Some things about Ben

What a sweet boy we have! Seriously, he's so even tempered and calm about most things, it's pretty awesome. Except, of course, if I leave his sight, then it's major sob works in full force. Even Muddy got to experience this yesterday, when she was surrogate Mommy.

He LOVES the water. Unlike Addie, he enjoys getting his head wet in the bathtub. We've gotten into the habit of wetting his hair right away, lathering on the shampoo and then rinsing his head under the faucet. This NEVER would have happened with Addie! He just leans back and gets this big smile on his face as the water runs over his gigantic head.

He is FAST. Like lightening fast crawler. And he knows it. He and Daddy had a fun game of "catch the dishwasher" going on today. I would put him down in the family room, and in a millisecond, he was off to the kitchen to stand up against the dishwasher as Daddy loaded it.

Finally, little boy can eat. Ask Guppy. On two occassions this week, Guppy and Muddy have had the chance to observe Ben eating lunch. As Guppy said to me on Friday, "I've never seen a kid eat as much as he does." He can eat Addie under the table. In fact, when given his favorite foods, I bet he eats more in one sitting than Addie does in an entire day!

The eating point just reminded me of something. To give a little perspective to their size comparision, Ben is about 22.5 lbs right now, and about 31 inches tall. Addie is 29lbs and 34 inches tall. Addie wears a 7.5 shoe. Ben wears a 5.5!!!

Friends!!

So one of my online friends Tiffany posted this message to me last night from her son Dommie:

"He would like to see some more "Addie" videos on your blog. He absolutely LOVES watching her, every night he asks to watch "Addie". John and I even got a small video of him watching Addie and Ben dance and play monster with their Aunt Gail. He loves them and even said "bye-bye...bye-bye Addie" at the end.He even just turned our TV on and asked for "Addie" It's really too cute."

Her son Dommie is the same age as Addie. I've known Tiff since we were pregnant with Addie and Dommie.
So, Dommie, this one's for you!

In other news, Addie now has pink eye. Wasn't that nice of Ben to share with his big sister? It's going to be interesting to give her eye drops. All week long she's felt holier than Ben, and telling him to "just lay still" while I dropped them into his eyes. I'm guessing "Just lay still"isn't going to work so well with her. LOL

Here's more dancing and playing videos of the kids. They really have such a fun time together. Even when Addie gets a little rough with Ben, this kid seriously just rolls with the punches (or pushes or clotheslining!) Ben did his Benjamin shuffle and shake at daycare the other day, for 10 minutes! The teachers said everyone stopped to watch him, which made him get louder and dance more!! Sooooo funny to see.

Freestanding!

Since yesterday, Ben has officially become a freestander!! He's not doing it all of the time, but every once in a while he'll just pop up standing by himself. That means walking isn't too far behind. Addie started 10 days before her 1st birthday...so we'll see how close Ben comes to that record.

He's been rather cry-y recently. As soon as I put him down, look away, stand up, or anything that doesn't involve him on me actually, he's all tears. Total manipulation, but damn effective too!

Write more in a bit... Ok, I'll have to upload tomorrow, because my battery is dying and Brian has our charger in his briefcase.

Pictures

Went to Walmart on the fly today, to get Addie black tights for her Halloween costume, per Muddy's request. No one except for Muddy knows what the kids are going to be. I love that!


While there, I decided to have Ben's pictures taken at the photo studio there. It's the world's cheapest "professional" portrait pictures (yes, yes, I know, that some poor mom and her 14 kids in southeast Asia are working for pennies per week to support that.).


Here they are. We got the one of the two of them in the package. The others are just on the cd we bought.





This one was cute, but I had no intention of Addie's picture being taken today- or else I would've dressed her in something better than Ariel!




This pose is the photographer's favorite for kids. I think it's bribery for the future!


And then Ben wasn't so in to looking at the camera!


In other news, I bought Addie some "big girl underwear" with Elmo on them. She picked them out and all. We got home, she was desperate to put them on. We discussed how she had to keep Elmo dry and clean, so when she needed to go potty she had to tell Mommy. We were in agreement, or so I thought. Not 5 minutes after putting them on, she's squatting and saying, "I make Elmo wet Mommy!" Very proud of herself! Aye caramba. Currently she's wearing a Pull Up with her underwear over it!

