With the latest snow fall, I couldn't pass up the opportunity of taking our newest love of crafts outside. I filled up some squirt bottles with colored water and we had a blast "painting" our backyard. Benjamin prefered concentrated spots, emptying the bottles in one swoop and then declaring, "Empty! Need new!" And interestingly, his favorite color of all was yellow.
Another sign that Benjamin is all boy: I got my hair cut on Saturday - about 3-4 inches off and Benjamin never noticed. Kelly replaced the keyboard on my laptop and the new keyboard has a slightly different red button mouse and he noticed it immediately upon seeing the laptop the next morning.
That's what Benjamin says every time I make a bottle for Bella. Milk is a very popular drink around here. So, a few times a day I allow him to have some milk with Bella, mostly because I can't get enough of this adorable sight:
Benjamin and Isabella are really very cute together (as long as she's not reaching for a toy he has designated as "mine"). Even when they aren't actually playing together, Bella just loves being near him and participating in whatever way she can. Today he built an alphabet house.
She kept track of the letter Q for him.
Here's the picture of Santa we took at the DSC. It was finally available on their website. Notice how Santa's beard is almost below his lip. Thanks Bella! :)
I was brushing Benjamin's teeth this evening as we prepared for bed and as I ran the brush over his molars he uttered a garbled phrase. "What did you say?" I asked, pulling the brush out. "Wuv Woo," he repeated. "You love me?" I confirmed, shocked. He's never said that before in his life! "Yeah!" he cheered, "Wuv You!" this time a bit clearer. "Hug?" he asked.
He got the biggest bear hug I could give. Of all the phrases he's learned so far, this is by far my favorite.
The Detroit Science Center held a "Santa Fest" last week. The actual Christmas aspect of the event was sadly lacking. The crowds were so huge that we waited for 45 minutes just to get in the door and then once inside, we discovered that none of the events they had scheduled were ready yet. People were still walking around carrying tables and setting up lights, etc. Even Santa himself hadn't arrived yet. There were a lot of unhappy people complaining about what a disaster it all was. It was a sad and sorry sight. So we ignored their pitiful attempt at holiday cheer and just enjoyed the center itself. Mostly the "kids' town" - the area for kids 5 and under. Of course, Benjamin was first drawn to the water table and the computers,
but from there he found the play diner (and a little girl with whom to eat),
and the play veterenarian's office (where he bandaged up a kitten),
the theater where he pretended to be a fireman (what else would you expect?),
and the random widget table (which kept him entertained much longer than I expected.) Notice his soaking wet clothes despite the plastic smock he wore at the water table? He is never happier than when he's playing in water. His expressions of delight as the water sprayed around caused all the parents there to laugh along with him.
Bella found some fun things to play with in the baby room too.
It was a good afternoon all around - much needed after Benjamin had refused his nap earlier in the day and was driving me crazy with his fatigued whining. And to the DSC's credit - after sufficient wait time, they did get some things up and running and I was able to take Benjamin and Bella on their first visit to Santa. Benjamin wouldn't sit on his lap but he did cordially shake his hand and pose nicely for the picture (which they took, so I have to wait to receive it). Bella tangled her fingers in his beard and nearly pulled it off his face. The look of shock in Santa's eyes as he pried her hand away was worth the 20 minute wait in line.
The only downer of the day was that I missed my exit on the way home and took over an hour to make a 20 minute drive. I didn't get in an accident, though, so all's well that ends well.
