Supermonkey

After breakfast this morning I asked Emma what she would like to do today. She did not hesitate before answering, "Go park! Swings. Go slide! Duckies! quack quack!"

I told her to get her shoes on and we would go. We easily found one shoe - why is it always easy to find one shoe? - but couldn't find it's mate. We looked all over. All the sudden I hear her yell from her bedroom, "Dey is! Mama, dey is!" translated: There it is!

It was kind of chilly today, so I threw a coat on Ben and we piled into the car. We didn't go to the duck park because the play area isn't fenced in and Emma is known to beeline for the lake with the ducks when you least expect it. We hit my favorite toddler park which happens to be the park closest to us. As soon as we pulled into the parking lot Emma starting asking for "Weavie" as we often meet her there.

"Mama, Weavie swings?" No, Ems, Evie isn't here today. "Mama, Weavie slide?" No, sweetypie. Evie is at home. She's taking a nap. "Oh, Weavie sweepin'. Shh, mama, shh."

We played for about an hour and then headed for the supermarket. I wanted to go to the mexican market to get some spicy pork chops for a bbq we are having tomorrow but I don't often go there and can never remember where it is. I said to Emma, "Emma, where's the supermarket. Mama can't find it." "No donno. Where's supermonkey?" As I drove around looking for the Vallerta I kept hearing from the backseat, "Where's supermonkey? Where's supermonkey?"

Do you think if I looked up supermonkey on my gps it could have gotten me there faster?

Mirror mirror on the wall

Phew! What a day... So much to tell, I'll try to keep it compact.

Ben has officially found his voice. Emma rarely jibber-jabbered as a baby. Ben? Kid won't shut up. It CRACKS ME UP! I'm sure it has everything to do with the fact that his big sister doesn't shut up either... He is just talking to her! He has also discovered there is another baby in the house. Oddly enough, this baby looks exactly like him! Yes, he has fallen in love with checking himself out in the mirror. The following video is of him talking to himself:



Emma has been quoting passages from her favorite books that she has read over and over. As her pronunciation is far from perfect, it is a challenge for me to decipher what it is she is saying. Today I heard her say, "Waffle waffle, feet feet feet, many many feet you feet!" which for the Dr. Suess fans out there translates into, "Left foot right foot, feet feet feet, how many many feet you meet!"

In culinary news, I picked up some pork chops from Costco today and grilled them up. Unfortunately, they were about 37 inches thick and took forever to cook and I kind of dried them out. What better to mask an overcooked chop but spicy bbq sauce! As Emma won't eat the spicy sauce, I decided it was time to introduce the child to ketchup. Yep, she LOVED it. See photo below for evidence:



As you can see from the picture, her hair continues to GROW. The back is about 3 inches longer than the front bits and has a nice curl to it. But, it is getting harder and harder to brush and she has less and less patience for having it brushed. I used some of Gamma Woo's left over conditioner on it tonight in her bath... It will be interestng to see how her fine hair reacts to it in the morning.

Ben just woke up screaming - blood curdling screams, it kind of freaked me out for a few minutes until he let out a giant fart. Poor babe is a bit constipated, I think. He was doing that gasping for air hiccuppy thing after he calmed down a bit and it broke my heart. He's back to sleep now, fingers crossed his belly is okay now...

Oh, Doctor, Doctor!

Ben had his 4 month well visit this morning at 9:30am. Usually Daddy will stay home with Emma so I don't have to take her, but this morning he had an appointment so I braved the trip with the 2 to the pediatrician's office.

If you recall, Emma is not a fan of the pediatrician's office. Let's just say she HATES it...

So, today, I decided to get smart. I packed the portable dvd player to distract her!

Our wait in the lobby was blessedly quick - just enough time to collect the co-payment - then we were whisked into room #1. The nurse followed us in and we stripped Ben down real quick like and took his measurements. The kiddo is 26 inches long already and 16 lbs 10 ounces.

It was about this time Emma began to cry. I could see her sitting toooo quietly, see her eyes begin to well up with tears, and her chest start to heave as she was fighting the tears thinking she was next. I quickly spun the stroller around so she was facing the wall and the chairs, whipped out the dvd player and turned it on. Baby Bach started up to quell her tears then - stopped! No, the battery wasn't dead, the laser was stuck on something. So I popped the dvd out, gave it a good wipe down, and slipped it back in before the tears returned. It worked! When the doctor came in she didn't even make a peep - partly out of fear that if she made eye contact she would be next and partly out of enjoyment of watching Baby Bach!

Back to Ben - no, those numbers were not a typo. Little guy ain't so little no mo'! He is the average size of a six month old - except that he is FOUR months old. I guess the ole' booby milk is pretty potent stuff...

