the most time doing was chasing the little girls around the playhouses.

He is such a wild little man. I'm so glad I got to spend a morning doing something fun with him and watching him interact with his new friends.

Happy Cow

Finally, I'm getting around to doing the little things with Nathanael that Sam and I always did together when he was small. On Tuesday, we went with all of our park day friends to a local creamery, Happy Cow. What made it even better was that Max and Yaya came along, too. Nathanael and Max together, watch out! Those two are trouble.
Quickly upon arriving at Happy Cow, I figured out that I'm not raising a farm boy. Nathanael couldn't stand the smell of the cows and their poop. I can't blame him; I thought it was pretty horrific myself. Max and Yaya, however, thought it was a sweet odor.
After getting checked in and observing the cows for a bit, we were off on a tractor ride through the fields to check on some grazing cows. The tour guide was a friendly gal who lives on the farm, and she told us all about the story of Happy Cow. After the tractor ride she took us through the milking barn and explained the milking process. I was amazed at how well Nathanael recounted the things he had learned later to Paul. He is still talking about how they have to dip the teats into soap to clean them before being milked. I think he just likes to say "teats".
We finished off our visit with some ice cream, of course. However, we were a bit disenchanted to see that the ice cream was, in fact, not Happy Cow ice cream at all. Booo! Nevertheless, Nathanael had a great time milking the wooden cow, riding the rickety trailer, and playing with his cousin. All in all, a successful morning away from home.

 

First Grade is Spooky

But this picture is from Kindergarten.

 

My boy is a complete enigma. Though he is tender and extremely sensitive, he's ready to throw blows for even the slightest offense. While he is confident in himself and his abilities, he is terrified of even his own shadow.

Lately, a popular phrase of Sam's has been, "_____ spooked me". The first time I heard this silly phrase was a couple weeks ago on our drive home from school. "Mom?" Sam began. "There's a kid in first grade that spooks me." Very curious, I prodded him as to why the kid was spooky. "He has a lot of gums. When he opens his mouth, he isn't trying to show them, but you can just see a lot of his gums." HA! I guess we're just lucky Sam didn't vomit upon seeing the poor kid's gums. After all, Sam does tend to have a weak stomach.

Spooky episode #2 also was described on another afternoon trip home from school. "Mom? Today we had a lock-down drill." "Oh yeah?" I asked. "Yeah, it kind of spooked me." "Did you have to get underneath your desk?" "No. Mrs. Cole turned out the light and we all had to get where someone couldn't look in through the door and see us." Well heck yeah! That would spook me too! Turns out, it wasn't a drill, either. Turns out, an unidentified individual was roaming the school without having signed in at the office. It was just a district employee. It's sad how hyper-sensitive our schools have to be these days, but I'm the type who appreciates hyper-sensitivity.
Sam told me about the third spooky episode as we sat at the table doing his homework one afternoon. "On library day last week, 2 boys and 1 girl in my class checked out books about vampires." "Oh yeah?" I said. "Yeah. Maddy checked one out. It kind of spooked me."
Ahhhh, my sweet boy. Maybe I should tell him that he's going to be spooked many more times in his life. Maybe I should tell him that I used to fall asleep with my light on every night. Or maybe I should tell him that I still get heart palpitations if I have to turn out all the lights downstairs at night and there isn't another light on to get me safely up the stairs. Or maybe I'll just enjoy the sweetness that is my 6-year-old who relies on his buddies to keep him safe at night. 

 

September Update

Well, we are settling into a new school year routine....or trying to, anyway. Sam has commented, more than once, that it's always "rush, rush, rush", and boy is he right. There doesn't seem to be much downtime anymore, and I think that's terribly sad. I'm really struggling with the fact that our lives, our time, is dictated by public school. But, so far, we haven't come up with a better alternative, so, we're learning to adapt.

After 2.5 weeks of first grade, Sam is adapting seemingly well. Frequently after school he asks when they will stop doing kindergarten work and get into the real stuff. The first full week, they took a math assessment test. We tried to gather from Sam what was on the test and how he did. Apparently one section included items that the children had to count and record how many there were. Sam decided that, to make it more challenging, he would just guess how many items there were instead of counting them. Hearing him explain this to us, Paul and I became nervous about his answers and that the assessment was not going to accurately gauge his knowledge because he was simply bored with the test. He then, however, assured us that he was always right, for he always went back and counted to check his answers. Then, just this past Friday, on library day, after the kids came back to the classroom with their books, they were supposed to take some sort of computerized reading comprehension quiz with their fourth grade reading buddy. Sam told me that the reading buddy told him he was supposed to actually read the book first, but Sam? Well, he just decided to wing it and took the quiz without reading the book. He claims he got all those questions right, too, and all I can go on at this point is his word. In the car one afternoon he asked me, "what if I'm the smartest person in the world?" And he doesn't doubt that he is. It's going to be interesting to see what kind of trouble he gets into with his boredom this year.

