I've GOT to start writing this stuff down. I don't want to lose anything of these precious little years. I think I'll remember everything, but I've already forgotten so much. Lord, I hope You keep the heavenly camcorder rolling (with some merciful editings along the way)!
Memories from the day, as I wind down for bedtime (usually I'm winding up to get everything done, but that's another story):
The twins' little fingers picking the little basil strips off their TBM salad tonight at supper to eat the cheese.
Annelise, excited for weeks about her first dentist appointment, announcing to our friends at lunch that she was going to the dentist today, asking in the waiting room over and over again when they were going to call us back...and then clamming up in the chair and requiring coaxing and promise of treats for the dentist to slide his instruments into her mouth and get in a poke here, a brush there. Poor Dental Ben.
Laughter from the twins as I "danced" around the house with one on each hip. What a workout!
Tuesday, August 13, 2013
Monday, April 22, 2013
Signs of growing up
This morning I came downstairs just after 8:00 to be greeted by a little girl, a big smile, a "good morning, Mommy," and a scribble on a piece of paper. She's been getting out of bed by herself in the morning, but usually to say "get up, Daddy" in a half whisper right in his face (how did I know the side of the bed farthest from the door would be the right one to choose?!). Once she came downstairs and turned on the TV by herself, but the Roku was set on Steve's tech channel so she came up to ask for help finding Mr Rodgers, Little Bear, Mickey, or Dora, whichever it was that morning. But I think this is the first time she'd come downstairs and drawn a picture. Who knows how long she was down here. (And I don't even care since both Steve and I got to sleep in!)
This evening, I was upstairs giving the twins a bath and had asked Steve to put a new trash bag in their diaper pail. He had forgotten to bring one up, and I was asking him about it again. Next thing we know, a little girl is coming back up the stairs with a white drawstring Costco trash bag in her hands. She had simply overheard us and been the "helper" that she really is so good at being. I think she may have Steve's gift of service. I told her that was "initiative," so maybe she'll greet me tomorrow morning with a new vocabulary word...and have dusted and vacuumed the house! Or not. Maybe in a few years.
This evening, I was upstairs giving the twins a bath and had asked Steve to put a new trash bag in their diaper pail. He had forgotten to bring one up, and I was asking him about it again. Next thing we know, a little girl is coming back up the stairs with a white drawstring Costco trash bag in her hands. She had simply overheard us and been the "helper" that she really is so good at being. I think she may have Steve's gift of service. I told her that was "initiative," so maybe she'll greet me tomorrow morning with a new vocabulary word...and have dusted and vacuumed the house! Or not. Maybe in a few years.
Monday, March 25, 2013
You Beautiful Witch
My mommy-brain is struggling to recall a story that happened a couple of weeks ago, but I think it's good enough to record (by good enough I mean it might elicit a chuckle and a couple of smiles, which is good enough for me). It had me guffawing to myself as I lay awake in the middle of the night, which means it's definitely blog worthy. Best of all, this story may get me blogging again after (see date on previous post) two whole years, since I finally have an extra hour in my day as the twins are going to bed earlier. TWINS??!! you say. Yes, but that's another story.
What truly got me writing again, however (because there's always the reason and then the real reason, the intellectual motivation and then the one or two plucks to your hidden emotional strings that vibrate much longer and more galvanizingly than any prodding of the mind can do), was a compliment to my writing by a kind and generous-souled friend who received my annual Christmas email (in March of course). The other pluck was my Dad's first blog, at least that I've ever read, which I just perused (and now it's real, right Daddy?) and thoroughly enjoyed and said to myself, why doesn't he write more? Why has it taken him so long? Um...er...eek. Guess I'd better get writing too.
So, the story. Every week (that we aren't sick, ugh) a friend from church, a dear lady, "Miss Sally" to Annelise our three-year-old, comes over to babysit for the twins while I take said three-year-old grocery shopping. She also cleans whatever most needs cleaning in our house. Yes, now that the cat's out of the bag I'll be the envy of half the town (of course the "other half" has a nanny or cleaning service). All this just for having twins! Anyway, she is one of those motherly women who could lull me to sleep on the spot (well, I am incredibly sleep deprived, but still) with her calm tone and I'll-take-care-of-you demeanor. She is also on the more conservative side, in a moral vs political (though she is that too) sense. I say this to set the scene for my story.
