Bright Eyes and a Grin?

Ben got to enjoy his very first bottle today. He ate like a champ and then had some alert-time with Daddy. See- he really does have eyes!




Although he's still a little floppy, he is trying to hold his head up. He has pretty good control, but he does have one heavy noggin! Check out that little grin though- how cute is that?

Daddy's Little Nutritionist

In our endless parade of taste tests, one of the items we check out during the test is the nutritional information and ingredients in the different brands. You'd be amazed at the similarities and the differences! A few weeks ago, when taste testing every kind of "Lucky Charms" (so Lucky Charms, Marshmallow Mateys, and whatever other store brand I found... I can't remember the name of it and am too lazy to go find the taste test journal. Yes, there's a journal...) we started to compare calories and sugar and fat content. Abby thought this was a neat comparison and has been reading nutrition labels ever since. Lately, if any packaging is left on the table she checks out the vitamin contents and exclaims with delight, or chagrin, at the percent of daily value of such things as folic acid/folate and especially vitamin C.

We did a wheat bread comparison a couple of days ago. I will add a photo from that event as soon as I get it off the camera. It does include a healthy discussion between daddy and Abby about the nutritional analysis of the three products being tested.

- - - - UPDATE - - - - 10-25-09 - - - -
As I was writing the above post, Abby and Daddy were at a birthday party across town. When they arrived home, they each had a bottle of Pineapple/Orange juice. Apparently, they stopped for gas and went inside where they decided to purchase drinks. I am told that Abby stood before the cases and asked, "Daddy, which is the healthiest?" So they compared labels and came up with the Holiday brand Pineapple Orange juice.

Abby has also checked out Coke and Diet Dr. Pepper labels and has proclaimed them "junk food."

We are now trying to kick the pop habit at our house.

FLOOD!

We have a bad Saturday morning habit of letting the 3 big kids just play upstairs while we doze a bit longer (especially since they are usually up at 7, and we just don't do that). This morning, as usual for Saturday the kids were in and out of our room, climbing in and out of our bed, sometimes being cute, sometimes being annoying.

I had dozed off, so I don't know exactly what happened, but I woke to Nathan saying "Nicholas, get out of the bathroom." Then I vaguely remember hearing the flush. But what woke me and launched me out of the bed was the sound of water hitting the floor. (I got used to bolting towards a similar sound...that of a certain dog peeing on the floor. Or a kid-in-potty-training peeing on the floor...)

Have I mentioned that Nicholas is fascinated with the toilet? And flushing it?

I ran in, and there was no sign of whatever he flushed, so I was pretty sure we were about to call a plumber. Nathan thought the object was one of the Ben diapers Nicholas had just agreed to take to the Diaper Genie (or "deenie" as Nicholas calls it). Nathan located our handy plunger and was able to extract the object. It wasn't a diaper, but a 3 ounce size plastic cup (they were significantly cheaper than the paper ones for our little bathroom dispenser thingy, and we wouldn't have any more fights about who got the 'Elmo' cup vs. the 'Big Bird' cup - it seemed like a good idea at the time!).

Daniel went through a phase like this too, but the worst thing he tried to flush was one of Nicholas's blankets. It was too big to go down or cause any major problems. It was just a soppy wet mess.

Hopefully Nicholas and his fascination with the toilet won't last long. However, I'm not hopeful. He hasn't started potty training yet.

UGH!

Daniel and the Helicopter

On Friday, Goddard School had a "field trip" visit from a traveling airplane group. The kids got to look at helicopters and part of an airplane and such.

Goddard usually takes lots of photos of the kids at these events, which is awesome. In this case, the director called to ask if it was OK to use a photo of Daniel in a press release. So, here is the photo of Daniel, his friend and his teacher Ms. Janet checking out a helicopter cockpit.

Sleeping Mojo

Matched Set

Abby and I made tye-dye shirts for all of the kids just before Ben arrived. (Abby wanted to make them for the grown-ups too, but somehow I talked her out of it). The big kids did not wear these to the hospital, but we decided to wear them today.

You can read the fronts, but probably can't see the left sleeves which proclaim birth order "Kid #1." I was going to add "Mom's favorite" to the back of all of the shirts (because they are all mom's favorite), but I ran out of time that evening.

And yes, getting 4 kids to look in the general direction of the camera and at least sort of smile does take at least two adults and several rounds of cookies. (Note to self - next time, someone needs to kennel the dog so he doesn't steal any cookies...)

Nicholas - ready for Hollywood

Nicholas is in denial that it's fall (and that it snowed today!) - he still wants to wear his shades. But he does love being a big brother.

Code Breaker

How many 5 year olds can crack the TiVo Parental control code? Well, I can name one. That little stinker Abby was watching TV, which is generally recorded onto our TiVo (we never watch live TV) and for some reason, Clifford the Big Red Dog was unrated, so the parental control code came up. Abby said she entered 4 numbers into the boxes and they went away.

Ok. I'll admit, our parental control code wasn't exactly 128-bit AES encryption, but we didn't think we were going to need to be crafty about the code for at least another couple of years. Abby kept giggling about the numbers, because she knew what she pressed - it wasn't random - so we did update our code.

If she starts safe-cracking or invents the next internet virus, I don't know what I'll do.

Geeks in training

Yes, two mini-computers and two little boys simply enthralled. Daniel is working on his mouse control - which is pretty cute. There is some 'space shuttle' game he likes to play. The best thing about the R2-D2 computer is hearing C3-PO say "If you don't need me, I'll be shutting down now."

Such intensity.

Sir Handsome

Ben had his "newborn" photos done yesterday. These are my two favorite poses.


By the way - Kiddie Kandids inside Babies R Us in Maple Grove - quite awesome (if pricey for prints). They took an appropriate amount of time and got the best shots. The photographer really understood babies and the "cute" poses. Apparentky afternoons tend to be slow, so that helped too. AND I got to take the prints home - no waiting! Bonus!