Picture overload

First the Flower Market.  It was hot and muddy from all of the rain.  I kept telling Addie and Ben, "Watch out! It's muddy."  Ben interpreted what I was saying as 'Muddy' and he was rightfully very confused.

Riding the Dizzy Farm. Muddy, this is the one where you would've gotten sick, as Addie so nicely told you.

This year Ben was big enough to go on the Bungy  Jumpy Thing. Here he's getting suited up.  The young kid who worked it looks perplexed, because he just asked Ben what his name is and his reply was, "Sweetie Pie Sugar Pop." I had to intervene and explain his name is, in fact, Benjamin. I'm sure SPSP will be embarrassed by me calling him that when he's older, but right now it's the name he identifies with 100%.  

Look at him, way up high, he's flyyyyyying (think Peter Pan song). By the way, his shirt says "I do all my own stunts."

Trying to get a good bounce going.

She knew exactly what to do.

Look at her "turn out" ala ballerina.

Ben enjoyed himself, really. He doesn't smile much while enjoying something, but really he does. Really.

Mother's Day

To my Mom aka Muddy on this almost Mother's Day 2009:

As I became a mother myself there have been several situations and occasions in which I've thought to myself, "You're lucky you had a great example of a mother to prepare you for this." So on this Mother's Day I wanted to publicly thank you for a number of them:

• You never criticized my body as a child.  I didn't go through bouts of wondering if I was skinny enough or pretty enough. I always thought I was fine the way I am.  That's because of you.  You didn't look in a mirror and criticize everything about yourself.  I don't ever recall you saying "I wish my ___ was bigger/smaller."  You had a healthy appreciation of your body and passed that on to me.  I hope to do the same with Addie (and Ben, but more particularly Addie since girls have such body image issues).
• You always instilled in me the meaning of family.  The fact that any one of the six of us knew what was going on with any of the other ones of us at any given moment, good or bad, has made me wonder how some siblings don't know anything about the others.  To me, we all just always did.  Even as we have grown and become adults, even when we've made decisions the others didn't agree with, we are still brothers and sisters.  It makes total sense to me that we'll all be celebrating every holiday/special occasion together as much as reasonably is possible.  That's because of you.  I hope that Addie and Ben will always be able to count on each other and know that other not only as a sibling but as a friend and support.
• You always knew how to make things fun.  You still do.  Even as my friends today joke about Nourie World and how we're always having fun as a family, I owe that to you.  Even in tough, horrible times, we still managed to have fun. That's because of you.
• You encouraged me to become anything I wanted to be. Even though I didn't become my 8-year-old ambition of a pediatrician,  I got to become a professional who helps people and contributes to my community.  I never wondered if I was "good enough" or "smart enough."  I just expected to achieve success at whatever I approached.  That's because of you.  
• My self-confidence has never ceased. In some ways, I'm self-confident to a ridiculous level, but that's who I am.  You always cheered me on, praised me, critiqued when you knew I didn't try my hardest, and told me I would be alright.  As a parent now and a professional, I don't question my abilities (most of the time!).  That's because of you.
• You can fix anything.  You can create anything. If someone can dream it, you can make it.  Addie and Ben know this about you.  Everyone who has met you has had a chance to see one or more of your creations and always marvels at your talents.  I try to make stuff. Sometimes it works out. Sometimes it doesn't. I'm ok with that (see bullet point above). I get my inspiration and dreaming from you.
• You love your grandchildren to the ends of the earth.   You spend as much time as possible with Addie and Ben. You nurture them. You cuddle them. You praise them. You play with them, on their terms, on their level.You love them.  I look forward to the day when I am a grandmother and can duplicate your efforts.  That's because of you.

I just want to say thank you for all you have done and continue to do for me and my family.  I love you and think you're an incredible mother, friend and woman!!!

Dancing at the wedding

Ok, so you'll have to turn you head sideways to watch this video, b/c I can't find a free program to rotate videos!  Talk about some serious dance moves, right?!