As she was leaving one day, after folding our laundry and scrubbing our kitchen floor (this is love!), I told Annelise to say good-bye to Miss Sally. Can you hear it coming, the where-one-earth-did-that-come-from out of a toddler's mouth? "Good-bye, you beautiful witch!" What??!! I'm proud to say that my composure faltered only for a moment when my tone dipped from "Where did you..." and back to a normal "...hear that?" with the "that" a little too high-pitched. "On Little Bear." Little Bear? The sweetest cleanest cartoon on the planet, and to the sweetest cleanest lady we know? "Oh, well, you'll have to show me that part...." At which point Miss Sally, who had taken it all very well I must say, said they knew Little Bear too (except I think she meant a book series by that name that I vaguely remember from childhood--oh I need to find that at the library!--and not the cartoon) and wasn't it crazy how kids see things from a different perspective than we do, and went on to elaborate til I was assured that she was not offended. (Women have their own secondary language in these things, running underneath the things we actually say.)
That evening I repeated the story to Steve. He said, "Oh yeah, it's on Little Bear. On 'Prince Little Bear.' Little Bear says it to Hen. He's pretending to be the prince in the story, and makes Hen be the witch." (Guess who also watches Little Bear around here, inadvertently of course. Ahem.) And a day or two later I saw the scene of such import myself. Hen doesn't want to be the witch, but Little Bear says she can be a beautiful witch and then says in a cheery, sing-song voice as he walks away, "Good-bye, you beautiful witch." Ha, repeated verbatim by our resident Sponge. Eek, what else is she soaking up? Hopefully good stuff.
I paused the Roku right there, and we had a little talk. Witches are bad ladies, Little Bear and Hen were just pretending, and we don't call anyone a witch. (Least of all Miss Sally!) Later she mentioned "witch" again so I said we weren't going to watch that episode until she could stop fixating on that tiny little part. I think she stopped. But why did she start in the first place?? The mind of a child, who can plumb the depths?
All in all, it gave me something to laugh at into the bedclothes when I couldn't sleep for a too-large chunk of the night (which is no laughing matter when sleep is as precious as it is around here), and reminded me that she really is listening. To EVERYthing. Even when she does't seem to be. Guess I should try never to act like a witch. Even a beautiful one.
What truly got me writing again, however (because there's always the reason and then the real reason, the intellectual motivation and then the one or two plucks to your hidden emotional strings that vibrate much longer and more galvanizingly than any prodding of the mind can do), was a compliment to my writing by a kind and generous-souled friend who received my annual Christmas email (in March of course). The other pluck was my Dad's first blog, at least that I've ever read, which I just perused (and now it's real, right Daddy?) and thoroughly enjoyed and said to myself, why doesn't he write more? Why has it taken him so long? Um...er...eek. Guess I'd better get writing too.
So, the story. Every week (that we aren't sick, ugh) a friend from church, a dear lady, "Miss Sally" to Annelise our three-year-old, comes over to babysit for the twins while I take said three-year-old grocery shopping. She also cleans whatever most needs cleaning in our house. Yes, now that the cat's out of the bag I'll be the envy of half the town (of course the "other half" has a nanny or cleaning service). All this just for having twins! Anyway, she is one of those motherly women who could lull me to sleep on the spot (well, I am incredibly sleep deprived, but still) with her calm tone and I'll-take-care-of-you demeanor. She is also on the more conservative side, in a moral vs political (though she is that too) sense. I say this to set the scene for my story.
As she was leaving one day, after folding our laundry and scrubbing our kitchen floor (this is love!), I told Annelise to say good-bye to Miss Sally. Can you hear it coming, the where-one-earth-did-that-come-from out of a toddler's mouth? "Good-bye, you beautiful witch!" What??!! I'm proud to say that my composure faltered only for a moment when my tone dipped from "Where did you..." and back to a normal "...hear that?" with the "that" a little too high-pitched. "On Little Bear." Little Bear? The sweetest cleanest cartoon on the planet, and to the sweetest cleanest lady we know? "Oh, well, you'll have to show me that part...." At which point Miss Sally, who had taken it all very well I must say, said they knew Little Bear too (except I think she meant a book series by that name that I vaguely remember from childhood--oh I need to find that at the library!--and not the cartoon) and wasn't it crazy how kids see things from a different perspective than we do, and went on to elaborate til I was assured that she was not offended. (Women have their own secondary language in these things, running underneath the things we actually say.)
