What's New, vol. 3

It's been almost a year since my most recent "What's New" post. Anna wasn't even born back then!
I'm giving it another go because it gives me a simple and fun format to report on each member of the family.

(The reason I *keep* a blog is for that purpose, so it's worth doing. I love looking back at old posts and remembering what we were like a several years ago. {Did you know I have been blogging now for 5 1/2 years?! Good grief...!})

Anna

My darling baby will be eight months old this week. Time has flown and flown!

She is a baby full of smiles and laughter. Today the boys were taking turns making her giggle after her afternoon nap, and I felt my hurt feel very full with joy, indeed.

She has a remarkably calm temperament. I am surprised how much she will happily sit in her exersaucer, exploring her little world.

In a crown Noah made with the help of a babysitter

She is also a tremendously cuddly baby. Her head nestles just so on my shoulder, always on my left side. I hope I can make an imprint of what that feels like -- bliss.

Right now, she is practicing her crawl position with lots of planks. Sometimes she pushes backwards and looks a little surprised by her own strength.

She loves food. She has been enjoying mashed avocado, pureed squash and carrots, mashed banana for a few months actually, all spoon-fed. Yesterday she got to experience feeding herself some mashed potatoes. She was very proud of herself.

Of course, she still loves nursing best of all. I am so glad of it. I cherish it so much.

Baby milk-coma

Isaiah

My darling boy! So full of three-year-old vitality! Right now he is loving being read "Olivia" books as well as the usual Richard Scarry business. He gets so excited when we pull them out at bedtime. It wasn't so long ago I actually worried about him, that he wouldn't sit still for books, and now he is an eager little bibliophile.

And gardener.

Oh my, my little Elemental Baby continues! Today a friend came by and he asked "how is your garden doing?" I was delighted and surprised by him making such conversation; it sounded almost as grown-up and misplaced coming out of a child's mouth as if he were to complain about gas prices.

But in truth, he just loves to dig, weed, pull, and mostly, get covered in soil. It has become part of our summer routine to reinstitute the daily bath. Because the boys spend so much time outdoors, they get filthy by evening. Sweet Isaiah will put his foot up on the kitchen table after dinner to show me how dirty his feet have become to remind me to give him and Noah their baths. He lifts up his eyebrows ever so slightly when he does this, in a sweet-and-mischievous way.

"Take a picture of ME!"

He surprised me recently when I was going to pick up Noah from his choir practice. A few remaining children lingered to practice with the teacher. They were practicing a song Isaiah knew well, from hearing Noah sing it at home. So my sweet youngest son sat perfectly straight and with perfect diction and wonderful tuning, sang along with the other children the whole song from memory.

We are singing him up for the same choir in September; he is an eager little musician.

Noah

Dear Noah is always planning something! He's still convinced we'll open a bakery in our outbuilding....

Meanwhile he's always coming up with interesting projects for us to do. After reading several books in the Little House series, he asked if we could have a Pioneer Day. So on Monday of this past week, we made baked beans, rye 'n' injun bread, "spicy" apple pie (like Almanzo's family always has at breakfast) and I even churned butter to their amazement. 

(I just put whipping cream and salt in a mason jar and shook it over and over. I was stopped by two friends while out with the boys while out on a walk who were perplexed by the jar I was wildly agitating.)

Showing off his log cabin he made for our Pioneer Day

He's really into gardening, too. He is actually old enough to be given real responsibilities there, which delights him. He very much loves being put to work, and it is so good for him when we do.

He's also growing so much -- his awareness of the world around him, his hunger for knowledge, and his hunger for... tacos. Tonight at dinner he ate five of them. FIVE.

Patrick

The dear Associate Editor of Lifesitenews can take the title of Associate of Burning the Candle at Both Ends. It's very hard to have him working so much, and then still doing his M.A. on top of it. I consider his extended hours just extending the season of Survival Mode one enters when one has a new baby. Embracing this mindset takes the pressure off me to have things perfect, and it also keeps me encouraged that it won't be forever.

One fun side effect of his work schedule is that we know how to have way more fun on the weekends when he is not working. 

Corpus Christi afternoon, at the Mayflower beach

Me

So, say it with me now, Stranger in the Bank or Grocery Store: "You have your hands full."

Yes, I can officially say it's true. I don't resent that fact at all, or even wish people wouldn't say it... because here's the thing -- my three children are my life's work. They are my magnus opus. So pointing out that it takes a great deal of energy, patience and effort to raise them affirms what I am doing.

Photo by Noah

I've made one fun food discovery for myself. After having toyed with being gluten-free for over two years, I have discovered I can tolerate gluten!... But... not wheat. That rye 'n' injun bread recipe I posted? It has become a staple for our family now. I tweaked the recipe a little (I bake it at 350 for twenty minutes rather than hours at a low temperature, and I use honey instead of molasses, and it is delicious. Just like cornbread but without a gluten-y reaction! Yahoo!)

I'm almost thirty now. I'm so excited for my birthday. I had been saying for MONTHS that I wanted a vacuum for my thirtieth birthday, because then I would be a "real grown up." Well recently I saw a woman in a local Buy-and-Sell group on Facebook post a Shop-Vac for $10 and I went for it.

So now people can buy me impractical things for my birthday. Cough...cough...Patrick.