The Shertzer Kids: All About Ben, Jack & Emma

Funny boys

2012-01-25T09:45:00.000-06:00

Monday

When about to leave with Rob to go to Walmart:
Jack: Mommy, will you be okay?
Me: Yes, honey. I'll be fine. =-)
Jack: Well don't fall on your head.
Me: Okay, I'll try not to.

Tuesday

Nutrition 101 with Ben

Me: What would you like for breakfast? Toast, waffles, oatmeal, cream of wheat, granola?
Ben: I would like... a donut, cookies and Cheetos!
Me: We don't have any cookies and donuts and Cheetos are not good for you. If you had those for breakfast you would feel tired and wouldn't be able to think to do your work at school today.
Ben: Okay, I will just have a donut and just a few Cheetos.

Conversations With Jack (Book II in the series)

2012-01-11T10:06:00.001-06:00

(Jack climbed in our bed at 2:30 am saying he *heard* a monster biting him)
This morning:
Me: So what was your bad dream about last night?
Jack: Which one?
Me: You had more than one?
Jack: Well my other dream was about you turned into a spider and you ate me!
Me: Oh no! That is a bad dream!
Jack: Mommy, promise you will never turn into a spider.
Me: I promise!
Jack: Alright.

While in the car this morning.
Emma: (crying)
Jack: Emma, you want Mommy?
Emma: Uh UH!!!!!
Jack: You want juice?
Emma: UH UH!!!!!
Jack: You want elbows?
Emma: UH UH!!!!!
Jack: Well, you already have elbows.

Car rides

2012-01-05T15:30:00.001-06:00

Had my windows down on the way to pick up Ben (65 and sunny!)
Jack: Mom, that air makes my brain happy!

Bed time!

2012-01-01T20:21:00.001-06:00

While putting Jack to bed:
Jack: Mom, there are monsters in here.
Me: There aren't any monsters. Go to sleep.
Jack: But Mom, you have to scare the monsters away.
Me: (Sigh) Okay monsters, even if you're good you have to go out. Jack is scared so go away. There. All the monsters are gone.
Jack: But Mom.
Me: Go to sleep!
Jack: Mom!
Me: What, Jack?
Jack: Those monsters don't have any ears.
Me: (laughing) Well, that's okay. They heard me with their brains.
Jack: Oh.

More funny quotes from the boys...

2011-12-31T06:52:00.002-06:00

Christmas Day...
Even at 3:30am (and with a fever) Benjamin is still our funny little guy:
Ben: Mom?
Me: Yes?
Ben: I didn't see any coal for Jack.

(upon opening his rolls of tape from Santa)
Ben: Mom! Dreams DO come true!

Also...
Ben: I'm very impressed with this Christmas!

Dec. 26th

Ben: (holding a piece of tape) Mom, this is in case your arm falls off. If your arm falls off, just tape it back on.

Dec. 27th

Jack: are we going to little rock to sleep?
Me: yes, we're going to Mimama's.
Jack: Okay! Okay, Captain!
Me: Jack, you're cute!
Jack: Yes, I AM!

Dec. 31st

Jack: Mommy, you're my friend. And I love you!

Festivities and Funnies

2011-12-11T07:51:00.002-06:00

Ben: Mom, where's my gift?
Me: What gift?
Ben: Well it's gift day isn't it?

Ben's dictated letter to Santa:

Dear Santa,

I want to see your house because I don't know what it looks like so I want to at least visit.

I really love you but next time I want to go with you on your sleigh because I really want to know what it looks like and I really like you and I love you so much as a giant.

And for Christmas I want 10 rolls of tape.

Love,

Benjamin

Ben: Mom, the sun is my friend and I DO NOT want him to ever die.
Me: Why would the sun die?
Ben: No honey, I'm talking about I DON'T want him to die.

An evening in the life...

2011-11-30T20:30:00.001-06:00

Jack getting out of bed for the 12th time:
Me: What do you need now, Jack?
Jack: Wellllll... I need go pee again.

14th time:
Me: Yes?
Jack: I have a hair in my mouth and I can't get it out.

16th time:
Me: silence. eyebrow raised.
Jack: I need my water.

20th time:
Me: WHAT?
Jack: Well Mommy, I just want to give you hug and a kiff.

=-) That boy knows how to get out of trouble. Cute mispronunciations and all.

2011-10-20T18:41:00.001-05:00

While explaining to Ben what the warning picture was on the bottom of the blinds:

Ben: What happens when blinds fall on you? Does your brain fall out?

Hooray for Fall!

2011-09-22T09:42:00.002-05:00

Yesterday while we were all outside I was swinging Emma in her little bucket seat swing while Ben was going sky-high on his regular one. He asked if he could push Emma and I said "Okay, just not too high, alright?". He said "Okay. Tell me when you get nervous." =-)

We had our first Parent Teacher conference at Ben's school this week. Mrs. Pruett said he is very smart, and he "cracks her up". As suspected, he just needs a little more focus to get his "work" done without help from the teacher or a helper. I think he will easily meet his goals for the year and am glad we went ahead and put him in kindergarten this year.

We started HIPPY home preschool this week for the boys. Jack is so excited to be doing "school" now. On the way home from picking Ben up from school yesterday, Jack said "Guess what Ben?! I did homework like you have!"

Jack woke up with hives this week and I took him to the Doctor. He suspects it is from a big bug bite on Jack's back. It was really scary looking and I was afraid it was chicken pox, even though he has been vaccinated against that. Will try to upload a picture to include. No idea what bug it was.

Emma is quite the shoe girl these days. As soon as she wakes up she makes motions toward her shoes until we give her the pair she wants and then we have to put them on her. She doesn't like not being able to take a nap with them, so we sometimes have to take them off and just put them in the crib with her. I remember my Mom telling a story about me that I had to sleep with my Buster Brown red shoes. Like mother like daughter I guess! She is also talking up a storm. I'm pretty sure she is actually trying to convey meaning. Just wish I could understand what she means.

2011-09-21T06:12:00.001-05:00

Ben: "When I get bigger and I die, don't throw me in the trash."

2011-09-17T20:15:00.001-05:00

As Rob was putting some screws in the cabinet hardware/doors...
Ben: (holding a screw) I'm helping screw things up!

2011-09-01T08:06:00.001-05:00

Overheard from back seat on way home from dropping Ben at school:
Jack: This little piggy went to market. This little piggy went to Walmart.

...Then later, an altered version of London Bridge Is Falling Down:
Jack: Take the key and lock Mommy up, lock Mommy up, lock Mommy up...

Everyday Stuff

2011-08-17T18:59:00.002-05:00

The other day I was drawing a bath for Emma. She was at the gate "complaining" because she wanted to come in, so I opened the gate. She came in, went behind the door and got the bath mat that I put in the tub to keep the kids from slipping and handed it to me. =-) She's doing great walking now. She actually looks like she's practicing - just walking until she has to stop and then turns around and goes back the way she came.

Yesterday morning Jack was talking up a storm. In the midst of everything (about breakfast, making toast, etc.) he said "when we were at Memo's house it was dark. Daddy said the earth was spinning". Hard to believe he just turned 3!

Ben seems to like school. He has been hard to wake up the past 2 mornings, so I'm going to try putting them both to bed at 8pm tonight. I'll just do like I do at Mom's house and lie in there with them until they are asleep.

Today I got smart and brought several books with us to pick up Ben. We usually have to sit in line and wait about 15 minutes, so I just read to Jack and Emma while we waited and that helped pass the time and prevented any major melt-downs.

Kindergarten!

2011-08-15T20:12:00.004-05:00

Today Benjamin started his first day of school. He is in Mrs. Pruett's class at Prairie Grove Primary School. We took him to orientation last week, so he had already seen his classroom and met his teacher and some of the other kids in his class. On the first day of school, they allow the parents to walk the kids to their classrooms, but Ben said he wanted to do it himself, so I dropped him off at the door and a nice lady (employee) took him inside and got him to the right spot.

Here is the proud boy with his Sponge Bob backpack and lunchbox:

Birthday Boys

2011-08-15T19:53:00.004-05:00

Saturday, August 6th we had a pool party for Ben and Jack to celebrate their 5th and 3rd birthdays. Unfortunately Rob was in Little Rock but we got some good pictures!

Ben and his friend Ivy.

Ben with his friend Brayden from preschool and Uncle Matt.

Christi and Mommy with Emma and Jack.

Jack and the new kick board Eric and Christi got him.

The boys getting ready to blow out their candles while Brendon (left) and cousin Havyn (right) look on.

We also had the kids "fish" for party favors. Thanks to Uncle Eric for "hooking" the prizes onto the ends of the fishing poles.

She Walks!

2011-08-07T17:35:00.002-05:00

Emma walked out of the boy's bedroom and half way across the living room today! Before this she has only ever taken 4 steps max. I think we can officially call this walking now!

August... Finally!

2011-08-01T11:00:00.002-05:00

Friday, July 29th

Jack (comes inside crying): Mom, Ben spray water in my face!
Me: I'll bet he didn't do it on purpose honey. Here let's dry you off.
Jack: No! I want you yell at him!

______________________________

Emma is walking a couple of steps here and there, but lately she has been walking around on her knees a lot. The weekend before last we were down in Little Rock to visit with Memo who has been in and out of the hospital lately. Rob's cousins from California were there and Graham was playing peek-a-boo with Emma. She is now doing that a lot either with her hands or her blanket. Speaking of her blanket - she seems to have chosen that to attach to instead of her lamb or her bunny which she throws out of her crib. =-) She can also now point to her nose, mouth and teeth if you ask her to.

Jack has been waking up a lot lately. The paci fairy came and left him a toy for giving up his pacis, but he found a teething chew thing and has adopted that as his paci.

Ben finished his last day of preschool last Thursday. It was sad to say goodbye to his teachers (for me, if not for Ben). I love that place! Hopefully Jack can go next year. We got a letter from Prairie Grove Primary that Ben's kindergarten teacher will be Mrs. Pruett. Orientation is the 8th of August. Ben got a new Spongebob lunchbox for his birthday, and we have a Spongebob backpack on order that should be coming in this week. This weekend is tax free shopping for back to school so we can get school supplies and a few outfits.

It's still hot, and getting hotter. High of 104 today. C'mon fall!

How Ben Gets Out Of Trouble:

2011-07-13T13:09:00.001-05:00

Me: Do not get out of your seat until you're finished eating. Repeat that to me please.
Ben: Do not get out of your seat until you're finished eating.
Me: Good. Thank you.
Ben: But can I hug you?

=-)

2011-06-25T18:12:00.000-05:00

While I was lying on the couch with my eyes closed...
Ben: It's okay Emma, Mommy's not dead.

Ben: I want Iloveya yogurt.
Me: You mean Activia yogurt?
Ben: Yeah, they have it at Harps.

More! More!

2011-06-23T12:00:00.001-05:00

Ben: Look! They're building a Chick-Fil-A.
Me: No, that's going to be a church, remember?
Ben: Well, there's a sign that says "This is not going to be a church, this is going to be a Chick-Fil-A". I saw it.

Further Funnies

2011-06-20T17:12:00.001-05:00

Ben: My feet hurt.
Me: Then stop walking around and go to sleep.
Ben: I need a wheelchair.

Benjamin

2011-06-17T12:44:00.005-05:00

Still can't believe our 1st born is about to start kindergarten!!! Here is Ben's update:

Ben graduated from home preschool in May (see picture below). They have a 5 year old program for kids who are in kindergarten and we will continue with that and maybe save the assignments until summer.
He does not like being the center of attention from strangers, so he usually does not smile for pictures.
Ben got regular preschool pictures taken and DID smile. He said the photographer said "say stinky feet"!
For awhile he loved riding his new bike that I found him at a garage sale for $5.00. The training wheels cost $10.00. lol Gigi and Grandpa bought him a helmet too! Then it got hot (VERY hot) all of a sudden and he doesn't like to go outside much anymore.
I found my old rubber broom in the laundry room and then Ben wanted to play with it. He pretended it was a gate, an antenna, etc. and then used the word "detect" in regard to the sweeper (something like "I use this to detect things").
I bought a wool duster at Walmart and Ben got very excited and went around dusting everything. I then bought him a .97 cent feather duster which he has been playing with a lot. He's very creative about his "inventions".
Not sure if I mentioned it before, but I learned that Ben can write his name. He came home with a little butterfly book they had made in preschool and he pointed out that he wrote "Ben" in yellow crayon on the back of one of the pages.
He is often singing a song he heard at preschool or one he makes up about whatever he is doing.
Ben does not like to make his bed or brush his teeth, but he will get dressed and always put on his own shoes. He will also pick up 5 toys - a new rule before bed time.
Unfortunately the Dentist says he has 2 cavities - one in each 2nd molar on the top. He is scheduled to have fillings put in June 30th. I remain dubious and wish he didn't have to go through that. But I read that they don't loose those teeth until around age 12, so I suppose it is best.

Funnies:

Ben just called the fly swatter a "fly slapper", then he called it a "fly swapper".

Ben: (while pretending to cut my hair) God paints your hair.
Me: God paints your hair?
Ben: (chuckling) Yeah, I just learned that.
Me: Where did you learn that?
Ben: In the Bible.

Pictures!

Home preschool graduation (Ben in red jacket)

Ben requested I take this picture.

Ben made a "car" out of his cheese and crackers, so again I had to take a picture.

Not sure why he's in a box, but I had to snap a pic!

The artist and his work - chalk all over the door and frame. Well, it DOES kinda look like a chalk board, right?

Jack

2011-06-17T11:40:00.005-05:00

Jack has gone from only saying single words, to having full blown conversations. Here is his recap of the last few months:

If we forget to put socks on him at nap time or bed time we hear him get up and open his drawer and get some out then climb back in bed and put them on.
He likes to watch Polar Express or Wall-E (on a 1/2 hour timer) before going to sleep. We've had to stop doing that though because when the timer shuts off the TV he would get up and turn it back on and it was keeping him awake. We now have to unplug the TV.
He is now going to the bathroom 2 or 3 times per day on his own. We just have to watch him with the toilet paper. He likes to just throw pieces in the toilet.
He loves playing with his sand and water table (which has just got water in it). He will use all sorts of different containers and pour the water back and forth for hours.
He loves to read books and if I'm busy, he will get some out and look at them and tell the stories to himself. One of their favorites is "Snip Snap, What's That?" about an alligator.
He has often helped me with the laundry by gathering it up and taking it into the laundry room, putting it in and then turn the dial and push the "start" button! He will also help me wash windows, dust and pick up toys.
When he gets mad or frustrated he stomps around roaring like a lion and will say "I not Jackie, I LION!"
When I'm putting Emma in her car seat, he will grab my arm and hug it and say "I love you Mommy!"
He hates getting his hair washed in the tub. We have started going to the local pool, so the boys are both getting used to being in the water. Hopefully it won't be long until they are getting their hair and faces wet there.
Jack also likes Pinky Dinky Doo, Curious George, Avatar, and Francis (all from Netflix except Curious George).
When going over the alphabet flash cards, Jack saw the M and said "Mommy, see that? That for McDonalds!"

Funny saying from yesterday:

Jack: Hi Mommy! Pain in the butt!
Me: "Pain in the butt" is not a nice thing to say.
Jack: I pain in the butt, you pain in the butt, everybody pain in the butt!
Ben: Everybody is a pain in the butt. Except boys.

Pictures!

Easter

Riding a broom pretending it's a horse

You'll have to click on the image to see his expression better. He is sometimes not very happy when his little sister is too noisy and wakes him up.

The boys liked their new pool - but only to get water to put in their water table.

Everybody pile on Mommy!

