Close!

The last two nights, the "story" Ben has picked for bedtime is this little "Wiggles Numbers" board book. Not really a story, but hey- we sit and count all of the stuff, and he is getting pretty good at counting things as he points. Half the time, of course- he misses one or counts something twice, so I have him try again. But he won't let me help point or count anymore, except last night he had me count the bones on the page, so I did and he said "Close, try again!"

A little while ago, I said- okay, I need to clean up and YOU need to take a nap, and he said- no I need to clean up! Mommy- you go take a nap!

I wish!

I scrapbooked...

I haven't done any scrapbooking lately, but I did this one for a cool contest that a digital scrapbooking designer was having. Turns out she didn't get many submissions and totally changed the whole thing... so now it's a different challenge so I'd have to do a new page for it. Ah well, the page came out pretty cute anyway... :)

Oh, and I bought their Halloween costumes too. I always procrastinate and miss the good selection on everything, so I'm trying to do better. Can't post pics yet (you hafta wait til Halloween!) but they are so cute, and they tried them on last night and LOVED them. Ben didn't want to take his off. They danced around to the Wiggles until it was jammie time. My first idea was for us all to be the Wiggles for Halloween (whenever Ben has a "Wiggles colored" shirt on, he says "I'm Anthony" (or whoever's color he is wearing) and is all excited about it. But when I saw the cute costumes, I decided I really don't want to be part of the dressing up anyway ;)

Mommy! Wu-ah-my-new-UH-tawwww

(Translation for those who don't speak Benese: Mommy! Look at my new guitaaaaar)


He keeps coming up to me with the mixing part of my juice pitcher and saying this- the same way everytime, Mommy! Wu ah my new UH tawwwwwwwww" (he draws that last part out nice and long and so stinking cute, I love it! Then he adds on some "doodoodoo" sounds of guitar while he jams on his new Uhtawww (this pic).

A little walk on the "mountain"

So, mountains here just aren't what they are back home. This is our local "small mountain"- they have this pretty nature trail with a pond where we like to go for picnics and hiking. Here are some pictures from our latest outing up there:

A few favorites:

... and the rest of the album:

Green Mountain

Oh no! You pushed the Upside-Down button!

Playing the Upside Down show... Ben tells us what buttons to push on our imaginary remote and then does funny stuff.... now Chris figured out how to join in when we push the Upside Down button.... he flops right over when he hears us say it or whenever Ben does it-- it is soooo cute!!! And it's funny how Ben says it just like the show (Oh no, that's the UpsideDown button! Can you push the stop button?)


This looks very dramatic, but really he is just very serious about his Peekaboo. He'll just hide his face until you say "Where's Chris?" He likes to do it when I'm changing his diaper for some reason.... I just love this photo- don't you just want to kiss those little chubber fingers?!?

Dr. Ben

Today's Ben funny comes to you courtesy of the Wiggles this time... the last DVD we got from the library had a doctor segment where "Dr. Verygood" makes a house call.

Ben came up to me, said "Check Mommy's heart, in the chest (places stethescope on my chest) Breathe in (I breathe in) AND out (I breathe out)... Hmmm... very good." He did this over and over, and then we took turns. I showed him how to really take deep breaths, he's good at it now =) Oh, and it's been almost two weeks since we had that DVD... his memory, I tell ya!

Hiiii messy boy!

Chris has started recently saying "hi" to us, and it is the cutest little hi you ever heard. This morning he was being so cute- I'd say hi and he'd say it back with a big smile...

I had these little containers of a mix of little snacks all packed up for church Sunday, but Dave was sick and we didn't go... so they had them for snacks today. I usually just let them have snacks in the family room because not any easier to clean up the mess on the table- it's all the same. So, Chris plopped down at the edge of the kitchen floor and went to town on his- then, as usual he decided he needed to dump it all out and finish eating it off of himself. Niiiice. Ben also dumped his (on the couch) to try to get all the Big Bird crackers from amongst the blah Cheerios, but it wasn't as cute as Chris sitting there with his all over him....

Labor Day Carnival

Ahhhh... the carnival on a HOT day.... it was really fun! The boys really liked all the happenings. It was so noisy and colorful. Here's my "watercolor" of one of my shots...


Ben went fishing- you could fish until you won- good thing because he just kept fishing and putting it back to fish again...

Then he got to pick his prize, and he picked the "pink fish!"

Chris spent a lot of the time being mad because he was being held or strapped into his stroller. He wanted to WALK dangit! But no holding your hand or going where you want him to- he wants to do his own thing. So while Dave and Ben watched a magic show, I let Chris loose on the grass and he was so excited.

