Natural born leader

I decided to switch things up while picking the kids up from daycare today. Usually I pick Ben up first and then we go in and get Addie. Typically this ends with me picking a screaming Benjamin up and leaving, because he's mad to leave and not be able to play with all of the "cooler" toys that the 2 years old have in their room. Today I thought, let's try getting Addie first and see if it's easier to get out....moral of the story: yes, much faster that way.
As I walked into Addie's classroom, I see Ms. Agnes sitting at one of the tables, kind of zoned out. She's not interacting with any kids. In fact, I walk in and notice that all of the kids are sitting on the floor in a circle. Ms. Agnes sees me and says, "They're having circle time." Meanwhile Addie is talking to the rest of the kids in the circle. I say, "and she's the teacher?" "uh huh," said Ms. Agnes. I shouldn't have bothered to ask. Of course she's leading the class. She could sell ice to an Eskimo. Tackling a group of 2 year olds is nothing.
Another one of Addie's accomplishments is that she can now unlatch the lock on the gate into her classroom. She actually knows to slide her hand around the front and how to unlock it.
Over the weekend we had a nice time on Saturday. Being Wife and In-law of the Year, I took the kids over to Brian's parents' house because Danielle was home for a few days. Afterwards we met up for lunch with Muddy and Guppy. Brian surprised us by leaving work at 2:30pm and ended up meeting us too. We spent some time in the hot tub. Ben finally decided he was willing to hold onto someone other than me for a while. Muddy enjoyed that tremendously. Then best of all, they both fell asleep about 6pm. I jokingly said, "ok, we'll be back after dinner" and my Mom was like "go! go! go! now!" She didn't have to tell us twice! LOL. Brian and I enjoyed a dinner OUT just the two of us. That hasn't happened since before Addie was born (with the exception of when we were at the wedding in Miami). It was very nice.

Injury-filled afternoon

Within a 30 minute time span, these are the injuries in our household:

• Addie is sitting on the naughty step and Ben lovingly joins her to support her. She's not so pleased with Ben being right next to her and proceeds to push him into the wall. He slides off the step and knocks his massive head right into the corner molding/door jam. Well a dime sized knot starts forming with a blood-filled core. It looks like blood is going to burst through his skin at any minute
• Shortly after Addie had an extended naughty step sitting for pushing Ben off, she was playing by herself in the family room. She comes running into Ben and I crying that she hurt herself. I ask where and she says her booty. I told her to show my what happened and she took us into the family room where she says that she fell on the Little People's Circus. Because Addie is the first nudist in our family, she of course was bottomless when she fell. Indeed, she's got a nice bruise going right along her tailbone.
• As I was sitting on the couch consoling her injured booty, I had my head down looking at the ground. Addie stood up and swung Rollo right into my face, catching my glasses and pushing them up into my forehead. It hurt so much. I thought I was doing ok recovering until I put my finger to the area and saw blood! My nose piece of my glasses cut me! I couldn't believe it.

Something funny that just happened- Addie was being not so nice to Ben. I asked her if she was needing to spend some time on the naughty step. Without missing a beat she said, "Sorry Mommy, I'm too busy for that." Like Muddy said to me today, it's interesting how Addie has already learned the art of spin. She can reframe a situation like nobody's business. A few more examples: She went into Guppy's office one day last week and Muddy found her standing in front of Guppy's computer with the guilty look on her face. Addie said to Muddy, "aren't you glad I turned on Guppy's computer?!" Today when she spilled parmesan cheese all over the floor, deliberately, Aunt Kim told her she was going to have to help clean it up and sit on the naughty step. Addie looked her dead in the eye and said, "Aunt Kim, it's just cheese." Maybe she's inherited my "don't sweat the small stuff" philosophy?

