at a recent doctor's appointment for adam, rechecking his ears after a double ear infection, our pediatrician told us that health insurances were now requesting that 2 1/2-year-olds be given a well-child check-up. so, we scheduled ours for adam (just under the time limit, as he's 2 3/4-years-old next week!) this morning. it was a very easy appointment. since a lot of development happens between the ages of 2 and 3, they wanted to make sure their patients' developments are still on track.

of course, one can argue that all children develop at different times and at different speeds, and i totally agree. but that's not the point of this post. i was happy to schedule this appointment as i wanted to "brag" (or get in his records) about how well adam was doing since his 2-year-well child visit as he wasn't speaking at all back then. now he's talking non-stop and most of what he says (okay, half of what he says) is understood by others (and not just me). again, i digress. that's not the point of this post.

the point of this post is about the advice our pediatrician was giving me, the mother of a 2 1/2-year-old child. i'm sure it's standard advice they give all their mothers..."read books to him, limit his t.v. viewing, watch t.v. with him so you'll know what he's watching...make sure he has a balanced diet and by doing that you should really not buy junk food..."

isn't this what all mothers and fathers do? isn't this the point of being a parent? do people really have babies to not care about them? because if you aren't reading to them, limiting their tv viewing, making sure they have a balanced diet...what are you doing with your child? am i just weird that this is standard practice in our home? i doubt it since the majority of parents that i know are the same as i am (if not a bit more strict in the food department?). but i found it sad that professionals are finding it necessary (and perhaps it's because of what they're seeing come into their offices?) to advise the parents of their patients to do the basics: read, spend time with, feed WELL....

i am not one to have junk food in the house. don't get me wrong: i love me some good junk food. but for the sake of the growth and health (that includes how our boys view food) of our kids, we rarely buy junk food. we rarely buy processed food. i look through the grocery store circular and am amazed by what you can find in the frozen food department - cooked, breaded, and frozen meat (that you can microwave!). i guess i skip that aisle at the grocery store because nothing in that aisle is ever on my grocery list.

i love what i read in this blog entry.  i love the picture included (i think lentils are completely underrated in this country), and i love what the author is saying: you can eat well on a budget. no more crying about healthy food not being in the budget. there is no excuse to feed our families with processed, boxed, and frozen foods anymore. it's easier and so much better for you and your family to buy a bag of potatoes, real meats, even grains to bake with instead of relying on store-bought breads, cookies, muffins, bagels. 

i hope this post isn't coming off as a pretentious parent. i'd really love it if there were a way to dialogue about this with other parents. are you just as shocked that parents have to be reminded to read to their kids and not give them junk food on a daily basis?

or am i just weird?

find more 7 quick takes every friday at conversion diary....


1. i've always loved valentines day. in high school, i couldn't wait to receive all the kiss-o-grams that the senior class sold (little construction paper hearts with a hershey kiss stuck to the front. the more you received, the more popular you were. i know...that's really lame). really, i just loved the chocolate.

2. local animal shelters are asking that you take what you'd normally spend on your significant other and donate to them since they are overwhelmed with animals now. the economy is forcing a lot of families to give up their pet as they can no longer afford to feed and take care of them. and now the shelters are overwhelmed.

3. friends of ours lost their son to a congenital heart defect two years ago. they want everyone to know that february 14th is not only valentine's day it is also Congenital Heart Defect Awareness Day. see their story here.

4. i love making valentine's day a big deal with our family. what better way to overwhelm your kids with love than with sugar? just kidding...  we've been cutting out pink and red hearts for a while and yesterday we spent the afternoon making cut out heart cookies. today we'll make a slightly less sugary angel food cake with whipped cream "frosting" and tomorrow i plan on surprising them with heart-shaped pancakes and strawberries for breakfast. and we'll watch all the charlie brown valentine's specials that we can find (youtube rocks!).

5. so i've been whining a lot about how sick we've been this week, and really, it could have been worse. but...we had a homeschooling group valentine's party scheduled for yesterday at a local Chuck E. Cheese and the boys have been REALLY looking forward to it. they've been writing their names on the 29 valentines for over a week now and they've been talking about it a lot. but rowan and i were still sick yesterday morning. so i made the parental decision to stay home and didn't know how to break it them. when ALL OF A SUDDEN i received an email saying that the party had been postponed to next thursday since the Chuck E. Cheese was out of power. We all had high winds the previous night, and i know how much of a pain it is to lose power, but this time, i was thankful. hopefully we'll all remain healthy until then!

6. not valentine's day related, but today is the beginning of the great backyard bird count. just spend fifteen minutes of your day watching the birds in your yard and write down what and how many you see. then record them at this web site.

