Just in Case Child Protection Pays a Visit

Helen is always hungry. Helen is always eating. We had her 18 month check up yesterday and Dr. Simpson asked if she had a 7-12 word vocabulary. I said yes. He asked what words she was saying. I said "cookie", "cracker", "cup", "more", "mama", "dada", "baba"(brother), "Ra Ra" (Riley the dog), and "kitty." Her first words have always had something to do with food. The words she is trying to form now remain in the food category as well. Her teachers are amazed at the amount of food Helen ingests, yet she remains one of the tiniest and daintiest little ones in the Bunny room. At her check up she weighed about 22.5 pounds and was 31.5 inches tall. That puts her in the 25-50% for height and only the 10-25% for weight. Have no fear, her honker 19.5 inch head is well within the 95% for her age. Love those Moss genes.

Just in case anyone ever accuses me of not feeding my children, I post the following videos as evidence. When Helen wakes up in the morning, she lunges for her high chair. When she wakes up from her nap she lunges for her high chair. She will sit in the high chair for an hour tapping the table as she waits for food preparation to end. She will fly into a rage if you take something out of the oven, stir it, and then put it back. For the eighteen minutes it took the cookies to bake in the video below she stood in front of the oven, pressing her face against the glass, signing "please" over and over and over. For my Vandy friends, Helen is OHB - One Hungry Baby.

Meanwhile, Little Philip ate three bites of chicken and rice for dinner and called it quits in favor of going to his room to dance to the Letter People songs.

Dressing Little Girls

This morning it is raining, again. It has rained for 40 days and 40 nights so we are headed to Lowe's this morning to buy some wood, nails, and some tar to seal the ark we surely must build if this rain is to continue.

But that has nothing to do with this post. This morning we are taking it easy, trying to decide something to do as a family in the rain, that is free, or relatively free. While I was in the shower, Big Philip graciously started to dress the kids. It has not gone well so far. Little Philip insists on wearing his spider man pajama top for the day. I pulled out a one piece romper for Helen that has a sailor collar on it. When I got out of the shower, this is what I saw.




Another flashback story. It is second grade at Our Lady of Sorrows School. My sister, Ellen, has just entered the world. My Daddy is dressing me for the school day. This should not be difficult considering it is the basic Catholic school uniform pictured here:Pretty easy to figure out, right? Nope. Daddy put my jumper on backwards so that the V yoke was straight down my back. I believe it was my former first grade teacher, Ms. Campisi, that caught me in the hallway and corrected it before I entered the classroom. I just didn't want to hurt my Daddy's feelings.

So my sweet husband let me sleep until 8:00 am this morning and I am eternally grateful. But clearly, I need to give some more basic instructions on dressing a little girl. The sailor collar goes in back, Daddy!

We Won (a wrench)

But a really good one! A while back, Daddy entered himself and Little Philip into the Skil Saw Birdhouse Building Memories contest. He and Little Philip followed their instructions on how to build a birdhouse together. The birdhouse is hanging in the tree outside of Little Philip's bedroom window now.

Today we received a call that we were a 4th place winner, which means Big Philip (and technically Little Philip) won one of these:

Apparently it is a really good power wrench so we shall see what gets fixed on the honey-do list now!

We are also featured on the Skil-Saw entry web page which you can view here. Some of the other entries look pretty fancy. We can say that Little Philip did all of the work on his birdhouse except for the power sawing and getting the screws in really tight. We are very proud of him!

Goat Cheese Heaven

This post is to inspire my our niece, Joy, to take very good care of those milk goats she recently acquired. Aunt Renie paid $6.00 for this itsy-bitsy tub of herbed goat cheese today at the farmer's market. The way we see it, you'll have your college tuition paid for in no time if you can make this delectable cheese!

Hungry Hungry Helen

Much like the hungry, hungry caterpillar, Helen eats her weight in food each day. She awakens each morning, earlier than any rooster, and proudly says "eat! eat!" When she smells food she says "eat! eat!" When she awakens from her nap in the afternoon she says "eat! eat!" As often as the Weather Channel does the local on the 8's update or I have to endure another song from the Fresh Beats on Noggin she says "eat! eat!" Up until now, only her mommy and daddy could marvel at their bottomless pit of a child, thinking it a nice change from Little Philip who eats nothing but PBJs each day.

So this afternoon, I planned a little experiment. While Helen and Philip were napping, I started making our Cuban black beans a rice, a request by Little Philip. It is actually the only meal he has ever asked for seconds of that I can remember. Helen woke up at about 4:30 and, as expected, smiled that loving smile and said "eat! eat!" I gave her a cup and kept working in the kitchen. She would have none of it and walked over to the table, removing her bowl and fork to demand that I serve her.

After eating two bowls of black beans and rice (you can see the size bowl in the above video) as well as half a can of mandarin oranges, Helen eyed the cornbread and promptly demanded that Daddy relinquish his hot buttered piece, but not before retrieving her spoon from under the table, just in case the cornbread required it. Having removed all traces of food from the dinner table, Helen retired for the evening, leaving the kitchen in nothing but her diaper, heading for her brother's bean bag in the living room upon which she sat to digest her weight in food.

Overhead at the Moss House at Bedtime

Each night, we say our prayers with Little Philip. We first thank God for everything and everyone in our life. You know, like the ability to watch Wonder Pets and stuff like that. Then, we ask God to forgive us for our sins, like not putting our shoes on when Mommy tells us to. Then we ask God to help us with different things. Sometimes it is very sweet like giving other little boys and girls toys or houses or food to eat. Other times it is the ability to watch more Wonder Pets.

Tonight, in the mind of our wonder-eyed four year old, something clicked.

Mommy, Jesus died on the cross for your timeouts.