The Day's Entertainment...

Ben even ate his lunch in front of the window today...

That's a Long Way Down...

As I write this, I am trying to distract myself from the fact that there is Bobcat driving over my completely anal next door neighbor's lawn. As I sit here cringing, I am hoping and praying he has already left for work and that his wife isn't paying attention. I'm pretty sure I will have to go over with an apology card and a gift certificate at some point later this week. Not that there is anything I can do about it. We live in a townhouse and, although we are on the end, we share our side yard with the neighbor on the end of the other section of houses. He's nice enough, but I seriously can imagine him knocking on my door later wanting to know why there are tread marks on his lawn. (sigh)

Anyway, so yeah, the rebuilding of Ye Olde Deck has begun! I'll update with pics as things move along... in the meantime, pray my neighbor doesn't read me the riot act later.

Home Again Home Again Riggity Jig...

Home sweet home. :)

Just finished unpacking and taking a break before I carry all the luggage and other miscellanea down to the basement.

Random tidbits from this week:

* Biggest lesson learned this week: You should never walk down to the beach in the morning without shoes. The sun only makes things hotter as the day goes on and you may find yourself shoeless, stranded and with burned feet.

* Speaking of heat, Simon now says "hot!", though it sounds like "haaaaah" He says it whenever he sees steam in the kitchen. He also calls very cold things "haaaah", so I'm not sure how good his actual comprehension of the word is. ;)

* He's also walking all over the place. I don't think he crawled the whole week we were away. As a result, he is now sporting a number of new bruises, including a nice one on his left cheek where he fell into the side of a door. Good times.

* We came home to a completely demolished deck. (this was intentional, but still strange to come home to) I'm extremely paranoid I'm going to sleepwalk out the patio door and plunge 20 feet to my death!

* Ben's hermit crab is still alive.

* Can't say the same for the tadpole. (although no body has been located... we can only assume the worst)

* Yay for no traffic on the drive home!

Off to pay some bills and finish putting things in storage. Thank you to Yaya Joanie for having us at the beach once again. And to The Village (of grandmom, Aunt Debbie and Yaya Joanie) for the all the watching, bathing and entertainment of the kids while we were there. It was a much appreciated and enjoyed vacation!

Beach Boys...

More Photo Traditions...

We drove into Ocean City, MD this morning with the boys to let them play on the beach playgrounds, get our picture taken in the photo booth and take their picture in the Ripley's Believe it Or Not Tire.

Ben is tired and in a surly mood... but I still managed to get my pictures before things completely tanked. Sadly, there were annoying people waiting behind us to take their tire picture and so I didn't get a picture of Simon by himself. Shame on me. I'm sure I'll hear about it from his future wife someday. ;)





>

Ben in the tire 2008

2007

2006

Neighbors -- Even Away from Home... ;)

So, as it turns out, our good friends and neighbors, The Collins Family, stay at the next beach down every summer. This year, our vacations coincided so we decided to meet up and let the boys play. Never have you seen such excited little boys! We took them to FunLand on the Rehoboth boardwalk, which was new to me, but SO cute. Turns out Ben is kind of wimp when it comes to even the kiddiest of kiddy rides. (I can't really talk, he gets this from me) Trey, on the other hand, loves to be scared! Ben watched Trey ride lots of rides. ;)

They did get on a few together though and just generally had fun running around and being together away from the 'hood. It was so much fun just watching them! :)

The Family Beach Pic...

Just continuing the tradition... our 2008 family beach pic.


2007

2006

2005

2004

2003

Random Pics

Mr. Blue


The boys


Boys and Poppy

Four and a Quarter...

I'll probably add to this post when we get home, but I wanted to make sure I got something down on the actual monthday.
Today Ben is four and a quarter. I decided to save the sappy letters for his yearly posts now and instead, I'll just paste the list I wrote for three and a quarter and just add to/edit it. ;)


Benjamin is three months into his fifth year. Here's what's going on these days:

Likes: (in no particular order)
Star Wars
Riding his bike down hills very fast
Running
His little brother taking a nap "because then he won't bother me!"
Chocolate soy milk
Quaker Chocolate Chip Granola Bars
Disney World (he is so excited for our upcoming trip in January and has "virtually" ridden all the rides on YouTube) I think this will be our best trip yet!
Swimming
Coloring and using tape
Playing outside with his friends
Fish and aquariums
Sand
Finding Nemo and a Bugs Life
Looking at bugs up close (when they can't get him)
His brother (about 85% of the time)
His cousin, Anastasia (100% of the time)
Going to the library
Visiting the pet store (to see the fish, mostly)


