Eight Months

This baby has been such a joy, and I find it so difficult to think that eight months have passed since his debut into our home. Much of this year is a vague memory (someone asked me yesterday if he had ever been sick and I honestly couldn't remember), yet we have had many sweet moments.

Matthew is happy and full of smiles. He is content to play by himself, but he relishes a helping hand so he can pull to stand. He is ever excited by the big boys' moves, and eagerly awaits their next moves.

He is busy and anxious to figure out this whole crawling business. (We will be returning the Bumbo, Clara, as he is just too squirmy and nearly fell out backwards).

Though his only supplemental food now is puffed rice cereal (which looks like maggots), he is plump and healthy. Andrew has enjoyed celebrating these milestones ("Are we going to make a cake, Momma?") so tonight we will have a Jello "8."

Early Retirement and Other Mysteries

They must have been tired. The "whine" was free flowing at dinner last night and both were sent to their rooms until their dispositions improved. This is what I found at 5:58 PM!!!!

Andrew slept a full 12 hours and Stephen slightly more. They were in much better spirits this morning. This was all in addition to Andrew sleeping until 8 am on Thursday - a feat that has never (to my clouded memory) been accomplished. Strange things are afoot! Notice Andrew is sleeping with a copy of Tow Times. A few months ago they picked up a copy at the Tow Truck Museum and he often fell asleep with it. I sent a picture and note to the editor, and it was published in the last issue.

Here are some shots from a trip to our neighborhood creek. I'm very thankful for this happy diversion so close to our home.

We celebrated Matthew's baptism today (a duel baptism, actually, with our college friends Katie and Nate Henderson). In the hubbub we failed to get a family shot, but I managed to get a decent shot of the males.

We tried to prevent any "scenes" by explaining to the boys what would happen. After Doug said that the pastor would sprinkle water on Matthew's head, Stephen piped up, "And then he will take a whip and beat Matthew to death!"

That took me aback to say the least. All I can hope is that he somehow had baptism confused with sacrifices, but who knows when you're speaking of Stephen.

In any case, everyone behaved. Matthew chatted in his sweet way; Stephen only quietly asked if he was going to have water on his head, too; Andrew jump/skipped just once and lustily sang "Jesus Loves Me" with the congregation as the pastors carried the babies up and down the aisle.

Matthew was exhausted after a busy morning with no nap.

Though each child's baptism has been special, I am so much more aware now than I was four years ago of the need for "humble reliance upon divine grace" for both me and the child.

On the Banks of Plum Creek - Revised

Stephen: Do you like my pretty dress?

Julie: Why, yes! Who are you?

S: I am Laura. Are you Mary or Ma or not?

J: I am Ma. And who is Matthew?

S: I think that he is Carrie...or Jack. Where is Pa? Is he in the field?

J: Yes, he is busy cutting hay.

Andrew (with great enthusiasm): Oh, look - there is a police car zooming into the haystack!

What would the real Laura think?

Cleaning

In the world of cleaning, laundry is by far the easiest, and, if I were forced to choose, would be my favorite. There is a sense of satisfaction in a stack of freshly laundered, good-smelling, clean clothes, the feeling of accomplishment in seeing an empty laundry basket.

And then Doug returns home.

Not that I don't want him to come home (believe me, I anxiously await his arrival). Nor is it that he is a messy sort of husband (on the contrary, he is much more meticulous than I and a good cleaner-upper). It's just that in half a second that feeling of accomplishment fades with a toss of a dress shirt and socks.

Then there is sweeping and vacuuming. It probably falls in the middle. I don't really mind (though dragging a canister vac around and being bumped and having to jerk the hose all the while carrying an infant on your back isn't my idea of fun), but it has to be done so much.

You eat breakfast, you sweep. You have a snack, you (should) sweep. You eat lunch, you (should) sweep. You have a snack, you (should) sweep. You have dinner, you sweep. That's why I like picnics!

