Food and Fall

Quin has graduated to Cheerios (well, actually the generic ones from ShopRite). For the last few weeks, his intake of solid food has sharply increased (in direct proportion to his increase in size). He's been downing two containers of baby food with oatmeal pretty quickly and it's just getting out of hand! So at lunch today, after his regular baby food, I decided to attempt something else. Tim gave him a cookie earlier this week, but I thought the nutritional value of Cheerios was probably a bit higher than cookies, so I opted for those. Quinton is not even 7 months old yet and has no teeth... he is barely sitting. All of these are good reasons to not give him finger foods. Perhaps the fact that he still hasn't developed a pincher grasp is a good reason for not giving finger foods either. But, he cries when we eat and seems to always be hungry... so, Cheerios he got. He loved them. Ate a small custard cup of them... one at a time. I put them in his mouth and he chewed/gummed away. He cried when the bowl was empty. So I gave him some cheese. He liked that too. He likes lasagna also.

Tim is at a pastor's conference in New York until tomorrow night. When we spoke last night he said it was very good and he was eager for me to hear the teachings. I am sure I will also enjoy them as they are typically very good.

We've been plugging away with school and it is going pretty well. Planning ahead has definately made for a better year already. It took some time to pull together, but using this new software for record keeping is already wonderful. Homeschool Tracker Plus is what we bought. They have a free version that is good too, but we opted for the Plus version that includes Lesson Planning, which is a great time saver when you will be reusing curriculum with other children... which with five, we will be doing that. It was a bargain at $35, which includes lifetime updates and customer support. It was a bit of work getting it all set up, but I now feel pretty confident using it. Since Hannah is now in 7th grade, I want to make sure our record keeping is stellar. All of her work will appear on her transcripts and aid in acheiving her diploma (which will probably come from a state program in which we will enroll her).

The leaves are changing and I'm daily reminded of the beauty of fall. This is my favorite time of year and I'm trying to be out and enjoy it as I'm able. We all are out on the deck for several lessons during the day. Quin loves it outside too. We put his exersaucer out on the deck and he watches the birds and the leaves for hours. I tried him in his backpack carrier yesterday and he loved it, so that will open up more hiking for us as a family :) I'd love to get to Bushkill Falls in the next few weeks to see the falls and the folliage. And take some pictures!

Also, a note for family and friends that still use the telephone... we cancelled our landline service effective October 6th (I think) and will only be using our cells. Look for an email or letter with our numbers if you don't have them already. We have a Cingular plan, so if you also have Cingular, it shoudl be a free call!