Emma

2011-06-17T10:02:00.004-05:00

A lot has happened with Emma over the past few months. Here is a quick run-down:

She now has 9 teeth - 3 on the bottom, 6 on the top including both of her 1st molars! I think she is working on the bottom 1st molars now.
She is now pulling up on everything, standing without holding on to anything, cruising the furniture and loves to hold on to our fingers and walk.
She will point to things and say "da?" and when you name whatever it is she giggles.
She will give me a kiss and then pat me on the shoulder.
She can roll balls and cars back and forth and loves the boy's Thomas the train cars.
She likes to pull everything out of the recycling bin and put the lids back on the jars and containers.
If you give her a Kleenex or paper towel, she will proceed to pretend to clean something - like a window, or me. =-)
If you hand her a comb, she will comb her hair, and she also likes to brush her teeth. In fact, she does NOT like to give up the toothbrush and will cry if you take it away.
She loves writing with the boy's Magnadoodle and one day at Walmart she pulled an old receipt out of my purse and grabbed the pen out of my hand and started writing.
Her favorite shows are Curious George (she will dance to the theme song), Pinky Dinky Doo, and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.
Her first words: Dada, Mama (rarely), that (da), hi, hot. She will also make a ticking noise when she points to the clock.

Pictures!

Easter

Playing with the recycling

Trying to get into the drawer in the kitchen

Ben requested this picture

Emma's 1st Birthday

2011-06-01T18:31:00.005-05:00

We had a small party at our house with family. Pink polka dots was the theme in case you can't tell...
Here's the birthday girl sporting her special birthday outfit (bought by Mimama)!

Lots of polka dot packages!

Emma loves her new books!

Catching Up - Emma's 1 Year Photos

2011-06-01T18:22:00.005-05:00

Miss Emma turned 1 on March 26th, and just prior to that Aimee came over and took pictures. They turned out EXCELLENT of course! They were taken in our front yard and on our front porch.

He he

2011-05-05T07:28:00.001-05:00

Ben: My knees are very strong, but I can't stand on my head yet.

More Conversations...

2011-05-04T11:29:00.001-05:00

The other night while putting Jack to bed:
Jack: Mommy, I luh you toooow mush!
=-)

Today
Ben: When I get big, I want to do Science.
Me: That's great. I think you'll be really good at it.
Ben: But I don't like money.
Me: You don't like money? Why not?
Ben: Well I just want to help people. I don't want money.

Quick Note...

2011-04-13T21:05:00.002-05:00

Emma's 3rd tooth: March 29th (bottom left lateral)

Also, as of today, April 13th we are officially saying Emma is crawling. She has been crawling a little bit here and there, but she is going in longer stretches now.

Jack and Emma seem to have colds, or else we all just have really bad allergies. Ben has it too but is refusing medicine, so he must not be that bad.

Registering Ben for kindergarten tomorrow!

Jack's expressions lately: "Oh Man", "Oh Boy", "Oh Lord", "Of Course", "Not Exactly".

On Dogs...

2011-04-08T07:14:00.000-05:00

Ben: Could I hug dogs?
Me: It depends on what their owners say and if they're friendly.
Ben: If they're not friendly, I will bring them in the house and take their blood pressure.
Me: And what will that do?
Ben: That wiiiiillllll... give them more blood. And then I could hug them.

Silliness

2011-03-30T08:08:00.001-05:00

Jack put one of the little toy basket things on his head.
Me: Oooh, that's a nice hat!
Jack: No. I robot!
(takes toy crate off his head)
Jack: Hi Mommy!
Me: Hi robot boy!
Jack: Noooooo, I Jackie!

Ben: Mommy, will you get my food ready?
Me: Yes, honey. As soon as I finish cutting Jack's fingernails.
Ben: You've got to be kiddin' me.

More Funny Ben

2011-03-19T20:24:00.000-05:00

Ben: That tastes kinda grahamin.
Me: Grahamin?
Ben: Yeah. GRAHMin.
Me: What does that mean?
Ben: It means I kinda like it, but I kinda don't. Isn't that a funny name?

2011-03-11T11:46:00.000-06:00

Ben: I'm a Doctor. Let me take a look at your back.
(pats my back). Mmm Hmmm. It's damaged. That means you're old.

----------

Ben: Mommy, Emma scratched me.
Me: Sorry honey. I don't think she means to scratch you.
Ben: Maybe she wants me to die.

And it begins... Jack's funny sayings

2011-03-08T10:17:00.001-06:00

This morning:

Jack: Where Ben goin' Mommy?
Me: To school.
Jack: Ooooooooh.
Rob: Where is Daddy going?
Jack: Ummmmmmmmm... That way! (points outside)

Last night:

Ben: (bounces ball loudly in living room)
Jack: (from bedroom) I tryin' to seep Ben!

Funny Things Ben Says

2011-02-20T19:58:00.001-06:00

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!

Now About The Kids...

2011-02-06T16:03:00.005-06:00

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!

2011-02-06T15:48:00.003-06:00

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

2011-02-06T15:30:00.005-06:00

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...

Ben's First Day of Pre-School

2011-01-12T15:07:00.002-06:00

Took a tour of Central United Methodist Church's "Hand In Hand" pre-school program last Thursday and loved it. Ben went with us of course and seemed to like it as well. Their facility is so open and fun, yet they have a locked building where you have to enter a code to get in, plus they run cameras that record to computer in every room. I liked everyone I met including the director and the two ladies who would be in Ben's classroom.

So he started his first day this past Tuesday. I left Jack and Emma at home with Grandpa Huber and took Ben so I could spend some time with him the first morning (and because it was snowing and VERY cold out). Turns out it was completely unnecessary! As soon as we took his coat off and put his things away he went straight to playing with new toys. When I told him I was going to go he didn't seem to care at all - a great relief to me!

When I went to pick him up (a little early at 2:15 instead of 2:30) the first thing he said was "Why are you here?" Then he asked me if he could ride the school bus. =-)

He will go from 8:30am - 2:30pm Tuesdays and Thursdays until he starts kindergarten in the fall.

We still have gymnastics on Friday mornings and are still doing the HIPPY home pre-school. It's pretty busy around here!

More on holiday adventures later!

More Funny Stuff From Ben

2011-01-04T13:00:00.000-06:00

Ben: I'm a Professor. I make stuff like cake, ice cream, cell phones... I make all kinds of stuff.

Ben: Would I have a sunny nightmare?
Me: Can you have a sunny nightmare?
Ben: Yeah.
Me: If you want.
Ben: I want.

Funny Things Ben Says

2010-12-27T11:20:00.000-06:00

Ben: Mommy, can we have more kids?
Me: More kids to play with?
Ben: No, more kids like that guy who bought Daddy's bucket truck. (He told us he had 7!)
Me: Oh. You want more brothers and sisters?
Ben: No, just boys.
Me: I think we're done honey. You'll just have to be happy with a brother and a sister.

Smarty Pants

2010-12-06T18:04:00.002-06:00

Ben

I was reading Parenting magazine a couple of weeks ago - there are a lot of toy ads in it. Ben was sitting beside me and we came to an ad with a light switch on it. It said "ON" at the top and "OFF" at the bottom. Benjamin pointed to it and said "Mommy, why does this say 'on' and this says 'off'?" I have been wondering just how much he can read when he doesn't say anything.

Today I was getting his shirt ready for him to put on. It's an IZOD which the tag clearly states. He was looking at it upside down and said "Why does that say 'ZOO'?" I'm pretty darn impressed!

Jack

Yesterday Jack saw some bananas on the counter and was motioning that he wanted one. I started it for him and handed him the whole banana thinking I would most likely end up with banana mushed into the floor. I was wrong! He ate down to where the peel stopped, then he peeled it some more, ate some more, etc., until it was all gone. Then he threw the peel in the trash!

Emma

Last night, Emma slept 12 hours only waking up once. She has not done this... maybe ever. I guess between the growing and teething she just needed to eat more. We'll see if the trend continues. She is getting much better at sitting up and not falling over. I'm betting we have crawling soon after Christmas.

Post Thanksgiving Picture Post

2010-12-04T19:34:00.008-06:00

Finally uploaded pictures of the boys during their camping trip with Daddy & Gigi & Grandpa.

Eating s'mores:

The view from their window is good...

Miss Emma is sitting up by herself now.
She also got her first tooth (lower right) on December 1st!

Ben wanted me to take a picture of his play-doh parts tower:

Rub-a-dub-dub. Daddy is more brave than Mommy. He gave all 3 kids a bath at once! To be fair though, Mommy did come and get them one at a time and got them dried off and dressed.

A fun Thanksgiving night with the Huber clan:

Down to Little Rock to visit with Mimama & G-Daddy & lots of cousins.
Lots of Grandkids (and Great-Grandkids for Memo):
Left to right - Pat Graham, Billie Galloway, Barbara Maloney, Leslie Peresta
Kaitlyn Floring, Jack, Ben, Emma, Owen Peresta

Great-Aunt Pat is the baby whisperer:

We had a great photo shoot with Aimee in November too! (Elemental Photography)

The tree is up and decorated, the stockings are hung, and Ben got a personalized video message from Santa! Next post should be after Christmas.

Happy Holidays!

A Day In The Life

2010-11-19T18:14:00.002-06:00

Emma

This morning at 2:00 am, Emma started making the B sound. Or kind of a cross between the B and F.

Jack

In the car on the way to gymnastics, Emma sneezed and Jack said "Bess Yooooou". =-) Also a minute ago, Jack said "Chee Ben Ha" which was actually "I want cheese like Ben has". I am very impressed!

Ben

Today was the deciding factor in whether or not we would continue in gymnastics since he hadn't participated the last two times. He made me proud by participating with enthusiasm!

Post-Halloween Post

2010-11-13T18:52:00.004-06:00

What a super busy month on the run-up to the holidays!

On Halloween morning we took the kids to "spooky story time" at the Fayetteville Public Library. All the kids were in costume, they did a couple of stories and a couple of songs and then ended with a parade around the children's library. At the end of the parade the kids were all given Tootsie pops covered in a Kleenex painted with a little ghost face and tied with a piece of orange yarn (and a coupon for a couple of donuts at Rick's Bakery).

We also had a great visit from Mimama and G-Daddy who brought the boys Halloween books and musical Halloween cards which they LOVED!

Halloween night we took the kiddos to the NWA Mall for "Mall-o-ween" where they had a costume contest and trick-or-treating around the stores.
Below is Rob with Jack on stage:

Ben enjoying some of the candy while Jack is on stage:

Then we went home and lit up the jack-o-lantern on the dining table while we ate a quick dinner:

After dinner, Rob and the grandparents took the boys trick-or-treating to our usual stops: Uncle Matt & Aunt Aimee's house, Aimee's Mom's house and Aimee's Aunt's house, and new this year - Grandpa Huber's house!

So glad the boys love each other. =-)

Rob snapped some good pictures of Emma looking cute:

Ben found an old tape player in my bedside table. I found an old Huey Lewis tape and he listened to it almost constantly for 3 days. Then he turned it over to Jack:

In there somewhere we also had a fun night at Uncle Eric and Christi's house for a Halloween potluck. Last weekend Rob and the boys went camping with Gigi and Grandpa Shertzer at Devil's Den. The boys had a great time and Emma and I went down for lunch both Saturday and Sunday. Emma and I went shopping on Saturday to spend some of my birthday money and I confess, it was more fun buying a few things for her. =-)

Ben

We found out it wasn't too late to get into the "HIPPY" state sponsored home preschool program. They provide us with weekly lesson plans, school supplies and a weekly home visit to go over things and review the last week's lesson. So far I love it! Sooo much better than the pre-school curriculum I downloaded. Once per month we have an event with all the other home pre-school families in our area. This month we went to the children's library (which we had never been to). Next month is a Christmas party at the pizza place in town. Should be fun!

Ben is doing great with the lessons and gets really excited when we get to do any gluing or play with the shapes. He is doing great and gets almost everything right. Our "teacher" tested him a couple of weeks ago and even though it was his nap time and he was being shy, he did pretty well. When she asked him to name body parts the only one he didn't get was "jaw". I never thought to teach him that one. She said most kids don't get that one or "heel". Also when she was asking what color some boxes were, he called brown black and then didn't know what to call black. He knew pink though (which seemed to surprise her), and I think he got gray right. He was too shy to hop on one foot until I bribed him with Halloween candy.

Gymnastics went well for the first few times but yesterday he didn't really participate. He said he wants to go, but I told him if he doesn't participate and actually DO the gymnastics that the teacher wants them to do then we aren't going to go anymore. We'll see what happens next Friday. Maybe he was just tired or didn't feel well. One other little girl didn't want to go in at all and her mother took her home. It looks like great fun to me. Sometimes I want to join in!

Had to take Ben in for a well child check up as part of the HIPPY qualification and unfortunately he was due for shots which he was not happy about (especially because there was an autistic child in one of the rooms screaming "I don't want a shot! I don't want a shot!"). The Doctor said he was doing well and we should schedule a dental visit since he hasn't had one yet. Both boys are scheduled for January 6th. Can't believe they are already booked that far out.

I asked Ben what he wanted for Christmas and he said a metronome. Funny boy. More funny Ben things:

Ben: (as Rob was leaving) We'll see you soon! Stop at the red lights and don't crash into cars.

Ben: "Skeglekood."
Me: (blinking) "...what?"
Ben: "Skeglekood. It means 'Could you get me more juice please?'"
Me: "Ah! Okay."

Ben: The Doctor said "Do you want your arm to hurt?"
Me: Uh... I don't think he said that.
Ben: Yes he did a little bit in my imagination.

Jack

Our littlest man seems to be growing up so fast. He has started wanting to dress himself and he is also putting more words together. They're getting clearer too. It's really helpful to know what he wants now. I've been trying to get him to stop screaming when he gets frustrated (and use words instead) and it's going pretty well. Mostly he says "No Ben!" ha ha.

Emma

Still waiting to hear "Mama" but she sure has got "Dada" down. Still waking up a few times per night. I've tried feeding more during the day, but it doesn't seem to matter. When she does wake up she won't go back to sleep until I feed her, so I guess she's just growing and needs the extra feedings. She's not as good a sleeper as Jack who slept about 10 hours at 7 months (if I recall correctly), but she's way better than Ben who woke up every 2 hours until he was like a year old. Still won't take a bottle but I'm trying! No teeth yet. The boys got their first teeth at 8 months, and she'll be 8 months the day after Thanksgiving so it shouldn't be long.

Next update... Post Thanksgiving.

Picture Post and Halloween Fun

2010-10-25T19:34:00.007-05:00

Lots of fun activities this month for fall and Halloween - and it's finally cool enough to get out and enjoy it all.

We took the kids to a pumpkin patch recently. The boys had a great time with one of the little red wagons they provided to pick pumpkins with.

Ben in the pumpkins with scarecrows in the background.

Emma likes the straw.

Had to get a picture of all 3 in a wagon.

Ben really wanted to take this wagon home with us.

Cousin Havyn's 4th birthday is this month and she invited us to Chuck E. Cheeses to celebrate with her.

Uncle Matt and Ben.

Mom and the kids all went to the Botanical Gardens of the Ozarks for a pumpkin hunt.

The boys sporting their mini-pumpkins (after we got home 'cause Mom forgot the camera).

Then we had our Northwest Arkansas Mom's Playgroup Halloween costume party last Friday night.

Our super-cute scarecrows!

Are they excited enough?

We even dressed Miss Emma up (cheerleader costume courtesy of Mimama). Go Team Daddy!

All the kids looked so cute! They are all lined up to hit the pinata.

Ben didn't look too sure that he was really supposed to hit it even though Mom and Dad were yelling "Hit it hard! Smash it!!" =-)

Whew! That's a lot of stuff and it isn't even Halloween yet!

New things the past month:

Ben - Has amped up his question asking. Last night he got out of bed to ask Rob how a light bulb works. He also wanted to know how food turns into poop. =-) I took him to a free gymnastics class last week and after about the first 10 minutes, he joined in finally and seemed to love it. We signed him up and he will go on Fridays for an hour. Hopefully, as long as he enjoys it, we'll keep him in it until kindergarten starts next fall.

