Worst blogger ever

Yep, that's me.  Oh, I have had good intentions to blog regularly, but good intentions do not equal good execution.  So why haven't I blogged in months?  The short answer is...that I'm tired.  Surprising, but true.  I will tell myself that I'll blog after the kids go to bed, but then a funny thing happens.  My brain decides its shift is over and clocks out.  My body betrays me as well.  One night I made the mistake of sitting on the couch after hours to turn on Netflix streaming.  The plan was that I would have something on while I worked in the kitchen.  I remember seeing the red "Netflix" screen one moment and the next moment I was opening my eyes two hours later to a black screen (our Blue ray player is smarter than I and put itself to bed).

My future in the blogosphere is looking up, however.  For one, blogger has changed things and I can once again load pictures directly onto the blog, instead of having to use Flickr.  In addition, we officially ended our school year on Friday, so I'll have all the time in the world now to blog.  I mean, in between cooking, and cleaning, and changing diapers, and refereeing, and erasing pencil off the wall (yep, we have another generation of taggers), and finding shoes, and doing laundry, and... well, you get the picture.  I have good intentions.  Let's leave it at that.  I will say I am bound and determined (because you can't be one without the other) to finish this post today. (this is finally getting posted three days after I made that statement).

So how's the clan? Well, we just had our six month post placement visit for the girls, and Malachi's two year post placement visit.  Time has flown by and life is busy, but very very good.

This post will be mostly about the girls because it is their turn to have the spotlight (goodness knows how many posts were devoted to the wonder twins, remember them?).

 

 

These girls are nothing short of amazing.  It is very hard to believe that just six months ago they were Chinese citizens with no siblings and no parents.  Then they got a momma and really didn't like her. Remember when I was the no good very bad "Chinese" mama? I'm happy to report that I really am the mama now, the recipient of both hugs and drama (though I keep telling them, "Your mama don't want your drama."  Perhaps they just don't like bad grammar, because they give it to me anyway).  I give a lot of credit to my other children for helping the girls see me as more than just the food lady.

 

 

 



The girls' personalities are definitely more pronounced.  Naomi is the sweet older sister type, who also has passive aggressive tendencies (like refusing to eat her fruits and veggies, yes, we are still dealing with that issue).   When the girls get into trouble for something, I have a strong suspicion that Lydia is the ring leader. I think Naomi is the Ethel to Lydia's Lucille Ball.  Here they are getting into shampoo.

 

 

Dumping their oldest sister into the Pack and Play



 

And attempting a great escape.

 

 We've discovered that Lydia is cut from the same cloth as Micah.

 

The following was a Facebook post that will give you a good understanding of the difference between the girls.

 

This little one is a force with which to be reckoned. Here she is locked in combat with Gabriel, who thought is was funny until she felled him with a "strategic blow."

  I thought that was funny until she broke the first rule of engagement ...(don't hit your mother) and I received a hit to the rear (do not EVEN make a comment about an easy target). Micah thought that was funny until she set her sights on him and gave chase.

Malachi, well Malachi pretty much just stood there and let her hit him (while yelling "She is hitting me!!!!"). I guess he's a pacifist. There's always one in the family 

 

And here's Naomi, seeming to say, "I'm the innocent one." 

 

 

 

Well, I think I'll end this post here for fear it will be another three days before I actually hit the "publish" button.  By the way, I don't know what happened to the pictures on the last several posts, I blame Flickr.  Until next time!



Endangered Species

We have some endangered species around our home.  Some things that used to be abundant but are now on the brink of extinction are: clean laundry, leftovers, the absence of crying, quiet, clean dishes, time, brain cells (of the mother), and wits (of the mother).

Most of the time I don't think too much about 8 kids being a lot, this is our normal after all.  Other times, 8 feels like a whole lot.  Like the time a whole gallon of milk was consumed at one meal.  Usually the kids are restricted to one glass at breakfast only.  One day I thought, "Why not? Let them have as much milk as they want."  So they were given an "all access" pass.  Uh, yeah, great idea Mom.

I didn't know exactly what to blog about, so I thought I'd give an update on each kiddo along with their "yearbook picture."  Our homeschooling group puts out a yearbook each year and includes  kids at every stage, including the "up and comers."  Here is the rundown beginning from oldest to youngest:



Here is my first-born, now 14 years old.  He loves all things military and wants to serve and go to college (no influence by his mother there, sarcasm, sarcasm).  He is a very good oldest brother who is a rock star in the eyes of the littles.  He's taller than his mom, which his mom enjoys because she doesn't have to get the stepladder nearly as often.



