This is the way I feed my kids, feed my kids, feed my kids...

Several years ago, when my in-laws moved to Florida, my mother-in-law said one of the things she missed most was cooking for Dave.

I've always thought that there was something about mom's cooking - the food one grows up eating. It's tastey and just right, even if it's not super tastey. On the rare occasion that my own mom is at our house and whips up dinner, I revel in the familiarity of the flavors.

Now, I'm getting the mom's perspective. I love feeding my kids and I love watching them eat good meals. So ... now my food is mom's food. My cooking is their childhood food.

Teaching them to eat well and enjoy good foods is a significant responsibility to me. So, toward that end, I offer them healthy options. Breakfast and dinner are big meals for us. I spend time making eggs, hot cereal or French toast for breakfast. I think about dinner and like to make hearty food with a little something from every food group. Lunch, which is grabbed around nap schedules, does not always get as much attention.

Sometimes it look a little funny on the plate.

Here is Haven's lunch. Pot-popped popcorn without butter or salt, kidney beans and cheese. So, that's an odd lunch, but he ate it. That day Maiya got kidney beans, ohs and cheese. I'll be taking luncheon catering requests on a first-come-first-served basis. Try not to overflow my in-box.

So, what interesting foods have you offered your children?

A little thought.

Did anybody watch Oprah the other day? She talked about motherhood and had lots of funny moms talk about their lives. I loved it. My favorite part was the woman who said she cried when she had to buy a mini van. I want to watch it again. There was a lot of laughter.

What particularly struck me was the blogging mom who makes $40,000 a month ... selling ads on her blog. I wonder what I am doing wrong because I haven't received a penny for writing on this blog ...

I guess in addition to superb writing skills and time to write, I guess that the willingness to tell all to an Internet audience is imperative. Hm. For forty thou a month, I'd consider it.

I imagine we will look back on these years as the time that people became successful by selling their privacy. Consider shows such as Jon and Kate + 8. (For the record, I'm entertained by this show and I think you do what you need to do to support 8 children. If that leads to tremendous popularity, well, so be it. Good for them.) I wonder how many people in the end, after exposing their lives, would say that it was worth it. Would Jessica and Nick (Newlyweds)? I'm just curious, which is why I (we) watch these shows in the first place.

Anyway, would you give up your privacy for a big chunk of change?

Turn your frowns upside down.

The other day I was reading a parenting magazine while Dave caught the latest sports game and the babies dug through the blocks box. I try not to laugh out loud when I read because it's kind of like having an inside joke and outsiders don't feel good about inside jokes. Well, on this occasion, I couldn't help it.

Dave: "What's so funny?"

Me: "This article is about this mom--" I couldn't stop laughing.

I finally pulled myself together long enough to explain that the article was about a mom of two young kids. It outlined her typical day and then, at the end of the day, her husband asked if she was alright and when she said she was just tired, he said ...

"Why?"

That sent me into hysterics. When I retold it to Dave, I said Why like it was a punch line. He didn't think it was nearly as funny as I did. Then again, tears were practically running down my face.

I was in rare form, laughing at the chaos of my life. It's good to laugh. It's good old medicine to laugh. Another day I might have rolled my eyes at that article and muttered nobody knows the trouble I've seen. But our pastor had recently preached about the pointlessness of self pity, so... Let's face it, laughing is a much more healing resonse.

Some day a shower won't be to me what a day at the spa is to most people. Some day silence will mean the kids are grown and not that they are eating the cat's food.

For now, I will enjoy the ruthless rythem of my day. The kind that renders me unconscious by 9:30 PM. I will laugh about it as much as I can, and when I can't laugh, I'll just try to memorize these four chubby cheeks that somehow just keep smiling.

and the best husband award goes to...

Today is our anniversary. It's been four years since this picture was taken. I'm telling you we still look just this good. Well, Dave certainly does, but he hasn't been pregnant twice. Anyway, back to the point: we still feel this good. I'm thrilled to be with you, Dave. What a great life. It's crazy sometimes, I know, but I'm so glad we get to share the ups and downs with eachother. What an adventure. I can't imagine walking through life without you.

I wanted to have a slide show with music playing in the background, but unfortunately I'm not all that technically advanced. Here is the song I would play with the slideshow.

side note: didn't my mom do a nice job on my bouquet?

