Homeschooling

Elias is going to go through a major shock--as am I--come Tuesday. Our live in godfather will be returning to London where he works for the communications department of the Foreign Office. He used all of his communication skills to play with his Godson. They had time reading a plethora of great English story books, taking baths, going for walks, and even playing with play-dough.

So as not to be outdone Adelaide captivated the Brit's attention by smiling, cooing, and rolling over. Yes, she performed for Andy while he was here.

Thanksgiving Week

Our Thanskgiving was filled with lots of surprises--both good and bad. Preparations for the big meal didn't seem too great when we divvied up tasks. Between Adam, me and Adam's mom, we thought we had the whole meal quite under control. I was the apple pie woman, the potatoes, butternut squash, traditional stuffing, and the table setter. Adam was the turkey and gravy as well as the oyster dressing, (a Coffield tradition) and the chief wine steward. Diane did the cranberry relish. Wednesday was spent making pies and the sides. However, when Adam went off to pick-up Godfather Andy from the airport, whose flight was delayed, I opened the refrigerator door only to be met by a flood of turkey brine in a two gallon bag. Yes, I wish I had a picture. There I stood ankle deep in the turkey brine while I ran to the other room to keep Adelaide from drowning. It took almost a whole roll of paper towel to deal with that flood which went from one side of the kitchen to another. Note to husband next year: Be sure the turkey brine ziploc bag is truly sealed.

The next unfortunate event of Thanksgiving was that Diane came down with the stomach flu. So, not only did we lose our cook but we also lost an important babysitter. So between nursing Addie every two hours and trying to keep Elias from grabbing wine glasses and fine silver, we had our hands full. Lucky, we had our super nanny from London. Yes, Godfather Andy. He was a trooper that day assuring us that we would be ready to serve our meal come evening. And, we made the meal as well as the washing-up after with his help.

Second Child--Lower IQ?

Recently, Newsweek had a long article on birth order. Much of what they had to say seemed somewhat intuitive about how a child's position in birth order might shape their personality. You know, first borns tend to be achievers and goal-oriented. (Did you know that George W. is the oldest in his family?) The article also said that younger children tend to have lower IQ's than their first born sibings--usually by about 2 points. However, younger children tend to be funnier than their older siblings and usually better at getting along with people. So, we haven't decided if this is true of Adelaide yet.

But, we know she will be even more adaptable than her brother because she has already been left with a babysitter. Last night, Adam and I got out for two hours and enjoyed a very fine meal at our favorite Italian restaurant. We also enjoyed a great bottle of wine. Our awesome babysitter managed both kids and they were both alive with all limbs intact when we got home. I think being left at almost 7 weeks, in comparison to her brother who was not left with a sitter until he was 4 months old, will make her smarter. She will have her whole lifetime to remind us that we left her at such a young age. Therefore, she will be able to blame any adversity in her life on this parental neglect. Not a lower IQ for sure.

10 Loads of Laundry, Nine shirts with vomit...

Yes, it has been a fine week. Eli came down with a stomach bug on Friday night. He threw-up about 5 times and we did lots of laundry because he threw up on us almost every time. Sunday was a day of rest--from illness. Monday night Adelaide came down with the stomach bug. She threw up about eight times. However, her illness involved two trips to the doctor and waking up every few hours to make sure she stayed hydrated. Today we are physically all better, but emotionally exhausted and laundry still looms. Here are pictures of the kids last week before everyone got the stomach bug. We hope that we will at least stay healthy for grandparents and godfather's visit for Thanksgiving.

"I want some holy music"

Our usual morning routine involves music. After I have wiped applesauce off of Elias' face and hands, he jumps from his chair and runs to the porch usually reciting, "I want some music on." Our music collection includes Raffi, which is quite good as children's music comes, some sing-along cd's with your stand Twinkle, Twinkle and Row, Row Your Boat, and the ubiquitous Music Together cd. (For all of those Music Together parents, don't you just want to scream when you hear, Hello everybody?") However, our CD player allows us to keep 5 cds in at a time. We like to listen to sacred music and particularly love all kinds of Evensong. So, mixed in among Eli's top 10 are some of ours. As most of you know listening to Row, Row Your Boat ad nauseum is painful. So, on Sundays we tell Elias we are going to listen to church music because it's a church day.

Lo and behold, today Elias said to me, "I want some holy music on!" He then proceeded to follow up that comment with, "Father Andy music." Yes, Father Andy is our parish priest. He obviously associated sacred music with church and he associates church with Father Andy, our priest. So much for the priesthood of all believers! What surprised me even more was that I was reading an article in the Christian Century on the power of music. Kurt Vonnegut, who died this year, said that this should be my epitaph: "The only proof he needed for the existence of God was music." I have often felt that heaven will truly be a place of English boy choirs and beautiful psalm settings. Maybe Elias is on his way to being an English choirboy.

Busted!

Imagine my surprise when I came home from running to the pharmacy when I discovered all the members of my family enjoying some cozy, quality time. However, I soon learned that this time was punctuated by the sounds of Duh!, Bart, and other juvenile sayings. I sure am grateful that my five week old and two year old can be left with their dad in the evening--the toughest time of the day. I'm just not sure how I feel about Marge and Homer co-parenting my children. By the way, when I came home from the hospital Adam had been in charge of Elias for the four days. My first night home, I was feeding Adelaide on the couch and Elias pointed to the TV and said, "Simpsons?" Boy, was Adam busted. That's twice now...

Where theory hits praxis--Ditching Diapers

Yes, I called the diaper service this week and cancelled our order of cloth diapers for Adelaide. I just couldn't face washing 5 diaper wraps a day. I just can't justify doing loads of laundry when we still have plenty of clean clothes still in the drawers. On top of that, who knows if the next place we will live will have a diaper service. And, I may have been environmentally friendly by doing the wraps, but I will not wash the poopy diapers myself. I figure I handle enough poop in a day without also washing the diapers! Now we're not giving up on Elias, though. Being the first child and all, he is accorded special treatment. No, actually we figure if we have stuck it out this long for him, why stop now? He already says, "gross!" when we has a poopy diaper and the cloth diapers do not soak up pee very well at all. So, he knows when he's wet and this will only encourage potty training. (We hope.) So, we figure we have saved a landfill through him which will cancel out creating one with her. Poor Adelaide, she will have to carry the guilt of creating trash that won't biodegrade for 500 years. Such a burden for such a small soul.

All Hallow's Eve & the 7th Hour Stretch

Last night Adelaide gave us the extraordinary gift of sleep. She was down for the count after the Halloween festivities by 10:30 and did not demand a snack until close to 6am. I woke up at 4 feeling quite a fright (some of which was fear that something was wrong and the other was rock solid b...). We were so thankful for the sleep. I keep asking myself right now, why am I still tired? It might have something to do with Elias remaining awake for the past three days at nap time. Granted, he's in his crib (I think.)But, it still exhausts me to contemplate whether he's giving up napping at the ripe, old age of two. Save us from the time of trial.