Rainy Days

Well, perhaps you expected a blog post about Sandy, but thankfully there was almost no drama in our neighborhood.  We didn't lose power and our basement has stayed dry (by God's grace as you should see how ugly our basement is on a normal, dry day).  Our thoughts  and prayers are with friends all over the East Coast that have been affected.  

Although we didn't really get a shock from Sandy, we have had rain, rain and more rain since Saturday afternoon.  On Tuesday, with high winds and flood warnings, schools here were cancelled, including Koen's.  Poor Koen.  He was supposed to have his first field trip that day, which also meant he was going to get to stay full day.  He and his carpool buddy were so excited.  They were pretty crushed to see Sandy wash that dream away.  Thankfully Doug was able to help out on Tuesday morning with the big boys which made it seem more like a holiday or weekend day rather than a rained out field trip day.  So thankful for Douglas and how great a Daddy he is!  We had a low key morning.  Here's a pic Doug snapped on his phone while I entertained Penn on the floor and read the boys our 2011 photo book (they love the family albums!).  Like I said, it was a pretty chill start to the day.

Before 10am Doug took the big boys on some errands and for an hour or so they hung out at the church while Doug had a conference call and the boys played school in the kid's space.  He brought them home just in time for Tav's nap, so enjoyed a quieter (and oh so productive!) morning with Penn.  One thing I got done was prep for our dinner.  I tried a new recipe, which turns out, we all loved!  I made my friend's recipe of whole wheat chicken pot pie.  Here's a picture of the finished products (a big one and then two mini ones for the boys).  

Here's a link to the recipe if you are interested.  It was absolutely delicious.  I actually made the crust 100% whole wheat and it worked great.  Also, I used peas instead of kale this time, but I love recipes like this where you can switch things up every time you make it.
http://theyellowtable.com/comfort-food-whole-wheat-chicken-pot-pies-with-kale/

Today I'm trying another recipe.  Can't wait to try it as the house is filled with delicious Fall smells from it.  Here's about stage 2 of the butternut squash apple soup.  It's now pureed and waiting to be devoured.

While I was working on this recipe and Penn was napping, Tavin stayed busy with Play-Doh again of course.  He made lots of cookies for Daddy.  Tav's in great spirits today, but unfortunately is stealing deal with quite a runny nose and a cough from whatever awful, sustaining cold we are passing around and around in this house.  His nose, lips and cheeks are raw from wiping his nose on his sleeve, blanket or whatever else he finds before I can catch him and encourage the use of a tissue.

Although being stuck indoors can get really old (especially when Koen's around), I've enjoyed the simplicity of the last few days just playing, cooking and being all together.  Tavin and I had fun up on the third floor.  I built him a very nice train track and we also played his new favorite game, Brown Bear, Brown Bear.

After Penn had napped and eaten, he hung out in the exersaucer for awhile.

I took a video so you could get a glimpse of what it's like hanging out in the playroom with the two youngest Melder boys.  Pretty fun! (Oh yes, Tavin is still chattering it up and today he was very concerned about the safety on his vehicles).

I've been experimenting with Penn and his napping.  In the last few weeks we've had some swaddle-break-outs, so I started letting him try sleeping unswaddle every once in awhile (particularly when I don't mind if he sleeps lighter or wakes up).  He's actually doing really well with it and even can soothe himself back to sleep after being woken up.  Penn is hands down the best napper at this stage of life that I've had.  I'm so thankful!  He's such a blessing and it's a great bonus that he's also a great napper and sleeper.  Hopefully it will just last and last.  We'll see.  Anyways, I love sneaking in on him and seeing what he's doing while unswaddled.  He sleeps with his hands up away from his head and I've seen him hanging out in there just staring at his hands moving around above his head.  Today when I went to get him for the 1pm feeding, he was sucking his thumb!

Looks like we have another thumb-sucker on his hand.  Although it's a tough habit to break later on, it's a pretty great built-in buddy for self-soothing.  I'll take it.  And how precious is he?

Well, hopefully I'll keep coming up with things to keep these boys busy indoors.  Stay tuned to see if we find anything fun and interesting to do. =)