Jack - Has been trying to do things to help and then says "There ya go Mama!" Usually he will look at my tea and say "hot? hot?" then he will blow on it and say "There ya go Mama. There ya go." He's also been asking "That?" a lot. He seems to want to know what everything is specifically called. Last week he got a pretty ugly injury. Apparently Ben was trying to give him a hug while he was on his knees in a chair and the chair flipped over and Jack hit his chin really hard. Nasty, nasty bruise. To make matters worse, he then tripped over his own shoes the next day and fell down on his chin again! Poor little guy!

Emma - She can now roll onto her front and back, but seems to prefer her back. She can hold herself up pretty well but just doesn't seem to want to. I'm in no hurry for her to start crawling because I will worry not only about the floor being clean, but also her brothers tripping over her or landing on her, and then there is the matter of the fireplace. We may have to stick with the central heat alone this winter.

Oops... Where did September go?

2010-10-01T19:56:00.005-05:00

Hello Fall! Hello cooler weather, and playing outside! And are we ready for Halloween? Oh yeah!

Emma

Miss Emma turned 6 months old last Sunday. She now weighs about 16 pounds and is 26" tall. She is in the 50th - 70th percentile for height and weight. Due to a snaffu in her health insurance, we had to make a visit to the Health Department last month to get her 2nd round of immunizations. 3rd round is on the 18th of this month and she'll be all caught up.

She is now eating oatmeal and baby food 2 to 3 times per day and is still nursing. Similac had a recall of some of their formula because it might contain beetles (!!!!). And what do you know, but the one container we had opened is on the recall list. Good thing we couldn't get her to take a bottle huh?

Emma's sleep patterns were great up until about a month ago when she started waking up every 2 or 3 hours all night again. She was doing 8 to 10 hour stretches before that. Two nights ago she did a 9 hour stretch finally, so I'm hoping it was just teething and she'll get back to good rests soon. She still goes down at nap times and bed time without crying or fussing (hooray!) and goes back to sleep in the night after I feed her, so that makes it a lot easier!

She is playing in her walker a lot now and can get it to go where she wants it to eventually. She seems to get frustrated when she wants to go a certain way and it won't move that way, but most of the time she's really good at maneuvering. I had put the pack-n-play up in the living room so she could play while lying down, but she doesn't seem to like it anymore. The swing has been put away as well. Before long she'll be crawling around I guess. As of now she is not rolling over completely but can roll onto both sides. Hard to believe that in 6 short months she will probably be walking!

Right now her vocalizing is mostly "Da-da-da-da-da" (sometimes just mouthed or whispered) and "na-na-na-na-na". Also growls and giggles and shouts. Whenever I ask "can you say 'ma-ma-ma'?" she shakes her head no and laughs. =-) Oh yeah, and she is shaking her head left and right. Hasn't gotten to the up and down yet.

I went to a local children's consignment event (actually 2) recently and got all the kid's their winter wardrobes. Lots of cute stuff including the Halloween shirts in the picture above.

Emma sporting a new Fall outfit, complete with leopard print hair bow.

We took a trip to Little Rock in September so that Emma could meet her Great-Grandmother (Billie Galloway - aka "Memo")

Jack

Mr. Cutie Pie is picking up new words every day and is getting better at expressing himself. Last month we heard lots of "mine" and "go away". Lately it's "donno" and "turn" and lots and lots of "Hi Emma!". He is also quite the singer. You can't really pick out many words, but he definitely can carry a tune (although he does have the words to Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star down pretty well). Currently it's the ABC song which we are trying to learn in our home pre-school.

He likes to help with everything and gets frustrated if you don't understand or don't let him. He always wants to turn the lid of his sippy cup after I refill his juice, always wants to have his hand on the bag of trash as I take it outside, and always wants to help in the kitchen no matter what I'm doing.

Somebody looooves his baby sister!

This past week he has been throwing a tantrum at nap-time to the degree that I have to go in repeatedly for up to an hour and keep putting him back in bed. My solution since then is to let him stay up until noonish instead of 10:30 or 11, and then he is tired enough that he doesn't get out of bed as much. I have also moved his bedtime to 6 or 6:30 from 7:30. He still wakes up between 5:30 and 6:00 am no matter what anyway, and is in a better mood in the morning with more sleep.

Jack got his 2 bottom 2nd molars in last month which made him a bit crankier than usual. I'm on the lookout for those top molars and then hopefully he will stop waking up at night. Rob is getting worn out with the up and down routine.

Chillaxin' with Daddy

Ben

Benjamin is getting better at playing with Jack since I explained to him that he can talk to him and Jack will understand (as opposed to screaming at him or pushing/hitting him to get some kind of reaction).

His vocabulary and annunciation are getting better every day. Currently I am working with him on "S" and "th" - thing instead of sing, anyTHing instead of anySing, Thank you instead of Sank you.

Recently I downloaded pre-school curriculums for he and Jack and we started on Monday. This week we are learning to count to 20, trace and write the letter A, reading consonant/vowel combinations, talking about emotions, and learning safety rules (stop, drop and roll for one). We do pre-school for 1/2 hour to an hour 3 times per week and both boys seem to really enjoy it. We also have a craft once per week (Rob bought construction paper, glitter, glue and safety scissors) and they love that too.

Ben still says a million cute things every month. The other morning he was following me around and when I asked him what he was doing he said "I just want to come in here and look at you. Because you're pretty. And nice." =-)

This morning when we were discussing what to do if a stranger tried to take him away, he said "But if a stranger took me, you and Emma to Mimama's house, then that would be a GOOD safety rule" (complete with finger wagging to punctuate "good").

Last weekend we went to a pizza place in Fort Smith to celebrate Aunt Leslie's birthday and the boys really enjoyed the arcade.

Ben is SUPER ready for Halloween and loves playing with my feathery witch hat (which he sometimes likes to pretend is a "speaker").

Sometimes Rob finds both boys in one bed or the other early in the morning.

Guess who else loooves his baby sister?

All in all the kids are great and we love spending time with them and trying to just enjoy every moment.

Coming soon... Halloween!!!

The Fun Never Stops!

2010-08-20T20:42:00.001-05:00

We're coming up on the end of August, and still no cooler weather in sight. Ah well, plenty of birthday parties to cheer us up. Uncle Matt will be celebrating on the 24th, Gigi had a birthday on Monday, and Jack's party was last Saturday. Fun for all!

Jack

We hosted Jack's birthday party at our house (inside since it was sooo hot) and it was a lot of fun. Jack seemed a little irritated with us as we sang Happy Birthday to him, but he did a great job of opening and playing with his new presents. He enjoyed all the company too!

I think he was saying "open!"

new sidewalk chalk (3-D!)

gotta stick that tongue out to open the presents!

It was either the singing or he wanted a different cupcake.

Jack has been good about sharing his new toys with Ben. His favorite words right now are "okay!" and caboose. He will hold up his train car from his Thomas the Train he got from Mimama and say what I know is caboose, but sounds like "guh-foose"!

He wants to be a big boy like his brother and keeps trying to get dressed by himself. When I got to him today after changing Emma and helping Ben get dressed, he had his shirt on his legs and was trying to put his shorts on over it. I caught him after he got into the Pull-ups stash today:

Ben

He is growing up so fast. I think he's grown an inch since a few weeks ago when Rob put up our new height measuring thing in the living room. A year from now he'll be getting ready to start kindergarten!

Ben has been working in a pre-school workbook, tracing shapes and lines and getting ready to start writing. We've been reading a lot of books and he is starting to show signs that he can read a few words. As always, I suspect he knows a lot more than he says because I will catch him reading a word I didn't know he knew, or talking about something I had no idea he understood.

Although he doesn't seem to care for crayons, it may be that coloring books are just too plain and confining for him. This week he did lots of art with Jack's sidewalk chalk on our black side door ... and himself, and Jack:

Emma

Our littlest sweetheart is getting cuter every day. She has better control of her arms and hands now and if you hold a toy out in front of her, she can bring her hands up and grab it (and then it goes straight into her mouth of course).

She will be 5 months old next week and is already in 9 month clothes! She has another Doctor's appointment next Friday, so we'll see how much she weighs and how tall she's gotten then.

She's still enjoying her walker a lot and can entertain herself for longer periods of time.

We no longer swaddle her to sleep, and since she didn't seem all that interested in her paci (and uses her fingers now anyway) we put those away. She is sleeping 7-9 hour stretches at night and all we have to do is lay her in her crib and she goes to sleep all by herself.

She's only eating one meal with solids per day, so we'll see what the Pediatrician says about her growth and if he thinks she needs more. She usually has oatmeal mixed with something. So far we've done sweet potatoes, squash, pears, and today we did green beans and she seemed to like them just fine.

We can't decide what color her eyes are going to be yet. Right now they are kind of a silvery-gray. By this time, Jack's eyes were very clearly blue, so we're guessing she'll have either green, hazel, or brown eyes. Her hair is also growing in much lighter - maybe blonde.

Today after her bath, I was brushing her hair away from the new hair growing in on top and ended up making it into a Mohawk:

She definitely still has the hearts of her big brothers too!

Summertime, Summertime, Sum Sum Summertime...

2010-08-02T14:15:00.008-05:00

Well it's hotter than you-know-where out (101 today, 102 forecast for tomorrow), so me and the kiddos have been trying to find ways to entertain ourselves until the weather chills out. In the last couple of weeks we all made a trip to Chick-Fil-A to play in the playground inside, then on Ben's birthday to Wilson Park in Fayetteville (early) to play on the playground and on the swings and in the sand. We brought sand toys and so the boys were very popular! That day we also went to Rick's bakery and I got the boys cookies that had icing on them made up like monsters. They didn't seem to want to eat them, but it was a fun trip anyway. We also made a trip to Wal-Mart - anything to get the kids out of the house. They love it - even Emma. Saturday morning we went to the Prairie Grove battlefield park, but even at 8:30am it was hot and sticky, so we came back pretty quickly. C'mon fall!!!!

Ben

Ben's birthday party was a lot of fun (and loud)! We took the kids to Chuck E. Cheese and asked our immediate family to join us. Ben was a bit shy at first - not liking everyone looking at him as he opened presents. Daddy had to help him blow out his candles too, but he loved all his gifts and his sheriff's badge from his Toy Story birthday cake.

(Cousin Havyn had to help Ben open his first couple of presents)

The behavior reward system seems to be working well because Benjamin has become a pretty well behaved kiddo. So far he has gotten to go to Chick-Fil-A (to play on the indoor playground), and has received a Buzz Lightyear and went to see Toy Story 3 with Daddy as his big prizes for 7 days of being good (although it sometimes takes a week and a half to get those 7 days). For the first few weeks he got daily prizes for being good too.

(Ben and one of his "daily" prizes)

He has become quite a good helper - especially with his little brother and sister - and will often try to soothe them if they are crying ("it's just okay Jack", "it's okay Emma, Mommy is gonna feed you in just a second").

(Somebody looooves his baby sister)

(what Rob sees when he comes home from work)

Jack

Jack has become very proud of himself for learning new words. He loves pointing to things and saying their names. He still loves having books read to him, and amazingly can name almost all the shapes in his shapes book (although it probably is only understood by mom and dad). He is also learning lots of animals and what noises they make. This week we have been playing follow the leader - he'll move his arms or hands in a certain way and I'll do whatever he does. He loves that!

We can see that he is starting to understand more because he can answer "yes" and "no" appropriately now. Also, he has been saying "oooookaaaaaaaay" when we ask him to do something (or stop doing something).

(Jack got a gift at Ben's party too! Thanks Gigi and Grandpa!)

(silly boys!)

He can still throw an amazing tantrum and wail (Rob calls it the "wahmbulance") but can also smile so gorgeously that it makes you want to cry with pride.

He also loves his baby sister and will point to the monitor and say "Emma! Emma" if he hears her cry. He also says "hi Emma" to her a million times a day and picks her toys up for her when she drops them from her walker tray.

We're having another family birthday party on August 14th for Jack since he will be turning 2 on the 11th. Photos to come...

Emma

Miss Emma is sweet as ever. She is now able to grab a toy that you hold up in front of her and bring it to her mouth. She has been sleeping 7-9 hour stretches at night most of the time. Today I am trying naps un-swaddled because she has started to get angry when I swaddle her. At 3 1/2 months I started rice cereal which gave her reflux (just like her brothers) so I switched to oatmeal after about 5 days and she does better on that. I also started sweet potatoes, but I'm not sure she is doing so well with that so I think we will stick with oatmeal for a few weeks and see how it goes.

(Emma after eating oatmeal - not as messy as the boys)

She is doing great sitting up supported, and usually loves her walker, but likes changing positions every 15 - 20 minutes or so.

(Jack isn't the only one who got a gift at Ben's party. Thanks Carolyn Carney for the cute dress!)

Emma is also giggling and smiling a lot more lately. Before we know it she'll be crawling around!

(Emma on her special handmade quilt from the Helmstetters)

That's all for now, kid followers! Gotta go feed the baby...

Odds and Ends

2010-07-13T09:06:00.002-05:00

Conversation last night at bedtime:
Ben: Are you mad?
Me: No, just tired.
Ben: Does tired mean mad?
Me: No, tired means I just need to rest.
Ben: (after thinking for a few seconds) Are you starvis?
Me: Starvis?
Ben: Yeah.
Me: What's starvis?
Ben: Starvis is when you're really, really hungry.
Me: You mean starving.
Ben: Oh. Yeah, I'm starving.

Forgot to mention in the last post that when Jack is looking for something, he will wander around calling for it. Like "Paci? Where aaaare yooooooou?" Which actually sounds more like "Bapeeeee? Weeeeaaaaaaaaooooooooooooo?"

Emma is now doing that squealing thing which is funny because I think she sometimes surprises herself and her eyes get really big. The past 3 nights she has cut out one of her feedings. That gives her a 6 hour stretch which would be even better if it was during a time when I was sleeping the same 6 hours. Soon enough!

No Such Thing As A Quick Post...

2010-07-09T17:21:00.010-05:00

Ben

This month Ben will turn 4 (on the 28th)! Hard to believe so much time has passed already. Before we know it, he'll be graduating High School.

I've been working on getting him to write the letters of his name. So far, B is it. heh. I have also been trying to review the letters of the alphabet and some words he used to know when he was Jack's age. He will be able to go into kindergarten not this fall, but next. I'm sure he'll be ready knowledge wise by then, and hopefully socially once I start getting him around other kids more.

We started a "Ben's Great Behavior" chart a few weeks ago. He gets a sticker for doing good things like getting dressed all by himself, picking up books and toys, etc. He also starts every day with 3 smiley faces which get taken away for things like hitting or screaming at Jack, not listening to Mommy, etc. If he has at least 1 smiley at the end of the day, he gets a small treat the next morning. So far he's gotten stuff like a bubble wand, a matchbox car out of the Cheerios box, and a cup of strawberry milk (his idea). =-) After he has accumulated 7 days (not consecutive) of smiley faces, he gets a big prize. His first prize was a trip to the indoor playground at Chick-Fil-A (also his idea). His next prize is a Buzz Lightyear action figure. We are still 5 days away from that goal.

Funny stuff Ben has said lately:

Jack went running into his room crying and throwing a fit for no apparent reason.
I looked at Ben who smiled and said "I scared him with my brain!".

Ben: Sometimes I don't love Grandpa Huber because he has a scary shirt on.
(Dad was wearing his pirate - skull and crossbones - shirt .)

Jack

Jack will turn 2 on August 11th! Wasn't he just a baby yesterday?

Mr. Personality has taken to screaming in the house and is not dissuaded by a timeout, or Mommy's angry face. In fact, he just laughs. I have been trying to spend a little time every day reading to him and playing with him one-on-one so he doesn't feel the need to do crazy things to get attention. He's great about going to bed though - no fussing at naps or at night.

Although he has his tantrum moments, he also has plenty of good ones. He is very helpful and will deliver Ben's juice to him, or his sleepy bear and Ben frequently will ask Jack to get him something, and he usually will. He also almost always says Thank You when you give him something (or "Kee Koo" which is his version for now).

