Uncle Jeremy & Aunt Amanda...

made some very happy kids yesterday, when the mail came.  Ok, so Ben doesn't look so happy in the picture, probably because Addie is wearing the Disney Princess scrunchies and he's not. ;)

Cute Ben

Such a sweet picture of Ben cuddling Addie, while she was napping.

Addie zinger

Today when I picked them up from daycare, I was chewing gum.  It might be the first time either one has ever seen me chew gum.  As I'm buckling Addie into her seat, she says, "Eww, your bubblegum smells nasty."  

Wow. Thanks.

Kids v. Children

It's funny to me how often I post here using the words "my kids."  When I was in Graduate School, I had this one professor who had an 8 year old son and she always referred to him as "my kid." It drove me crazy. Saying "my kid" seemed so un-parentlike to me.  I said, "I'll never say that."

Well fast forward four years and here we are with lots of stories about my kids.  I think that's the difference.  Plurally, kids is ok with me.  When Addie was an only child, she was "my child."  I never referred to her as my kid.

Incidentally on the way up the stairs to baths tonight Addie was chasing me carrying Ben.  I said, "We've gotta hurry up Ben, the monster is coming to get us."  Her nose got all bent out of shape and she said, "Mommy, I'm not a monster, I'm a children." :)

  

Life is good

Here is Addie's self-portrait.  You decide for yourself ;)

My job is going so incredibly well.  It's great.  I know a lot.  I have an immediate impact.  I feel valued and appreciated.  They have incredible confidence in my abilities.  I'll be doing a lot of traveling locally and farther and presenting nationally at things.  Cool stuff.

Addie and Ben are really good, fun children.  They just bring such joy and love to my life.  They have their moments of tantrums, but by no means nearly as bad as it could be (or as bad as it is for some others I know).  We really are blessed.  

Ben now says I Love You.  It's so sweet.  Addie continues to throw these zingers out, which make me stop in my tracks and look at her and laugh or smile.  There are so many ways that she is just like me as a little girl.  (I love that, btw.)  Daycare reports how motherly she is, always taking care of people and organizing things.  Totally a Cory thing to do.  I guess leadership just runs in the genes.  I'm of the mindset, and obviously so is Addie, that if people need direction and will take it from you, you should give it to them.  She organizes circle time, so Ms. Brandy can relax.  For real.  "Let's all sit down boys and girls, it's time for our songs." And they do it!

Brian has been working ridiculous hours again.  It's old for him too.  I'm really looking forward to this weekend, for some family time.  He didn't eat dinner one night this week with us.  Ben had to wake up super early one morning to see Brian.  Then when Brian was getting ready to leave, Ben didn't want him to go.  Duh!

Onkteb spent the past week in Delaware.  Yesterday Muddy, Guppy and he picked up Addie and Ben in the late morning, picked me up at work and we all had lunch together.  Then they went back to play at M&G's house.  The weather was superb, so they really enjoyed themselves.

Addie has found a new song that she BELTS out.  I won't say any more, because I'm really hoping to capture it on video...if I can find it on Youtube, since the dvd is in Muddy's van.

Getting excited majorly for Disney, even though it's a quite a ways off.  We're really looking forward to spending time with Uncle Jeremy, Aunt Amanda and Amanda's family.  Maybe some others will join us too ;)

Before I forget- on the drive home today Addie announced, "Next time we see the fireworks, I want to bring my kitty chair."  Uncle Jeremy and Aunt Amanda gave her a folding kitty chair for her birthday. "Ok, that's a great idea. "  "And I want Onkteb to come too."  So, Onkteb can you please plan fireworks accordingly? :)

A big yay goes out to Ms Nay.  Wishing you a speedy recovery!! 

Much better daycare stories

The kids did a great job on Wednesday and Thursday morning at daycare.   No biting, hitting, pushing.

I'll have to write more later, when Brian is home.

Not the report I wanted

I got "the talk" at daycare today, about BOTH of my kids.  Apparently Ben's been pushing kids around for a while, but yesterday he pushed a much littler child into the window sill, resulting in a bump. He charges at kids, in a playful way, but ends up pushing them to the ground.  Then he goes and hides, which shows he knows he's not supposed to.  Ms. Deena told me this morning, and after that, Ben didn't want to go to Ms. Deena, since she told on him.

Addie's been threatening to bite kids and instead of biting she puts her spit on them.  GROSS. Today she did that to William and then turned around and scratched his fingers.  When I asked what happened she said plain as day, "I told him to leave me alone." Now I don't want to encourage her to act out, but if she was being bothered by a kid and he wasn't getting the clue.... Just now I asked her what she's going to do if someone is bothering her tomorrow and she said, "Tell Ms. Brandy that he's bothering me," so I think she gets it.

