Acting Up

I wasn’t having the best day yesterday.  The news made me feel cynical, one of the kids decided to exercise free will to an outrageous extent, things piled up here and there, attempting to catch up on a blog I hadn’t read in a year opened a proverbial can of worms and all in all left me at dinnertime in quite the Boromir mood, as I put it.  Reference: movie Fellowship of the Ring, Boromir tells Aragorn “I do not see it; it is long since we had any hope.”

But despite everything there most certainly is joy and hope and laughter in this life.  Trooper is doing very well with a new workbook program I found for him.  He was assigned one page (front and back) yesterday but did three more full pages voluntarily, even though he knew that the assignment was all that stood between himself and the chance to play outside.  More, when I asked him if he was done, he made eye contact with me, closed the book and handed it to me with a sort of smile.  Those looks of his make my day more than anything sometimes, although hard to describe just why.  I guess it’s because I know he understands us, I can attempt to explain to people till I’m blue in the face that he understands us, and here he is showing it.  He knows he’s a big boy, and a smart kid beneath it all, even though it’s blasted hard for him to express it with his delays.  There’s a line in Ben-Hur that we quote about him, and yes I know it’s about a horse, but hey, it’s good.  ”Steady Antares, like a rock.  You will be our anchor.”  He is our Steady Antares, and he can be our anchor at times.

And on a lighter note, Rascal, Dino, and Princess were hopping around the house yesterday pretending to be “chocolate bunnies.”  I didn’t know chocolate bunnies could hop, but these apparently could.  Dinosaur, resident actor, kept it up a while longer than everyone else.  He was still at it as he followed me downstairs while I tended to some laundry, and then when I was going upstairs again ahead of him he called out: “Hey, don’t leave your cream-filled chock-o-lit bunny behind!”

That Dinosaur.  He always takes a role and embellishes it further.  I love it.  My absolute favorite though, was when he was out in the backyard digging and told me he was a “ERTL die-cast toy Jawn Deere toy excavator.”  We can’t be just an excavator, after all, no, it has to be an ERTL die-cast John Deere toy one.

That’s why I’m smiling now.

Sneaky Chef Week Days 2-3

My week of attempting to use my Sneaky Chef cookbooks continues.  I admit I was most interested in trying out the breakfast items in her book, as I’m generally stuck in a rut with breakfasts.  We don’t usually eat breakfast cereal to keep the milk consumption steady at six gallons a week (!), and although in the winter we often eat oatmeal, in the long summer we don’t really feel like having the “warm hug in the tummy.”  So on Monday I made SC’s “Strawberry Vanilla Breakfast Cookies” (secret ingredient: strawberry puree) and yesterday morning I tried Cocoa Chocolate-Chip Pancakes (secret ingredients: Purple puree, or spinach and blueberries mixed. Evil mind trick moment.).

The cookies met with mixed reviews.  Overall pretty good, but as they were supposed to be like chewy granola, we want to try it again with a little honey.  The pancakes were very highly received.  I made a double batch and the kiddos snacked on them throughout the day.  And no, you couldn’t see or taste the spinach.  Yum!

And now for the other meals.

This macaroni and cheese is the base for a lot of puree trying.  Trooper eats this seven days a week, so there’s a lot of scope for trial here.  Would you guess that in the above pictured bowl rests not only macaroni & cheese but sweet potatoes, carrots, cauliflower and zucchini?

And what Trooper didn’t eat, the Tyrannosaurus did.  I wasn’t expecting that development.

The Orange Puree was a hit with the littlest member of the family as well, so three cheers for the Sneaky Chef!

Sneaky Chef Week Day 1

Perhaps you’ve heard of The Sneaky Chef?  She revolutionized the world of picky eaters a while ago by showing parents how to sneak pureed nutritional goodness into everyday foods.  As Trooper is King of Bland Viands, I own her cookbooks Vol 1 and Vol 2.  I usually stick with the purees for a while, but then I get lazy and forget and he gets to have his homemade mac & cheese (boxed mac is a junk food treat for him) without any “orange puree” added.  Fortunately, as I needed to get back in the habit for him, I now have an excellent motivator in the person of the Bittiest One in the Haus.

Miss Munchkin is now eagerly eating solids as often as she can get them.  With this milestone came the question I’ve now asked myself a sixth time: do I make my own baby food or just bow to the convenience of the grocery store variety?  Four times I bowed to convenience, although with Trooper I made my own baby food for him.  Now, I’m making it again.  I’m tired of shelling out the dough on those little tiny jars.