He likes to wander around the house singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, and the Barney theme song although you can't really make out many words yet. He has the tunes pretty well. He also loves to twirl and dance whenever he hears music. I remember Ben doing this at his age too.

Both boys love their baby sister and I have to watch them so they don't get too excited and poke her in the face with toys or try to feed her their lunch or dinner (or kiss her too much).

Unfortunately we had to cut the bunk-beds apart, but the boys are doing really well in them although we do occasionally find one of them in the other one's bed in the morning. Plus, now they can play in their room without me worrying that they will fall.

Ben is sleeping now from about 8:30 or 9:00pm until 6:30am and then takes a nap around 2:00pm for 2 or 3 hours. Jack sleeps from 7:30pm until about 5:45am and then takes a nap around 10:30 or 11:00am for about an hour and a half.

Emma

Miss Sweet Pea is now 15 pounds and 24" long as of her Doctor's appointment this week (at 3 1/2 months). The Doctor said she has the social behavior of a 6 month old (mostly, I think, because she was looking at him suspiciously - and cried when he reached for her - and he said stranger anxiety doesn't normally start this early).

She is in 6-9 month clothes and has been enjoying sitting upright (or standing) in her walker. She can move backwards in it, but probably not on purpose. She's always got those fingers in her mouth and is drooling like crazy, but I checked the boy's baby books and they didn't get their first teeth (the bottom front ones) until they were 8 months old.

She has been giggling more lately and smiling a lot. She is still waking up at around 11pm and 3am to eat. I am thinking of starting some mixed grain cereal in the evening tomorrow to see if she'll sleep longer.

She is still not taking a bottle of any sort, but after consulting with my Mommies group, I have a new idea to try. We'll see how it goes. Sure would be nice to get a full night's sleep after 4 months.

Emma Has Arrived!

2010-05-13T18:14:00.009-05:00

Emma Katherine Shertzer

Our little sweetheart arrived on March 26th at 3:12pm weighing 9 pounds, 1 ounce and measuring 20 3/4 inches (6 days before her due date). I had a day of contractions at 35 weeks and from then on had contractions on and off almost every day. A couple of nights before she was born I woke up with a terrible migraine (very unusual for me) and it didn't occur to me until the next evening that my blood pressure could be causing it. Rob took it and it *was* high, but I was feeling lazy and didn't want to go to the hospital so I went to sleep. At around 1:30am the contractions started again, and at 7:00am my blood pressure was still high, so we went to the hospital.

I wasn't planning to have an epidural, but the Doctors recommended it to help bring my blood pressure down. I did wait until I was 9cm though, and asked them to make it very light. I could still feel my legs and most everything - just not pain. It was the best labor I've had - no throwing up and shaking the whole time like with Ben and Jack. =-)

By Emma's 2 week Doctor's appointment she had regained her birth weight and then some - almost 10 pounds! She will be 7 weeks old tomorrow and is about 13 pounds now.

She's not sleeping through the night yet, but yesterday she did several 5 hour stints between feedings. Today, not so much. Hopefully since she is past the 12 pound mark she will start sleeping longer at night. Fingers crossed!

So far she does not like her paci (which we are fine with) and won't take a bottle either (which we are not so fine with). Other than that she is a little sweetie and her brothers adore her.

Jack

Jack has become quite vocal! He makes all sorts of grunts and growls and screams and can throw a class A tantrum at any time (and does, several times a day). He is often jealous of Ben and Emma when we give them attention so we're trying hard to make sure he gets his share.

He has started singing although he can't say the words to anything quite yet. He likes the Alphabet song, Twinkle Twinkle, and Itsy Bitsy Spider. I sing Twinkle Twinkle to him in his room before his nap and he either hums or sings along and giggles. When I come to the "up above the world so high" part he always looks up and points to the ceiling.

He can say a lot of words pretty clearly and can otherwise get the point across if he wants something. He's also started putting together phrases like "Hi Daddy!" and is in general a little giggle box. Doesn't take much to amuse him and his laughter is infectious. He also likes to let Ben pull him around in the wagon outside a lot. Let's see... his play kitchen gets a lot of use too. He will get his little plastic frying pan, put his chicken nuggets from dinner in it, put it on his stove and push the button that makes the cooking noise and then take it to the coffee table and stir it up.

Whenever a vehicle with a siren goes by outside he runs to the window and says "car? car?". He likes to point at the bunnies outside and if you aren't watching him, he will follow them wherever they run off to.

Grandpa Huber assembled the bunk bed in the boy's room and Jack did very well in the bottom bunk with rails for about a month until he figured out how to climb out and then wouldn't stay in bed for naps or bedtime. One day I found him on the top bunk so he is now back in the pack-n-play beside the bunk bed until we think he's ready.

Playing with Mommy's hat.

Letting his big brother pull him around the yard.

Ben

Ben is our little chatterbox. He pretty much talks, sings or makes some sort of noise from the second he wakes up until he goes to bed. He seems to have grown quite a bit recently and everyone has been saying how big he's getting.

We are finally potty trained! Gigi and Grandpa Shertzer took him to Chuck E Cheese today as a reward. He still won't go poo in the potty because he says "it will hurt", but he will ask for a diaper and then go right back to his "big boy underwear" when he's done. Lots better than having to change every diaper for 3 kids all day!

Ben loves to play outside and does a great job of staying in the safe part of the yard (and telling me when Jack is *not* staying in the safe part).

His terrible 2's and 3's seem to be gone for the most part. I guess he gave his share to Jack who started his very early.

Both boys have been watching the "Your Baby Can Read" DVDs and are doing well with them. It's hard to tell what Ben knows because he rarely will do things on demand. I know one day he's just going to start reading something and then I'll wonder how long he has been able to do it. Recently I've been working with him on "he" and "him" for boys and "she" and "her" for girls. He often calls Emma "him". I have also been pretty diligent in correcting his verbs and verb tenses. The way he talks now is cute, but I figure it's better to get it right early while he's still learning.

Ben loves sleeping in his top bunk! We do have to keep the boys out of the bedroom during the day though unfortunately. They are too prone to go right up to the top bunk and start jumping around.

He is still one of the most grateful children I've ever seen and will effuse "Oh THANK you!" whenever you give him something (and sometimes just when you ask him to do something). We also get to hear "I love you" or "I love you so much!" several times a day or more. =-)

Some cute/funny things Ben has said lately:

"I exploded!"

"I fell down and hit my head and I cried and I hurt my heart too and my heart is crying."

Me: "Ben? Why is Jack crying? What happened?"
Ben: "Jack fall down in the grass and I didn't do *anything* to Jack."

Watching Daddy and Uncle Dury re-roof the front porch
(Uncle Dury's recently acquired RV in the background)

In his PJs, outside enjoying the nice spring weather.

Getting Ready for Miss Emma

2010-02-10T18:44:00.003-06:00

Finally moved Jack into Ben's room. I was waiting for the bunk beds to be finished, but since we've had a bout of snow and extra cold temps, I didn't think they'd be done in time. Then I was waiting to move the furniture around in there, but one day I just moved his pack-n-play in there and let the boys take a nap at the same time. It only took about an hour and a half the first day and they slept fine. The past 3 mornings Jack has woken up at 4:00am. Not sure what that's about, but hopefully it will pass.

They boys are really sweet to each other sometimes. If Jack is crying Ben will try to kiss him and say "It's just okay, Jack. It's just okay." If Ben is crying Jack will try to give him a kiss and pat his head.

Went to my 30 week Doctor's appointment and was measuring THREE WEEKS ahead. Then last week for my 32 week I was still measuring TWO weeks ahead. I'm guessing she will arrive the weekend after St. Patrick's Day, which would work out for a lot of people because the last week of March is Spring Break (so Rob would be off from bus driving for Lincoln Schools).

Emma seems really strong - her kicks and punches and wiggles are a lot more pronounced than with the boys. I suppose the bigger she is, the better she might sleep from the get-go. I know Jack slept through the night a lot sooner than Ben, but then they say it's different for every kid. Let's hope we get another good sleeper. =-)

Finally started converting Jack's room to Emma's this week. Uncle Eric and Christi and Grandpa Huber have all offered to help get it ready. Mimama is coming up this weekend (hopefully) to see the boys and maybe we can do a little baby shopping while she's here.

Well, as usual I can't think of the million things I wanted to remember. Rob says Jack has been saying Daddy more (or "Daaaeeeeeee"). It's really cute how much he loves his Dad. We are so lucky that Rob has been able to be at home more to spend time with the kids.

I'll try to get another post in before Miss Emma arrives!

We Love Our SMART Kids!

2010-01-21T09:37:00.004-06:00

Jack is just amazing us lately. He will be 1 1/2 in February, but it's just incredible the things he knows. The boys were sick last week and we discovered that if you hand Jack a Kleenex, he will hold it up to his nose and blow and then wipe, AND he will go and put it in the trash when he's done! Granted, he doesn't always get everything with the wipe, but that is just cool.

He is also starting to get more words going. He'll sometimes say "hi" (also, if you wave at him, he'll wave back), and he definitely knows "ball" because he will go and get it (loves playing with bouncing balls). Yesterday I swear he said "cracker". He also knows "dog" and "baby" if you show him a picture and ask where they are (he will point to them). He loves picture books and books with textures and flaps that he can open. Also, you can ask him a question and he will shake his head no if he doesn't want whatever you just asked (i.e. "Are you ready for a nap, Jack?" - vigorous NO. he he).

ETA: He can also say "onoff" which means he wants you to hold him up so he can turn the light switch on or off. I remember when Ben used to want to do that all the time. Okay, I thought of some more. He can say "juice" and will carry his cup over to the kitchen if he needs a refill, and he will also hold out his hands palms up and say "all gone" when his food is all gone. Well, actually it sounds more like "all gah" but close enough and so cute!

We can ask him to do simple things now and he can, like "Jack, put the book back on the shelf". So fun when they do what you ask and they think it's a great accomplishment. Now if I could just get Ben to do that again...

Ben has been singing up a storm lately and not only loves "Jingle Bells" still, but will sing along to TV show jingles. His vocabulary and ability to form complete sentances still amazes me. Yesterday I heard a noise outside and knowing Ben was looking out of the window I asked him what it was. He said very clearly: "That was the recycling falling off Daddy's car" (which doesn't sound like it makes sense, but Rob had the recycling bins on top of his car to drive them back up the driveway). He's also starting to show more of an interest in reading again. He loves "Go, Dog. Go!" (he likes to tell me all about what's happening with the dogs on each page) and "Hand, Hand, Fingers, Thumb". He often asks what things say and I tell him, and then tell him that when he learns to read he will know what everything says (and that he can teach Jack to read).

He's getting a lot better about playing nicely with Jack - it's Jack that is doing lots of pushing and trying to take things away from Ben now.

Re-potty training worked great for about a week until the boys got sick and then for the first 2 days Ben would still tell me when he needed to go, then all of a sudden we had puddles on the floor every time again. I haven't had the energy to start again with the taking him every 15 minutes thing. Someday!!

I've started using the new TV in the boy's room as a tool to get an extra 30 minutes of "us" time at night. I just ask Ben to pick out a cartoon DVD to watch, get him ready for bed and then tuck him in and set the sleep timer on the TV to 30 minutes. So now he is quiet from about 7:00 or 7:30 at night and I think he gets more rest (Jack wakes him up at 6:00am) - and never complains about bed time! Not sure what I'm going to do when I move Jack in there - which needs to be soon!

Rob took a 29 week picture of me (last week) so only about 8 weeks to go +-. Like I said, need to get Jack moved into Ben's room and get Miss Emma's room ready. I've got to paint and sort through all of her new clothes to see what I've got and what we might need still. Also would be good to start stocking up on diapers! I have a Doctor's appointment tomorrow - routine. She has been kicking up a storm.

I'm sure there are a million things I meant to include in this post, but as usual, when I sit down to write I forget most of them! Gotta go... the boys would like more crackers!

Me and Miss Emma at 29 weeks:

The boys the week before they came down with a little virus:

Fantastic Christmas

2009-12-29T08:28:00.006-06:00

What a wonderful Christmas this year! We had a visit from Gigi and Grandpa the weekend before Christmas with a "Shertzer Christmas" on Monday complete with prime rib and opening gifts. They left Wednesday before the weather got bad and made it home safe.

We had a great Christmas Eve and day with the boys at home this year. Jack woke up at 5:00am Christmas morning, but Ben slept until 7:00am (surprisingly he didn't get into the wrapped gifts at all). All the toy picks were big hits and the boys have been very well behaved the past week.

Ben delighted us with his spontaneous version of "Oh Christmas Tree" on Christmas Eve (while he was admiring the tree). Lyrics: Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree, Oh I love you, Christmas Tree. =-) The boys also enjoyed playing with Dad's train (pics below).

Aaaand... we had snow!

The Huber clan and families came over Christmas Day in the afternoon and we had cookies and Secret Santa gift exchange which was fun. Then we all dropped into bed exhausted but happy, ready to get up the next morning and drive to Little Rock to see the Maloney/Peresta families (with a short visit in there to see the Shertzers).

Ben and Jack had a great time playing with their new toys, and then we got to enjoy a baby shower for Emma and Rob's cousin Grant and wife Jessica's baby-to-be Owen. Emma is now taking over a small part of Jack's room with her new blankets, clothes and toys!

Not sure when the big move to put both boys in Ben's room will be. Jack has been waking up in the middle of the night and "playing" for about an hour or so. It will be interesting to see how it works having them both in one room. I am thinking I'll wait until February and see how they are doing then.

Ben has been singing up a storm and is really impressing us. He will sometimes even sing along to things on TV. I'm sure he knows more than he shows. The other day I asked him to pick a magnetic letter up off the floor and as he handed it to me and said "Here's the letter H. Here's the orange H." I can't get him to write letters yet though. He's more mechanically inclined and wants to be busy with his hands and activities.

Jack is getting smarter every day. The past two weeks he has started shaking his head no if he doesn't want something or in response to questions. He is also now playing "boo" spontaneously with us and Ben, and can say "ball", "hi", and "hot" (and "boo").

He can also sort of show us what he wants. If he's hungry, he'll go to the kitchen gate and shake it. If we let him in, he'll either go to the pantry where his Cheerios are (for a snack), or he'll go to the fridge which means he wants a meal. He has also been using a fork and spoon over the past few days (correctly)!

If we say "let's go change your diaper" he will head into his room, and if we say "wanna go outside?" he will go and get his coat and shoes.

He's just learned to climb up on things too, so we have to watch him. The other day I peeked into the living room and saw him standing on top of the coffee table. Yikes!

More updates and pics to follow! Hope everyone had a great Christmas and will have a safe New Year's Eve!

Christmas snow!

Ben loved the snow...

Jack did NOT love the snow...

Playing with the robot Ben got from Gigi and Grandpa Shertzer

Playing with Daddy's train on Christmas Eve after their bath

Jack woke up early Christmas morning and beat Ben to the new play kitchen

Baby Shower for Emma and Owen (Ben was taking a nap):

Rob, Manda, Jack, Jessica and Grant (and Emma and Owen)

It's a GIRL!

2009-12-12T09:04:00.008-06:00

Okay, so the ultrasound was a long time ago. I'm a little slow at posting.
Yep, we are having a baby girl this time. Not sure how I'm going to change the name of the blog or if I can. Gotta look into that.

Anyway, her name will be Emma Katherine Shertzer and I imagine we'll see her some time shortly after St. Patty's Day.

Jack will be moving into Ben's room with him after Grandpa Huber finishes the bunk-beds (with stairs instead of a ladder). Not sure how I'm gonna work naps and bed time yet (Jack takes a morning nap and Ben takes a long afternoon one), but we'll just have to do whatever we have to do. Still need to paint above the chair rail in the boy's room - some neutral color like taupe or a gray-blue. It's like peachy-terra cotta right now. Doesn't exactly scream "boys". Also looks like that $5.00 can of pink paint I bought when pregnant with Jack will come in handy now for Emma's new room!