Preferences

One of the things I teach in my classes about people with disabilities, is that no matter how "severe" one's disability is, when given two things to choose between, a person will chose one over the other. SO NOT THE CASE WITH ADDIE! This is how our conversations have been going....insert any two somewhat related things in place of the two items discussed below:

Me: Addie, do you want a waffle or a french toast stick for breakfast?
Addie: Waffle.
Addie: French toast stick.
Addie: Both of them.
Me: which one? You can have one.
Addie: Both of them.

Ben's words

So Ben has been home with me all day. Brian took Addie to daycare at 6:45am- so this might have been the first time ever that it's just Ben and me, alone together all day. He's doing ok. I've managed to be thrown up on twice. Poor kid just chokes on mucus.

He's saying a few words now: Momma, Dadda, Adda, ball, uh oh and more. More sounds more like "mow" but I'm pretty sure it's more. This kid LOVES balls. (Stop laughing!) He can throw them so far and gets excited when someone starts to play with them (Stop laughing again).

When he wakes up from his nap, we'll be heading over to Muddy and Guppy's house. They'll watch him while I pick Addie up from daycare, since he might be contagious still. Then we'll head back on over to Muddy and Guppy's for dinner, since Brian has a work function tonight.

Guppy got his cast on today....all the way to his knee! That's quite the cast. Curious to see how Addie responds, as she was terrified of his bandage!

Viral

Blech, Ben's vomitting moved to the other direction, AND he has pink eye. Again, you'd never know it by his attitude. I guess he's going to be our "sick one." Doesn't it seem like he's always sick?



Lots of fun today. Remember how I mentioned that he loves to play peek a boo? Here are some pictures and videos to prove it. Yes, Addie is still obsessed with her tie dye shirt. And we know when Addie wears hers, Ben must wear his.










Even though Addie has moved onto Big Girls Don't Cry, our household couldn't let Girlfriend go quietly into the night. No way. Submitted as evidence, I offer this clip of video of Ben. (And don't be mocking my awesome dance moves, you're just jealous! LOL)

A monster!!

Here is video from Aunt Gail and Onkteb playing at our house last Friday. Addie and Ben both have a certain affinity for "monsters!"

Benjamin is such a nuzzler and little lover. He's the kind of boy who hugs you right back. He's going to have a very happy girlfriend/wife one day. Yesterday while visiting Muddy and Guppy (who is immobilized until he gets his cast on on Monday), Ben was sitting in his highchair. Muddy leaned in to nuzzle his face, and he just leaned right back with the sweetest look on his face. Guppy even said, "Oh if only you could see his face." Pure heaven. He's also inclined to pat me on the back as soon as I pick him. So loving.

You wouldn't know it by looking at him, but apparently he's caught the KinderCare bug. Poor bub has been throwing up since yesterday morning. Goes about his business, eats, vomits, goes back to being happy Ben. Lots and lots of hot water laundry going on at this house!

Some Addie things: Today she wore her Ariel the Little Mermaid outfit that I got on clearance for $1.99, and when she put it on she asked me, "who buyed this?" I told her "I did." "No, who buyed this for me?" "Mommy did." "No, Aunt Gail did." Apparently only Aunt Gail gets her cool things. Brian and I discussed the future of conversations.... "Addie, who paid for college?" "Aunt Gail." "Addie, who waited in line for hours for the must-have Christmas toy?" "Aunt Gail." "Addie, who bought you a car?" "Aunt Gail." That's some stiff competition. But, you've seen the kind of monster she is, so at least you understand.

One final group of pictures, to show how jealous a Mom can be. How this happens routinely, I'll never know. Must be some testosterone scent thing! ;)

Move over Girlfriend

Many of you know that Addie's favorite song has been Girlfriend by Avril Lavigne, since it was released. Well, much to Avril's chagrin, it's been replaced! Currently "my favorite song," according to Addie is "Big Girls Don't Cry" by Fergie. I knew this transition was happening when the first note of the song plays and Addie could identify it while riding in the car. I happened to find the video On Demand, and we watched it Wednesday for the first time. Then last night, I played it again to show Brian and we both laughed out loud about how many of the words she knew! Of course, she also requested/demanded I bring her microphone down from its safe place, so she could properly perform! Video to come!