1,2,3,4

You can at least get the idea from that video.

Pictures from Graham's party

Graham's 5th birthday party was held at a place called Kids Quest. It's part of a gymnastics place. Basically lots of tubes and tunnels to crawl through, slides all over the place, a ball pit, etc.

I sat at the foot of the slide to catch action shots...I could hear them echoing in the tube slide!

Didn't I tell you all before how she loves to strike a pose? Here she's going for the Heisman.

In the ball pit, a great picture of Brian and Ben

Ok, you MUST click on this picture to enlarge it...look at Benjamin!! As soon as I clicked my camera, I knew I had captured a jewel! 

Little love

I have many pictures to share from this weekend at Graham's birthday party, but will have to get to them later.
I wanted to share two little things about Addie.
1.) Yesterday while at work, I got the following email:
"I love you and you're really pretty and somedays I go on the naughty step and today I putted on "You're So Glad You're a Child Of Mine" and somebody sees the sun and I don't like that time and the rainbow--I didn't know what to see, I just saw a doggy rainbow. And please come home. I'm really sorry. Love, Addie"
She has learned how to access my itunes on my laptop, and frequently listens to "Child of Mine" by Carole King. I sang that song to her *every* night when she was a baby. She loves to listen to it now and think about me singing it to her. I love her title for it too. The rainbow speak was referring to us driving home over the weekend and I could see a rainbow. She couldn't see it. That night when she was trying to fall asleep and kept "seeing the bad bugs" I told her to close her eyes and see a rainbow. I asked if she could see it and she said yes. I didn't realize it was a doggy rainbow...
2.) Muddy pulled me aside last night to say that Addie had some realization breakthrough about aging. It all centers around the concept of "getting old." She doesn't want anyone to get old. She hasn't mentioned dying or death at all. But getting old is out of the question. She goes into immediate tears even saying "old." I don't know what brought it on, but something struck a nerve with her. All of you reading this will be glad to know she answered "No" to my asking, "Do you know anyone right now who is old?" Maybe she just wants to stay a kid forever?! Come to think of it, over the weekend I called her "my baby girl" and she was quick to say, "Mommy, it's May, I'm almost 4, I'm not your baby girl anymore." I think I replied something like "You'll always be my baby girl, even when I'm old and you have your own children..." Maybe that's where it came from? No matter what, she doesn't like the idea at all. It's hard to see your child sad over a concept that's so out of reach.

Rhyming

Ben and Addie both love words.  They love to make words up. They love to write words (Addie more so, but Ben tries!)  They spend hours a day rhyming. 

The only catch to their rhyming is that all of the rhymes start with the letter f.  Ben gets on a roll and it sounds something like this:

B: Mommy, I know what what rhymes with wall.

M: What?

B: Fall! I know what rhymes with baby.

M: What? 

B: Faby! I know what rhymes with table.

M:What?

B: Fable! I know what rhymes with tiger.

M: What?

B: Figer

And you get the idea.

A couple nights ago we were getting them settled in bed and Addie and Ben both were on a rhyming spree.  Any word that popped in their head they could name the rhyme that started with f.  After going through every visible item in the room (mirror- firror, wall-fall,picture-ficture, etc, etc, etc) Brian jumped in and started saying the f-rhyme before they could.

It was hysterical because each time Brian would shout out the rhyme, Addie was so proud of him.  Typically it followed with, "That's right Daddy!" or "Way to go!" or "How did you know?" 

We both laughed and kept it going, because to them we were just discovering the rhyme too!

Ahhh, I love them so much.

On Tuesday night we went to the St. Helena's Carnival, which is just up the street from where we all grew up.  St. Helena's was the event to look forward to as a child. It was Addie and Ben's first time there and they weren't disappointed. (Photo and video from my camera aren't loading right now, so I'll do it later!)