A Gardening We Will Go

Now that the weather is nice, we have decided to designate one small corner of our backyard for a garden. Whether we are actually capable of growing anything edible is yet to be determined, but it seemed like something fun to do with Josh to teach him how fruits and veggies grow... because right now he thinks they come from the vegetable factory to the grocery store. My resident researcher, aka Andrew, looked up the best way to plant and found a very handy tool for Arizona growing. He discovered that the best thing to do is to make a planter box, which sounded right up his alley. He's always looking for reasons to get his power tools out and grunt accordingly. So after the box was built and in place, off to the Home Depot we go to pick out our plants. After much deliberation we decided on strawberries, "husky" cherry tomatoes and red and green bell peppers. Josh and Ben were great helpers spreading the soil around and digging holes for the plants, and Joshua has been meticulous about watering the garden every morning and then going outside every afternoon to see if anything new has grown.

Our garden is just over a week old, and everything is still alive, which is very exciting. We're starting to see new buds forming on the tomatoes and peppers, and some of our strawberries are getting pretty big. I hope that we will be able to taste the fruits of our labor sometime soon! Here are some pictures of our adventures in gardening!

He's a RAD Dude

Here we go, yet again. Another waive of illness has stricken our family. Right now it's Ben's turn to be down with it, after the other three of us have already had our turn. He started with a fever and a cough on Sunday morning, and he hasn't really gotten any better. And of course, in true Benny style, he started to get the respiratory issues. He hasn't been too bad, and we've been on top of it with regular breathing treatments and running the humidifier, but that just hasn't cut it. He had to stay home from school today (they took his temperature at 3:55 on Tuesday and he had a fever, which knocks him out for the whole next day), so he spent the day with my mom. Apparently Grandma looked like a comfy mattress, because he slept on her almost all day. That is really not like him, and the last time he got so sleepy and lethargic it was because he wasn't getting enough oxygen. So I decided that a trip to urgent care probably wasn't such a bad idea. So after dinner, off we went. Thankfully, there is a pediatric urgent care about 1/4 mile from our house. We were there for 2 hours, got 2 breathing treatments and a steroid injection, and got 4 prescriptions as lovely parting gifts. The doctor was awesome and really spent time with us explaining what was going on. He was able to tell us that Ben has bronchitis and Reactive Airway Disease (RAD). Basically, he's got very sensitive lungs and when he gets a cold, the tubes that lead to his lungs tend to get inflamed and restrict his airway. He warned us to not let anyone tell us that he has asthma, which is completely different from RAD. He suggested that once we get past this flare up, we should meet with our pediatrician and discuss and more aggressive preventative treatment. Poor guy. The good news is that he should grow out of it. When that may happen is anyone's guess. Hopefully we can get it under control soon so we can put a stop to these frequent flare ups!

Words, Words, Words!

Ben seems to be close to hitting the "word explosion" that toddlers go through. It seems as though he's spouting off a new word every day! I've been wanting to post some of his words so that in a few years we can look back and remember this fun stage! Here, in no particular order are some of Ben's favorite words:

Nana = Banana. This kid loves bananas so it's no surprise he learned this one so quickly!
Shoe
Na-n = Mommy. Don't ask me why.
Daddy
Joshua
Doggie - and he'll sometimes say Copper, too
Up
Down
Out
Ho = Help - this is one of my favorites! If he's having trouble doing something, he'll look at you and say ho-ho-ho, and his mouth is so animated about it. Love it!
sesast = breakfast.
Dite = light
Uh-oh
cheese
sees = Please
da-chu = Thank you
Hello = telephone. He picks up any phone he can find, puts it to his ear and says "Hello!"
Bubble
Hi!
Ball
tractor
tissue
doctor
yes
yeah
bench
kitty
fishy
towel
window
glasses
Moooooo cow
Lots of animal sounds

I know there are tons more that I am blanking on right now. But you get the idea. He is very much NOT the Silent Bob his big brother was at this age. This morning he surprised me by putting two words together, which is something he hasn't really done before. After he was done with breakfast, he started pulling at the straps on his booster seat and said "Want out." When I repeated back to him "you want out?" he replies "Yeah." That's the first time we have had such a dialog. Very exciting!

Welcome, Baby Adria

What a happy day it was on Tuesday! Andrew's sister, Kerri, and her husband Jonathon, welcomed their first child, Adria Lynn Jones. She was 7 lbs 4 oz, 20 inches long and so beautiful! She looks so much like her mama already. We couldn't be happier for them. Kerri and Jonathon are going to make wonderful parents. We're so excited to make a trip out to Las Vegas next month to meet our newest little neice (this makes number 6 on the neice/nephew ticker for those of your keeping score at home!). Isn't she just so pretty? Congrats Kerri and Jonathon. You done good!

Thought It Was A Booger But It's-Not

Josh got a cool new red shirt that he wants to show to all of his friends tomorrow. However, he wore it for a good part of the day, so obviously it needed to be washed. For some reason, this was upsetting to Josh, and through the ensuing tears, this exchange occurred:

Daddy: "But Josh, we need to wash your shirt for tomorrow... it's dirty!"

Josh: "No, it ISN'T DIRTY!!!"

Daddy: "Yes it is buddy. See, there is a giant booger, right there" *points to big booger in the middle of the shirt* (he's 3, it happens!)

Josh: "NO. THERE'S. NOT!!! It's a LITTLE booger!!!"

Despite Josh's rock solid rebuttal, the shirt made it into the wash...

Josh's New Room

I don't know what it is about Sundays. Every other day of the week the kids are good nappers. But on Sunday, they both seem to balk at the thought of a mid-day snooze. Thankfully Josh will hang out in his room for an hour or so giving us a little break, so we'll take what we can get I suppose. This past Sunday, Josh apparently had a bit too much energy for sleeping. After he was in his room for a an hour and a half or so, he came out of his room and announced that he had to show me something. I followed him in his room and found that a tornado had hit while he was in there. His bed, which is usually in the corner against the wall, was in the center of his room... the top drawer of his dresser was on the floor with all of the contents strewn about and I think every book he owns was somewhere on the floor. I thought about taking a picture, but before I went to get the camera I had already begun to clean it, without even realizing it! Darn obsessive nature! I asked him why he did that, more amazed than upset, and he told me he wanted his bed a different way. So, I decided to rearrange his room. He was so exited that the side of his bed wasn't up against the wall anymore and that he could get out of either side. He is so proud of his new room that he has been meticulously keeping it clean. When we were reading our bedtime books, he wouldn't even let the book we weren't reading touch the floor because that would mess up his new room. And when we got home this afternoon, he said that he couldn't watch TV until his covers were all fixed. Maybe we should rearrange the furniture in every room so that Josh will do all the cleaning for me! It could work, right?