It's a bird; it's a plane; no, it's

Super Muddy to the rescue!! When the kids and I got home this afternoon from daycare/work, I grabbed my keys and realized yesterday when Ben was napping in the car, I took my housekey off my keyring so Addie and I could go inside...you're seeing where this is going. Totally locked out of my own house. Brian isn't going to be home until 9pm again (yeah that's not old is it?!). So Muddy was my first call. Within 20 minutes she was here to let us into our own house. Muddy, our hero! Thanks Mom.

A couple of funny things to share:

• yesterday on our way home from lunch with Muddy at Friendly's, Addie and Ben were playing peek-a-boo in the backseat. She kept covering her face with a blanket and I would say "where's Addie?" Ben would laugh, etc. Addie started saying, "Mommy, where's Addie? Where's Addie? Where's Addie?" over and over again. Finally I said, "hmmmm, where's Addie?" She said, "I think you left me at Friendly's" from under the blanket.


• tonight at dinner, Addie needed to hold Look. Suddenly she said, "Oh no! Look's eyes are red. I need to get the eye drops." For those of you who haven't seen Addie in person, she does the most exasperated sounds when surprised or when she "discovers" something.


• today was picture day at daycare. Addie wore her Easter dress with Baby in matching attire. It was a huge hit. Ben wore a cable knit sweater and nice pants. I can't wait to see how they turned out. They did some individually and some together. They said Ben was a little apprehensive at first, but Addie sat down and gave him a hug and said, "It's ok Ben, don't be scared." What a good big sister!

Here's Ben lovin' some homemade hot fudge sundaes. Actually he was enjoying the whipped cream the most.

Not surprisingly, Addie loves whipped cream too.

Addie looking adorable before going out to lunch yesterday.

Ben had to pose too, of course.

This picture really distorts their sizes. They were measured yesterday and came in 4 lbs and 4 inches difference.

Handful Benjamin

So this is what I see when I hear screams of pure fright....
Apparently Ben can get under the big shade now, but couldn't figure out how to get out...




And then I got a good shot of why he's a handful right now!!

Happy Easter!!

Well loyal blog readers, it's been a busy couple of days. Here's some pictures. Stories will follow over the next couple of days.

Just a post of pictures to get you up to date

Just catching you up to speed on the pictures of my life:



Can this kid be any cuter?

Just adorable (notice Addie sleeping in the background)

Benjamin going shopping in pjs, coat and with black patent leather purse of course

Sunday they colored Easter pictures.

Yup, Ben coloring in his jacket. This boy is obsessed with wearing his jacket and/or coat at all times.



Here is Addie signing "star"

She has come home from daycare with scratches on her face the past two days. Addie is a "picker." She constantly picks at any skin thing on anyone, including herself. I'm so worried about her scarring her face, that I insisted she wear a bandaid. Well it ended up being she chose one of the tatoo bandaids that Onkteb and Aunt Gail gave her. Don't know if you can make it out or not, but it's the pirate from Pirates of the Carribean 2.
Oh yeah and I'm supposed to post this: http://www.jibjab.com/sendables/view/RCDDVSaoec5T3vUpe0IXYKhJ
I don't think Jeremy's head could be more perfect for this could it?

Bad blogging, Cory!

Sorry it's been so long since I blogged. I don't think I've missed so many days in a row before. I'll work on that.
I have been even worse with taking pictures! My poor kids won't know what one week of their lives looked like! I just sometimes feel like I'm on such a routine with them, that you probably get sick of seeing pictures of them eating dinner. Seriously, that's my life. My nighttime looks like this: leave work, go to daycare, corral them into the car, get home, start dinner while they watch something on tv, eat dinner/feed them, bath time, play for a few minutes, put Ben to bed, come down and spend some one on one time with Addie, check email, go to bed. That's it.
Ok, so some fun things to tell you about:

