Talent show

So not to be confused with the kids' "Program" at the school, the kids also had a talent show with the Y program they have after school. And, of course, the use of the word "talent" is loose, at best.

We witnessed a child tell jokes:

What's the difference between a pizza and a door?
What?
You can eat a pizza but you can't eat a door!

We observed musical renditions of Justin Bieber and Michael Jackson.

We saw things you might classify as cheer leading, stepping, gymnastics, and dancing.

Of course, each child that went up to do their talent deserves a great round of applause. It takes nerve to get up in front of a bunch of strangers and do something that's obviously personal to them. So whether in groups or by themselves, all the kids did a great job in that regard.

Our kids had thought about doing a musical piece with harmonicas, but that was scrapped early on. Thankfully, someone recognized the train wreck that would have been. I love my kids. My kids have many talents. But at this age, harmonica is not in the top 79. And after seeing some of the kids go up there, Damon and I thought that the kids probably would have done a great sing-along to some of the songs they love to sing in the car, like Drift Away or even Barricades and Brickwalls. Could you imagine the kids belting out:

Give me the beat boys and free my soul
I wanna get lost in your rock n roll
And drift away

or, even better:

Iron bars and big old cars
Won't run me out of town
Well I'll be damned if your not my man
Before the sun goes down

(Maybe next year?)

Instead, they joined in with a dozen other kids to do this piece. So after 2 hours - yes! 2 whole hours - of talent after talent, the kids finally had their turn:



Yeah.... If you were able to get through more than the first 14 seconds, you are a true devoted fan of the Orsetti childer indeed. For a parent who loves her kids as much as I do, and thinks that everything her kids does is awesome, it was even excruciating for me to watch. I guess this is what all parents have to go through sometime in their lives. Consider me baptized.

Like a slug through maple syrup

Can we consider this crawling?

And I was worried...

It seems that Fenton will put anything in his mouth...






Except food...

Thanksgiving program

What happens when you put a hundred kindergartners in the same room?

Saturday night sillies

Wednesday videos

Music time



Almost ready to crawl

Solids (not the poopy kind)

When it comes to anything baby/kids, there is sure to be debate. Whether it's baby wearing, homemade food, shots, circumcision, bed sharing, pacies, Santa, crying-it-out, or a myriad of other things, there is sure to be at least someone saying one thing, and another saying the opposite - both believing they are right.

Luckily, I know what's right about all these things, so I don't need to engage anyone in these debates, and Damon and I are used to bucking the "What to Expect..." trends in many things we've done. I'm sure, after I write this post, that there will be readers who disagree with us yet again. And what am I writing about today?

Starting solids.

Obviously, there are many opinions about when to introduce a baby to something other than breast milk/formula. When to do it, what to try first...blah blah blah.

Personally, we are in the camp of "no need to start baby on solids at the first possible moment most pediatricians give the nod." Usually that's around 4 months. It's funny how not starting a baby at that early point is considered by most as "waiting." As if starting solids at 4 months is the norm, and if you don't, you are delaying.

We understand that babies get all they need from Mommie's milk and they can survive quite well on just that for their first year. But, obviously, formula is not breast milk's equal. And, interestingly, Damon and I differ a bit on the exact timing of when to start solids. I think he said "eight months" was when he thought we should start. I don't think that was exactly my first impulse. Wait - yes. But how long? 6 months? 8 months? 1 year?

We've bantered back and forth on the issue. We started Kestian and Adelaide on solids around 6 1/2 months, but breast milk supply at that point was dwindling. It was that or formula.


By introducing solids then, we managed to stave off formula until 10 months.

But Fenton is a whole different situation. Full term. Formula fed. We can't so much compare the two. Still, I don't think I'm crazy about waiting until 8 months - and probably because he is on formula is why I don't want to wait that long, as this piece from this article article indicates:

"the four month recommendation applies more to formula fed infants, and the six month recommendation applies more to breastfed infants."..."Formula is not as complete a food as breast milk, and formula fed babies are more likely to become anemic than babies who are breastfed, so they need iron-enriched food earlier."

But still, when?

Damon says: Why start now? I say: Why wait anymore? There is a lot of information (such as here) pointing to waiting until 6 months to lessen the chance of allergies, to make sure the baby's digestive tract is mature, etc. etc. So I am happy to wait past 6 months. But I am hard-pressed to find anything that shows waiting until 8 months, 10 months, a year with a formula fed baby is advantageous. Sure, I'm not going to force it on Fenton, but since he is on the lesser-than-best food, and he is growing way faster than K and A were at this age, it is good to wait anymore? Is he missing out on iron that he should be getting? Should I not allow him to try?

So after Fenton's recent checkup with our pediatrician, where he is now:

18 lbs 3 oz (55 percentile)
28.75 inches (96 percentile)

we discussed starting solids. He's 6 1/2 months old now, and the doc (according to Damon, because I was at work) said we could keep waiting. But, still it begs the question, should we keep waiting?

