Our Baby Girl at 2 Months

Isn't she lovely...


Isn't she wonderful...

Isn't she precious...

Truly the angel's best...

Most of the time...

Baby Burritos and a Side of Fries

We love the Miracle Blanket, it has been a nighttime staple with both babies. It sounds cheesy I know, miracle blanket…it’s a miracle, it’s amazing, it slices, it dices, it juliennes fries. But it really is!

The babies don’t seem to mind being wrapped up so tight. It triggers some sort or neurological nocturnal signal and within 30 minutes of having the life wrapped out of them they fall asleep, or maybe pass out, for at least 6 hours. I don’t even remember how I came across it in the first place. It is a pretty high-tech little blanket. It has wings and pouches and looks like a baby straightjacket. No matter how much they squirm they cannot escape.

It worked with Vin.

And so far

(knock on wood, plastic, linoleum, whatever will make it stick)

it has been working with Viv.

">

Poor Little Trees

It is a sad state of affairs to see the rate at which the world’s forests are diminishing. It is an even sadder state of affairs when you realize that your child is part of the problem.

What I’m saying is this: Vincent is guilty of the deforestation of the plastic forest!!!

Once upon a time everything was quiet in the plastic forest. The dinosaurs and giraffes lived together in harmony under a sunny tropical sky. Then one day…

Vin started eating the trees! Oh the humanity, the horror!

Tiny tree fragment were carelessly strewn all over his bedroom floor.

I wonder how this affects his carbon footprint?

Baby Amnesia

Babies are so very cute, especially Vivi. She is cuddly, pink, and adorable. I love the sounds she makes. I love the way she squeaks and kicks her feet. I even love the dramatic little way she cries. She frowns, her chin quivers, and she screams really loud while huge tears fall from her eyes. She’s precious…really.


But, did you know that after you have your first baby you get this bizarre selective amnesia? Well you do. I think it is nature’s way of tricking you into having more babies. You forget things. You forget how extreme exhaustion feels. You forget that you were actually so tired you ran the wash machine without detergent…or even clothes.

You forget that babies have a special timer that knows when you take a bite of food. You forget that for the first few months, ok first 2.5 years so far in my experience, that whenever you put food in your own mouth because you are starving someone will start crying or fussing or God know what else so that you cannot eat! You forget what warm food tastes like.

You forget babies use 60+ diapers in a week. And I didn’t realize that changing baby girls is much more precise than changing baby boys. They have more “areas” and folds that need to be addressed. I can’t even imagine what an infant with a urinary infection would be like. I’m a baby when I have one of those.

You forget that in order to leave the house you have to pack a suitcase full of baby stuff in case. In case of what you ask? In case of anything…hot weather, cold weather, accidents, acts of God, the planned, the unplanned…the list goes on and on. Babies have more accessories than Barbie.

And most importantly I’d forgotten that babies puke…all the time!!! Vivi is a sweet, precious, darling little spit-up machine. She is offended by clean laundry. She spews on EVE-RY-THING! This is not good for an OCD clean freak like me. I’d forgotten that Vin did this too. I’d forgotten that for months on end our whole home and wardrobes will smell like eau de old milk. Gross, gross, and yuck.

Babies are so very cute and I think this is nature’s way of ensuring that you will keep them instead of selling them on eBay.

A Block of a Different Shape

As I mentioned earlier in the week, Vin is a smart but odd little bird. He learned his shapes many months ago and is absolutely fixated on them. So much so that when he cannot find things of a certain shape, he makes them up.

He has created a classification system for his Mega Blocks that utilizes all the shapes he knows; circle, square, rectangle, oval, octagon, diamond, and star. He knows that these blocks are not shaped as he’s designated but he insists that they are as he says they are. The system stays exactly the same all the time; the same blocks are always the same shapes. It never changes.

Take a look:

How to Ruin Food

Kids are great! They are silly, cute, and fun. They are also a giant pain in the butt; especially when it comes to food. As parents, we try our best to make sure they are eating nutritiously. As kids, they try their best to eat nothing but chicken nuggets, peanut butter, and cereal. Vin is a perfect example.

