As the mother of four healthy vegan children I get asked a lot of questions. The questions are often specific to what my children eat. If you are a vegan and want your children to be too, its actually quite simple. I will let you in on a little secret. Make good food. I have an 11 and 9 year old who will eat almost anything I make. The reason for this is a)they have no choice b)they have been eating this way since infancy.

In my pantry post, I highlighted what I generally have in my pantry on a regular basis. The list is long and varied. The staples are tofu (only buy Organic soy products), Basmati rice, lentils, soy and nut milk (organic), oatmeal, grits (polenta), brown rice (for waffles), coconut and soy yogurt, rice cakes, and agave. Keep a rotating stock of in season fruits and vegetables and you’re good to go.

Infants
As a rule, I breastfeed. My children get introduced to food at about six months. I start with liquids. See the sesame seed milk post. I introduce a small bottle with water and a couple tablespoons of molasses. I make fenugreek cereal. It’s a mush that my 4 year old loved as a baby and my daughter refused to have any part of it. Babies know what they like, even at that age. I would also grind up whole oats (organic, bought in bulk from whole foods) and then make a slurry with the oats and liquid (the liquid can be your breast milk, water, apple juice or the sesame seed milk). I also begin to incorporate fruit, mashed bananas mixed with cereal or alone, apple sauce, stewed prunes, rice with coconut milk (my daughter loved it), also so delicious coconut milk yogurt. It’s not necessary to buy baby food. It is so easy to make baby food. Get a coffee grinder. This cheap one has lasted me about 8 years or so. I use the coffee grinder for grinding up oatmeal, fenugreek, and even rice for baby cereal. When their teeth come in or they are screaming with angst every time you lift a fork to your mouth. Expand their repertoire. Cut up fruit into bite size pieces, apples, grapes, strawberries, bananas, peaches, melons, it’s all good for the baby. Don’t forget about grits. All of my children love grits (polenta).

Toddlers

My daughter will be two in February. She is probably the pickiest of all my children. However, my daughter still eats a large variety of food. I make sesame seed milk for her, every other day. She loves coconut milk yogurt, she will eat rice and lentils,whole grain waffles, strawberries (fresh and dried), sliced apples, pineapple, bananas, mango, raisins and cereal.

My 4 year old would live off of our macaroni and cheese if it was possible to do so. However, he too loves grits, rice and beans, yogurt, all fruit (especially blueberries), soup, cornbread, waffles (without the syrup), nuts, pasta and oatmeal.

This is just a sample of what the toddlers eat.

The Big Kids

My older children are 11 and 9 year old boys. They have never been picky and eat what my husband and I eat. I don’t get requests for fast foods because we rarely if ever go to fast food places. We may have an Asian inspired meal one night and then pizza the next night. We may do soup and cornbread and then do raw the next night. They like to eat and almost every meal they eat is homemade. My 11 year old likes to help out in the kitchen too. Some of his favorites are spaghetti, pizza, rice and beans, lasagna, greens simmered in coconut milk. He absolutely loves tomatoes and raw vegetables. My 9 year old loves pretty much the same foods, he just doesn’t share his brother’s same fondness for vegetables.

Do you guys have any specific questions you want to ask me? I will be talking about supplements and recipes next.

I took my children to the museum earlier this week. I was shocked by how many obese parents and children there were.  If you are obese, I am not in judgment of you, I am more than hopeful that I can help you.  I know something is seriously wrong with the way Americans eat when I can actually walk to McD’s, but I have to get in a car to go pick up fresh produce.

I understand that there are many parents in my generation who were not taught to cook at home and home ec was pretty much fazed out when I went to school.  To be perfectly honest, looking at how many children are morbidly overweight, I am shocked.

My grandmother tells me that when she was young it was very rare to see a fat person.  She has a lot to say about the current situation.  Most of her observations are true. I, like my grandmother believe that fast food should not be a regular dinner option, if an option at all.  In fact, fast food, is a breakfast, lunch and dinner option for many, many families.  When I came across this TED talk, I had to share it with you all and hopefully you will share the information Jamie Oliver puts forth with everyone you know.