Snow Day!

This weekend we decided to take a day trip up to Flagstaff and show the kids snow for the first time. We had been telling Joshua throughout the week that we were going to go see the snow on Saturday. On Wednesday he woke up convinced that today was the day we were going to the snow. He was devastated when he learned the sad truth... that he would need to wait 3 more days. But thankfully, he survived the disappointment.

We left for our trip at about 8:30 a.m. We were about 40 miles or so outside of Flagstaff and still hadn't seen one little patch of snow. We started to get a little concerned, even though I had confirmed with the visitor's bureau the day before that all of the recreation areas were still covered in the white stuff. But about 5 minutes later, we started to see little patches, which turned into big patches, which turned into a complete covering of snow. Josh, who had been utterly bored (but extremely well behaved) until that point, got so excited, and kept telling us over and over again about all the snow he was seeing (just in case we didn't see it ourselves).. We were beginning to think we didn't even have to get out of the car and he would still be completely satisfied.

Turns out we couldn't have picked a better day for our little jaunt! The temperature was in the mid 50's, and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. We didn't even need jackets! We decided to go to Fort Tuthill on the southern edge of Flagstaff. Turns out we were the ONLY ones there. It was awesome to have the entire place to ourselves. Joshua was mesmerized by the snow. Ben on the other hand wasn't much of a fan... wouldn't touch the stuff. But once he had a shovel to play with, he decided it wasn't all bad. After a few minutes of play, Joshua started saying that his hands were hurting from the cold (we didn't have gloves yet), so we decided to head into town to track down some gloves and get some lunch. We found a little ski/camping shop and got some really nice gloves for Josh, Andrew and I. After a good lunch at Chili's we headed back to Fort Tuthill where we were still the only people in sight. We played for an hour or two, making snowmen, snow angels and throwing snowballs. Then we hopped back in the car and headed to Starbucks for hot chocolate (Joshua's idea, naturally). After finishing our cocoa, we hopped back in the car and headed home.

It was amazing. The kids spent over 4 hours in the car and I don't think anyone cried all day. I don't think our day could have been any better. I see us doing this many many more times. Here are some photos of our fun day of play!

I Still Do!

Last night our church had a marriage recommitment ceremony. It was amazing. My friend Jennifer organized the event, and asked me to be a part of the planning team for it. For the last 6 weeks or so we've been planning this wedding for 40 couples, and it has been so much fun. It certainly turned into a grand affair. I'll have to let the pictures speak for themselves! I was given the honor of providing the musical accompaniment to communion, singing "I Will Be Here" by Steven Curtis Chapman. Everything turned out so beautiful. I spent the whole day at church helping to make bouquets of roses for the 40 brides. It was a great time of female bonding, and so much fun.

Of course the most important part of the evening was that Andrew and I got to reaffirm our marriage vows. I've heard people say the first seven years of marriage are the hardest. April will be our 7th wedding anniversary, so the timing was perfect. And it was wonderful to share that time with many from our church family, including some incredible friends. It was truly a night to remember!

Twilight Bandwagon

Yes, I have hopped on! I am about 50 pages away from being done with the series, and it has been quite an enjoyable read. I'm sure that I will probably read it again at some point. This series is quite the phenomenon. I know multiple people that have gotten completely addicted. The biggest "Twerd" I know is my friend Jennifer. Jennifer is attending Twicon, the Twilight Convention, in July, and entered a commercial contest, and asked us to be actors in it. If you haven't read the books, you'll have absolutely NO idea what is going on, but if you have read them, it's AWESOME! Check it out and don't forget to rate it! And remember, Andrew and I will be available for autographs! =)

Enough is Enough

Ben is getting to know his pediatrician a little too well lately. We were back in the office today, for what we thought was going to be an 18 month well check. Instead, it turned into a double breathing treatment/steroid injection visit. He's been kind of congested over the last few days and we have been giving him the breathing treatments at home, but going all day at school without a treatment has proven to be too much for him. He got sent home from school on Monday, and when we kept him home yesterday and were able to do the treatments every 4 hours or so, he was totally fine. So we thought we were doing better. Andrew, who got to endure the doctor's visit today... with both kids... said that he sounded OK when he picked him up from school, but got progressively worse on the car ride, until he was coughing continually by the time they got to the doctor. So now he has to get rechecked tomorrow and has to take a preventative steroid by way of the nebulizer everyday for at least the next 2 months. Poor kid. I guess the breathing issues are going to be his "thing". They haven't diagnosed him with asthma, but he seems to be prone to upper respiratory issues when he gets even a little bit sick. After 2 breathing treatments, he was pretty amped up and crazy by the time we got him home. But thankfully the high wore off right around time for his last treatment of the day, right before bed, and he zonked out about 30 seconds into the treatment.

In all these trips to the doctor, Benny is a pro at the whole routine. He knows how they take his pulse-ox, pointing his little index finger out as soon as he sees the clip coming. He is totally calm and doesn't fight against the examination, which is uncommon for this age, and today, he was even saying "doctor" plain as day. He's such an easy going kid, even when he's being poked and prodded. You just gotta love him!

What NOT To Say To A Woman

A scene at our dinner table this evening:

Ben, sitting in Mommy's chair, pats the chair to have Mommy sit with him

Mommy: "Benny, you're sitting there, I don't think I'll fit."

Josh (to Mommy): "Your butt is reaaallly big."

Dance Machine!

I Guess That Explains It

We found out today why Joshua's fever was so out of control on Monday. He has the flu.... again. He got it last year, too. So now he has had it twice despite getting the flu shot every year of his life. Why do we even bother!?! He seemed to be doing so much better yesterday. He still had a fever, but was being so silly and seemed to be feeling tons better. But then he started saying he couldn't hear the TV, and we noticed he was talking really loud, so we started thinking that maybe he had an ear infection. He's ever only had one and that was 2 years ago, but of course it's possible. Then today, he clearly was feeling awful again, just wanting to cuddle, looking pale with sunken eyes. It's so sad to see him like that. So, I decided to take him to the doctor today to make sure he didn't need any antibiotics. She listened to his chest and said she heard some off and on rattling around in there, so she sent us for a chest x-ray to make sure it wasn't pneumonia, and she also recommended checking him for the flu. There's nothing they can do about the flu, but at least then we know what we're dealing with. He was none too pleased about having a Q-Tip stuck up his nose, and even less pleased about having to lay down to do it, but we got it done. While we were waiting at the imaging facility for the x-ray, he cuddled up on my lap and kept dozing off, which is so unlike him, even when he is sick. He did a good job getting his chest x-ray. He wasn't happy about having to take his shirt off, but I don't blame him. He has a fever and the chills, so stripping down doesn't exactly sound appealing. He cried through the whole thing, but completely cooperated. But thankfully it was not pneumonia and we just have to wait this one out. He's had his fever since Sunday, so we're hoping to see it come down soon. It could take a week to go away. Since Josh got this right after Ben was sick, we're assuming that Ben also got the flu despite his flu shot. The doctor recommended that, since these boys are apparently prone to the flu, that we get the nasal vaccination this fall which seems to be more effective than the shot. We'll consider that. But, I'm starting to think this flu vaccine isn't all its cracked up to be!