• Addie is my daughter, through and through. She has learned how to open the freezer. She has also learned how to open the freezer to access the carton of ice cream. She has also learned how to open the freezer to access the ice cream and then bring it in to me very casually, as if I asked her to go get the ice cream for herself. As I type this, she is licking the bowl and slurpping the very last bit of melted ice cream from it.
• Addie decided to paint stripes in her hair. Bright pink stripes. When Ms. Irene at daycare said to her, "you have pink hair," Addie was very qucik to retort, "no I have blonde hair."
• Ben now waves his index finger and says, "Not nice" to Addie when she does something to him that's not nice.
• Addie's new favorite thing to do on the computer is to watch things like this:http://www.jibjab.com/sendables/view/Ml7EsWyvf8GAdA6dtG2FJ3MV That is my friend and co-worker Ilka, who Addie insisted be included. She actually said, "Ben, me and my Ilka!" LOL her Ilka, if only Ilka's husband knew that!

Two days of nice weather

It's been sunny and 60 degrees here for the past two days!! Woohoo! The kids and I had a lot of outside fun at Muddy and Guppy's house yesterday. Today the four of us played out back at our house. It was really great to get some fresh air and just run around.
Remember how I've said for a long time that Ben is going to be my "sick child?" Well yet again, a weird thing he is- eruption cysts. This happens when he's teething. Last month when the first bad molar started coming through, he had an evening where his mouth was bleeding, like really bleeding. The molar looked weird, his gum was all gross looking, etc. When he was sick I had the Ped look at it and she said, "It doesn't look like there's anything wrong with it, more like it's just having a hard time coming through. He could have had an eruption cyst that would make it bleed like that." Well last night I looked in his mouth at the other side where his nasty molar is coming through- and lo and behold, he's got this flap on his gum. No big deal. As the night wore on, it got bigger and bigger. Overnight he woke up screaming in pain. I put Orajel on his gum and eventually he went back to sleep. When he got up this morning, the cyst is this huge blood filled thing on his gum. It's really gross looking. He doesn't seem bothered by it. Apparently it'll pop on its own and then go away. BLECH. Really gross.
You probably heard that JPMorgan helped bail out Bear Sterns on Friday. Well Brian was a part of that decision. Don't ask me the details, because I have no clue. Today he gets a phone call that someone else is going under and they need him in at 9am tomorrow to work on details. It's top secret. No one is saying who "it" is. He says with the market being what it is, these sorts of things could go on for 3-6 months! I hope he doesn't have to have these emergency meetings very often.

Oh come on!

So Addie didn't make the "top 64!" WTF? As Aunt Gail wrote to me in an email (hope she's ok with me sharing this):
Ok, so what kind of crack are those DE Moms smoking? How did Addie not make it into the "final" 64? Some of those pictures are terrible and the captions are even worse. Not only are some of the kids not in spring outfits, but the photos themselves are just awful. Now, I will say some of the toddlers are totally adorable but there are some in there whose faces I can barely make out.I'm also shocked (although I guess I shouldn't be), after going through all the entries, at how many parents have "pimped" their kids out. What was with the boys on the couch with their legs spread? Why do our teenage girls look like they're 18? Oi!Anyway, I was sure Addie would win. I still think her picture is one of the best and that's not just the aunt in me speaking (I don't think). I'm pretty objective about kids and their looks. I've seen some ugly babies and I'm not afraid to say it!
Gotta love Gail!! Thanks for the email!

Yes, indeed my loyal blog readers, there were many a submission where the 3 year old girls are wearing lipstick, mascara, the whole works. Sorry I wouldn't do that to my Addie girl. Besides the fact that she doesn't need it, it grosses me out! I understand playing dress up and all, but to put make up on your child in order to take a picture of her to enter into a contest is not an option in my mind.
Brian was really funny last night talking about it. He said, "if she doesn't make the top 64, then I must have Daddy-love blinders on." No, the fact of the matter is that a good portion of the kids didn't even have clear face shots. I guess they weren't looking for the All-American cutie look, which is soooo Addie.
Tonight I'll work on the Bill Cosby video- last night she was all about just staring at me when I said "Circus monkey, do your thing." Huh, wonder why?

