You and Your Family Blog

Trauma

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 16:56:04 -0700

I like to think that I’d stay calm in an emergency, but when you see blood pouring down your baby’s face, let me tell you, it can really test your nerves. When I was eight years old I fell off a horse and fractured my skull, and when the doctor was going over the carious prognosis my mom fainted. Luckily my grandfather caught her before she smacked her own head on the hospital’s hard floor.

Yesterday I was lying on the bed playing with William. I have a cold and really wanted a nap, and had about a 3-hour window to get him to sleep while Emily was napping. He was not having it; he was rolling all over the place, so I lowered him to the floor and let him stand next to the bed, propping himself up while he played with a little toy puppy. When the puppy fell to the floor he sat down, and I didn’t think anything of it when he bobbed his head forward to pick up the toy, and smacked right into the sharp corner of our platform bed, which naturally did not have a foam corner protector stuck on it (I ordered them a couple of days ago and wanted to put them on when the kids were occupied and wouldn’t pry them right off. Bad idea.)

He looked stunned, then started wailing. And the blood started pouring. I had a sick feeling of dread as I swooped him into my arms and grabbed a cotton pad to soak up the blood. The cut was only about a centimeter long, right along his eyebrow, but it looked pretty deep and the blood kept soaking the pad.

I debated quickly whom to call first. The thought of asking our neighbor with three children to keep an eye on napping Emily crossed my mind, but I figured she had enough to do. I decided on calling my husband, probably for the moral support. He was naturally at the office, since it was around 1:00 on a workday, and I knew that he had a management meeting in the afternoon, but I asked him to come home anyway (luckily the meeting was canceled later anyway, so I didn’t feel terribly bad about that).

Next I called the doctor, and they said to bring him on in. That was a relief, but it was about 30 degrees outside and none of us were ready to go. I put a jacket on the crying baby, stuck a paci in his mouth, and put him in his crib. He wasn’t all that happy, but at least he was safe. Next I stashed some snacks and juice into the diaper bag in case Emily woke up, threw on my shoes, and carefully moved her from her bed to the stroller, whispering to her that everything was fine, just keep napping, we’re taking William to the doctor. She settled back to sleep under a soft blanket and I retrieved William from his bed. I gave him a dose of Tylenol, strapped him into the baby carrier, and held a cold washcloth to the cut.

In the end the doctor wiped away the blood and said that I could take him to the hospital for stitches if I really wanted to, but said that since it was a clean cut it would probably heal just fine if she taped it together. I opted for the tape, since I still remember getting stitches in my eyelid when I was a kid, and it wasn’t fun.

In the end it really wasn’t a huge drama. It could have been a lot worse, of course, if he’d hit his eye, for instance, or all sorts of scenarios I don’t want to consider. As the doctor said, “I’m sure there will plenty more drama in his future.”

The next day we had a much calmer visit to the doctor for William’s six-month “well baby” visit (a month late). At seven months he’s 29.5 inches long and 19 pounds, 10 ounces. He’s well into the box of size 12-18 baby clothes by now (we bought a few winter clothes and once again, thank goodness for all the hand-me-downs!) and the doctor was extremely pleased by his development. He has started “cruising”, or moving from one piece of furniture to another and loves walking along using the side of our bed to hold himself up, and walking around with one of us holding his hands. He’s not quite ready to take off on his own, but I’d better start baby proofing everything just a little higher up before he gets there!

Moms Who Work

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 16:51:40 -0700

Working from home, so that I can keep writing and also spend time with my kids, is such an opportunity, such a privilege; it is so rewarding, and it is so difficult. Thanks to my inability to say “no” to a decent assignment, plus the amazing response from the media to a PR client of mine being featured on the cover of, yes, the COVER!, The New York Times, I found myself overloaded with work over the past week. Oh yeah, and the (very patient) publishers of my book are (finally) getting impatient about that deadline.

I am not complaining. I am so excited by the success of my client, whose horse was voted the US Equestrian Federation’s 2011 International Horse of the Year. Nobody works harder or is more deserving of his success. And one assignment in particular is for a well-known, glossy mainstream magazine that pays well by any standards, and I am thrilled to have the opportunity to write for them. The book is nearing 100,000 words (twice what the publishers requested) and I have about 240 photos (which I took) that I need to insert in the test and for while I will have to write caption. Oy vey.

A friend whose son is Emily’s age, who also works from home, calls us “Moms who Work,” since raising children really is a full-time (read: 24/7) job.

