Poor Ben & the cutest moment

Poor Benjamin woke up with a fever of 102 this morning. He didn't go to daycare. Instead he stayed with Daddy until about 10:00am and then we handed off in the parking lot of Brian's work. Ben hung out with Mommy at work the rest of the day.
I ended up picking up Addie a little early from daycare. This allowed some extra time to go visit Muddy and Guppy. I've got to say, the cutest moments occurred there. I really wish I had my camera with me. Instead I'll have to rely on my visual memories. Muddy was finishing up some painting project and Addie desperately wanted to help. Muddy gave her two little things to play with while she finished up. Then they decided to paint....for about 45 minutes. There were rainbows galore, Easter bunnies, hearts, the whole nine yards. It was really very sweet to watch.
Ben greeted Guppy with a hearty "rooooaaaar" ala Guppy. It was also very cute.
Addie is very psyched to get to hang out with Onkteb and Aunt Gail tomorrow. Oh yeah and Mo (their new cat) is slightly appealing too.
I should mention Addie has three favorite new songs. 1.) Janis Joplin's Take Another Piece of My Heart 2.) You Can Call Me Al and 3.) Jamming. Uncle Jeremy and Aunt Amanda have greatly influenced her musical preferences. :)

Darling

Addie was so stinkin cute today. She called her baby "darling" all day long.
Benjamin is cutting 4 molars right now. He's handling it like a champ, but chomps down HARD sometimes. Yeouch!
I'll upload videos and pictures tomorrow.
Addie and Ben don't realize that Onkteb and Aunt Gail are coming back to Delaware this weekend. Looking forward to that.

Only a mom can love

a picture this unflattering!

Just cute Benjamin, nothing unflattering here


The latest trick to show off Ben's speaking ability ;)

Today when I picked Ben up from daycare he was wearing his "reserve" pants and a pair of pink Mary Jane shoes. Apparently this morning when they went outside, Ben decided to jump into a mud puddle. Like rolling in it as a pig does! He was covered, so I was the lucky recipient of a plastic baggy full of muddy clothes and shoes.

Played in the snow

So Delaware got about 2 inches of snow yesterday. It was the first snow that Ben's ever played in. I think last year Addie only got one snowfall to play in as well. And we all know what happened the very first snowfall of Addie's life, the day Brian got back from India. :)


Ok, so it's a little ghetto- we didn't have any snow sleds or anything. So cookie sheets were used. LOL. And for some reason gloves in our house disappear like socks do. Addie had a matching pair of mittens, but Ben's mittens couldn't be found anywhere. I tried to use socks, but he wasn't having it for long. Most likely he was thinking, "what the hell? I don't even get a pair of freakin' mittens?" He's also wearing Addie's boots from last winter. The ones we bought him in December are 1.5 sizes too small now.


The snow ended up being really slushy, so not optimal sledding weather anyway. In fact it wasn't really optimal snow weather for anything.

Oh and just FYI, we did buy two sleds tonight at Toys R Us! So next snow we'll be ready!!

Addie's one liners

This morning while I was struggling with Addie to put her boots on, I reluctantly said, "Addie, could you please just help me?" Without skipping a beat, she replied, "I'm sorry Mommy. I'm too busy singing this song right now."
Addie is also really into making names up for everyone she sees. The old standbye of "Bob and Sally" just ain't cutting it anymore. Just now while watching American Idol, she has informed me that the judges' names are "Tigo, Tibo, and Gingo." Last night she made some name up and I repeated it. Or, I thought I repeated it. She looked at me and said, "No Mommy. Watch Addie's mouth" and proceeded to very sloooowly enunciated the proper way to say the name. I learned my lesson. ;)

Carseats

The thing I dreaded happened today. Addie peed in her carseat while she was asleep. It doesn't bother me that she had an accident or anything. It's the fact that I had to dismantle the carseat and all of it's padding. Not kidding, I struggled with taking it apart for over 20 minutes. Whoever designs the little pieces that clip through the fabric onto the actual carseat needs a good talking to!
Addie was a pistol today. Really energetic, somewhat physically aggressive. She had numerous visits to the naughty step, which without fail prompts cries of "I need to go potty!"
Benjamin is so cute. He's really come into his own with his personality and knowing how to work a crowd ;)