And when I’m not being lazy I like experimenting with things in the kitchen.  I’m crazy that way.

So, out came my trusty mini food-processor this weekend.  First I whipped up two quarts of strawberry-banana-mango puree for Miss Munchkin, and then finished up with the Strawberry Puree with The Sneaky Chef.  Taking out the time it took to make the baby food, I bet I was done with the Strawberry Puree in under five minutes.   I did the Purple Puree next.  Fifteen minutes or so, adding time for the spinach to boil and simmer.  So what, 20-25 minutes out of a Saturday to make these purees?  Clearly I need to kick myself for being lazy.  Figuratively, of course.

This week as I continue to puree some things for Miss Munchkin, I am determined to try a new recipe from the Sneaky Chef every day to see what works on my kiddos.  Today’s recipe was my treat; her “Chocolate Egg Cream,” which has neither eggs or cream.  It does call for chocolate syrup and I made some last night from this recipe, which is ONLY THE BEST!  Anyway, the Egg Cream was phenomenal and I am totally fobbing it off on my kids as an alternative milkshake.  After all, sneaking strawberry puree into something which already calls for chocolate syrup and milk isn’t that much of an evil mind trick.

But speaking of evil mind tricks … just wait until I get to the bean purees!

Trooper at 8

Eight years ago on the feast of St. Nicholas we received the best gift ever–the life of our baby.

(First time we were able to hold him–12/29/2003)

We may be his primary teachers, but just by being around him we find we learn so much.

For instance:

Take things a day at a time.  What seems impossible today may just be accomplished tomorrow.

(that sleeper? The girls’ Bitty Baby dolls can wear it)

There were so many days when it seemed impossible he’d ever come home.  And then he did.  And he thrived.

Be flexible.  There will be good days and bad days.  Roll with the punches–but never give up.   He was two before he walked–but he walked.  He had to outgrow some issues in order to drink milk without rice cereal in it, but it happened.  He has always been able to meet a goal set for him, but at his pace, in his time.  He’s a trooper.

There is beauty and joy and gladness in the smallest of things, in the oddest of things, in the most normal and ordinary things.

(I love this picture)

He sees it.  He notices the things we gloss over, ignore, or quite simply have forgotten to see.

His joy is infectious (I never thought I’d get excited about a truck, but we do).

The little triumphs of life are no less important than the great ones.

(An awesome moment: Trooper escorted his Grandma down the aisle at his aunt’s wedding. I was afraid the crowd, the setting would be too much for him. His Grandma had more faith, and indeed he was *perfect*)

And the sweet simplicity about him.  This is a boy who is content with so little, materially.  I haven’t learned that yet.  It’s going to take a while.

(Then there’s another thing about him I haven’t learned to enjoy quite the same as he does.  Plain Yogurt.  He could eat a quart a day if I let him.  Me?  Um…no.)

Happy 8th Birthday, our Trooper, our hero.  We’re with you all the way, no matter what.

(Trooper and his team)

Catching Up

After nearly a week of blog silence, it’s time to play catch-up.

• We survived the first onslaught of the common-cold season.  Some of us have a naggingly occasional cough, but we’re all up and about our duties again.
• Trooper’s test results came back from his “ordeal.”  He has gastritis and some anemia troubles, and now two more medications, but aside from this it appears he will not need surgery or anything like–and that was what we dreaded.  Praise God!
•  Trooper unscrambled numbers in an iPad app and proved beyond doubt that he can count to 20 (this is huge, folks–especially having to mentally place in order ten scrambled numbers and point them out).
• Rascal is now a Bobcat.
• Dinosaur isn’t going to be a dragon for Halloween after all–we found another knight’s costume so now we have two St. Georges.  And yes, he’s wearing that costume nearly 24/7.
• Princess wears her birthday tiara so often that we’ve become accustomed to seeing it on her head.  In fact, we’re so used to it that she’s gotten away with wearing it to Church twice!
• Sunshine managed to flush an as yet unidentified not-supposed-to-be-flushable object down a main toilet and put it out of commission–that’s about 14 months earlier than Rascal’s age when he performed such a feat.  Her escapades are becoming the stuff of future fireside legend, let me tell you.
• Miss Munchkin is smiling and cooing.  I’m positive she’s earlier than everyone on this milestone.  These youngest kiddos are clearly set on beating the “competition.”

