Our youngest was born very early, at 23.5 weeks gestation (16.5 weeks early).  I've talked about this in earlier posts (see  here  and  here ) so I won't go into all the details.  One common problem among micro-preemies is problems with eating.  Full-term babies get to practice the whole suck-swallow technique in utero but preemies don't.  So they're not very good at it.  Camille had an additional problem which was kidney failure.  A side effect of kidney failure is that food tastes terrible to you and you have no appetite.  Young children with kidney failure usually end up with a feeding tube because it's really hard to get them to eat enough and especially to grow. Here you can see the NG tube.  It was definitely not our favorite.  She would pull it out and make a huge mess. Shortly after she got her G-tube.  We were actually feeding her too much so she's a little chubby.  When Camille first came hom...

When my oldest child was just a few years old, a long time ago in the early 1990's, I read a book called Getting Your Child to Eat: But Not Too Much by Ellyn Satter.  It was really helpful.  If I remember right, the basic philosophy is that your job is to provide the food at appropriate times (what and when) and your child's job is to eat what they need (how much).  You don't need to make a special meal just for them.  You just make sure that snacks aren't too accessible and you don't make it a power struggle, and the child will eventually eat. This philosophy served me well for a long time.  My first seven children are not picky eaters and they eat well-rounded diets--at least while they're at my house.  I don't know how they do when they're on their own!  They are normal weights and heights and very healthy.  I wish I could take more credit for that but I can't. Then I had Mindy and Camille.  They both have eating issues caused by pr...

Recently I got a book called Sixty Hikes Within Sixty Miles by Greg Witt . It's for the Salt Lake City area.  For Labor Day we decided to hike one of the hikes in the book called "Mormon Pioneer Trail". It took us about an hour to drive there.  The trailhead is near Park City.  This is a very historic trail.  The Donner Party blazed the trail first in 1846.  It took them more than a week to get through this 9-mile section and it really slowed them down, costing them valuable time which led to their being trapped in the Sierras for the winter.  But it really helped out the Mormon pioneers the next year when they used the trail to get into the Salt Lake Valley.  That helped them get into the valley sooner which allowed them to plant crops before the end of July.  The trail was also used in 1860 and 1861 by the Pony Express. Back to 2015.   We drove to the Mormon Flat trailhead and hiked nearly 5 miles to Big Mount...

The kids always love the beach no matter how cold it is. Do you have a traditional place you always go for a summer vacation?  We don't.  We go somewhere different every single year.  I guess we've never found a place we loved enough to go again and again.  But it would simplify life if we did! This year we decided to go to the Pacific Northwest since my husband spent the first 18 years of his life there and still has relatives living in the Seattle area.  It's been 11 years since we last visited so it was definitely time to go again. Here are some of the things we did: Driving on Interstate 84 next to the Columbia River Gorge.  That has to be one of the most scenic drives a freeway can offer.  We stopped at Multnomah Falls on our way and looked around.  That was also beautiful. We brought 6 kids on this trip. Camping on the Oregon beach .  The showers were hot and plentiful, the bathrooms were close, as was the beach. ...