Then when I went to Ben's room, Ms. Patrice said, "He had a good morning, until this afternoon when it came time to come inside."  Ben didn't like the idea of that, so he took one of the push cars and promptly ran over one of his friends.  

You know, I try to do the positive behavior support form of parenting, where you praise kids for behavior you want to keep coming and don't "punish" them for doing things wrong.  The idea being that they will do things that makes others and themselves happy.  I try that, I really do.  We say we use the naughty step, but haven't for a long time now.  It's usually more about redirection and apologizing, etc.  I don't know what else to do.  Brian just got home (yes, it's 9:15pm) and I told him about these issues.  He said, "she must get the spitting thing from daycare." Duh, she gets all of it from daycare.  

Lots of pics and videos of the water slide

The latest heat wave prompted immediate use of the water slide.  There are 650+ images we took yesterday, here's  a smattering of them.  I'll do another post with more videos and pictures later too.

Cowabunga!

The splash that Guppy makes

Someone found the chocolate donuts.

Guppy, demonstrating perfect kangaroo form

And perfect head-first form

Somehow these kiddos always fall asleep while using the water slide

And really, I am there too! :)

The kiss of death

This weekend I mentioned to Brian that while by no means overweight, I think I need to start paying attention to my stomach and my toning. For the first time in my life, I have extra skin around my middle and I don't like it.  I haven't done my abs workout in a long time, so I think I'll start.  

Well as I told Brian this, he said IT.  You know what I mean. IT.  The grand-daddy of them all.  IT.  He actually said, "Well you have had two kids." Done. Kiss of death.  For real, it's on now. 

Addie is all about the movie Enchanted right now.  For those who don't know, it's a Princess movie from Disney.  The Princess, Giselle, has all of the qualities of all of the Disney Princesses combined, including the ability to talk to animals.  Addie has adopted this trait too.  Now, whenever she sees birds she automatically SINGS, "ahhahaaaaa aahhhaaaaa aahhhhhhhaaaa" and fully expects the birds to flock to her.  She get disappointed each time they fly away.  Imagine the poor bird's perspective for a second- just sitting here digging for a worm,minding my own business. Wait! What's that? Oh no, that 3 year old blonde is running at me full force screaming "ahhhaaaaaaa aaahhhhaaa aahhhhhaaaa."  She can't possibly think that sound is enticing, can she?  Better fly away before she gets me.

Ben's allergy to mosquitoes is back in full force.  Poor bub, he's swollen and itchy.  Each bite he gets turns into this hard, fevery welt.  It looks bad too.  

Off to do some crunches ;)

Some updates on the kiddos

Addie is a crack up, as usual.  Yesterday she told me "Mommy, when I burp I don't want to say 'excuse me' anymore."  I told her that was the polite thing to say and she was very clear that she was no longer interested in saying "excuse me." I told her she could say, "Pardon me, please" instead.  She liked that idea.  Ever since, she's proudly said "pardon me, please" at any chance she has.  Woot, woot, I outsmarted a 3 year old! :)

Ben has started singing the ABCs relatively clearly. 

We've booked our flights for our Disney trip in the fall!!  Jeremy, Amanda, Amanda's parents (and I think her sister, but am not sure) are definitely coming too!

Kim update

Very long story short (I've tried posting this 4 times now and it keeps bumping me out), Kim is way better off than we expected.  The NY docs were great, in so much as they know what they're talking about. Basically  the DE docs did as best they could, but totally missed the boat  and caused all kinds of unnecessary worry.  In the end, it's a huge relief. She's not gravely ill. She's not knocking on death's door.  She'll make a full recovery from her stroke.  Overall, the best possible news that could've come out of the whole situation. 

Thank you for all of your thought, prayers, energies, etc.  They apparently work!! 

Think good thoughts

We're off to Mount Sinai Institute on Cardiovascular Medicine in NYC for Kimberly's appointments with the specialists.  They called yesterday and moved her 4pm up to whenever we are done with the 11am appointment.  So it's 10am carotid ultrasound, 11am Dr. Olin and next Dr. Patel.

Here's hoping they have a solution and are willing to do it first thing next week.  No one can wait much longer than that.

She's a pistol!

Last night Brian "went up to put Addie to bed."  About 10 minutes later, she pops down the stairs and says "hi Mommy."  I said, "where's Daddy?"  "Asleep."  Of course.  I go into the kitchen to pour her a drink and she puts her hands on her hip and makes this inquisitive face.  She says:

"Mommy, is it hard being a parent?" 