So last week I called in reinforcements, but since our usual babysitters only do part-time work for us and have other responsibilities, I could only get so many hours of help. One of them was booked up, one of them is gallivanting around Asia, and another has a regular job at that time.

Thus I found myself speaking to a producer from NBC television in my car, with a baby on my lap; working past midnight after both kids were in bed; and juggling my laptop, cell phone and diaper duty with constant alertness. If I could maintain that level of productivity on a constant basis I could probably have a Martha Stewart-like empire, but it might do me in first. There’s a reason that Martha has a whole, worker ant-like army of employees running that empire for her.

The longest stretch that we had a babysitter was five hours straight. That may not sound like a whole lot, but it was unprecedented for us. It did give me a lot of working hours, but Emily was getting desperate for mommy-time by the end. I did take a break to nurse and cuddle William and he actually held up surprisingly well. My hat is off to all the working moms out there, and not that I would necessarily want to trade places with any of them, but I think there is also something to be said for being able to leave your work at the office. But I guess with smart phones and WiFi, who can really do that anymore anyway?

Anyway, I am glad that I don’t have to miss very much time with my kids. They grow and change so fast. William is pulling himself up on things all over the house and has even “cruised” from one piece of furniture to another. He’s into everything he can get his little paws on, and though we have tucked away most of the toys with small parts he managed to stuff a piece of wooden play food that we thought was too big too big for that into his mouth. Luckily my husband saw it happen and was quick to intervene, swiping it out quickly with a finger, so disaster was averted. At a baby first aid seminar that I attended the teacher said not to stick your finger in your mouth after an object, since you could push it farther in, but in the heat of the moment it’s hard to remember these things, and luckily it did the trick.

He is also eating things that he is supposed to, and things that I thought he would not eat for a couple more months, but he is so big and so strong and seems to get bored with purees, that we’ve just gone along with it. If we are eating something wants, he makes it very clear that it is not an acceptable situation! His pincer grasp is amazingly accurate, and he feeds himself small pieces of banana, avocado, cantaloupe, bits of toast and even inch-long pieces of spaghetti noodles. He also had a bowl of homemade beef stew, with potatoes, onions and carrots, and some curry with rice and chickpeas, which I squished before feeding and he proceeded to mash up with his gums. He goes through rice cereal “puffs” like there’s no tomorrow. It does make life easier that I can put food in front of him and he can sit in his highchair and feed himself while I cook dinner for the family, and that he can also share in family meals.

He and Emily are also more and more interactive. He gets very excited about playing with her and sharing her toys, and thinks that her bedroom is the coolest place in the apartment to hang out. We just have to make sure that little toy pieces are out of his vice like grasp. They also like to crawl around on the floor together, Emily pretending she is a cat or a horse or a polar bear, growling or meowing as the case may be, and William delighted that someone is down at his level. At the moment they are crawling around with each other, just giggling with sheer joy that they can share such fun. Soon enough they will be running around together and life will never be the same!

Man on the Run

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 11:57:18 -0700

Only a couple of weeks after figuring out this whole crawling thing, William is pulling himself up to standing on every available surface: the bed, the sofa, chairs and tables. His sister’s little trampoline is a favorite. He is now holding himself up with only one hand, so I foresee standing on his own in the very near future, and guess that walking could be close behind. While it’s wonderful that he’s ahead of the curve developmentally, I am not ready for this!

For one thing, our apartment is only moderately baby-proofed. We moved to a new place after our daughter was walking, and since she’s not really into climbing or getting into things that she’s not supposed to, we have been a little bit lax about things like hiding every single electrical cable, and most of the little corner guards have long since fallen off the sharp edges that they once covered. The switch plates have safety covers and there’s a baby gate closing off the kitchen (which Emily opens quite adeptly), but we have our work cut out for us.

We have acquired a couple sets of foam floor mats, which help soften the blow when he takes a tumble. When he was first figuring out how to crawl he kept falling on his face, and while he’s learned to hold his head up when he topples over he is taking some more dramatic spills from a higher elevation now that he’s standing. Maybe I should just make a little suit for him out of bubble wrap? Except that he doesn’t seem to mind; he’s like a little rugby player, rolling with the punches, shaking it off and pulling himself up again and again. Thank goodness he doesn’t seem to bruise easily, or we’d have child protection services on our doorstep.