Super Nanny Daddy-style

Brian has been toughing out getting Addie to bed at 8pm, ala Super Nanny. I think he is laying with her again right now. She's such a manipulator! Totally knows to say "I need to go potty" and she'll be allowed out of her room. And she does this crying-coughing-gagging thing that almost makes her puke. That's actually what she did when she was about 11 months old, in her crib when we let her cry it out. She threw up all over her room. Ahhh, let's just hope that doesn't happen again. In the end, it's best for her to get more sleep. Over night when when she came into our room, she said she needed to go potty- so I took her in. As she was going potty, she said, "Mommy, I was crying for you." At one point when Brian put her back in her room, she said, "Daddy, look, I'm crying" and showed him her tears. Again, little Miss Manipulator


For daycare today, we had to decorate a heart for the "Our Families Are Special" wall. We were supposed to put our last name and one thing that makes us special on it, in addition to whatever decorations we wanted. I ended up making our's say "We sign together" and I included an 'I love you' sign, as well as the kids' names fingerspelled out. Anyway tonight while walking out with Addie and Ben, we stopped to look at the signs. There is a little boy in Ben's class named Timmy (gag, blech) who's heart I looked at and was like "OMG!" His heart has pictures of his family members, including his aunt and uncle- who Brian & I went to school with. The uncle and Brian were soccer teammates and co-captains. His aunt and I played lacrosse together and worked at Manhattan Bagel together. I was actually the first person she showed her tattoo to, after she and her then-boyfriend got them one night. Isn't it a small world? Last time we ran into them, they were getting married. Now they have a little daughter.


Here's a picture of Ben signing 'cheese.' It's really funny because when I say "say cheese" for a picture, he'll sign it now!

And video from when Muddy and Guppy were here on Sunday.

Long weekend

As Brian said, "this weekend just flew by."
Here's some photos of our weekend in review.


Ben is all about being suffocated by the tiger and giraffe nowadays.

Here he is showing off the new dishwasher, after installation on Saturday morning. Luckily, it has a lock-out feature so the kids can't turn it on by pushing the buttons (obviously created by a mom)

Guppy and Muddy came over to make dinner on Sunday and to dance.

We ate rice krispy treats for dessert.

There was lots of cuddling and dancing going on.

We bought two new barstools at World Market (which is closing!! :( ) The new ones have backs, so now Brian can sit at the bar. The man needs a back on a chair, or else he's too uncomfortable. Addie and Ben both got little animals that make sounds. She's prouduly showing off her poodle here.

A cute one.

Notice Addie in the back with no pants on. LOL. Since potty training, she's never wearing pants!!

Just being cute.
This morning Addie came into the family room announcing, "I'm soaking wet!" We figured she had another run in with the soap and bathroom sink. I innocently asked, "from what?" She replied, "I peed!" "Where?" "On the floor! Come on, I'll show you." And low and behold she had indeed just peed all over the kitchen floor. She was indeed "soaking wet." That's the first time she's done that. Hopefully the last too!

Lifelong Shopping Pals

Purses are necessities, obviously.

Finally! Having some serious uploading issues.

Elton John

I scored two tickets to see him at the Bob!! Wooohooo!! I'm so psyched!! Tickets sold out in 6 minutes!
Ben's 15 month stats: 26 lbs, 32 3/4 inches tall, 49.5cm head circumference. Developmentally at least 18 months, with physical and verbal skills. It's interesting because to me he seems so much less verbal than Addie ever was. However he's ahead of the curve compared to kids his age. The ped was impressed with his signing and all of the words he can say. Part of it is that he doesn't choose to say all of the words all of the time, the way Addie does. :)
Addie is officially potty trained. No question about it. She's even been going to be in just underwear and being dry in the morning. So amazing!
For Valentine's Day Brian and I bought a new dishwasher last weekend. It gets delivered and installed tomorrow!! So exciting!
I have SO much laundry to do this weekend. It might be the first time ever that I didn't do one load of wash the whole week. Aye caramba!
Addie is willingly singing the Friendship Song now, so I'll try to get a video of it. She serenaded Muddy & Guppy at lunch today, and also sang it to Onkteb & Aunt Gail on the phone last night.
Daycare is closed on Monday. Brian is off work. UD isn't closed, but I took a sick day so I could be home with them. Not planning on anything formally, but just excited to spend the day as a family.

