Today, Simeon got something out to play with. That’s not unusual. But when we had to go on an errand, I walked into the living room, expecting to have to help him put it away. It wasn’t there. So I looked around a bit, and then checked where it belongs…which is where it was: shocking! He had put all the pieces back into the container in their places and put the container away…WITHOUT BEING PROMPTED!
It doesn’t happen often, so we have to celebrate when it does.
Everyone seems to be fine today. In fact, everyone was okay yesterday, and we had a very nice day.
Sim is better today. No idea what was ailing him yesterday.
Hannah, however, at bedtime announced she needed to throw up, headed for the bathroom, and vomited all.down.the.stairs. (Sorry. Really gross.)
Michael cleaned it up while I finished up bedtime. Have I mentioned that he’s my hero?
Not that we like food poisoning, but we hope it was something that didn’t agree with Hannah and not a stomach virus…
Today was Hannah and Naomi’s concert with their choir. They’re in different age choirs, and the two choirs above their ages also took part in this concert. It was great – both girls did really well, and the music was well done and beautiful. I’m really constantly amazed at how much the directors can do with the girls, some as young as 4. Naomi’s group did several rounds, Hannah’s choir was singing in two parts and doing harmonies, and order was maintained. Since one of the choirs was made up of mostly 4- and 5-year-olds and the other was made up of mostly 6- and 7-year olds, this is not a mean feat.
It’s hilarious to watch the choirs – there are always interesting things going on. For example, one of the youngest girls (of course one in the front row) decided to hike up her skirt and adjust her tights as soon as she was on stage. That didn’t happen to be one of ours, but it could easily have been! Some of the girls can’t keep from dancing along to their music, some are looking in completely the opposite direction from the choir director, and there’s almost always someone waving to her parents.
Of course, our favorite ones to watch are ours.
For some reason, many of the pictures Michael took of Hannah didn’t come out. But this one did. Isn’t she cute?
Naomi, right in the middle of this shot, looking pleased as punch.
For some reason, she held her skirt during the whole first song.
We were sitting front and center, so both she and Hannah found us and spent the intervals smiling at us. Very endearing.
Naomi, singing Michael, Row the Boat Ashore. Note the rounded mouth for the “hallelujah” part.
Hannah, trying to catch a glimpse of Naomi while she sings. When did Hannah get so big? The dress she’s wearing is the one I made her for Christmas. It reached the floor back then. Today, it was a good inch and a half or two inches off the floor.
We loved seeing them sing. For some reason, I always get choked up by it. And then I always forget that I do, and then I’m always surprised by it at the next concert. Then I remember that it always happens. (I seem to have memory issues.) I think I get choked up because it’s amazing to see our daughters making such lovely music and enjoying it so much. The pregnancy hormones didn’t help much this concert, either, but I can’t blame it all on pregnancy, because I’ve been to many concerts not pregnant.
We got fantastic seats because Michael took the girls to their call time before the concert and then stayed on and claimed seats for us. This was a good setup, because Sim was still napping. It was also a good setup, although we didn’t realize it as we made the plan, because Naomi completely forgot, as she put on her footwear, that she was going to wear her church shoes. So I got a call from Michael, asking that I bring them. “What’s she wearing right now?” I asked. His answer? “Pink rubber boots.” Yes, those don’t really go that well with her elegant dress, do they? Oh, and she’s in the front row, of course. Happily, I got her shoes to her in good time, and when she spent the whole first song holding up her dress and showing her shoes, it wasn’t pink rubber boots that showed.
Today wasn’t the most productive day for me, what with Sim being sick. I HAD planned to make cupcakes for dessert. I HAD planned to do all the laundry. I HAD…okay, you get the idea.
So dessert time rolled around, and since it’s a feast day, we were going to have dessert – the kids keep careful track of these things. “What’s for dessert, Mama?” Umm…NOT the cupcakes that I didn’t make.
I was thinking and thinking and thinking, when I suddenly remembered something Michael’s sister said when she was here last: she’s read that one can make banana ice cream by putting frozen bananas in the food processor and processing until smooth. Nothing else needed.
