Sunday, February 20, 2011

Funny Things Ben Says

After Gigi and Grandpa left today:
Ben: I'll never see them again.
Me: Ben please stop saying that. You know I don't like it when you say that.
Ben: But Mommy, when I say "I'll never see them again" it means "I'll see them in 2 weeks". It's Spanish!

Sunday, February 6, 2011

Now About The Kids...

Miss Emma



Our little sweetheart turned 10 months old in January. Still no crawling, but she is eating Cheerios and crackers, and sometimes drinks watered-down juice from a sippy cup. Still no 'real' food because she seems to get frustrated when something doesn't dissolve in her mouth and we have to fish it out so she'll quit fussing.

She sleeps on her stomach a lot and Rob has been working with her on "tummy time" so she'll build the strength to start crawling. She's sleeping very well - usually 8 to 12 hours at night. She also started clapping recently. No pulling up on anything. She seems very content to sit on the floor and play with whatever is in reach - which in our house is a lot!


Emma's curl sometimes lies flat and hangs down her forehead, so I've started clipping her hair up with a bow.

Benjamin seems to like preschool, although we have missed several days with the snow closing schools. We are still working on the HIPPY home preschool as well and I'm impressed that he is so smart! The other day he drew this on his Magna Doodle, so I snapped a quick picture before someone erased it:



As usual, he is really smart with how things work and are put together as well. He has figured out that the plastic eyepiece from his spy glass, when hooked onto other things will allow them to be hung from the nails on his wall. Speaking of hanging things, he has been putting everything from teddy bears to shopping carts up there on his wall!

He seems to be getting smarter and smarter, even about social things. He is still saying funny things, but he's making a lot of interesting observations as well.


Jack's speech and vocabulary are getting better. I had started teaching him sign language, but now find that I can understand him pretty well. He's starting to string several words together and make sentences as well.



He loves to do everything himself, from taking his diaper off, to getting dressed, to putting the lid on his sippy cup, etc. The other morning he made toast almost by himself - including spreading the butter on!

He is still occasionally asking to go potty, but for the most part he is not ready for potty training. I tried one day but he doesn't seem to notice or care when he's wet so we'll wait a bit longer.

At night before I put him to bed, he brushes his own teeth and then we sing "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" together and sometimes "Rock A Bye Baby".

He also loves to blow kisses and now we can't get him to give anybody a real kiss at bedtime.

Also, just discovered he can count to 5!


Ben asked Jack if he wanted to come sit on his lap, then started telling him he had boney legs.


We had a fantastic 70 degree weather day in between snows, so the boys got to picnic outside.


Daredevil stunts on their bikes when they were still inside.





Post-Christmas Post - Part II: Snow!


January 10th - snow!


January 20th - more snow!


February 2nd - sooo much snow!





Jack enjoyed playing outside after the snow stopped and the sun came out and warmed things up a little bit. He LOVES the boots he inherited from Ben and good thing too because the February snow covered them. He also enjoyed helping me build a snowman.

Ben enjoyed riding around on the 4-wheeler in the snow with Daddy (as did Jack) and being pulled on the sled. We also ran around and made tracks in the new snow as much as we could 'cause that's just fun!

The boys also enjoyed digging out their bikes/vehicles and trying to ride them around in the snow.

As I type this we are getting rain, but the forecast is calling for more snow on Wednesday.

Long Overdue Post - Part I

This one is supposed to be about Christmas, but it's already February and my mind is not as sprightly as it once was, so I've forgotten a lot unfortunately. Pressing on though...

Took a quick trip up to Branson to visit Gigi and Grandpa. Got to see Mrs. Claus and Santa himself walking through the shops as we went to have lunch before heading home. Mrs. Claus gave Ben and Jack candy canes.

Another trip down to Little Rock after Christmas to see Mimama and G-Daddy. The kids were thoroughly spoiled this year! Luckily, they are sweet kids and were not turned rotten by it. =-)


The tree and gifts before the kids got to everything.


Emma got a special pewter baby cup with her name and birth date on it.


Mommy designed and sewed a special comforter for Emma too.


Ben LOVES his metronome and Jack LOVES his kitchen playset!


The kids also got lots of books in December and for Christmas, and Mommy has been stopping at the children's library a lot and getting new books to read.


Colder weather means keeping the kids occupied inside. The boys love playing in the water in the kitchen sink.

On to January...