Dislikes:
Any food other than chicken nuggets, granola bars, Zone breakfast bars, apples, meatballs, plain pasta, mandarin oranges and peanut butter crackers
Getting water in his face
Going to bed
Bare feet
Having to go inside
Having dirty hands

Fears:
Crabs (but not hermit crabs)
Bees
Spiders
Dogs
Any number of other things that may change on a daily basis... you just never know

New Skills:
Writing letters - he's getting more and more confident with this too and enjoys writing!
Drawing - more and more, he is drawing real pictures
Sounding out words - he's not reading yet, but the rudimentary stuff is starting to click and he is SO proud of himself when he sounds things out
Getting dressed in a reasonable amount of time (sort of)
pouring/stirring "helping with cooking"
cleaning up toys (sometimes)

It was interesting to go down this list and see everything that has changed from this time last year. I was actually surprised at how much HAD changed! I'm sure I'll think of more when I get home, but for now, this will do. :) Pic coming later if I can get him to sit still!

Today...

...was busy.

* We took a very excited Ben to buy his first hermit crab, which he has named Mr. Blue. Picture to come.

* We went to a free shipwreck museum that turned out to be very cool! Among many cool artifacts and other interesting things, they also had a big aquarium and in it was a female blue crab and some minnows. The curator told us if we watched long enough, the crab would eventually attack an unsuspecting minnow. We never did get to see that event, but we had a great time watching it stalk them!

* We used the giftcards to the waterpark we won at the preschool fair. Ben had a blast!

I still haven't taken any pics. (I haven't had good luck with electronics and water, so I figured taking the camera to the waterpark was a bad idea)

But I do promise pics soon. :)

ETA: Little Dude -- I realized I hadn't written anything about him. He spent part of the day with my parents and Yaya Joanie... he is smiley and happy and loving all the attention. He is also now, as they call it in the baby development circles, an official "walker"... or, as I prefer to call it, Two Feet of Trouble... on Two Feet. Thankfully, we brought our handy dandy baby gate. ;) I wasn't so much expecting him to go from exclusively crawling and cruising to walking all the time in a week; but I guess he's been planning and plotting this for quite awhile now!

Quick Rant...

Really finding myself quite annoyed at Shutterfly's new format. It is far from user-friendly. Anyone else? (I was trying to whip up a quick and cute little beach banner and it took me FOREVER to find the pic I was looking for)

Now back to our regularly scheduled vacation!

Here...

Just at the beach... haven't taken any pics yet and trying to internet detox. Maybe back in a day or so. :)

Strange...

My inlaws called last night and wanted to take Ben for the day today... this actually worked out well because I was going to be up their way anyway for his doctor's appointment and also because I still have to pack for the beach.

When I dropped him off at 11, my mother-in-law said they'd keep him until he wanted to come home but that she hoped that was after dinner. Wow. That's a long time. I mentioned that it would be kind of nice if he were home by 4 because he likes to play outside with his friends in the afternoon, but that it was up to him.

I can count on probably one hand the number of times either of my kids have been away from me for an entire day. And it's weird. SO weird. I wonder how long it takes to get used to it? I figure I better get used to it soon because he'll be going to kindergarten next year from 9-4!

The house is SO quiet... Simon is napping, but I have a feeling it will still be quiet even when he gets up! I don't even know what to do with myself! It's a great opportunity to get things done and I often wish for just a little of this kind of free time... but I miss him when he's not here!

Simon: Biped, Benjamin: Ichthyologist

Simon literally took off walking overnight and now, he's barefootin' it all over the place. He sustained his first walking-related injury this afternoon when he misjudged a step and hit an endtable in the playroom. He's slow and methodical about his walking... I especially like when he stops to steady himself and puts both hands out like a tightrope walker. Very cute.

