Tuesday, October 28, 2008

October 28, 2008

Well, I just finished giving the boys an unplanned bath. They were outside playing when Ben dumped a bucket full of water and sand (very watery sand) on top of Nick's head. It went all over him, inside his coat (it was pretty chilly outside too!), down his back all over his neck and all over his shoes. Nick was quite a mess, very cold and not very happy. Ben thought it was funny. I did not:).

Yesterday I was in the kitchen and the boys were playing in the library/playroom, which used to be a formal dining room so it is right next to the kitchen. I was listening to them and this is what I heard:

Nick: Ben?

Nick: Ben!??

Nick: Ben!!!???

Nick: Mickey!
Ben: I not Mickey; you Mickey!
Nick: I not Mickey; you Mickey!
Me: laughing, as they went back to playing whatever they had been playing.

I have heard Nick do that a couple of times now. I don't know where he got "Mickey" from, unless it is from Mickey Mouse, of whom he has seen very very little to date. I guess he has figured out that it works to get Ben's attention when Ben is ignoring him.

Friday, October 17, 2008

October 17, 2008 Part 2

The boys love to play outside and have discovered that it is more fun to play in the dirt next to the sandbox than in the sandbox itself. They have trucks and tractors, spoons, forks and bowls and lots of other things in their dirt/mud pit these days.








Our new climbing dome is not far from the dirt/mud pit but it does not get the attention of the pit these days.





The boys are very into pretending and dressing up. They pretend they are going to work or to the store or where ever. One day we were out for a walk and I was showing them the man hole covers. They like the Stop That Ball book by Dr. Seuss and there is a guy in a man hole in that book. Since that day a couple of months ago, I have heard about man holes umpteen times a day. They are always pretending to go into a man hole or come out of a man hole or what ever toy they happen to be playing with might be falling into a man hole, etc. The other popular pretend thing is pretending there has been a crash and/or somebody is hurt and has to go to the hospital. I guess this is because we live a mile and a half from a hospital and we hear/see ambulances and fire trucks come by our house or we have to stop for them while driving home from somewhere a lot. It took quite an effort to get these bandages off of the bears. They stuck much better than I thought they would.


















Here is Nick the cowboy.





















Here is Ben wearing one of the dad's slippers. Nick had on the other one. I could not believe that Ben could actually pedal with this huge slipper on his foot but he did it.






And, we have also gone for ice cream a couple of times here and there. When I was sick recently, I became tired of being cooped up so we went through the drive thru at the nearby ice cream place and the boys and I enjoyed a treat. It was just what we needed.









We have done some additional art projects too. Here are some cut and paste things we did one rainy day. I did the cutting and the boys did the pasting. They really enjoyed it.




And here are some additional birthday pics:


This first one is for you, Aunt D! All three guys loved what you sent.






A funny story about the microwave in the picture below. It was a gift for the boys from our close friends and it came with some little pretend food. A very small whole chicken was already in the microwave when we opened it. It was held in place by that plastic wrap that you almost need a crow bar to remove it. The boys were pretending to cook and when we asked them what they were cooking they said "a mouse". They thought the whole chicken was a mouse. We had a good laugh over that one. If you look closely at the picture of the boys and the microwave, you can see the chicken-mouse inside:).
































October 17, 2008


We celebrated Ben's 3rd birthday at the end of September. We now have a three year old and a two year old but not for long. Nick will turn 3 in early to mid November and he is very much looking forward to it....but first we have the dad's birthday next week:).....and we have my niece's birthday celebration this weekend, where we will also celebrate the boys' birthdays with my family. Cake, cake and more cake; gotta love it!

Anyway, back to Ben's birthday. We do low-key birthday celebrations at our house. The day of Ben's birthday, the boys helped me make Ben's cake and they had a fun time decorating it. We had to go to the store for a few things. While we were there, we celebrated by riding some of the rides they have (they rode them, not me:). I wrapped gifts while they napped and, that night after dinner, we had some close friends over to celebrate. We all sang Happy Birthday and Nick helped Ben blow out his candles. We had cake and watched Ben open his gifts. Nick got one of his gifts that night too so they both had a lot of fun playing with their new toys.

