"Silent" Night

I put Austin to bed about 15 minutes ago. I can now hear him humming Silent Night from his bed. Loudly. Oh, the irony.

Austin's New 'Do

Austin got his first home haircut this morning. It went...okay. He was scared of the clippers, I think. He sort of huddled in Zach's lap while I used them. I was a bit worried that I would make him look ridiculous and we would be making an immediate trip to have a professional fix him up. We're happy with the end result, though. My baby boy looks so grown up.

Post-haircut Austin with his "treat." I thought this situation called for a little shameless bribery.

Trip Pictures

As I've mentioned, we traveled a lot in November. Our kids are pretty good travelers, I'd say. All four of us drove to Charleston, WV, and then I flew with the kids to Texas. Here's a glimpse.

Hanging out with her favorite frog on the big comfy bed.

What a balanced meal: Easy mac, baby carrots, and...hush puppies? We needed an excuse to get ketchup from a fast-food restaurant (for Austin to dip his carrots in--hey, he's two) and we just like them.

Playing by the door while Esther napped. Austin was a good sport about this sort of thing.

In Texas now, with Gran, Pops, "Uncy Heath," and Grannie Hardy.

Scary how fast Austin picked up Gran's Ipod touch and figured it out. I'll be asking him for help with the computer before I know it.

Favorite activity: throwing rocks in the pond with Pops. Can you see the cute boots they bought for him so his shoes wouldn't get wet?

Helping Gran cut out pastry leaves for the pumpkin pie.

Just cute.

The youngest and the oldest: Grannie Hardy is ninety-seven! I am so glad Esther got to meet this godly woman.

Five Month Old Esther

• Don't have any height or weight stats for you. I'd guess Esther's somewhere between 13 and 14 pounds.
• Esther became a great sleeper this month...and then un-became a great sleeper. Near the beginning of the month I started waking her up before going to bed myself for a feeding, then we trained her to sleep through the rest of the night. The crying was pretty minimal and we enjoyed the fruits of that training for a few nights. Then we traveled and all those good habits disappeared. Waking up 3 or 4 times a night while we were away from home was all too common.
• Esther spent nearly half of this month away from home. First we went to West Virginia with the whole family, then we (just me and the kids) spent Thanksgiving week in Texas with Zach's family. Esther is a pretty good traveler--she handles long stretches in a car or airplane well.
• Esther rolled over for the first time this month, tummy to back AND back to tummy a few weeks later. So far she has only done it while wearing disposable diapers. Cloth seems to give her too much of a hurdle to overcome. Sadly, her daddy has yet to witness her do it and I haven't caught it on camera.
• Esther's hair seems to be getting a bit lighter. I am kind of sad about that, although she is still beautiful of course.
• The range of sounds that Esther makes is expanding. She talks to herself sometimes in her crib. I like listening to it even if it is keeping me from sleeping.
• Esther has liked to put her hands in her mouth for awhile now, but this past week she's been doing it like her life depended on it. Not to mention chewing on anyone else's arm/shoulder/fingers or her own clothes...whatever is available. Teething?
• Esther really likes her playmat. If she is well-rested and well-fed, she can play on it for as long as fifteen minutes.
• Esther still takes four naps most days, although I think she is transitioning to three.
• Esther is still not a bottle girl. Sigh. I feel like we've tried everything. I'm glad she's almost old enough to learn to use a sippy cup; maybe she'll drink milk out of one when I need to be gone.
• We left both kids with a "real" babysitter for the first time this month. (our beloved Emma; when she goes to college next year who knows what we'll do.) It did not go so well, probably because of the bottle issues described already.
• I really love my little girl. Lots and lots and lots. :)

A Little Trip, By the Numbers

7--days our family spent in Charleston, WV

14--rehearsals and concerts Zach played with the West Virginia Symphony

80--approximate decibel level of the sound machine that allowed our children to sleep soundly in the same room, more or less

2--playgrounds visited (and loved) by Austin

8--number of giant inflatable indoor bouncing apparatus at Jump Craze, possibly the best idea for kids (and moms) ever

3--members of the Collins family who came down with colds during our trip (I'm the lone holdout...expecting symptoms any minute now)

19--peanut butter sandwiches consumed by the family in our efforts to save money. Not much of a hardship; we all love them.