That evening I repeated the story to Steve. He said, "Oh yeah, it's on Little Bear. On 'Prince Little Bear.' Little Bear says it to Hen. He's pretending to be the prince in the story, and makes Hen be the witch." (Guess who also watches Little Bear around here, inadvertently of course. Ahem.) And a day or two later I saw the scene of such import myself. Hen doesn't want to be the witch, but Little Bear says she can be a beautiful witch and then says in a cheery, sing-song voice as he walks away, "Good-bye, you beautiful witch." Ha, repeated verbatim by our resident Sponge. Eek, what else is she soaking up? Hopefully good stuff.
I paused the Roku right there, and we had a little talk. Witches are bad ladies, Little Bear and Hen were just pretending, and we don't call anyone a witch. (Least of all Miss Sally!) Later she mentioned "witch" again so I said we weren't going to watch that episode until she could stop fixating on that tiny little part. I think she stopped. But why did she start in the first place?? The mind of a child, who can plumb the depths?
All in all, it gave me something to laugh at into the bedclothes when I couldn't sleep for a too-large chunk of the night (which is no laughing matter when sleep is as precious as it is around here), and reminded me that she really is listening. To EVERYthing. Even when she does't seem to be. Guess I should try never to act like a witch. Even a beautiful one.
Sunday, March 6, 2011
Homemade babyfood the Nellie way
I've been making my own babyfood for my daughter and it's so easy and incredibly less expensive than all those little jars. Plus I know exactly what's in it and can add my little "remedies."
Some friends and I were talking last night and I thought it might be helpful to share exactly what I do so others can get ideas.
Sweet potatoes are the base of every meal because they are filling and packed with nutrition. And easy to make a huge batch of! Mostly, they have been one of my daughter's favs, and that was super important when I thought I might have a picky baby (but now she likes hummus, salmon, tuna, and basically anything off Mommy's plate!). I get a bag of organic sweet potatoes from Trader Joe's, peel, cube, steam, and blend them in the filtered water I used to steam them in, where all the vitamins have jumped-ship into during the steaming process.
Butternut squash is probably her all-time favorite. It's so easy to buy TJ's organic already-peeled-and-cubed containers of it for $2.29 each (I do two in one batch) and steam/blend with the steam water. I thought they would only have it available in the Fall, but there it is, still on the shelves (but not since the Fall!).
So for all of these I steam and blend with the filtered "steam water" and add more water if necessary. Then I spoon or pour into ice cube trays, and when frozen store in gallon freezer bags labeled with the contents and date.
Peas: bag of organic peas from TJ's. These are harder to get a perfectly smooth puree of; one website suggested soaking in cold water immediate after cooking, which oddly enough seemed to help.
Carrots: peel, chop, and steam raw carrots...so good for babycakes!
Green beans: bag of organic (I think) green beans from TJ's. I would find an occasional fibrous string in her food after thawing these, but other than that they pureed well enough for my baby (after being cooked to death), which is saying alot (her gag reflex has required the ultra puree).
Spinach: I think frozen spinach may be pre-cooked, but I cooked it a little myself in some water and then blended. It doesn't need much water since spinach is so watery already.
Broccoli: fresh or frozen organic broccoli florets, also watery when cooked/frozen/thawed
Pears: to keep her going! At first I was cooking these and then remembered that the ped said to eat them raw for best keep-'er-going effect. So I've done both and they both seem to work. However, when pureed raw, they get brown, and I wonder if some of the vitamins have oxidized, so I think I will cook them lightly next time.
Lentils are apparently very good for you, so I cooked up some with water in the crockpot and pureed.
Chicken/broth: I read that dark meat is best for babies, so I buy a pack of organic drumsticks from TJ, cook them in water to make a nice broth as well, debone and puree the chicken with some broth, and freeze the broth in cubes as well. I've started adding some sea salt and minced garlic, for flavor and nutrition, to the chicken/broth when it's cooking and then strain the garlic out later.
So we have all these colorful squares of frozen food in our freezer and every night (when I remember), I combine them for the next day in little Libby glass bowls with lids so they can start thawing in the fridge (I like to microwave them as little as possible).
