Christmas Cuties

In spite of Joey making faces every time I lifted the camera, and breaking a sweat from chasing down a crawling Adam in between each shot, I'd say the obligatory holiday photo shoot went pretty well.

You be the judge...

Get Your Craft On

Another day of Christmas break, another Christmas craft! At the risk of this sounding like a cooking and crafting blog, I thought it would be fun to share what Lucy and I did today. That is, in between eating Christmas cookies and watching Christmas movies. Naturally.

I found this idea in a magazine a few weeks ago and cut the page out for just such a time as this. It turned out to be super easy, very fun, not messy (which is one of mommy's requirements for in-home crafting with two little boys at our feet), and far more pretty than I imagined.

Here is what we used:
Sculpey oven-bake clay, Mod Podge Sparkle glue, and some red satin ribbon. We also needed waxed paper, a flat-bottomed glass, a plastic drinking straw, and a sponge brush (though I'm sure any paint brush would have worked just fine).

I had Lucy collect some textured objects from around the house. She came back with a beaded bracelet, an acorn top, a sea shell, and the top of a teapot.

I cut a few slices of clay, we rolled them into little balls, then flattened them between waxed paper with the glass until they were about a quarter of an inch thick. The fun part was adding patterns by lightly pressing the textured objects into the clay. The final step was using a drinking straw to punch a little hole for the ribbon.

Then we baked them according to the clay package directions and allowed them to cool before Lucy coated them with sparkles.
I know, she either looks asleep or bored out of her mind in this photo, but trust me, Little Miss Santa was having lots of fun. Who doesn't have fun with sparkles?

Once they dried, we strung them with ribbon and hung them on our tree.
I love how imperfect they are. What I see instead of perfection are little images of a six-year-old's creativity, and a fun afternoon of making Christmas-time memories.

Christmas Cookies

One of the many things on Lucy's to-do list for her two week break from school is to "help Mommy make Christmas cookies." We got started today with one of daddy's favorites: Holly Cookies.

I love this recipe both for its simplicity and how festive they look. The bonus is that both my older kids can help, and they love how yummy they are!

Joey helped to separate the red and green M&Ms.

Lucy helped stir A LOT of green food coloring into the melted marshmallows.

She also helped decorate the 'holly' with the 'red berries.'

WARNING: Green teeth and tongues create lots of Christmas giggles!


Holly Cookies

1 stick butter
10 oz. marshmallows
1 1/2 t. green food coloring
4 cups corn flakes
red M&Ms

Melt butter and marshmallows over low heat. Add green food coloring and stir until blended. Add corn flakes; stir until well-coated. Scoop by spoonfuls onto waxed paper. Decorate with 2-3 M&Ms. Allow to cool completely before storing. Enjoy!
(Makes about 3 dozen cookies.)

My Little Ninja

I love this age. I say that so many times in the first year, but truly, nine-month-olds are So. Much. Fun.

For the last nine months Adam has been a constant source of joy (and entertainment) for our whole family. I find myself thinking, "I never want to forget [fill in the blank] about Adam at this age!"

Like how he rolls his tongue around inside his mouth and sucks on it, as if he is a connoisseur of fine food, when there is no food in sight...
How he plays peek-a-boo in his car seat when he's feeling shy by turning his head as far as he can to one side so that only one eye is exposed...
How he was the only one of my three kids to not cry when we all got the flu shot...
How I freak out when his brother sits on him or steam rolls him, though it only makes him belly-laugh...
How he opens his mouth well in advance of a spoonful of food being anywhere near...
How he spits Cheerios out, letting them dribble down and collect on his chin like a beard...
How he waves with a twist of his wrist anytime he hears someone say the word 'hi' or 'bye' or 'goodnight'...
How he lets out a staccato squeal of joy when he gets something in his hand that he's excited about, and how he proudly holds it up high for all to see...
How his whole body wiggles when he's happy...
How he flaps his arms to try to join his siblings when they jump up and down...
How he bounces to any kind of music...
How he claps so gently...
How he growls with his mouth wide open, like the old 'wazzup' commercials...
How he splashes in the bathtub, in total seriousness, as if it were his job...
How he tries to grab the bar of his car seat with his feet, like a monkey...
And how he just started a proper crawl, but he still gets around quite well with his super ninja roll, in which he purposefully lays down to roll wherever he wants to go, then sits back up...