105.8

That is definitely the scariest reading we have ever seen on a thermometer, but there it was plain as day this afternoon. Joshua's fever reached the danger point, and was still 2 hours away from being able to take his next dose of Motrin. We are not rush to the hospital people, so we decided to take a little bit more of a conservative route. My mom suggested putting him in a tepid bath, and the pediatrician said we could give him some Tylenol since it was too early for Motrin, so after about an hour his fever was down to 103. Fevers are kind of like gas prices. After seeing 105.8, 103 didn't seem too bad! So tonight we will be checking him periodically to make sure he hasn't spiked again and will be keeping a close eye on him tomorrow. Tomorrow will be another tag-team day for Andrew and I, both of us needing to have some time in the office, so each of us working short days. It's hectic, but we make it work.

Done!

At just 2 days shy of 7 months, I have finally settled my accident claim. Thank goodness that is behind us! I am pretty proud of myself though. I handled the whole thing by myself, and negotiated with them pretty agressively, and was able to settle for just $63 less than my goal. The check should be in the mail today. All in all, I was very fortunate to not have any real lasting affects from my injuries. And I have to admit, I kind of enjoyed playing the game with the insurance company. They treated me more like they would treat a lawyer than any Joe Schmoe handling their claim, which helped. Not that I gave them much of a choice. I made it pretty clear to them from the get go that I knew my stuff and that they didn't intimidate me. I am happy with my settlement and so thankful that it is all over!

Round 2

Well, as is usually the case, one kid is all better and now the other is down. Josh now has a fever and a cough and had to stay home from school today. We're hoping this little bout with illness won't hit him quite so hard and that he'll be up and running again much quicker than Ben was, and we can get back to our normal routine! It's hard to juggle sick kids and 2 full time jobs! But thank you, God for always providing a way.

The Perfect Storm

That is how Ben's doctor described him this morning. What a time it was! He's got an ear infection, a nose running like a faucet causing the skin under his nose to be bright red and raw, he is wheezing something awful and has a nasty cough. It seems like there isn't much that he doesn't have right now! So, first order of business was to listen to the breathing. Very tight and forced. So we did a 10 minute breathing treatment. After that, the doctor came in and said that she wanted to check his pulse-ox before giving him a steroid injection for his lungs. His pulse-ox ended up being only 87, when it should have been at least 92. The MA said that was "very bad". So the doctor had me give him a second breathing treatment and added a second medication to the mix to try to open up his airway better. After that, his pulse-ox measured 93. Whew! I was then informed that if it hadn't have gone above 92 after the second treatment, we would have been making a trip to the hospital, so we are VERY thankful to have dodged that bullet! So he was able to get his steroid injection, and then we had to hang out for 15 minutes to make sure he didn't have any reactions to the medications. He also got an antibiotic shot for his ear infection. They need to treat this infection a bit more aggressively since he just had one in the same ear 3 weeks ago and that was treated with the more potent of the 2 standard antibiotics for ear infections. So the poor baby got 2 pokes and 2 breathing treatments at the doctor today. They also gave us a lovely parting gift... our very own nebulizer! So now we get to do breathing treatments every 4 hours. You're jealous, I know. But after our trip to the doctor today, he has been doing so much better. He is definitely on his way to being our old Benny again. Since his breathing was so bad today, they want to see him back again tomorrow for a recheck, but after that, we hope we're in the clear. He'll have a few days of oral antibiotics and steroids, but it definitely looks like the worst is over. These kids don't get sick much, but when they do, they really go for it!

Poor Benny :(

Benny has been in a bad way these last few days. He came down with a fever on Saturday, and on Sunday and into Monday his cough was unbearable. He has held onto the fever, and at times it has been up to over 104. He is so miserable, my poor little guy. I was unable to stay home with him today due to unavoidable work conflicts, so Andrew stayed home with the boys and pretty much served as Ben's personal mattress. Ben just couldn't keep those sad little eyes open today, sleeping at least 8 hours throughout the day. This from a kid who gives us only an 1 1/2 hour nap most days, if we're lucky. Despite all that daytime slumber, he still sacked out before he was even in his crib at bedtime. When I got home from work this evening and took over the cuddling duties, I noticed that his left ear was also starting to goop again. So not only does he have a really bad cold, or possibly even the flu, he's got an ear infection to boot. Can't a 17 month old get a break! So tomorrow it's my turn to stay home and get him into the doctor ASAP to start another round of antibiotics. Since he was just treated for an ear infection in the same ear less than 3 weeks ago, I am praying that we won't have to start the discussion of putting tubes in his ears. Please pray for little Ben to start feeling better quickly. My poor little guy. It breaks my heart to see him this way! But despite feeling as bad as he does, he still can light up a room with that sweet smile. You just gotta love him!

Josh's New Look

We picked up Joshua's glasses on Saturday morning, and he has done better with them than I could have ever hoped. He has worn them constantly since we picked them up, and is so excited to have them. My old friend, Matthew, from high school works in the optical at the Sam's Club out at the San Tan mall, so we decided to have him help us pick out the right frames and get the fitted just right. Matt's been doing this since high school, and he has a 2 year old, so I knew he would do a great job. Plus, Sam's Club has awesome prices on glasses, so that mixed with our insurance got us the glasses for next to nothing! We're assuming he is seeing better, since he seems to enjoy wearing them, but it's hard to tell. I think he looks so stinkin' cute in these little wire frames. They make him look so much older and distinguished! So much better than the ugly plastic frames we grew up with!

Change

From the man behind the curtain (i.e. Andrew), I just wanted to let everyone know that I have changed the Comments feature to only allow comments from registered users. Additionally, if a fake profile is used in an attempt to post anonymously, I will delete those immediately as well. While people do have a right to say anything they want in regards to our posts, there have been a few "anonymous" comments lately, and if people aren't brave enough to post their name along with their negative comments, then they won't be posting on our blog at all. I apologize for the inconvenience to those of you who don't currently have Blogger or Google accounts. Thanks to everyone else for their positive comments and words of encouragement, and I hope whoever has been leaving negative comments anonymously will either grow a pair and at least post their name along with it. Or even better, in the words of the band Third Day, and countless mothers around the world, "If you can't say nothing nice, don't say nothin' at all".