For the first few months that my daughter was eating solids, I would give her one food at a time (straight sweet potatoes, straight squash), mostly because she would spitup if I mixed things it seemed. Once she got older, she was able to tolerate a "casserole"! For example, in the morning I give her one square each of sweet potatoes, squash, and pears. After putting it in the microwave for about 30 seconds on 50 percent power, I add whole milk plain yogurt (which I add to almost everything!), Earth's Best baby oatmeal (thickens it up), and whatever "remedies" I choose. For lunch I give her sweet potatoes, lentils, pears, some chicken, and then make it more palatable with a few squirts of organic butternut squash soup from Costco, which "takes over"the casserole and gives it mostly its own (the soup's) taste. Then I add the oatmeal or rice cereal to thicken it up.
When she finishes the "main course," she can have some TJ's organic unsweetened applesauce (sometimes with some mashed banana) with more plain yogurt in it than applesauce. Well, she doesn't like things very sweet anyway.
My "remedies" are designed to boost my daughter's health and immune system. They include coconut oil, baby vitamins, little dustings from one of my probiotic capsules, little dustings from one of my Juice Plus capsules, and this Chinese herb tincture I got from my compounding pharmacist. It's so easy just to add these things to her food, and she's been sick only 3 times in 13 months!
Now that she's able to tolerate more finger foods, we are doing grated cheese (her fav!), Puffs of course (mostly on the go), freeze-dried and now fresh strawberries, puffed brown rice, avocado, peas, or bread spread with almond butter or hummus or tuna salad (yup, she's picky no more, thank God!).
When we moved to cow's milk from mama's, I started her on non-homogenized organic whole milk from a local dairy, which I can get from David's health food store down the street. I feel so good giving this to her, and will continue to as long as we can afford it. It's $6/gallon, which is actually the same price as TJ's organic, which is homogenized. Homogenization is when they force the milk through tiny holes so that it doesn't separate (fat/nonfat) but it changes the molecular structure and your body has to work harder to digest it. It's bad enough that they've killed the vitamins through pasteurization and have to add them back in.
Few things give me more deep satisfaction as a mother than giving my child the best food I can!
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
After one year of mommyhood
...I have the following recs:
breastfeed your baby: nothing beats it for nutrition, weight loss for the mama, and snuggle time!
make your own baby food (few things give me as much satisfaction as a mom and fill me with warm fuzzy feelings that I'm giving my child the best possible start in life)
take lots of walks
don't stress too much about anything...it'll change in two weeks and you'll have a whole new set of problems
give an exorbitant amount of kisses (which, as my Mom says, are all on loan!)
take care of yourself: your baby needs a mother more than anything else
extreme sleep deprivation notwithstanding, enjoy every moment when they are small because they really do grow so fast and they'll never be small again
try your darndest not to get mad and take out your stress on your hubby those first few weeks after giving birth...it is SUCH a sweet time for the two of you (of course, in the subsequent months, it's allowed...jk!)
let your baby sleep on your chest and snuggle every chance you get...it's here and gone and all you have is warm fuzzy memories
don't try too hard to figure out the next phase of nap schedules or how you are going to wean, etc; do what planning you can but know that it will just happen when the timing's right
ask your mommie girlfriends what they did, and adapt it for your family...why reinvent the wheel? and believe me, other mommies are happy to share all that they've learned!
And I'm happy to share too. If you are a new mom, I can find the answer if I don't know it myself. I've learned so much this past year, and being a mommy is by far my funnest job yet!
breastfeed your baby: nothing beats it for nutrition, weight loss for the mama, and snuggle time!
make your own baby food (few things give me as much satisfaction as a mom and fill me with warm fuzzy feelings that I'm giving my child the best possible start in life)
take lots of walks
don't stress too much about anything...it'll change in two weeks and you'll have a whole new set of problems
give an exorbitant amount of kisses (which, as my Mom says, are all on loan!)
take care of yourself: your baby needs a mother more than anything else
extreme sleep deprivation notwithstanding, enjoy every moment when they are small because they really do grow so fast and they'll never be small again
try your darndest not to get mad and take out your stress on your hubby those first few weeks after giving birth...it is SUCH a sweet time for the two of you (of course, in the subsequent months, it's allowed...jk!)
let your baby sleep on your chest and snuggle every chance you get...it's here and gone and all you have is warm fuzzy memories
don't try too hard to figure out the next phase of nap schedules or how you are going to wean, etc; do what planning you can but know that it will just happen when the timing's right
ask your mommie girlfriends what they did, and adapt it for your family...why reinvent the wheel? and believe me, other mommies are happy to share all that they've learned!