I think I'm going to stop combing Benjamin's hair during the winter. At least on days he wears hat. I fastidiously comb his hair before we leave each morning, but invariably, as we arrive at our destination, this is what I am left with:
It's been snowing here. It's fun to play in the snow, or throw ice chunks at the house, as Benjamin likes to do, but when the excitement of that wanes, it's good to have a plan B. A friend of mine has a link on her blog to a wonderful craft website - www.notimeforflashcards.com - and since I've been on there, I've been channeling my inner pre-schooler and just can't get enough of glue and finger paint. Benjamin and I have been having a blast making little crafts together. I love the one-on-one time it gives me with him. He gets so excited when I tell him we're going to do a craft. He runs downstairs, carries his table and chairs over to the tile floor (much easier clean-up), puts on his painting shirt, and bounces around in his seat, grinning from ear to ear, and shouting "Paint! Paint!" while I gather the materials. Today we made a thankfulness wreath. We outlined his hand several times on various colors of construction paper, and then used sponges of various shapes to paint them. He loved dipping the sponges in the paint and putting it all over his papers. He has a thing about getting his hands dirty, though. So, once he had to turn the sponge over and use the other side for a differnt color, thereby getting the first color on his palm, he was ready to call it quits. I had to dirty my hands and cheer about it to show him that it was okay and that "getting messy is part of the fun!" Then he pressed forward and systematically used each sponge and each color before he declared "Done!" While he played legos, I wrote "thank you" in various languages on the hands and cut them out. Then I cut out the center out of a paper plate, put glue all around the edge and called him back to let him press the hands onto the glue. He insisted on also adding some feathers for that extra little creative flair. I figured it took the place of the ribbon that the website suggested and looks very cute. Here's the result:
Here are a few of our other creations. Some are from the website and some are not. I think I love doing these because I have zero artistic ability and yet a perfectionist's personality. Not a happy combo. I was constantly frustrated with my artwork in school because I would try SO hard and it always turned out looking like a kindergardner did it. But with these crafts - that's exactly the look I'm going for! I can be artsy and creative without any grandiose expectations for the result. It's been great.
Besides crafts, I've been looking at books more with Bella. She has started to show a slight interest in the pictures rather than just the flavor of the pages.
And not to be outdone by his sister's computer skills, Benjamin has learned how to open Skype and call people, open Picassa and "edit" pictures, and open Netflix and view movies. Nothing like coming back from the bathroom to find your 2 year old engrossed in the latest Michael Moore documentary. How he managed that, I will never know. Another time I thought he was looking at some pictures of himself, but as I took a closer look there was a dialogue box on the screen that said, "Thank you for your subscription! You should receive your first newsletter in the next 4-6 weeks!" I can't wait to see what comes! He also text-messages people after Kelly showed him one time how to text me while I was at the store. It's so crazy how fast kids pick this stuff up! I do something one time and he's got it. Whenever I'm on the computer now, he'll come up to me, point to an icon he wants and say, "mouse here! click!" Time for the internet filter, I guess. Really didn't think I'd need it so soon.
Isabella is out to discover and recently she came across the most popular item in our home - the laptop. She promptly resized all the icons, renamed TurboTax to dwarqqqqq, and opened instant messenger - a girl's gotta stay connected! :) It was really cute to see how excited she was about it. Maybe she's been watching her brother on it for so long and she was thrilled it was finally her turn.
Her other new discovery is that there's another baby that lives in the bathroom and that baby looks just like her! Despite the red circle she got on her forehead from numerous collisions with this baby, she seemed very pleased to have made a new friend.
Benjamin's new discovery is that pinecones and hands can be made to look a lot like turkeys or "gobba-gobbas" as he calls them. We made a turkey at the library and he's been playing with it ever since. At home we outlined our hands (me, Bella, and Benjamin) and turned them into turkeys. We turned our outline turkey picture into a placemat that he can use during his Thanksgiving dinner. It is really cute, if I do say so myself. I'm excited for Thanksgiving. It'll be the first time in my life that we're hosting the big event and I think it will be wonderful. Especially because Kelly will be the one cooking the turkey! :) Gotta love a man who cooks.
Last thing - cute Benjamin moments: We were putting honey on our bread and Kelly asked Benjamin, "Where does honey come from?" "Bees!" he answered. "That's right, bees make honey. What do bees eat in order to make the honey?" "Monkeys!" he replied matter-of-factly.
We took Bella to her 6 month check-up (80% in length and head, 50% in weight) and when we got home, Kelly asked Benjamin what the doctor said. He thought about it and said,"No monkeys bed." As in Mama called the doctor and doctor said, 'No more monkeys jumping on the bed!' His love for that song knows no bounds.
