It’s that time of year! We’re gearing up for the March of Dimes Walk America. Our family team packet just came in the mail and Christopher is jumping for joy about attending the “Bennett race” as he calls it.

So, if you live locally you should sign up to be part of Bennett’s team and come join our family as we walk. That link will take you to my site, and you can sign up through there. We’ll bribe you with snacks along the path, thrilling conversation, and a yummy catered lunch afterwards. Oh, and if you are lucky, there will be the balloon guy again this year.

If you don’t live locally, consider signing up to walk in your area. Or consider making a donation to the March of Dimes to aid their research. That link will take you to Kit’s page. It’s a good cause. We are deeply grateful for this organization - they helped fund the development of treatments that literally made it possible for Bennett to breathe. Without surfactant, he had no chance. Now he’s here, and at the moment he’s trying to scale the tv. And dialing long distance on my phone, he’s probably calling Australia.

A neat feature of the walk is they are requesting family teams submit pictures of their preemie with birth weight and gestational age. They will be posted along the trail for walkers to see on their journey, and I think that will be neat to put a face to the children benefiting from our help.

This is a VERY family friendly walk. Bring strollers, pull wagons, take your time meandering the trail. If you can’t walk, come hang out and eat and play and visit and show your support. They had Blue Bell ice cream sandwiches for walkers (as Christopher likes to remind us every time this comes up) and all sorts of neat things.

And did I mention the free snacks?

So pull out that credit card, click on the link above, go make a donation to a cause that will give you warm fuzzies. Give a $1, give $2, give anything at all and you will be making a difference.

Thank you!

Emiline is crawling all around the house but cannot yet go in reverse, so we have to help her back up when she gets stuck. And enormous news, she is sitting unassisted. We’ve seen her prop sitting, leaning on one arm and sort of lounging about. Now she’s SITTING and playing with toys. And she’s 5 months old, she’ll be six months this weekend.

Here she was earlier this week with prop sitting and pulling up on things - notice she’s on her FEET, not her knees, in this second shot??

I don’t trust her balance yet so I sat behind her and Christopher snapped some pictures just now:

Wise little Christopher was stroking her head and said, “Babies grow up too fast, huh, Mom?”

I posted about school stuff today so you can read it here if you so choose. I was in charge of the craft, story & snack at our homeschool co-op and I read “The Rainbow Fish” and we made mosaic fish with tinfoil scales & googly eyes and then ate rainbow colored Goldfish crackers & marshmallows. It was fun! Our group has 9 families participating and about 14 kids 3 to 7 years, plus some babies & toddlers. The kids are remarkably well behaved because despite the group size and involvement of glue, tiny pieces of paper, and food there was very little mess and they were so polite and quiet while I read!

Christopher and I stepped outside to take a walk and I noticed the temperature drop and grabbed a jacket, telling him I was cold. We’re holding hands and as we walk along he asks, “Mom, am I fat?” I stuttered for a second, wondering why in the world he was asking and then went, oh, duh, ASK him why he’s asking! Sometimes it’s better for me to get the background before answering because the actual question isn’t always what he’s asking. Like with babies, and how they are made and where they come from? Right, don’t just answers those because “Where do babies come from?” may really be, “Where was I born?” Which means you may scar your child with WAY too much info if you start answering where babies come from… However, I have discovered that when Christopher asks about babies, he really IS asking about the whole making baby dynamic but that’s another issue. What else can we expect when he’s been verbal for our last two pregnancies, right? Like he’s not going to notice and ask questions? It’s Christopher.

Okay, back to story. Christopher clarified with, “Am I fat and that’s why I’m not cold? Because fat keeps you warm.” After I stopped laughing I pointed out that Mommy was in capri pants and a t-shirt and he was in more appropriate clothes, jeans & a long sleeved shirt. So I was cold because of my clothes and he was warm because of his clothes - not because he’s fat.

Apparently they learned about this on Zoboomafoo - we have no feathers or fur so we need our fat to keep warm. On that note, I think we’ll go eat some more cookies so we can be warm. Don’t tell my kids I said that…

Brief moment to comment so I don’t forget to mark this on the calendar - Emy is now sitting up (propped on one arm) and pulling up on things (just to kneeling position) though she’s starting to push up with her legs so she’s standing and leaning over with her arms on something. It’s freaking me out. She can crawl forward but can’t reverse, so sometimes she gets stuck and cries until we help her back up. Today she rolled into the wall on the tile and Christopher scooted her back onto the carpet and gave her a toy to play with, then came and told us what he had done. He said he was very gentle with her. Oh, and she’s nursing every two hours so we bumped her to two meals a day and she’s eating. She’s one week shy of being 6 months old and just over 14 lbs (a friend brought over a scale to weigh her.)

And I asked Bennett today to clean up, twice, and with no physical prompting on my part he ran over and started picking up things (once toys, once cranberries he spilled) and putting them away! He’s sometimes rational! Hooray!! And when he wanted to color he said “color” and “paper” and then took sat at the table to color. He should be 21 months so Kit says we’ll still cut him some slack in the behaviorial area. I can’t remember if two year olds are suppose to be reasonable and obedient and clean up after themselves? But we’re just going to assume he’s capable of that and keep on encouraging him.