(As an aside, I did borrow a Roomba from a friend, and it was wonderful except that it takes a long time to do a room and you must constantly charge the batteries. Two friends, each with 7+ kids, have them so maybe if we have at least 4 more kids I can justify getting one. On the other hand, Doug may think that it is cheaper and easier to hire a maid!)

Bathrooms, were I forced to choose, would be the least favorite of all. There is no sense of satisfaction, at least with small boys in the house, as there is always some sort of residue on or in the toilet. I don't understand why it's so hard to remember to "flush the toilet each time you use it."

This morning we were awakened to cries of frustration from the eldest son. Somehow he managed to urinate all of the floor of the bathroom (I think the problem was that in his early morning haze and need to do #2 he sat down and since his hands were occupied with holding a book, he was not able to properly arrange himself to do his business). Doug, thankfully, aided him in cleaning the floor, and then leaving for work, reminded me that I may want to mop.

I cleaned the toilet thoroughly, moved all sundry articles out of the floor, and mopped.

As soon as the floor was dry, Stephen needed to pee. It was deja vu all over again.

So again I was forced to clean the toilet and floor.

A couple of hours later, it happened again.

Thankfully it is cool enough to open windows and maybe the stench of stale urine will dissipate in the cool autumn air.

Maybe we should install a drain in the floor so I can attach a garden hose and just spray it down from now on. The boys would probably help.

Why I Get So Little Done

This was my project today.


It wasn't planned but as soon as it popped into my head, it had to be done: a model of a tree house for the boys.



So armed with a glue gun and plenty of popsicle sticks, I set to work erecting the structure around the "tree" found in the back yard. It was even built to scale.

It needs tweaking and the plan may even change, but it feels good to have it done. If only it hadn't been at such a great expense. At dinner Andrew told Doug, "Momma yelled today." I humbly admitted that I had, but interjected, "And then what did momma have to do?" Thankfully he is quick to forgive.

Wacky Cake

Since this was such a hit at the reception, I thought I would share the recipe from The Parent's Guide to Food Allergies. This dairy-free, egg-free, peanut-free treat is actually a pretty good cake, similar in taste to Devil's Food Cake. For a wheat-free needs, substitute flour with Bob's Red Mill all-purpose gluten-free flour.

Wacky Cake

"This cake is so easy and quick to bake, so versatile, delicious, and low-fat, it deserves to be part of every family's repertoire. It freezes beautifully, so make two at a time. You never know when you'll need a quick, special dessert...For cupcakes, line your muffin tin with baking caups and reduce baking time by 5-10 minutes. This recipe makes 10 to 12 cupcakes."

1 1/2 c. flour (1/2 c. whole wheat and 1 c. plain)
2/3 c. sugar
1/2 t. salt
3 T. cocoa
1 t. baking soda
1 t. vanilla extract
1 T. vinegar (balsamic works beautifully)
5 T. oil (or 3 T. oil and 2 T. applesauce)
1 c. cold water (I've also substitued coffee for a mocha flavored cake)

1. Preheat oven to 350. Mix dry ingredients in a bowl.
2. Add vanilla, vinegar, oil, and water. Blend well and pour into ungreased 9x11 rectangular pan.
3. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes. Do not overbake.

Chocolate Icing

This was adapted from a Chocolate Buttermilk Cake ("Nasty Chocolate Cake") and really makes the cake (and yes, I admit to just eating the icing or scraping up the leftovers with pretzels - yummy!).

1/2 c. dairy-free margarine (Earth's Balance organic)
1 1/2 T. cocoa
2 1/2 T. milk (rice or soy)
1/2 lb. powdered sugar
1/2 t. vanilla

Combine margarine, cocoa, and milk in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Remove from heat and stir in sugar and vanilla. Pour over hot cake.