I try not to make this blog about me, but I just have to say, I've been in a bit of a funk since Tuesday. I researched the issues and the candidates for months, watched all of the debates, read everyone's website - not just Obama/McCain, but senators, judges, etc. and carefully selected my favorite candidate and proposal stance in each race. Alas, in the end, every single thing/person (except one judge) I voted for lost. That's depressing. Yay for democracy, but when that happens you wonder why you bothered. So congrats to those of you who voted for Obama, etc., but when you and I are hanging out, I'd rather you wait a few months before bringing it up. I'm just going to get depressed again. Okay, that's out of the way. On to the good stuff and the real reason most people check this blog.
Isabella turns 6 months tomorrow and we're still trying to get her to eat from a spoon. I've tried rice and oatmeal, squash, broccoli, bananas, and applesauce - all with only very limited success. Here's a video to show you how it goes. She makes such hilarious facial expressions that I just had to get it on film. Of course, that's when she decided to finally swallow. It doesn't happen often. We'll just have to keep working at it, I guess. Benjamin took about 4 weeks of daily effort before he finally started eating well.
Benjamin has started taking a real active interest in Bella's development. It's been really fun to see. He'll hold a toy out to her and when she takes it, he'll cheer, "Yay Bella! Take! See mama? Bella take!" He's also decided that he's going to teach her how to crawl. I came into the kitchen yesterday and found them doing this:
Of course, I'm not really sure what he was trying to teach her with this:
In general I'm just happy to see him spending more time playing with her than beating on her.
He's actually gotten better at playing with kids in general. We've been doing a lot with his buddies Max and Maya and he still has a major problem with the concept of sharing, but again, the violence has been reduced and it's done my ulcer good. :) Cookies and Dora the Explorer - what more could you want?
We had a blast trick-or-treating last night. Benjamin had a great time knocking on doors and seeing people's dogs. Whenever we knew the people he tried to go inside. We had to explain that on this night we only say hello but we don't stay. The greatest part of the whole thing was he never demanded to eat any of his candy, so guess who got it all? :) Kelly and I stayed up playing board games together and eating all of Benjamin's loot. The only downside is that he was the one that picked out the candy and he's apparently a fan of yellow wrappers - ie. Butterfingers and Peanut M&Ms - blech. I kept trying to steer his hand towards the 3 Musketeers and the Mounds, but I didn't want to seem too pushy. In the end we still got enough delectable treats to induce a sugar coma. I remember laughing a lot last night, but the details are fuzzy. Ah - halloween. How I love you.
It's Halloween - Oct 31st and it's my 31st birthday. What a great combination! I've already had two parties this week - one for my German friends and one for my American friends (those with kids around Benjamin's age). And now I still have my actual birthday to celebrate and go trick-or-treating on and tomorrow Kelly and I are going out to dinner! Do I know how to draw out the festivites or what!? I love it.
Here are a few pics of my parties. We had a Baskin Robbins ice cream cake - 31 flavors, get it? :) We decorated cookies and I read a kids' story in which the main character is a mummy for Halloween, so we made ourselves into mummies with toiletpaper. That was a lot of fun.
Also, I never posted the pictures of our trip to the zoo a couple weeks ago. We went down to the Toledo zoo and met up with some friends who were in town from Utah. Thanks guys for the great pictures! Benjamin's favorite animals in the zoo were the statues. I guess if the real lions let you crawl all over them, he'd like those too.
It rained most of the afternoon yesterday, so we did what Benjamin likes to do best - little finger plays to songs and rhymes. However, I finally thought to use my camera and save some of these little gems for posterity. Because I think he's adorable, I decided to post them. Enjoy them. By the way, this is all him - there was no prompting from me behind the camera.
Itsy Bitsy Spider:
Where is Thumbkin? and Three Little Monkeys:
Popcorn Popping:
We've also been working with Isabella on sitting. She's decided rolling just isn't for her, but I noticed she's always trying to pull herself up, so I thought maybe we'd skip a milestone. Sure enough, she loves to sit. She's wobbly, but does quite well. We put a boppy behind her to catch her when she gets tired and she's seems much happier. Benjamin likes to take her sock off and do "This little piggy" with her. Of course, his limited vocabulary has turned this entire rhyme into "Wee wee wee home. Wee wee wee home" over and over again.
Here she is preparing for the fun holidays coming up - one in her Halloween costume and another in a Christmas outfit from grandma that I thought she should wear now because she's likely to be too big at Christmas.
