My Faith and Joy… and Boys!

If you opened up our pantry when the girls were little, you would have found enough Gerber baby food in there to feed quadruplets.  I had stacks upon stacks of rectangular containers of pureed green beans, peas, squash, applesauce, pears, and carrots.  I never gave any serious consideration to making my own baby food, mostly because I barely had enough time to feed myself before collapsing into bed, let alone make food from scratch for the girls.

This time around, though, I wanted to give it a whirl.  Not that I have much more time on my hands, but Jimmy is a more adventurous eater and I wanted to feed him some foods that I couldn’t find pre-packaged at the store. So a few weeks ago, I broke out my food processor (that woefully neglected component of my kitchen arsenal that Jim mocks me for coveting and then not using!), a pot, and some empty baby food containers.  Armed with suggestions and how-to instructions from the internet, I boiled up some zucchini, pears, red bell pepper, and summer squash.  Then, one by one, I blended them to a pulp and poured them into a few containers.  It seemed like a lot of work for such little quantities, but I intentionally didn’t prepare a lot of these foods because I didn’t know yet if Jimmy would like them.  That is, except for the pears.  I knew he liked the Gerber pears, so I figured I could make it more cheaply and it would be a win-win situation.

However. 

I didn’t count on Jimmy suddenly becoming picky and texture-specific.

Here’s how he thanked me for all the hard work I put into those pears:

I try not to let Jimmy watch any TV, but every once in a while he finds a way to sneak under the radar.

Or under the table. 

Four out of the five of us are currently battling a cold. 

Susie is the lone hold-out, and I’m doing my best to keep her separate from the rest of us. 

I don’t think it’s working.  Of all the times for the girls to get cuddly!

Okay.  I’m finally getting into the Christmas spirit.  The kids have been into it as soon as they started spotting Christmas lights on neighboring houses (“girl” lights, according to Becky.  I think because they’re rainbow colored?).  They happily screech “CHRISTMAS LIGHTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!” at the top of their lungs every time we pass a brightly-lit home, which startles me while I’m driving but also makes me chuckle. 

This is our first year with an artificial tree and I expected to have some regret about not taking the kids into the woods to cut down their very own tree (you can see our past adventures from 2010 and 2009)…but nope.  No regret here.  I’m so thankful I don’t have to worry about Jimmy trying to eat all the needles off the floor.  And because our freshly-cut trees of recent years never seemed to have that special Christmas smell anyway, I’m not even mourning its absence.  

So although our tree now lacks the homey, misshapen, prickly all-naturalness that characterized our past trees, it still warms my heart.  This was the first year that the girls truly helped to decorate it.  They took great pleasure in withdrawing each ornament from its tissue paper wrap, and even handled the delicate ones gently. 

They then hung them, often by themselves, on the “perfect spot” on the tree (Jimmy gave his silent approval).

I didn’t have the heart to point out that their “perfect spots” were all about eye-level for them, so we now have an ornament cluster about three feet off the ground.  The girls exclaimed over each ornament as they hung it up, bringing back wonderful memories of my sister and I doing the same thing when we were young.  I’m so glad my parents were willing to part with so many of my childhood ornaments, so I could pass on the memories to my kids! 

Like last year, the girls were especially fond of any ornament with moving parts, but I think the one that got the most ecstatic reaction was a miniature “Dunkin Donuts” cup! 

So whether our tree is prickly or plastic this Christmas season, some things never change.  In this family, we’re all about the food!