Happenings in Virginia

I survived another solo trip to Virginia with all three kids and shaved an hour off the last time. Despite Andrew's protests that it was scary, we listened to Alice in Wonderland going and Ginger Pye coming (we actually have a little left in the latter and we're all desperate to find out what happens!). He also took inventory of all the big trucks we passed: "It is a Mack truck." "It is a Kenworth." "There are two International trucks. One is a cab-over and the other is a conventional."

Papa was working on a house in Richlands and the boys went to investigate. A large drill and a crane were busily working.

We all enjoyed the Cedar Bluff Heritage Festival. I was disappointed that I couldn't indulge in a fried apple pie, but I did find some delicious kettle korn - "festibal" food, and the boys took a train ride with Papa.The highlight of the trip, though, was the wedding. It was lovely as were the bride and groom...and most importantly for Andrew, there was cake (and lots of it). Stephen found the service less than stimulating but "got down" at the reception.I didn't take any pictures of Matthew, mostly because he was either asleep to attached to me in some fashion. He is a busy bee, though, these days. He is eager to get moving, attempting to get on his hands and knees to crawl or pulling on chairs to stand. He was doing the latter this morning but somehow ended up under the chair. What a precious smile!

As much as I love returning home to the mountains, I love coming back to my "new" home (especially when I return to a clean house thanks to my dear husband). If it weren't such a long trip, I'd be tempted to do it more often!

Goodbye, Ice Cream

I finally discovered that Matthew is in fact allergic to milk after conducting a highly scientific test: putting yogurt on his skin. While the test at the doctor's office was negative several months ago, there was a definite reaction today, and this would explain why his skin issues have never completely resolved.

I'm both relieved and frustrated, but this will shorten the grocery list.

Gardening Faux Pas

I was smart enough to catch my prankster cousin when he tried to tell me that you should pull the blooms off tomato plants to produce larger fruit. But today I did something that just makes me sick (well, not as bad as spraying 60 tomato plants with Roundup as the aforementioned cousin did, but devastating nonetheless).


The boys and I wandered out to our dying garden, and I noticed that two of my parsley plants and my dill had been completely eaten. I then noticed some striped caterpillar-like creatures on another parsley plant.
I quickly picked them off (6 or 7). After consulting the "pests" section of my Southern Living garden book, I determined they must be some sort of cutworm, and the boys attempted to drown them in a bucket of water.


We all went inside but when I returned to fetch some stray toys, I noticed that Stephen had dumped them back into the flower bed. I grumbled as I picked them out and squished them. I then returned and looked up "parsley" in my reference book and found the following comment:


"Be merciful if you spot large caterpillars with black, green and yellow stripes munching on the leaves; these are the larvae of the stunning black swallowtail butterfly."



All that to save a bunch of parsley I'll probably never use.

Beer & Pretzels

A couple of months ago Doug brought home a copy of the Hamilton County Herald, a weekly publication for the legal community. While refueling in the wee small hours of the morning, I came upon the following little-known facts about brews:

• The logs of the Mayflower indicate that Plymouth Rock was chosen as a landing site due to the need for passengers to drink water as they were draining the sailor's supply of beer.


• The phrase "rule of thumb" refers to testing the temperature of the liquid prior to adding the yeast.


• Tavern patrons took to baking a whistle in the handle of their custom-made beer mugs in order to be able to get the bartenders attention.


• Unruly customers were told to mind their "P's & Q's" (pints & quarts).


• Centuries ago in Babylonia it was customary for a bride's father to supply the new son-in-law with mead for the month after the wedding thus birthing the term "honeymoon."


• The term "go beserk" comes from the Norse word for "bare-shirted": "...in Norway, after consuming a bucket or two of vibrant brew they 'called aul,' the Vikings would head fearlessly into battle without armor or even shirts, and run amok in their ale-induced frenzy."

I was not at all surprised with that last one. Anyone who watches extreme wrestling or similar "sports" can attest to the "need for mead." Anyway, the boys wanted to make pretzels so we rolled up our sleeves and got to work.