Jack has 12 teeth now including all 4 first molars. No canines yet, but Ben was like that too. Jack is sleeping from 5 or 6 pm through until 6am which is heaven! Ben goes to bed between 7:30 and 8pm and sleeps until 6 or 6:30am. Both boys are eating pretty well. Jack has always done well. Ben stopped eating much at a certain age and became picky but is now starting to ask for bites of things we're eating and trying new stuff again. Hooray! No more food issues thank goodness. I have been giving them some amount of either probiotic chocolate or the Omega chocolate every day. I know that is helping.

Jack is finally starting to say a few words. He just started playing peek-a-boo yesterday - hiding his eyes and then uncovering them and saying "boooooo". =-) Rob swears he said "heater" the other day, and he will point to the dogs and say "duh". Occasionally I'll think he's said a new word, but can't get him to repeat it. His non-verbal communication is getting better too. If he's hungry, he'll go over to the high-chair and shake it. When Ben says "Good Morning Jack" or gives him a kiss and says "Good Night Jack", Jack will wave at him and smile. Also, yesterday I tried to give him a bite of something and he shook his head no and turned it away. Sometimes if you ask him a question he'll shake his head no. He hasn't done that for yes yet though.

Ben is getting better about the sibling rivalry thing and Jack is starting to play with Ben more now that he's a bit more steady on his feet. This week Rob is taking Ben to a martial arts meetup of my Mommy's group. Hopefully that will be fun for both of them. Ben has been asking to go to the playground and see "the kids". I'll probably take him to one on Monday as well. He really enjoys it. I have to remind him that he can talk to the older kids 'cause they can tell him their name and say "hi". He tends to just laugh really loud in their faces to get their attention like he does Jack (which I do NOT encourage - ha!).

Ben is still talking up a storm and doing great when we correct his grammar. Complete, detailed sentences. Very cool! He's very good at creative play too. I gave him 3 cardboard wrapping paper rolls the other night and he has "made" all sorts of things out of them. Currently he's calling them lights (I guess like florescent ones??). Yesterday I pulled the strip of carpet out of the kitchen so I could mop and he rolled it up and made a tunnel out of it. At the moment he's using it as a dance pad. =-)

No joy on the continuation of potty training. Ben was pretty much trained and was starting to even do poop in the potty and then all of a sudden decided he was NOT a "big boy" and wanted to wear diapers (I'm sure because of Jack). When I tried to start up training again I set the timer for every 15 minutes and he would sit on the potty, but if he had to go 5 minutes later he'd just pee in his pants wherever he was. I need to look into this and do some research. I would imagine it's fairly common. He's not quite 3 1/2 yet. It sure is a pain cleaning pee of of the floor several times a day though. Plus lots of laundry.

Both boys are getting tall. Ben's 2t pants are definitely too short now and getting too tight. Most 3ts are starting to fit him, but he needs 4t shirts for the length and the sleeves. Jack is in 18 month everything. The pants are still a smidge long, but mostly fit perfect.

We're gearing up for Christmas here. I tried not to go too overboard. They have more toys than they can play with now and we don't have tons of room. "Santa" (aka Gigi and Grandpa Shertzer) got the boys a play kitchen complete with microwave, oven, fridge and lights and sounds. Ben LOVES pretending to make cookies with the cookie sheets in the kitchen and loves playing in the water in the sink, so I thought this would be perfect. I bought him a cookie set so he can pretend to cut the dough, put the cookies on the sheet and bake them, then put the icing and sprinkles on top. It even came with a spatula and oven mit - all kid sized! Also got him another playdough set and "Hi-ho Cherry-o" game and a couple of Disney DVDs I think the kids will like. Got Jack the Crayola toy where they color on it and it plays music. The faster they color, the faster the music goes. I hope he likes it. Also got him a twin sized Mickey Mouse comforter for the bunk beds. Ben has his Sponge Bob one. Oh! Also got Jack a pewter baby cup with his name and birthday. Just like Ben's I got him his first Christmas. Kind of a family tradition. Rob and I both have silver ones from when we were babies.

I guess that's all for now. When the weather was so great last month we spent lots of time outdoors. I'll have to check out the pictures to see if there are any especially good ones.

We had family pictures made and there were lots of good ones. Hopefully they look better when you click on them.
(thanks to my sis-in-law Aimee @ elementalphotography.com)

with cousin Havyn

Cute Boys

2009-11-05T14:07:00.006-06:00

Just now I have been watching Jack press the music button on Ben's "Sit-n-Spin" and then dance around in a circle until he falls down giggling. Of course when I got up to get the video camera he stopped and came to investigate the camera instead. Oh well, it made my day to watch him anyway.

Jack has the other top 1st molar coming in. Still don't see the bottom ones poking through yet. His new thing to do is say "Moooo", or rather "MmmmmMMM". When I ask him "How does a cow go?" he will make the MMMmmm sound and then start to giggle.

Ben is sitting on the couch eating a huge green lollipop that he got while trick-or-treating. I promised him if he took a nap nicely without throwing a fit he could have a treat when he woke up. Guess what was the first thing he said when he woke up? "I get to have a treat!"

Last night Rob took me out for my 40th birthday. When we got home Dad said Ben had gone to bed at 6:00pm saying "If I go to sleep, when I wake up Mommy will be home." =-) His normal bed time is 8:00pm.

Here are a few pictures of the boys from Halloween:

Smart Boys

2009-10-21T06:35:00.003-05:00

Just a quick update before Ben wakes up and while Jack is occupied with Cherrios and some apple pieces...

We have been having a bit of an issue with sibling rivalry. Ben is constantly trying to get Jack to react in any way since he can't really play with him yet. This involves Ben screaming at him, doing a very loud fake laugh, or just walking over and pushing him down (which of course makes Jack cry). He's gotten better though. Rob and I explained to him that if he wanted to get Jack's attention he just needed to say "Hi, Jack!" or that he could give him a hug and a kiss (carefully).
Yesterday in the car, Ben was playing "peek-a-boo" with Jack and making him laugh, so there's improvement. We're always sure to positively reinforce the GOOD behavior!

Jack is just as bad. If I have Ben on my lap or am reading him a book, Jack will come over and try to push Ben away and will get mad and start crying. Hopefully they will be able to play together nicely by the time Baby #3 arrives!

Jack has a new tooth - his first, first molar on the upper right side. His gums are very swollen where the other first molars are coming in and he's been chewing on his hands, drooling like mad, and not sleeping well. No canines yet, but Ben got all his first molars before the canines too. I think I read that was normal.

New Benjaminisms recently:
radido (radio)
pinano (piano)
"Mom, I did it! Booray!"
"Mommy, can you close window? It smells like dog poop." (while riding in the car)

Me: How ya doin' Ben?
Ben: I'm doin' great! (or rarely: I'm just doin' okay.)

Not sure if I mentioned it or not, but Ben is now in a booster seat in the car and Jack has graduated to riding facing forward in Ben's old car seat. The swing and baby car seats just got put in the attic a couple of nights ago for baby #3's use.

Playtime:

Ben has disassembled his tool bench and stripped it down to where there is nothing on it. Luckily he hasn't figured out yet how to take the legs off (or hasn't wanted to). His new activity involves tying things to other things and dragging them around. Like, he'll tie his video game remote (that was given to him - but it doesn't have a power cord so he can't play with it) to Jack's ride-on car and drag it around. He really loves it when Jack tries to get it too. He loves his Playdough play set and will sit quietly for a good 1/2 hour or so with that. He has also been enjoying jumping on his "new" bed. He graduated to Rob's old twin mattress set after he fell out of bed one night. I figured he needed some more room. We have yet to find the bed frame for it, but for now the boys are enjoying it on the floor.

Jack is really good about keeping himself occupied if Benjamin leaves him alone long enough. He loves putting things in and taking things out of other things. He has also been enjoying Ben's Magna-doodle drawing tablet. He is showing some interest in figuring out how to actually ride on his ride-on car that sing and makes noises when you push various buttons. Yesterday he was dragging around one of Rob's old pull-toys from when he was a kid. He was rolling it around in circles and giggling. I got some video of that.

I'm expecting some words from Jack soon other than Mama and Dada. Sometimes when I tickle him and say "giddy giddy giddy" he'll pretend to tickle himself and also say "giddy giddy". I'm so impressed! he he

Jack is also getting a lot more steady on his feet and can practically run now.

We've been playing outside this week since the weather has been so nice in the afternoons. Jack took a spill off the edge of the deck - just enough to scare him. It's a bit of a challenge keeping him in the "safe zone" outside and he'll wander over to where all of Rob's tools and the lawn mower and wood stack are which are off limits. Still, I can manage to sweep the deck and the other day I managed to weed an entire flower bed and re-mulch!

Baby #3 is officially due April 1st, but since Ben was a week early, and Jack was 2 weeks early, I'm expecting him or her to make an appearance around St. Patty's Day. The gender ultrasound is November 9th at 10:30am, so I will update that day as to whether this will continue to be "4 The Boys" or will change to "The Shertzer Kids" or something like that - hopefully a more clever name.

Gotta run. Ben is bored with cartoons (he woke up after I had written the first 2 paragraphs). Forgive any misspellings - I'll try to come back later and update with pictures and maybe video if I'm lucky!

So Many New Things... So Little Time (and memory)

2009-09-19T13:31:00.012-05:00

The boys have been doing so much over the past month, but I have not been feeling great and so haven't posted.

Ben is talking up a storm! I had to get some video of him the other day because he was just chattering non-stop about this, that and the other without a pause. He's been a very good little boy. His terrible 3's stage only lasted a couple of weeks. Now he is back to responding to requests with "Okay, I will". He's really good to his little brother (most of the time) and will give him toys if he hears Jack crying - or he'll tell me "Mommy, Baby Jack crying". Lately they have been running back and forth in the living room - not really chasing each other but just making lots of noise and giggling a lot. Sometimes Ben will stop and hug Jack and they'll fall down and laugh. Got a wee bit of video of that too.

Ben also did a poo in the potty all by himself finally. I had just been reading online about what to do when your 3 year old is potty trained for peeing but not pooping and all the articles said that it's a power struggle and the more you try to force it, the worse it will be. And then what do you know but I went in to help him pull his pants up and he said "I'm not done, I'm poopin'!" I thought, yeah, yeah, heard that one before... but sure enough he did! Hasn't done it since, but it's a start. He still won't go in public toilets though, but won't go in his pants either - just complains and dances around. Guess we just have awhile longer to wait on that.

We just bought a "booster" seat for him for the Jeep which he seems to like. We'll get another for the Suburban and then Jack will get his old car seats (which he has already been enjoying). New baby will get the old baby rear-facing seat. Man, we are getting lots of use out of our original baby purchases like the car seat, high-chair, pack-n-play, swing, walker, etc. Go us!

Jack is getting smarter and cuter every day. He's really walking around everywhere now (started August 22nd) and seems to love the new freedom. This week he has been making himself laugh by picking up a big inflatable ball and throwing it to watch it bounce and then going after it to do it again. He also loves for me to read to him and likes the touchy-feely books.

At his 1 year check up he was in the 90th percentile for height and 70th percentile for weight which the pediatrician said was good (he is 25 pounds). She also commented on how healthy he was because he has never been to the doctor (never been sick). He only cried for maybe 30 seconds after his shots and then was fine.

He has 4 top teeth and 4 bottom teeth now and eats just about anything we put in front of him. Seems to get diaper rash after eating anything with egg in it, but other than that, he's a great eater! Doesn't like milk at all, but the pediatrician said that wasn't a problem as long as he got 3 servings of calcium per day and suggested we try calcium fortified orange juice. I tried cheese and yogurt but they were no-gos. Not a dairy guy (which is the only deviation from him being a total Daddy's boy).

He's been a great sleeper - goes to bed about 5pm and wakes up about 6am. Sometimes he wakes up at night but he puts himself back to sleep usually so we rarely have to get up and return his paci or "sleepy bear".

ADDENDUM: I forgot to mention that Jack will clap whenever someone says "Yay", "Good Job", or "Good Boy", even if it's someone on TV. Also when Ben kisses him and says "Good night" Jack will wave at him.

When Shertzer Baby #3 gets here we'll be moving Jack into Ben's room. Grandpa Huber has offered to make the kids a bunk-bed with stairs instead of a ladder, and Gigi has offered to buy a twin mattress since we have 1 already. I think they will LOVE it. Just hope Jack is in the mood to stay in bed by that time. Ben was really good about it, but Jack seems a bit more independent and aggressive, so we'll see.

Here are some pictures for your amusement from the b-day party through this week:

You da man (he's getting so big!)

Ben found my sweater. =-)

Quick Post

2009-08-14T13:32:00.002-05:00

I need to get the boy's birthday party pics posted (and I will someday soon), but just wanted to pop on and say 2 things:

1. Jack took 3 steps this morning. I was lying on the floor in his room and he walked 3 steps and then fell on top of me giggling! We've seen him take 1 or 2 steps over the past week or two. Won't be long 'til he's off and running.

2. On our way to Gymnastic Joe's this morning I was trying to distract Ben by suggesting we sing the ABC song. So I started singing and SO DID HE! I had no idea he knew how to sing it since he never has before - even in part. But after we sang it all the way through he said "Do it again!" so we sang it 3 times. Makes me wonder what other things he can do but just chooses not to. Hmmm...

Picture Post!

2009-07-30T12:50:00.003-05:00

I finally got the pictures off the camera and there were a lot of ones I loved, so here they are (at bottom).

Ben

He is putting sentences together so well and describing everything, plus giving us orders: "Daddy, put your shirt on!" "Mommy move! I can't see TV!" "Daddy, get Jack. He turnin' off TV!"
We are correcting him and trying to get him to pronounce everything properly, but I still think it's cute when he says "Good Mon, Mommy!" instead of "Come on".
He has learned that he can get out of trouble now simply by saying "I _________ for YOOOOU." For example - if we just said "Don't turn on the TV", he'll turn it on and say "I turn on TV for YOOOOU" in his cutest sing-song voice.
He is also singing and dancing more lately. Used to be that when you'd ask what he was singing he'd say "I'm singin 'hmm hmmmm hmmm hmmmm'". =-) Now he'll say "I'm singin' itsy bitsy spider" (which incidentally is also the song that "makes the poop go away").
Still cannot get the boy to eat any fruits or vegetables, so I've been giving him that V8 Fusion which has the veggies in it. I donno what happened to my little boy who would eat anything including mushrooms, onions, tomatoes, avacado, etc. Now that he's 3 he just looks at everything and says "I don't like that".
Potty training is done for peeing, but pooping... not so much. I have tried bribing him with stickers and marshmallows but he has an aversion to sitting on the potty to poo. He also will not go on any potty other than *HIS* which makes going out tricky.

Jack

I saw him take 1 step yesterday. Probably was an accident, but he has been "practicing" standing up and bouncing, swinging his arms, or just moving in different ways to keep his balance. He sits down rather gracefully now. He's also walking while holding onto something with only one hand. Won't be long now.

He is eating solids now and we have introduced milk. I am slowly adding milk and decreasing formula now. I'm up to about 1/2 milk and will continue to increase a little every few days. So far he's shown no problems with the milk, but then Ben didn't either. Solids we've given him: peas, cooked carrots, mashed sweet potatoes, corn, toast, animal crackers, peaches, pears, bananas and apples. I think Rob even gave him some turkey lunch meat the other day. He LOVES eating by himself now.

I think of a million cute things during the days to write down here and then when I sit down I forget what they were. We just enjoy the kids so much every minute and feel so lucky to be able to spend so much time and watch them grow up.

Okay, photo caption time:

The boys in their matching pjs from "Mimama"

Why you don't leave the peas within baby's reach ("who me?")

Jack playing with the fridge magnet letters

Jack playing in Ben's room (probably his favorite place in the house)

Jack looooves Daddy's hugs

Sooo cute!

Ben getting ready for the "Paci Fairy" to come

Ben confused as to where his paci went and what is this?

