25 hour day: No Longer New Parents

Michael would never have been allowed to
eat lollipops in bed.

There is nothing like your first baby to make you fear the world and its dangers, however small. When we had our first little boy, we considered him to be a fragile, delicate little creature that was vulnerable to loud noises, gassy foods, and invisible germs. We sterilized his binkies and bottles. We used dye-free, unscented laundry detergent. If organic food had been readily available then, he would have had organic food served in BPA-free dishes. He did not watch television, and we read to him daily, hourly even. At the playground, we hovered in case he fell and to give him constant encouragement at every new challenge.

Here they are eating off a picnic table which is
probably covered in bird poop residue.

Similarly, there is nothing like a set of twins for your third and fourth child to make you realize that kids are pretty resilient, and that as long as they have a loving, supportive environment, they're fairly indestructible. So, now instead of protecting their ears from loud noises, they have screaming contests when they are supposed to be napping. Instead of holding their hands and hovering as they climb the playground structure, we let them play freely- although I still get a little nervous when Julia swings out over empty space, with glee, hovering for just a second at a height where a fall could result in both neurologic as well as orthopedic injury. I gave away the bottle sterilizer once we had our second child, since I figured the dishwasher worked just as well. I guess we buy organic if it's convenient, but I'm not obsessive about it, and if the non-organic is cheaper and looks fresher, that's what's going in our grocery cart.

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Series/WonderWoman

The kids also all watch television, more than some kids but less than others. It's a fight I that I don't invest in too much anymore, since all the kids, even the twins, read obsessively, are extremely creative, and none of them are likely to become "gamers." It's also increasingly more difficult, as my older children are able to work the DVR and Netflix with a dexterity that I don't even have, despite my childhood expertise in programming the VCR. My husband helpfully points out that we watched a lot of TV when we were growing up. And while TV now is different and worse than TV thirty years ago, the shows back then were sexist and horribly acted with terrible, predictable plots and we loved them. (Have you watched Wonder Woman with Lynda Carter recently? I rest my case.)

Here is an actual photo of Michael picking food up off
the floor to feed the twins. And where are we? Capturing the
moment on camera so I can post it on this blog.

We still read to the twins, sometimes hourly, as they have a library of board books at their disposal, but when food falls on the floor, we sometimes pick it right back up and let them eat it, as long as there is no hair in it. That's where I draw the line. Actually, that's not true. If I know who the hair belongs to, then I just pick the hair off. I draw the line at visible dirt in the food. That's where I draw the line. I'm pretty sure that I would not have re-fed already chewed and rejected food to either our first or second child. Now I think of it as recycling, and reducing waste. And let's face it, when you make weekly trips to Costco to buy staples like milk, eggs, and spinach, you try to maximize what gets in their mouths so you don't have to make a second trip.