I have renamed Benjamin "C.L." It stands for Chopped Liver. Sometimes I feel like he must feel this way. On these blogs it's so much fun to share what cute and hilarious things Addie is saying and Ben gets jipped a lot. So poor little C.L. I'll try harder to brag about him too.

Ouuuuuu weeee

"ouuuuuu weeee" pronounced like the hog-call, minus the 's' sound. That's what Addie said her friends at daycare were going to say when they saw her new Pumpkin shirt. We had a fashion meltdown this morning. I know there are some battles not worth pursuing, so she ended up going to daycare wearing her longsleeve pumpkin shirt, which is black with a shiny orange pumpkin on it, a pair of pink shorts and her new brown Maryjane shoes. She was a vision of beauty, in the eyes of 2 year olds at least.

She just whispered into my ear, "Mommy, you're my best friend." Nothing more necessary to say about that.

Ben loves to play peek a boo now. Anything he can hide under, he's all over and loving.

We'll get some great pics up tomorrow.

This is after bathtime on Wednesday night. She was wearing her Dora pjs and insisted on wearing her Pumpkin shirt.....then her new pants....and her new shoes. She actually went to bed like this. And when she woke up and Brian changed her clothes, that's when mayhem ensued. So back to the Pumpkin shirt and brown shoes. I managed to hide the new pants quickly before she realized. LOL

Look at that face!

So proud of her new clothes

One of Ben, showing off his red hair. Uncle Scott questioned whether we'd only let this boy wear orange...Yes, when you know what works, why mess with it? LOL

Good luck Guppy!

Addie's special message to Guppy. He's having a bone spur cut off of his heel, which actually is quite a big process. Looking forward to six weeks of a hard cast, then 4 weeks of a soft one...

In other news, since about 9pm last night, Addie has sent both Brian and Ben to the naughty step. Brian got relegated there for stealing a sip of her apple juice, without asking. Tsk, tsk, tsk. This morning Benjamin bit me HARD while nursing and I screamed out in pain. Addie decided Ben needed to sit on the naughty step for that. She even asked, "Can I carry him there?"

Benjamin calls Addie "Adda" when he sees her. This morning I was asking Ben, "do you see Adda?" and Addie sat up and said, "who's Adda?" I said, "you." She replied, "No, I'm Addie Nourie." The only 2 year old who uses her first and last name on a regular basis, according to daycare. Of course this was news to me, because if you recall last time I checked her name was Fudgey.

Oh yeah and last night was Alphabet pasta's turn for a taste. Concensus: again it rocked! I'm not even sure who would come out in front the teddy bears or the letters, if we did a competition.

Bad Mommy!

Dinner at Muddy and Guppy's went pretty late, so I never got a chance to upload all of the pictures and videos. I'll definitely do it tonight.

HAPPY 34th Birthday Aunt Gail!!


Boo Eagles. Addie and Ben wore their Eagles clothes to daycare yesterday, but that didn't help the birds win. Maybe the clothes are bad luck?

Addie continues to be absolutely adorable. She is so funny (I know you probably grow tired of me saying that). Every night she has to put her backpack on and "go" somewhere. Usually it's to the school or daycare or the store. Last night she had to go to the beach. Without fail she'll tell me she's leaving, give me a kiss goodbye, and then tell me, "I have my cell phone." At this point, she usually picks up her imaginary cell phone and "calls" me to chat. Such a diva!!

Fall is here!

The weather over the weekend was gorgeous. Friday night we went to LaTolteca for Aunt Gail's birthday. She and Onkteb came back to the house and played with the kids for a while. Check out very cool video later on tonight, once I get it uploaded.

Saturday was the Boys and Girls Club's Day for Kids on the Riverfront. BUST! The advertising made it out to be way more than it was. Nevertheless, we got a lot of walking out of it, enjoyed the weather and spent time as a family.

Sunday was moonbounce day, of course. Aunt Gail and Onkteb came over for some bounces. It actually got to be too cold!

Today the Eagles play, so Addie and Ben are dressed in their Eagles garb at daycare. Addie sang the Eagles fightsong to anyone who would listen. Concensus at daycare was that we should have that on tape and she should be on the news. We'll see.....

I'll load up pics and videos tonight, after we have dinner at Muddy and Guppy's house! They are finally back from visiting Uncle Jeremy and Aunt Amanda.