Tomorrow we go to my sister's house for the combined celebration for my niece and the boys. They are both very excited and I am very excited to see my niece again, as this will be our first time to see her since she has gone off for her first year of college.

Here are a couple of pictures from Ben's birthday party last year. Boy do they change so quickly when they are little, don't they? It's incredible.





I'll post other pics in a separate update so the post won't be quite so big.

Tuesday, October 07, 2008

October 7, 2008

So, I am still sick and feeling pretty badly. If there was ever a day that I needed a sick day, today would have been one of them. But, alas, I no longer have the luxury of sick days.

I have no voice. I am struggling to talk and most of what I say comes out as a whisper. So keeping two little boys in line has been quite the challenge, yesterday and today both, but especially today.

I even broke down and let them watch TV yesterday afternoon and this morning. They don't watch for very long though before they are ready to go play. Behavior has not been very good overall lately. Not sure if they are insecure because of my sickness or what but it has not been great, which makes this more difficult.

I had a great idea today though:). I sent one to play in the library/playroom and the other to play in the living room and set the timer for 20 minutes. They did great. So I had them switch rooms and reset the timer for another 20 minutes. They are still doing great and we have 9 minutes to go.

I think I will make this a daily thing going forward. I think it might make them appreciate each other a little more and it definitely gives me some peace and quiet for a short while. I plan to extend it to 30 minutes sessions so I will be able to look forward to one hour of peace. Yeah. Oh happy day. The Lord knew I needed help today and he sent me this idea.

Our second 20 minute time period ended and we all sat down to talk. I asked them how they liked playing alone and they both said they liked it and wanted to do it again. Who knew?? So we are doing a third 20 minutes of play-alone time now:). Isn't that wonderful??!!

Sunday, October 05, 2008

October 5, 2008

I now have the virus/cold that Ben had and today is my worst day so far. I stayed home from church while the three guys went so I have a bit of peace and quiet and am hoping to take a nap too.

We ended up not moving the piano after all. It was raining yesterday morning and it turned out that it was not the ideal day for everyone involved. Also, I thought my sister was anxious to get it out of her house but she said it's no big deal so we will get it another weekend.

The boys received a birthday package from their Aunt D, who lives in Arizona. D, the entire package was a huge hit. You definitely know what kids like! They loved the stickers all over the boxes and in their cards. The monkeys were especially the big hit. They were getting ready to go for a walk with the dad when they found the package so they ended up taking the monkeys with them. This morning, Nick had stuck his monkey's hands together and was showing his daddy how his monkey was praying. It was very cute.

The clothes are also adorable. They are both wearing 3T's right now but I'm sure they will grow into the 4T's very soon. If they don't fit by the end of winter / spring, I'm sure they will fit in the fall. I like your taste in clothing:).

Not much else to report around here right now. I have some cute birthday pictures and other pictures but I can't load any of them until I get my laptop back. You'll know it is back when you start seeing pictures again:).

I'm going to take a nap now and try to get over this cold virus quickly.

Wednesday, October 01, 2008

October 1, 2008

My laptop is in the shop and I won't have it back for at least 10 days. Unfortunately, all of my friend's and family's email addresses and blog links/addresses are on my laptop so I now have no access to anything, as I have a horrible memory:).  I am really missing reading the various blogs I keep up with.

Today we stayed home all day and rested / relaxed ....... or at least as much as one can with a just-three year old and almost-three year old running around all day.

Ben is still getting over his illness. He still has a cough and stuffy nose and congestion, is not eating his normal amount and still needs more sleep than normal. Nick seems fine, as does the dad. I still have a scratchy throat but have yet to figure out if I am coming down with something or if it is just allergies. I should know in another day or two.