Temper, Temper

I can see it coming. Looming on the horizon is an 18 month old. I have dreaded this for the last 17 months. People talk about the terrible 2's, but that is all just nonsense. 18 months is what should be feared. As Ben approaches his 18 month mark, we can see the calmness that we have always enjoyed with him giving way to something else entirely. We have definitely noticed that his temper has taken a front seat lately (thanks, Daddy!). He has started shrieking in protest and will stomp his feet and sometimes even hit if he is not getting his way. I think these next few months are going to be trying with him. But we have a leg up on the 18 month old experience that we didn't have last time.... we've already been through it and have come out the other side survivors.

Don't get me wrong... I know 18 months old isn't all bad. He's still one of the sweetest little guys ever, is learning new things and new words everyday, and is so much fun to be around. And that little devilish grin melts all the bad stuff away.

We'll get through this right of passage time in parenting. Just remind me of that when I'm asking "Is it over yet?"

Happy New Year!

Okay, so it's a little late, but better late than never!

2008 has come and gone. Overall it was a pretty quiet year... a few bumps along the way, but nothing to either extreme. We rung in the new year in true Maple fashion... we stayed at home, which is really the only place we want to be on New Years Eve. We let Joshua join in some of the festivities, roasting marshmallows and making smores in our firepit out back. He has been talking about wanting to do this ever since he found out we did it with some friends over Thanksgiving. I guess he really felt like he missed out on something, so we decided that New Years was a great time to do it. He loved roasting the marshmallows, but he didn't like to eat the roasted ones. I guess it's an acquired taste. So I let him roast mine (he did a pretty good job, and they can't be burned enough for me anyway!) then he ate regular unroasted ones. After enjoying our fire for a short while... we had planned on longer, but the wood wasn't burning very well... I put Joshua to bed, and then Andrew and I played video games for a while. We finally have a second nunchuck for the Wii, so we were able to box each other, which was a lot of fun. We'll have to remember that when we next have an argument! After feasting on some jalepeno poppers and other junk food, as is our tradition, and all the Wii bowling, tennis and boxing, I was pretty wiped out. I didn't even make it to midnight for the first time. I was in bed at 11:30. Andrew stayed up all by his lonesome.

On New Years Day we decided to take the kids over to the McCormick Stillman Railroad Park in Scottsdale to spend the morning. It was really fun and not overly crowded. The train ride was really long and most of it was decked out in Christmas decorations. They run the train at night over Christmas time and everything is beautifully lit. We were sorry to have missed our chance to see it at night, but now know to make sure that gets on our list of things to do next Christmas.

I got Friday off of work and was able to get together with my best friend, Gabrielle. Her two boys are the same ages as my two, so everyone had a good time playing at the park. Unfortunately, our visit was cut a little short since, while we were at the park I noticed green goo in Ben's left ear. That's right. Another ruptured eardrum. So I got him into the doctor that afternoon. Thankfully this one isn't too bad and after 10 days of Augmenton, he should be good as new. Poor guy.

So now the holidays are officially over and everything is back to normal. I wonder what 2009 will bring...

No I Amn't

Andrew and I don't have a big history or tons of experience with children before our little whipper snappers came along. So sometimes we're not sure if what our kids are doing is "normal" or "advanced" or even "freakish." But to us, this latest Joshua-ism seems to fall more under the freakishly smart category, but please correct us if we're wrong. Joshua has invented a new word. Not even a new word, really, but a new contraction. Amn't, as in am not. Since this isn't a real word as defined by Webster, I have found myself wondering, why not? "Are not" contract. "Is not" contract. Why not "Am not". Okay, maybe it doesn't roll of the tongue as well as "I'm not" and that's probably why those geniuses that came up with the English language decided to go that route instead. In pondering how he conjured up this word, we concluded that he really understands how contractions are formed well enough to think, "well, I haven't really heard anyone say this, but it makes sense to me." We stand with our verdict that he is a stinkin' smart little boy.

Old Friends

On Wednesday I was able to get together with my long time friend Peter, who I know from high school. Peter and I go all the way back to early Freshman year. He even introduced me to the guy who ended up being my first kiss (that guy's a whole other story... don't ask!). We have remained friends all these years, but haven't seen each other since my wedding, but have talked randomly on Myspace. Since I have seen him last, he has graduated from medical school and is now a resident at a hospital in NYC. It's so strange to think of him being a real honest to goodness doctor, but on the other hand, it doesn't surprise me one little bit. He was in town for New Years, and so we were able to get together. Andrew was nice enough to stay home with the boys so Peter and I could go have lunch and catch up. After lunch we came back to the house so Peter could meet the boys. Joshua warmed up to him right as he was leaving, but Ben loved him from the start. The funniest thing was that when Peter was playing with Ben, Ben ran over to the toy bins and pulled out Joshua's toy doctor set and brought it over to him and they played with it together. So cute. It was really great to see him, and I hope we can get together again when he is in town.

SPECK-tacular!

I took Josh for his ophthalmology appointment today. Turns out his cornea abrasion is all healed up and we don't have to do any more ointment, which is a blessing since it was almost impossible to get him to hold still so I didn't give him another good poke in the eye trying to treat his poke in the eye! But we did find out that he is pretty significantly nearsighted, especially the left eye. So nearsighted that they gave me a prescription for glasses. Not really a shocker to us. He's never seemed to have any trouble seeing, but Andrew was in glasses at 3 and I was in glasses at 4, so here we go down this road! I am actually quite excited about him wearing glasses. The eye doctor's office had a children's optical in it, so I got to try a few pairs of glasses on him, and OMG he looks SO cute! They make him look about 5 years old! I was really wishing I would have brought the camera. In addition to being stinkin' adorable, I think he won't want to sit so close to the TV anymore, and won't have to stick his nose in books. For some reason we never equated this to his vision. But I guess hindsight is 20/20. It all makes perfect sense now. The optical in the doctor's office didn't take our vision insurance, so we'll have to go somewhere else, but the frames he showed me were pretty kick-booty. The entire frame was completely flexible, and therefore virtually impossible to break. They cost a pretty penny (of course!), but I think it is worth it to spend a little more money on some frames that we won't have to replace in 3 months because he's a 3 year old who falls down a lot! So now I'm trying to get him excited about wearing glasses. My parents believe that he will want to wear them when he realizes how well he can see with them, so I hope they're right. They are the experts, you know. So I think finding some specktaculars for Josh is our mission for the weekend. Wish us luck!