This guy goes by the name "Bob."  His current obsession is with hair combs.  Other than that, he likes superheroes and Legos.  He is also a great helper and is adored by the littles as well.  He may take over his mom's job someday of writing the yearly wrap-up poem that gets sent with Christmas cards. He has quite the gift of rhyming.  Also taller than his mom.

 

This is our "mom in training" as she likes to put it.  She has recently volunteered to change diapers, as long as they are not "stinky."  She is going to be an excellent babysitter as she genuinely loves playing with the middles and littles.  She is friendly and very chatty.  We're still trying to figure out which parent she takes after.  That's a joke.



Behold the oldest of the "Furious Five."  Notice that I didn't say "leader" of the FF, that kid comes next.  Little Miss Kimiko loves to draw, especially dragons.  She would much rather do that than her school work, hence little dragons scrawled around her numbers and letters.  She loves music and loves to dance.  She does this very interesting dance that looks kind of like a horse rearing up on its hind legs and kicking its front legs vigorously.  I've asked her not to do that in public.



This guy never ceases to amaze us.  He is the perfect blend of smartness and naughtiness.  Okay, I guess I would appreciate less of the naughtiness, but the smartness trumps it every time.  The other day our friends, the Ronans, came to get something.  Monkey boy here didn't see them and asked who had come over.  When I said that the Ronans had come he asked, "Was Caesar with them?"  Thinking that Caesar was one of their animals I asked, "Who is Caesar?"  The reply was "You know, Caesar and the Ronans."  And then it dawned on me.  I said, "You mean Caesar and the Romans!" Score one for homeschooling.  When he doodles, he likes to write Greek letters.  When I asked him what kind of cereal he wanted one day, he responded, "I presume Life cereal."



This guy can't take a bad picture.  Life with him still presents lots of challenges, but he amazes us at times with the things that he remembers.  At breakfast we have "calendar time" during which we go over the day of the week, letter/number of the week, weather, etc.  For the older kids, we are going through landmarks, Greek letters, Roman numerals, Presidents, etc.  The middles love to participate as well.  For some reason, Malachi remembers certain presidents and gets them right every time (we use flashcards).  He doesn't remember where he put his pajamas (which are always on his bed), but he pulls out "James Madison, James Knox Polk, and Franklin Pierce."  He has all the letters of the alphabet memorized too along with their sounds, but can't write any of them yet.  He has come a long way in learning how to be a big brother and seems to enjoy helping the littles, when they aren't threatening him.  Here is a shot of him helping Lydia:



Now for the littles.



This girl amazes us with her language acquisition.  She has increased her vocabulary by leaps and bounds.  She is so smart and I go to her if I have a question regarding what belongs to which little.  I tried to do that with Lydia the other day to no avail.  I held up two sippy cups and asked her which one was hers.  She said, "Deh" and nodded her head.  I said, "Can you take the one that is yours?"  She said, "Blexoinbeo" and pointed to her tray.  Thinking third time's the charm, I asked again holding both cups out, "Can you put your water on your tray?"  To which she smiled, said, "egoeheojtge" enthusiastically and clapped her hands together.  Sighing, I walked over to Naomi and asked, "Which one is yours?"  She pointed to hers, pointed to the other one and said, "Lydia."

I've lost track of all the things Naomi can say.  Some of her more helpful phrases are:  "Escuse?" (when she is finished with her meal and wants to be excused), "Help", and "I'm stinky,"

Not so helpful are her attempts to still boycott vegetation.  We've gotten to the point where we will serve her her fruits and veggies first, so she has to finish them before she gets the rest of her meal.  Wow, you would not believe how long that girl can take to eat a few pieces of orange (grimacing with each bite I might add).  Then when she gets the main part of her meal, she plays the part of the magician and makes it magically disappear.  I have seriously asked the kids to watch her to see how she does it. 



Last, but certainly not least, is child #8.  This little one is full of life and energy and spunk.  Before I left for China to get the girls, I bought two blankets, one with woodland animals and one with a cute monkey on it.  I decided that Lydia would have the monkey blanket.  Wow, was I spot on as she is the female version of her brother, the monkey boy.  She still has her bow legs and trips over her feet, but I think she is going to be an athlete.  She kicks balls well and has quite the throwing arm.  Her language, well, it is not nearly as advanced as Naomi's.  Still, you'd better believe she makes herself known.  If she wants to sit on your lap, she'll make one of her utterances and turn her back to you while looking over her shoulder at you with great expectation.