Hodgepodge

Today's post is a hodgepodge/update/what's going on. No real rhyme or reason to what I'm saying. (Wait a minute, there's a reason...but you get the idea)



Addie has become Bill Cosby. She now knows exactly what to do when I say, "make my favorite face." I swear, if you ever hear of someone wanting to hire an almost 3 year old white girl Bill Cosby impersonator, send them to me! Not sure the pictures truly do her expression justice- I might have to try for some video too. She is soooo expressive and pre-teen already!





I'll definitely need to get video- I thought I had much better pics than those!



The latest most adorable picture of Benjamin. Funny how the most candid, randomly-timed ones come out best!




A better view of her Easter dress and crocheted sweater





Two of my favorite things Ben is doing right now:

1.) He's going potty too. Ok, not actually doing anything on the potty, but very insistent that he must be undiapered and on the potty everytime Addie is off of it. If only he put the function with the fun!

2.) I just heard him yelling "mmmmaaaaa, mmmmmaaaaaaaaaa" and had to go look for him. He's standing in the kitchen with his hand on the pantry doorknob, with paper in this hands. He needed to throw that paper in the trashcan, at that moment! He does it too at diaper change time. I barely can get his pants up and he's off with the dirty diaper to throw out.
Videos still aren't working! UGH. I have lots of Elton John videos to share too! Bummer.

Also wanted to share that Addie and Ben have both fallen in love with Disc Two, in particular, from Aunt Amanda and Uncle Jeremy's cds they made them. Between "You can call me Al," "Jamming" and "If I had a million dollars" over and over again, we get to daycare in the morning.

Awesome birthday gift

The tickets to see my pal Elton were a birthday present from my parents to Brian and I- so THANKS! It was awesome. 2 hours and 40 minutes of non-stop Elton John. He played 27 songs- all of the one I knew, plus some I never heard ever before. Very cool. I took a total of 73 pictures/videos of the concert.


Here's Elton playing


They had two jumbo screens up, for close ups of his face and him playing the piano


I have lots of pics like this, where the mic is in front of his mouth


When he got up and said, "Bye Cory" LOL


Talk about a nice person, he came out and signed autographs for people on the floor!


Oh yeah and I should mention I had NO idea what an amazing pianist he is! Seriously his fingers must've been dead at the end of the show. No break, no stopping, just singing and playing the whole 2 hours and 40 minutes. Totally worth the money!

OH and there are 300 entries in the modelling contest. They'll choose 6- 4 girls and 2 boys. Not holding out hope here....even though I know she's the cutest. LOL

And the submitted photo is....

I should mention after posting last night I remembered that Muddy told me she was going to debut Addie's Easter dress at our visit tomorrow (today.) I knew then that I would have to reconsider my finalist pictures. LOL. Talk about overachieving, I mentioned to Muddy that Addie wanted to get a dress from the BJ's catalog that has a matching baby dress too. Muddy just happened to whip this up today for Baby, including matching crocheted hat! Addie was in heaven, as you can tell!!

There are over 100 entries in the contest. You can view them all at http://www.delawaremoms.com/ At the bottom you'll see "spring fashion" galleries. There's like 8 to 10 pictures in each group. I'm guessing Addie's will be up tomorrow, since I just submitted it tonight. Not sure how many they are taking or the age range spread they are going to pick. There's quite a few little 3 or 4 year old girls. So we'll just have to wait and see. It would be really cool though.

Tomorrow is the Elton John concert, so I won't update probably. Muddy and Guppy are coming over to watch the kids, who will hopefully go to bed very easily for them. Tuesday morning is going to be fun, I'm sure. :)

Happy 49th Birthday (OMG!) to Miss Nay! Addie and I had a fun time at a birthday brunch for her girlfriends this afternoon!

Fun pictures

How Ben stays amused while having his nebulizer treatment every 4 hours:


Below are the two options I have to use to enter Addie in the "spring fashion" modeling contest that the Delaware Parent magazine is holding. They are looking for kids who love to ham it up for the camera....gee too bad I don't know any. She had to wear her favorite spring outfit. In this case, she's showing off her new spring jacket that she thinks is the coolest jacket ever.

