Mmm . . . muffins!

If you give Noah a yummy, warm-from-the-oven blueberry muffin . . .

. . . make sure you put a bib on him or you will end up with this!

In case you couldn't tell, he enjoyed every bite! :)

Sibling snuggles!

Lael, Jaden and I headed in to see Noah today . . . a regular happening these days. But they were so excited when they found out that they would BOTH be able to hold Noah! As you might imagine, it was such a special time!

Lael is a pro at this -- she's already held Noah once . . .

. . . but this was Jaden's first time to cuddle his brother - and as you can tell, he absolutely loved it!

In fact, Jaden told me afterwards that holding Noah "is way better than playing computer games"! So there you have it!

(Oh, and by the way, Noah is now 3 pounds, 6 ounces and 16 inches long . . . for those of you who are keeping track of those kinds of things!)

So happy together!

Time is racing by . . . Noah is already 5 weeks old and has reached what would have been 32 weeks gestation if he hadn't been in such a hurry to meet us! He's 3 pounds, 1 ounce and gets cuter every day!

I got to spend time this afternoon with my three kids . . . cuddling the youngest with the other two close by! It was a tiny taste of what life will be like when Noah comes home - minus nurses (although ours are wonderful), monitors, and isolettes! I'm getting oh so excited and looking forward to that time!

I have such precious children -- all three of them! While we were visiting this afternoon, Noah brought his hands together in his sleep . . . Jaden decided he was praying that he'd soon be big enough to come home, and Lael agreed! They insisted that I take a picture of it!

Noah, we're praying that you'll be big enough to come home soon, too! We love you!

Mystery solved!

Jaden was reading a book about the Pilgrims today. One of the pages said, "The first winter many people died because there wasn't enough food to eat."

When he got to that part, he looked up and exclaimed, "You know, I've been wondering about that for a REALLY long time!" Then he went back to reading.

Glad we were able to clear that up for you, buddy! ;)

Silly Saturday!

I thought I'd share a conversation that I had with Jaden this morning . . .

Jaden: Mommy, where did this come from? [pointing to movie popcorn box]
Me: It's leftover popcorn that Daddy and Lael brought home from the movies last night to share with you.
Jaden: I'll try it, but I don't think I'll like it . . .
Me: Why not? You love popcorn.
Jaden: Yeah, but this is FISH popcorn!
Me: [trying not to laugh] Uh, honey, actually it says FRESH popcorn!
Jaden: Oh, okay!

Cut him some slack . . . he's only in kindergarten, and the R in FRESH sort of looked like an I. And besides, I think it's pretty brave of him to be willing to try "fish popcorn"!

Life as seen through Jaden's eyes

Jaden loves our digital camera! He recently got ahold of it, and here's what I found when I downloaded the pictures . . .

Kid funny

This afternoon Jaden was telling me a story he had written about a picture he'd drawn earlier. His story began with "Once upon a time, George Washington was fighting at Pearl Harbor . . . "! I guess it's a good thing we're focusing on American history this year! ;)

Wordless Wednesday!

(There are no words for this one!)

Dinner theater, anyone?

Jaden decided to put on a dinner theater for us all on Tuesday night. Now, I had planned a baked potato bar for dinner -- not exactly dinner theater food -- but we worked with it!

Here is the star of the show (and only actor) on stage . . . he's a pirate in case you couldn't tell!

Our make-shift baked potato buffetDaddy is enjoying "dinner and a show"!
And here is Pirate Jaden, looking very pirate-y and fierce!

The vast majority of the show consisted of Jaden swinging various swords around and saying "Arrrr" in genuine pirate fashion. (We tried to get him to sing a song or something, but he declined our request.)

So there you have it . . . dinner and entertainment! You can't ask for any more than that! Jaden will be taking requests for performances in the future. He is willing to travel . . . all that he asks is for help with transportation -- since he doesn't drive -- and that you feed him . . . but don't worry, he still doesn't eat that much . . . yet!

Everyday moments

A homeschool friend issued a challenge to capture the "ordinary moments" of our children's lives. Here's one of ours . . . Jaden is forever making forts or hideouts, and he loves to hide from us. Last night Lael was at ballet. Jaden decided to make his secret hideout under the dining room table, but he did let me visit briefly to take a couple of pictures:

Thanks, Ami, for the reminder to treasure the everyday moments with our kids!

Wordless Wednesday!

Dietary changes and kid funny

We decided to make some dietary changes as a family as we've begun the new year. Some synthetic food additives can have serious learning, behavior, and/or health effects for sensitive people. So, we are following the Feingold Program, which is a test to determine if certain foods or food additives are triggering particular symptoms. This program has two stages, the first of which is more restrictive to allow for a "detox" of sorts. The main things we are focusing on eliminating are artificial colors, flavors and preservatives.

Anyway, we pretty much eliminated artificial colors back in October -- and it hasn't always been easy, especially for our children, to understand why some of the foods we used to eat aren't okay anymore. We've been trying to keep our focus on what we CAN eat rather than what we CAN'T -- although over the holidays, that was a challenge! But I've found some places to order things like candy canes and lollipops online that are colored with natural food coloring -- spinach for green, beets for red, etc. We tell the kids that these are "God's colors" so they are okay to eat.

Jaden has struggled with the adjustment at times, but I think he's finally internalized the difference between "bad colors" and "God's colors". Yesterday he was telling me about a dream he had: We were at the grocery store and there was a drink stand that sold green drinks. He wanted to get a drink, but the stand had closed by the time he got to it, so he couldn't get a drink.

As he was telling me this story, I could tell that he was still so disappointed that he hadn't been able to get a drink in his dream. I joked that it was just as well because the drinks were green. He looked up at me and said, "But Mommy, these were green drinks with no artificials!" So even in his dreams he has found Feingold-approved alternatives! =)

Anybody thirsty?

Jaden set up a "water stand" today -- we didn't have any lemonade :)

Here he is, ready for business! Note the creative use of his laundry hamper . . .

The best part of this particular stand (in addition to the adorable stand owner)? He provided customers with coins from his own piggy bank to make their purchases! How generous!

He's just too cute!