As we were leaving, we stopped to watch this cool acrobat doing his thing, it looked so freaky, he was high up. I just wanted the cool photos... :)

More carnival pics are here:

Carnival

Another Upside-Down show funny...

Today I was changing Chris and Ben said, "what are you doing?" and I said, "wiping the poopies" and he said "Wow, let's see that again! Can you push the rewind button on your remote?" Then he did it and did a funny little rewind dance... he cracks me up. We love that show. I heard they were not getting picked up for another season, big bummer!!

The Upside-Down Show on Noggin

Thank you Sidetable!

You kind of have to know Blue's Clues for this one. On the show they use a "handy dandy notebook" (it looks like this green one on the top). Every episode, to play "Blue's Clues", they have to get the notebook from the talking Sidetable, who keeps it in her drawer. Because of the show, we have many, many spiral bound notebooks. They live in this plastic bin on the little table in the playroom. Today the bin was sitting on the floor by the chair, and Ben went to get a notebook out and said "Thank you Sidetable!"

I thought it was funny =)

Phases....

Oh these boys.... Dave was sick in bed today and I was dealing with everything alone, and I was getting a little fed up. All the stuff that usually bugs me is some kind of phase that just needs to pass, especially with Chris. He's at that age where he can do a lot, but you can't really get him to do/not do ANYTHING! I was sooo glad when Ben finally grew out of that, but wait- you have to go through the same things all over again with each kid! Who knew? ;)

So Chris was messing with the buttons on the cable box (changing the channel and stuff), which ticks Ben off, and me because I have to physically remove him- no amount of "no Chris" will make any difference I've found. After I move him, he usually goes right back. Also, this week, he's been back to crying a lot and he's more clingy. Today, he would latch onto my leg and want me to pick him up at the most inopportune times... like on the way to the bathroom. After he finished eating one good thing- he actually ate decent tonight) he started throwing his food on the floor... then of course he cried to have his diaper changed, cried to have his clothes changed for bed....

Yeeeeaaaahhhhh...

And Ben, he's not eating anything I give him for dinner. No veggies, especially, but lately I'm lucky if he'll eat any of it. This one has been ongoing for quite a while. He eats the rest of the day just fine. Tonight, he took a bite and told me it was delicious- then didn't eat anymore.... just started making a "sandwich" out of his chicken enchiladas and salad- like on "The Upside-Down show" (in the sandwich room)... he was saying all the things from this little clip of the show that they play pretty often on Noggin- he puts stuff on the table, then adds lettuce and says "a green green piece of lettuce... then the pat down and it's... total sandwich" (you have to have seen this little clip...) It was funny and made it hard to be mad, but he would not stop playing with his dang food. He's in a non-listening phase too...

I want my geekee back!

Well, the first night went great! We talked about it in the car on the way home that night to make sure he remembered sending binkie in the mail and that he would just be going to sleep with doggie and blankie. He did awesome. It took him longer to relax before falling asleep, but that was it. Since then, he still asks for it (mostly at naps, it must be harder for him to relax to go to sleep during the day) but I just keep reminding him of where it is and then he says "I want geekee BACK" and I tell him we can't get it back. The first nap, he cried after I left and wouldn't stop (it wasn't heartwrenching, just "oh please I need it" kind of crying). So I went back in and snuggled him up and got him giggling by asking him "does Daddy have a binkie?" (Noooo!) "No, he's too big!.... Does Mommy have a binkie?"... and so on, through everyone in the family that was older than him. He would get a big grin on his face, thinking I was so silly. I told him what a big boy he was and that I knew he could do it. He did. Since then, he's asked at naptime, but hasn't gotten upset. He doesn't wake up as happy from naps, but hopefully that will get better. The first two nights, he got in his bed and said "No geekee! I got blankie and doggie, but nooo geekee!"

Here is the big boy waking up after his first night with "no geekee!"



So, clumsy me... I brought my camera up to bed so I could take a picture of the big boy in the morning and after I took them, I dropped my camera!! Not far and only onto carpet, but it messed up my 50mm lens :( It got jammed on, and when I got it off, I broke the little mount part (see arrow) I was so sad about it and my camera was doing funny stuff - still hoping there is nothing wrong with it. It seems okay now, and I actually have been able to use the lens still. I got out my old crap 28-80 and found out that it is broken... "someone" got into my camera bag, I think-- so I used my big ol' zoom to take a pic of the lens, but later IT wasn't working.... ARG!!! Hopefully everything will just hold together for a little while until I can invest more into my equipment!