He had an upset stomach when he was sick last week so I fed him a lot of cereal and mild foods like banana and pear. This was just no fun for our little foodie, since he wants to explore new tastes and textures, but it did give him a chance to master the pincer grasp and he’s grown quite adept at feeding himself rice “puffs” that dissolve easily in his mouth. I’ve also sliced bits of banana and avocado and aside from smooshing some of them all over face, he manages to feed himself a substantial amount too.

Along with the physical changes (he’s getting stronger and stockier by the day), he is getting very clever about interacting with his sister. They play games together and giggle at each other, crawling around on the floor together with Emily growling like a bear, playing with the same (baby-safe) toys, and generally entertaining each other. This is a really fun age and aside from the fear that he is going to do himself in by climbing on or chewing something that he shouldn’t, each day is full of interesting new adventures.

Best-Laid Plans

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 11:51:52 -0700

Even the best-laid plans are subject to change when there are two children involved. My birthday is January 2nd and we had planned to stay with my family to celebrate, then drive back to NYC on the 3rd and 4th. But then little William got sick. He was not at death’s door: It turned out to be “tonsillitis” according to the doctor that I took him to (our pediatrician said it’s likely laryngitis or pharyngitis).

Taking a baby to a doctor when you are away from home is no picnic. It’s not like he can say, “Hey doc, my throat’s a little scratchy and I’ve had a fever and some chills, could you check it out?” One look down his throat and the doc prescribed a round of amoxicillin. Fine, off to the pharmacy I went, with warnings running through my head about doctors overprescribing antibiotics. The doc had not done a strep test, and when I called him he was defensive and rude, so I didn’t feel like taking William back (tonsillitis can result from a virus or bacteria, and the strep test can indicate which it is). Our pediatrician later told us it was probably a virus and that he would recommend skipping the antibiotics, which we decided to do. He did recommend the antihistamines that were also prescribed, partly because they will help William to get some rest in addition to drying up the running faucet that has replaced his nose.

In any case our little guy was NOT a happy camper, and we decided that it would be cruel and unusual punishment to strap him into a car seat for a 12-hour drive in that state. So we delayed our travel for a day, and then another day, and then decided to just relax and spend the rest of the week visiting my family and enjoying the 60-something-degree weather that has welcomed the Carolinas into the New Year. No, I didn’t try to make the baby sick on purpose!

With a few rounds of Ibuprofen to bring his fever down William is once again a smiling baby, enjoying all the attention from his grandparents, and truly mastering his crawling skills; he is all over the place now. He is also pulling himself up to standing, which means that walking may not be all that distant a possibility. Call me selfish, but I was really hoping for a slow developer so that my life would be less uncomplicated. Now it’s time to seriously reassess our babyproofing! Emily was never that troublesome: While her visiting friends might dig in the potted plants, she generally sticks to her toys and doesn’t try to climb the bookshelves. I have a feeling that William will be a different story.

Anyway, with everyone back in good health the plan is to drive home over the weekend, back to the hustle and bustle of the city and the chillier northern temperatures. It is bittersweet that we will be far from family but close to friends and, thankfully, our pediatrician.

Still in South Carolina

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 11:43:50 -0700

We’re still visiting my parents in South Carolina, and enjoying what seems to be an unseasonably warm December. While the mornings are frosty, the afternoons have been sunny and it’s nice to spend time outdoors in the fresh air. William loves to be outside, too, but he won’t sit quietly on a blanket and play with his toys, he wants to crawl onto the grass and stuff fistfuls of it into his mouth, so most of the time he still has to be in the infant carrier or stroller to enjoy the great outdoors.

Emily, on the other hand, is completely invigorated by all this fresh air and has been going full tilt, running laps around the horse pasture, pushing her doll stroller up the long gravel driveway, playing with the two little ponies that my parents recently brought home, and making herself useful around the farm. She’s a super little helper to my mom, helping to measure horse feed into the buckets and feed the horses, cracking eggs and stirring pancake batter in the kitchen. It’s so cute to watch the two of them walking along, hand in hand, sharing little adventures. Of course Emily is enjoying the new toys that were underneath the Christmas tree, but these are the gifts that she will remember.

A neighbor up the road has a donkey, which Emily has visited a couple of times now, and another neighbor has a hen house that we’re going to check out this afternoon after naptime. I think spending time around animals is great for children, learning empathy, how to care for another living being, and just seeing how other species live. Out in the woods even the ants and little bugs make for interesting observations and explorations.