Here's proof of her mischievous side...



That little stinker was preventing her sister from exiting the office. 

And here she is after attempting to give herself a tattoo or two or three...



And just to finish off this blog entry...some outtakes of our yearbook photo session.

I love love love this picture of these two.  Out of all my kids, they look the most alike.



And of course these two insisted on taking pictures together.  Micah looks like he's doing an impersonation of a mafia boss.





And finally...hang loose everyone until next time!

2 is not 8 and other math realities

You've heard of "new math," well, this is "big family math."  You may think I am stating the obvious by saying that 2 is not 8.  I'm not trying to trick you here.  No, I am just putting to rest something I used to tell other moms.

Back when I only had six kids to corral and manage, it would be inevitable that some young mom would see us in the grocery store or in a restaurant and exclaim, "I don't know how you do it, I have so much trouble with my two!" At which I would smile and in my "experienced Mommy voice" say, "Oh, it doesn't matter how many you have, parenting is always challenging.  Two is just as challenging as six."  Well folks, two is not eight.

When that scenario happens now, I am first of all, grateful that the deception worked and the woman actually believes I have it together.  Then I will smile and in my "just glad to be surviving Mommy voice" say, "Parenting is certainly challenging, isn't it? Oh excuse me while I deal with the two cups of spilled milk, the toxic diaper, and the two year old who has just learned how to repeatedly say, 'Hey Mom!' "

Yeah, life is a little different now.  Here's another math reality, you ready? Five is more than eight.  Yup, five is sometimes way more than eight.  How's that so? Well, it takes much more effort to get the five youngest out of the house and into our beluga whale of a van without the three oldest.  Thankfully the two oldest "middles" know how to buckle themselves in their car seats, so I only have to buckle the youngest three, but boy do I feel the outnumberedness when I am solo with the "Furious Five" (also known as "the middles and the littles").

So I'm sure you are asking, "How are the littles doing?"



They are amazing, full of both joy and trouble.  One of their favorite pastimes is playing with the laundry, especially after it's been folded.  The particularly like underwear, which is what they are wearing on their heads in the pictures (at least it's clean).  Of course I would only post the pictures of them with their brothers' underwear and not their mother's.




Here's the older of the littles practicing being a big sister.



I'm not sure who was enjoying this scene most... I think it was probably me.  Yes, the girls are our chief source of entertainment.  The middles keep us laughing as well, but they are increasingly wanting to be seen as bigger kids.  Well, at least the two oldest middles, that is.



Malachi is actually getting better at interacting with the littles.  He is less threatened by them and will actually try to help them now which is a very positive turn.  We've worked hard on training him how to be an older brother.  He's getting good at, that is, when the little girls let him.

We didn't watch any of the Olympics, mostly because we get about two channels on our television, and neither one  was broadcasting the games. No matter, we held our own Olympics since we were studying Greece.

Only the oldest six participated and were divided into three teams. 

We had Israel (unfortunately is was so bright outside you can't really see their flags, chosen because the oldest child admires its superior military.



Sissy and Monkey boy represented the Motherland of four of our family members by choosing China



Another Motherland of the family, Japan, was chosen by Bob and Kara



The littles were the mascots who had lots of fun watching the events.



We had rigorous events that would result in the thrill of victory for some and the agony of defeat for others.

We had bocce ball first and then the horseshoe toss

(You can see the Monkey boy wearing his horseshoes for good luck perhaps? Except that we don't believe in luck...)

Next came the thrilling water run and fill



The middles were amazingly good at this event and wanted to keep doing it over and over again.

Our last event was the tower build in which each player had to place a block down one at a time to build a tower in one minute.  Each team had three tries and we took the average to yield a score.





So who won? Our ally, Israel, received the gold, our other ally, Japan, received silver, and the other motherland received bronze. Fun was had by all, and we took advantage of the warm weather we've had all "winter" (aka  "spring eve").

One Saturday all the bigs were with friends, so I took the Furious Five for a walk.  There is a school near a friend's house that houses various animals and is located by a walking path.  I thought that would be a good choice, an easily "corralable" area (I know I be making up words).  Usually I consider an event "blog worthy" if something crazy happened.  These days I deem something blog worthy if nothing eventful happened, because that is a rarity.  Here are some pics from our walk.

