Guido is spending another night at the vet's. Last Tuesday morning, I found a largish spot of blood on the twins' bed that turned out to be coming from Guido's mouth. His bottom jaw was broken in the middle, and his lip was ripped loose and bleeding. I got the three little kids packed up, put Guido into the carrier, and got us all to the local ( Read more... )

Iris turns 6 tomorrow! For her birthday circle at school, she chose to bring daifuku as a treat to share and wants me to read Anno's Hat Tricks to the class. She's doing well in school, although first grade has been harder than kindergarten. In particular, reading is not coming easily for her, although she's making slow progress. She's been ( Read more... )

I wonder how many pasta machines, breadmakers, juicers, blenders, deep fat fryers, egg boilers, melon ballers, sandwich makers, pastry brushes, cheese boards, cheese knives, crepe makers, electric woks, miniature salad spinners, griddle pans, jam funnels, pie funnels, meat thermometers, filleting knives, egg poachers, cake stands, garlic crushers, ( Read more... )

Iris had her first day of first grade yesterday, and Neil and Zinnia had their first day "on the preschool side" last Thursday. (They were in the toddler room at the same school last year.) It was great to have the kids so excited to go back to school and see most of their friends again, and for me to know most of the parents and kids from last ( Read more... )

Wendell's 4-month checkup was today. He weighed in at just 3 oz more than last month, which is not good. (He's now at the 25th percentile for weight, down from the 50th percentile last month and the .) On the bright side, his head is bigger, he's longer (97th percentile there!), and his muscle strength is developing pretty well. The plan is to ( Read more... )

( Read more... )

I'm so glad we had a fourth child. In many ways, this is the first time I've enjoyed having a baby ( Read more... )

We just finished 2 weeks of Ben being back at work, and we have 1 more to go before he takes the rest of his leave. This week was a little rough with Neil & Zinnia having spring break but Iris having school. Zinnia has been particularly difficult in terms of just getting into everything and not doing what I ask her to. It's interesting to see ( Read more... )

( Read more... )

When I first held Wendell, I noticed a "birthmark" on him, which surprised me because the big mole on Iris's arm didn't appear until she was 4 months old. It looked like a smallish light brown mole right on the corner of his wrist. A few hours later, I noticed that it looked more like a scab (dark reddish-brown). The pediatrician thought that it ( Read more... )