Swimming

Today is the first day of indoor swimming lessons for Elizabeth, Marianne and Ruth. Nathaniel and I debated for weeks whether to sign the girls up, and in the end, the pros outweighed the cons (it's not cheap!). The home in which the lessons take place is less than a block away from us, so it's simple in that respect. Jake took lessons there last fall and, although he'd deny having gotten any good from it, he was swimming much better by the end of the five weeks than he'd been doing over the summer!

I'm excited to get the girls warmed up to the water now so that in a few weeks when summer is here and the pool is open, they aren't starting from scratch. I've signed them up for two weeks of daily outdoor lessons in June as well. The way I see it, if they do well at these lessons, they'll be ready to really excel at the bigger class and hopefully this year we'll see great improvement in their ability to actually SWIM, not just to splash around. Elizabeth has been swimming some for years, and Marianne did learn to float on her front and back last year, but I want real swimming this year. We'll see how it goes.

The funniest part about the class they're starting today is that my friends and I have basically taken it over. Renee and I talked early on about putting William in a class with the girls so he'd have someone he knew to ease his nerves. We both also talked to other friends about it, so now there are 8 kids in the class who are all good friends. I'm not sure what the total is for the class, but I sort of feel for any other kids in there that don't already know this crew. And I'm not sure whether the instructor will see us as having done her a favor, or ruined the class for her. They may be so excited to see each other that she can't get them to pay any attention to lessons. We'll have to wait and see, I guess.

The girls are at quiet time now and they're all geared up to get in their suits as soon as I tell them they can get out of bed. I'll have to think of a way to break it to them that they'll have to wait another couple hours after quiet time before they get to hit the pool.

Update #4 - The fruit of her work

Sara has spent this year taking piano lessons. She enjoys it, and practices diligently on the keyboard in her room. Usually she keeps the volume so low that we hardly hear her, so it was a treat today to go to her recital and hear her play for real. I was very proud of her - she didn't appear nearly as nervous as several of the students and she played beautifully.

The recital was a small, informal affair at the home of her piano instructor. There were a dozen kids playing (the teacher breaks the kids up into groups and has a few recital times during the day so families don't have to sit through all 30-some students). For any of my family who is interested, here is a video of Sara playing her recital piece. The name of the song is "The Whispering Wind". Enjoy!

Update #3 - Parental laziness

Remember how Meg isn't so into the rice cereal? Or the pureed carrots, or applesauce or anything else on a spoon? (Don't even get me started on her refusal to take a bottle!)

Nathaniel and I are positive that we'll rue the day we made this discovery, but it turns out there is one thing she loves. Nilla Wafers. Seriously. I know we're failing at training our kid to eat the healthy stuff first, but one day at lunch Nathaniel felt like experimenting and we didn't have any melba toast or biter biscuits handy. What we did have was Nilla Wafers. Talk about a hit! Here she is doing some serious damage to her first wafer. Since then I have picked up some biter biscuits, and they are also enjoyable, so at least I can feel a little better about the sugar level in the biscuits over the cookies. (I say that not having actually compared nutritional info; they could be exactly the same thing). I keep pushing the cereal and other mushy foods as well, but I'm getting lazy at dinner time about giving Meg a cookie/biscuit, a handful of cheerios, an apple slice to suck on, or, for the first time tonight, veggie puffs.

I can feel us digging ourselves deeper and deeper into the hole. This kid will never eat anything but graham crackers and apple slices, the way things are going. She'll be one of those "texture eaters" who only likes crunchy things...

Or I'm being totally paranoid and she's just not a big fan of spoon feeding. The truth is, I remember vaguely that with Marianne she never really liked eating off a spoon until she could feed herself, and we moved pretty quickly from mushy food to finger foods. I did a terrible job of recording any of this stuff, though, so I can't really recall specifics. I know it wasn't till Ruth came along that I mass-produced home made baby food. And I never bought the store bought stuff with either except when traveling, so Marianne must not have spent long on mush. Still, this situation with Meg feels different.

I'm sure someday she'll learn to eat a vegetable. Truly. The big problem is that I'm not sure she's really chewing anything yet. It's more just letting starches dissolve in her mouth, so I hesitate to hand her peas or green beans or something that she could eat as a finger food, but that wouldn't automatically melt away in saliva. We've tried the little mesh ring-pop feeders but she'll only give it a quick chew or two and then thrown it from the highchair as many times as she can get someone to hand it back to her. So even for something that she clearly likes - like the apple slice I was eating the other day and that she sucked on for several minutes when I held it for her - we can't convince her to really work hard enough to "eat" it.