Ain't That a Poke in the Eye

Poor Josh got a pretty good eye poke today. So bad we had to make an unexpected late afternoon trip to the doctor. Apparently the whole thing happened while he was playing on the playground at the mall. He somehow got poked in the eye, be it by another kid, himself or playground equipment, I guess we'll never know. But he quickly seemed to be okay, until later this afternoon when he started crying that his eye hurt. After that it was off and on every 10-15 minutes. He'd be fine, and then all of a sudden he'd be wailing in pain. So Andrew gave him a wash cloth to compress on his eye, and called the doctor who was able to fit him in this afternoon. Turns out he has a cornea abrasion. So tomorrow morning we get to go to the pediatric ophthalmologist to get it checked out. The rest of the afternoon and evening was more of the same with the pain. We gave him some Motrin which seemed to at least space out the spells of pain a little more, and he kept that wash cloth on his eye the rest of the night. What a sad little sight! But he's been a trooper and I'm sure he'll be just fine. The doctor said that these things heal with in a day or two so hopefully by tomorrow he'll be back in tip top shape. It tears your heart out to see your little guy in pain like that and not be able to make it go away. So hopefully the eye doctor goes well tomorrow, and more importantly, I hope that sleeping goes well tonight. Wish us luck!

THE MACHINE!!!

I am completely unashamed to say that I totally use bribery with my kids. Sometimes you do whatever works. My little trick to get Joshua to be a good listener in the grocery store is to dangle the idea of playing with the claw machine in front of him. Works like a charm! We have never actually won anything, but he still gets a big kick out of it. So yesterday, we took a family trip to the grocery store. Joshua was talking about the machine the whome time we were there, and was being a pretty good boy, so while Daddy was checking out, I took him over to the machine. After the two attemps we got with our dollar, we were so close to winning something, I just had to pull out another $.50 and try one more time. That was all we needed... we won! Josh ended up with a blue Christmas cap. To say he was elated would be an understatement. He started jumping up and down and shrieking at the top of his lungs "We got something out of the machine! We got something out of the Machine!" I look over at Andrew who is probably about 100 feet away at the checkstand, and he is cracking up. Apparently the whole store knew that Joshua had won something from the machine, from the sheer volume of his excitement. The whole way home we heard about 50 different recounts of the tale about when a boy named Joshua got something out of the Machine. What a magical day that was! Gotta love what excites a 3 year old!

Merry Christmas 2008!

Another Christmas has come and gone, and they just seem to get better every year! Christmas for us started at church on Christmas Eve. Christmas Eve service is very different from every other week out of the year, with the biggest difference being that there is no children's programming. I cringe every year when I remember that my children will have to sit through an hour long church service! We sat with our friends the Millers and Schrotenboers, both who have kids our kids' age. The kids did awesome during church. Josh made a beautiful manger scene with stickers, and pigged out on some cookies we had brought. Hey dude, whatever keeps you quiet! Towards the end, everyone started to get a little antsy, so my friend Cynthia (aka my new hero!) pulled out some glow sticks and handed them out to the kids. Everyone was completely entertained the rest of the service and we made it out without a tear or tantrum. Merry Christmas to Mommy and Daddy!

After church we headed over to Grandma and Grandpa B's in Avondale for dinner and presents with the whole family (except Kerri and Jonathon... we missed you guys!). It was great. This year they decided to move the Christmas tree into their larger living room, which made all the difference from last year! The kids had room to run around and it was a completely enjoyable evening among family. Grandma and Grandpa went a little overboard! I didn't think the gifts for the kids were going to end! =) Everyone liked their gifts, and more importantly, we all enjoyed the company.

We got back home around 10:00 and after putting cookies out for Santa (which Joshua was about half conscious for) got the boys in bed. Our second Christmas present from the boys is that they slept until 7:30! That was awesome. We got to sleep in a little bit, and I was even able to get a jump on the coffee cake I was making for breakfast. I'll post the video so you can see Josh's reaction to all things Santa. it was great!

After opening our gifts, Grandpa and Grandma Maple and Auntie Andrea came over for breakfast, and of course more gifts. I made a yummy egg casserole and sour cream coffee cake. Just as we were sitting down for breakfast, our phone rang and it was a neighbor on the street right behind us saying that she has "Cooper". It took it a second to click that she was talking about Copper, our dog. We have no idea when she got out, but apparently she made it around the corner. Thankfully they were nice enough to take her in and call us, and that she still had the tag with our phone number on it. So I ran around the corner to pick her up. I suppose our Christmas drama could have been much more dramatic, but we are thankful that it wasn't! The rest of our time with Grandpa and Grandma was great. Auntie Andrea got Josh some Curious George books (one of his favorites) and as soon as he opened them he plopped down in Grandpa's lap to read them.

We finished off our Christmas day with homemade spaghetti and meatballs and a new garlic bread recipe that was really good, and then jumped in the car to see Christmas lights, as is our Christmas night tradition.

We wrapped up our Christmas celebration on Friday, December 26th with a delicious prime rib dinner with Grandma and Granddad. Josh got to play with Jacob, who sufficiently wore him out, and Ben and Grace (who is now a professional walker...yay!) got to play together.

As this Christmas as drawn to a close, I already find myself looking forward to next year when Ben and Grace will be running and talking 2 year olds, Cheyenne will be running around with everyone else and Baby Adria will be here. But until then, we will cherish the memories of this Christmas. It was a great one!

Lights, Lights and More Lights!

This Christmas season has been so much fun. We really decided to take advantage of lots of activities available around the Valley this year, since Josh is at the perfect age to enjoy the festivities, and Ben will go along for any ride as long as the tummy is full. Most of the things we ended up doing revolved around Christmas lights. What other time of year can you see millions and millions of different colored twinkling lights? Our first stop was at the APS Electric Light Parade float judging competition. Every year the floats for the parade are judged in the parking lot of the kids' school, and they make a big party out of it. The trip turned into a family affair, with my parents, my sister and her kids. It was a lot of fun. Ben was happy to chill in his stroller and take in all the sights, while Joshua set out on a mission to find any float that he could climb onto. After seeing all of the floats, we went back to Grandma and Granddad's house for some hot chocolate.

The very next night the City of Chandler was having their light parade and tumbleweed tree lighting. Our small group made an impromptu decision to all meet up and watch the parade together, which actually worked like a charm! (Thank God for cell phones!) Joshua thought the parade was the coolest thing he'd ever seen. It was so great to have his friends there and keep him entertained. Ben even enjoyed it, pointing at the brightly colored floats and clapping to the music.

Finally, as we try to do every year, we went to Zoolights. This year was so much more fun than last year with Mr. Grumpy Pants. We had invited our friends Jennifer and Brandon Miller and their boys to come along with us. It's always fun to do things with friends! The boys (Josh and Nathaniel) had a blast and got to ride the carousel together. It was a super cold night out, as it had been raining all week up until earlier that day, so we got to pull out our heavy coats and bundle up, which is a treat for us desert rats!

I'm so happy that we got to fully enjoy the season! Here are some photos of our adventures!

