Elections and the Good Stuff

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?

Oh the Sugar Rush!

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.

Happy Halloween! Happy Birthday!

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.

Singing in the Rain

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.

He's a Hugger

Quick adorable story: I was in Isabella's room putting something away while Benjamin played in the kitchen. Suddenly I heard Benjamin running from the kitchen screaming, "Hug!" He thought I was in my bedroom so he ran past her room at full speed, his arms outstretched, right into my room. Then he discovered where I really was, so he turned back around, screamed "Hug!" again and ran into Bella's room, where he threw himself against me and wrapped his arms around my legs in a big bear hug. It doesn't get any better than that.

Farm Livin' is the Life for Me!

My German mom's club visited Three Cedars Farm this week. All the kids had a great time. Nothing beats feeding goats, riding on tractors - both real and not, and sliding down slides coming out of the side of a barn. My favorite part was when Benjamin discovered that the toy tractor's pedals were just a bit too far away for his feet, so he just started randomly jumping into the carts attached to the bigger kids' tractors. Luckily they all seemed okay with the idea of a 30 pound passenger.



When he got tired of that, mom is always available too, of course. Poor little Isabella. It wasn't until my friend sent me this picture that I realized how contorted she was! She never made a sound! She was just happy to be coming along!


We also went to a little buddy's third birthday this week. His mom did a great job - great healthy but yummy food, games, crafts, etc. I took notes for next year. The kids had a great time. I knew it had been a good party when after a few hours I discovered Benjamin was missing and I found him upstairs all alone in the birthday boy's bed, tucked under his blanket. He was worn out! :) I wonder if he would have fallen asleep if I hadn't come in! Benjamin? - nah! probably not.

A Train!

I just had to write this little story that I'd forgotten about until now. I went to Milwaukee last weekend to visit some friends. One night we were at a restaurant next to some train tracks. A train passed by as we ate and as soon as I realized what the rumbling noise was, I jumped out of my seat and rushed to the window. There was one other in our group that also has a son. She also jumped at the same moment I did and we both stood at the window for a minute or two exclaiming excitedly, "A train! Look - it's a train!" Then it hit me - Benjamin is hundreds of miles away, I'm a grown woman out with my friends, and I'm jumping up and down in front of a window because a simple freight train is passing by. "WHAT are we doing?" I asked my friend and she started laughing with me at the realization that having a son changes you forever and there's just nothing you can do about it. I have to admit, I was mildly embarrased, but at the same time, I thought how fun it was that Benjamin has helped me to find joy in some very ordinary things. It was just a shame he wasn't there - he would have loved it - it was a very long train.

The Results Are In!

All blog entries, regardless of topic, should start with adorable pictures like this, don't you think?

Anyway, on to the entry. We did some taste tests with Isabella today. Results: rice cereal - yucky, foot - yummy! Babies. Go figure. I finally decided to enter the next stage of life with Isabella and attempt solid foods. I tearfully bid farewell to the simple infant meal plan and dug out the baby spoons and bowls again. Just like Benjamin, Bella was less than enthused by the new cuisine. Every last bit of it got spit right back onto her bib and each bite was accompanied by an expression of disgust.


Yet, despite this, later in the day, during a diaper change, she discovered what a delicious treat her toes can be and sucked away delightedly. I think tomorrow I'll try putting the cereal on her toes and see what happens.


The great thing about Isabella, though, is that despite being forced to eat yucky rice, she ended the experience with a grin.


Cute Benjamin moment: Benjamin is learning new words all the time and it's been such a delight to hear him begin to speak. The other current adventure is potty training. Not such a delight. He's far away from getting it, but we've convinced him to start pooping in the bathroom (stil in his diaper), rather than wedged behind the couch or under the table. Yesterday he began grunting in the kitchen. I told him to go to the bathroom. He obediently went in and shut the door, but then realized that there was no light on in there and he can't reach the switch. "Help! Sun! Mama! Help! Sun! Please!" I turned on the light for him and got a "Danke!" and a big smile. Then he shut the door in my face and continued his business. :)

Sorry these are so small and hard to see - camera phone AGAIN - but I thought these pics of Benjamin on the firetruck were cute. There was a firetruck at a fall festival we went to recently and he spent over an hour inside. Yet, what did he choose as his Halloween costume? Police Man. The mind of a 2 year old is an interesting place.

Happy October!

I am so happy it's October. I will miss the warm weather and the BEAUTIFUL summer we had this year, but October means my birthday is almost here and I'm so excited! I don't know why but no matter how much older I get, I still love to celebrate my birthday. I have the kids' Halloween costumes ready - Benjamin picked his out himself - and I've got party plans and ideas already swirling around in my mind. It's going to be so fun. (No - Kelly's suit is not his costume.)