Hannah despises bananas, but it’s a texture issue. Naomi and Simeon both LOVE bananas, but rarely get them because bananas are, to put it delicately, binding. However, I got a great muffin recipe that calls for bananas, so I got a whole bunch of bananas recently, and when they started to think about turning brown, I put them in the freezer. I had frozen bananas. I had a food processor. I had an idea for dessert.
So I announced, to great acclaim, that banana ice cream was for dessert. There was all KINDS of interest in how it’s made. I don’t think I’d had quite that much attention in the kitchen for a long, long time.
Here’s a helpful hint: if you’re freezing bananas for banana ice cream, peel them before you put them in the freezer. Otherwise, you will find yourself peeling some really cold bananas with a paring knife. Not too difficult, really, but definitely easier to peel before they’re frozen.
The method Michael’s sister outlined (thanks, Kerri!) was totally simple, and the kids LOVED it, even Hannah, who doesn’t mind bananas when they’re frozen and then pulverized – the texture is completely different. And really, it doesn’t get much simpler than bananas for dessert.
I have a feeling this one is going to get broken out a bunch in the summer.
This is basically what we use to mow our grass:
It’s not the exact model, but it’s pretty close. Even when we had a huge lawn at our last house, it’s what we used. When we got married and needed to buy a mower, I told Michael that I could be counted on to mow if we got one of these. I’m not willing to use the gas mowers. They’re loud and smelly and a pain, as far as I’m concerned. I have kept to my promise, too: I have mowed the grass many times, including when we had a huge lawn at our last house. The more pregnant I become, the less feasible it is to mow, but we don’t have as much grass here, anyway, and I wouldn’t be mowing at all if we had a gas mower.
Various people over the years have laughed at us or told us we’re crazy to have a reel mower. “It’s harder to push,” they’ll argue. It’s not THAT hard to push, and what’s wrong with a bit of a workout, anyway? “It’s not very effective if you let the grass get too long.” True. That means we have more motivation to mow regularly. Not a bad thing. Besides that, we can mow in fairly quiet circumstances, and I don’t mind having the kids out with me while I mow. Or out with Michael while he mows. And kids like to be outside while their parents are outside, particularly if it’s not necessary to wear earplugs to be out there.
I am entirely confirmed in our choice after this afternoon. It’s been a lovely day here, and I took the kids outside to play and garden. We were out for 2 1/2 hours or so. It was great…except that the service that mows our neighbors’ lawn arrived JUST as we went outside. And they also mow the neighbors’ lawn on the other side. It was SO LOUD the whole time. First it was a mower and a weed eater. Then it was two mowers. Then it was a mower and a leaf blower. Then it was two leaf blowers. IT WAS LOUD.
When they finally finished, just as I needed to go in to make dinner, I realized that the birds were singing and that it’s really quite pleasant to be able to talk to the kids as I garden out there with them, not having to yell to be heard.
I realize that most people don’t have their mowers going for 2 1/2 straight hours. And I’m certainly glad about that.
Sim was uncharacteristically whiny yesterday, and last night woke up a whole bunch of times even before we went to bed…when we figured out that he was running a fever. So today’s activities – which were supposed to be fairly extensive – are canceled, and we’re sticking close to home and hoping whatever he has will go away quickly and not spread to anyone else.
Also, I made blueberry muffins last night for breakfast today, thinking: Annunciation! Blue! Color of Our Lady! Everyone will love them! Breakfast will be simple and quick!
Unfortunately, the recipe was a new one, and not very good. Hannah, in fact, complained of a terrible taste in her mouth after eating one. Simeon attempted several bites, many of which got spit back out. Naomi was not impressed. I didn’t really like them, either. Not an especially celebratory breakfast, after all.
But the sun is shining and we have the inoculant for the peas, so maybe we’ll get them planted today instead of having delicious muffins and doing tons of other fun things.
Hannah is a bit disconcerted because Gypsy, her bunny, is getting into trouble. Gypsy is usually the one who doesn’t do anything difficult to deal with or destructive. But these days, Gypsy is knocking the litter boxes off of their shelf. Umm…YUCK! And we know it’s her, because we saw her do it. Hannah has tried discussing this with Gypsy, but Gypsy isn’t much for obedience, it turns out, so we’ve had to take other measures (yard sticks to hold the litter boxes in place).