Still a little too short...

Maybe he's ready for bunk beds?

Proof that kids can entertain themselves with anything (my old gardening gloves and a couple of broken wheels)

Ben-in-the-box (would have been funier if it were Jack)

Ben reading his Thomas book (or looking at it anyway)

Jumping Jack Clap

2009-07-06T21:41:00.004-05:00

Hello, Rob here at the e-quill. Amanda wanted me to update everyone to the latest happenings with "Baby Jack." Jack clapped his hands by himself for the first time this afternoon! He also has one new tooth on the top right, which makes four altogether, one on top, three on the bottom.

Last night, Ben was eating his dinner together with Mommy and picked up a piece of broccoli from his mac-n-cheese (that she had just put on his plate) and said, "Mommy, I don't like broccoli." and put it on her plate. Also today, after Amanda repaired a clear plastic piece of Ben's play vacuum cleaner, with tape, Ben said, "Oh my God! You fixed it!" The silly things that kids pick-up from their parents, huh?

Big thanks to Mi-mama and Gigi for the gifting of diapers, food, clothes and DVDs for the boys this past month! (and kudos to Grandpa Shertzer, Grandpa Huber and G-daddy too!)

Rob

It's Potty Time!

2009-06-27T21:39:00.008-05:00

Ben

So we just finished day 4 of potty training with Ben. He is doing GREAT! He didn't like sitting on the big toilet in the bathroom, so I took his Sesame Street potty seat and put it on our camp toilet and put it in the living room. At first we had lots of accidents first thing in the morning which have improved every day (After the very first accident he looked down and said "Oh mine God I'm wet"). Today NO accidents except for poos (and he was having trouble with that today). Here are the stats so far:

Day 1: 10 accidents - 4 successes
Day 2: 6 accidents - 8 successes
Day 3: 6 accidents - 11 successes
Day 4: 3 accidents - 11 successes

He has been asking to go "pee pee" and I am on the alert to make sure I get him to the potty right away. My only regret is that I only bought 6 pairs of "big boy" underwear - and they are hard for him to get off and on (and even for me).

Jack

Our little blue-eyed boy is getting around all over the place. He doesn't seem to love crawling although he's very good at it now. Mostly he just crawls so he can get to something he can pull up on so he can stand up. BIG fan of standing now and also sort-of bouncing while he's standing (and jumping if he's in his crib). Cute things he's doing lately are tilting his head to one side (and if you mimic him he will laugh and tilt his head the other way) and pointing and saying "gooda gooda gook" or "talking" while pointing as if he's trying to tell you all about ... something.

He's now sleeping from about 5pm to around 4 or 5am when we give him a bottle, then he *usually* goes back to sleep until about 6am. LOVE that! Ben didn't sleep this well until he was almost 2!

Brothers

The other day Ben sat in his green camp chair and asked me to put "Baby Jack" in the chair too. I was kinda nervous, but did it anyway and then they looked so cute I had to run and get the camera (see pics below). Then a different day Ben asked to put some pants on (I had him in just undies while we were potty training the first couple of days) so I said "Okay, go and get some pants and put them on." You can see the result below - although I *know* he can put his pants on properly - I'm sure he did this on purpose.

Enjoy the pictures! FYI the boy's b-days are coming up. Ben will be 3 on July 28th and Jack will be 1 on August 11th. Can't believe how fast the time is going.

Mr. Funny Pants:

Ready for a piece of Daddy's b-day cake (Rob turned 40 on the 17th!)

Rob takes excellent candid shots:

Another Quick Update

2009-06-15T15:42:00.005-05:00

Jack is crawling now, but sometimes with one foot and one knee. =-) He is also pulling up on everything and seems to prefer standing and wants to get around that way. A little wobbly yet to attempt walking. Currently he is standing up playing with the door knob. He also won't stay away from Ben's door while he's taking a nap, and he keeps turning off the TV. Big fan of paper, grass, bugs, anything he finds on the floor or ground or within reach. Everything goes in the mouth.

Yesterday Rob was blowing on a train whistle and then handed it to Jack who promptly blew into it himself. Genius baby! I got a little bit on video today of that too. If it was easy to transfer to here I'd do it. Maybe I can get Rob to and add it later.

I think he (Jack) might be left handed. I try to hold things for him to take with his right hand, but he keeps taking them with his left. No bigee.

Those top teeth STILL have not made an appearance. Maybe they'll come in while I'm in Reno.

I have finally stopped saying "Mommy is going to..." and switched to "*I* am going to..." so that Benjamin would stop saying "Benjamin go to..." It apparently worked because whenever he says that he corrects himself and says "I" instead. He is getting really good at annunciating his words and putting together full sentences. He will also correct you if you call him anything other than Ben or Benjamin. Rob called him "Bennie Bob" the other day and he said "Not Bennie Bob, BEN-A-MIN!"

He (Ben) loves his bath foam (soap) and I use it to bribe him to take a bath when he doesn't want to. He's a big fan of "outside" so he gets very dirty and sweaty and we have to take baths a bit more often. He doesn't like coming inside though. Doesn't help that it stays light later now.

The other evening there was a double rainbow. I was holding Ben and I said "Oooh. I like rainbows." and Ben said "I like rainbows too!" =-) Sometimes he'll say stuff like "Yay! It not raining anymore!" or "I want go to park, play with kids." Pretty complex sentence there! As soon as I have some moolah coming in again I want to put him in some kind of program a couple of mornings a week. He LOVES playing with other kids at the park. We don't have an accredited Montessori program here though. I looked into the "New School" but apparently you need to put yourself on the waiting list as soon as your child is born. Yikes! Should put Jack on now. They take them starting at age 2.

Both boys birthdays are coming up! Jack will be 1 on August 11th and Ben will be 3 on July 28th. I can't believe how fast time is flying by. I'm soaking it all in - even the tantrums - because I know I will miss them someday.

June Update

2009-06-04T15:55:00.002-05:00

So much for Jack's top teeth coming in! Still nothing yet up there. Jack has started crawling but it's obvious he would much prefer to walk. He can crawl normally, but gets lazy and either reaches out and drags himself to whatever/whoever he wants, or uses one foot and one knee which is kinda funny to watch. Mostly he crawls to get over to something he can pull up on so he can stand. Right at the moment he is trying to pull up on one of the baby gates. Awhile ago it was the fireplace (eeeps!). He is such a good baby and can entertain himself for a long time if he's not hungry/tired/in need of a diaper change. He's been "dancing" lately too (bouncing when music comes on). I've got to try to get some video of that. It's cute!

Ben is a talking machine lately. The other day I was taking them somewhere and while buckling his seat belt he said "Ben want drive Mommy." I said "You want to drive?" He said "YEeeah!" I told him he was a bit young yet. He's also been singing lately although most of the time I'm not sure what it is he's trying to sing - except the Muppet song that doesn't have any words. In the car one day I started "singing" that and it went like this:
me: do dooo duh do do
Ben: buh duh buh duh
me (smiling): do do do do
Ben: buh duh buh duh

Now he does it on command - although Rob informs me it is "muh nuh muh nuh".

Ben is also a very good cleaning helper. He often pulls a wipe out of his wipes holder and proceeds to "clean" all the windows he can reach. =-) He also likes to pretend to call people on all of our cell phones, or his pretend ones. Although, if you try to get him to talk to anyone for REAL on the phone, he gets very shy. He is getting better about that though.

This morning we went to the park and he ran up and went down both "big" slides all by himself. When other kids came to the playground (much older and bigger kids) he was so excited to follow them around and do whatever they did. He cried when we left and kept saying "Ben want play with those kids!". I am going to try to find him some class or activity to participate in with other kids. I really think he would enjoy that. Or maybe I can find a preschool for him that will let him go partial days. I don't want to give him up for full days!

Guess that's it for now. I'll try to post pictures soon.

Quick Update

2009-05-18T13:45:00.002-05:00

I'm sitting here watching Jack eat sweet potato puffs. Ben is taking a nap.

Jack's two front top teeth are going to come in just any second now. I can see them under his gums (which are red). He's been a bit cranky the past couple of days but is happy and laughing today.

It's so cool to see in his eyes that he understands more now. He has also been trying to do things that make us laugh - like if he does something and we laugh, he does it again to see if we'll laugh again. Too funny!

He is an eating machine but has gotten taller instead of fatter. He's in 18 month clothes at 9 months old. WOW. I need to get him a couple of 18 month jackets and elastic waist pants and try to find some shoes to fit him 'cause he can FLY in that walker.

He is now able to sit up without falling over and can go from sitting to his knees (or one knee) and get back to sitting position, or lying on his tummy. He can get up on hands and knees and rock but doesn't do it much. No crawling yet...

He is sleeping about 12 hours at night without waking and taking 2 naps per day. Wish we had gotten this lucky with Ben. =-)

Speaking of Ben, he is such a little sweetheart. He is still the most polite child - always says please and thank you without prompting (well, we sometimes prompt for the please) and it is rare that I have to send him to time-out. He has been practicing pronouncing his words too - if you repeat what he says he will try to say it the correct way. Still working on his "guh", "juh" and "chuh" sounds (they currently all come out like "schuh"). Doing great with forming complete sentences though!

Okay, Jack wants my attention so I'll catch up more later and post more pics.

Happy Mother's Day

2009-05-10T16:25:00.004-05:00

As I type this Jack is flipping around in his crib. He likes to work his way around and turn on his musical toys. We'll think he's gone to sleep and then this music starts on the monitor. He is now pushing himself up on his hands and knees and can also get on his hands and knees from a sitting position (no crawling yet). He mostly sleeps on his tummy now which made me a little nervous at first, but Ben did the same thing and hey, we all slept on our stomachs from birth anyway.

Ben is saying the funniest and cutest things now days. Yesterday I put in "Pride and Prejudice" for the 900th time. Ben heard the music and turned around and walked over to me and said "Mommy, no this movie". =-) "No this" is how he tells me he doesn't want to watch or do something. I wish I could remember all the funny things he says and does. I need to keep a notebook handy so I can write them down as they happen to post later.

Here are a couple of pics from this week. Hope all my Mommy friends have a fantastic day!

Flippy/Pinchy and Talky Talkerson

2009-05-01T08:32:00.008-05:00

Jack

Rob has been working with Jack on crawling. This morning he said he actually made it up on his hands and knees! What this has lead to is nap time fun because Jack keeps flipping over on his stomach and pushing up instead of sleeping. We have had to wait until he falls asleep on his stomach and then flip him over on his back at night. During the day I let him sleep on his tummy and just keep checking the monitor every 10 seconds.

He is also Mr. Pinchy lately. I think he has the hang of the "pincher grasp". They say that is an indicator of when to start solids, so I started giving him sweet potato puffs and apple/strawberry puffs. He thinks they are need but weird when he goes to swallow them and they aren't quite liquid like his baby food. Keeps him occupied for quite awhile though!

Speaking of swallowing, I heard him choking on something last night and turned into super Mom, ran over and had him upside-down with my finger in the back of his throat within a millisecond. Turns out Ben had given him his new baby shoes which I hadn't taken the tag off of yet and he had proceeded to chew on it until he got it off and into his mouth where he was gagging on it. He also had a big wad of it stuck to the roof of his mouth. WHEW.

Ben

Ben is talking up a storm and using more and more complete sentences. He still misses consonants quite a bit so I think probably only Rob and I know what he is saying most of the time, but it's neat the way he tells me about everything going on or things that happened while I was out of the room, or while someone else was with him.

Yesterday I heard him count to 14. He won't do it if you ask him though. Makes me wonder how much he really knows. I can quiz him on like 1 thing every once in awhile, but if he knows you are trying to quiz him he says "No Mommy, no." Funny little guy.

I took him to Wal-Mart with me the other day and asked him "Ben, do you want to pick out some big boy underwear?" to which he answered flatly "No." So then I said "Ooooh... look Ben! Thomas the Train underwear! Do you want some Thomas the Train underwear?" Response? "No." Well I bought them anyway along with some rocket glow in the dark ones and tried to get him interested in them when we got home. He was mostly interested in opening the packages and that was about it, but he did want to try on a pair of the rocket ones - over his PJs. So, I thought "what the heck" and let him do it. I figure some interest is better than none.

I have not tried potty training yet, but got lots of advice from the checkout lady at Wal-Mart. She was actually very nice! I think I will try stickers as a reward, and if that doesn't work I'll try chocolate.

Ben put his bunny to bed.

Letting Jack play with his toys.

Family

We all went out to dinner with some others from the chocolate group to the restaurant where Matt works (last night). Here are some of those pics...

Monday Haps

2009-04-20T20:36:00.003-05:00

Took goopy nose Jack to the pediatrician today because he seemed worse. Luckily no infections anywhere - ears are completely clear - but very red and raw nose and throat. The Doc gave me an "emergency" prescription for some antibiotics which I am supposed to fill if he is not better by Thursday. Incidentally I went to the Doctor too and it turns out I have a sinus infection so I started my antibiotics today.

Gigi bought Benjamin a "plasma car" which he has been riding nearly constantly. He loves it. Since the weather has been so nice we've been taking it out on the deck. He still prefers to move it around with his feet mostly, but he does love to turn corners with his feet up.

The other night I gave Ben a few pretzels. He took the first one, bit one side off of it, then held it up and said "This letter B?" =-) We also have foam letters we play with in the bathtub and he will usually pick one up and say something like "This HUH HUH noise!" (when holding the letter H). Where did he learn that?

He is big into pretending right now and most of it revolves around himself or toys getting "stuck" or "broken" so that he then has to go "put gas in it" or "put batteries in it". He will run around the coffee table and then stop and say "Ben broken!" then "Put batteries in it". Then he'll pretend to open up his side, pick something up off the floor, make sound effects while he puts in the pretend batteries, then close the ... whatever... and start running around the coffee table again.

Jack is getting pretty good at crawling backward. I remember Ben doing this at first too, then he started getting up on his hands and knees and rocking, then away he went. I'd guess mid-May Jack will be crawling all over the place.

Both boys are in need of season appropriate clothes, so I'm gonna check out the consignment shops soon! I managed to let Jack ruin 2 of his 9 month onesies in one day by letting him run around on the deck without shoes (got holes in the toes). He really fits better in 12 to 18 month clothes and we don't have much in that size for spring. Ben also needs PJs for spring/summer although I had considered just getting him some big t-shirts and letting him sleep in those.

Okay, off to bed...

I Love My Boys!

2009-04-15T21:28:00.002-05:00

Lots of new pictures posted at http://shertzer.shutterfly.com (Easter egg hunts and kissing cousins)

We had a great weekend in Little Rock with Rob's family. His Aunt and Uncle came up from Texas and his cousin Staci and family came from Tennessee with baby Kaitlyn (see the pictures under "Jack and Kaitlyn").

Unfortunately Jack and I managed to come down with something. He has it worse than me (thank you healthy chocolate - I think I will start Jack on it too!) and has a goopy nose that makes it hard for him to sleep. =-( He's such a good baby though that he hasn't really fussed much - just keeps waking up and has red, tired looking eyes.

Jack has been doing a funny thing when I put him in his swing. He'll reach up and back and grab one of the side bars which stops him from swinging. How'd he figure that one out?

No signs of crawling yet, but he can RUN in his walker and steer it really well. Rob lifted it up another notch to it's highest level. He is getting so tall!

Ben is using more words and sentences lately. It's like every morning he wakes up and speaks more clearly. Tomorrow he'll probably wake up and say "Might I have a piece of toast please Mother?" heh. Okay maybe not. The other night I kept trying to figure out what "Vitamin Bock Bock" was. Turns out it was "Spiderman Backpack". I'm learning!

For some reason I've nick-named Jack "Boo Boo" and will greet him by saying "Hi Boo Boo!" I was amused the first time I heard Ben run up and say "Hi Boo Boo" too, but even more amused when he didn't get it quite right and called him "Doo Doo" instead. *Pretty* sure he didn't do that on purpose.

