One Reason for Large Families

Benjamin's latest love is baseball. I don't really like the game, but I love playing sports with Benjamin. He's an incredible athlete and never ceases to amaze me. He got a tee, a bat, and a glove for his birthday and now we play in the backyard nearly every day - sometimes with the tee and sometimes without. However, there's the one glaring problem - there's only two of us. So it's up to me and Benjamin to fill an entire team's worth of positions. It's especially tricky when he doesn't make a home run and is stuck on a base. I end up pitching to myself, hitting, running after the ball and trying to tag him out, all while running the bases for myself too. It's total chaos - which is exactly how he likes it. Today, as I was the pitcher, first, second, and third basemen, running for the ball as he circled towards home, I thought, "this would be one reason to have more kids." I laughed in his face when he suggested I retrieve a ball that he missed and which landed behind him. So our baseball game now has the additional rule - if you miss it, your punishment is to retrieve it and give it back to the pitcher. Anyone who wants to come over and play baseball and save me from having to constantly bend over and pick up stray balls, you're cordially invited.


Another Bella story. It was forecasted to rain all day today but the rain didn't come. So I decided to risk it and take the kids to a playground. We had been there for about an hour or more when it started to drizzle. The kids didn't want to go, though. They wanted to play in the rain and I agreed. Love of water, remember? However, shortly thereafter the rain really hit and it poured so hard we were instantly drenched. It became far less fun and we all decided it was time to head home. One problem. Where is my car key? Here we stood in the dumping rain outside our car and I couldn't find the key. I checked my pockets and my diaper bag over and over again to no avail. We were soaked through. While I'm fishing, Bella says to me, "Me take it mommy. Me take your key." For some reason she often takes blame for things she didn't really do so I dismissed her comment for the moment. I decided maybe my key had fallen out on the playground and dashed around looking for it. Still no luck. I headed back to the kids and the car and I hear Benjamin say to Bella, "That wasn't a good idea, Bella!" and Bella answer, "Me sorry." Huh? "Bella, did you really take my key??!" I asked. "Yes." "Where did you put it?" "On the treppe" (German for stairs). "Come show me," I said, and held her hand as she led me and Benjamin through the still pouring rain across the playground. She led us in a straight line right to the base of a concrete stair case and pointed, "There!" she said, triumphantly. Sure enough, there lay my key. Unbelievable!! I don't know if she took it out herself or if it fell out and she found it and decided not to return it. I'll give her the benefit of the doubt and say she's not a thief. However, she did successfully manage to get us all soaked to the bone. Funny that the whole way to the playground she kept begging to go to the splash park instead. I guess she figured out a way to get her wish after all.

We Love Water

I have written before about my kids' love of water. Being pregnant in July/August has helped me to see the appeal. This week alone we've been to the splash park, played in the sprinklers at a friend's house, played in the river at the park, and gone swimming at the gym. Pretty much every day we've come home wet. So lovely. I wonder what I'd do if my kids didn't like water! I guess that's what air conditioning is for. But that's just not nearly as fun as feeding the ducks, watching Benjamin walk hand in hand with a friend in the river, or spinning endlessly on the tire swing.




Cute story about Bella in the pool: Benjamin was playing and jumping on my back and dragging me down under the water. I let him do it a few times but then it started to become annoying and a bit painful, so I asked him to stop. He was having too much fun, though, and kept doing it. After doing it once or twice more while I protested, Bella grabbed my hand and screamed at him, "Stop Ben-min, that's my mommy!" and tried to pull me free. So adorable. I'm glad I have an advocate in her.

As for the pregnancy, although I feel plenty huge, apparently I'm several centimeters smaller than they'd expect at this point, so I get to have a fifth ultrasound next week to make sure there's still enough fluid around the baby. Last week's ultrasound showed that everything was fine, but I guess they want to be sure. I'm not complaining. I never get tired of seeing what my baby looks like - even if he resembles a blobby black and white alien child at this point. Those little foot and hand images are so fun.

