Carnival Fun

There was a carnival in Plymouth this past weekend, so the kids and I decided to check it out. I hoped that there would be some rides that allowed little kids on by themselves and luckily there were a few. Benjamin only wanted to ride one of them, though - the "choo choo!" He was so excited when he saw the train! Without a moment's hesitation he climbed aboard and rode around and around. He was so cute and so happy. After that he wanted to ride the "neigh" - the horses on the merry-go-round. So we went there but they didn't allow kids his size to ride alone and they wouldn't let me on while holding Isabella. Darn carnies! So I stood there with a crying Benjamin trying to look pitiful and appeal to the controller's sympathies. As I did so, an elderly woman with her grandson came up and tried to get on. She was one ticket short, however, so she sadly walked away. That's when I had an idea. I ran after her and said, "I'll give you a ticket if you'll watch my baby while I ride with my son." She agreed and even fed Bella a bottle while we rode. Benjamin had such a great time. I didn't get any pics of it because I forgot my phone (what I was taking pics on since I forgot my camera at home) in the stroller but the tantrum that ensued when I attempted to get him off was a sure sign that he'd enjoyed himself. :) I had a lot of fun too. The rides, games, food, and fun atmosphere of a carnival are always great. Plus, it was within walking distance of a playground/park, so we stopped off there for a while before heading home. It was a great playground with lots of uncommon equipment and great, fast slides. It was a good mommy day all around.


Library story time starts next week, as does gymnastics class. We're excited! :)

Garbage Comedy

I just have to share a funny story from our crazy house this week. Friday is our usual trash day, but since it was labor day this past week, it moved trash day to Saturday. However, by the time Friday rolled around, we had long since forgotten what we'd done on Monday, so dutiful Kelly carried our two garbage cans, our recycling bin, and all our miscellaneous boxes and whatnots to the curb. As he was finishing and getting ready to head to work, our friendly neighbor yelled over, "there's no trash pick-up today!" So Kelly carried the recycling bin, the boxes, and the whatnots, all back into the garage and drove to work. An hour or so later, I get in the car to go to the gym and see all the trash in the garage. "Why didn't he take out the trash!?" I wonder. I could have sworn I heard him dragging it outside! So I put the kids in the car and then hurriedly carried the recycling bin, the boxes, and the whatnots out to the curb (for what I think is the first time.) This time there's no neighbor shouting to me becaus she's likely in her house laughing at me. When I drive back down our street a couple hours later, much more clear headed after my workout, I notice that we are the only ones on the street with our garbage out. Then I remember - Labor Day! So I drag the recycling bin, the boxes, and the whatnots back into the garage. Saturday dawns and Kelly takes Benjamin to Home Depot for some male bonding. I hear the garbage trucks and remember about yesterday's fiasco. I look out the window to see if I'm too late. No - the trash across the street is still there. Great! So I go into the garage and drag out the recycling bin, the boxes, and the whatnots out to the curb - again! As I am walking back up the driveway I notice something disturbing - maybe the garbage on the other side of the street is still there - but all the cans on our side are upsidedown and empty!! I was too late! I thought about carrying my garbage over to my neighbor's house but I didn't feel comfortable doing that. So, I turned around and drug the recycling bin, the boxes, and the whatnots back up to the garage. So, now we've carried our garbage back and forth FOUR times and still it sits in our garage, stinking the place up. Such is life in our house. You just have to laugh. I can only imagine the laughs we provided our neighbor! :)

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.

Storing Up for Winter

Isabella is acquiring something that Benjamin never had - fat stores. No matter how much I fed Benjamin, he never had fat rolls or a double chin, but my sweet "little" girl has these in abundance. I think this picture is so cute because it captures her in all her double-chin, poofy hair glory. They say you're awkward in middle school, but I'd say infancy is pretty funny too. :) I just wish I could capture her smile on camera because her whole face lights up and you can't help but smile back.


Just a few quick pics of Benjamin and his buddies, before I go to bed. We had a little swim get together here today and it was so much fun. Despite toddlers' inability to share and frustrating tendency to only want what someone else has and only while they have it, I loved watching them play together and eat together. I wish we could have people over every day and so does Benjamin! As soon as they left, he thrust his arms out and wailed, "Maya!!" in his most pathetic voice. I can't wait until he and Isabella can play together.