Benjamin is in gymnastics right now and he and I love it. He's amazingly strong and coordinated and it's so fun to watch him have so much fun and feel so proud of his accomplishments. He loves to come home and keep practicing - summersaults, handstands, cartwheels, etc. Every curb or log becomes a balance beam. A dad at the playground yesterday said, "Is that little blonde boy your son? He's a little monkey! He's amazing!" Aw, shucks. :)

On another note, the universe has it out for my car. I was sitting in the living room reading with Benjamin while Isabella napped, when I heard a loud crash in the garage. Upon inspection, we discovered our bike stand had come detached from the wall and the 2 bikes and the stand had fallen onto my car, severely denting and scratching it in various places. I won't even go into what happened to the bikes and the stand! Alas, this time I'm NOT counting it as an accident! I was definitely not at fault! :)


Isabella has her first cold right now. The poor little girl sounds like a little pig snorting and sniffing. The upside is that it's made her sleepy and she's finally been taking longer naps! :)


That's really it around here. Boring, I know. Mostly I'm just trying to sift through all the mumbo-jumbo and decide who to vote for next month. I keep flip-flopping. If anyone has a strong opinion one way or another, I'd love to hear your reason. I'd really like to feel good about a candidate for once and stop simply voting for the "better of the two evils."

(Yes, I know the pictures have no relevance to the text. I just had these cute pictures and wanted to share them. In case you're wondering, there are beans in the exersaucer because we had been bowling with cans and I wanted them out of the way. We really don't usually store our food in the kids' toys.)

Happy Baby

Everywhere I take Isabella I always get the comment, "She's such a happy baby!" They're right. She smiles at everyone who'll smile at her. She's also really ticklish around her neck, so every time I change her shirt she laughs hysterically. I love it! She's also cuddly and great for hugging. If you're in a bad mood, come over and give her a squeeze - you'll feel better. If you stay a while and chat with her, she'll talk your ear off and love you forever. She's lives her life on Benjamin's schedule and never complains. Naps are always erratic and often interrupted, but she'll go along with it. Today she quietly fell asleep in her stroller while I pushed Benjamin on the swing. I am so blessed to have such a sweet little girl. I just had to post a tribute to her.


The place she'll stay content the longest is in the johnny jumper. We shortened it a bit so Benjamin can push her in it like a swing. They have so much fun together. Its wonderful to see.

Is it an accident?

Is it an accident if you don't hit anything? I have a bad habit - I crash cars. Since my first accident at 17 when I backed into a parked SUV, things haven't gone well. So a friend of mine joked with me once saying that I should keep a running total of how many days I go without an accident. She suggested I have a party or some kind of reward at certain days - 100, 200, 300, etc. That sounded like a fantastic idea to me, so I began. I was going strong at 465 - probably the longest I'd EVER gone when the rains came last week. Rain is great when you're sitting inside reading a book. Rain is not so great when you're driving on the freeway, especially in Michigan where they haven't quite figured out how to keep roads from flooding. So, here I am, zipping along on my way to Detroit for a church service project, when I round a corner and see that my entire lane is under water. Deep, deep water. I have another car next to me so I can't swerve over, so I grip the steering wheel and brace, as I feel my car lift off the road and begin to spin. That's when everything started to go in slow motion and I sat there in my rotating car thinking, "Should I brake? Would that make it better or worse? Maybe I'll just brake slowly." So I slowly depressed the pedal and prepared for the sound and feel of my car slamming into the center concrete barrier - a sound I know all too well. To my great astonishment however, I came to a stop without the familiar crunch of my side panel. Once I realized that my engine was also still running, I decided to try to drive out. I was facing traffic now, so I waited for an opening (not hard to find at 8am on a Saturday) and I slowly pulled out. As I did I noticed other cars who hadn't been so lucky. There were several bumpers, lights, etc floating in the water and one car in particular, about 100 meters ahead of me, getting loaded on a tow truck. I counted my blessings and started driving on to Detroit. That's when I noticed a peculiar sound. At first I thought I'd flooded my engine after all and it was just taking its time dying. But then I saw something strange out of the corner of my eye. I realized that odd noise I was hearing was a part of my car dragging along the road beside me. I quickly pulled over again and got out to inspect. I discovered that somehow (the force of the water??) the long metal bar that runs along the two driver side doors had come apart from the bumpers and was hanging by one lonely screw from the front end. My back bumper was popped up as well. I was on the phone calling Kelly when the tow truck driver I'd seen earlier drove over and offered his services. He already had a car on his truck, though, so I wasn't sure what he could do for me. He got out and looked at my car. "Oh - this is nothing. You want me to fix this? Push here," he said, indicating a spot on my bumper. I pushed and he banged and presto - the bumper was back in place. "If you give me a screwdriver I can take that bar off and you can drive home and have it put back on later." So I found a screwdriver in the trunk and within a few seconds I had a long metal rod in my back seat. "I'm a body shop on wheels!" he declared and drove off. So I didn't call Kelly, but got back into my car and drove to the service project, to the great surprise of all those from the church who aren't in the habit of having regular car accidents and aren't as immune to its acute psychological effects.