Benjamin is fast becoming the family fish expert. He desperately wants a puffer fish, but sadly, we cannot oblige. We have a freshwater aquarium and while there ARE actually freshwater puffer fish, they are very aggressive and would eat all of our other poor innocent fish. For the record, I am thrilled with this newfound interest as it means I have not had to pick up any Star Wars guys or pieces of Star Wars guys in almost a week. ;) It also makes for a very easy entertainment option on a long day... we just hop in the car and hit one of the local fish stores or the Petsmart.

We are headed to the beach on Saturday, which is good timing as far as Ben's current obsession goes. Lots of fishy things to see and do. ;) Also should be interesting to see how our new walker handles sand. ;)

The Usual...

Simon has another ear infection... or more likely, just a continuation of the same one he had two weeks ago. I was pretty sure something was up yesterday because when he has an ear infection, he is even more clingy than usual and can't be distracted as easily. He was also up once last night crying VERY loudly. :( Motrin got him settled again once it kicked in... but still... poor little guy. Luckily, he'll now be on this new antibiotic for our whole vacation, so I won't have to worry about any infections while we are there!

So yeah, I spent another morning running to a doctor's office (not even our usual one, another doc was covering) and to the pharmacy.

After having skipped his afternoon nap, he crashed at 6:40 tonight... he was otherwise pretty pleasant today though, even as he was being dragged all over town.

Hopefully our ENT visit in August will get the ball rolling on a new set of tubes for my poor little dude... :(

From Anna...

(Anna Quindlen, one of my favorite authors/essayists...)


"Every part of raising children is humbling...believe me, mistakes were made...
But the biggest mistake I made is the one that most of us make while doing this. I did not live in the moment enough. This is particularly clear now that the moment is gone, captured only in photographs. There is one picture of the three of them sitting in the grass on a quilt in the shadow of the swing set on a summer day, ages six, four and one. And I wish I could remember what we ate, and what we talked about, and how they sounded, and how they looked when they slept that night. I wish I had not been in such a hurry to get on to the next thing: dinner, bath, book, bed. I wish I had treasured the doing a little more and the getting it done a little less."

One Foot in Front of the Other...

Yay, Simon! :)

Just a Few Cute Pics...

Today has been a weird day... I had to take my van in for service and, even though it's now back, it has just had kind of a domino effect on the whole day. Thus, we have spent a lot of time just hanging around the house. Ben is watching Bugs Life and Nemo is currently next in the queue. So that should tell you a little bit about the day. It's the most tv that we've watched in a month!

Anyway, so here are a few cute pics I snapped of the boys while they were playing together and I was trying to entertain myself..

Doesn't he look like he's saying, "My brother's rearend is in my face. Can't you DO something about this?"


He was hiding... pretending he was a plecostamus fish...as usual these days. ;)


I just liked the expression on his face in this one


And this? Though blurry... is a BEN expression 100%!


And a random one of Ben from when we went out to dinner on Saturday...(the lighting was dim, but I love the sunglasses and the smile!) ;)

Because the Blog Curse Apparently Goes Both Ways...

(which means now that I post THIS, it will probably reverse itself) ;) But anyway...

Guess who started walking all over the house just after my post yesterday!? So far, his longest trek has been from his room all the way into Ben's room. He has also done almost the whole length of the living room. You can tell he is quite pleased with himself because he giggles with every step! Either that or he just thinks all the clapping and "yay!!"ing we're doing is funny. ;)

A Ben First...

I couldn't find the bookstore giftcard and didn't want to waste my small window of time that I can actually get out of the house before Simon's naptime, so we went to the library! Ben got his FIRST library card and signed up for the summer reading club. (the theme of which this year, incidentally, is bugs, Ben's current sub-obsession) ;)

After that, we wandered around looking for the fish books. We found them and he was utterly fascinated by the fact that there was an entire shelf of them. We checked out two about aquarium fish and he won't put them down!

Right on the way home is one of my favorite aquarium stores, so we stopped there and he looked at all the fish for awhile. The employees eventually started following us around in total amusement because Ben was rattling off the names of all the fish. While it is funny to hear a four-year-old say the word "plecostamus", I felt the need to explain that he's not some super genius or anything, it's just his current "thing" and that more recently it was Star Wars so we are all happy for the change. ;)

They had also just gotten in a bunch of turtles and some bunnies, which Simon went absolutely nuts about, so he had fun too. ;)

All in all, a successful and pleasant morning!