Oh yeah, here's some pics I haven't shared yet....

This is Addie "swimming with the fishies"

And for good measure, the cutest pic of her of late.

Gravity

Benjamin has discovered gravity. Not that my son is the next Isaac Newton or anything, but he has learned that if he's holding something and let's it go, it drops. Currently, every toy that was in the pack-n-play with him 30 seconds ago is making its way to the ground. And he's quite proud of himself. Everything gets dropped or thrown nowadays. If I'm really lucky, Addie is around to pick it up and give it back to him, just to start that cycle again.

It's really nice fall weather here right now, about 74 degrees. We went to the Can Do playground with Onkteb and Aunt Gail. Addie and Onkteb are two peas in a pod. She loves him so much.

Ben is also free standing now! Just pops himself right up, even if only for a second. Walking can't be far away. I look forward to the wobble I'll soon be doing, with a 2 year old's hand in my left hand and a 1 year old's hand in the other.

Finally, Ben's love hierarchy is no secret. At the top of his list is his big sister Addie. Talk about complete adoration. Nothing makes me happier than to see the two of them interacting and actually being able to see the love flow between them. Ben thinks Addie rocks. She can do no wrong (he's obviously mistaken, but he's only 10 months old). She can make him laugh at the drop of a hat. It's awesome.




Here's some bottom teeth...3 in total now

And some top ones too!

Here's what Ben does now when he's nursing. That's my arm :) He covers his eyes like he's got a headache.


And finally adorable Addie, with Elmo backpack on, "going to school." Look at those tendrils!

Have a great weekend! We're going to enjoy the fall weather and be outside a lot!!

I remembered!!

Everyday Addie says these zingers that just about knock us out of our shoes. Whether she sounds like she's 40 or just making an observation, she sure knows how to make a statement. The other night she did something that was so funny, and I thought "I should write that down." Of course I didn't do it and when asking Brian the next day what it was, he couldn't remember either. While making dinner last night, it hit me!! So, for your amusement, here it is:

Addie: Daddy, the phone is ringing. (It wasn't ringing at all.)
Brian: Oh, ok, hello? (putting his thumb and pinkie into the international symbol for telephone).
Hi, how are you? Yes, yes, Addie's right here. Addie, the phone is for you. (He reaches
out to put his hand to her ear)
Addie: No thanks, Daddy, I have my own phone. (At which point, she holds her hand up to her
ear and begins chatting away)

It's true, she does come equipped with her own phone!

Phone talker

For those of you who have met Addie, and seen her near a phone, this will be no surprise to you. For those of you who have only met her via the internet, she's such a riot. You're really missing out on the in-person version of her!

This morning Addie answered our house phone for the first time. I saw on the caller id that it was someone from work. Although I didn't quite know exactly who it was, it was a University of Delaware number so I figured it couldn't be too bad if she answered. Of course she was telling me, "I'll get it." So I said, "go ahead." With a little help pushing the correct button, she was on her way. She answered the phone like an old pro. On the other end, none other than Ilka, my friend and co-worker. Addie and Ilka chatted for a few minutes before handing the phone over to me. Very cool start to the day!

In other news, this kid loves to play pretend. I am always amazed at how imaginative she is. Lately she's been giving us "presents" and telling us to open them. Usually I do a "wow, I love it! What is it again?" sort of thing and what she comes up with is hysterical! She also at night time has taken to sitting down on the foam Winnie the Pooh chair, to "ask some questions" as she says. Basically she just sits there and talks about life. But in her head, that's what questions she has.

Laughter fills the air

Yesterday afternoon was such a fun time to watch Addie and Ben interacting. Ben just cracked up hysterically at his sister. There wasn't anything she did that didn't make him laugh hysterically. What a great sound. And what a fun thing to watch. They are really showing how much they love each other nowadays.

When we first found out we were pregnant with Ben, I had all kinds of emotions about them being 17.5 months apart. Now, I wouldn't change it for the world.

As my Blog title shows, and I hear from strangers on a daily basis, "Yes, they keep me busy" and I LOVE it!

Here's Ben after our spaghetti dinner last night. He housed the meat sauce! Oh yeah and best invention ever- teddy bear shaped pasta. Both kids ate like they've never eaten before. Addie loved eating her teddy bears.