(This was my last accident - 465 days ago. I neglected to take a picture of the most recent one.)

So, the question in all of this is - does this count as an "accident?" Is my accident-free record over? Because that was the first thing that went through my head as I started driving again - ugh! there goes my count at only 465 days! However, as I've told a few people about it they've said, "What? that's not an accident! You didn't hit anything!" Yes, but my car was still damaged and doing a 180 on the freeway is not a minor thing. So, I'm not really sure. It sure would be nice to be able to reach the 500 day mark! :) I guess it's up for debate.

Those Thieving Ducks!

We went to our weekly German mom's club play group on Wednesday and this time we were at Shiawassee Park. However, since Benjamin and I had just been there recently, he found the playground far less interesting than the rushing stream. The recent rains had swollen the normally placid stream into a deep, rushing one and it was irresistible to a certain water-obsessed little boy. The best part, though, was that all the ducks were out on the grass again and one of my friends in the group had brought a bag of bread for them. So Benjamin and her little boy Luca got large pieces of bread to feed the ducks. (An old lady with a HUGE bag of cut up bread also came just as we started, so the ducks were in a frenzy.)



Benjamin gave two pieces to the ducks and then decided that he was hungry too and proceeded to eat the bread himself. Never let down your guard around hungry ducks, though. Even though he was standing on the bench, when he lowered his hand to his side, a particularly ferocious duck jumped into the air, and grabbed the bread from him. Benjamin sobbed hysterically until he got another piece of bread. However, after a couple more bites, he again got distracted by the mob of ducks and forgot his previous lesson. Once again a go-getter of a duck jumped up and snatched his bread away. Despite his tears, I just had to laugh a little at the sight. Those ducks knew what they wanted and weren't going to let some little boy eat it up. I made sure to give him something to eat once we were out of range. ;) Once the ducks were sated, they meandered back into the water and for some reason Benjamin and his pal Luca thought that was the funniest thing on earth. Each time a duck would flap up and splash into the water, they'd about bust a gut laughing. It was the cutest thing. And once again I forgot my camera. Thank goodness for camera phones. Remind me why I bothered buying a new camera in the first place?



Despite the challenges I face with Benjamin's fierce independent streak and his love of the word "no," he is really a lot of fun. He has a great sense of humor - so quick to laugh and play. He is loving and sympathetic and a great helper with Isabella. He's just a really great kid and I love being with him. Okay, enough motherly sentimentality. :) I just really love my kids, even when they drive me crazy.

Rockin' and Rollin'

I took Benjamin rollerskating yesterday. It was his first time in rollerskates and he looked so confused at first! So we come to this building, put wheels on our feet, and roll around in a circle? What? Once he got the hang of it, though, he seemed pretty excited about this new mode of transportation. We attended a special class for kids under 6 so although he was the youngest one there (besides Isabella), he saw that lots of other kids were doing it and it gave him the courage to give it a try. He held my hand and we went back and forth on the carpet for a bit before venturing out onto the rink. Then he got progressively bolder. What really got him going, though, was when he discovered the arcade games at the opposite end of the rink. Up to this point he'd only skated while holding onto me. But with a cry of "TV!" he let go of my hand and was off. He skated the entire length of the rink without holding on and without falling thanks to this single goal. It took some convincing to get him to continue rollerskating after that. However, we did Simon Says, The HokeyPokey, Red Light Green Light, and The Chicken Dance and he seemed to have a good time. The highlight, though, was when the lady running the class got out some little scooters that you sit on and turn the handle side to side in order to propel yourself forward. Pretty soon it was like bumper cars out there and every kid was out for the kill. It was pretty hysterical. I am so upset that I forgot my camera AGAIN! I need to surgically implant that thing on my forehead. Anyway, I'll have to go again and get some pictures then. For now, here are some cute pics of Benjamin at the park today with his buddy Max.



These ducks must have been so used to kids chasing them all the time that they never even flew away. Just waddled around and gave these boys the time of their life chasing after them.