Benjamin's Latest Obsession...

We've been obsessionless around here for awhile, kind of in between passions, if you will. I've been waiting with baited breath to see what the next 24/7 topic of all of Ben's conversation would be. Well, I am happy to say it has arrived...

Fish.

Specifically, the ones in our aquarium. Nevermind the aquarium has been around for his entire lifetime. This is the first time he has ever really acknowledged its presence. And BOY is he into it. He knows all the fish by name (fish names, but he has also given some of them actual NAME names too). He checks on them 95 times a day. All of his games right now revolve around pretending we are fish, drawing fish and trying to write words that are fish-related. The magnetic fish puzzle has also made a huge comeback.

I've learned that Ben's "obsessions" are just the way he learns. He's a bright, inquisitive little kid who just throws himself 100% into things until he has learned everything can and/or something more interesting piques his curiousity. We now just embrace his curiousity and his passion, wherever it may lead... it may seem weird to some people, but it's just who he is. :)

So today, we're off to spend a giftcard we have for the bookstore on a book about fish. We've also planned a trip to the aquarium for when we get back from the beach... plus, I'm sure the beach itself will yield all kinds of fish-related things to look at and learn about.

Seriously... He Really IS a Closet Walker...

So, yesterday, I was walking Simon around the living room and at one point, I let go of his hands and was holding onto his overalls instead. (he actually checked to make sure I still had him)... I could feel he was completely balanced, so I let go. He walked 3/4 of the way across the kitchen! Then he realized I wasn't holding on, plopped himself down on his diaper and angrily screeched at me.

Lordy day... I can't WAIT to teach him how to ride a bike. ;)

Good Ben...

Just so it doesn't come across that I think Ben is 100% Evil, I thought I'd follow up that post with this. (for the record, I think maybe he's only about 2% Evil because frankly, I don't have people over that often) ;)

Yesterday, we went to his second cousin's 3rd birthday. He was adorable and the model of good behavior. He and his cousin Keira get along amazingly well (and I can see why, they seem to have a lot in common) and he had a blast playing with her and her other cousins and friends.

It was a Disney princess party, Ben's second in two weeks, and he was such a good sport. He played Pin the Princess on the Castle and won a princess coloring book, which he happily gave to one of the little girls at my suggestion. Then he won the other party game (Pass the Parcel... played to Princess music), and tried to give away his prize again, which was a Hershey bar. I told him he could keep that one. ;)

Afterwards, we went out to dinner and he was so excited to wear his orange sunglasses from the goody bag into the restaurant. He then proceeded to charm our waitress through the entire meal.

When we got home, he asked to snuggle. So after I put Simon to bed, I went in and he wanted to pretend we were fish. We played fish (a game that involves lots of hiding and jumping out, apparently) for awhile and then we played a game where he would announce "Let's be ominous!" (a word which Ben will tell you means "really scary!", thanks grandmom for that one) which also involved a lot of hiding and jumping out and making scary faces and then he just chatted away about various things.

Our power went out around 9:30 and the smoke alarm protested, as it always does, and woke him up. He was really upset because he hates that thing (as do we all), but perked up when we went outside. Yes, that's right, we went outside at 9:30p.m.... this is because we realized pretty quickly it was going to be a long outage and started seeing flashlights and hearing kids' voices. Sure enough, the neighbors had come out to play! He ran around with flashlights and glowsticks until 10-something. I think that fun little jaunt will probably we one of those childhood memories that will stick with him forever. It's not everyday you get to go outside at 9:30 in your pajamas and run around in the dark. ;)

Anyway, after that, he contentedly snuggled with us bed (the power was still out) and went to sleep.

I seriously had SO much fun with him yesterday, which was something that was much needed after the evilness that was the day before...

Evil Ben...

We (well, really more *I* since this only happens on my watch), have been having a rather serious behavioral issue with Ben.

On any normal day, he is really a very well-behaved kid. He listens (granted, not always on the first request, but we're working on that). He rarely throws fits. He is cooperative in stores. He says please and thank you. He's nice to other kids with little exception and he listens well when I am not around. (at school, Gymboree, his grandparents' houses... etc)

However, whenever I have people over during the day, he becomes evil Ben. Evil Ben starts by being the most insanely hyper kid you have ever seen. The kind who, if he were to be like this at the grocery store you'd think the mother let him eat powdered Kool-Aid for breakfast.

