snow days and soup

We've been snowed in for a while now. School has been canceled since last Thursday. Or was it Friday? Who can remember. Work has been shut down for nearly as long. We just had our third storm in the last week today -- a real blizzard that created snow drifts as high as my waist in some places. The kids haven't really minded, although Edward was angstful this evening when he learned that kindergarten had been canceled for the rest of this week. He was really looking forward to the Valentine's party. As for Michelle, she was kind of mad that she had to miss gymnastics and lunch bunch, but she's battling a low-grade illness anyway, so perhaps it's for the best.

So what's a housebound family supposed to do? The kids already spend a lot of time at home, I guess, so it didn't seem to bother them that much. We've been sledding a few times, and yesterday we trekked out to the local shopping center for some treats at Starbucks. Imagine the dismay when we arrived to find the display case completely bereft of treats. I guess the bakery failed to deliver yesterday morning. Happily, we managed to scrounge up some packages of Annie's bunny crackers, and all was good.

We've been playing Hullabaloo. Edward has been building monster trucks out of LEGOs. Michelle helped me bake butter drop cookies today. Both big kids spent time putting together valentines for their classmates. And William has been pulling up on anything within reach. He may be walking inside of a month...

I'm pretty bad at stocking up food, although going back to work has forced me to buy all of my groceries during the weekend. Nevertheless, despite a couple of opportunities to go by the supermarket these past few days, my fridge is starting to look a little bare. Happily, I had enough ingredients to throw together some Turkey Alphabet Soup the other day. (I know I was saving that Christmas turkey in my freezer for some good reason!) The kids -- even Michelle and William -- loved it.

Of course, when I tried to serve it again today (along with leftovers of some pork braised in Riesling I had made over the weekend), Edward commented, "Mom, I don't like to eat the same foods over again. I like to eat different foods." Making me wonder which was better: the kindergarten gourmand or the picky toddler. Luckily, I've got both bases covered.

a long long time

Okay, so I have been really bad about blogging lately, and I'm not even sure I have any readers left. The last time I took an extended hiatus, it was 2005, and we had left Boston to spend a summer on an island with no Internet access. Unfortunately, nothing quite that wonderful has transpired these past two months...

Not that life hasn't been interesting. Check out Snowy Days for some pictures taken back in early winter when we were reveling in our first snowfall of the season. Then check out Christmas 2009 to see Michelle in one of her new princess outfits, as well as other holiday delights. And as if there haven't been enough snow days already, Mother Nature unleashed Snowmageddon on us.

As for tomorrow? School is closed, and so is the federal government. The roads are a lovely mixture of plowed and unplowed, and I got stuck in a eight inches of slush this afternoon. As I spun my wheels hopelessly, a federal air marshal in a monster Jeep stopped to pull me out. Thank goodness for federal air marshals, keeping the skies and streets safe for the citizens of America.

Edward has really enjoyed the snow, building snowmen and having snowball fights and helping me shovel the walk. Michelle has ventured out a couple of times, but her favorite part is the hot cocoa treat that awaits her back inside. William loves to watch the snow, but getting him into his snowsuit is a bear...

merry christmas to all

days go by

Already, it's December. Where does the time go? We had our first big frost and first big snowball, and wow, that snowfall was incredible! Cold rain turned into genuine snow by mid-morning, and it continued to accumulate until late that night. The kids went out and built snowmen, and we bought a little snow shovel for them to assist with clearing the driveway. (Just like the little wheelbarrow we bought that was supposed to assist with the yard work. Ha!)

I've returned to work full time now, and it has been a tremendous adjustment for our family. The days are long, and my time with the kids is shorter. I find myself wanting to maximize the hours that we're together... and getting frustrated when things are less than perfect. I suppose that was something that didn't bother me as much when I stayed at home. But the end of the day is a difficult time for everyone. Sigh.

On the other hand, I'm trying to be more engaged with the kiddos, spending special time with them at night. We play board games some nights -- tonight it was a rocket ship game that Dad brought home from Germany -- and other nights the kids help me cook dinner. Michelle, especially, loves to help stir up stuff in the kitchen.

As for William, the little guy has taken the absence of Mom in stride. I've been able to maintain the breastfeeding by pumping once during the workday. (I use a handheld Avent pump which works incredibly well.) He consumes about 6 ounces of milk during the day and eats huge amounts of solid food and drinks water from his sippy cup. He's already moved on to table food... eating little slices of banana, pear, and apple as well as grains of rice, bits of noodle, soft veggies, and sweet potatoes. He LOVES sweet potatoes. He even consented to mash up some roast pork the other night. When I come home, he grins the biggest grin a baby could muster up, and he nurses throughout the evening and night. So I've been a bit short on sleep, but I'm happy he's able to stay on breastmilk throughout his first year.

santa's little helpers

happy thanksgiving

So Biff turned six months old, among other things. His half-year birthday fell on a Saturday some weeks back. We were on our way home from a week in Florida where we'd attended Jason and Joyce's wedding, enjoyed some days on the beach, and played mini-golf at Disney.

And what a great, big kid he is! He delights in rolling from his back to his tummy with this adorable maneuver whereupon he pulls his knees up, swings them over, then reaches with his arm until he's pushing up on his belly. At his six-month checkup, his height (29 inches) was off the charts. For a while, he had been eying our food, looking as if he wanted to chow on steak and eggs. So one day, we were on the road -- North Carolina, I think it was -- and eating dinner at the Waffle House. It was late, and the babe was squirming and trying to grab at our food. What the heck, I thought, and gave him a mouthful of grits. He gobbled it down and hasn't looked back since. He's eaten rice cereal and oatmeal and applesauce. Last night he chewed ferociously on a pizza crust that he gripped tightly in his fist as if afraid (rightly) that someone would take it from him. And this afternoon at the Thanksgiving feast, he consumed prodigious amounts of sweet potato. The real stuff that we were eating, boiled and mashed sweet potatoes seasoned with cinnamon and butter and the marshmallow topping carefully scraped off.

I remember my slow, slow start on solid foods with Edward. For a long time, he abhorred big boy food, and we were terrified that he would choke on chunks. Of course, babies have a pretty good reflex when it comes to stuff like that and seem to know which pipe to send it down. But we didn't know it back then and resisted giving the boy Cheerios, even. At the pizzeria last night, Edward stared at me in horror as I handed William a three-inch chunk of crust. Well, the little guy was hungry and looked as if he could handle it. And he did: gnawing the bread with his six teeth until it turned to a mash that dribbled down his chin. Maybe some made it into his stomach...

Nowadays, it's Edward who loves to eat and will rival his father when it comes to slices of pizza. He enjoys just about any type of food, provided it tastes good, and has a soft spot for fruit. The days of baby mash are long gone. So I guess you could say that it all evened out in the end and that delaying the solids didn't really seem to matter.

As for Michelle, my early devotee of table food, she blithely informed me at bedtime that she'd neglected to eat the collard greens I put on her plate this evening because she "didn't like them." She's stubborn enough to ignore me when I tell her to do something she doesn't want to do but still innocent enough that her lies are completely transparent. Her favorite part of this evening's feast was the bread roll. So it goes.

planet paras