Springtime at our house

"Ooh, ooh, child, things are gonna get easier..."

A few months ago I used to sing/yell this song to myself when my days were chaos. Babies change so quickly, don't they? Already dawn has broken.

Last night Maiya slept for 11 hours straight. I, however, woke up at least every two to look at the clock and make sure the monitor was still working. Don't you worry, I'm sure I can adjust.

Yesterday Haven ran to the bathroom door and yelled "pee!" I put him on the potty, which has been little more than decoration the past couple of months, and he produced a respectable amount of pee. We talked about it all afternoon and he proudly told Daddy at dinner. I realize it may be months before he's doing this consistently, but I'm proud of his start.

These small victories chart our progress out of the wildnerness of sleeplessness and showerlessness.

Penny - er, a trillion - for your thoughts

Dave and I voted differently from eachother in November. Mostly because I am an idealist and he is a realist. This difference bodes well for our family, but not so well for our making an impact in the vote tally.

Anyway, our big topic of discussion lately has been government spending. I like to think it is a means to an end - a good one - while Dave thinks it is a power trip. I like to think that the money is going to creating much-needed jobs which will in turn improve our economy. I hate to think that it's just a bunch of fat cats buying bigger pent houses while a ton of middle class people lose the homes they worked for years to buy. Hm ... I'm starting to feel more cynical already.

Dave and I had tons of fodder for our discussions last time I opened this blog for political comments. So, let's open it again. I think that I have an array of political views among my readers (all 5 of you) and I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Bring it.

Chatter

Haven's vocabulary has exploded in the last month or two. It's been tons of fun to hear his thoughts. Well, mostly fun.

Yesterday we were in the grocery store and he said (what I think was) "Daddy just pooped! Daddy just pooped!" over and over and over. Lucky Daddy wasn't there to be mortified.

He put his first 4-word-sentence together. I was feeding Maiya at the table, I got up to run to the kitchen for something, and when I returned he said, "Her want more please."

He got a ride-on motorized bus recently, a belated birthday gift. I told him we had a special surprise for him and we gave it to him when Dave got home from work. He had a blast pushing the button to move forward and honking the horn. The morning after we gave it to him he was sitting at the table eating cereal silently. All of a suddent he said, "Bus! Daddy!" I guess he was thinking about the night before.

He is so cute (in a two-year-old way) at bedtime. He knows how to grab my heart. He stretches those giant eyes wide open and just when I'm going to leave him in his bed, says, "A'other song?" "T'kl T'kl?" He wiggles his fingers and I give him an enchore of Twinkle Twinkle.

The funniest thing about him talking is that I act like he's fluent in the English language. Most people, however, don't even understand when he says words like Thanks (t'x) or Up (ahh-bee). I guess I can add interpreter to my ever-expanding list of mommy skills.

Notes from the moutain people.

Yesterday we had a window salesman visit us. I asked for it. I made the appointment. You could argue that it's my fault. He was at our house for almost 3 hours and provided us with a host of information that was irrelevent when he finally got to the bottom line. Throughout his banter he made it clear that his windows were high end and that they just weren't for some people. I guess he thought we were "some people" because he made a few patronizing comments about blue collar workers and how his company sometimes sells windows to people who own homes that cost as little as 250k. We had not given him the price of our home, so I guess that was his best guess. I wanted to say that we were proud of our house and that we worked hard to buy it and we still work hard to own it. It's our first home and while it may not be very flashy, we're happy with it. But before I could get those words out, he was criticizing our windows (the ones we were not looking to replace) saying he could easily push them right out of our house.

This was obnoxious enough. But we were turned off only a few minutes after he arrived. He showed up early and said "Sorry I'm early, there's nowhere to hang out in the woods." Then he walked into the living room and said, "You guys are mountain people up here!" Maybe he said this because I was changing Maiya's diaper in the living room. I'm sure that didn't help.

Before he left he asked us a million questions about bears and if there would be one waiting outside by his car. We told him they were hibernating but I'm not sure he knew what that was.

It turns out his windows are for some people, some people that aren't us. They are high end and we aren't going to stay in our home long enough to make it worth the investment. We'll keep looking until we find someone with windows that suit our budget. And our decorum.