Here Lydia is pointing to some strange animals called "people."  I think she thinks she is supposed to know them.

Not sure what kind of dance she's doing here, but her brother looks like he's pretending he doesn't know her.  He'd rather converse with the sheep.

I found this scene to be quite interesting. Lydia had just run down this small sloped hill, while Naomi stood there, uncertain of how to proceed. I felt bad as she just shifted her feet back and forth, but would not move forward. She is more of a "wobbler" than a "toddler." I finally coaxed her "down," but would not hold her hand. I'm a coach, not an enabler.

In reality, the physical therapist surmises that much of Naomi's life was spent depending on others to help her get around. Having heart surgery at such a young age, her movements had to be restricted. That would account for her upper body weakness, as she may have not been allowed to crawl. In addition, we were given these leg braces on Gotcha day that I only discovered once we were back at the hotel. No one, even at the orphanage, could explain why she had them. Once we got home, we found a CD that had pictures on it. In those pictures, Naomi is wearing the leg braces that go from her feet all the way past her knees and she is in a completely different place than the orphanage I visited. When the PT saw the braces, she was horrified and told me to burn them. She could not figure out why anyone would have put Naomi in them. Wearing the braces, she would not have been able to get up from a sitting position very well and would have been dependent on others to help her up. This made perfect sense to me, as she was always wanting someone (okay, Pam)to hold her hand when we were in China. Even when we got home, we had to break her of that habit and force her to get up and walk on her own (we are so mean). The result? Her upper body strength has improved greatly. Add to that, she wants to get herself in and out of her high chair, which requires upper body strength.

Naomi's language skills are coming along wonderfully. We have to remind ourselves to stop and really listen to what she is saying as she really is saying something (as opposed to her little sister, who pretty much speaks her own language). The other day she was sitting at the dinner table next to James and was saying something to him. He asked, "Are you all finished?" and made the sign for "all finished." She repeated what she had been saying before, and James realized that she was saying, "Be excused?" Her favorite things to say are, "Okay" and "Mom" (what kid doesn't like to say "Mom"?). As I said before,

 Lydia seems to have her own language, but she definitely knows how to make herself known. She does a lot of strategic pointing. One day we had this conversation: Lydia: "ghiernmeoongoje?" Mom:"Yes, you can put away the wipes." Lydia: "eirongoehortoen?" Mom: "No, it doesn't go in that cabinet." Lydia: "roingoinghong?" Mom: Yup, that's the right drawer." As you can see, communication is not lacking.
This is a great shot of my kiddos and my sister's two kids. I don't know, 10 looks kind of nice...wait, did I just say that???

The Time Bandit Exists

I know he exists because my time keeps disappearing.  Actually I have a lot of time bandits in my house, but I guess they don't count if you are actually giving your time to them.

So here I am on a Saturday morning trying to get a blog entry done amid the chaos of older kids trying to do chores, the middle ones supposedly cleaning their rooms, and the littlest ones trying to undo the work everyone else has done.  I am situated where I can hear pretty much everything that is going on.  We'll see how long it takes for me to actually finish this.  I'm starting now, because attempting this at the end of the day is a lesson in futility.  I'm either totally exhausted or out of my mind and look like this:



Okay, well, it was a nice idea to get the blog post done early.  It is now 10:17pm.  In this time between writings, I have: served 27 plates of food (obviously James is not home or it'd be 30); done 2 loads of laundry; changed umpteen diapers; given 5 showers; brushed 5 sets of teeth twice (once for nap, once for bed); refereed many disputes; run one load of dishes in the dishwasher; ran a few errands while the furious five were napping; and...well, you get the picture.  This is actually an easy day because we don't have school (we don't have school on Sundays either, but I am often teaching anyway).

I guess the best way for me to proceed is to just hit the highpoints of this last month and answer a few commonly asked questions.  Here it goes:

Christmas was a little crazy.  Having arrived home on December 6 and getting sick right after, I was not super keen on getting out Christmas decorations when we were still unpacking.  I did compromise, and we did have a  Christmas tree of sorts:



Oh yes I did.  I wrapped lights around the tree in our house and called it good.

One tradition I absolutely could not forgo was the gingerbread houses.  Making 10 gingerbread houses was clearly time consuming, but well worth it.  The little girls managed to put maybe three candies on their houses before it was time to sample.