Just today, crawling became his primary source of mobilization, which sadly means that the ninja roll will most likely become a thing of memory sooner than later. And so will most of the things I listed above, in time.

Most of these I cannot capture anywhere but in my heart and memory. But this one thing I can. And so, for nostalgia's sake, I present to you Adam's ninja roll.

(Yes, I call it a ninja roll. What would you call it?)

Brothers

Baby Food

He eats! Adam eats baby food! Now that he is eight months old, I feel like it's safe to truly believe and declare it.

If you knew my other two kids as babies, you understand that I approached Adam's six-month mark with a bit of fear and cynicism. Let's just say I don't have the greatest track record with babies and solid food.

The day that Lucy turned six months old, I happily pulled out the carefully-selected organic rice cereal, mixed perfectly proportioned amounts of cereal and breastmilk, and used the perfect little bowl and rubber-covered spoons.

She shuddered and spit it out.

But I was undeterred. I tried again the next day. And the next. And the next. I tried with water instead of breastmilk. I tried different thicknesses. I tried it warm, and I tried it cold. And when I decided to move on to try something different, she was already clamming up at the sight of the spoon. But I was sure that my homemade baby food that I had steamed and put through the baby food mill and carefully and lovingly proportioned and frozen in ice cube trays would be much more appealing.

She shuddered and spit that out, too.

This was our routine for the next three and a half months. That's right. Lucy didn't actually swallow any food until she was nine and a half months old, and then it was straight to table food that she could feed herself. Ugh. It was a long road.

Josiah, on the other hand, was quite happy to give food a try. But his body clearly wasn't ready for it. He ate the food, but then he threw it all up. All of it. Every time. I could set my clock by his body's reaction: exactly two hours after eating, he would begin to throw up. We explored allergies and illnesses, but in the end it left our pediatricians stumped and I gave it a rest for a while, trying again every few weeks. When he was just older than nine months, he finally started keeping everything down, as long as it was not "baby food." Phew!

So, this fall, when Adam turned six months old, I wrestled with even attempting "the dreaded baby food thing" until he was closer to his first birthday. I passed his half-year mark without having purchased a single item of baby food, and the rubber-covered spoons were still packed away.

But at six-and-a-half months old, sitting on the most beautiful beach in Hawaii, I took my first bite of a sweet Hawaiian banana and saw that Adam was watching my every move. I knew I had to let him try it.

I almost didn't get my finger back!

He ate it. Eagerly. And wiggled and bounced happily between each bite.

Since then, he has happily eaten and kept down a whole variety of foods: pumpkin, pears, squash, peas, prunes, apples, bananas, peaches, green beans, and his favorite, sweet potatoes.

This is a first for me: a baby who eats baby food. Who knew?

With my third baby, I'm feeling like a first-time mom. I'm loving the joy of this "new" discovery and wondering what he'll think of Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow...

Each Day

Parenting. It's a super hard job. If you've got kids, you know what I'm talking about. I love my children like I never thought was possible, and I consider them to be the most amazing gifts from God. Being a parent is a huge privilege--to think that God has entrusted me with these precious lives to shape and care for! Yet sometimes I get bogged down in the daily tasks of caring for them, or discouraged in the responsibility of disciplining them.

There are times when it can be hard to live each day with purpose and not just try to survive!

Kind of like this week has been for me. Hmm.

I was encouraged today to discover this little bit of wisdom on parenting, and I'm challenged to give it a go. If you have little ones (or even not-so-little ones) in your care, I encourage you to do the same:

EACH DAY, I will:

• Consider my role as parent as a significant God-appointed responsibility.
• Ask God's direction regarding my child at night and in the morning.
• Use the Bible as my main resource book in parenting.
• List at least one new blessing God has given me as a parent.

Each day. Not just once in a while. Not just when my son stubbornly refuses to eat his favorite dinner. Not just when I have to remind me daughter for the 18th time to get in the car or she'll be late for school. Not just when my baby is up in the middle of the night for the third time in three hours. And not just when they all climb into my lap for a sweet snuggle. Not just when I see them sharing without being asked. Not just when I hear them singing a song of praise when they think no one is listening.

I have a feeling that some days this is going to be joyfully easy, and others will take some serious deep-breath taking and on-my-knees praying. But I look forward to how it will change my perspective for the better on the hard days, and give me even more reason to rejoice and give glory to God on the good ones.