the difference between boys & girls

Scene:  me, pumping milk to squirt into the baby's eye, which is infected with pink eye.
Ben: *eyeing the output (note:  he couldn't actually see anything, just the bottle sticking out from under my shirt)* "How does the store get gallons and gallons of milk?"
Me:  "Well, that milk comes from cows."
Ben: "From the cow's privates, just like your milk comes from your privates?"
Me:  "Uh, yes -- on cows it's called an udder.  It's underneath of them."
Ben:  "Oh yeah!  I know what you're talking about.  Boy and girl cows have udders."
Me:  "No, only girl cows have udders.  Only girls, cows and humans, make milk."
Ben:  "What do boy cows make?  Cheese?"
Me:  "No, cheese comes from milk."
Ben:  *thinking*  "So, boys don't make anything, huh?"

a parenting dilemma solved

I actually made up a solution to a parenting dilemma that was driving me nuts!  I'm not a super original mom for the most part -- I often ask friends for advice, scour the internet, post a facebook plea...  Why reinvent the wheel when I can stand on the shoulders of giants, right?

A plate of snacks = harmony between mom & daughter

So, our issue was that a certain little Miss was asking me constantly for a snack.  Like every 30 minutes, at least.  It was making me crazy because she wasn't hungry, she was bored and it devolves into pestering and whining.  She also wasn't eating meals because she was snacking so much through the day!  It was making me miserable and her too.  So, I decided to do something about it.  I got out a plate and put a variety of healthy (yogurt, fruit, vegetables, string cheese) and neutral (I'm looking at you graham crackers and pretzels) snacks on it and dubbed it her "snack plate" and put it on the bottom of the refrigerator that she can get whenever she wants.  And once she's out, she's out of snacks.

To this writing, she has asked me far less for snacks and not even eaten the entire plate once!  This tells me that she really was bored and not actually hungry when she was asking before, which is something I want to nip in the bud with her right away.  I think this has allowed her to feel much more in control of her food, which in turn has made her stop obsessing over it.

Now, I'm sure that this isn't an original idea and probably everyone else does this and I'm finally just catching on now :)  But it's been a revelation over here!

Life With 3 Kids - Clarification

I realize that I said that I wanted three kids and then ended my last post with "this was the best thing that we almost didn't do." which is confusing!  I didn't mention in that post how much back and forth Chris & I both did about whether or not to birth the third child or to begin the adoption process.  It really felt like a now or never situation if we were going to birth another baby. 

Once I got pregnant, my husband said "Well, I guess we're having 4 kids!"  However, I need a little more sleep before I start thinking about adopting another baby :)