I think they quite enjoyed this tradition.  Here's pictures of the other six hard at work (wow, did I just say "the other six?"):





Just looking at those pictures, I have to say I have cute kids.  Since four of them are not genetically related to me, I can say it with abandon and am not sorry for it.  But I digress...

Christmas day was spent at my parents' house where Lydia discovered the 8th wonder of the world... chocolate!



The girls also were privileged to experience their Ji-chan's (my dad) famous smoothies.  It was the first time we did not have to pull teeth to get Naomi to consume fruit.



Taking the picture for our Christmas card proved to be challenging to say the least.  I am ever so grateful for the person(s) who developed the digital camera.  It took 63 tries to get the "perfect" shot.  I've already posted the one we used on Facebook, so here are a few of the outtakes I promised to Mrs. Shu...



We've celebrated three birthdays since Christmas:

My oldest turned 14!!!!



Poor Bob was sick on his birthday so I didn't get a picture of him with his cake (we didn't dare have him hold it).

Lydia turned two and I was a very bad no good mama (again) and forgot about her birthday until my mom called to wish her a happy birthday.  Her big bro Bob made her a cake and decorated it too.  By the way, "Citizen" is that big monkey that our monkey boy loves.  Lydia has kidnapped Citizen for her own.




I'm often asked how the little girls are settling in and I say, "Settling? They are very much settled."  Their transition has been amazingly smooth and I attribute most of that to their siblings.  They adore their sibs and their sibs adore them.  It's a regular love fest around here (that is, when someone isn't crying about someone doing something to them...they are all siblings after all). 




That picture of all of them in the kitchen cracks me up, because with 4,000 square feet of house, all 10 of us were in about 45 square feet of it.  James and I were cleaning the kitchen, and the kids started coming in one by one just to hang out.

 Malachi is doing much better with them, we have been teaching him how to be a big brother which includes how not to be scared of them.  He's still in process.  Kara loves being a big sister, and Micah, well that kid even does diapers.  One day he announced that "one of them is stinky" ( a phrase I am looking forward to not hearing anymore).  I was in the middle of getting breakfast ready, so I told him I would take care of the offending party shortly.  When I came out of the kitchen I started the search for the offender.  This is what I came across:


Sorry about the dirty diaper in that last shot. I was paying more attention to Lydia laughing.  Micah actually did a good job, I had to do very little adjusting.  He has changed a few more since, but I like to be there when he does in case the job requires a higher degree of involvement, such as the time he said that it looked like "a volcano exploded" in Lydia's diaper.

Another morning Micah came walking up to me holding the girls' hands.  He announced that he had gotten them out of their beds. I am not sure how he did it, and I'm also not sure I want to know how, or want to witness how.



Well, I have more to share but it's 11:52pm and my day is not over yet.  I have a few more things to do before I can head to bed.  You see, the blog may be titled "The Road Goes Ever On and On," but my life can be titled, "My day goes ever on and on..."

Hope to post again before another month passes!

Coming home...you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it swallow it

Home sweet home, are we ever glad to be back.  We had a good trip, but it was a hard one. 

We left Guangzhou at 6am to take a van ride to Hong Kong.  The ride was about 3 hours long.  When we got to the border of Hong Kong, you'd think we were entering into another country.  We had to show our passports at three different checkpoints and the agents had to match each of us with our passport.  Something tells me the concern is not people coming from Hong Kong onto the mainland...

Once we got to the airport, our driver decided to make his own lane and weave in and out of it.  I was getting carsick and apparently so were the girls.  Naomi tossed her cookies once, and Lydia got sick four times right when we arrived at the airport, and I was in the line of fire.  I was coated all down my left side from my shoulder down.  I was very glad that we had not yet checked in our luggage as I was able to change my clothes and Lydia's clothes.  Still, each of us really needed a decontamination chamber (I'm amazed they didn't have that at the Hong Kong airport, they pretty much had everything else). 

Thankfully we had plenty of time, as in addition to the wardrobe malfunctions, we had one of the farthest gates away (it required a small train ride).  We only waited about 45 minutes before we boarded. 

I like this shot of Sissy and Lydia looking at the planes.



Here's our bird that took us home.



After I took the shot of our plane, I was excited to see the "Hello Kitty" plane going by.



As I was standing by the window, a man standing next to me said, "It doesn't get old seeing that, does it."  I said, "No, what fun that is to see Hello Kitty on a plane."  As I turned to look at the man, I realized instantly that I was talking to a United officer of some kind, perhaps even the pilot.  Before he said anything I quickly added, "Of course the United plane is wonderful too!"  He chuckled and I wiped the sweat off my brow.  Later on, this same man was passing out chocolate (American made thank you very much).  I wanted to marry him, but that would be against the law.