$3.49--cost of a small mocha, apple dippers, and the right to hang out in the Playplace for awhile at McDonald's; in other words, a small price to pay for sanity on a rainy day

1--mommy who is happy to be home but thankful for the little mini vacation she got to take with her family

Gracious

This morning was rough. Austin woke up at 5:45, seemed to be constantly disobedient, and refused to amuse himself. Basically he acted like a two year old. I was frustrated, annoyed, weary...and tempted to respond like a two year old myself. Then he started humming "My Jesus, I Love Thee." The last line goes "If ever I love Thee, my Jesus, tis now." So appropriate. A Sinclair Ferguson quote that the Girltalk blog posted a few days ago came to mind: "How many of us will get to the throne and with a twinge of regret say 'If only I had known You were this gracious'?" And in that moment I was so thankful that I serve a gracious God, gracious enough to atone for the sins of this mother and child.

Four Month Old Esther

• At Esther's four month checkup she weighed 12 lbs. 10 oz. and was 24 inches tall.
• Esther is a calm, happy girl. She smiles a lot--her smile is big and open-mouthed. She still doesn't do what I would call a real laugh but she definitely makes sounds to let you know she's excited about something.
• Esther can carry her side of a conversation. I love talking to her and hearing her little coos in return. She is quite expressive.
• Esther's favorite toy is her Infantino frog. (Austin had one, too, which he practially wore out from chewing on it so it's nice that Esther was given one of her own.) It's one of the few things that she can manipulate into her mouth--lightweight enough to pick up yet lots of convenient parts to get a grip on.
• Esther tolerates tummy time in short spurts but then starts complaining. Consequently I probably don't give her enough time on her belly--she is nowhere near rolling over. Perhaps she's destined to be a late roller/sitter/crawler like her big brother.
• When you carry Esther upright against your body, she wraps her arm around your shoulder and holds on pretty tight. I love this.
• Esther became really good at falling asleep this month. She goes down at night around the same time as Austin and falls asleep within minutes if not seconds. She falls asleep pretty quickly for naps, too.
• Esther is not quite so good at staying asleep, especially at night. She has been waking up twice at night to be nursed all month. At least one of those feedings is really short so I know it's more for comfort than nutrition, but we're not quite ready to let her cry it out yet. (Just picking her up and comforting her doesn't do much.)
• Esther usually takes four naps a day. Most naps are an hour long but occasionally we hit the jackpot and get a two hour nap or longer. How or why those long ones happen is a mystery to me.
• Esther still doesn't take a bottle very well. That is frustrating to me because it makes going out in the evening difficult. (For our church small group, my book group, etc.) We have tried different bottles, different positions, distractions, no distractions...doesn't seem to make much difference. She likes her mommy best.
• Esther is growing up too quickly. Of course. I will probably write this every month.

Halloween (Updated)

Austin loves Bob the Builder. (or "Bob da ba-da," as he says.) It's an unusual day if he hasn't asked to watch a Bob video by 9am. (I don't always say yes, but he asks.) So of course that's what he was for Halloween. We gave him the toolset this afternoon, kind of an early Christmas present so his costume would be properly accessorized.

The bucket is filled with tools. By the end of the evening it had a bit of candy, too. Austin was unusually willing to eat a good dinner tonight when candy consumption was on the line. :)

Esther was a ladybug. My nickname for her is Esther Bug so I really wanted her to be one this year. I didn't find an appropriately cheap/tiny storebought costume so I got (slightly) crafty and made my own. Considering that she wore it for about five minutes, it was a wise choice. She cooperated by laying on her tummy happily while I took pictures.

When I first posted this I forgot to include a picture of Zach in his costume. We made it for the Tubaphonium's performance of Frankentuba, in which all the studio members dressed up. Pretty awesome, if we do say so ourselves.

Occupying Austin

Things Austin really likes to play with right now

1. "puzzy piece" (puzzle pieces)--not necessarily putting the pieces in the puzzle boards, but putting them in his shopping cart and dumping them out. Again and again and again.
2. crayons--again, putting them in the ziploc bag and dumping them out. Coloring would be so ordinary.
3. my salad spinner--He asked to get this out of the cabinet this morning. In several sessions, he has played with it for at least an hour. And it's not even 10:00 yet.
4. socks--baby socks fit so conveniently into his little basketball hoop.

Who can understand the mind of a two-year-old? I sure love this one, though.

And the secret ingredient is...

Admit it. Somewhere in your kitchen or pantry, there is an ingredient tucked away that has been there a Long Time. You bought it with the best of intentions. You were going to make something healthy/delicious/exciting. But you didn't, and the ingredient is still there.

