Bennett's First Bite

Remember this? Celebrating our second rice cereal starting via the CraSieh blog! Bennett sat in the same bouncy seat as his brother and sister, and wore the same bib as Cam did for his first taste of rice cereal :)

Hmmm...

I've had better.

Think I could get used to this ;)

3 For 3

All three of my kids made me laugh out loud today. I actually think they do this most every day, but today they all did something memorable that warmed my heart!

As Cameron was eating breakfast today, I saw him holding his cup of juice and staring intently at it. He is learning about the fruits of the Spirit in toddler church, so my mom had been singing him the kids song that goes, "The joy of the Lo-ho-ho-hord is my strength," and etc. He looked up from his juice with a concerned face and said, "Mommy...the joy of the Lord is my drink?" Oh I could just squeeze him!!

I put Bennett in the high chair as I prepared his rice cereal this morning. I came back to find the high chair tray set up (by Elly) just for him with a pink plate containing a peach and hot dog (play food), as well as a pink fork and baby bottle. I entered just as she was carrying over a pot of necklaces (spaghetti, perhaps?) that she had been stirring. I also found her mini ketchup bottle and cardboard milk carton in the fridge. ♥

And my sweet baby boy...he found his reflection today! I was holding his mirror toy in front of him as he sat in the bouncy seat, and all the sudden he erupted in giggles!! I ran to get the camera and caught the last of it. What I got on video was minor compared to how hard he was laughing at first! Cameron was hanging on my arm...so please forgive the shakiness of the footage :)

There you have 'em. Cam, Ells & Bennito - 3 for 3 on LOLs :)

Spamtastic**

**Or, "When Processed Food Happens to Good People," or "Sodium-r-Us," or "Why Can't I Drop That Last 10 Pounds Of Baby Weight?"

I just had to share the lunch creation I fed to my baby birds this noon. With the organic, whole-food revolution going all around us, I found it ironic that I created a lunch (which they devoured) out of a select few of the unhealthiest items in the kitchen. Apparently I was a lil salt-deficient at lunchtime?

What came out of the fast-and-furious, grease splattered, delicious-smelling kitchen looked almost just like this:

Thanks, foodchannel.com.
See, if a food website has the recipe on it, I'm not such a bad mom, right?

Here are the ingredients (obviously just for kicks since you can clearly see what this carbohydrate boat is hauling :)

- One plain bagel (hold the whole grain, please)

- One slice of American cheese (or cheddar, if you're feeling more the natural route)

- One egg, scrambled (a dash of pepper, but don't use much salt...sodium flavor will be WELL-infused from other ingredients)

- One slab (haha) of SPAM (yep, Spam. Like you pull out of a can and it's in a loaf, and you slice off as much as you want. I think I did 1/8 of a loaf - aka, a slab - per bagel.)

Toast bagel. Scramble egg. Warm SPAM in frying pan - try to ignore grease it exudes merely from a slight change in temperature. Also try to ignore the "best by" date on can of SPAM, which is three years from today. Place cheese on freshly toasted bagel so it starts to melt. Place egg, then SPAM, on the other half of bagel. Indulge in processed deliciousness.

Not kidding, Cam and Ells ate more for lunch than they had in a few weeks. Caleb didn't complain too much, either :) I promise I normally strive for generally nutritious meals and try my hardest to provide foods from the Earth and not from machines.

But man, these were Spamtastic. Don't judge ;)

Does it count that I served them with clementines?

For Those Keeping Stats...

Here is a random thought that came into my frazzled brain a few days ago, perhaps in the spirit of the NCAA Tournament:

I have been pregnant and/or nursing since March 2006. 4 years ago. 4 years.

This is NOT an announcement that I'm pregnant again!

It could, however, be an excuse for a myriad of forgotten items, emotional outbursts, and general mental instability :) The precious ones have stolen my brain!

March 2006. F-O-U-R years, 3 babies! Whouda thunk it?? I know many amazing women who have been at this business much longer...and to their amazing example - and the Lord - I cling!!

And on that note...six lines of blogging is about all I can muster right now :) G'night.

What We're Reading...

While waiting for the snow to melt...we've all been curling up with some good books! Can you guess who's reading what? ;)

"C" is For Cooking
Sesame Street Recipe Book

Baby Einstein Farm

(English, Spanish & French)

Uncommon: Finding Your Path to Significance

Tony Dungy

You Were Born For This
Bruce Wilkinson

Jamberry
Bruce Degen

A-merry-ca

Cameron's latest favorite thing to do is sing "America The Beautiful/God Bless America" over and over throughout the day. Yes, I have spent multiple hours a day teaching him these cherished songs, note-by-note and word-by-word. No, I haven't. The Gaither Vocal Band has, though.

See?

This song is part of our nightly bedtime ritual - and comes right before the "big song," as Cam calls it. The CraSiehs love us some GVB...

Anyway, I'm still trying to get my crooner on video performing his rendition, because it's too cute. He really gets into the music and what he's certain are the correct words to the song. My favorite is the way he pronounces "America," which I tried to write phonetically for effect. It's literally "Ah" (as in ah-ha!) "Merry" (as in yuletide greetings) "Ca" (pronounced correctly). It's his own special dialect for that word...but he may have misinterpreted a few of the other lyrics... just a bit. ;) Enjoy!

God Bless America

Lyrics interpreted by Cameron C. Sieh

Oh beautiful for space of skies

For anger waves of grain.

For purple mountains' majesty

About a fruit and plane! (or train)

A-merry-ca, A-merry-ca

God send he grays on knee

And crown die good with brudder-hood

From sea to shiny sea!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

From the mountains, to the praying,

To the oceans, white with father (!?)

GOD (with gusto) bless A-merry-ca,

My home sweet home!

GOD BLESS (more gusto) A-merry-ca,

My home sweet home!

Promise you'll be the first to see it when I do catch it on video -- he's a little camera-shy! :) It's super-duper precious!!!

Beautiful Babies

Sometimes I get so caught up in the changing diapers, making meals, doing laundry/dishes/naptimes of it all that I forget what I have. Three amazing, precious children. I am so blessed. Don't get me wrong...the daily grind gets me down more often than I care to admit. But sometimes, I just get a big ol' slap of perspective, right in the face. So, so thankful for what I have!

I love my beautiful babies!