Exciting vision milestone, we’ve been trying to help him identify things in books. We’re not sure if he’s struggling with that just as a cognitive thing or if it’s related to the vision. We’re reading to the kids and I asked him to get me a book. He ran and grabbed a tiny one (but he grabbed a book!) and I showed him a page with blue items - he started signing “brush teeth” because there was a toothbrush on the page! Small, and he saw it! Then he pointed to the glasses and took off his own glasses and folded them closed (like the glasses on the page) and THEN, he pointed to the boots and patted his legs and started stomping his feet!!

I was so thrilled I almost cried. Instead I blogged about it. I cannot tell you how it eases my mind to see him reaching cognitive goals and jumping vision hurdles like this. Wow.

OH, and as Christopher was going over his spelling words for the week, spelling them and then reading the word, Moira joined him! So we gave her a chance and she spelled the words on her own and read two of them properly! Cat and hat. We were stunned! She would say, “c-a-t, cuh-at, cuh-at, CAT!” Kit and I decided we’ve been underestimating her readiness for more lessons. She’s turning 4 in two more months so time to give her some more challenging stuff.

I guess we’re guilty of underestimating all our kids. They seem to motivate each other in all sorts of great ways and they keep raising the standards and I’m really, really impressed with all of them.

Now that big girl Emy is getting into everything, I decided it was time to pull out the older baby toys for her. Right now she’s just got the little baby stuff - rattles, squeakers, etc. We’re moving onto the more “mature” goodies - stackers, fish aquarium w/plastic balls, stacking cars. I grabbed them from the garage and started cleaning them (and can I tell you how impressed I am with myself that a) I even HAVE a sorted bag of older baby toys b) I knew where they were?? Sometimes I have my act together, not often, but there’s hope for me.) Christopher and Moira both came in and started reminiscing about their childhood, way back when THEY played with these toys (which cracked me up.) But they are right - I’m wiping this stuff down and realizing Emiline is the fourth baby we’ve had play with these toys!

When Christopher was 6 months old we splurged on a toy for him. I felt guilty buying it because financially, we were living on a VERY tight budget and it was a $20 toy and that seemed pretty steep when we were being so careful with money. It was the Leap Frog Discovery Ball, it plays the ABCs, phonics, and songs for each letter of the alphabet and it spins on a frame or you can pop it off. I knew Christopher loved it because he played with it at a friend’s house but I still remember that sense of being financially irresponsible… anyway, it’s been one of the most popular toys at our house for the last 5 years running, I don’t think we’ve ever packed it away. Now Emy is discovering it and I can appreciate that it was a good investment! Not all toys have such a long running in popularity.

Now I’m watching Emy fight Bennett off as he rediscovers these toy and doesn’t want to share with her.

I love our little town, they have such fun traditions and festivals. We took the kids to their first parade last night, it was for Mardi Gras and the parade started at the park near our house. The kids loved it, the floats threw candy and beads. Bennett decided to get into the New Orleans spirit and even took his shirt off! Moira was doing this adorable little shimmy-shake while listening to the music. The kids also decided that Emy’s lap was the perfect spot to stash their candy. It was great.

Emiline is really crawling, up on all fours with coordinated movement. Okay, not THAT coordinated because you see her pause every once in awhile as if trying to remember which limb to move next but yes - REALLY crawling. At 5 months and 3 weeks old. Eeks! She’s beaten Christopher’s record (at 6.5 months) and he walked at 9 months and 3 weeks so curious (scared!) to see what this means for Little Miss Mobile. She’s still so itty bitty that it’s a strange sight. Except for her deliciously chubby thighs that are growing plumper and I can’t help but squeeze them because her little rolls are so cute.

Kit fed her sweet potatoes tonight and she seems to prefer them over rice cereal (no surprise.) We’ve affirmed again this week that she has the dairy protein issue because she’s really NOT happy with Mommy sneaking that pizza slice. More about food & dairy stuff tomorrow.

Mo’s playing with her baby doll a lot these days — dressing it, cradling it, toting it around in its car seat, feeding it from bottles. Much feeding from bottles!

Well, Mo misplaced her baby’s milk bottle, and she was lamenting her loss loudly. Critter, offering comfort, told her, “That’s okay, Moira. You can pretend you have breasts!”

Ahem.

We hope yours involved chocolate. To sweeten the day, we have for your reading pleasure Christopher funniness, because he was just full of it:

“Heavenly Father and Jesus have conditional love for us. They love us no matter what!” (We explained the difference between conditional and unconditional love, after we stopped laughing.)

Moira to Emy: Appy Alentine Day!
Christopher to Moira: She doesn’t understand our language, Moira!

Talking to Christopher about reading today:
“Mom, I don’t want to practice today.”
“Why not?”
“It’s a holiday, I don’t want to practice on a holiday!”

At storytime: “There is love in the air!”