And here she is wearing her Disney princess shirt I got on clearance at Target. It's an instant hit.

I'm not sure which one to submit. I need to do it by tomorrow night at midnight. Any suggestions? The 1st one is her personality and sassiness (look at that hand on her hip!), but her smile isn't the cutest. The bottom one is a cuter smiling face, but not the pizzazz! (I feel like inserting spirit fingers here!)
FEEDBACK PLEASE!!

Trying to catch up

I feel like I'm a week behind on blogging the ever so important details of our lives. (ROFL). Last Friday we all went to La Tolteca for dinner, but ended up leaving after Ben threw up all over the place. Luckily my cat-like Super Mom reflexes kicked in and I got him outside just in time, so the stairs of LaTolteca took the brunt of the vomit, and not the restaurant floor. I would've felt REALLY badly if that had happened- that would've been so gross for everyone trying to eat their dinners!



Anywho, Onkteb, Aunt Gail and Aunt Kim came to our house before going up there. And we all know that where there's Onkteb, Aunt Gail, Aunt Kim and my gang, there's music.

Some videos to enjoy:

Are you kidding me?

Ben went to daycare today. Had a good day, etc. Tonight, it turns out he is allergic to his antibiotic! COVERED in hives yet again. Poor kid can't catch a break.

High school

Weird, suddenly I've gotten so many people Facebooking me, from high school especially. It's really interesting to see who is still all BFF with each other. It's also interesting to see how many 1) aren't married and 2) don't have kids! I feel like an old lady compared to them. I guess I should reframe it and say I'm "established," right? It really got me thinking of how I don't talk to anyone from high school on a regular basis. Then I realized, MY HUSBAND is from high school! How did I miss that minor fact? LOL.


Ben seems to be on the mend, I think. Thanks for all of your thoughts about him. We go in at 3pm for a follow up to see how his lungs sound. The nebulizer surely works, because after each treatment he starts hacking up a lung. Addie's got this cough now too, so I want her checked out as well. As our pediatrician says, "Well since she brought her ears, I might as well check them."


I'm going to have to do little updates with pictures and videos of the past week slowly.
Friday morning the kids went to Muddy and Guppy's house, to surprise Onkteb and Aunt Gail, and be watched while I went into the office.
While there, Addie went upstairs with Guppy while he was getting dressed and came down....with eyeliner all over her forehead and eyebrows. Apparently she knew just where it went. The part that was on skin came off relatively easily with a little elbow grease. The part on her eyebrows, not so much. Below is a picture of her at 10pm that night, so about 10 hours after her make up encounter occurred. It was really funny to see how much her face changed just be having darker eyebrows. (The only way to get her to look at a camera right now is to have her make a funny face at it.)

The not so fun part of parenting

I have about a billion things to report about, but the most important is Ben's health. He ended up continuing his fever overnight and the eye gook. He went to the pediatrician's office for an 11:15 appointment. We got out of there at 1:15. Seriously. We were headed to AI Dupont Hospital for Children to get a chest x-ray, as the Ped heard something in the left lobe of his lung. After the x-ray was taken and read, it was determined he has "mucus plugs" in his lungs. I guess that means not full blown pneumonia, but a lesser version? He's on an antibiotic. His fever was broken all day long and I thought we might be through with it. Unfortunately at 4:00 his fever was back and with a vengenance. It's currently 102.9 and I'm waiting for the Motrin to kick in.
Thank God for my parents who were able to watch him this morning and AUnt Kim who is watching him tomorrow.

Two sickies

Pobre Benjamin still has the fever of at least 102. Addie is running one too. Once the Motrin kicks in, they are both fine. However it takes up to an hour or more for Ben to start cooling a little. Annoying.
Lots of pictures and videos to share...hopefully will have time tomorrow to upload.