Now that he is two and a half years old he is getting much pickier about what he eats. When he was younger he would eat just about everything I gave him. He would eat egg & cheese omelets, veggie burgers, cheese sticks, bananas, oranges, etc. Now, not so much.

In order to combat this I have started adapting and modifying his “normal” foods into healthier alternatives. I have been doing this for so long now that I didn’t even realize it was an odd approach to nutritious eating. It dawned on me when my sister was here. While feeding Vin pudding one day she asked me, “so do you mix anything into this to ruin it and make it good for you?” It was funny at the time, but got me thinking…what foods do I “ruin”?

Now keep in mind that Vin has always eaten these foods this way and does not know the difference.

Yogurt – I add wheat germ
Applesauce – I add pureed green vegetables like peas, broccoli, or green beans.
French Toast – I add pumpkin and cinnamon.
Jello – I make it with decaffeinated green tea instead of hot water and boiled down and mashed blueberry juice instead of cold water.
Chocolate Pudding – I make it with boiled down and mashed spinach water/juice instead of water.

In addition, he eats whole wheat bread, waffles, and pasta. It is really easy to add pureed veggies to just about anything.

I have a cookbook called The Sneaky Chef that gave me these great ideas. As the kids get older it is packed full of everyday recipes that mix in healthy alternatives. I’ve learned to doctor up mac & cheese, chicken strips, and lasagna.

She even has a recipe to make Brawny Brownies that includes hidden spinach, blueberries, oats, and wheat germ. I’m going to try that one next. It will make me feel a lot better next time I polish off half a pan of brownies all by myself!

Meet the Sight Words

Vincent is a very smart little dude. We started teaching him sign language using Signing Time DVDs when he was 6 months old. He made his first sign, more, at 8 months. He now knows how to sign and recognize the signs for well over 100 words.

He learned his alphabet by 18 months.

Since then we have noticed he likes groupings, lists, and repetition.

He learns things very fast. At 2.5 years old he can count to 30 on his own. He also knows his alphabet/numbers by sight, his colors, and shapes. When he plays he always includes the shapes, colors, and numbers.
When we go out he reads all the numbers he sees.
This is always fun in the store. There are numbers everywhere; the license plates in the parking lot, the price tags, the isle numbers, the check-out line. These things seem to make him happy. We are amazed and amused. He has created funny little systems for everything.

I have made him my own little science project and enjoy testing his learning capabilities. I got him a DVD series called Preschool Prep when I wanted to teach him shapes. He watched the movie 3 times and learned all the basic shapes including oval and octagon.

They also have 3 DVDs that teach “sight words”. These words are important building blocks when learning to read. Vin has watched these videos several times and can recognize them in their cartoonish form on the screen. Today I wanted to find out if he could recognize the words out of the context of the video. I printed out all 18 words from the first DVD on single sheets and gave them to him to play with.

He thought it was a ton of fun and has been playing with his words for over 2 hours. I took a video so that you can see for yourself. He is pretty impressive, if I do say so myself!

A Schrock Day Afternoon

I love the afternoon at our house. Rob comes home for lunch most days at noon and stays for 45 minutes. During that time all 4 of us eat our lunch together. After he leaves; Vivi falls asleep, Vin watches a Signing Time video, and I clean up the dishes. We clean, fuss, scream, play, change diapers, etc. until 2:00 or 3:00. Then it is nap time.

Vivi sleeps in her room and Vin crawls up into the “big bed” with me. I love having nap time to snuggle and reconnect calmly with my little man. We cuddle and sing songs till we fall asleep. It is wonderful.

We usually sleep until right around 4:00 or what I like to call Oprah time! At four I turn on the TV, get dinner started, grab a cup of coffee, and sit on the sofa to watch Oprah. Of course I don’t sit for long because Vivi wants to eat, diapers need changing, and laundry needs folding…but I feel like I’m having a coffee break.

Today is a rainy day and we’ve spent the whole day inside. Naptime started earlier so we actually got to sit and watch Oprah. I had my coffee and watched Oprah talk to Suze Orman about saving money, my most favorite topic in the entire world.

Vivi enjoyed the swaying comfort of her swing.

Vin enjoyed the crunchy goodness of caramel corn compliments of Ggma Doris. Popcorn is his most favorite food in the entire world.