Excuse me?! What? Are you serious?

"What?"

"Is it hard being a parent?"

"Yes it is, Addie."

"Why?"

"Because you have to make sure your kids are safe."

So turnabout is fair play and I ask, "Addie, is hard being a kid?"

"Yes it is."  "Why?" "Because I love my Mommy and I love my Daddy and I love..." Apparently all that lovin' causes a 3 year old some distress.  If all of the world's problems involved loving too many people, right?

At daycare this afternoon, she proudly showed me her "shadow."  They did outlines of their bodies and each kid got to decorate their own.  Addie's was the only one with clear things on it.  I *hope* they save them for parents to take home.  On Addie's outline was two eyes, a nose, and a mouth in just about the right places on her face.  In the middle of her body was a big circle, for a belly, which she told me was full of food.  And finally, I'm pretty sure she drew pubic hair on herself.  Lots of scribbles just where it would be.  Seriously, I don't think the teacher knew what to say. I just thought how "developed" she is. :) Every other kids' outline has random scribbles all over.  Not Addie's!  Is anyone surprised?

4th of July fun

Surfer girl Addie, ready to squirt someone!

I had to sneak a picture of MomMom. That's Aunt Kim and Graham too.  Even the waterslide looks big in Muddy and Guppy's backyard!

Ben decided to accessorize, with Addie's rain boots and bucket.

It wouldn't be a trip to Muddy and Guppy's for Ben without a ride on the tractor (Grahams on there too)

Addie dancing, just before going to the fireworks.

So the rain came about 3 minutes before the fireworks started.  And it came hard.  The entire show, which seemed like it went on for eternity.  Overall it was a great fireworks show.  Ben started out on my lap and as they started looked back and saw Guppy and said, "Buppy, Buppy." So he went back to him and ended up on Muddy's lap.  For me, that meant my once dry lap was now exposed to the elements, and holy crow did I get soaked.  Addie sat on Brian's lap the whole time.  When they were (finally) over, I tried to get Addie to sit back in her stroller, to which she replied, "I can't! It's wet!"  Um, apparently she didn't realize she was soaking wet too.  Eventually we got them both in strollers and walked back to our car, at which point the rain decided to stop completely. Yup, for real, our luck!

Addie got mail today from Onkteb.  It was a really cool card with fish on it.  Inside was really funny and I hope he doesn't mind me posting it here:

Hi Addie!

I saw this card and remembered how much you like fishies.  And then I remembered that you like mail.  And then I remembered that you like stickers. So this card with fish and stickers is for you. Love, Onkteb

 

The card is decorated with foam cutouts that he glued to the pages, and of course in typical Onkteb fashion, included the Greek translation for each word. In case you're wondering, flower is pronounced "anthea" and fishies is pronounced "ichthys."  I don't know how to change the language on here to give you the right spellings, please forgive me.   There are also cutouts of a beetle, that says "This is Benjamin Beetle" and a butterfly that says "This is Beauregard the Butterfly."    Thanks Onkteb for sending Addie mail.  Ben says, "thanks for sending Addie mail too, Onkteb.  No, really, thank you." 

Tomorrow I have a meeting at 8am, with the Medical Director of the hospital, who will eventually be my counterpart in this program.  So the kiddos will have to be up earlier than the are used to.  Ugh oh!

Two funny Addie stories

OK, here's two funny Addie things:

1) Yesterday morning while explaining to her that Muddy and Guppy would be bringing her and Ben to my work for lunch, I said, "there will be chicken and french fr..." and she cut me off to ask, "will there be autumns there?"  I said, "what?"  "Will there be autumns there?" "What do you mean?" "You know, autumns who carry the trays" as she gestured carrying a tray.  Autumn is the name of Ben's favorite waitress at Hollywood Grill where we have breakfast on Sundays!  She thought the role of food server was called autumn! Autumn will be in heaven when we tell her that story, too!

2) When I went to pick Addie and Ben up last night from Muddy and Guppy's house, Addie was performing (shocking, I know!).  She asked me to "gentleman" which means to introduce her.  So I said, "Ladies and gentlemen, introducing Adelaide Joan Nourie singing...." Well then she decided it was time for my debut as well  She said, "Ladies and gentlemen, give it up for Cory!"  OMG, I don't know where she got "give it up for" but it was soooo funny.  Maybe from So You Think You Can Dance?

Funniest shirt ever

Tough to get a good picture with him wearing it, but it says "These puppies are illegal in 47 states," with arrows pointing to his biceps.