Chocolate power smoothie

Tonight Xander requested a chocolate smoothie for dessert, so I did my best to be up to the challenge.  I browsed quickly online (cookbooks are so passe!), and decided to go the healthy route versus the chocolate ice cream route.  I adapted this one from something I found on a spirulina website, and it worked - everyone had seconds!

2 bananas

2 cups strawberries

1 cup spinach

3 cups milk

a dash of cinnamon

lots of honey

3 tablespoons Nesquik powder (maybe next time I'll go for chocolate syrup)

And here's a big moment: Xander found out the identity of my secret ingredient!  He asked if I was going to put in "the green stuff," and I said, "Sure, you mean the spinach?"  Then I waited for his reaction.  Instead of acting grossed out, he just said, "OH!  That's spinach?!  I thought I didn't like spinach."  To which I replied, "Nope, you love it. You just asked for it."  And he smiled happily, and we went merrily on our way.  :)

We need our fix!!!

Written last night....

Connor hung out with Jonathan a large part of the day today, "practicing" what it will be like for me going back to work on Sunday.  And Jonathan made a concerning discovery.

The baby is a total mama's boy.

He cried and cried with Jonathan (and Robin) - they rocked him, bounced him, gave him a bottle.

He stopped complaining the moment he saw me.  Then he gave me the biggest, most heart-wrenchingly beautiful smile in all of baby smile history.  He cooed, and fell right asleep.  It melted my heart... and made me feel really sorry for my husband.

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All afternoon his brothers were challenging, to say the least.

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By the end of the day, Jonathan and I were wiped.

But, aside from the occasional glass of wine, we do not drink.

Neither do we shoot anything into our arms.  Or snort anything up our noses.  Or take any prescription drugs to excess.

So what did we do?

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Jonathan made an emergency supermarket run.

Oh pint of Banana Split Ice Cream, how I love thee!

Weekend in repose

Jonathan and the cub.

Blackie's cage, complete with camel and tree from Savta. Notice the snakeskin hanging off the tree - he was having a lot of trouble shedding until we put it in there, and then kept rubbing against it, enabling an easy shed.  So thank you, Savta, on behalf of Blackie!

Ari's smoothie face.   He kept drinking from the glass at different angles, hence his horns and forehead dabs.  Finally he gave up and went with the spoon. 

Pictures you won't see? Me huffing and puffing.  For the past few weeks I've been going on daily power walks with Connor in the carrier, and on Thursday I bought hand weights.  Oy those make a difference!  Owww...

How are they growing up so fast?

It's amazing how much a difference five years make.  How did Xander get to be his own person, with his own personality and preferences and attitudes?

We were at a friend's house yesterday, and Ari (turning 3 next month), went to play with Ava, also 2.  They played near us, coming to check in often and asking for help with things in their non-enunciated language.

Xander and Ava's brother Mateo, also 5, went right to the backyard and didn't come back in for two hours.  When various parents went to check on them, they were playing merrily and obviously had their own in-jokes.  At one point Mateo said, "let's show your mom how this works!" and it took me aback because 1) I was the mom, 2) they're old enough to say "mom," not "mommy," and 3) they were showing me something that I didn't know.

I know that children grow up. But still.  Xander has been calling me "Mom" sometimes, to test it out, I think.  And it's weird.  He seems so old, especially as he's been taking on the role of helper for Ari and the baby.

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Then today, at the park, my viewpoint shifted again, as he seemed so childish compared to the teenage girls on the swings.  One called him "Hot Stuff 101" and he was completely baffled as to what that meant.  It was adorable.

Amazing how one's perspective can take a 180 depending on context.

The phrase "Sleeping like a baby"

Means you can sleep through incredible noise, like your brothers screaming in glee, or the clank of your father on the elliptical while an action movie plays in the background.

It means you fall asleep easily, without much crying, but you wake up every two to three hours. Until the one night you sleep for five hours straight and freak out your mother, who keeps checking to make sure you're breathing.

Yet you are 13 lbs and amazingly alert and strong, so all that sleeping and nursing is definitely doing something right!

In your wearable blanket PJs... distinctly not sleeping.

Woohoo, my name made a list!

You know how people with more traditional names can usually find their name on mugs and keychains and souvenir paraphernalia?

I never can, no big shock and surprise.

Until now!  Read here: Michal was the 10th most popular Israeli girls' baby name in 2012.

Yay.

New meaning to the term "baby gymnastics"

Xander jumps back and forth over the baby.

Jonathan: "Xander, please don't jump over your brother."

Xander: "Why not?"

Jonathan: "Because you could accidentally fall on him and hurt him.  At the very least he'll make a lot of noise."

(pause)

"Think of him as a land mine."

Mr. 8 week-old Land Mine himself, fitting perfectly into his size 6-months outfit.