End on a Positive Note

I was just about to close up shop for the evening, but I found these pictures that I never posted. Ah the good ol' days of last week. :) I think I'll end with this.

How Was Your Day?

Mine was awful. Thanks for asking. Seriously, I can't remember a day like this since I was pregnant and hormonaly deranged. Benjamin disovered the word "no" this week. ("Nein," actually, since he says it in German). I know, most kids discover the power of this word at 18 months or so, but like we've established, speaking is not his strong suit. So, ta-da, here comes his newest word. All day long today - even when he really meant yes - he yelled "Nein!" We battled over meals, diaper changes, and toy clean up. He refused to get in the car seat, then refused to get out of it. He threw 4 separate tantrums regarding TV. He poured water all over the kitchen floor twice, once all over me, and refused to clean it up. He jammed a cd in the cd player. He poked Isabella with his fork. He climbed into my bed and pulled off all the sheets just after I'd made it. I could go on. The truly ironic thing is that just last night I made the comment to Kelly, "I'm just so happy with my life right now. Things are really good. I love being a stay-at-home mom, I love our kids and how fun they are. Life is just great." Never let the Fates hear you make a comment like that. It's like praying for humility.


Benjamin's freakish attitude today altered my usually positive perception of another milestone he achieved this week. Namely, he has decided he can now do everything on his own. How dare anyone try to help with anything. Whether that's washing, diapering, dressing, or eating - it's "Me!" and only me. Part of me loves this new independence, but today as I'm watching a whole bag of cheerios scatter across the floor and a whole carton of milk gush over the table, I can't help but say, "Would you like me to help you with that?" "Me!" is always the reply. Even as he squeals and huffs in frustration while attempting to put on his shoes, help is refused. So I stand there, Bella in her car seat, bags on my shoulder, waiting and waiting. Diapering is interesting too. He must take off his own pants. He must put on his own diaper. Kid - if you're diapering yourself - it's time to start using the toilet! It's actually really cute to watch him get up from the table, attempt to carry his plate over to the sink (spilling any remaining items) and then get on his stool, turn on the water, and wash his hands and face. He refuses to let me help him. My only allowed contribution is to hand him the towel. Alas, my little boy is growing up and these are those lovely "growing pains" you have to deal with along the way. If only they were as cute as Kirk Cameron made them seem. :)

I just try to remember that the great thing about difficult days like today is that you go to bed, wake up tomorrow, and it's a whole new day. A clean slate. You start over and move on. I love that.

Here's what kept me sane today:

Be It Ever So Humble...

There's no place like home, even if that's just an inflatable house with two comforters over it. Benjamin has become obsessed with his little house. From the moment he wakes up in the morning until we're carrying him into bed at night, the plea of "house!" is heard non-stop around here. Playing house means mommy crawls inside, Benjamin hands her several puppets to put on, and then he runs in and out of the house bringing the puppets various things to "eat." These include soccer balls, trains, etc. Size is not important, the key thing is that the puppets make lots of chomping and smacking sounds and thank him profusely for the delicious offerings. When that gets boring, he likes to jump from the futon onto the house, kneeing me in various sensitive places and smothering me inside. That's always good fun too. Needless to say, I tire of this game quite quickly and now that we've been playing it day and night for 2 weeks, I'm downright sick of it. Just the word "house" fills me with disdain and makes me want to hide behind the couch. Luckily he also enjoys reading books in his house. Unless I've read the book 300 times already, I never tire of reading with him.


Bella seems to enjoy watching her brother play house, as long as he doesn't roll from the house onto her. Yes, it happened once. Not a happy moment.


He also still loves his train set and so do I. It's the engineer in me, I guess, but I love trying to come up with the most elaborate train track configurations possible. Not easy when you have a toddler tearing them down as fast as you're building them up.


In any case, it's been fun around here. The weather has been gorgeous and when we're not holed up in the basement in our "house" we've been going to the beach, various playgrounds, climbing trees, and even accidentally ended up at a community party hosted by Westland City. I just thought I'd check out a new playground and discovered they were have a huge party there. They had fire trucks, police cars, police dogs and horses, construction vehicles (that they allowed the kids to drive with help of the worker), bounce houses, remote control car race track, tons of free food and of course, the playground that we originally came to see. Benjamin was in heaven. We had such a great time. He was too scared to drive the construction vehicles, but he would climb into the firetruck. He LOVED the firetruck. He didn't want to get out. He would reluctantly get out to give others a turn, but he'd just get right back in when they were done. We spent nearly 30 minutes there.


We played on the playground for a bit, but all the other things were so much more fun. We petted the police horses and dogs, we jumped around in the play houses, and we also watched the remote control car races for a while and he LOVED that too. "WOW!" he kept exclaiming as they flew over ramps and crashed into one another. He was joined by another little boy that looked about 18 months old and the two of them stood riveted, gripping the safety fence, shrieking with delight at the stunts and crashes. I have to admit, I thought they were pretty cool too.


As for Bella, what can one say about such a sweet little girl? She is smiley and happy. She is behind where Benjamin was physically at this age - can't push up on hands, can't roll over, can't reach for or grab toys, etc., but she is far beyond him in verbal ability. She's truly a girl. She coos and giggles and baby-babbles all day long. It is so much fun to sit and talk to her. She really seems to be talking back. It's so fun to see the differences between the two of them.

A Lot Can Happen

It's amazing all that has happened in the two weeks since I last posted. Benjamin got roseola the day after his swim party and had a fever of 104 degrees for 3 days. However, day one into that fever, our parents arrived for Isabella's blessing. Such is life. So we had a full house and a cranky todler. It all went well, though. Isabella's blessing was beautiful, as was her dress :). Benjamin's fever broke on Monday and the rash lasted until Tuesday evening. Then all was well again.





And of course, we couldn't let a little thing like roseola keep us from enjoying the time with family. We picked blueberries at Hazen Farms and we rented a paddle boat at Maple Beach in Kensington Park. It was a blast.




Finally, today is Kelly's and my anniversary! 7 years! A lot has happened in those 7 years too! A couple moves, a couple kids, a couple cars, and still going strong. :) I couldn't be happier. We actually celebrated last week already while my mom was here watching the kids. We did sealings in the temple and sealed my maternal grandfather to his parents. That was a very special experience and a great way to celebrate an anniversary.

Here are a few other pics. The first three are from a picnic Benjamin's nursery class had last week. I love the one of Benjamin and Isabella. Looks like she's finally getting revenge for all those kicks to the head. And the last one is from today. Nothing is funnier to Benjamin than putting odd things on his head, shaking them off, and watching them fall noisely onto the floor. Today's test subject: the blue plastic duck that lights up in the bathtub, at least until Benjamin got a hold of it.