I know I'm making a mountain out of a molehill. It's just that, while I do love nursing my babies, I also like knowing that it won't be something I'm doing indefinitely. I want to see the progression toward independence. I'd prefer to be nursing a new baby in two or three years, not still this one. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

Update #2 - Mesmerizing

I've been working on teaching the girls to shower (mostly) independently. I'm sure I've mentioned in the past how much I dislike bath time. Some people love it; it's not my thing. Moving on.

I have started the practice of putting on a Baby Einstein video during shower time because it's about the right length for me to get the three big girls all cleaned up, and I figured it would be more engaging for Meg than some of the princess stuff the other girls would choose. The other day I came into the tv room from helping Elizabeth to find this:
It had been at least a year or more since I'd pulled out the Baby Einsteins, so I'd forgotten the magical powers they hold. Incredible. Yet scary.

Update #1 - Thunder Cake

My recent sporadic posting is not for lack of material. I hate doing novel-length posts, because I feel like I must overwhelm my readers, but I have so much to catch up on. I'm going to break it into a series of short(ish - it's still me we're talking about, here) posts rather than one huge one. That way if it gets way past my bedtime, I can just save a couple topics for tomorrow.

You may recall that last fall I announced Sara's resignation from Girl Scouts after years of her serious involvement. Well, as of a a couple weeks ago, we are no longer without a girl scout in the house. Elizabeth is an official Daisy. I don't think they sell cookies at this age, but she is raring to go if they do!
Last weekend was Girl Scout Sunday, so the scouts processed in at the start of mass. After mass they handed out cookies, rolls and juice. Some of the girls had gotten together the day prior and baked bar cookies with some older scouts in order to earn a baking patch. Elizabeth couldn't go then, but her troop leader let us know that if she brings in a picture of her baking with the family, she will still earn the patch. Easy-peasy! Today Elizabeth asked if we could bake "Thunder Cake" while we listened to storms roll overhead. Elizabeth and Sara both assisted me. The batter midway through production looked like nothing so much as a bowl of vomit, but by the end it looked much more like chocolate cake batter - enough so that Elizabeth was begging to help "clean up". Once it was frosted and served, no one was complaining. It was lovely and delicious! If you're not familiar with the book, check it out at your library sometime. I love the author/illustrator, Patricia Polacco.

Well put

I was checking Jake's weekly homework folder today, and found a little paper called "This is your life". I'd been wondering how to break some news here on the blog, and I thought Jake put it beautifully (if full of spelling and grammar errors - let me just post a giant SIC in advance). So here goes, in his words, with his permission:

The Most Exciting thing that's ever happened to Me.

It was just recently when I found out that I was moving back with my mother. I was very excitited. I couldn't wate. Though I will miss alot from Lincoln. Like my friends, my troup and expectally My family that lives here. But Im still very Excited about moving. It's not just exiting for my but also for my mom. She can't wate to see us again. But none the less I'm still going to miss Nebraska.

Nathaniel and I let the kids know last weekend that we've been talking to Marci and have decided that late this summer is our goal for moving them back to living with their mom. There's been much prayer and consultation involved, and I can't say it's a 100% sure thing until it actually happens, but that's the plan. There's sadness - Sara is bummed about a lot of the high school opportunities she'd been building toward here with her friends, and Jake loves his boy scout troop - but overall the feeling is much more one of excitement and expectancy.

With that said, if you've slacked off on your prayers for us, we could sure use them now. There's a lot to be done to make this transition go smoothly. While photos of Sara, Jake and Elizabeth could appear in the dictionary under the word "resilient", we're trying to do everything we can to make this an easy move for them. Thanks to everyone who has been and is praying for us!

Easter festivities

The kids are out of school for one final day today, so it seems Easter is coming to an end (though, as our Easter sticker calender reminds us, there are still 48 days to go in the liturgical season!).

Sara is singing in the church choir this Spring, so we heard her sing on Holy Thursday, Good Friday, the Easter Vigil (only Nathaniel and Jake, as it started at the girls' bedtime) and on Sunday morning. She seemed to enjoy the music and experience. I hope she understood the progression of the Easter Triduum better for the direct involvement in the liturgy. It wasn't till I sang in the Lit Choir in college, and I stayed at ND freshman year for my first Easter marathon of church services, that I truly understood those services and the depth and beauty of the liturgies for the first time.

Jake, on the other hand, complained repeatedly on Thursday and Friday about being forced to attend church so often on his days off school. He shocked us all, though, by asking if he could serve at the Vigil Mass Saturday night after he was approached by Father at the parish egg hunt that afternoon! Of course! Nathaniel was thrilled, and let him know that it would be an experience unlike any he'd served prior. I think it lived up to the hype. A side note that my family will love - Father actually told Jake that they could use extra servers for the Vigil or for Sunday morning mass, so he could have opted just to serve Sunday and skipped the Vigil altogether. However, earlier on Saturday he had planned his outfit for Easter Sunday (pictures later) and he was so looking forward to being dressed smartly and not having to cover his outfit in the altar server's cassock and surplice, that he opted to serve Saturday night and join our family in the pew on Sunday morning. What a change from his usual loathing of dress clothes!