Quick Update

2009-04-10T11:22:00.003-05:00

Rob took the other rail off of Benjamin's bed yesterday and he slept fine last night. Ben asked that it be taken off while watching the scene in Mary Poppins where the children get tucked into their beds. =-)

Jack is now sleeping great. We just put him in his crib for naps or at bedtime, give him his paci and his bear (another white one... arggg), turn on his air filter and leave the room! Kudos to Rob for figuring out how to do that. I guess the trick is just waiting until he is really tired first - although he slept until 7 this morning and then went down for a nap at 10. He sleeps from about 6pm to 4:30am, has a bottle and then right back to sleep until 7! Yeee Haaaaa!

We're off to Little Rock this afternoon for Easter weekend. Everyone have a good one!

Day 1 of Mommy the Nanny (again)

2009-04-06T20:47:00.003-05:00

Quick update...

The paci thing didn't stick. Rather than cause any trauma I just gave it back to him. He'll get rid of it when he goes to kindergarten and all the other kids make fun of him. ha ha

Jack has his first tooth! Bottom right. Bottom left one to follow any second - I can see it under the gums.

Ben is also getting a new tooth - upper right (molar). He's not complaining about it at all though.

Something else new with Ben this week... He asked us to remove the rails from his toddler bed. Then when I told him "Daddy will have to get his tools and take them off" he got out his play screwdriver and proceeded to pretend to take the rails off. Rob had the good idea to just take one side off and see how he does with it first. So far so good. Two nights down and 2 naps with no trouble.

I'm having a lot of fun giving the boys their baths at the same time. Ben has been asking to play with the soap (Mommy and Daddy's soap) and Jack will grab at anything that floats by and into his mouth it goes (the soap is too slippery if you were worried about that). Cute, cute, cute. I have some pictures to post but will have to do that later (need to get back to work while I'm still awake)!

One more thing... Ben is the most grateful child on the planet I think. You do the simplest thing for him like pick a toy up that he dropped and hand it to him and it's "OOOOOH! THANK you Mommy! Thank you!" I got something similar when I brought out some broccoli for him at lunch. Then he actually ate it and said "MMMMMMM MMMMMMM! Goood!"

More later...

Well Hello Wall-E!

2009-04-01T22:19:00.002-05:00

Benjamin watched Wall-E for the first time a few days ago and now that's all he wants to watch. For almost 3 straight days it was "all Wall-E, all the time" (he even asked for it as soon as he woke up in the morning: "Watch Wall-E mommy? Watch Wall-E?"). Good thing it's an excellent movie so we're not sick of it yet.

Also - major event: Ben slept last night without his paci! ...and today for his nap, and tonight too! I have been talking to him about not needing it anymore, and tried just putting it on his stool next to his bed and saying "here is your paci if you really need it, but try to sleep without it". Of course the second I set it down he grabbed it. It does take him longer to settle down and go to sleep, but I think he has more restfull sleep without it. Next on the list: potty training!

Funny thing Ben said the other night - We were watching a movie and the guy was crying. Ben says "He crying mommy? Is he crying?" So I said "Yes, he's crying". Ben thought about that for a second and then looked up at me and said "He gotta poop?"

Speaking of poo issues, I've been giving Ben 1/2 of a baby spoon of Benefiber every morning in his juice and he is right as rain. SO much better than the Miralax. Last time we gave him that he cried and fussed just about non-stop all day. So anyway, thanks to everyone who recommended giving him fiber (which was just about everyone).

Jack is going to get his 2 bottom front teeth just any second. He has not been sleeping as well lately and has just about cried himself hoarse at times. Poor little guy. I give him Tylenol occassionally at bedtime if he just will not sleep (like tonight) and that seems to help. Ahhh the joys of teething.

Okay, my nice soft bed is calling and my eyelids are drooping so that's all for now!

Quick Update

2009-03-26T10:06:00.002-05:00

Here are some pics Naomi took with her phone this week (below). Unfortunately she had to give her notice yesterday. I didn't realize she lived in Bentonville and has been driving an hour here and back every day. She has been offered a job closer to home, but will stay until April 3rd (next Friday).

After that, I've decided to be a stay-at-home, work-from-home Mom. I will get up and work a couple of hours in the morning before the kids wake up, and then a few hours at night after they go to bed. If I can get in an hour during the day when they are both asleep, so much the better.

Benjamin is getting better and better at describing things, asking questions, etc. He will watch his shows on TV and say things like "Did it go up Mom? Did it go up?" or "Is he crying Mom?" Also, when he is expecting someone to come to the house he will say something like "Is Naomi home?"

I took him to a dinosaur event at the Springdale Public Library last Saturday. He listened to a couple of the books they read and then that was about it for his attention span. He was hungry and kept saying "Some mac cheese mom? Some pea'butter jelly?" Plus it started at 11:00 and noon is his naptime, so we had to leave before the craft and singing and dancing. It was still fun though. When we got back out to the car, there was a black mini-SUV parked beside us and he pointed to it and said "That Mimama's car?" ("Mimama" is Rob's Mom who has a black Mercedes SUV).

He is also still learning new words, but is stubborn and won't tell you what they say if you hold the word cards up for him. Although, he did get "dog" last night (it was the first card I held up) but then he was being goofy and saying every card I held up was "dog".

He is also starting to be able to sing parts of songs. I'll ask him what he wants to sing, then I'll sing part and then stop and he'll fill in. It's really cute.

Speaking of cute, I found him in his room last night with the baby wipes cleaning up the "poop" from his doll (my old Cabage Patch Kid). I got some video. I'll see if I can get Rob to clip it so I can post. Just for the record, there really wasn't any poop. He is getting good at pretending. He also pretends to "fix" everything with his tools and still plays with his toolbench almost every day.

Jack is doing fantastic. He is getting better at sitting up by himself for longer periods of time. He is babbling more (dada dadada da da) and screeching less and continues to sleep well and eat LOTS. He is now on 3 babyfood meals/day. We put him down about 6pm and he wakes up usually just once between then and 6 or 7am.

I started giving both kids a bath at the same time. Jack seems to really like the infant seat and kicks and splashes. Ben likes to "wash baby" by pouring water on Jack with his cup.

Guess that's all for now. Best get back to work!

Kiddo Update

2009-03-13T11:40:00.005-05:00

Jack's 6 month shots visit was February 26th. Here are his "stats" as of that date:
Weight: 18.79 lbs (!!!!)
Height: 27.01 inches
Head Circumference: 17.8 inches

He is now in the 75 percentile. At his 2 week he was in the 25%, and at his 3 month he was in the 50%, so the Pediatrician was pleased. He is also proportional, so he is not in the 75% in weight, but only 50% in height, etc.

He is also now in Ben's 12 - 18 month clothes already! I don't think the hand-me-downs will work for long before I have to buy 2 sets of clothes for them. Ben wasn't 18 pounds until he was 8 months old. Jack already has him beat by 2 months.

Jack also has been sleeping great again. 2 nights this week he slept from 6:30 or 7pm until 5 or 6am without waking once and after breaking out of his swaddle - and no paci! What a great kid!

Here are a couple of pics of Jack - you can see how big he is getting. He's starting to be able to sit up by himself, although he's still pretty active and so will fall over.

(Pic 1) With his favorite giraffe toy.

(Pic 2) With Emily this week during our warm weather days (in an 18 month onesie and 12 month jeans).

Ben is getting just smarter and smarter. He is using complete sentences now and will say things like "Is it broken Mommy?" or "Do 'itsy spider' Mommy?" So cute! He is also watching Mary Poppins a lot now and seems to like the "Chim Chiminey" song and dance. Sometimes he will get up and start dancing and say "I'm dancin' Mommy. I'm dancin'." He has started identifying colors more lately too and the other day counted the buttons on Jack's shirt.

Our latest fun activity after Jack goes to bed at night is to build a "fort" by putting the couch cusions on the coffee table and resting the other end on the couch, then covering the ends with blankets. He can crawl under there and still see the TV from under the coffee table. So.. "Build fort Mommy?" is another new phrase.

Since the time change, Ben has been sleeping from 8pm to 6:30 or 7am, so that's much better for Mom and Dad!
Still no progress on the potty training thing. We keep asking him if he wants to use the "big potty" or "his potty" which I moved into his room thinking the privacy might help, but he just shakes his head and says "no".

Here are some recent pics of Ben:

Eating a grilled ham and cheese today.

Today is Emily's last day and our new Nanny, Naomi, starts on Monday. She just found out she is pregnant, so we'll be looking for a new Nanny again before we know it, but I'm looking forward to Naomi starting. I also found out that her middle name is Katherine (mine is Catherine with a C) and her birthday is November 2nd (mine is the 4th) so that's kinda neat. Her first doctor's appointment is on the 24th, so she'll find out the due date and all that jazz then. Everyone cross your fingers that she is one of the lucky ones who does not get any morning sickness at all. =-)

Sorry for the long delay between posts. It's been getting pretty busy around here!

Latest updates

2009-02-17T14:05:00.002-06:00

I think Jack has hit a growth spurt. He has been waking up around 2:30-3:00am to eat, then up again between 5 and 6 to eat, then is already hungry again at 8. I have started him on oatmeal with fruit baby food mixed in for the 8ish feeding, then he'll drink 6oz every 3 hours and get a veggie in the afternoon around 3. He has started in with the "buh" sound now and is doing lots of what can only be called screeching. heh. He is also a droolin' fool. I don't think the teeth are quite ready to come through yet though. We're still trying to swaddle him for sleeping 'cause otherwise he gets his hands all up in his face and wakes himself up. He is a little Hoodini though and often gets an arm out within seconds of falling asleep. He's got his 6 month appointment on the 26th of this month (which is next Thursday).

Ben started on the probiotic chocolate several days ago and is doing great. I'm hoping within' a couple of weeks we can ween him off the Miralax and he'll just be a normal kid (fingers crossed and all good thoughts appreciated). Today he also ate a whole container of Danactive probiotic yoghurt. He never begs for cookies or candy anymore because he can have the healthy chocolate any time he wants. Now if we can just get him to sleep past 6am...

Ben's favorite words right now are "broken" and "stuck". Anything that doesn't behave normally is, of course, "broken" (including arms, lights that are turned off, etc.) and anything that isn't moving is "stuck". He has been jabbering away with lots of sentances - lots of which I can't understand, but it's neat that he is enjoying discribing things and talking about them. He seems to have lost interest in the reading this past week, but I'm sure he will pick it back up shortly. He is one of those kids who will do things on his own time table, not anyone else's and probably knows a lot more than he is saying. We'll just let it all sink in for awhile and then next month I expect we will find out that he can read quite a few new words. I've been working on colors with him more now that I know he actually knows what color blue is. I think he knows yellow/orange too but they are sometimes so close that he gets them confused.

Both the boys are just the sweetest kids, happy and laughing most of the time. I'll have to post the video Rob took of Ben the other day doing DDR.

More pics of the boys from today

2009-02-10T20:30:00.005-06:00

The week in review

2009-02-04T20:09:00.002-06:00

Finally we have power and internet/cable again!

The latest on the boys...

Ben's favorite phrase is now "You okay?" He also loves giving big hugs and saying "I you, Mommy" and "I you, Daddy" (I love you) - oh and kisses too. One day I even got my eyes and eyebrows and hair kissed. =-) He also loves jumping and doing somersaults (you have to help him though). The other day when it was warm I took him with me to the park to walk. He walked beside the stroller holding onto the side and saying "Faster Mommy, faster!"

Jack has been blowing raspberries lots and making all kinds of new sounds and squeals. He loves his walker and is able to move around in it, although it's probably all accidental. He is a fantastic sleeper too. He goes to bed between 5 and 6 and wakes up around 4am to eat, then back to sleep until 6ish. At this age, Ben was still waking every 2 hours or so.

Speaking of which, Ben does still wake up at night fairly often - like last night - up at 1am and 2am for no apparent reason other than to yell "Mommy!" and then go back to sleep after I went in there and tucked him back in.

I'm sure there is a lot more that I'm leaving out. Now that we have power and internet again I can post more often.

Video Attempt

2009-01-26T19:51:00.003-06:00

Ring-around-the-rosey

2009-01-26T19:35:00.007-06:00

I'm working on getting the video, but here are a few pictures. Unfortunately the best ones are out of focus (but I'm posting them anyway). So this is Ben and his cousin Havyn who is 2 months younger than him.

And one of Jack playing in his swing...

Tiger!!

2009-01-25T19:39:00.002-06:00

I started showing the word cards to Ben and asking him "What's this word". Well, out of about 25 that I showed him yesterday he got "tiger", "wave" and "hi". Also when I showed him "smiling" he pointed to his teeth ("teeth" is not one of his words). Then today while he was swinging I showed him the word cards again, and again he got "tiger" right away. Soooo... after only 3 weeks of showing the DVD's and the word cards as much as possible he IS learning to read! Very cool!

I keep trying to get Jack to watch the DVD, but he is not much interested yet. I'll keep at it though. If I can get both kids reading by age 3 I will be very pleased.

Today was Eric's birthday party at the clubhouse at his apartment complex. Ben had a fantastic time playing chase and hide-and-seek with Aunt Aimee and Havyn. Rob took lots of pictures and I got some video of Ben and Havyn playing ring-around-the-rosey (a new one for Ben - he just learned it today).

Ben also slept until 8 am this morning!!! =-O Normally he is up without fail at 5:50 am no matter what time he goes to bed. I was very pleasantly surprised! He also did not take a nap at all today and was still very good - no whining or fussing.

Jack has been sleeping pretty consistently from 5:30pm to 4am - only waking occasionally for paci retreival or re-swaddle. He is still a very happy baby!

I'll try to get Rob to get the video of Ben into some format where I can post it.

For Poppy

2009-01-22T09:39:00.009-06:00

I was supposed to do this the other day after getting "tagged", but just now was able to get the pictures off of the camera. Candid shot of the boys:

Okay, now I'm supposed to go to my 4th picture folder and post the 4th picture and explain it.

Ugh! I think this was a 9th month belly shot of Jack.

Okay, onto some more interesting pics of the boys...

Ben likes to play *on* Jack more than *with* him.

But he's a good brother 'cause he gives Jack his sleepy bear and paci pretty often:

Chillin' with Daddy:

Reading & Songs

2009-01-19T20:40:00.003-06:00

I think it was yesterday that I was reading a book to Ben (Big Smile, Baby) - the one where you lift the flaps. Anyway, we finished the book and then he wanted to turn back through the pages. So, he stopped on a page and since 'baby' is one of the words in his reading DVDs I pointed to the word and said "What word is that?" to which he immediately answered "Baby!". =-O Coincidence? I donno.

Tonight we were reading one of the books that comes with the whole system. We again read through all the words, lifting them up to look at each picture that represents the word. Got done with that one and again, he wanted to flip back through. He stopped on a page and I said "What's that word?" and I could almost swear he said "Zip!" (and it WAS). I guess the reading thing is working (even though he doesn't pay attention to the DVDs all the time) so I'll of course keep doing what we're doing.

Lately I've been singing with Ben a lot. We do Itsy Bitsy Spider, London Bridge, Old MacDonald, BINGO, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star (or as Benjamin calls it "Winkle Tar"). He now requests them and if I start to sing the wrong one he says "STOP Mommy, STOP!"

I also try to get him to participate. When I sing Old MacDonald I stop at "and on his farm he had some ______" at which point Benjamin always enthusiastically says "PIGS!" with a big smile. He's also learning "If You're Happy and You Know It" from the DVDs, and tonight while I was making dinner I peeked in the living room and saw that he was doing the "Hot Dog Dance" from Mickey Mouse.

They just get cuter and cuter every day!

Saturday Doings

2009-01-17T21:11:00.002-06:00

Ben had a great time at the birthday party today. The weather was nice, so everyone played outside for a bit. Max had lots of toy tractors to ride on, his dad Mike had built a "house" out of hay and they had a swingset with slide as well. Unfortunately we were in such a rush to get out the door that I forgot the camera. Sorry! Rob says Ben climbed up on top of the hay house and did great playing with the other kids.