Ultimately, it will be up to Fenton. Damon says it's OK with him to try it, and I think Fenton is ready, but does Fenton?

So here's my first attempt at trying some cereal:

Dry run: Trying out the chair.

First bite. Very dubious!
Ummm...no thanks!

These spoons are cool though...
Yes...I'll eat the spoons...

Damon's "I told you so look" aside, I could see that Fenton wasn't very excited about it all. But still, does that mean he's not ready? Does that mean we should wait more? Or maybe he was full from an earlier bottle. Or maybe he was reacting to the new texture. Or maybe rice cereal just sucks. What's not to say that no matter when we tried it (now or at 8 months), he wouldn't do the same thing, ready or not? After all, I don't remember Kestian and Adelaide exactly inhaling their first bowl of cereal. It was actually pretty anticlimactic as well.

So, maybe he's ready. Maybe he's not. I'll try again in a few days...

Toy Story 3

"Mommy...Why haven't we seen Toy Story 3?"

"Uhhh...I think it came out around the time I was trying to not die."

"Mommy...Why did you almost die?"

"Because my breasts decided to fail me, and all I ever wanted was a normal nursing experience, but obviously that was asking the world too much..."

"Oh. OK."

Ok, I guess the conversation didn't go exactly like that, but, you know...

So yeah, the kids have been dying to see Toy Story 3 for a while now, and since it's now in the second-run cheap theaters, and life is more under control than it has been for a while, I decided to take the kids while Damon stayed home with Fenton.

The kids were so excited. They talked about going all week, wondering when the potato would turn into a pickle ("Cucumber, Mom! Not a pickle, a cucumber!" Oh, sorry, my bad.) When Saturday finally came, the kids played Toy Story all morning, only interrupting their play to ask when it was time to go. So after lunch, we all scrambled into the car and headed off.


On our way there, we discussed just what other movies we had seen in the theater, not realizing until then that this would be their fourth theater movie! We bought our tickets with five minutes to spare, and the kids announced "We're the first customers!" as we entered the empty theater and located the best seats in the room. One other family came in soon after and sat in the back. The previews started and we all settled in.

Then a huge group of about 10 kids and two moms decided to come in, and you can all guess where they decided to sit. I mean, seriously? Right in front of us? Have you ever heard of common courtesy when the theater is freakin' empty? Sure the kids might not know better, but the moms didn't seem to know better either. It's like when you are at the bowling lanes and the guy in the next lane over decides to go up to bowl right as you are about to take your turn. Know what I'm talking about?

Anyway...we got up and moved over and the show began. The movie didn't disappoint when it came to heart-tugging scenes, as is the Toy Story way, and it soon became apparent that it was too much for our empathetic Kestian. He kept complaining that he wanted to go, and I kept hoping that soon he'd get so enthralled by the movie that he'd want to stay. When he finally said, "I keep trying to stop them, but the tears keep coming" I knew it was time to go. Adelaide had mixed emotions about the movie too, and did not put up too much of a fight over leaving, but made it clear that we were going to get ice cream upon abandoning the theater.

So we left half-way through the movie and got our ice cream, and I came to grips with the fact that I may never see this potato turn into a cucumber/pickle thing. I told Adelaide that I was sorry she didn't get to see the whole movie, and she said it was fine - that she didn't like it much anyway.

As the kids finished their toppings and left most of the ice cream in their cups to throw away, they said "Why don't we get Toy Story 3 on DVD?"

"Now, why would we do that?" I asked.

"Oh........so Papa can see the movie."

I could tell that they really probably wanted the DVD for themselves (although I have NO idea why, given the last hour), and clearly this was their cover, but it was a nice gesture nonetheless.

Maybe when potatoes turns into pickles.

It's not me, it's you

So much of what I blog about these days includes pictures. Pictures are the meat of my baloney sandwich. Otherwise we'd be left with some floppy pieces of white bread and broken Frito's.

But seriously, our pictures are the chronicle of our lives. As self-assigned family photographer, I make an effort to take pictures every week, if not every day. Sorting through them, I discover things I may not have noticed or thought I'd want to remember at the time, only to discover random gems sprinkled throughout. Having these pictures is one of the things I appreciate each and every day.

And these days, we are on our 3rd digital camera. We have moved from one camera to another over the years for this or that reason. And, I guess it turns out that this most recent camera we have been using is getting to be 2 years old. That's like 50 years in technology time.

Sometimes I am actually happy with the camera. It can take decent outside pictures, like this:

Tree Damon cut down recently

or this...

Bill Clinton speaking at UK

Granted neither are spectacular, but when compared to the pictures I take inside, they are acceptable for this amateur blogger/family historian.

And I truly believe that the measure of a good camera is how it takes pictures indoors. For example, I took all of these in the same morning. I had all the lights on in the room, and used the flash on the camera, and got this:

Seriously! All the lights are on!

and this:

If' it's not too dark, it's too much glare!

and if I switch to a high ISO mode, I get this:

See, I told you the lights were on!
(I had the camera on my leg to steady it and still got blurry everything)

So, yeah, my camera sucks. It's not me. And, yes, I did check the flash, as I sit here trying to type with spots in my eyes thank-you-very-much. And it doesn't help when I see gorgeous pictures on Julie's blog that I absolutely drool over.