Sam also started back up in soccer a couple weeks ago. This season he's playing in a different league and the team includes ages 6 and 7, so Sam is quite small compared with most of the other kids. The areas in which he needs improvement are definitely more noticeable, but luckily he is still having lots of fun. His little legs aren't as fast or strong as many of the other kids, but boy can he play goalie! He's still anticipating being a professional soccer player. But if that doesn't pan out, he plans to fall back on being a race car driver. I'm just happy he's confident.

Nathanael is loving his new school. Every morning he asks if he is going to school today. Since he only goes Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, the answer is usually no, much to his disappointment. I love how he comes bounding out of his classroom every afternoon at pick-up to give me a hug and tell me about his day. He always has some pretty good details to share. He's enjoying the crafts that he's been making and loves that he finally has some things to hang on our wall o' crafts in the playroom that has previously only held Sam's work. And, though it has nothing to do with preschool, he has finally, in the past week or so, started to correctly identify most colors. Some of them still receive a much longer name than just "red" or "blue". In fact when asked what color something red is, he will say "it's like Clifford the Big Red Dog, so it's red!" And for blue, he will say "it's like a blueberry, so it's blue." But I don't care...it's kinda cute. And so is he. My favorite parts of the day are when we drop Sam off at school and they each tell the other to have a good day at school and then when we pick Sam up from school they both tell each other what they did. Super cute and super sweet. And then, as soon as we get home, they start beating on each other. Gosh I love them.

And as for me, I'm now 30 weeks pregnant. At last check, which was probably about 6 weeks ago, baby girl was breech. She is pretty active, and I'm trying to stay active as well. For the record, no we do not have a name yet and no we probably won't make the final decision until we see her. But we sure do like her alot already.

Nathanael's New Adventure

Today my littlest boy started on his pathway to higher education....atleast we hope that's where his pathway leads. Regardless, he started preschool. I thought he was pretty excited to start "Sam's old school". He had talked about it plenty over the last few months. But this morning, when he slept later than Sam (which is unusual), Sam predicted that "maybe he doesn't want to go to school." Sure enough, when I sat him down to eat his breakfast, he just sat there, not eating, as if by prolonging breakfast he could avoid going to school. When I went over to him he told me "I don't want to go to school today. I don't want to make new friends." (Amazing! This child might be mine afterall!) I told him he didn't have to make new friends because his friend Benjamin would be in his class. That seemed to solve all his problems and from that moment on, he was perfectly willing to go to his new school.

We got to school a few minutes early, so while we were waiting in the van Nathanael started begging me to let him out so he could just wait on the sidewalk. As soon as they opened the doors and I got him out of the van, he started marching towards the school, calling over his shoulder "bye, Mom". Gee, thanks. He marched right inside and promptly found the toys he wanted to play with while they waited to begin their day.
And how did I spend my time while I was without children this morning? I tested out a new, picky-eater friendly, quick morning breakfast (or snack) recipe. It is basically a banana bread recipe, but also has squash and carrots in it. I figured they would probably taste pretty good, but I was concerned about whether or not Sam would eat them, purely because he would be able to see the carrots. To minimize the risk of his rejection, after I grated the carrots, I gave them a ride in my Vitamix to chop them into smaller shreds. They smelled delicious while baking and I tested out a few as soon as they were done. I thought they were very flavorful and incredibly moist. I couldn't wait for the boys to test them out. And, hooray, they both found them to be quite pleasing to their palates.

Next time I make them, I'd like to try to replace some or most of the butter with applesauce or yogurt. And in place of the oat bran, I just blended up some dry oatmeal. Other than that, they are perfect just the way the recipe says.

Toddler Muffins
via allrecipes.com

INGREDIENTS:
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup brown sugar, or to taste
2 large bananas, mashed
1 (4.5 ounce) jar baby food squash
2 carrots, grated
2 eggs, beaten
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup oat bran
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1/2 teaspoon salt

DIRECTIONS:
1. Preheat an oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease 24 mini muffin cups or 12 standard muffin cups.
2. In a mixing bowl, cream together the butter and brown sugar until smooth. Mix in the mashed bananas, squash, carrots, and eggs. Stir in the flour, oat bran, baking soda, pumpkin pie spice, and salt until just combined. Spoon the batter equally into the prepared muffin cups.
3. Bake in the preheated oven until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, 15 to 20 minutes. Cool in the pans for 10 minutes before removing to cool completely on a wire rack. Store at room temperature for up to two days, or freeze.

Back to school!

I don't know how it happened, but somehow summer ended. It was rather abrupt. One day we were enjoying leisurely days spent baking, playing, traveling about town...

