Yes Sir, That's Our Baby

I have 5 free minutes.  All the kids are sleeping and I will be too, very soon.  But, in the meantime, a few pictures of our sweet baby Claire.

 First smile, well almost a smile anyway.

 Still at the hospital and enjoying the quiet before the storm.

 Me and the 3 (YOWZAH!) kids.

 Going home from the hospital and wearing real clothes for the first time.  Our house is a veritable explosion of pink and we all love it!

 Doting Big Brother #1.

 Doting Big Brother #2.

 Eyes wide open!

 Pretty girl.

 First storybook.

Contentment.

She has been ours for 6 days and we are all in love.  

We already can't imagine our little family without her.

Introducing...

Claire Elise

January 9, 2012

7 lbs. 15 ounces and 20 3/4 inches

We have been blessed by the arrival of our baby girl.  She is perfect in every way and everyone's favorite already.  She beat the doctor into the world so the delivery room was a bit chaotic, but otherwise she has been calm and happy and the only real concern we have is that her older, doting brothers will smother her with love.

 Minutes after her arrival.

 With her very smitten Daddy.

 The only presentable photo of Mommy and baby from the delivery room.  

Claire's lightning fast arrival sent everything and everyone into a tailspin and decent photo ops were limited.

 

 First bath -- she was not amused.

Claire and her big brothers.  We are a very happy family.

The Most Important Meal of the Day

When I was growing up, nearly every morning my mom was up making us a hot breakfast before sending us out into the world to expand our young and already well-nourished minds.  I definitely did not truly appreciate her efforts until I had kids of my own to feed and get off to school.  I'm not really a morning person so thus far I have opted, mostly, for cold cereal, which my kids love.  

BUT. 

But, they are the SLOWEST cereal eaters on the planet which means we have to get up extra early for them to finish eating and still have sufficient time to get dressed, brush teeth, put on/find shoes and make it to school on time.  The best days are when we have leftover waffles or pancakes from the weekend or day before and they eat one in the car on the way -- we're never late those days.  However, they get bored with that after awhile and I feel guilty about not making fresh eggs and bacon or french toast or hot oatmeal.  And, on days when breakfast is a pop tart?  Well, let's just pretend we never have days like that.

I am convinced there is a better way.  I just know someone out there has found the perfect solution to this morning dilemma that is not going to force me to rise pre-dawn to assuage my guilt, but still fill their tummies with something other than pure, refined sugar.

So blogging universe I am coming to you seeking wisdom and brilliance or at least affirmation (please say it ain't so) that there is no short-cut on this one.  

What's your school day breakfast routine?  Are you up with or before the sun every morning over a griddle making free-hand pancake shapes of dinosaurs and Mickey like my mom was?  Do you go the cold cereal route too?  Have you found some happy medium?  Do you have some go-to portable but nutritious foods that are quick and easy (and can be made ahead of time) that your kiddos just can't get enough of?  Is there a miracle muffin or granola recipe out there that I just haven't happened upon yet? 

Please enlighten me.  I'll be eternally grateful and my kids will love you forever.

Babymoon, sort of

We had some free hotel nights to use before they expired and some good friends in West Virginia we haven't seen in too long, so we took a quick road trip right after Christmas.  Our first stop was Pittsburgh.  We had just over 24 hours in Pittsburgh and we could easily have stayed for 3 times that long.  There was plenty to do, especially for kids.  Upon arrival we went directly to the Carnegie Museum of Natural History and were greeted with a very impressive dinosaur display, including a few skeletons personally acquired by Carnegie himself.

This is just a portion of the dinosaurs on display.

 

While walking around, we found some very fierce beasts.

 1 of 2 complete T-Rex skeletons.

The museum also has lots of interactive activities for all ages, 

including digging for fossils,

 bug themed puzzles,

dinosaur footprints for climbing into,

 a huge box of odds and ends where kids can make their own collections and put them on display for other kids (Caleb gathered an entire box of plastic frogs and Isaac opted to go digging for shells),

 and a huge gallery dedicated to native peoples of North America where we learned about Eskimos and made flour from corn.

In addition, there was a massive display of minerals and precious metals, a temporary exhibit showcasing all of Madeline Albright's pins (it's huge!), and a gallery dedicated to Egypt.  Your admission ticket also gets you into the Carnegie Museum of Art.  Our guys were pretty worn out by the time we made it there, but we did manage to see that they have at least one work by every major artist of the last 600 years including several modern art installations (not my favorite) and some excellent photography exhibits.

The next day we rode the Monongahela Incline.  Built in 1870 is the oldest continuously operating inclined railway in the United States. 

 Pittsburgh is built on a series of hills and at one point there were 11 of these railways.  Only 2 exist now, but they operate almost non-stop everyday.  