All of it is so frustrating because all three of these pictures could have been so cute. A sweet moment with Fenton. The kids being silly. Fenton sitting up for probably the first time. But no...all I got was crap. Nothing to frame. Nothing to send to the grandparents. Nothing to remember.

And actually, I do have a nice camera. It's an old film SLR camera that I think was my grandfathers (or maybe my dad's). I remember using it for photography class and how fun it was to take the pictures and see how they turned out. It's what created, or at least fostered, my fascination with pictures. I still have the camera, but, alas, I don't do film.

I hope one day to get a new camera that takes at least decent pictures of the family, but there are other purchases higher on our priority list. Until then, I guess I'll have to dream.

Take two

Recently, the kids had picture day at school. The kids picked out something "nice" to wear (as I have little say these days for things like that), I tried to make Adelaide's hair look nice, and sent them off.

A couple of weeks later we got the proofs back. Kestian's is OK...but he can be cuter than this...

And then there was Adelaide's picture. Well...

Now I thought that was going to be the end of that. I was going to have cheezy-smile Kestian and most-awkward-looking Adelaide as their first school pictures. Bummer.

But then, as another fellow blogger wrote on her blog about her adventures in crappy school pictures, I found out that there would be retakes.

Hooray!

Now I did go ahead and order a set of these undesirable pictures, just in case the retakes were worse (but really, how could they be?). So this time, we again picked out suitable outfits, I didn't try to fancy up Adelaide's hair, and sent them off again.

Still I hope they don't come back like this...

Just a little off the top

Fenton, as we all know, was born with a head full of hair. I knew from the beginning that there was no way that this child was going to make it to a year before his first haircut. And, actually, I don't really know why many people say to wait until baby is a year old before cutting their hair. I guess it's tradition for some, or the thinking that their hair will grow unevenly or some weird, illogical thing like that.

Thinking back, I think we waited too long to cut Kestian's hair for the first time, although it was for no other reason than not wanting to cut his soft blond hair. It was well after he turned one that we finally did it, but it led to pictures like this:

Kestian - 1 year

and this...

Until, (whew!) finally we cut it:

So these days, we have already admitted to ourselves that indeed Fenton's hair may be getting a bit too long, at least in certain areas, and waiting until he is a year to cut it just isn't going to happen.

Here's Fenton on the night we cut his hair...

Obviously, it's getting in his eyes, and definitely Justin-Beiber-esque...

So haircut it was:

Before (always the happy face!)

It's really apparent here how out of control it is:
Mommy gets ready to cut (suddenly Fenton is serious):
Voila!
Much better!
Back to playing, but no hair in his eyes!

Halloweeeeeeen!

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays (Thanksgiving being right up there with it). And this Halloween was one of the best we've had in a while. October is always such a crazy month, and we have yet to get through an October doing everything we set out to do. Some years we don't carve/paint pumpkins, or maybe we don't go to the pumpkin patch, or maybe we don't decorate. It's hard to get it all in. This year we never got the Halloween decorations out of the attic, but we DID go to the corn maze and carve pumpkins, and, of course, go trick-or-treating!

Most years (if we remember to get any) we paint our pumpkins, because, let's be honest, carving pumpkins is a bitch. And, thankfully, I have forgotten how much of a pain it is, or I wouldn't have even attempted it this year. But the kids kept talking about carving pumpkins and I thought "Why not?"

"Why not?" indeed! I soon found out "why not." Ok, actually it wasn't that bad - or at least as bad as it could have been. We started by having the kids lay out some newspaper to work on. They made sure the floor was well-protected...


Then we cut out the lids...

Adelaide quickly got grossed out by removing the innards...

Kestian just didn't want to touch it...

So I scraped out the pumpkins, much to the kids' joy...

On to carving Adelaide's haunted house...

Not too bad...

Now Kestian's spider...

This was actually easier than it looks...

Yey!

Then on to McDonald's for a quick dinner (in costumes, of course!). Adelaide finally decided on a princess with wings...

and Kestian was a fireman (not wearing the new fireman costume I bought him this year, but one from two years ago. I was just amazed it still fit)...
Fenton...along for the ride (he'll costume up later)...
Finally, it's time to go trick-or-treating...

Trick-or-treating was pretty awesome this year. The last two years we went to the mall (either because the kids might get scared in the neighborhood, or because it was too cold) but this year we went around the neighborhood, and boy was I glad we did. The weather was fabulous and EVERYONE was out and about, happy and giddy and friendly.

Damon stayed home to hand out candy, while we ventured out...

The kids quickly got the knack of asking for treats...
After a good hour-plus of tricks and treats, we found our way home. We all sat out on the porch to hand out the rest of the candy that Damon didn't eat. The kids got a TON of candy...

Happy Halloween!