William has gone from scooting around on his belly to full-on crawling, and he is hardly impressed with himself. Instead he just seems frustrated that he can’t get up and walk yet. The first time he crawled across the living room he got to the door and spent the next 15 minutes trying to pull up to standing. He has managed to pull himself up about halfway already. We are in such big trouble! Emily was pretty laid-back when it came to crawling and walking, but William is on a serious mission to get moving, and I don’t think there will be any stopping him. As it is he has been waking up at 5 every morning, eager to practice his new skills. Even Emily wants to stay in bed for a while after one of us gets up with him and oversees his ambitious early morning exercise routine. If I did half of the aerobics he goes through every day I would have the endurance of an Olympic athlete!

As it is I have been slacking off on the exercise and am still stuck about 5 pounds short of my pre-pregnancy weight. After Christmas it may be more like ten! In any case conventional wisdom says that it takes nine months to put it on and another nine months to take it off again, so I still have time to kick things up a notch and get in shape before “swimsuit season”. That said, we took the kids to an indoor pool a couple of days ago and I wasn’t overly concerned with how I looked in my swimsuit. I was more excited with how much fun the kids were having. I used to be a pretty decent competitive swimmer, and I’m sure the time will come when I can get back in the fast lane.

Baby's First Christmas

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 11:37:49 -0700

We have made it to William’s half-a-year-old “birthday”! It has been a wild and amazing ride so far. The first three months were admittedly rough, and I think I was perhaps William’s only fan through the colicky stage, but now he has grown into a happy, grinning, drooling little ham that loves attention and is making up for lost time by being extra cute and affectionate.

He has not yet had his 6-month checkup but I’m sure he is going through a growth spurt and I think he’s currently about 19 pounds, and starting to fill out from a long stringbean into a ball of muscle. He scoots around the floor on his tummy and does a lot of push-ups getting ready to really and truly crawl. He has managed a few steps several times so I’m sure it will be any day now. I don’t think that it will take him too long to walk either as he’s already raring to go.

His appetite is nearly insatiable: He wolfs down purees and even chunks of soft fruit, small bits of bread and crunchy “Baby Mum Mum” rice crackers. He loves vegetables and fruits, and seems fine with different textures, having gone through several tablespoonfuls of quinoa mashed with banana a few days ago (my daughter still spits quinoa out, though she is getting more adventurous as she watches William eat new and exciting things).

He and Emily adore each other and love to play and cuddle with each other. Yesterday she took his hand to lead him around, and with my help he followed her around, just grinning and giggling and so excited to play with his big sister. She is very sweet with him and loves to hug and kiss him and play with him. I’m enjoying it while it lasts.

The holidays are upon us and while I had planned to exercise restraint and only buy one nice thing for each person on my list, I went a little gaga at the mall today and brought home toys and clothes galore. William and Emily will both have some warm, fuzzy things to get them through the cold of winter, and I knocked a couple of things off of Emily’s requested list for Santa. I also dug through the closet at my parents’ house and found my childhood doll and model horses, and it is fun watching my daughter thoroughly enjoy playing with the toys that I enjoyed so much.

For Emily’s first Christmas she sat on Santa’s lap and grinned her little face off. Last year she cried and would not go near Santa Claus, but today both kids sat on his lap and looked very seriously into the camera for a photo opportunity. Emily has sort of a “Mona Lisa Smile” and William is hunched like a little garden gnome on Santa’s knee, but it beats the red-faced and tearful shot that we brought home last year. She had been chattering away all morning about telling Santa that she wants “A little piano, a dolly and some Legos”, but when the time came she was too shy to say anything. Wise old Santa told her that he already knows what all the children want, and sent her happily on her way. If I left anything off the list, my parents have enough goodies stashed away for a small army of children, so hopefully she’ll forget about the little piano, at least until her third birthday. Hopefully my credit card will have stopped smoking by then!

Solo Flight

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 11:31:32 -0700

An editor recently told me that her mother has always said, “There are two ways to travel: First Classs, and With Children.” I’ve only flown First Class once in my life, and it was lovely, but unfortunately I am earning most of my frequent flier miles the alternate way, and there is definitely no luxury involved.

To visit my parents in South Carolina for the holidays, we had a complex series of travel arrangements: My parents came to visit us at the beginning of December for Dad’s birthday, then drove our car home to SC. This would save us one 12-hour drive with two small children. Because my husband had to work until December 22nd, I decided to fly down early to have more time with my family, which meant that I would get to travel as a single parent.

