Apples and Cheerios

Ethan has always been able to just take or leave Hannah. He isn't jealous of her; he isn't totally enamored with her; she just is. He has held her on occasion when he has noticed that Nathanial and Noah were holding her, but for only literally seconds. I was making supper and I walked back in to the most adorable scene - especially considering his indifference to Hannah. Apparently, since Hannah has started eating "real food" and sitting up and playing more, she has become more of an "equal" and therefor, worthy of a little more attention.

Ethan sharing his cheerios with Hannah.

He really is giving her some - and she really is eating them (I panicked when I saw they were honey nut and not regular, but she did OK). Nathanial and Noah get in on the action....with their apples.

How to Make - And Eat - Cereal...

I cannot believe little Miss Hannah is old enough for solid food! And, technically, she isn't - not in my book. However, she's been showing lots of readiness signs and she is only a week from six months, so Daddy thinks she is. I was all prepared to stop at the first little bit of spit out food. She must have known that, because she ate like she had been eating for years. She did awesome! I usually do not start my children on cereal (usually first food is avocado), but I found an awesome, simple recipe for brown rice cereal so that is what she's eating...and loving.

We started with 1/4 cup of whole brown riceThen I tried to turn it into a powder in my food processor. Not a good idea. The thing started smoking - a lot. So, I moved it to my blender, which took maybe 20 seconds. Then I dumped it into 1 3/4 cup of boiling water, cooking and stirring constantly for 10 minutes. I let it cook and then put some into her own little dish. This is the finished product.

Hey! Why did you put this thing around my neck this time???

Oh. My. Word. This is delicious, Momma! Of course, not near as good as my nummies, but it is go-od Momma!

Wow...that is tasty!

That's it?!?! Seriously??? No more???

Bananas, Anyone???

Just exactly how many bananas can one family go through??? I keep wondering, but I don't think I even want to know. The babies favorite food is bananas and we go through so many, it's unbelievable! Thank goodness for KwikStar....Steve routinely gets our milk and bananas there because they are cheaper. The poor kid at the check out the other day did look at Steve a little odd with his four gallons of milk (three for the babies and one for us) and seven, yes seven, pounds of bananas! And it doesn't last long! That lasts them, on average, about three days. And even then we are usually out, but we wait until we need more milk to get more bananas. They eat them with breakfast, they eat them for snacks, they eat them when waiting for meals. If they happen to see the bananas, a whine lets out and they don't stop until they get them. And they don't just share one banana. No, they each have to have their own. If you try to get them to share a banana, they will end up sharing at least three, if not four, at each sitting. I am forever amazed by this. They do love other fruits, as well. They love apples, pears, peaches, grapes (skinned and cut into 1/4ths), almost anything we have given them. None with a vigor that matches bananas, though.

They go through a little over 1/2 gallon of milk every day, also. That just seems insane to me! They don't get juice, though (I have philosophical differences with juice), and they don't drink much water. All they drink is pretty much milk.

The other food they absolutely love is scrambled eggs. They cannot get enough! They usually get them for breakfast because they are fast and easy to make. Combined they eat six eggs at each meal. Which means that I go through a dozen eggs every two days! And eggs are no longer a "cheap" food.

Bananas, eggs, and milk...I swear they would be happy as little clams if I let them live on these three foods alone!

I am not sure I want to know what will happen to my grocery bill when these guys hit their teenage years!

Scrapbooking

I finally got a night out scrapbooking last night! The new pastor put together a craft night at church and I got to go. It was awesome. I didn't get a whole lot done, I was rather in awe of having a Friday night alone, but I did get some things done. Steve looked a little frazzled when I left him. The babies were needing to eat supper and they were all really torked. He was trying to make at least one happy by continuing to just feed him, when he looked at me and asked when the other two got a turn. I told him he needed to haul ass and whip as fast as possible from one to the next to the next. Then he looked at the amount of food I had prepared and couldn't quite believe they would eat all of it. He seriously underestimates the power of three. They didn't even have that much, in my humble opinion. They had two jars (yes, jars...I can't do meat) of chicken and vegetables and a bowl of pears. That's not a lot for them. I also told him that if he put stars or sippy cups on their trays, they get enthralled with that and after the initial starvation wears off (ie, a few bites), they are less fussy and mess with those. It doesn't hurt that they LOVE stars and haven't figured the sippy cup out yet! He ended up doing just fine, got them fed supper and bottles, into pajamas and in bed by 7:oo. Yay!!

I got home around 11:30 and much to my surprise, Steve waited up for me! It was very nice to come home to a bright house (I usually come home to pitch black when I've been out scrapping that late) and be able to talk. We didn't get to bed until 1:00. Amazing, for a man who loves to be in bed by 9 every night if possible (hasn't been since before we had the triplets), and was planning to "catch up" on sleep that night by going to bed as soon as Austin and Aidan were in bed.