Sex Boo-Boo

I can see that I now have your attention! Okay, so it's a little bit of false advertising, but I couldn't resist! So, on to the Sex Boo-Boo story...

As we have mentioned numerous times before, Joshua is so great at so many things, but physical agility isn't yet one of them. So he frequently falls down and gets hurt in various ways. He has learned to take it like a man, and rarely cries about these things. So when Andrew picked him up from school yesterday, Josh told him that he got two boo-boos today. Andrew asked where, so Josh said "My first boo-boo is right there, and my sex boo-boo is right there." Too funny!

Out With the Old, In With the New

Ever since I went back to work full time, our mornings have been hectic to say the least. I'm up at 5, in order to be ready by 6 so that I can get breakfast and lunches ready. After that we try to get 2 kids dressed and groomed so we can get out the door before 7:00. It's a lot to pack into those 2 hours, but I absolutely refuse to wake up any earlier than 5:00. As Josh gets older, and comes up with new and improved ways to stall in the dressing and grooming department, our out-the-door time has gotten increasingly later. It is time for a new routine. We've decided to get the boys dressed, their hair brushed and shoes on before breakfast. That way the only thing left to do before we leave is brush teeth and hop in the car. Why we didn't try this earlier, I have no idea! I guess our concern was Josh getting syrup on his clothes. But I am totally over that concern. There are much worse things in the world than going to school with a blob of syrup on your shirt. Especially if you're a 3 year old! The last couple mornings have been so much lower stress, and we've gotten out the door a good 10 minutes earlier, so it looks like our new routine is the way to go. Thank goodness!

Wii Fit

Merry Christmas to us! Andrew and I decided to go the old married couple route for Christmas this year, and just get ourselves something as a joint gift. We decided on the Wii Fit... of course the hardest to find gift of the season! After checking a couple stores, we actually ran across one at Toys R Us and snatched it up. It is the coolest thing! You can do yoga, strengthening, aerobics and balance games. You really work up a sweat, and man do your muscles feel the workout the next day. It is a smart system, which helps with your yoga and strengthening form, telling you where to keep your center of balance. I am hooked! One of the most fun things is hula hooping. You look absolutely ridiculous, but it is so much fun and really works the abs and legs. I am able to laugh at myself and how totally dumb I look, so I wanted to share so you can laugh with me. Thanks, Andrew for this little gem of a video! Ha ha! You can't see the screen very well, but I am hula hooping, and when I lean to the side, I'm trying to catch another hoop someone is throwing at me.

The New Me!

I go through the same cycle with my hair every couple years. It will be entirely too long, start to drive me crazy, and then I'll chop it all off. The last time I had my hair cut was May of 2007, so suffice it to say, it could have used a trim. But who should I go to for the job? I had the stereotypical male hairdresser (if you know what I mean) for a couple years, but he constantly salon hopped, and I couldn't keep up with him. Then by happenstance, I found the blog of a girl that I went to high school with, and found out that she is a hair stylist. So last week I decided to go pay her a visit. It was so great! We got to catch up on the last 10 years and I got a great new look! Here's a before picture... not the greatest picture, but at least you can see all the hair.

And here is the new and improved look. What do you think?

(Believe it or not, Joshua took this picture of me.) I am so happy with it. Everyone keeps telling me that this is a great look for me... so I must look pretty bad with the long hair! =) Maybe I'll try a little harder to keep it short and cute. We'll see. The grand total that was cut off was 10 inches. She saved it for me and I plan on sending it to Locks of Love. So it's a win-win-win!

Mr. Independent

I just have one question.... When did Joshua stop needing me? He has become so independent lately. On one hand it's awesome not having to do so much for him, especially with Ben needing so much attention. But on the other hand, where did my baby go? Among the things that he now insists on doing himself: bathing (we are present, but he does all the soaping and rinsing), drying himself off, putting the top buckle of his car seat on AND taking it off (thankfully he has only done this when we are ready to get out of the car); putting on his clothes and shoes, and the newest, putting himself down for his nap. This past weekend he pulled this trick out of his hat. He informed us that he was going to put himself to bed at nap time. After lunch, he went in the bathroom to go potty, came out to give us hugs and kisses, said good-night and went in his room. I went in to check on him after about an hour, and there he was, fast asleep in his bed with his covers pulled all the way up. He even informed me the other day that he doesn't need me anymore... except to do the little buckles on his car seat. So I guess other than that, old mom is obsolete. Oh well. At least I still have a couple more years of being useful to Ben until I am officially put out to pasture!

Ben's 15 Month Checkup

I finally got Ben in for his 15 month checkup last week. I usually do pretty well at getting them in on time, but I kind of spaced on this one, so I was a couple weeks late. Oh well! He is doing awesome. He weighed 22 lbs. 6 oz which brings him all the way up to the 25%, which is incredible after being down below 5% just 6 months ago. He was 31 3/4 inches, which is righ at 50% for his age. When the doctor asked if he has any words, I rattled off his laundry list (including thank you, doggie, Joshua, peek-a-boo, uh-oh, Mama, Dada and diaper). She said that is a lot of words for this age, so we're happy that it's not looking like we're going to go through the same headaches with late talking as we did the first time around. The one piece of not so great news is that he is still mildly anemic. But we know that is entirely our fault. We have been terrible about giving him his iron drops and more often than not he wouldn't get them. The doctor asked that I take him to get his blood drawn, but I think I'm going to hold off on that and be diligent about giving him his iron over the next 3 months and have them retest him with the finger prick test. I don't want him to go through getting his blood drawn because we suck! =) If it is still down at his 18 month appointment, we'll take a closer look. But other than that, he is the picture of health and happiness, and for that we are very thankful.

Thanksgiving 2008

The long Thanksgiving weekend is over. I was so busy doing, that I had no time to blog about the doing! =) My weekend started on Wednesday (boy, do I wish I could say that more often!). It was a rainy, gloomy day outside... perfect to get cooking! As usual, everything that was to be served on the big day was to be homemade, so there was plenty to do. I made the pumpkin pie, the croutons for my homemade apple sausage stuffing and, for the first time ever, homemade cranberry sauce. It was such a fun day, being alone in my house, listening to Christmas music and cooking away. All the boys got home around 3 and I ran Ben to his 15 month checkup (see next post for the details on that), and ran a couple other errands with my littlest sidekick. Because our fridge was so stocked with the makings of a Thanksgiving dinner, and the fact that I would be cooking all day the next day, we decided that In n Out was the way to go for dinner. =) After the boys were in bed, Andrew and I set out to clean the house.