C: “Mom, does everyone get a Valentine on Valentine’s Day?”
Me: “No, not everyone.”
Then he looks up at me with big, brown, glassy eyes & tears about to spill.
Me: “Kit, quick!”
Luckily I had a card we bought for him stashed away and we pulled it out. It says, “You sure make being family fun.” After he read it he thanked us both and gave hugs and Valentine’s Day was saved. Despite the many treats he’s had all week and the valentine cards from friends, he says it only counts if it’s ON that day and it needs to be a card, not a treat, to count as an “official” valentine.

One of tonight’s MANY questions from Christopher was “Why don’t you feel yourself growing?”

Emy’s new game is crawling to the tile and batting a plastic cup, letting it roll away, then chasing it down. She is now faster than I am prepared for, and we’re frantically babyproofing. She’s also doing the stink bug pose and though she’s not yet up on all fours crawling, her army crawl is remarkably speedy.

Bennett has narrowed the field for future occupations - his two obsessions are laptops and kitchen utensils and/or appliances. He’s going to take after Daddy with the computers or he’s going to be a chef, though Kit’s also a great cook.

Anyway, Bennett come stumbling out of bed this morning and he’s bleary eyed and before I can hand him his glasses he’s racing off to the kitchen. Pulls open the drawer (which is still over his head) and reaches up with his hand to feel around in there. I know he’s searching for his cheese grater but it’s not clean. So he settles for a beater but one is not enough - he reaches back up to feel around for the second beater. Then he trots off happily to play.

Yesterday it was the pancake turner (and only because Kit took the cheese grater to make lunch.) We tried to distract him during therapy and get the kitchen tools away but nope - he would do his little puzzle or whatever with his OT, then immediately look for his pancake turner and if he didn’t see it, he jumped up to go look. It was hysterical!

Now he’s pushed a chair to the stove and is trying to do something with frosting, a butter knife and a frying pan. No sharp knives so I’m ignoring him.

This child is obsessed, I tell you! And not just with the kitchen hardware but with food in general. He LOVES food, most anything he can get his hands on. In another year I plan to have this kid cooking for us.

So a tour of Bennett’s culinary obsession - first, the fridge:

Then, every dish he could find:

Exploring the toy kitchen we bought:

Notice the pancake turner:

The grapefruit/toaster oven incident, exploring new tastes:

Learning to use the microwave:

Notice the food?

And the boiled egg incident:

And while ignoring him he just pulled out the ice cream maker, mixer, and waffle iron. I better go clean up.

Oh, and random insert - we had lots-o-therapy this week since he gets 3 types (vision, OT & speech) once a month and we’re cramming them all into the same week. I had another nice long talk with our vision teacher and she said unless something goes really wrong with the eyes, we can take legal blindness off the table. (Barring a retinal detachment, which is not high on my list of worries.) And unless his glasses stop working (his vision cannot be corrected even with lenses) then braille isn’t an issue. She also pointed out that braille is helpful through high school but totally useless for college since at that level all textbooks are on cd instead of braille. Makes sense, but also makes me think we don’t need to stress the braille - we’re still learning the alphabet and numbers for fun with all the kids, but I don’t think Bennett will NEED to learn braille. Throw that one off the table. Which really just leaves us with no matter how bad the vision gets (and it will get worse, we know that) then so long as those glasses keep working he’s okay. My goal is for him to comfortably read regular size text and be legal to drive. We need his vision to be correctable to that degree. Which is pretty compelling reason to keep the glasses on him as much as possible - we want that little brain to grow knowing what clear vision looks like!

And I am deeply thankful that Bennett has outgrown the “shove everything in my mouth” stage and the “throw everything in the toilet” stage and the “try to sit on the baby’s head” stage. He’s now really great about those three things that have been causing me stress. Though he does try to pick up Emy now… on to new worries!

C: How does the baby chick get air inside its shell?

Me: Um, I have no idea.

C: Maybe there are little tiny holes we can’t see that let the air in.

Me: That sounds good!

C: Oh, wait, I remember, I learned that from the Krat brothers! (On Zoboomafoo.)

Gee, thank goodness for PBS Kids or my children would be lost. Did I mention Christopher is reading? And he learned it from a Leapfrog DVD? Okay, not entirely, we did spend years of his life reading to him and playing phonics games and introducing him to things so he would be prepared for reading. But something clicked with this video and now he’s sounding out all sorts of words. For awhile Moira’s most clear words were all Dora related: backpack, map, Boots the monkey, Dora. Now Bennett’s happy to speak, so long as it’s related to Blue’s Clues: mail, clue, Blue. He hums the tunes and wiggles his tail and even does the jazz hands for “MAAAIIIIILLLL!” song. I think his first sentence was, “More Blue Clue!”

Okay, but in my defense we don’t have cable or dish, the ONLY station the kids watch is PBS kids and we do refuse some (Jay Jay makes me nuts, as does Barney and Maya & Miguel) so we are somewhat picky. Dora & Blue’s Clues (and only with Steve, we don’t like Joe as much) are all videos we picked up at the thrift shop or for birthdays. I tell myself all the time we’re going to limit tv and we do, but it’s still on too much for my taste. I’m just too lazy sometimes.

Though as I type this, Christopher is singing the planets song - he can name them all, even the former planet Pluto. Thank you, Blue’s Clues.