And the next day I was suddenly out of time to purchase school supplies. This was, quite possibly, the quickest summer of my life. Why is it that on the last day of school it always seems like an eternity before the next school year will begin, yet as soon as the Fourth of July rolls around, it seems that summer passes by in a blink? However it happened, the night of Meet the Teacher came around and Sam was both excited and nervous to find out what first grade was going to be like. He had been hoping all summer long that he would get our neighbor, Mrs. Cole, for his teacher and that his friend, Logan, would be in his class. That night we found out that his wish was granted and Sam was so happy. It made me feel more at ease, too. And then it happened; last Wednesday morning my first born went off for his first day of public school. I walked him in and let him lead the way down the hallways to his classroom. He remembered how to get there perfectly. I probably felt more awkward than he did, as he settled himself into his seat and I was left wondering how long it was appropriate to linger around and how many pictures I could take of him without being a weirdo mother. Truthfully, I would have been happy to stay there with him all day long, if that were acceptable. But alas, I told him goodbye and walked out the door, to spend the remainder of the day wondering how and what he was doing.

When I picked him up from school, he was all smiles. He had a great day and had even found an old preschool friend on the playground at recess. He told me that all the kids in his class are nice and he loved that they even went to PE. Here's hoping that the rest of the year goes as smoothly as the first week.

A belated birthday celebration

Ever since his birthday, whenever he has thought of it, Sam has lamented that we failed to take him anywhere on his birthday. In other words, he didn't get to go to a special dinner and to Frankie's Fun Park. Apparently, no birthday is complete for our boys without chicken and go-karts.
So, last weekend we decided to finally fulfill our parental birthday duties. First stop, Chick Fil A, per Sam's request.

Then we headed over to Frankie's where, since we were celebrating Sam's birthday, he got to choose who he wanted to ride with in his go-kart. It certainly wasn't Mommy, the slowest one on the track. Poor Nathanael got that honor. That's ok; my little riding partner was already so disappointed that he wasn't getting to ride the bumper boats that he didn't think much about being on the slow car.

Then we headed inside for some arcade games. Sam wanted to play Fruit Ninja, but unfortunately it is placed right beside a shooting game that he is terrified to even view out of the corner of his eye. Sad yet precious, at the same time. So, instead we let Nathanael ride the kiddie carousel and we made Sam ride along as well to get our full $1 worth. He looked like someone had kicked his dog the whole time. Or atleast what I imagine he would look like if he had a dog and someone kicked it. He has definitely gotten to that age where being treated like a little kid embarrasses him. A few games later, the boys had earned 25 tickets and were able to collect a tiny pack of Now & Laters. Happy birthday, Sammy.

It was such a great day, until...

Sam and I really enjoy our time together while Nathanael naps. Sam really craves that one-on-one time and sometimes he actually agrees to activities that I really enjoy, too. One of our favorite things to do together is color. To be honest, I think I enjoy it more than he does, particularly when we break open a brand new box of crayons.

Sam also enjoys baking with me. So today while we colored, we could smell the delicious scent of a batch of chocolate chip cookies we had just popped into the oven. Sam is a good little souse chef, but I think he just does it so that he can lick the beaters when we're done.

Soon after the cookies were baked, Nathanael awoke from his nap, and Yaya and Max stopped by for a cookie. The three boys were in the playroom while Robin and I chatted, as I cleaned up all the dishes. Sam came downstairs for a cookie, leaving Nathanael and Max unsupervised for all of about ten minutes. As soon as Sam finished his cookie he went back upstairs and immediately reported that Nathanael had put soap and water on the train table! This was certainly not the first episode of Nathanael covering something with soap, and I even commented as Robin headed up the stairs "I'm sure it's a ton". Well, I had no idea! He had taken a sippie cup, obviously repeatedly filled it up, and dumped it out on the train table, on the couch, and there were dribbles of water from one end of the playroom to the other! My recent attempts at becoming a better person must be taking some effect because, as far as I can recollect, I was able to safely deposit him into his locked bedroom without yelling at him. That, friends, is a mighty miracle.
Shortly after dealing with that disaster, it was time to prepare dinner and I chose tonight as the night to no longer prepare three separate meals each evening. This has been a 6 year battle and one that has brought me to the brink of insanity. For dinner tonight we had Stewed White Beans with Spinach and Bacon, quite a tasty meal, as reported by 3 out of 4 Rogers family members. The fourth, however, waged a war which included being locked on the back porch, in his brother's room, tied to a chair with an apron (a trick my Nana also loved to employ when we were children, though I only remember it ever happening to my brother), and finally making himself vomit when Paul tried to push a bean through his teeth.
Ahhh, the joys of parenting.