Hannah also discovered that the bunnies LOVE dry oatmeal and will do almost anything for it. This has made her bunny time a lot more fun, because they’re willing to come out when she wants them to, not just when they feel like coming out. Hannah wants to teach them to jump over obstacles, and is planning to buy a pen for the training. With oatmeal on her side, she just might succeed.
is finally arriving here! Yesterday was 64 and sunny and we were outside a bunch of the day. When we went out in the morning, it was still a bit chilly, so we all had light jackets on, but as it warmed up, we took them off. Simeon objected strongly when I tried to take off his jacket, saying, “I don’t WANT to go inside! Don’t take my jacket off!” Poor kid, he’s too young to remember last spring and summer when he went out without a jacket, so he equates taking off the jacket with going inside. He was fairly confused when I told him he could stay out without a jacket, but he didn’t mind.
We had broccoli at dinner again last night, and Naomi was, I think, trying to eat her weight in it. She ate and ate and ate. At some point, she remarked, “How could ANYONE not like BROCCOLI?!?”
Today we went to a ballet production of Pinocchio. It was put on by the local ballet school, so it was not a full-length ballet, although it was still in the ballet venue. Naomi got tickets for her birthday, and all of us went, including Sim. He didn’t go to the recent Cinderella (or Cingorilla, depending on your pronunciation preferences), although he claims to have done so, and tells, with great accuracy, the stories that he’s heard the girls tell from that adventure, only as if he had been there. Needless to say, he was thrilled to go today.
Naomi, being Naomi, was skeptical about the story. It seems that it’s been a while since we’ve read her anything about Pinocchio, so she spent a good deal of time trying to extract all the details from us so as to be SURE that there wasn’t anything scary or sad in it. I was fairly certain we’d be safe, despite the fact that there are some not-so-happy parts of Pinocchio, because ballet is sometimes a safer medium for that sort of thing than stories are. I was right. The sad or scary parts were understated, and the dancing was underscored, so it was right up Naomi’s alley.
Hannah was funny afterwards: she wanted to know everyone’s favorite part. And then she wanted to know what our next favorite part was. And then she wanted to know who our favorite character was. We’ve had some fun discussions about the props and sets. She really liked the effect they used for water, which was long strips of fabric held by dancers across the stage and moved up and down in time to the music and the dancing that was going on. It was pretty neat to watch.
Naomi’s favorite costume was the mermaids. (Umm…yeah…don’t ask how mermaids come into the story. I didn’t remember Pinocchio meeting Neptune and his court, either, but I suppose they took some balletic license. That was a really cool part of the show, too, so I am not going to complain about it.) She elaborated a bit, though. Turns out that, if she’d designed the costumes, she would have made them have their legs in the tail. I mentioned that this might lead to tripping or other difficulties. Naomi was unconcerned by this: “Oh, no, they would practice a lot until they got good at it.” Enough practice will make dancing with both your legs in a tail costume easy as pie, I’m sure.
We have made it a tradition to go to a ballet school production of The Nutcracker in December, and the kids all love it. I was somewhat concerned this past December, because I opted to take Simeon along. He hadn’t ever been to a show of an hour (and he’s 2 for crying out loud!), but he sat through the entire thing on my lap, only asking a question one time. When the curtain went down when it was finished and I said it was over, he cried and cried. He wanted to see it again! This was repeated with Pinocchio today. He burst into tears when I told him it was over, and spent most of the ride home asking if we could go back and watch it again. It was useless to explain that they weren’t actually performing it again, so we wouldn’t be able to watch it even if we went back.
Hannah and Naomi, having been to multiple ballets by this time, were much more philosophical about the ending. They moved right on to asking if we could go to the gift shop. Nobody had brought spending money, though, so we were spared.
Yesterday was St. Patrick’s day, and since Michael has Irish heritage, he grew up celebrating with things like corned beef and cabbage and Irish soda bread. I don’t have Irish heritage (that I know of), and grew up wearing green on St. Patrick’s day, but hadn’t tasted corned beef until after I met Michael.