This is just a ploy to get you to ignore the fact that this is not a recipe post. Don’t worry, we didn’t run out of vegan recipes that will make your inner thighs touch (unfortunately I know this as fact). This month went by so quickly. Where does the time go?

Time thief!

It’s not her fault.

Okay, it kinda is.

Those cheeks man!

I can kiss those cheeks all day.

Seriously.

Oh, look! She wants to share!

She really wants you to take it.

Sike! (Don’t act like you don’t know what that means.)

Enjoy the fleeting moments.

She thinks she can talk! Actually, she knows she can talk, we’re just not up to her speed yet.

Pitter Pat goes my heart!

The food, I know, I know, I will get back to that in a sec. Be patient. It’s just me since my husband utterly refuses to post recipes. He’s on strike, something about the wages and working conditions. In between relatives visiting and having a 100% raw house-guest who is visiting for an extended period of time. Homeschooling the kiddies, organizing, decluttering, we managed to make it outside for some much needed sunshine.

I think the pic above describes the dynamic between the boys perfectly. The eldest being bossy, the middle son playing along and my youngest son doing whatever the heck he wants to do. This time, it’s running to me to tell on his older brothers.

My daughter ate grass, because that’s what babies do. She seemed to enjoy it. She needed the roughage. All the cheerios and yogurt she eats had her backed up.

One day I will run a comb through this child’s head.

Why are boys so prone to violence?

This is Mr. Sensitivity. He loves to cook and long walks in the park… I am going to have to beat them back with a stick in a couple of years.

Just as long as they all know that their number one job is to protect this little princess right here.

Yes, yes he is back to normal. The swelling of his eye went down approximately 48 hours after surgery. Why it took approximately 48 days to share that tidbit of information is all my daughter’s fault. Blame it on the infant. Anyway, I made some spinach pesto the other night and when the little one awoke from his nap, he was ravenous. Have you ever seen a toddler ignore bread with such gusto?

I’m so proud of the Little Prince.  Yesterday was his surgery to correct his Hydrocoele.  He handled it like a champion…never cried once, very patient, followed all the doctors instructions…very stoic.  Both my wife and I handled everything well also…at least on the outside.  It is very emotional to have your child go through any kind of hardship.  The Hydocoele corrective surgery is considered “minor”, but having the Little Prince be put under and cut on is scary none the less.

I am one of those who is wary of hospitals.  It always seems like a patient goes in for one problem and comes out with another.  My mother’s heart valve replacement surgery was followed by nearly 10 days of complications.  They tried one thing, yield a problem; they tried this drug, yield this effect; try another drug, another issue…and the cycle went on for days.  Thankfully, she is home and recovering slowly.  So with this recent drama, I was on edge all day yesterday with the Little Prince…and guess what?  We took the Little Prince in for one issue and left with another.

So we get up at the crack of dawn to take the Little Prince to the hospital.  Good thing Laviyah’s emah (mother) offered to drive us.  She also stayed the day to offer her support.  [Thanks ma, I love you and appreciate you being there for us.] We get to the hospital, get a room assigned, talk to eight billion doctors, answer the same questions eight billion times and wait around for about 3 hours.  Thankfully there was a little TV so the Little Prince could watch PBS Kids and we all had books to keep our minds occupied.  Only if we knew it was going to be 20 degrees inside the hospital we could have dressed for the winter.  But the nurses provided warm blankets for my wife and mother-in-law, so they remained cozy and left the hospital with some nice parting gifts…well, at least the girls thought the blankets were gifts.

It is getting close to surgery time.  The Little Prince puts on his gown and we take the booty hanging out photo for future leverage and impromptu embarrassment in front of his girlfriends.   I asked the Anesthesiologist if I could go with the Little Prince while they put him under.  I was allowed to, however, I was informed of the following.  When a child gets put asleep you may see his eyes roll up to the back of his head, he may gurgle, his limbs may quiver.  Is he going to get surgery or an exorcism? I guess they forewarn parents to be prepared and don’t freak out or I guess I would have gotten sedated as well.  I’m a laid back guy so I wasn’t concerned about seeing the Little Prince’s head turn 360 degrees.