Speaking of the egg hunt, that was the real kick-off of our Easter festivities. Just after lunch on Saturday, in the midst of my Easter baking, we headed up the block
to the church for the annual bike parade and egg hunt. The girls had a blast in the parade,
and enjoyed their chance to snap a photo with an Easter bunny,
though they had no doubt that he was NOT the real thing. The egg hunt was a huge success all around. There were no nervous kids as we've sometimes had (some of you will recall Easter of '07, when Marianne was too nervous to grab eggs so the hunt ended in many tears over her empty basket). Ruth, in fact, was such a superstar
that she ended up sharing many of her eggs with her friend, Noah.

Saturday afternoon we finished the baking (two batches of cupcakes for Easter dinner on Sunday, including a new recipe for Lemon Cream Cupcakes that I highly recommend, as well as a double batch of bubble bread - YUM!), then visited an elderly neighbor who's been at a nursing home for several weeks. After a quick dinner, Nathaniel and the big kids headed to the Vigil while I wrangled the girls into bed (no small feat given their level of excitement).

Easter morning was a blast. The kids hunted around the house for eggs after digging through their Easter baskets to check out their loot. We gorged ourselves on candy and bubble bread, then headed off to mass. Should we have been surprised that it was a rough morning at church? I suppose not. Marianne lost a leaf that she had wanted to keep just before we got to church. She was so distraught over the loss that she refused to enter the pew, so spent the first ten minutes of mass standing in the side aisle with her back against the end of the pew, her coat hood up, glaring at everyone who passed by. We let her stay there, since she was quieter than she usually is IN the pew, and we figured it would blow over eventually (it did). There was one additional scene with Marianne at communion when she didn't want to walk up for a blessing without a stuffed animal she'd brought along, but I'm trying to forget about that one and hoping that the whole congregation didn't notice it. Sara said she saw it all from the choir loft, and one of the priests saw it as well. He was chuckling for a few minutes after. {sigh}

We attempted to take a group shot of the kids after mass. They were tired and coming off one sugar high while working to build into another, so it wasn't great timing. Still, they're a good looking crew.
And yes! Those are the Easter dresses that I whipped up over the past few weeks. I'm very please with the outcome. Here's a very goofy picture of the girls in their matching dresses. They were well beyond posing for a "good" photo at this point. Quiet time was calling!
After nap, we headed to Andrew and Sherri's for a wonderful evening of food and visiting. Two of Nathaniel's siblings, Liz and George, were in town along with their significant others, so there was plenty of catching up to do. Nathaniel's folks had hidden Easter baskets for the big kids and grown ups, so we spent quite a while taking our turn hunting through the house for treats. The girls enjoyed one last egg hunt as well.

On Monday, we poured out our plastic eggs into a couple huge bowls for easy munching and started cleaning the shreds of basket grass out of the carpet. And we made use, for the first time, of the Easter gifts sent by my parents. That included this little hit:
It's a hand cranked snow cone maker (along with some snow cone cups, straws and syrups that I found at Target a couple days prior to Easter). The girls were crazy excited about the idea, but not so great at the execution.
Eventually, in the interest of getting a snack before it officially became dinner time, they agreed to let Sara and Jake take turns shaving the ice. Here's their "thank you" toast to Grammy and Papa for the gift:
Tonight we'll finish off our painted eggs in Nathaniel's family's traditional style - fighting them against each other in head to head combat to see whose egg will crack first, then slicing the hard boiled eggs and eating them in a bowl of beef broth. It sounds strange, but is an Easter tradition that the kids and I have come to enjoy.

Happy Easter to all my readers! I hope you've had a wonderful and blessed holiday!

Note: In the bike parade photo, you can see me in my typical mode of transporting Meg, my "sleepy wrap" (similar to a "moby wrap"). I love this thing. It distributes her weight beautifully and is super comfy to wear. If you've never seen one before, you probably think I look very odd, but I've become a total fan of the wrap movement!

A season of life

Easter is all about rebirth and new life, and it's been witnessed in a beautiful way by the women of my bible study group this week! Three new babies have been born since Monday, including my beautiful new nephew, Elliot Joseph, who was born Wednesday.

I can't imagine a more wonderful way celebrate the Easter season.

The Easter dresses are finished, the eggs were dyed this morning, and we're midway through the Triduum. It's going to be a busy, crazy, fun weekend with Nathaniel's family. I'll post pictures when it's all wrapped up.

Happy Easter!