La Guardia Airport is only about 7 miles from our home; about a 15-20 minute drive by car, if traffic is light. Without a car the only way to the airport is by taxi or public transit, and since we sent the car seats ahead with our car, that meant the subway and bus route for us. From home in Washington Heights this meant dragging the stroller, kids and two bags down the stairs at 181st St. Station onto the “A” train, then navigating a series of elevators up to the street from the platform in order to board a crowded M60 bus on 125th Street in Harlem. In total it took about an hour and a half, door to door. Luckily my husband took pity on my (or feared for our children) and accompanied me to the airport and saw me to security, waiting until I was safely through before he headed back to the bus to do it all again in the other direction without children, obviously.

The subway was easy, since we were after rush hour, and thanks to a kind woman who held the stroller upright while my husband held Emily on his lap and I held William in the Ergo carrier, the bus ride actually went pretty well. Once through Security I bought a packet of M&M’s for Emily (a friend suggested giving her a treat that she usually does not have, in order to distract her as the plane was readied for takeoff. It was great advice - I told her that she would have to wait until the plane was in the air for her M&M’s and she was like a little church mouse sitting there with her hands in her lap, waiting. (I prefer “persuasive parenting” to “bribery”, thanks).

Once again a kind stranger proved incredibly helpful, this time above and beyond the call of duty. William was fussy as we waited for the plane to take off, and squirmed and cried in my lap instead of quietly nursing. A wonderful woman named Beth, from Texas, read stories to Emily, held her bottle of milk, played Pat-a-cake with her, and eventually let Emily lie down in her seat with her feet in Beth’s lap. Wonderful. A mother of two children who was returning home from her own grandmother’s funeral, she was kind and gentle and good-humored and let me focus almost completely on tending to William.

Once in the air I put William in the Ergo again, much to the relief of the other passengers I am sure, and he settled down to nurse and fall asleep. I was then able to entertain Emily much easier, but enjoyed looking on as our new friend read through the small collection of books that I had packed in Emily’s little froggy backpack.

I had planned to arrive close to nap time, and the strain of the long day of travel was beginning to show on poor Emily by the time we met my parents in Charlotte. She was so excited to see them that she did not nap in the car, but at least she was in a good mood; William’s good baby points had completely expired by then and he screamed his little head off until his face was purple and a vein was throbbing at his temple. We stopped several times during the hour and a half drive home to nurse him but he was too upset and easily distracted to settle down and eat, so I ended up awake most of the night with him playing catch-up.

In all there were a few small dramas through the day, but thanks to the kindness of strangers I think it went amazingly well.

Expectant-Mom Intuition?

Mon, 09 Jan 2012 13:16:06 -0700

I knew it was a little girl. From the very beginning, I told everyone that I feel I will have a little girl, and my husband and I will name her Taylor Miriam. (We agreed to name a girl Taylor Miriam or a boy Taylor Luke.) I dreamed of a little girl, filled online shopping carts with little-girl room décor, and window-shopped for the perfect little-girl clothing. I never questioned whether or not my child would be a boy.

So last Friday when I had my anatomy ultrasound (at 20 weeks), the technician was probing around my uterus checking out Taylor. As soon as the probe reached her bottom, I exclaimed, “It’s a girl! I was right!” And I was!

So tell me your thoughts: Was this a case of mother-to-be intuition, or was this pure 50/50 chance? I’ll acknowledge that the odds were very much in my favor since the baby could be one of two sexes. However, I believe as a mother-to-be that maybe my connection was a little stronger than I’d thought. I was so convinced I was having a little girl that I converted my husband into a baby-girl believer two weeks before the ultrasound!

I’m very curious about whether anyone else has had this feeling. Did you have a similar experience? Do you believe in mother-to-be intuition, or 50/50 chance?

I’d love to hear from you.

Artina

Feeding Frenzy

Thu, 01 Dec 2011 16:35:13 -0700

William is well into solid foods by now, and between cooking and pureeing fruits and vegetables for him and trying to figure out what Emily will eat, I often feel like a short-order cook. Add to that the cooking frenzy of Thanksgiving last week, and I’ve been spending a lot of time in the kitchen lately.