A Sister's Love

The kids played in their little pool in the back yard today. Benjamin converted the pool into a slip and slide by running and diving into the pool or running and jumping and sliding to the other edge. This was great fun and he did it close to 20 times without incident. Then, as always happens, he got tired, but didn't stop to rest. The next time he dove into the pool, he dove wrong and landed face first on the concrete just beyond the pool. Lots and lots of crying followed and a big, scraped up welt appeared on his forehead. I immediately took him in my arms and tried to comfort him. Bella wanted to help too, so she came up, put her head on his back and patted his arm. Then she knelt down next to him, folded her arms, and said a prayer that he'd feel better. It was so incredibly sweet. As soon as she'd said,"in the name of Jesus Christ, amen," she stood up, patted him again and asked, "Want an ice pack on that?" A woman of words and action. ;) What a sweetie.

Today Kelly wanted to show the kids how cool dry ice could be. So after we'd swum, they came in and had a blast doing all sorts of things with a mere $0.69 worth of dry ice. Money well spent. We put it in our old fish tank and used a variety of things with it - bubble solution, hot water, straws, etc. It was all Kelly's idea and I had a lot of fun too. Science can really be so cool when it's not spoiled by bad teachers.



Sorry about Benjamin's attire. Like I said, we'd just come from swimming and he was too excited to see what daddy had brought to get dressed any further.

Counting Down

I find myself getting more and more impatient for this baby to finally come. Every contraction makes me wish it were the real thing. Still 3 more weeks. I write that and think, really? Still? Shouldn't it be less by now?? Luckily, I'd say that this has been my easiest pregnancy of the three. During the first I was plagued by heartburn and aching hip joints that made sleep almost impossible most nights. The second brought mood swings and depression that kept me weeping in bed for hours. This one has had small amounts of those things, but mostly I've been fine and it's been such a blessing. Besides the fatigue that comes from being heavily pregnant in a heat wave while tending to two toddlers, I've been great. Doesn't mean I'm not ready to be done, though. I'm certainly not one of those women who say they love being pregnant. No, I like my body to myself, thank you very much. Call me crazy, but I like being able to fully expand my lungs without major effort and I enjoy not leaking every time I sneeze.

So, we've been staying busy and trying to keep my mind off it. The last craft I wrote about was food color-less and that left Benjamin unsatisfied. A few days later during Bella's nap he asked if he could play with the food color again. Why not? Without Bella around it goes much better, actually. I put a paper towel in a large bowl in the sink and he dripped drops of various colors onto the towel to see how it splattered and mixed and wicked and whatever else I could come up with. He got quite a bit on his hands, but I'd removed his shirt so there was little worry otherwise. Until he lost his balance slightly on the stool upon which he was standing and pressed his hand down upon a paper towel we'd finished coloring and which I'd layed onto a dishtowel to dry. The result was a very cool looking handprint on the dishtowel, made up of the various colors he'd mixed on the paper towel.


My first instinct was to get upset about the messed up towel. But, c'mon, it's a dishtowel, it's not my best dress. So we did some more paper towel hand prints and had a great time with it. Of course Benjamin's hands were once again red for a few days. Such is life. He loved it. Food coloring really is so cool.


I also bought a zoo membership this past week with some money I got from my generous grandma as a baby present. Although, I think a zoo entirely without live animals would suit my kids just fine too. Their favorite things about the zoo trip this week was the playground and the frog fountain. The funniest part for me was when Benjamin ticked off one of the monkeys and he got a huge, angry, hissing, teeth-baring monkey in his face. Thank goodness for protective glass. Benjamin thought it was hysterical. I understood the monkey's feelings. He's managed to push me to that point sometimes too. :)


Here's just a cute picture of Bella that Benjamin took. He loves taking pictures and I routinely find my brand-new batteries drained dry at some very crucial moments. It's worth it when I get cute ones like this, though.

A Natural

Benjamin has been making fishing poles out of sticks for years and these last couple weeks his desire to go fishing has reached new levels. So last night Kelly bought him a fishing pole and today we went on our first fishing trip. The kids and I had never been and Kelly hasn't been for almost as long as we've been married. We went to Kensington Park and Kelly taught Benjamin how to cast. I wasn't expecting much from him on his first try, but that kid is a natural! On his second cast he flung it out into the lake and reeled it in like a pro with 5 fish nipping at the fly.