Evil Ben then begins to not listen. (at all). Then he purposely does destructive things. He'll dump toys. He'll tear cushions off the couch. He'll do mean things to Simon. Yesterday, while two of my friends were over with their babies, in addition to all of the above, he dumped a whole cup of water on the floor, threw a wiffle ball bat and toppled a toy piano bench.

Okay, so yeah, I get the obvious psychology involved here. He does not have my undivided attention and this annoys him. However, what I don't understand is why it's huge deal to him to NOT have my undivided attention for a short period of time when he has it the majority of the time otherwise. In fact, yesterday morning before all this, I had spent nearly two hours swimming with him at our pool... Instead of just letting him play in the kiddie pool while I watched, I even took him over to the big pool and we played games, raced and paddled all over. He had a blast. When we came home, I played until my friends got there. But it's as if, as soon as he realizes whoever is coming over isn't there to see HIM? Wham. Dr. Jekyl comes out. (or was Mr. Hyde the evil one?)

Oh, and he also pulls this behavior when I get on the phone, though not to the same extent.

What I also don't get is that, even though he CAN have my undivided attention most days, he is really quite good at playing alone. So it's not like I have somehow made him depend on me for his entertainment.

I should also add, before you send me to go watch TiVo'ed episodes of Nanny 911 and SuperNanny, it's not like we don't dole out serious consequences for this. Yesterday, he got two time outs WHILE all this was going on. And when Tom got home, we discussed how he had acted and punished him by taking his Star Wars guys away for a few days. He was upset and clearly understood why it was happening... If it continues, I'll resort to more serious consequences and honestly, I know this is controversial, but I won't rule out spanking if that's what it comes to. I will NOT have a child who acts like this, even if it's only under certain circumstances...

Any thoughts or advice are welcome and appreciated... especially if you have dealt with this. That is why I decided to post about this after much thought and consideration.

But I do feel that I need to say this first: Judge me as a mother silently if you will, but at least don't do it my comments section. (and if you DON'T have a strong-willed preschool age child? You really can't fairly judge me at all)

ETA: That last paragraph is not at all a slam against my readers. I actually have very kind, non-judgemental readers... at least, the ones who comment. The ones who don't comment, I guess I don't really know... but anyway. It was just something I felt the need to add, not really an issue I have had in the past here since I have passworded! (Oh, how I dislike Sanctimommies!)

Playgroup Pics!

Wow. Yeah. So all those babies made for lots of chaos and blurry pictures. But we all had fun. Ben disappeared to the basement with Conner for a long time and must have had fun too because he cried when we left and said he wanted to go play there again. ;)

Anyway, some pics... sorry these took so long. I was busy all afternoon/evening and then our internet was out this morning! Ack!

This made me giggle. This is what happens when you have a boy and a girl, I suppose. You end up with Spiderman mingling with the Disney Princesses. Here is Cinderella with a Spiderman logo on her ballgown. ;)


Paige pulling Jordan's hair.


Jordan making sure mommy got her good side in the pic she just took


Anastasia!


Anastasia, Simon and Jordan converging on a toy


The middle of the "O" was missing, but Simon found it! And it tasted good!


Jordan and the goat (I will have the goat song from Sound of Music in my head all day now)


Kisses for the goat


Ethan being cute


Paige


Jordan offering Anastasia her binky


Parallel play at its best... babies in all corners completely ignoring each other. ;)

It's Playgroup Day! It's Playgroup Day!

Okay yeah, so this is totally more for me than it is for my kids. But anyway, today is the long awaited PH Playgroup!

It's me, my SIL, and a little a group of my high school friends, one of whom I have not seen in nearly ten years! They all have babies now! :) I'm sure it will be amply blogged too on Tracy's blog, on Val's blog, on Becky's blog and Krystyna's blog. So you could actually call it a bit of a blogger's meetup! No? ;) It probably would have been blogged over at Mandy's too, except that she ended up having to work today. :( And Meg doesn't have a blog, but I'm sure if she did, she would blog it too. ;)

We will all be wishing Janelle was there too, but hopefully she will be having baby #3 at some point in the very near future. Janelle, we will see you August! Sending you labor vibes across the pond!