Friendship Day aka Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day everyone.
As I walked into Addie's classroom today, Ms. Agnes said, "Addie sing your Mom the Friendship Song." Addie broke into "Happy, happy friendship day, friendship day, friendship day. Happy happy friendship day, I love you very much." It's to the tune Mary Had a Little Lamb. She sang it perfectly. Ms. Agnes wrote on her daily report, "had such a great time singing the friendship song by herself during circle time." I tried to get a video of her singing it, but she kept yelling at me to stop mouthing the words with her. LOL
I got a huge, beautiful bouquet of flowers delivered to work. The card said, "Dear Mommy/Cory, You're the best mommy/wife ever. We love you. Love, Daddy, Addie and Ben" Isn't that funny? Somehow Brian has lost his identity as anyone other than Daddy.
We had chinese for dinner. Brian still isn't home, and it's 8:47pm. The kids love Girl Scout Tagalong cookies as much as I do!

If only it was all this easy!

Enjoy!

Move that bus!

Well, after a 3 hour wait and braving a wintry mix of ice and snow, we were part of the Extreme Home Makeover's big reveal in Delaware. It was freakin' cold. OMG so cold. Like seriously questioning if my toes were falling off cold.
Muddy surprised Addie by coming with us. She was soooo excited to see Muddy at daycare to pick her up! And thankfully Muddy was there- because Addie was not so happy to wait for 3 hours in arctic temperatures. It was great to have another person to hand her off to and vice versa.




Rocky Bluewinkle, the mascot for our minor league baseball team, was there. Addie was like a crazed fan seeing him. She keeps asking me, "Mommy, what is my blue friend's name?"



Top left of this picture is Ty Pennington




Addie was all about catching snow/ice pellets on her tongue




The famous "move that bus" bus in front of the house

Happily waiting

Lots going on....

My battery is charging in my camera, so no pics tonight. The reason it's charging? I'm springing Addie early tomorrow from daycare and surprising her with a visit to "The Big Reveal" at the Extreme Makeover house!! We're going to be there to say "move that bus!!" Hopefully I'll get a picture of her and Ty Pennington together as well.
If Ben wakes up in the morning without a black eye, I'll be surprised. He was walking around gently banging his head on things (crazy kid, I know!) and turned around right into the curved arm of my Williamsburg chair. It got him right in the eye socket. We'll have to see. Honestly, not far from Aunt Gail thinking he had a broken arm in the picture from a couple days ago, I know it won't be the last black eye he gets. Makes a Mommy proud! :)
How cool is this? Elton John is coming to the Bob Carpenter Center at UD for one performance on March 10th? It's got what, maybe 12,000 seats? Talk about a close- up concert!! We're trying to score tickets....
Finally, the DeMoms message board was having one of its many contests where for everyday you posted you got entered once in a random drawing for a bouquet of flowers from Flowers by Yukie and a "bustiere bag" filled with goodies from Passion Parties. It's got all kinds of things in it.... Anyway, I freaking won it! (Mom and Dad, you can erase what you just read now, although you do know how we managed to give you two grandchildren!) Isn't that a scream? Seriously, I should go play the lottery tomorrow!

Inflatable theater

Today was the Fred Garbo Inflatable Theater show at the Grand Opera House. We took Muddy and Guppy too. Talk about a creative, interesting show! Addie and Ben loved it.

Muddy and Guppy made dinner for us at our house. Here's some pictures from the show, and of playing at our house afterwards.



This was after the show was over...so much fun. That's Ben up on Brian's shoulders with the red one. That's me in the orange shirt and jeans, holding Addie in gray, under the purple/pink striped one!

Muddy is officially tough- check out that skull tatoo on her chest and the heart stickers on her cheeks LOL

Still proud

Addie has done us proud. Still no accidents, going potty overnight, the whole shebang!