He made it look so simple that I wanted to try. My first cast went into the reeds at my feet and the next onto a log to the side. He laughed like I'd done it to entertain him. He continued to cast like he'd done it all his life and he had a marvelous time. It was so fun to see him enjoying it so much. In the end we caught and released two fish and had a wonderful afternoon at the park.


Even Bella tried a few times, but she wasn't quite herself. As we were leaving, I noticed she seemed very warm and I ended up putting her to bed with a 103 fever right after we got home. I hope she gets better soon.

Another love of Benjamin and Bella's is building parking garages out of Jenga blocks. Every day they do a new one and they always make me laugh. Here's one where they've buried the cars underneath and placed a "guard" at the entrance.


Here's a multi-story one that unfortunately suffered from some poor planning - all the spots ended up being too small for his cars so they parked out front instead.


And of course, we've done a few more crafts and science experiments. I wanted to show them how much fun ooglic can be. I don't know what everyone else calls this stuff, but that's the name Kelly gave it when we made it together on our first date. We really are geeks - it's official. It's 10 parts corn starch and 1 part water, approximately, and it's the funnest stuff ever. It's both solid and liquid depending on how you handle it and when my kids get a hold of anything this fun, it's inevitable that it'll end up all over them and the patio. This time I made sure to keep the food coloring out of it.


It's been a fun Summer and despite the heat, we've been surviving okay. Thank goodness for basements, backyard pools, and splash parks.

Happy Birthday Benjamin!!

Benjamin turned 4 years old today. What a very big day in his life. His first real birthday party. Being 8 months pregnant and it being the middle of the hot summer, I just couldn't bring myself to do the 'friends at our house' party thing, so we decided to have someone else handle everything and we just give them our money. Long live America! So we had Benjamin's party at Pump It Up - an inflatable bounce house place in the area. So much fun!


We showed up (30 minutes early because the kids were driving me craaaaazy at home asking when it was time to go) and from then on out, everything was taken care of. They carried in our cake and fruit trays, set up the room, the tables, the remaining food that they provided, collected the guests' presents, etc. etc. All while the kids just played merrily for 90 minutes. Everyone seemed to be having a marvelous time. No major injuries, no fights, just lots of jumping fun. Then everyone went into the party room where the staff and moms served the kids and we all had a yummy lunch. (Benjamin's at the far end of the table.)


Near the end, the guy helping us lit the candle on his spider man birthday cake and got everyone started singing "Happy Birthday" to Benjamin while the king sat on his blow-up throne, loving every minute of it.


The only draw back was that we only had 2 hours total, not leaving enough time for present opening and that bummed some kids out. They wanted to see Benjamin opening the gift they'd brought, so we took the presents outside and opened them on the grass instead. That worked out just great.


That's also when my memory card reached maximum capacity, so no more pics at that point. :( The best part of all was the after the presents were loaded in the car, the staff brought us the food that they'd wrapped up and cleaned up, and we drove away, leaving everything else to them! No work at all! Just the party! Just the two exhausted kiddos in the back seat and a trunk full of toys and watermelon. America! So great. After naps - Isabella's and Kelly's ;) - we went to a friend's house who'd invited Benjamin over for an afternoon of Wii. He's only played it once in his life over a year ago and didn't remember it at all so she thought he'd enjoy it. 2 hours of Wii later, he still wanted to keep going. What a great present. We ended the day with a trip to his favorite restaurant - Macaroni Grill - to eat his favorite food - spaghetti. It doesn't get any better than a place that gives you great food and while you're waiting, provides crayons with which you're allowed to write all over their table.

So, the birthday was a big success and now I have a 4 year old. That's crazy. Benjamin is an amazing boy. He's very physical - very tall, strong, and athletic. He's constantly being guessed to be much older because of this and because of his clear pronunciation and verbal ability. Amazing when one considers how late he started speaking. He's also very kind. He loves to give hugs and bring girls flowers(especially his mommy). He cares a lot about other's feelings and worries if anyone is sad. He's also very enthusiastic. It's easy to get him excited to do things and go places. He's got an adventurous spirit. He also loves to read and sing. He's an amazing boy and we're so happy to have him in our life. We love you Benjamin.