Pics coming later, of course!

Simon is 13 Months Old!

Dear Simon,

You are 13 months old today! You are getting to be such a big boy and truthbetold, you already think you ARE a big boy.

This month, we have discovered (drumroll)... your TEMPER! Wowza. You are Mr. Chill until someone takes something you wanted or if you are stopped from doing something you really wanted to do or continue doing. Lordy day, kid. You've even learned how to do the arms-up/dead weight trick to protest when I pick you up. I think I am going to have quite a challenge on my hands learning how to manage this and I'm thinking I better get it under control quickly because you are already almost too strong for me in some cases. I can't imagine how this will go when you are two.

You are at a very cute age, otherwise. Lately, you have been imitating everything, You will try to brush your teeth and your hair (or lack thereof). And you'll do whatever we do with a toy. My favorite is when you make your kanagaroo "pah pah pah" (hop hop hop) or make your cars go "vm vm!"

One of your favorite things these days is our neighbor's little red tricycle with the push handle, which you will ride on for -- well actually, I don't know how long you'd REALLY ride it because we almost always have to eventually remove you to go inside. But at any rate, you stay on there a long time. And you must be getting taller, because your feet can almost touch the pedals!

You gave up your bottle without a fuss at the beginning of the month, which was a pleasant surprise. You also started eating peanut butter a week or two ago. I gave up trying to keep it from you because you kept getting it from Ben anyway. Thankfully, it went well, and now pb&j is one of your favorite lunches. :)

You haven't gotten any more teeth, but you have learned to use the ones you have for biting. You especially love to crawl under the kitchen table and bite any unsuspecting toes that might be dangling under there. When you are loose on the floor, Ben eats with his feet tucked under him to protect himself! Ummm yeah, you can stop the biting anytime. Not just because it hurts, but because one of my worst nightmares is having the playground biter.

You sleep all night, with very few exceptions, and for that we are grateful. We may even consider having another child someday now.

In addition to anything involving playing outside, you also love cars, digging and bubbles. One of your other favorite things is waking up Ben in the morning. I usually hold you off for awhile, but eventually, I just let you go and you bang on his door yelling "Beh!!! Beh!!!" And he always wakes up happy to see you. Your big brother loves you SO much. (except when you bite him)

I am hopeful that you will discover the joy of walking sometime this summer. In the last week, you have decided you will allow us, your humble servants, to hold your hands while you walk to something you want. (but ONLY if we are walking toward something you want) Usually it's a ball and you will stoop down, grab it, throw it, and want to walk toward it again. I keep thinking maybe I can work this "training wheels style" and just let go one day when you aren't paying attention. ;) Otherwise though, you'll do pretty much anything to avoid walking, which people don't really believe until they see it for themselves. I think my favorite walking avoidance technique is the fingertips and toes crawl on the sidewalk. (to avoid scraping his highness' knees, you know) ;)

So that's you at 13 months, Short Round. ( Daddy has been calling you "Short Round" lately, which I think is the best nickname ever for you. ;) ) Off to enjoy the next month with you!

Love,
Mommy


Here's this month's side-by-side. As you can see, in addition to the fact that I'm learning a little about how to use the white balance setting on my camera, my children look pretty much nothing alike. Yet, for some reason, people (random strangers mostly) go on and on about how they look so much alike. I don't get it. But oh well!

Hot.

That about sums it up.

After spending most of yesterday in the house with my two children competing to see who could drive me more insane, (I think Ben won with an incident that involved packing peanuts) we escaped this morning. We headed over to Ultimate Playzone where Benjamin ran and bounced for a solid hour and 45 minutes. Simon also enjoyed bouncing and crawling and sliding and making me carry his poundage all over the darn place.

So yeah anyway, now one is napping... HARD.
The other is eating not eating his lunch....

Later, I heard a rumor there may be a sprinkler going in the 'hood. Woohoo! If not, we'll be holed up in the basement where there are icicles hanging from the ceiling nice and cool watching Tivoed episodes of Good Eats, John and Kate Plus 8 and playing with Star Wars guys.

Good times. ;)

Photo Dump -- Lily's Birthday Party

Boys waking up and no time to write a post... but here are some pics of all the fun Ben had at Lily's party yesterday at Harford Gymnastics! To say he had a blast would be an understatement!