Ben has still been waking up before 6am every morning even though he is going to bed no earlier than 7pm. I am beginning to think it's because of all these marathon 2 1/2 to 3 hour naps he is taking every day. We had to wake him up after only about an hour today so we'll see if that helps him sleep longer at night. I think tomorrow if it looks like he is going to sleep longer than 1 1/2 hours I will wake him up again. Maybe that will help him sleep in a bit. Sure would be nice!

He is also still taking off his pants and diaper in the evening and sitting on the potty by the fireplace for a few minutes (sometimes he will do this in the mornings too). Then he says "all done" (even though he hasn't done anything) and gets up and goes to get a new diaper out of the drawer and then hands it to me. Tonight he got 2 diapers out of the drawer and brought them in and said "This one or this one?" I pointed to one (they were identical) and he handed it to me and then went and put the other one back in the drawer. Funny! Hopefully this will lead to him actually USING the potty. I think it's cool that he is potty training himself.

Jack went to bed at 5pm last night and didn't wake up until 3:30am. Starting tonight he will be on all formula. I fed him last night at 3:30 but I'm not sure he actually got anything so he got a bottle at 4am as well. I also gave him some oatmeal today because he seemed to be having constipation issues and the oatmeal I gave him on the other days seemed to help. It helped today too - within a couple of hours. As long as it doesn't seem to be bothering him I guess I'll continue with the oatmeal for a week and then try something new after that.

Jack's eyes are still very blue. He is also in 9 month clothes now! It will be interesting to see how much he weighs at the next pediatrician visit which is next month.

Friday Updates

2009-01-16T19:04:00.004-06:00

Today Emily was pushing Ben in his swing and counting as she pushed him. She said she made it to 8 and then had to cough, but Ben counted in her place "9.....10! Yaaaaay!" and started clapping.
Yesterday he pointed to 3 magnetic letters on the fridge in rapid succession and said "J, K, O" (all correct). Emily and I decided he has learned quite a bit, but doesn't perform on demand.

Yesterday when Rob and I got home from our "date", Ben was swinging and had a ball in his hand and very clearly said "Mom, look at this". I was impressed! I had never heard him use that phrase before. He is getting better with his speech every day.

I started him on Volume 1 of "Your Baby Can Read" because he seems to have lost interest in the starter video after not quite 1 week. I emailed the company to ask them if this is common in his age group and if it was okay to go ahead and start Volume 1 early, but I haven't heard anything back yet, so I decided if he watched any of the DVDs it would be better than him getting up off of the couch and turning the TV off as he has been with the starter DVD.

I also started Benjamin on Xocai healthy chocolate today. I'm hoping that after about a week of it I can take him off of the Miralax and start introducing the milk and other formerly "no no" foods very slowly and hopefully he will be okay with them. (Incidentally, I started myself on it today as well and gave some to Emily to try hoping it will help her knee).

I didn't give Jack any oatmeal this morning. It didn't seem to be making any difference except I felt like he was spitting up more. I'll wait another few weeks and try again. We switched from giving him 7 oz. of formula every 3 - 3 1/2 hours to giving him 6 oz. every 2-3 hours. Emily said he didn't do as many spit-ups today, so that's good. He is getting cuter and growing so much every day. Pretty soon he'll be sitting up on his own, then crawling! I can't believe he'll be 6 months old (already) on February 11th, and by this summer he will be walking!

Tomorrow we are going to a birthday party for an old friend of mine's son (Max) who is turning 4. I'll bet Ben has a great time - he loves other kids, especially older ones. I'll try to take pictures and post as soon as possible.

Cuteness

2009-01-14T16:06:00.002-06:00

Emily just came in and told me that Ben put his bear to bed. He put him down and then moved the stool beside the bed and put his water on it (like I do for him at night) then kissed him and whispered "Night!" and closed the door. Then a few minutes later he opened the door and said "Get up bear!". How cute is that?

Jack's first solids

2009-01-14T09:09:00.008-06:00

Jack had some oatmeal this morning. The first bite he made a face like "What on EARTH did you just put in my mouth? Gross!" But then he got the hang of it and did really well. I'll try again tomorrow too.

Also got a good picture of Jack and Ben together this morning:

And Ben's after his haircut yesterday:

Day 2: Intro to potty training

2009-01-13T19:26:00.002-06:00

Today I came out of the bathroom to find Benjamin sitting on his potty with his pants and diaper on the floor in front of him. Emily was in the back rocking Jack to sleep and I couldn't imagine her setting Ben on the potty and then leaving (which she didn't) so he is doing it on his own. He didn't actually go. Later on when I said it was time to get PJs on, he kept saying 'diaper off?' and wanted to sit on the potty again. He didn't have to go, but he did do a toot and then giggled. I said 'Good job!' to encourage him. Yay!

Benjamin also got a haircut today. He cried a little at first. I think Jaime was a little rough with the comb. He acts like it hurts him when we comb or brush his hair anyway. It's cute of course. I'll try to post a picture soon.

Jack is cute as ever. He has been drinking tons of formula so I thought it might be time to try solids. I will give baby oat cereal a try in the morning and see how it goes. I think I also need to buy him some 9 - 12 month sleepers too. With Ben I graduated to 2 piece outfits with a onesie underneath, but now that we have the new windows it's a lot warmer in the house and Jack gets too hot. Thank goodness for Uncle Kevin and the Target gift card he sent the boys for Christmas!

Monday Things

2009-01-12T19:13:00.003-06:00

A couple of cute pics from this past week:

(after Ben's bath & sleepy Jack)

I think Ben may be ready for potty training. He is showing more interest in actually using it now. Today I came in the room and he was trying to get his pants down and standing by the potty so I asked him if he needed to go and managed to get his pants down and diaper off. He sat there for awhile and didn't do anything so I took him in his room and put a new diaper on him. 2 seconds later he pooped. If only I had left him sitting there for a minute more. I'm sure Emily is going to be thrilled with the new challenge. he he. Sure would be nice to have 1 less kid to diaper change all the time.

Your Baby Can Read

2009-01-10T06:57:00.002-06:00

I received the "Your Baby Can Read" materials in the mail yesterday (thanks Gigi!) which I unfortunately didn't check until 4:30. I immediately opened the box and started looking through everything. Ben climbed up on a chair and started pulling the DVDs out. He found Volume 2 which had a small 2 in a circle and said "Twooo!" I asked him to put the DVDs back and found a sliding word book and gave that to him to play with (it has words that slide to one side to show a picture of the word and to the other side to show a question about the word).

While I was getting Jack to sleep and Ben was in his highchair eating I put in the starter DVD. We're supposed to show that one twice a day (to both Ben and Jack) for a month until Ben can do the word games at the end. Ben is already following what they say in the DVD ("arms up": he puts his arms up, "where is your tongue?": he points to his tongue).

Later on when it was time to read a book before bed I asked Ben if he wanted to read "Hop on Pop". He said "Nooooo. New book!" So we read through all the words in the sliding word book. =-)

I'm really looking forward to seeing how quickly he is able to start identifying the first set of words. Hopefully by the time Jack is 18 months he will be able to read them too.

I got out Ben's magnetic letters (the kind you stick on the fridge) yesterday. Last night he started pulling them out of the bag one at a time and naming them before he set them on the table. I was amazed that he was getting most of them right and not skipping any (and going really fast). He is still a little confused when letters and numbers are mixed together. He said 3 was "letter E" and also V stumps him when it's upside down because he thinks it is A, etc. Still, he is doing really well - partly thanks to our Nanny Emily who has been working with him a lot every day.

I'm looking forward to seeing how well both kids do with this reading system.

New Shertzer Boys Blog

2009-01-09T13:24:00.000-06:00

I've decided to start a blog that's just all about our 2 little guys: Benjamin and Jack. I'll try to post as much as possible about their daily activities, funny things they do or say and pictures.

I'm enjoying my friend's kid blogs so much I had to start one myself!

The Shertzer Kids: All About Ben, Jack & Emma

Funny boys

Conversations With Jack (Book II in the series)

Car rides

Bed time!

More funny quotes from the boys...

Festivities and Funnies

An evening in the life...

Hooray for Fall!

As Rob was putting some screws in the cabinet hardware/doors...Ben: (holding a screw) I'm helping screw things up!

Overheard from back seat on way home from dropping Ben at school: Jack: This little piggy went to market. This little piggy went to Walmart. ...Then later, an altered version of London Bridge Is Falling Down: Jack: Take the key and lock Mommy up, lock Mommy up, lock Mommy up...

Everyday Stuff

Kindergarten!

Birthday Boys

She Walks!

August... Finally!

How Ben Gets Out Of Trouble:

=-)

While I was lying on the couch with my eyes closed...Ben: It's okay Emma, Mommy's not dead.

Ben: I want Iloveya yogurt.Me: You mean Activia yogurt?Ben: Yeah, they have it at Harps.

More! More!

Ben: Look! They're building a Chick-Fil-A.Me: No, that's going to be a church, remember?Ben: Well, there's a sign that says "This is not going to be a church, this is going to be a Chick-Fil-A". I saw it.

Further Funnies

Ben: My feet hurt.Me: Then stop walking around and go to sleep.Ben: I need a wheelchair.

Benjamin

Ben just called the fly swatter a "fly slapper", then he called it a "fly swapper".

Ben requested I take this picture.

Ben made a "car" out of his cheese and crackers, so again I had to take a picture.

The artist and his work - chalk all over the door and frame. Well, it DOES kinda look like a chalk board, right?

Jack

Jack: Hi Mommy! Pain in the butt!Me: "Pain in the butt" is not a nice thing to say.Jack: I pain in the butt, you pain in the butt, everybody pain in the butt!Ben: Everybody is a pain in the butt. Except boys.

Emma

Emma's 1st Birthday

Catching Up - Emma's 1 Year Photos

He he

Ben: My knees are very strong, but I can't stand on my head yet.

More Conversations...

Quick Note...

On Dogs...

Ben: Could I hug dogs?Me: It depends on what their owners say and if they're friendly.Ben: If they're not friendly, I will bring them in the house and take their blood pressure.Me: And what will that do?Ben: That wiiiiillllll... give them more blood. And then I could hug them.

Silliness

Jack put one of the little toy basket things on his head.Me: Oooh, that's a nice hat!Jack: No. I robot!(takes toy crate off his head)Jack: Hi Mommy!Me: Hi robot boy!Jack: Noooooo, I Jackie!

Ben: Mommy, will you get my food ready?Me: Yes, honey. As soon as I finish cutting Jack's fingernails.Ben: You've got to be kiddin' me.

More Funny Ben

Ben: I'm a Doctor. Let me take a look at your back.(pats my back). Mmm Hmmm. It's damaged. That means you're old.

Ben: Mommy, Emma scratched me.Me: Sorry honey. I don't think she means to scratch you.Ben: Maybe she wants me to die.

And it begins... Jack's funny sayings

This morning:Jack: Where Ben goin' Mommy?Me: To school.Jack: Ooooooooh.Rob: Where is Daddy going?Jack: Ummmmmmmmm... That way! (points outside)

Ben: (bounces ball loudly in living room)Jack: (from bedroom) I tryin' to seep Ben!

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!

Now About The Kids...

Post-Christmas Post - Part II: Snow!

Long Overdue Post - Part I

Ben's First Day of Pre-School

More Funny Stuff From Ben

Ben: I'm a Professor. I make stuff like cake, ice cream, cell phones... I make all kinds of stuff.

Ben: Would I have a sunny nightmare?Me: Can you have a sunny nightmare?Ben: Yeah.Me: If you want.Ben: I want.

Funny Things Ben Says

Smarty Pants

Post Thanksgiving Picture Post

A Day In The Life

Post-Halloween Post

Ben: (as Rob was leaving) We'll see you soon! Stop at the red lights and don't crash into cars.

Ben: "Skeglekood."Me: (blinking) "...what?"Ben: "Skeglekood. It means 'Could you get me more juice please?'"Me: "Ah! Okay."

Ben: The Doctor said "Do you want your arm to hurt?"Me: Uh... I don't think he said that.Ben: Yes he did a little bit in my imagination.

Picture Post and Halloween Fun

Oops... Where did September go?

The Fun Never Stops!

Summertime, Summertime, Sum Sum Summertime...

Odds and Ends

No Such Thing As A Quick Post...

Jack went running into his room crying and throwing a fit for no apparent reason.I looked at Ben who smiled and said "I scared him with my brain!".

Ben: Sometimes I don't love Grandpa Huber because he has a scary shirt on.(Dad was wearing his pirate - skull and crossbones - shirt .)

Emma Has Arrived!

"I fell down and hit my head and I cried and I hurt my heart too and my heart is crying."

Getting Ready for Miss Emma

We Love Our SMART Kids!

Fantastic Christmas

It's a GIRL!

As Rob was putting some screws in the cabinet hardware/doors...
Ben: (holding a screw) I'm helping screw things up!

Overheard from back seat on way home from dropping Ben at school:
Jack: This little piggy went to market. This little piggy went to Walmart.

...Then later, an altered version of London Bridge Is Falling Down:
Jack: Take the key and lock Mommy up, lock Mommy up, lock Mommy up...

While I was lying on the couch with my eyes closed...
Ben: It's okay Emma, Mommy's not dead.

Ben: I want Iloveya yogurt.
Me: You mean Activia yogurt?
Ben: Yeah, they have it at Harps.

Ben: Look! They're building a Chick-Fil-A.
Me: No, that's going to be a church, remember?
Ben: Well, there's a sign that says "This is not going to be a church, this is going to be a Chick-Fil-A". I saw it.

Ben: My feet hurt.
Me: Then stop walking around and go to sleep.
Ben: I need a wheelchair.

Jack: Hi Mommy! Pain in the butt!
Me: "Pain in the butt" is not a nice thing to say.
Jack: I pain in the butt, you pain in the butt, everybody pain in the butt!
Ben: Everybody is a pain in the butt. Except boys.

Ben: Could I hug dogs?
Me: It depends on what their owners say and if they're friendly.
Ben: If they're not friendly, I will bring them in the house and take their blood pressure.
Me: And what will that do?
Ben: That wiiiiillllll... give them more blood. And then I could hug them.

Jack put one of the little toy basket things on his head.
Me: Oooh, that's a nice hat!
Jack: No. I robot!
(takes toy crate off his head)
Jack: Hi Mommy!
Me: Hi robot boy!
Jack: Noooooo, I Jackie!

Ben: Mommy, will you get my food ready?
Me: Yes, honey. As soon as I finish cutting Jack's fingernails.
Ben: You've got to be kiddin' me.

Ben: I'm a Doctor. Let me take a look at your back.
(pats my back). Mmm Hmmm. It's damaged. That means you're old.

Ben: Mommy, Emma scratched me.
Me: Sorry honey. I don't think she means to scratch you.
Ben: Maybe she wants me to die.

This morning:

Jack: Where Ben goin' Mommy?
Me: To school.
Jack: Ooooooooh.
Rob: Where is Daddy going?
Jack: Ummmmmmmmm... That way! (points outside)

Ben: (bounces ball loudly in living room)
Jack: (from bedroom) I tryin' to seep Ben!

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!

Ben: Would I have a sunny nightmare?
Me: Can you have a sunny nightmare?
Ben: Yeah.
Me: If you want.
Ben: I want.

Ben: "Skeglekood."
Me: (blinking) "...what?"
Ben: "Skeglekood. It means 'Could you get me more juice please?'"
Me: "Ah! Okay."

Ben: The Doctor said "Do you want your arm to hurt?"
Me: Uh... I don't think he said that.
Ben: Yes he did a little bit in my imagination.

Jack went running into his room crying and throwing a fit for no apparent reason.
I looked at Ben who smiled and said "I scared him with my brain!".

Ben: Sometimes I don't love Grandpa Huber because he has a scary shirt on.
(Dad was wearing his pirate - skull and crossbones - shirt .)