Thanksgiving day was awesome. My parents came over mid-morning, and we all had a pretty low key day, chasing kids, drinking wine and enjoying each other's company. Our new friends Wade, Cynthia, Lil' Wade (not Wade Jr.) and Mason, from church came over for dinner and we all had a really nice time. The food was awesome if I do say so myself. We had herb roasted turkey, apple sausage stuffing, fruited sweet potatoes with struesel topping, mashed potatoes with herb butter, steamed green beans, homemade cranberries and jalepeno cheddar cornbread muffins. You should be sorry you missed it. =) After dinner we took the boys to the park to work off some of that food, and then came back home for pie!

Somehow Cynthia talked me into going Black Friday shopping with her at the crack of dawn. She, being midly crazy, wanted to go to Toys R Us. Toys R Us. On Black Friday. Sounds like walking through the gates of hell to me, but maybe it won't be so bad. It was so bad. The 2 lines went from the front to the back of the store. After finding a few decent deals for her kids (she's got to buy 2 of everything having 2 year old twins!) we got in line and waited... and waited... and waited. We were in line for about 20-30 minutes, and had not yet gotten to the half-way mark. All that waiting gave her time to second guess her purchases, and in the end we ditched the cart and got the heck out of there. But we had a nice time anyway. =)

On Saturday we decided to put up our Christmas Tree. Josh did a great job helping decorate the tree, and of course wanted to hang three or four ornaments all on the same branch. =) Our tree looks awesome with all of our special memory ornaments. It's always so fun to talk about what each ornament represents. After the tree was up, we decided to go visit Santa at the mall. We got there early enough in the day that there wasn't much of a line, and the mall was virtually dead. We thought this would be the year that they wouldn't let us take our own picture, when we saw a sign asking us to "refrain from using your own camera." What? yes, I want a picture with Santa, but I'm not about to pay $14.99 for one 4x6. Sorry kids. Mommy is way too cheap for that. But I sweetly asked one of Santa's helpers and she told me it would be okay. It's not the greatest of pictures, but I got my picture so I'm happy. =)

On Sunday evening some dear friends that moved to Tennessee a few years ago were in town and came over for dinner. Thanks to them, we finally broke in our firepit that has been sitting unused on our back patio for about a year! It was so fun to sit and chat, roast marshmallows and make smores. I think that will have to be a tradition whenever they come to visit!

So now it's back to work, back to school and the normal everyday life. But the Christmas season is here, and I am so excited about all of the things we will be doing over the next month. I LOVE the holidays! =)

Fright Night

Our poor little Joshua has begun to have bad dreams. The first was about a week ago. We were all sleeping peacefully until we hear wailing coming from Josh's room, and then quickly increase in volume as he is running down he hall to our bedroom and jumping into bed with us. We cuddled for a few minutes and then went and put him back in his own bed, telling him that if he gets scared he should talk to God and ask Him to take the scary things away. Unfortunately, he didn't sleep very well the rest of the night and ended up back in our room about 3 more times. On each trip back to his bedroom, we would get a little more of the story. By morning we had gotten a pretty good idea of what was so scary. You see, a choo choo train was coming down our street, and then a big rock fell in the street right outside his bedroom and went "Boom Boom". And at some point he was being chased by a dinosaur. Poor guy. No wonder he was scared! But we moved on and didn't think a whole lot more about it until we saw this article in the Arizona Republic Wait a minute... Big rock? Check. Boom Boom? Check. Monsters? (Dinosaurs) Check. Now THAT is pretty darn freaky!

Josh has had a couple more bad dreams since then, but no more of them have predicted the future! Hopefully this will be a short-lived phase and we can all rest a little more peacefully.

Fruit, Fruit, Fruit For The Home Team

Big Boy Classroom

Now that Ben is a professional walker and eater (that last one has never been an issue!) he was ready to move up into the one-year-old classroom at school. Miss Robin, his teacher in the old classroom, was reluctant to give him up, but she gave him the green light last week to move on up. Today was his first day with the older kids, and he handled it like a rock star. He walked in the classroom with a look of curiosity and wonder, and as soon as he saw the new and exciting toys to play with, he was off. He will now be able to enjoy lots of amenities the school has to offer, such as the ball room and the playground. Probably the biggest change for him is that he no longer takes his naps in a crib, but on a little cot. I was curious to see how this went, seeing how he has never slept in an unconfined environment before. But he fell asleep with no problem and took a super long nap - 3 hours! Maybe we should get him into a bed at home if he will take those kinds of naps! =) One definite bonus is now our daycare bill has decreased about $60 per month, so yay for more money! It's a little sad for us for him to be in that room without Miss Kim, who was the greatest one-year-old teacher ever! But if today was any indication on how well he will handle the transition, we're sure he'll do just fine!

Enough Already!

Again yesterday I got the call from Daycare. This time about Ben. The director told me he had thrown up and had a low grade fever. She was really cool about it though, and didn't ask us to pick him up early. I think they were enjoying hanging out with him in the office, because let's face it, he's pretty awesome. =) So once again we need to devise our plan for tomorrow since he is banned from school for 24 hours. My mom is a saint and agreed to watch him the whole day since, of course, it happened on a day that would difficult for either of us to take off. So all last evening Ben is eating lots and acting pretty much normal, and was completely fever and vomit free this morning. I spoke to my mom and it sounds like they are having a lot of fun together, so I guess it all works out in the end.

But my question is this.... can we please have ONE WEEK where no one gets sick, there are no holidays or other activities and/or daycare is closed. I feel like a circus juggler lately trying to balance everything. Lord, give me strength!

Peek-A-Boo! And Other Random Ben Facts

Ben is now a full on participant in the game of peek-a-boo. Yes, he has been playing the game for many months, hiding himself under a blanket and then whipping it off to "surprise" us. But in the last couple days he has actually started saying peek-a-boo. Well, at least he tries to say it. It really sounds more like "da-da-doo". But he will try to cover his eyes with his hands and when he pulls them away says "da-da-doo!" with a huge grin. Too stinkin' cute!



We're pretty sure that Ben is also trying to say Josh or Joshua. He will say something that sounds kinda like it, and when we then say Joshua, Ben's face will light up, as if to say "You actually get me!" We are starting to see some definite early language development with him, and we are so excited about that. Hopefully he'll keep it up.

We have also tried teaching him a few baby signs, and he's actually picking up on a couple of them. He knows "all done" and "more" and Andrew said that yesterday he did the "eat" sign. He doesn't do the sign for drink, but can get his point across loud and clear by trying to open up the fridge!

One last thing we have noticed with him is that he is understanding more and more of what we say and is following all sorts of commands. He will sit down, put his binky in his crib and give Josh a hug all on command. It's a great feeling to know that we're starting to understand each other!

200 and Counting!

