St. Patrick’s Day

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!”

Don’t tell them, but…

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!

Book update

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. 

Broccoli

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. 

The resident Knight

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!” 

Book choices

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. 

Naomi, age 5

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.