7. kenny and i used to celebrate valentine's day on the 15th because way back in the early days, our first date was on feb 15th. i'm still very thankful for february 15th. even if we didn't actually start dating until september of that same year.

i leave you with a typical "scene" found around our home, typically at breakfast when adam walks downstairs holding his favorite animal. i give you: penguin eating multi-grain cheerios, by adam.

do you know what your state bird is? if it's a cardinal or a robin, you are one of the fortunate to actually see your state bird on a daily basis.

last saturday morning, i was on my way to the gym at dawn. the sky was beginning to lighten, but you couldn't see the road unless, of course, you had your headlights on. as i was nearing the end of a hill, something appeared in my headlights, LOOKED UP AT ME, and then...well, it was history.

if you've ever run over something, you know that sinking feeling you get just after that maybe it was someone's pet. the only thing that made me think it wasn't a dog or a cat was that i was sure i saw feathers. it was too small to be a chicken (at least one of our chickens, although i was close enough to home that i half-wondered if it was one of ours...), and too big to be a mourning dove, but i kept wondering if it was a kitten.

on the way home, i approached the "crash scene" slowly looking at the carnage. lots of brown and white feathers (whew! not a cat!), but still bigger than a typical bird. then it dawned on me: i killed the state bird. the ruffed grouse is the pennsylvania state bird, and although i've never actually seen one, it's totally possible that we've got our fair share of them out here in these parts.

why can't our state bird be something like the eastern bluebird or american robin? at least they get out of the way when a car approaches!

i've blogged and linked a few times before to Jennifer's blog, Conversion Diary. she recently started a Friday meme series called "7 Quick Takes" and to help me get out of my blog-writing funk, i'm diving in this week. i can sit down and write a few sentences about one thing, and then i draw a blank. so here are 7 quick things that never manifested into regular blog posts.

1. sawyer told me the other day that the pen he was using was "out of oink." then earlier this week we had a bunch of wild turkey in our back yard. he said, "i guess our chickens finally grew up! they're turkeys now!" the kid is smart and funny.

2. because he was only saying five words on his second birthday, i enrolled adam into early intervention speech therapy on the advice of our pediatrician. he started in august and we just had his 6 month evaluation. adam's speech is greatly improved and more people (than just me!) can understand him on a regular basis now! i dropped the therapy frequency down to once a month (from every other week) just to help with diction or "early sound pronunciation." i do not see us continuing therapy after his third birthday.

3. i have long wanted to incorporate "tea" into our day. the brits call their supper "tea" but i want an actual tea and yummy snack to don our table on a regular basis. complete with china! but i fear for our waist-lines and the boys' appetite for dinner. maybe i should just start calling supper "tea" and make myself feel british-y.

4. we have two incredibly lovey boys. kenny and i have received not one, not two, but three personalized valentines already. and it's a week away from valentines day! we're going to a valentines day party next thursday and we purchased valentines from the dollar store last week. they each chose their own box: "madagascar," "transformers," and "winnie the pooh." yesterday, all three boys put the heart stickers on the cards. today, they started to write their names in the "from" box. i think they tired after three. they each have 29 to "make." and that, my friends, is why we're not doing homemade valentines for the party this year.

5. as we draw closer to the beginning of Lent, just as when we draw clse to the beginning of Advent, i find myself searching for family activities that help to make concrete the abstract meanings of these seasons. i've found a few that i like. i'll post about them as we get closer to the beginning of Lent.

6. prompted by a status update of a friend of mine from facebook who was doing yoga with her kids, i took out a "yoga for kids" book from the library and have been teaching a few of the poses to the boys. after they get their giggles out, they actually enjoy doing the poses. adam does remarkably well looking at his brothers first, and then trying it himself. i may even find a DVD for us to do together a few times a week. hey...it's gym class!

7. the following two pictures were drawn by the older boys during Advent. i hung them next to my office desk (where I sit to read, blog, facebook, whatever) and i look at them often. i love their interpretations of the creche...the Holy Family in the pious manger complete with a bright star in the sky. i am moved by their sweet little artistic expression of their interpretation of Christmas. that, and the fact that everyone, Mary, Joseph, Jesus and Shepherd, have belly buttons.

we're well settled into our third winter here. winters here are slightly different than the winters in the city. probably about 12 inches of a difference. we have about 18 inches of ice and snow surrounding our house, and it makes normal outdoor play and chores more difficult. too bad phil saw his shadow again this year (when was the last time he didn't see his shadow, by the way?).

we're at the peak of hibernation now, and i guess that i've naturally fallen into a blog-hibernation. i apologize for the few people who read here regularly, but i am completely drawing a blank when it comes to sitting down and creating a blog post, not to mention our camera has been without batteries lately. so if you'll give me some time to come out of hibernation, i hope to get back with posts with more meat eventually.

in the meantime, i give you some good, meaty blogs to read while the winter stretches into its last sleeping position. get your quilt or afghan, cozy up to your laptop or desktop and hot drink of choice and dig into these:

In A Nutshell: my sister-in-law, wife of my brother andrew: recipes, family fun, and cute pictures of my nieces!
Getting Stitched on the Farm: this blog is a realistic but oh-so gorgeous view of raising sheep. hundreds of sheep.
Holy Experience: incredible writing; touching, soothing, daily encouragements
Simply Serina: my friend who recently moved from Pittsburgh to the country. a small-scale organic farmer and soon-to-be chicken and goat (and sheep? cow?) farmer as well as homeschooling mama.