{pretty, happy, funny, real}

Capturing Contentment in the Everyday…

Pretty

It looked more reddish in person--somehow it went orange-brown in the picture.

Dost mine eyes deceive me?  Autumn’s first red leaf!  I perched on our kitchen counter, right above the kitchen sink, with the zoom lens on the camera to get this shot.  What can I say?  Autumn is my favorite season.

Happy

Rain, glorious rain.

Funny

The kids need to stop messing with my mind like this.

That is not the baby.  But can you imagine how many double-takes I did on this day?

Real 

The morning after the rains stopped, we let the dog out as usual but accidentally let in a frog. I am fine with Nature in its place, but incredibly squeamish about some parts of Nature in my house.  Particularly when they jump unexpectedly and show up in the most unlikely places.  Like on the stove.

“Here’s your pan, here’s your frog.”

“Why is he smiling at me?”

In fact I was such a useless wimp about catching this guy that I used the zoom lens to get the picture, and when we next found him, didn’t have the courage to pop something (with holes) over him so he could breathe but be contained until Haus Meister and the big boys returned from their outing.  It was our sweet and brave Princess who put the “froggy house” over the frog, and then Haus Meister and Rascal caught and released him into the wild.  I disinfected the kitchen.

“What would you have done,” my husband the Nature-Boy-Eagle-Scout asked me with mild disgust, “if it had been a bullfrog?”

“Screamed then passed out,” was my prompt and sincere reply.

Apparently I’m going to be given a class in frog-catching.

Another real: a prayer request.  Would you, dear reader, please keep our Trooper in your prayers?  He has a colonoscopy and an endoscopy scheduled for next Tuesday* to determine the source of a digestive problem he’s had for some time.  It’s no treat for anyone, but it is going to be pure torture for him, no matter how this procedure is ultimately for his good.  Thank you in advance for praying!

*The afternoon of the day I posted this something unexpected came up, so the procedure has been rescheduled for Sept. 20th.  Thank you, everyone who has written of their prayers.

{pretty, happy, funny, real}

Capturing Contentment in the Everyday…

This edition brought to you courtesy of our whirlwind trip “North for the Fourth.”

Pretty

I did make the two other patriotic faux-pillowcase dresses on my list of things to sew.  Sunshine and her cousin looked very festive (and so did Princess in hers, but I was unable to get a picture of all three girls together in their matching attire).  My sister and I enjoyed seeing our girls toddling around together, considering last year at this time the tots were wee babies laying around on blankets and occasionally rolling over.  On the other hand, they were much easier to keep an eye on in those days….

Happy

Trooper’s triumphs.  We’re told there is no cure for Sensory Processing Disorder, and that the best we can do is work with him daily to help him adapt to an environment that affects him so much differently than it does us.  When we first started heading “North for the Fourth” four years ago, Trooper was unable to stand the annual parade that occurs in my old hometown.  The parade begins with a blare of sirens from the fire engines and at that point, Trooper was ready to run as far from the park as possible.  Every year, we noticed he could stand to stick around just a little longer.  This year, he sat in a lawn chair and watched the parade  go by in front of him.  He only got up when he thought someone was going to pass out the balloons on a float.  He was patient and attentive, and only plugged his ears when the sirens went off.  Haus Meister and I couldn’t have been more proud of him.  On another day of our trip we went to a Children’s Museum.  Again, except for a bit of impatience at getting into the Museum (lines to pay for the tickets? So over-rated), he was golden once we got inside.  He rode the Carousel and visited his favorite Science exhibit.  He transitioned from these activities without a meltdown.  He ate calmly in the Food Court and if he rushed unheedingly through the Dinosaur exhibit (no dinosaur looked like his beloved Unk, after all), it was only to enjoy the antique trains.  Fireworks stopped scaring him last year, and this year he was able to laugh and react to the spectacle with as much gusto as any of the kids.  Finally, the see-saw toy you see in the picture above.  Last year we could hardly get him on it.  This year we could hardly get him off it at times.  Trooper, you are our hero, and we rejoice in your triumphs!  They may seem small to the world, but to him, to us, it means so much.