Michael’s mom always makes sure that the kids are well outfitted for the day, with dresses for the girls and other green things for Sim. And now that I’ve discovered Adopt a Do, I have St. Patrick’s day hairstyles I can use on the girls. Naomi opted for a ponytail with a bow, but Hannah decided on the clover hairdo:
Just to be clear, there is a video on the website that shows how to put this hairstyle together…I would never have been able to either come up with this hairstyle OR make it work without instructions.
We have been having corned beef and cabbage on St. Patrick’s day for a while now, following the tradition of Michael’s youth. I haven’t gotten to the soda bread yet…maybe some day. It never seems to occur to me until dinnertime, which is a bit too late to get started. We even introduced my parents to corned beef a few years ago when we were visiting them on St. Patrick’s day. They hadn’t ever had it, but did enjoy it. I have to admit that I do more of a southern-style cabbage, not the boiled kind, but nobody complains about that.
Last year, we found a recipe for brining one’s own corned beef, so we decided to try it. It was so good we did it again this year. It has a bit more zip to it than what you get at the store, and you can leave the pink salt (sodium nitrate) out, which good, because pregnant women are supposed to avoid nitrates. (This may count as St. Patrick’s day heresy, but the weird pink color of cooked corned beef always seemed somewhat eerie to me anyway; I don’t miss it at all.)
We have friends whose feast day is St. Patrick’s day, and friends whose birthday is St. Patrick’s day, so we paid a couple of visits, which was fun.
Michael took the day off, because I had a dental appointment in the morning, and then the whole family went to my OB checkup and got to hear Quinque’s heartbeat (later Sim said it was loud and scary, but he didn’t exhibit signs of fear at the time) and see Quinque on the ultrasound. He or she even did some waving at us onscreen, which the kids thought was great.
In the evening, we brought our corned beef and cabbage to the house of some friends and enjoyed our feast with them.
Also included in our day were schoolwork, gardening, Michael dismantling much of the van and picking up a load of wood that he and a friend had scoped out on craigslist, choir rehearsals, and a trip to the grocery store. As Michael said at bedtime: “Busiest day off ever!”
Although I am generally a stickler for getting our things done first thing in the morning, I admit that when all of my kids are playing happily together, I can’t seem to justify breaking them all up and making them do their morning habits. It’s so sweet to have them all working together, sharing, offering to help, saying, “Please,” “Thank you,” “Here you go!” Sibling relationships come before laundry, I guess. One of the perks of homeschooling is that I can take advantage of moments like this.
And NOW, they’re playing together AND singing together. The cuteness factor is getting dangerously high here!
Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle turns out to be a good choice for Naomi right now. And the books are really amusing for parents, too, so it’s a win-win.
Before I begin this post, I should probably make a disclaimer: each of my children has things that he or she doesn’t like and won’t eat. I have a strict food separatist, as well, so soups and stews and almost anything that is combined has to be meticulously separated in order that each food is in its own spot on the plate. SO…when I say what I say next, please don’t imagine that my children are model eaters and that I never have trouble with food refusal or picky eating.
Okay, disclaimer over.
My kids all LOVE broccoli. They love it. I don’t know exactly how this happened, although they do like to dip it in ketchup, which may explain something. But they’ll eat it without ketchup, too. When I make broccoli, I have to make TONS, because they all want seconds, thirds, fourths, until it’s all gone.
(I suppose this isn’t the only thing that all my kids like that many kids don’t like. Beets and cauliflower also spring to mind. And they like beets raw as well as cooked. And Hannah LOVES brussels sprouts.)
When I have broccoli out to cook, if they see it on the counter, they rejoice: “BROCCOLI! Can I have some? Hey, everybody, Mama’s making BROCCOLI!”
Like I said, I don’t know how this happened. I don’t particularly like broccoli. It’s fine, but I’ll usually choose other vegetables first. Michael likes it best when covered in cheese, which doesn’t happen often here in Dairy Intolerant Land.
But I’ll take it. If broccoli is a treat, GREAT! And if I don’t eat any, there’s more for the kids.
