Feelin' Crafty

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.

Oooh! Look at That!

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.

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.)