Funny

Blueberry picking with their little cousin.  I think the little cousin was a better blueberry picker than our Princess, whose idea of berry picking is to strip the branch of everything–including leaves and unripe berries.  We had to hurry her along lest the farmer think a blight had descended upon some of his plants.

Real

During the parade, the boys received candy from a local law enforcement officer.  If this man wasn’t a hometown hero to my boys already, he sure was after those lollipops arrived!

It was also a sweet moment when the float carrying the WWII veterans went by.  ”Proud to be an American” was blaring on a loudspeaker on the float as the soldiers smiled and waved at the children lining the street.  Rascal waved back and Dinosaur waved a little stars & stripes fan he had been given.  What with that song’s lyrics and recalling the sacrifices the veterans make for us, and seeing my young boys there, knowing they live in a free country and are part of the true hope for its future… yes, I about started crying.

And then I started kicking myself for not taking a picture.

Hello Summer

Haus Meister took a “stay-cation” this past week, hoping to use up some of his vacation time (virtually none of it had been used to date) before the summer projects started gaining speed.  It was marvelous having him around the house, and knowing he goes back to work tomorrow is rather a letdown.  Of course, having a job isn’t a letdown, and so we move on.

This coming week will thus be more of  a “normal” week but without (much) schooling going on.  I never was able to get to the library for our summer reading program, but then I figured it was all right as a) we never seemed to be around for the closing party and b) we have a ton of books in this house that I would love for our kids to discover/rediscover as the summer goes on (although we will, I’m sure, visit the library at some point this summer).  So today I printed off a numbered chart and stapled it to the bulletin board in our schoolroom.  Whenever we finish reading aloud a book, we write the title on the chart.  I have stated prizes for reaching 50 books, 100 books, and 150 books.  Do we have 150 children’s books in the house?  I’m going to find out.  Thus far the following have been read:

1. The Poky Little Puppy (Little Golden Book)
2. Nurse Nancy (Little Golden Book)
3. Doctor Dan the Bandage Man (Little Golden Book)
4. The Happy Man and his Dump Truck (Little Golden Book)
5. I like Winter by Lois Lenski
6. Pelle’s New Suit by Elsa Beskow

Meanwhile, the backyard swimming pool sees a lot of action, even as Rascal and Dinosaur ask if today is “another swim team day?” and then “well, why not?” if it isn’t.  The sand pit in the corner of the yard is also in constant occupation.  I found a good lemonade recipe and it has had rave reviews by my test subjects in the house.  We could easily go through a gallon in two days.  Dinosaur especially prefers it, and frequently I hear: “Mommy, may I have another glass of wemonade, pwease?”

Trooper will have some schooling to do over the summer, mainly because he has so many daily living things to do for school.  Also, much of his academic schooling can be done through educational apps on his iPad, and he isn’t about to give that up for the summer!  There are many speech apps that his therapist pointed out to us at the end of April that has already made such difference in Trooper’s speech.  Only last week he tried to say “purple,” and “ball” is becoming clearer all the time.  He refers to his therapist by name and is just becoming more and more confident with his ability to say sounds and words.  We are just so proud of him.

I intend to use the interim weeks (and the third trimester nesting craze–I mean, phase) to prepare the home for Baby Munchkin, prepare ourselves for August and school and Baby, and hopefully get a LOT of sewing and knitting done during those “quiet” moments we sometimes get.  After happening across this post, I sat back and thought of my waning desire to continue cross-stitching Christmas stockings at this time.  I managed to create three gorgeous stockings for the boys that way (although Dino’s reached the mantle the Christmas after the one I had originally intended), but Princess’ stocking went into project limbo after I had to stop and rethink the intricate chart I was using, which I later scrapped in hopes of doing a simpler one.  I have her name finished; that is all.  That means that neither Sunshine’s or Munchkin’s have even been started.  Meanwhile, I have been able to do a lot of machine sewing and I really really wanted to begin to knit again.  So, two weeks ago, I sat back and told myself I was going to shelve the cross-stitching for a while.  Not for good (I hope), but for a while.  Rascal has asked me to knit him a scarf for Christmas–how can I say “no” when he wants and can use the scarf, while the girls still are far too young to care that they are stuck with simple stockings while the boys have something elaborate?  Anyway, if the girls ever did complain, I’d just point out that 75% of the sewing I do is for them.  Amazingly, I felt a good deal of relief after making this decision and am building up an outrageous Ravelry queue full of things to make for the boys, girls, and the new Baby.  Once I get the hang of that practice scarf.