First Day of School

Austin made it great through his first day and appears to really like it! We had our orientation on Monday night and he really had his schedule down pat and he seemed to be doing pretty well. There was a lot of information and it was a little overwhelming for him. Fascinatingly, the principal actually told the kids he expected they do extremely well on their ITBS because of No Child Left Behind or the school would get in trouble and it was up to them to make sure it didn’t. Hmmmm….last I checked that was the teacher's job. Talk about pressure right out of the gate! Last year his teacher said she would give a list of names of kids who would help Austin get through his day and the middle school said they would find at least one child to help him get from one class to the next, but they couldn't guarantee it would be the same kid. It became VERY obvious Monday night who she had chosen. There were two boys whose schedules (other than enriched study hall) were EXACTLY the same. And they were boys I figured would help him out anyway. That was reassuring! The hardest part is they don't allow sucks or gay to be said at all, zero tolerance, and his favorite word lately is sucks. I've tried and tried to get him to knock it off...hopefully now he really will. As I told him, it is a LONG 17 miles to Freddy to be walking when he gets a detention at 7 am. They also give detention for homework not getting done. I was a little upset about that. One of his “accommodations” is for his teachers to write the assignment down for him in his book and sign off if it is done or not because he can't follow through or copy things from board to paper well. Yet, yesterday his assignment book came home with only his writing in it and noone checked it off to say it was done. The problem with him not having anything formal is that they don’t HAVE to follow the accommodations…it is all just “recommended.” Thankfully, he brought it all home for me to check. This is exactly why I asked for him to be in an enriched study hall and she didn't do it. I can only hope it’s because it was the first day and they’ll get it down soon. The lovely enrichment teacher told them that they were in there because their grades had dropped or test scores had dropped and there was no screwing around. While this might be true of some kids, it certainly isn't for all (ie, Austin). I was a little upset she said that to all of them. She could have just said it was a study hall. He was upset because he thought she meant he was stupid. He was so excited when he came home because he had his schedule down and the building down and he was able to help other kids find their rooms. He loved the lunch (better than Sumner!) and the fact that they had a salad bar that he could get as much as he wanted from. You actually have control over what your child eats and we had to specify how many times he could get more. I checked "as many as he wants!" They are bussed to the elementary because their school doesn't have a lunch room and he handled that well, also. They also have one period a day mid-morning referred to as "advisory." It's pretty much homeroom and they are given that period to take a break and chat or read or whatever, and get a snack. He can purchase healthy snacks and juice from his teacher or bring his own. All his classes are a total of 20 minutes because they cram 11 into a day...I don't know how teachers get anything done in that short of an amount of time! He found his friend at the bus stop in the morning and rode with him every time on the bus, which was good. He said he made the lunch and afternoon busses in plenty of time, also. I re-wrote his schedule for him with exactly when to go to his locker and what to take with him at that time and what to do with homework and highlighted those parts, also. Unfortunately, they cannot take their bookbags with them at all to any classes, not even the last one and he has to get from one end of the building to the other to his locker, quick get everything he needs in his bag, and out to the bus at another end in under 5 minutes or he misses the bus. I am sure in the beginning they are given a little more time...I just hope he continues to make it on time! Last year, he had to have 16 book reports done by the end of the year, 4 each quarter. Anything above that was extra credit, which was great for him because he loves to read. This year, a grade older, they only have to do ONE! Anything over and above that is not extra credit, but they earn "rewards" for them! WHAT??!?? Rewards for reading....that is about the dumbest thing I ever heard of. Why not continue to just expect it or at the minimum, make their "reward" a better grade? I am still not sure if it is because they broke out according to reading ability in grade school and they do not at the middle school level or what. There are some big difference because we switched districts...it is still just whole-grade sharing, we have yet to merge, so each district sets their own standards. His teachers all seem great and I think he is really going to enjoy them. He has already decided Mr. N is his favorite teacher...big shock. Mr. N teaches science.Aidan is getting VERY excited to start preschool. We have orientation for that next week. He cannot wait. This is a hard year for me with Austin starting middle school and Aidan starting preschool. I felt like a dork when I dropped Austin off at the bus, restrained myself from getting out, and started crying watching him walk to the bus!I kinda wish that I could have done this a little more gradually, but Aidan needs something of his own and needs interaction with peers. He’s not so good with the whole sharing thing!Noah now has two teeth! Steve taught Nathanial and Ethan how to hold their own bottles a few weeks ago and they are really starting to get it down. Nathanial rarely drops his bottle now and can even hold it up in the air to get everything out. Ethan is learning to put it up in the air, also, and can take it out of his mouth and get it back in again, as long as he doesn’t drop it (which he tends to do quite a bit!). On Monday night, they were all hungry at the same time, which they always are, so Steve put Noah on the floor and tried him. The little stinker held on to his bottle for Daddy! He wouldn’t for me! Last night, he did it again and Noah did it for him again…with me in the room! So, this morning, I lined them all up, handed them their bottles, and sat by them. They all fed themselves!!! Yeah!!! This makes it a little easier at feeding time! Noah and Ethan still drop theirs quite a bit, but that’s fine with me. They are also LOVING eating “real” food. I just run from one to the next in a line and keep it coming. Noah and Ethan are not real good about waiting their turn, but they have no choice. As always, I added more pictures to the dropshots page of Austin’s first day and babies holding bottles, etc.