OK, so I’m all ready.  Off to see the Little Prince fall asleep and give him some last minutes of comfort.  We were told the procedure should last no more than 45 minutes.  We were led to the waiting room and wait to hear from the doctor.  Since it was even colder in the waiting room, we decided to go across the street and get a little lunch.  We had some Mediterranean from Nesh!.  It was decent, not the best falafel and hummus I have eaten, but very fresh and light.   The Baba Ganoush, however, was very tasty.  I enjoyed that the best. We’re full and warmed up. Time to head back and get our little boy.
We arrive back to the waiting room about 5 minutes before the surgeon comes to give us the “post-op talk”. Just like the movies – she walked into the waiting room in her surgery gear looking a bit disheveled. She didn’t look like she spent 6 hours in intense surgery, more like she slowly jogged the 100 yards from the operating room.

I wanted to hear – everything went well, you can see your son in a few minutes.

Instead, we heard, the surgery went well, but…………….

But what!!!! Well, there was a complication. The surgery for the Hydrocoele went great, but the adhesive that was placed over the Little Prince’s eyes caused an allergic reaction, so his eyes are swollen. OK, not so bad. Let’s go check on him.

WTF!!! Now I don’t curse, but WTF! This is my little boy. I trust you to solve one issue, not let him get knocked out by Mike Tyson! The doctor tried to prepare us for the allergic reaction, but I was taking aback when I saw my little man. Taking aback is putting it lightly. When we walked into the recovery room, the Little Prince was surrounded by about 5 nurses all looking at him in astonishment. As we approached, everybody disbanded. It was like we caught them whispering behind our backs so they all tried to get out of the way unnoticed. Nice try, but I caught ya’ll. But why that reaction from professionals? It turns, out that they never had this reaction before. Never. The Anesthesiologist apologized with the statement – well, I’ll be honest. I never had this happen before. The eye adhesive is hypoallergenic, so I don’t know what caused this reaction. Everyone else joined suit – the doctor, the other doctor, the resident, the other resident, the nurse, the other nurse. All apologized with the “this is new, never happened before spiel.”

All I heard was – you’re gonna be here a lot longer while we figure out what went wrong. Great, a half a day outing just turned into an all day adventure. Yeah!!! They had to put immobilizers on his arms because he kept trying to rub his eyes. So we get to spend the next few hours in the hospital with the Little Prince looking so pathetic. Now the line up proceeds…the Allergist, the Ophthalmologist, the Chief Anesthesiologist, and endless doctors and nurses.

All the while, The Little Prince got thirsty, then hungry. We saved him some hummus and pita, which he happily devoured. After about 3 hours, it was determined there is no damage to his eyes or internal organs; nobody knows how this occurred; take some prescriptions for extra strength Benydryl and steroids; and if the swelling persists for more than 48 hours, bring him back so we can not figure out what’s wrong some more.

Through all of this, the Little Prince didn’t cry once and kept his composure very well. He was a little irritated with the arm immobilizers, but enjoyed me serving and feeding him. He started getting a little annoyed at the last couple of doctor’s visits and therefore less cooperative. But hey, wouldn’t you be if you went to sleep with a smooth face and woke up looking like Gerry Cooney.

All is better today. The swelling has gone down tremendously. His scar from the surgery is fine. The Little Prince will spend the day watching movies and being waited on and his 8 hour hospital adventure may only remain a glimpse of a memory.

He captured me from the very beginning.

Born so quickly, my midwife wasn’t even in the room. Yes, I had an unattended birth in a hospital. (Entirely separate post, I promise I will tell you later.)

He’s a trooper. My tough little soldier. (My husband is to blame for the Ohio State excess in this photo.)