I also found out that it is dangerous to fall asleep in a chair while knitting.  You wake up and start knitting in the purl row.  And you don’t notice it until five rows later.  Oops.

Anyway, those are our plans for the summer.  Lots of sunshine, lots of reading, lots of imaginary play.  Less movies (I hope).  More relaxing.  More swimming.  More at-home joys being accomplished.  More “wemonade,” anyone?

Hello, Summer.  We’re glad you’re here.

{this moment}

 

{this moment} – A Friday ritual. A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. — from Soulemama.com

Out with the old, in with the new…

…new Unk, that is.  We had a minor tragedy on Christmas Eve.  Somewhere between the narthex of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Catholic Church, and our parked van (that includes a set of stairs, two sidewalks, and the parking lot), Trooper accidentally dropped his favorite blue dinosaur, “Unk.”  We haven’t brought Unk to Church with us in ages, mainly because it’s a comfort object and Trooper doesn’t need those in Church.  However, I grabbed it at the last moment because I knew Church would be crowded and it was definitely not our usual time for Mass so I thought he might want it.  The absence of Unk was unnoticed until all the children were readied for bed and Haus Meister began the Rosary.  Trooper snuggled down into bed and made the sign for “Unk” (his modified version of the ASL sign for “dinosaur”).  At that moment my heart sank.  I recalled that I hadn’t seen the toy as Trooper came inside, so I bundled up and went out to check the van.  Nothing.

In the past this would have been more of a nightmare.  It used to be that Trooper could not sleep without Unk.  One time we were up at my parents’ house while Haus Meister was away on business, and Rascal had–unbeknownst to all of us–tossed Unk behind a large and unwieldy piece of furniture and Unk went undiscovered for three days.  That was back in the long ago era when my boys took naps.  Wow….  There were days like that?  Anyway, for three days Trooper could not nap and only fell asleep at night with Grandpa lying next to him and Trooper’s firm chubby three & a half year old grip on Grandpa’s shirt.  I almost bought the spare on eBay then, but held off, because I knew Unk had to be in the house.

So as I came into the house on Christmas Eve, I was missing Unk as much as that three year old had.   Unk has been a part of our lives since 2004, after all, even moreso since Trooper adopted it as HIS TOY at 18mos.  No packing list was complete without Unk.  It went with us to Idaho and Colorado, to Indiana and Virginia.  It has been with Trooper during his hospitalizations for ear tubes & tonsilectomy, as well as the two seizure episodes.  Unk was the go-to comfort object when therapy sessions, family celebrations and even Christmas got to be too much for the sensory-challenged Trooper.  Unk has had a million “baths” in the washing machine, has been microwaved, drooled on, juiced on, milked on, dropped inside, dropped outside, dropped in the car, seen everything and done everything a toddler could do with a toy in hand.   His button eyes were chewed off when Trooper was getting his 12 month molars, and new eyes were made with a satin stitch by my mother, who also improved the smile.  I even performed open-rattle surgery on Unk sometime back, replacing a broken rattle with one from another toy.  Maybe I’ve seen Toy Story too many times, but I felt sorry that so loyal a friend should have had such an end.

It’s possible it might still turn up, although my sister did not see it when she searched two lost & founds at the Church on the 26th.  The parking lots had all been recently plowed, so we guess Unk might have ended up plowed into a snowbank, picked up by another kid, or run over by countless cars as there were still four Christmas Masses to go that night.   If it does show up again, I think I’d like to have it back, if nothing else but to keep in Trooper’s baby box with all his mementos.

Meanwhile, eBay came to the rescue.  Even though Trooper has adapted to some of his sensory issues (meaning, he doesn’t need Unk to comfort him for everything), he has actually gone to sleep these few nights without Unk, and he is, after all, seven!–I really didn’t want the Unk stage to end unless it was Trooper’s decision.  He can’t, after all, tell me point blank how much he does or doesn’t need the toy, just signs for him every night as he’s going to sleep.  So, I found Replacement Unk on eBay.  It arrived in the mail today.  My first thought was that Unk looked better than I’d seen him in years!  Trooper grinned from ear-to-ear, and went to the bedroom and laid down on the bed with his new Unk.  He smiled, and made the sign for “Unk.”    All was well.

Welcome Home, Unk! We missed you!