Wow! We've had this blog going for over 3 years, and I have apparently been blogging my little heart out this year. We have reached our 200 post mark! I love being able to keep a record of the things we have done and the progress the kids are making. This blog has really turned into our kids' scrapbook (since who has time for actual scrapbooking!). I love looking back at old posts about when Josh was little, or when Ben was brand new. I think its better than flipping through the pages of a scrapbook. You can access it anywhere you are without having to lug around albums! I tend to be a little long winded (have you noticed?) so this is a great medium for me to keep a family record. I hope that our 3 readers enjoy reading our little corner of the internet as much as we enjoy writing and sharing it. Thanks to anyone who takes time out of their busy day to check in on us. We love you all!

Now, onto 201... I'm a blogging addict!

The Best Laid Plans...

It wasn't a huge shock to us on Monday afternoon when Andrew was told by the daycare that Ben had a fever and so couldn't return to school until Wednesday. He had been somewhat congested and had a very low grade fever on Monday morning, and usually the afternoon is when it really hits. So, of course the preparations began to figure out who was staying home with him. What's hard this week is that we both already have to take a day off of work because daycare is closed Thursday and Friday for teacher training. It's difficult for me to take too much time off of work since I am the one and only employee, and Andrew had something that he had to get done this morning, so we devised the perfect plan. I would drop Ben off at my parents house and my mom would watch him until Andrew was done and Andrew would pick him up, then I would pick Josh up from school that afternoon. Sounds great, right? Wrong! As is always the way, the kid that is being forced to stay home is perfectly fine. Fever is gone and he is rip roaring ready to get into whatever trouble he can find. But as soon as Josh woke up this morning we knew our plan was foiled. He didn't have a fever, but we knew there was something that was not quite right about him. Andrew made his breakfast and sat him down at the table, but he wouldn't touch it, which is very unlike him. Josh is big on breakfast, just like his Mommy. All he wanted to do was cuddle with us. So we decided to keep him out of school today too. Okay, no big deal. Instead of dropping just Ben off, I'll drop them both off. Still a pretty good plan. Oh no. Wrong again. Right after I called my mom to ask her if she could watch them both this morning, without any warning, Josh emptied the contents of his stomach right on the living room rug. And then again on the living room rug...and then again in the hallway. By the time we actually made it into the bathroom, his tummy was feeling just fine again. SO, second change of plans for the morning. The final verdict was that I would stay home until Andrew got done with his work project, and then I would go in. I was at work by 10:30, so I really only missed 2 hours today. But my goodness. This morning gave our normal stressful mornings a real run for their money.

In the end, Josh is completely fine. We figure this was his annual random throw-up that he tends to do. The rest of the day he couldn't get enough food in him. So he should be cleared to go to school tomorrow. The day turned out okay, but what a morning!

Halloween 2008

Halloween has come and gone, and it really was the best one ever! On Wednesday night we carved our pumpkin, and Josh even helped scoop out some of the goo. He quickly decided that job wasn't very glamorous, so of course the rest of the work fell to Mommy. While I was carving what I think was a pretty kick butt pumpkin, Josh set to work painting his very own pumpkin that we had gotten at the farm a couple weeks ago. He had a blast. I put some of each color into paper cups, and showed him how we mix colors and make different colors. He thought that was pretty darn cool. Then I showed him the coolest part of all... at least he thought so. I gave him a cup with just water in it to clean his brushes, and he was amazed that the water would change colors. Before long, the pumpkin painting was forgotten, and we were just getting paint on our paintbrush and making the water change colors. But his pumpkin definitely got sufficiently painted. Benny even helped out some.

Friday was awesome. Andrew and I got off of work early and picked up the kids right after nap. We went to my parents house to show off the costumes, and then came home for dinner and to get ready for the big show! All of my concerns that Josh wouldn't want to wear his costume were completely unfounded, thank goodness!!! He happily got into his costume, and never once complained about it being scratchy or hot. The face painting took a little coaxing, but we finally got him to come around on that, and we ended up with the cutest little guinea pig ever! We went trick or treating down about 3 streets in our neighborhood. Josh was guiding our way, telling us which houses had lights on that we could go to. Ben was really getting in on the fun too. Whenever someone would hold out their bowl for him, he would take his candy and drop it in his bucket, like an ol' pro! After about an hour, Josh told us he was done and wanted to go home. But with 2 kids trick or treating, you end up with a TON of candy without even trying! So we headed home and then headed out again to join our small group for a get together. Josh even wanted to put on his costume again to show his friends! We all got home and collapsed at around 10:00. What a fun day.

Now it's November, the weather is cooling, birthdays are abounding (including mine!) and the holiday season is rapidly approaching. I gotta say, our Halloween was a great way to kick off all of the fun of the season!

Yet Another Episode of....

Kids Say the Darndest Things! That's right, kiddies, we've got more tales to tell of those silly things that come out of a three year old. This one requires a little bit of a back story...

Way back when, probably about a year ago, Josh, Ben and I met up with Josh's teacher from the prior year for ice cream at McDonalds. He has remembered that to this day. He loves his ice cream, and he loves his Miss Kim! He apparently even remembers the exact location of the McDonalds we went to on that particular day. So fast forward to a few months ago, when my office moved, and we were now driving past that very same McDonalds on the way home everyday. He sees it and starts asking for ice cream. We would always combat this question by asking him if he had any money to pay for the ice cream, and that usually ended the conversation. That brings us to today, and our darndest thing quote of the day. We were driving past the McDonalds, and out of nowhere, Joshua asks us "Can I please have some money?" We both looked at him with puzzled expressions and asked why he needed money. "So I can go to McDonalds."

If you break it down, that is a really smart approach to try to trick Mommy and Daddy into some frozen treats... the preemptive strike. "If I can get them to give me some money, then they can't say I don't have money for ice cream." Brilliant! It seems to us there is a very advanced thought process going on here. He's going to be outsmarting us in no time. We're in trouble!

Bye-Bye Binkey

Ben has always been the biggest binkey boy. He loves it... it's basically his crack. And it has been a Godsend to get a little piece and quiet around the house. But now that he is doing so many big boy things, we think it's time for the binkey to go. I'm sure Ben's totally NOT on board with this idea, but we feel it's time for him to learn how to soothe himself without the crutch. Yesterday was the first day we really started to hold out on him. We didn't give him the binkey all morning right up until nap time. We let him use it to sleep, and tried to steer clear of it for much of the afternoon too. The afternoon didn't go as well as the morning and we finally had to give in when he fell down and bonked his head in the library and started wailing. I couldn't very well say "Sorry all you people trying to study and read, my boy's trying to get off the binkey and you just have to deal with it!" I didn't think that was very fair. So hopefully in the next couple of weeks we can do away with the binkey during his wakeful hours. Sleepy times will come later. I'm just tired of his little face being blocked by the binkey in all of our pictures! Wish us luck, and pray that we will be blessed with an extra dose of patience for a fussy toddler going through binkey withdrawals!