Kneading the dough

Shaping the pretzelsBoiling the risen dough

Baking the topped pretzels

The finished product

The boys' favorite were the cinnamon sugar ones, right from the oven. It seems we are left with the salted and plain. Maybe we can take them to our local joint, the Rusty Duck.

Gifts, Genes, and Games

GIFTS

The long awaited gift arrived Monday afternoon. Stephen immediately opened the box to find a wonderful front end loader (really, a skid steer). Now as Andrew had been the one really anxious for the gift to arrive, he could not understand why Stephen was not willing to share. Thus he employed every manipulative trick he could think of:

"Here is a book, Stephen. Would you like to trade."

"It is nice to share, Stephen."

"Momma, Stephen said 'no' when I asked if he wanted to share. He should have said, 'No, thank you.'"

In the end the toy ended up on the top of refrigerator for the rest of the day since I had instituted a friend's rule of "NO TOYS IN THE KITCHEN FLOOR." The boys were not phased. Instead they were busy pretending to be forklifts loading and unloading the Fed-Ex truck.

GENES

Apparently Stephen got up on the wrong side of the bed this morning. I think I aged a few years in the first 30 minutes he was up this morning. Multiple returns to his room did nothing to change his humor, and on top of it all, I knew we had to go to the pediatrician for a check-up.

Once at the doctor's office, asking him to remove his shoes was a big deal. He was very offended that the nurse pricked his finger to get a drop of blood. When she whispered something into his ear for him to tell me, he declared, "I can't talk." The doctor asked him how old he was and he said, "Four." Andrew answered the remainder of the questions. Thankfully the nurse said we could put off the one shot he was due; that would have just been too much.

The poor kid is destined for shortness. He is over an inch shy of 3 feet and at 23 lbs., he still hasn't tripled his birth weight (a measure often reached at 12 months). But he is growing according to his own curve and is healthy and happy (most of the time).

GAMES

I don't understand it but our boys (especially Andrew) prefer to play in the front yard versus the back fenced yard. Maybe they don't like the feeling of confinement, maybe they are trying to push the limits at an early age, or maybe they just don't like the scenery.

In any case they have been requesting and I have been allowing them to play in the front (I can hear the chant now, "Bad Mother! Bad Mother! Bad Mother!"); please don't call Social Services. After Stephen walked away a year ago, we've had no more escapes.

Today they brought out a load of scrap wood, four pieces of old water hose, all their construction vehicles, a large shovel and a hoe. It was some sort of construction site though I could never make out what they were actually doing. They were happily being boys.

More Birthday Celebrations

We've had a week's worth of birthday happenings, but no one seems to mind.

After returning from our vacation, Doug and the boys checked the front door for any packages, and lo and behold found two boxes. They immediately opened the first which was a nice gift from Uncle Graham, Aunt Kali and the cousins.

The next box was large and Doug expected that it was sent from his folks. The scissors were once again employed, but upon opening the box, we found a 50 foot long garden hose. (I had returned our defective hose a few weeks ago and this was the replacement). I immediately braced myself for major disappointment, but instead Stephen exclaimed, "It's a fire hose. Oh, wow!" The boys and Doug installed the new hose, the boxes were turned into various vehicles and everyone was happy.

Andrew was a little disappointed, however, and kept asking why the UPS man had not come. Then he launched into a tale about how the Fed-Ex man was at Touch-a-Truck and therefore unable to deliver the box. Later Doug spoke to his parents and found out the box was sent via US Mail, not UPS. This only added a new strain of conversation.

Upon returning home from church today, Andrew had to check the front stoop to see if their were any packages even though I told them the mailman was resting. At lunch the conversation went from the mailman bringing the box to our door to the mailman driving a forklift because the box was so big and heavy. It's going to be a long morning tomorrow!