Yes, it looks like she is holding pasta up her nose, but really she was getting ready to put it in her mouth.

Ok, so daily=weekdays

So I have already goofed up and didn't post over the weekend. But in my defense, I did warn you all that we had a very busy weekend coming up. I will take this opportunity to say that when I say I will post daily, I mean weekdays. And if I throw in a weekend post for good measure, then you'll be privy to an extra treat. Deal?

Saturday was a very busy day with going to the Brandywine Arts Festival and then to the Lewis' crabfeast. Addie and Ben had wonderful times at both locations. Here are some pictures of our "fearless," "brave," and "impressive," little girl. All of those adjectives were used by others to describe her on the water slide! What a complete and total nut she is, but she's my nut!

She actually got air off of the second bump. Lots of videos on the Dropshots site.

Just being adorable in the mini-moonbounce

Oh yeah, Friday Onkteb came over and played with the kids too.

Addie is such the accessory queen nowadays. Note the one shoe, no pants, the backpack, etc!

Onkteb had to be made "super" by wearing his hospital gown cape, thanks to Adds.

Totally cherubic and innocent looks!

Sunday was the Eagles game (booo hiss!). Addie and Ben had a chance to wear their Eagles shirts for the first time. She's been beggin for weeks to wear hers.

Would it be too much to ask for them to both look happy at the same time for a picture?

In Mom Mom and Pop Pop's florida room

And one final shot to end this post....Addie and Emily riding off into the sunset on Saturday. They were very Thelma and Louise.

"What happened to my brother?"

This is what Addie said when she saw Ben after surgery. He has a bandage on his foot from a failed IV attempt. She immediately saw his foot and asked. How sweet is that? We told her that Ben had surgery and to hear her little voice say surgery is so priceless. She wanted to see me change him, since we explained his penis had surgery....it's not a pretty picture, and she FLIPPED out when she saw it. She was screaming, "no Ben! no Ben!" After care is pretty intense, so this should be a fun 30 days of post-surgery care. Woohoo.

Here are pictures of our 7 hours at the hospital. Urology had a 1.5 delay, so he didn't go back until 3:30. Surgery was just under 1 hour.




Before we left for the hospital


In the waiting room


All gowned up


Finally, after being up for 5 hours, he fell asleep waiting for surgery


All done! Recovering afterwards. (The Bob shirt was a hit, as usual!)

Thanks for reading!

And HAPPY 10 MONTHS Benjamin!

Ok, so I bit the bullet

After just about every other Mom in the world has done, I'm officially a blogger now. I figured between the Dropshots account for pictures and videos, it would help to have a place to keep track of what the kids are doing, saying, and getting into. It also might be a fun way for me to mention something about myself or Brian.


Addie's latest developmental achievement: the amazing, incredibly vivid imagination. Since our ride home from daycare yesterday, she has decided she is named "Fudgey." Disclaimer: there's a boy in daycare nicknamed Fudgey. She also has decided that Benjamin is now named "Pop Pop." Briefly yesterday she did say her named was "Poo Poo" and Ben was "Pop Pop." The conversation goes something like this:


Me: Addie, please be gentle with Ben
Fudgey: No, I'm Fudgey. He's Pop Pop
Me: Ok, please be gentle with Pop Pop, Fudgey
Fudgey: Ok, Mom


She rarely calls me Mommy anymore too. This is slightly disconcerting, because is she seriously that mature already?


Ben goes in for surgery tomorrow, to have his tubes put in his ears and have his skin bridge on his penis fixed. OUCH. Everytime I tell a man about his surgery, he usually ends up curled into a little ball on the floor.


Ben turns 10 months old on Friday! Whew! Where the heck has the time gone? Just for fun here's a comparison picture of Addie at 10 months and Ben at almost 10 months. They really do look alike!









We've got a big weekend coming up too. The Brandywine Arts Festival is going on, we have the Lewis family annual bbq (at one of Brian's colleague's' house, tons of fun & great food!), the Eagles first game (look for pics of the kids for that!), and Pop Pop's birthday celebration (the real Pop Pop!)


Ok, I'll be sending out a link to this now, so people can check in. Post comments so I know who's reading it. I'll try to be good and publish something everyday.