Adventures in Eating

When we had Hilde 9 years ago, we were eager first time parents. We couldn't wait to feed her real food and see her reaction.  Every couple of days we introduced something new.  With baby number 4, that enthusiasm was tempered with a lot more practicality.   Feeding four kids? Dealing with the mess?  Dealing with "real" diapers?  I was happy to wait a little longer.  Freya got her first foods at about 6 months and it was just rice cereal for a good long while.  Daycare kept asking me when I was going to start feeding her.  They couldn't feed her anything that had not been tested at home first.  Slowly but surely we did add more foods to her diet. Now she wants to feed herself.  Anything that is an appropriate baby finger food: yogurt melts, puffs, cheerios, toast, pieces of pancake, pieces of banana, etc. makes her happy.  If you have to feed it to her, look out for her patented windmill arms.  They make every dinner a catastrophe waiting to happen.  This is the main reason that I know LOVE the baby food that comes in pouches.  It travels well, doesn't make nearly as much of a mess, and they have a lot of good fruit/vegetable combinations. 

I already miss my little baby, she is growing up way too fast!

10 Months

Freya is 10 months old now.  And she really did not want the moment captured on film, despite Hilde's help.  Freya is developing a mind of her own.  She knows what she wants and has several ways of trying to get it: 1) Crying, 2) Screaming a high-pitched dolphin-like noise (especially when she and Phinn are competing for attention - his noise is even "better"), 3) Crawling at warp speed 4) Climbing, 5) Looking cute at an older sibling and convincing them to give her whatever she wants, 6) Smiling big at mom and dad.  How can we resist?

Apple Picking

On our way home from West Virginia we stopped for our "annual" apple picking trip to Stribling Orchards in Markham, VA.  The day was absolutely perfect.  Unfortunately everyone else in Virginia thought so too.  I have never seen it so crowded.  The pictures make it look like we were the only ones there, but trust me, we were not.  It was so crowded that once we parked we quickly picked apples, sent Dave to stand in line to pay for them, and waited and waited for him to make his way to the front.  They have a bunch of peach trees so I am thinking maybe next year we'll head out there for peaches and try somewhere else for apples...we'll see.

West Virginia

 Scheduling anything in these days is hard, especially weekend trips.  When we looked at our calendar and saw a free weekend, we immediately thought that it was time we took a trip out to Grandma and Grandpa's place in West Virginia.  The kids were dying to go, who wouldn't want to spend time in the treehouse, ride the golf cart and ATV, make s'mores and watch for wildlife?

 Dave took the first ATV ride of the day, and we went together on a ride shortly after this.  I can't remember the last time we did that, it was fun holding on to my sweetie as we felt the wind on our faces.  It was particularly nice that we didn't have anyone else interrupting the moment!

 The kids love driving around the property with Grandma in her golf cart.

 Daddy took each kid on an ATV ride, Phinn LOVED it.

 Lazily swinging in the hammock was very nice.

 Archery!  After watching Olympic Archery our kids had a real interest in the sport.  They were too young to try it, but they did watch grandpa and dad for a little while.

Freya wasn't sure what to think of all the gnats (there were a ton), but she loved the wide open spaces.

Then it was time for some serious s'more making.  The older kids toasted their own marshmallows.

It was a nice break from an otherwise busy Fall season.

Maryland Renaissance Festival

We spent a gorgeous September Saturday at the Maryland Renaissance Festival.  Everyone except Freya got a little dressed up.  The boys were knights, Hilde was a pirate, Dave wore his kilt and I wore my green plaid skirt.  We didn't make it to one of the themed weekends so we kind of did a little of everything.

First stop was the free pony ride.  Last year we discovered that if you went straight there upon the park opening up, you could avoid the line.  Not too much later the line gets to be way too long.  Since this is not an optional activity when Phinn is part of your family, we went there first.

 Even Enoch's scary face is somehow a little fun and mischievous.

This sweet boy can't get enough of horses.  We might have to find him some riding lessons when he is older.  Just look at that smile.

Dave loves maps, and I mean LOVES maps.  His kids have that gene too.  It was pretty cute to have Phinn beg us to stop so he could look at that map and help "decide" where to go.

 Hilde eating a turkey leg:

 Enoch throwing a knife (I think):

 Dave bought me a pretzel which we all shared.  After that Enoch kept begging for another one - "the one with the most salt possible on it".  After a few hours we relented and let him pick this one out. He refused the mustard.

The joust is the big draw.  Let me first say, congratulations to the Renaissance Festival for gender equality.  This year two of the jousters were women and I was pretty impressed.  Don't worry, there were still plenty of wenches walking around, but I do think it was pretty cool to Hilde to see women doing something so cool.

As we were heading out, Hilde asked if we could go see Molly Dangle.  She was doing a silks act.  I am glad we stopped, it was really cool and Hilde loved it.