Simeon recently discovered the armor that his boy cousin has. It’s plastic, of course, but it’s FANTASTIC, as far as Simeon is concerned. And since the boy cousin has long since outgrown the armor, one day recently when the cousins came to visit, they brought the armor to GIVE to SIM! He couldn’t be happier.
It’s so funny: whenever he puts on the armor, this is his expression. He doesn’t smile while wearing armor. Armor is serious. It’s especially amusing, since he’s generally such a smiley little kid, but armor isn’t for smiling.
We also recently had a book from the library about St. George and the dragon, so Simeon is often dragon-fighting when he wears his armor. The sword didn’t accompany the armor (which is FINE with me, since waving weaponry – even plastic weaponry – around and whacking things and people aren’t my favorite activities for the 2-year-old set), but Simeon doesn’t seem to notice or care that he’s unarmed.
Of course, he’s also happy to be the dragon for Naomi to fight while she’s St. George, wearing the armor.
This phase reminds me so much of when my brother was little and my sister got him armor for Christmas. It was his #1 favorite gift that Christmas, and he followed her around for days afterwards, wearing the armor and saying, “Thank you for the armor!”
A funny thing about Naomi that I’ve been meaning to share: she does not like suspense or conflict or adversity in her stories these days. We had to stop Doctor Doolittle, because she was sure that trouble was coming for him. She refused to let me read more. Michael has been trying to finish reading The Long Winter, by Laura Ingalls Wilder, with her, but she won’t let him read any more to her. We have been reading Thornton Burgess books to her, which are about creatures of the forest, and Michael keeps having to read ahead to assure her that no, the little otter does NOT get eaten by the bobcat. No, the little otter does NOT get trapped. No, the little otter does NOT get eaten by the coyote.
I read The Velveteen Rabbit to her – I should say that I started to read it to her, and then had to stop, because she was sure something bad was going to happen – he was going to get his eyes loved off. Then she kept looking at the pictures and wanted to know what the fairy was, so I told her I’d read her the story to find out. She let me read the rest of it, and although there were some tense moments when it looked like the rabbit was going to get burned (he doesn’t, in the end), I thought we’d made it through okay.
Then I found her crying on the couch. “What’s wrong?”
“He never went back to the little boy, and what would he do without his bunny?”
I tried to explain about the new bunny, about the boy not needing him anymore, about how he went back and checked on the boy, who was doing well. It didn’t matter.
“That was a sad story.”
She has a soft heart, and isn’t ready for the tragedies and conflicts. A soft heart is a good thing, and we have to remember not to trample on her sensibilities in our eagerness to share with her the stories we love.
Today is Naomi’s 5th birthday. I can’t believe it. I’ve heard parents talk about how they grow up so fast, etc., etc., but really….REALLY. Okay. Enough, you know what I mean.
Naomi was blowing out her candles tonight at the time she was born 5 years ago. I know, because Hannah asked us to tell them when it was the moment Naomi was born. And it was while she was blowing out her candles. Totally cute.
All day I meant to do a post like this one from last year, but I didn’t get to it. Birthday present opening commenced on my bed before 8 a.m. (because you can’t be expected to wait until Mama comes DOWNSTAIRS!), and happened throughout the day. Also birthday crafting, baking, and other important birthday things. It was a good day.
Naomi generously shared her presents. Surprisingly generously. She’s old enough that she’s starting to get things that Hannah actually likes, so Hannah was feeling a bit like she never gets anything, but Naomi shared, and both girls played together and had a great time. It’s good to be from a sharing family.
Simeon had cake and ice cream together for the first time in his life today. He was most pleased. He ate the ice cream with his hands, then requested a napkin.
Naomi chose teriyaki chicken for dinner. Michael had made it on Sunday, and that was probably the first time she’d had it. She loved it and wanted it again…today. So I made it and we all enjoyed it again.
She was funny at the beginning of the day, too, because she was going off of the social norm of repeating a good wish back to someone (like when someone wishes you a merry Christmas, you say merry Christmas back), so when Michael and I told her Happy Birthday, she responded, “Happy Naomi’s birthday to you!” Heehee.
I hope you all had a happy Naomi’s birthday.