On the plane, Lydia and I sat in the middle section, while Pam, Sissy and Naomi had the three seats to the side of us.




Overall, the girls did well, but at times we were "that family" with the crying kid on the plane.  At one time, poor Pam had both little girls with her.  They didn't want anything to do with me at the time, so all I could do was take out a book and read (poor, poor me, he he he).  I thought that was a pretty good scam, but it didn't last too long.

Getting through customs and immigration was very easy (it was so nice to talk to airport personnel that spoke perfect English! We were even in San Francisco!).  It's hard to see, but this was perhaps my favorite sight of the whole trip.



Yeah, ignore the guy on the left.  Concentrate on that group of people in the middle,  Can you see a small figure running toward me?  (By the way, I am going to change my kids' names once again for the blog.  Only those who know my kids well will be able to know who is who.  From oldest to youngest, I will now call them: Daniel, Bob, Sissy, Kara, Micah, Malachi, Naomi, and Lydia.)

So that little boy running, the one we will call "Micah," crossed into the no-no area to give me a hug, ask me to hold his cup of milk, and then take the handles of the stroller away from me and proceed to push his youngest sister toward the other members of her family.  It happened so quickly, it took me a minute to understand why I was holding a cup of milk.

The girls seem to be thinking, "What in the world have we gotten ourselves into?"

 That is one proud big sister.  I know the picture is blurry, there was a lot of activity going on.

Malachi didn't seem to know what to do.  Perhaps the realization that he was now replaced as the baby of the family was sinking in. 



The girls slept on the way home, which was good because it took a long time to get home (4 car accident on the Bay Bridge, bleh).  When we arrived at our domicile, Lydia, true to form, began to cry (she gets scared every time we arrive at a destination.  It makes me wonder if she thinks she is going to get left somewhere.  After all, her first car ride ever was to a place where she was taken and never went back to her home.).  Micah kissed her on the head, but not even that helped.  Imagine that.



As I predicted, both girls became "Baba" (Daddy) girls.



Here's our motley crew.  It would have been nice if everyone was smiling and looking at the camera, but we've used up our allotment of miracles for the year.



As you can see, we've had some "improvements" made to our home.  I think the girls think the kitchen is the holy of holies.  They hang out at the gate and make it look like feeding time at the zoo.



My parents came up the day we came home and brought dinner for us.  Lydia went right to my dad (who was quite pleased with that).



We have outgrown our dining table for 8, so we put two tables together to fit all of us. It also took two shots.



As you can see, the girls are fitting in very well and are enjoying the attention they're getting from their older siblings.



The Wonder Twins have really embraced their roles as older siblings.  It is so fun to watch, it wasn't long ago that they were the trouble makers. 

Remember these pictures?????



Those are circa 2011.  These are the new and improved wonder twins (WTs).



That Micah kid is one smart cookie.  We've been having trouble with Naomi, who we were told was not a picky eater.  She used to spit food out until I pushed it back in.  Now she doesn't spit the food out, she just keeps it in her mouth.  We knew she understood precisely what we were meaning when we wanted her to swallow her food.  We thought that if we made her stay at the table, she would eventually swallow it.  Here's how that idea panned out.



Note the leg that has managed to wiggle out, and the sock that is now on the hand, and the child fast asleep with food in her mouth. I did get her to finally swallow the food, but it took about a half an hour of pouring small bits of water in her mouth.  That little stinker was so clever, she would push the food under her tongue and swallow the water.  Finally, I decided to brush her teeth.  In a secret Ninja move known only to my people, I swept the food out from under her tongue with the toothbrush, poured a little water in, and the food was swallowed.

Tonight, I tried moving her mouth up and down saying, "Chew," hoping she would get the picture of what she was supposed to be doing with the broccoli in her mouth.  Micah watched me for a while and said, "Mom, why are you doing that?"  I explained my brilliant idea to him and he was duly unimpressed.  I left Naomi do practice what I had so skillfully taught her.  A bit later, Micah said, "Mom, I gave Naomi some of my cookie."  Before I could tell him what a bad idea that was, he said, "Now she's eating her broccoli."  Sure enough, she was happily chewing cookie and broccoli.  Uh huh, Micah, score 1...Mom, score 0.