Pure Joy

Ah, to be two. Music making ball poppers and overnight campouts with dad are enough to get you dancing and shrieking with delight. This last weekend Kelly took Benjamin on a church-sponsored campout. I stayed home and had a girls' night with Isabella, while the two boys went out into the woods and did manly things - lit fires, got dirty, and ate junk food. Benjamin had a terrific time with the others kids there, and besides getting so many mosquito bites that he looks like he's got chicken pox, it went well. He came home filthy and exhausted, which is just what I expected. He took a shower and a long nap and then told me all about it. Well, since he can't talk yet - it was a lot of hand gestures and sound effects, but it clearly made an impression on him. :)



He woke up from his long nap to find that Maya had come over to play and he was more than willing. The two of them are the cutest couple. If they get married, I'm showing this movie at their wedding. They pulled out the ball popper machine and danced the afternoon away. Check this out. This is pure joy.

2 Year Photos

Thank goodness we only do this once a year. You'd never know it by looking at the photos, but Benjamin was dragged into the photo area kicking, thrashing, and screaming, and was still crying hysterically up until moments before these pictures were taken. I was seconds from giving up and walking out when the photographer discovered that Benjamin liked the colorful feather duster she had. Suddenly all was well in toddler world - for about 5 minutes. Thank goodness that she was quick to get all the shots we needed. Here's the result. I'm quite happy with them. It's somewhat hard to see them here since the copies they email you are such low quality, but you get the idea.

Goodbye Camera

This is the last picture on our camera - the picture Benjamin took just before it crashed to the ground - directly onto the lens. I know - why did I let my two year old play with the camera?! He was doing so well! He was actually taking some good pictures and being careful and it was a perfect distraction while I changed Bella's diaper. But all good things must come to an end and thus end his days as a photographer. Goodbye dear camera. We have loved the last 6 weeks with you. I have seriously bad luck with cameras lately! Our previous camera went swimming in the fountain at the zoo the day before Isabella was born. Our next one is on its way here now. Please pray for its survival.

Things are still going along well here. I just got pooped on by Isabella as I wrote that, alas, but truly, they are. That's life with a newborn, I guess. It happens more often than I'd like. But she's a sweety and very patient. Here's a few pics to enjoy while I go clean us up. Benjamin has started getting pots out, putting on his apron, and pretending to cook. It's so cute. Everytime I ask him what he's cooking, the answer is always eggs. Also, he's decided he wants to be David Attenborough when he grows up. Every day he wants to watch Planet Earth or Life of Birds or some such documentary all narrated by the marvelous David A. I let him watch while he has his snack and I cook dinner. It's so fun to see how into these shows he gets. I can't complain - it's educational!

Birthday and BBQ Fun

This past week has been a lot of fun. We celebrated Benjamin's birthday on the 2nd and then we had a BBQ with friends on the 4th. For Benjamin's birthday we went to a nearby beach with some of his little buddies and their moms and then out to lunch at Red Robin, as we'd done for his 1st birthday. We went there because they sing and clap for you on your birthday and he LOVED it last year. However, he has become somewhat shy these past couple months and rather than smile and clap along as he did last year, this year he hid his face in the bench and ignored them entirely. That is, of course, until the moment they left, at which point he popped back up and frantically signed, "more!!!" That stinker!


This year the big hit was the onion rings. It was his first time trying them and he really got into the whole dunking thing. He just couldn't get enough sauce on them to suit him.


Our BBQ on the 4th was great, and Benjamin especially loved it because his friend Maya could come over. They played in the pool together and ate their weight in watermelon. Benjamin also loved the sparklers Kelly bought for him. We've been lighting them every afternoon since.




Isabella continues to be our sweet little girl. Sleeping soundly each night and smiling often during the day. She's a real pleasure to have around. I think it really makes such a difference to have done all this before. I notice such a difference in how I react to issues with her compared to Benjamin. I'm far less stressed this time around about everything. It's really nice.


However, I have to mention, today we had our first sibling rivalry issue. Bella was propped up against one of Benjamin's stuffed animals and he adamantly declared, "mine!" and tried to pull it out from under her. It was an all out temper tantrum when I insisted he share it with her. After a time out, though, he acquiesced and she was allowed to keep the dog. I'm sure this won't be the last time something like this happens. I guess that's life with siblings - something I never had to deal with. Consequently our family home evening lesson tonight was on sharing and how Jesus shared his loaves and fishes with everyone and we should share with others too and be like Jesus (or Joo-joo, as Benjamin calls him). He seemed to get what we were talking about. I assume it will be a while before he actually applies it. :)

Happy Birthday Benjamin!

Today is Benjamin's 2nd birthday! We are so blessed to have this amazing little boy in our family. I was inspired by a friend of mine to create a little montage to celebrate the past two years with Benjamin. Hope you enjoy it as much as I do. :)



As a birthday present to Benjamin (and to me, especially), Isabella slept through the night last night! 10 hours straight! As with Benjamin's first full night, I awoke at 6am in total panic and rushed to check on her. Of course, waking her in the process. A wonderful milestone has been attained. Yipee!