For me, that ingredient is chickpeas. A bag of uncooked chickpeas, to be specific. I don't even remember why I bought it. A desire to make hummus, perhaps? Maybe it was on sale? Who knows. But this week I decided enough is enough. It's time to cook with chickpeas.

Allrecipes.com (the best recipe site out there, in my opinion) has a handy feature where you can put in ingredients you want and ingredients you don't want in a recipe. Input chickpeas: yes, tahini: no (to avoid getting 3000 hummus recipes) and I came up with a bunch of tasty-sounding stuff. I feel a little bit like I'm on Iron Chef! Mr. Chairman, here is what I have to offer. (Note: I cooked the raw chickpeas according to the package directions before making any of the stuff below.)

Dish 1: Roasted Chickpeas

I followed one reviewer's advice and dry roasted the chickpeas instead of using oil. Not sure that was a good idea. Or maybe I just didn't roast them long enough. They came out a bit soft, not crispy, and they were pretty bland--seasoning didn't stick to them. I would be willing to try this again using oil.

Dish 2: Quinoa with Chickpeas and Tomatoes

I had all the ingredients on hand for this (gotta love that), except that I had to sub lemon juice for lime juice and I chose to use garlic powder instead of raw garlic. Oh, and I left out the cumin--it just didn't sound like a cumin-y dish to me. The results: very tasty. I ate is as a side dish for lunch but it was so filling that it could stand on its own. Zach loved it, too (he took some to school for his own lunch) and commented that it would be tasty with some feta thrown in.

Dish 3: Garbanzo Bean Chocolate Cake

This was not actually part of my original chickpea recipe search; rather, I found it when I was looking for a dessert to make for a friend whose son eats gluten-free. I made a cake for myself first to make sure it was tasty. (Gotta love a good excuse to make a cake.) It was pretty yummy, not to mention easy. And much higher in protein than your average chocolate cake.

Thanks to my two cakes, I ran out of chickpeas before trying the final recipe I wanted to make, Chickpea and Pasta Soup. I will get around to it someday. Perhaps next time I make a rash purchase of a bag of raw beans. :)

Little Bit of Learning

Austin and I did a shape sorting project this morning. He did a good job putting each shape in the correct place and loved gluing the pieces down. (It was his first experience with a glue stick. That aspect went better than I expected.) He is so proud of the finished product! Several times today he has pointed to it and said "Done!" (as in, Look what I've done!) It's so true; kids are learning sponges. I love being able to help him learn stuff like this.

A Conversation with Esther

I'll admit, I have not taken as many videos or photos of Esther as I would like. Grabbing the camera is just not at the top of your mind when you have a two year old running around, no matter how adorable Esther might be at any given moment. Every parent of multiple children out there knows what I mean.

But today while Austin napped, the camera was nearby and Esther got a few minutes alone in the spotlight. Nothing particularly special happened but I know her grandparents will love this so I decided to post it. Sorry this doesn't happen more often, baby girl.

Sweet Brother

While we were playing upstairs with the kids after dinner, Austin suddenly left the room. We heard him going down the stairs saying "right back." Then...

This was totally unprompted. Austin is so sweet to his little sister! (Okay, so he probably knew this would also get some attention from Mommy and Daddy, but still.) And if you can't tell in the video, the basket of toys is on the third or fourth step. He started carrying the whole thing but apparently decided it would be better to take the toys a few at a time. I just love this little boy!

Monday Morning Prayer

Thank you, Father, for turning an exhausted Sunday night mommy into a refreshed Monday morning mommy. Thank you for being there when I come to the end of myself.
Thank you for giving me so much joy in being a mother today. Thank you for all the spontaneous hugs, kisses, giggles, and smiles I've received.
Thank you for growing my baby boy into a loving, caring big brother. Thank you for a little girl who already looks up to her big brother.
Thank you for rearranging my priorities. Thank you for giving me eyes to see that kicking a ball in the backyard is more important than today's to-do list, that playing peekaboo is more important than having a spotless house.
Thank you for all the patience and strength you give me...and for teaching me lessons in my impatient and weak moments.
Thank you, Father, for all the blessings of this Monday morning.

Reading to Esther

Here is the video of Austin reading to Esther that I mentioned in my last post. The story is David and Goliath, in case you're wondering. Esther is a good listener, don't you think?