Our boys are lovers of all modes of transportation so despite a very dreary, rainy morning, they were thrilled to take a short ride up and down the hill.

 It's hard to see, but just in front of the football stadium you might be able to make out a circular tract of land jutting out into the water.  

This is "The Point" and marks the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers where they form the Ohio River.

 They're smiling, but it was raining and they were not

exactly pleased to be posing for this photo.

They're reward for being such good sports was a visit to the Children's Museum of Pittsburgh.  It was a pretty great reward, actually.  We only had a couple of hours, but easily could have stayed all day and gone back again and again.

 This is the gravity room where the floor is at a 25 degree angle, this picture was very difficult to capture as they kept falling forward.

 Museum fun.

This room was fabulous and full of all kinds of physics experiments.

 Not surprisingly, they're favorite part was the rocket launcher area.  First, you had to make your own rocket (with some serious parental assistance) and then you went over to these air launcher things and went crazy.

 Dragging them away was tough.

Our last stop before leaving was to press pennies.  It was a four step process and after exerting some serious brute force, turned your penny into a ridged oval keepsake from your museum visit.

 From Pittsburgh we made the short drive to Morgantown, West Virginia, to see our dear friends Heather and Carlos and their adorable boys.  We were with them for just a few hours, but it was wonderful to catch up.  They are our dearest friends from Peru and we have seen them hardly at all since leaving Lima.  Now, they are permanently back in the US and we are heading to China so this was our last chance for the foreseeable future.  That is one of the difficulties of this lifestyle.  You make friends and then you inevitably head to different continents and crossing paths again, sometimes ever, becomes very challenging.

The morning we left for DC we met them for breakfast at this fabulous diner.  The pancakes were amazing and it was the perfect end to our Babymoon.   

Does it count as a Babymoon if you take your other kids along?  

Probably not, but it was a good trip nevertheless.

Christmas 2011

We had a wonderful Christmas this year, just like always.  We didn't travel, which was nice and enjoyed our own traditions with our own little family.  Santa Claus and Grandparents were very generous bringing some heart's desires and some unexpected surprises.

Opening new pajamas on Christmas Eve.

 Posing in said 'jamas before heading to bed in anticipation of Santa.

Christmas morning.  Isaac asked Santa for a big teddy bear and, well...

Caleb and his hot wheels race track.  He was/is in love!

Opening stockings before church.  "Hey, what did you get?"

"Candy and toys, what about you?"

On the way to church we paused for a few photos.  They're pretty handsome little boys if I do say so myself.

Home from church and finally opening presents.

 Isaac happily posed with every gift.

 And there were many.  He loves his new piggy bank.

Caleb never stopped moving.

 So many presents, so little time.

He was a very happy boy!

Me and my boys.  They got me exactly what I wanted.

 The adults sometimes get lost in the shuffle, but watching the kids go crazy with joy is what Christmas morning is all about.  

It was a glorious day, really.  Going to church before diving into the presents was especially nice and somehow much more relaxing than the usual flurry of shredding paper and ripping open packages.

Merry Christmas one and all! 

Tradition, Tradition!

I like traditions.  I like making them and keeping them.  So, for New Year's 2012 we had our traditional meal of black-eyed peas, greens and cornbread.  Despite finding a recipe last year that I really liked and that the boys willingly ate, I tried some new ones this year.  A friend sent me one, for which I will be forever grateful, and the other I found at the 11th hour as I thought for the umpteenth time, "how can I make eating spinach exciting?"  The first recipe is from the Pioneer Woman and it is the best way I have ever eaten or served black-eyed peas.  Seriously.  

Try it, you'll see, it's delicious!

 

Zannie's Black-Eyed Pea Dip

this is the Pioneer Woman's photo, but mine looked nearly identical

I didn't put jalapenos in mine and I added some onion powder, but otherwise I followed the recipe exactly and this dip was scrumdiddlyumptious!

I used the following recipe for our greens.  The bacon really pushed it over the edge, because let's face it, bacon is basically perfect and alone or paired with something else it is almost impossible for it to fail to please.  It's a simple recipe and it took just minutes to make (two things that make my heart sing!).

Spinach and Bacon Recipe

image from here

And, of course, we had cornbread.  Really crunchy, buttery, full of corn pieces, cornbread.  It was good eats folks and a delicious way of keeping this tradition alive.

Happy New Year

 We had a very low-key, kid-friendly and fun New Year's Eve celebration with some friends.  They invited us over for make your own pizzas, party hats, punch and poppers.  The kids had a blast playing with their friends and driving us all silly with their noisemakers.  We rang in the New Year around 8pm and were all in bed long before midnight.  This time next year we'll be in China and can watch the ball drop in the middle of the afternoon the following day.

2011 was good to us, very good in fact.  

Here's to another year of fun, friends, family and fabulous adventures in 2012!