From our trip to the Extreme Makeover house yesterday. :) Unfortunately Ty is in Alabama filming another episode until tomorrow. I've learned so much about how that show is put together, etc! I might try to con Miss Nay to come up there after lunch tomorrow to meet Ty. :)





As you can see, on the roof there's an addition. It's actually a patio on the top of the house and then the 3rd floor. This house goes back 17 feet further than its neighbors. It is really a cool thing to see all of the volunteers helping/doing it all!

Oh Onkteb

Things I'm lovin'

First off, Benjamin is 15 months old today. Here's a comparision picture of Addie and Ben at 15 months.

While looking through her pictures, I haven't found one where she has any bruises on her face! LOL. What a different child he is than her in that regard!

Things I'm lovin' right now:

• Addie is wearing her polka-dot underwear today and is very proud to announce she's wearing "cocoa dots"
• On the ride to daycare she told me her belly hurt. I asked how it felt and she said, "It's uncomfortable."
• Ben is picking up new signs left and right. Now he's up to: more, please, mom, dad, cheese, and thank you.
• Ben is speaking up a storm too

Proud as a peacock

This is cute, because you can see how Ben has learned to do what we do. When "Come on Eileen" comes on, watch his feet. This is what we do everytime the song is on. It just made me smile to see him do it too.

The next video is just a so-you-know-what-I'm-up-against video.

Addie has made it another entire day with no accidents! I can't believe it. I am soooo floored. I couldn't be prouder. I was slightly hesistant to have this day come, since I'm off of work on Wednesdays, I knew it would all be on me. She's a champ though. Even took a 3 hour nap without peeing!! (Yes, we're in for it tonight, since she took said nap!)

I should explain that Addie wore her Ariel underwear, and didn't really want to try the bikini underwear on. She found a more willing party. LOL

This next picture makes me laugh, because she decided to use her new underwear as accessories. She actually called them her bracelets. This picture also is very Angelina Jolie to me- doesn't it remind you of a papparazzi shot of her shopping or something?

A cute one of the three of them when Brian got home tonight.

Day two- NO accidents!

Ladies and gentlemen, I can not even express how proud I am of Sweet Adelaide. She went the entire day (at daycare and at home) without an accident!! Even after her bath when she wore a pullup for bed, she told me she had to go potty. What a big girl she is now!! I bought her more underwear today. Is it slightly unnerving to anyone else that they actually make different cuts of underwear for 2 year olds? All of her other pairs are the "brief" cut, but the ones I bought today are "bikini." OMG, will that look inappropriate on her? LOL

Oh yeah one more thing, Extreme Makeover Home Edition is here in Wilmington! We're going by to see the house, or I guess where the house was until yesterday. Pretty cool to have Barack and Ty Pennington here in the same week. :)

Celebrate my big girl!!!

Look at my sassy girl, who proudly wore big girl underpants ALL DAY long at daycare without one accident!

I think this might be the cutest picture of her recently.

Ben was happily playing too

Yesterday, as Ben learned he could climb on top of the bench. Aye caramba!

Barack, us and

19,996 of our closest friends in Wilmington today. No good pictures or videos to share...unless you want to see thousands of people standing in line. The vibe was awesome though. Very cool to be a part of history that way.

From yesterday. Gee, wonder why my kids have colds?

How we spend most of our days now

A cute face of Ben's today. I swear he looks like me as a child!

I remember doing this as a child, so of course my kids are going to as well. Seriously, every piece of clothing that comes off becomes "bunny ears."

Addie called Uncle Jeremy tonight to wish him a happy birthday and actually sang the entire birthday song to Uncle Jeremy...never once mentioning Addie! He was shocked! LOL

Ben has been bruising it again today. He now has bruise on the other side of his forehead. At least he's symmetrical now. Maybe architecture is in his future? Who am I kidding? I'm thinking a stuntman, God help us!

As of right now we're planning on seeing Barack on Sunday when he's in town. I can just see Addie and Ben up on our shoulders cheering him on.

Here's a short video of Benjamin from this morning. Enjoy!