To further celebrate Stephen's 3rd birthday, we went to Sticky Fingers for dinner last night (ok, it was really because their was nothing in our fridge and I didn't want to go the grocery store; but the birthday made a nice excuse!).

Earlier in the day I actually asked Stephen what he wanted for dinner and he replied, "Well, I think I would like a pickle...and some water." Easy enough! Instead he ate fries and looked at his hamburger. Andrew devoured his ribs.

I asked the waitress for a balloon in honor of the celebration, and she gladly brought out 3. Matthew was enthralled with this new treat. I wish I had a video. He batted in, rubbed it, sucked on it.

And to top it off, we got a complimentary dessert - not that the birthday boy could eat it! We chose the fudge brownie sundae - Doug and Andrew took care of the brownie and I ate the ice cream. Stephen was perfectly happy with his animal crackers.

More Fun

Hanna couldn't stop all the fun. We left the rainy coast and headed inland to Columbia, SC where we stopped at the Riverbanks Zoo and Botanical Gardens. It was well-worth it.


The boys' favorite was the giraffe which they were able to feed. As I was busy feeding Matthew on a park bench I missed the giraffe and his 18-inch long tongue eating lettuce from my children's hands. I did, however, witness the antics and noise of the howler monkeys and since having children of my own, I am starting to believe there may be something to this evolution business afterall.


We were able to get in free to the zoo through a reciprocity agreement of the AZA and membership to Warner Park in Chattanooga. We've visited Nashville and Knoxville and are milking the program for all it's worth.



We were delighted to be back a day early so that Stephen and Andrew could attend the highlight of the year: Touch-a-Truck. A local educational program puts on this event each year; all different kinds of vehicles park and allow children to climb in, on, and around them. It's heaven for little boys (though the dads seem to be having lots of fun, too)!


Boys on the Bus

Two Boys & and Truck
Mr. Gilly's Trash TruckPostman Pig
The Highway Patrol
Old MacDonald
Fireman Small


We also saw a FedEx truck, race car and hauler, fire boat, crane, skid steer, big rig, ambulance, cherry picker, motorcycles, and best of all - "shriney vehicles."

Beach Trip: Fun in the Sun

Vacations take so long to arrive and pass so quickly.

We did enjoy ourselves immensely though I've been struck at how things have changed in the last few years. As a teen I would have stayed out the majority of the day, reading multiple books, playing in the water, snackin' on Crunch 'n' Munch. This year I played mom to a baby who took a few days to adjust to the sand and the sea; this year I never cracked the cover of a book (though I did get caught up on People and other celebrity gossip magazines scattered around the beach house); this year I only sat at the edge of the water; this year I traded the peanut-laden snack for kettle korn from the local farmer's market (hey, not all trade-offs are bad).

The big boys enjoyed the time with the cousins, and in turn, Andrew and Stephen entertained them. For once others got to experience the mindless, ceaseless, verbal water-dripping of my eldest: "Matthew is a blue-bulb baby to a diaper baby" or "You are a diet coke chicken nugget." Imagine these phrases repeated no less than 20 times an hour for days on end. It explains a lot about my mental health.

While Andrew frequently ventured into the water with Doug, Stephen refused to even walk at the water's edge (as if he might suffer the same fate of the Wicked Witch of the West). One day as we were getting ready to head to the sand, Stephen declared, "I won't go to no beach" then promptly and cheerfully changed into his trunks. He preferred the canals and trenches that Doug, Josh and Robert dug.

Matthew finally adjusted to the sunny but windy beach, though he definitely had a preference for the arms of mom. He ate his fill of sand and debris which continues to exit his system. He did like the county water park we visited and delighted in splashing.

The paper-mache ant arrived in one piece only to be obliterated by the party-goers. It was certainly worth all the trouble. We celebrated Stephen's 3rd birthday and dad's 60th.

And even though Hanna forced us out a day early, we had an excellent and memorable vacation.