And although I believe he is perfect, he still has to get surgery to correct a problem we discovered this week.

His condition is called Hydrocoele.

It’s a simple surgical procedure to correct it. We had several hours where we were really worried until we met with a surgeon and she explained exactly what is going on with our baby boy.

He always surprises and delights us, but this little hiccup was totally unexpected. So, I know we have kind of neglected our duties around here, but we promise we will get back to our regularly scheduled programming.

It’s just that he needed our full attention and some things fell by the wayside.

Not that he needs us to keep him occupied.

He has a doctorate in busybody.

A masters in nosy.

And even to this day. He is quite adept at making my

Heart Stop.

My husband keeps asking me to write.  I love writing, however writing has not come as easily in the past couple years.  I have actually gotten quite comfortable not writing.  Nahum has been posting recipes and doing quite well at being witty and inventive.  I have been content to sit back and do all the busy work.  Now that my two eldest boys are gone, I don’t know what to do with myself!  I didn’t realize how much homeschooling is woven into my daily routine.  Now that my two school age children are away for the summer I find that I have the time to think.  It’s (gasp) like a mini-vacation I get to take in my home.  Although cooking, cleaning and bill paying is still required.  They left on Thursday and although I spent the day yesterday doing laundry, I kept thinking about writing.  I guess my writers block is lifting. I needed space and time to let my mind wander, which it doesn’t when the older boys are here.

First things first! I want to write about my daughter.  I can’t speak for other parents, but are you in love every single time a child is born?  I know I am!

My husband and I can spend all day fighting over who gets to kiss those cheeks! I can’t express enough how insanely I love this little girl! If your wondering, she is just four months and at about 20 pounds I should bottle my breast milk and sell it!

She’s not the biggest though. My middle son was 28 pounds at three months! I’m grateful that the Princess is not that big! However, she is quite heavy to carry around! I have been wearing her. It’s just easier that way since public transportation has been our mode of transport lately. She doesn’t mind, she is carried and breast fed on demand. She is redefining the life of a Jewish princess.

She’s got us all wrapped around her finger and I wouldn’t have it any other way!

So, I have a five year gap between the two eldest and the two youngest children.  Currently all the boys share a room. 

Huge Mistake.

If I put up the list of things ripped, torn and mangled by the youngest boy you would never get to the bottom of this post. The 3 year old will not stop messing with their things!  The constant fighting is driving me up a wall!  I really want to know from other parents out there, how you separate different age groups and sexes?  Presently my daughter sleeps in my room for obvious reasons and eventually I plan to give her, her own room because well she is the only girl.  What do I do with the 3 year old boy?

Backtracking a little bit.

The three year old is a bully and terrorizes his brothers into giving him their toys.  He makes sure that he gets his way about 99% of the time.  He bewilders me!  My two eldest were so calm and well behaved at that age. Sometimes I long for those days of peace and serenity with two quiet toddlers, quietly playing and quietly going to bed between 7:30-8 at night. I could always take those two anywhere!

Before son number three came along, I can truly say that before going to bed each night the boys did a bit of tidying up. It was never much, because they were always good about putting their toys back. Now, they have to put all the books back on the shelf, put all the toys back. The room looks like a tornado hit it every single night. My three year old is a whirlwind of movement –running, jumping and talking. He makes the two eldest boys appear mentally and physically slow which is certainly not the case. I have somewhat accepted that he is just different than the other two. I am not that parent. I just think I was a little unprepared for how wild he is. He is loud and demanding. This is not a laid back child at all!

Our long term plans are to either purchase or build a spacious home. However, I don’t think I can wait until then to separate these kids! I think I will always have the two eldest share a room because they are only two years apart and get along reasonably well for being around each other 24/7.

The oldest boys are about to head to Boston for a good part of the summer. While they are gone we plan to do some rearranging. Any suggestions? How do parents of many children maintain peace and quiet? Or is it that once one reaches a certain amount of children any hope for peace and quiet goes out the window?