And I'm happy to share too. If you are a new mom, I can find the answer if I don't know it myself. I've learned so much this past year, and being a mommy is by far my funnest job yet!
Thursday, October 14, 2010
On the other side of the door
Last night I was feeling the glass ceiling of seemingly unanswered prayer. Annelise has been spitting up (a euphemism for full-on puke) much more the last several days, and teething is my new hypothesis after much mommy-research of which I'll spare you. (But if your child is suffering a like malady, feel free to contact me to commiserate!) I finally hit my limit, which happens now and then, and took it out on Steve, which also happens now and then, poor man.
Later when I semi-apologized, I said, "Actually it's God I'm mad at. I just feel like He's not answering my prayers. Why does He have to answer some and not others? Why can't He just do it all?" I can be as young and pouty as my baby sometimes. But, that's how I was feeling, and thank God I can voice my feelings, however childish, to my sweet wise husband.
Later still, when Annelise was whimpering in her bed, the teething-I'm-trying-to-go-to-sleep-but-can't whimper, it was late, but I kept getting out of bed to go listen to her and pray by her door. Steve had tried to close our door and listen himself, to help me go to sleep, but I just can't sleep, I told him, til babykins is sweetly sleeping. Then came the revelation from on High, that usually follows a particularly childish but honest blurt from my lips:
Annelise probably thinks I don't care, because I'm letting her whimper in her bed and fall asleep on her own. But I have no choice...it's the only way she's going to fall onto a happy sleep. (We had already rocked her.) And she has no idea that I can't sleep until she does. So with our Heavenly Father, who loves us even more (really? wow) than we love our own children. We think He doesn't hear, doesn't care. But He's perched, listening, waiting, watching, hanging on every breath, just on the other side of our door.
Later when I semi-apologized, I said, "Actually it's God I'm mad at. I just feel like He's not answering my prayers. Why does He have to answer some and not others? Why can't He just do it all?" I can be as young and pouty as my baby sometimes. But, that's how I was feeling, and thank God I can voice my feelings, however childish, to my sweet wise husband.
Later still, when Annelise was whimpering in her bed, the teething-I'm-trying-to-go-to-sleep-but-can't whimper, it was late, but I kept getting out of bed to go listen to her and pray by her door. Steve had tried to close our door and listen himself, to help me go to sleep, but I just can't sleep, I told him, til babykins is sweetly sleeping. Then came the revelation from on High, that usually follows a particularly childish but honest blurt from my lips:
Annelise probably thinks I don't care, because I'm letting her whimper in her bed and fall asleep on her own. But I have no choice...it's the only way she's going to fall onto a happy sleep. (We had already rocked her.) And she has no idea that I can't sleep until she does. So with our Heavenly Father, who loves us even more (really? wow) than we love our own children. We think He doesn't hear, doesn't care. But He's perched, listening, waiting, watching, hanging on every breath, just on the other side of our door.
Friday, September 24, 2010
Silly for a smile
I've been compiling a vague mental list of why parents need children, why they are a gift from God, besides the obvious of course. One reason we stodgy adults need little people in our lives is to get us in touch with the whimsical, impulsive, nonsensical side that surely everyone has, buried at some level.
My favorite memory from today is of "dancing" to and fro for an audience of one chubby cherub propped up among the pillows on our enormous sleigh bed. Leaping along the footboard with arms waving back and forth, and an arabesque thrown in for good measure, I then ran up and jumped onto the bed with a "boo," all for the smile on her formerly whimpery face and the "you're silly but very entertaining, Mommy" look in her eye. It was all I needed to make my universe complete, and to motivate still sillier exhibitions in the near future, I'm sure.
My favorite memory from today is of "dancing" to and fro for an audience of one chubby cherub propped up among the pillows on our enormous sleigh bed. Leaping along the footboard with arms waving back and forth, and an arabesque thrown in for good measure, I then ran up and jumped onto the bed with a "boo," all for the smile on her formerly whimpery face and the "you're silly but very entertaining, Mommy" look in her eye. It was all I needed to make my universe complete, and to motivate still sillier exhibitions in the near future, I'm sure.
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