William took to solids like a champ, and has already blazed his way through avocado, banana, applesauce, pears, peaches, mango, sweet potato and carrots. We’re sticking to one new food for a couple of days to check for allergic reactions and the only potentially adverse response so far was to the mango, which I recall is in the same family as poison ivy and often has allergic responses, but is also generally liked by babies. William had a little rash on his body after eating it, but since that could have been from something else (new laundry soap?). I’ll try again later with the mango. That said, he usually scarfs up whatever is in front of him, but he made funny faces and spit the mango out half the time, so maybe we’ll move on to something else. I have a butternut squash and an acorn squash waiting for cooking, so they might be next on the menu.

Cooking for a family is a constant battle of time, finances and coming up with original ideas. I’m building up a stock of little ice cubes of frozen purees for William, and invested in a few of those “pouches” of prepared purees (which Emily has a renewed interest in as well).

Emily has gone through a picky toddler phase but seems to be getting adventurous again. She’s even eaten a couple of peanut butter sandwiches, the old kiddy-food staple, which she usually turns her nose up at. I used whole grain bread and omega-3 peanut butter with flax seeds. Maybe she’d prefer a processed, sugary peanut butter but I’d rather she eat the healthy stuff. She’s also been into turkey (‘tis the season after all) and is back to eating her old Indian favorite, chana masala (chickpeas with a mildly sweet, gingery sauce).

It was great having a fridge full of leftovers after Turkey Day, and I briefly thought that I should cook like that more often so that we would have an endless stash of food to eat throughout the week. But we have a tiny kitchen, and there are a lot of take-out options around, and we really don’t need to eat that much anyway. But cooking enough to have leftovers does make sense, especially in winter when I can get the crockpot cranking. I whipped together a split pea soup with the leftover Thanksgiving ham and was impressed not only with how easy it was, but how cheap: a couple of dollars for the peas and an onion, some wilted celery and carrots from the fridge, and I was ready to rock and roll.

Good to Be Home

Thu, 01 Dec 2011 16:27:59 -0700

Everyone has mostly recovered from Jetlag by now and we’re back on a fairly typical schedule, which is a little unfortunate for me because both kids were sleeping until 8:30 am for a few days there! My husband would sneak out before the sun came up, and Emily, William and I would lazily wake up a while later. But we knew it couldn’t last. Eventually it caught up with us and both kids started waking up around six, along with Emily wanting to stay up until 9 pm.

I find myself missing things about Portland, but also being glad to be home and close to all of our friends again. We went out for dinner once since we came home and my husband agreed that while Portland restaurants seem to pride themselves on serving fresh, local ingredients, carefully presented as a special meal, the average restaurant around here seem to just serve something “good enough.” There is certainly something special about the food/wine/beer/coffee culture out there.

I had the opportunity to visit my friend Robin and her new baby, Nina, at their new home in New Rochelle, up in Westchester County. Robin and I first met at a prenatal yoga class when she was pregnant with her son Sam and I was pregnant with Emily, and we discovered that we had the same due date. We went through second pregnancies together, too, and it seems as if we have come full circle. Our mutual friend Dana, who also was pregnant at the same time, both times around, was also there with her new baby Brooke. It was good fun watching the “big kids” run and play together while the little babies rolled on a blanket on the floor.

For about half an hour I held down the fort with Robin’s kids and my kids while she ran Dana and her two to the train station. Sam was down for his nap, thank goodness, and Emily was on her best behavior, but naturally both infants started howling so I had one on each arm, walking laps around the play room, shushing them both. I managed to calm them both down, and gained a new appreciation for mothers of multiples!

Having been out of town for two weeks it was also time to restock the kitchen with fresh food. I’m pretty sure the price of groceries has gone up recently, nearly six dollars for butter! Not even the “fancy,” gourmet butter! Doubtless one of the reasons our grocery bill is so high is I buy organic produce for our family, especially for the little ones it seems to be a smart thing to do.

After blowing the college fund (just kidding,sort of) on basic dietary staples, I was shocked to have to go shopping again just a week later, but this time I headed to New Jersey to “save some money” while I shopped for Thanksgiving dinner at Trader Joe’s. My parents are coming to visit for a week in early December, and it’s a sure bet that no matter what sort of food the restaurants around here offer, if they eat at home they will not go hungry.

While we’re on the subject of food, William has been eating solids for a few weeks now and has worked his way through bananas, pears, peaches, bananas and avocadoes (and rice cereal. I buy a brown rice version with probiotics added). He is a focused, very serious eater. Hardly any food ends up on his face, he doesn’t made all the spluttering and gagging noises that his sister made when she forgot to chew and/or swallow, and if he is still hungry when his bowl is empty, there is no question that he wants more, more, more!