He took his shots like the champion he is - only cried for 30 seconds, then we dressed him up and away we went. When I closed up the dvd player, Emma said, "What? Movie done?" As if she wanted to hang out there all day and watch the flick. Sheesh.

Interesting news. This whole "baby bunching" thing - meaning having kids within 2 years of each other is finally working out. My whole point for having them bang bang is not just because I am getting old - I'm only 38 - it was more of a "let's get this over with / they will be close in age and best friends." Hahahahahaah - I can hear you laughing now.

Well, this evening while I was making dinner, Ben was a wee bit fussy - probably those immunizations haunting him. I wasn't doing a very good job soothing him as I was grilling up chicken, boiling soba and steaming green beans. Emma came into the kitchen with a "what's all the racket?" look on her face. She saw Ben crying and got down on the floor with him and entertained him for a good 5 minutes until I could get the meal dished out and on the table!

See? It just may work! My plan, it just may work! (I won't tell you how after dinner she bonked him on the head...just for the hell of it.)

Poop spelled backwards is poop.

Today I got this:

"Mama, poop." You have to poop? (No answer.) You already pooped? (No answer.) Do you want to poop on the potty or in your diaper? "Potty." Awesome! Let's go.

So we went into the bathroom and she sat on the potty. We read books. We chatted about the wall, her nose, my nose. We played peek-a-boo with my hair, patty cake and itsy bitsy spider... Finally after about 15 minutes, she said, "All done. Bye poopy!" as she waved into the toilet. The thing is, she didn't actually go poop. So I told her, "Emma, you don't get to wave bye bye to the poopy unless you actually poop." She looked at me quizzically then walked into her bedroom awaiting me to put a fresh diaper on her.

I got her dressed, grabbed Ben and sat in the comfy chair to nurse him. 30 seconds later she comes over to the chair and tries to climb up on it. I reached over to help her getting a nice whiff of her butt. YEPPER. She had pooped. In her diaper. That I just put on her. 29 seconds before.

Chatty Kathy

Oo-oo-oo! I forgot to tell ya, yesterday at church Emma's mouth struck again. She has turned into quite the chatty kathy - of course at the most inappropriate times. She has made friends with many of the other toddlers but has taken a particular liking to 2 of them. So, of course, while all was quiet during Sacrament, Emma saw one of her buddies and yells across the aisle, "Hey Porter! Hi! Hi Porter." Then, "Where's Weavie? WEAVIE!!!"

...all snug in their beds...

Emzilla outdid herself in beastieness this evening. I won't go into details, as it really wasn't anything new - let's just say every abominable thing she has ever done she did again tonight within a 90 minute time span. Time outs were issued, tears were shed - by her, by Ben and by me. My guesses are that it is a full moon...

But, as always happens, a switch was turned on (off?) in her synapse-firing brain and she turned sweet as Emma pie. She went from a screaming banshee to my darlin' daughter in the blink of an eye.

She started telling me about the shows she watched earlier today:

"Mama, Dinky Doo bad hair." (Pinky Dinky Doo was having bad hair day and didn't want to go to school.) "Weenie, where you?" (Oswald and Weenie were playing hide and seek.) "Rintoo sad." (He wanted to roller skate but didn't know how.)

She then started loving on the dogs, "Doe Doe hug. Good Doe Doe." (As she was petting and hugging on Apollo - after torturing him all evening...) "Cassidy. Come on. Cassidy. Go nite nite." (Encouraging poor old Cassidy to go to sleep in her doggy bed not on the carpet...)

Then, to top it all off, I was in the living room and she wandered down the hall. It got very quiet very quickly in my tiny cottage so I went to her bedroom. She had crawled into her bed and covered herself up with her blanket laying patiently for me to come and give her a good night kiss and turn out the light. I did so and haven't heard a peep from her since.

Most times when she is cantankerous I can bite my tongue and ride out the storm knowing the sweet one will make her appearance soon enough. I don't usually raise my voice unless she is attacking Ben or about to cause harm to herself. More often than not I am trying hard to act stern when on the inside I am laughing but trying not to let her in on that. Tonight all three of those tactics were utilized in my miniature war against the soon to be terrible twos. And, as always, I am not complaining one bit. I am tired, I can't wait to crawl into bed and snuggle in with my hubby, and I am extremely appreciative of the gift of Motherhood.

High Chair Council

This morning while Daddy was still home, I decided it might be fun to put Ben in Emma's high chair to see if he was big and strong enough to hold himself upright as he is now four months old and possibly ready for solid food.

Big mistake.

No, no, no, Ben didn't get hurt - he is plenty big and can hold himself upright quite well. It's Emma that was the problem. She didn't like it - didn't like it at all that Ben was in her high chair. As a matter of fact, she spazzed. He was gripping the tray of the chair to hold himself upright and she was tearing at his hands trying to dislodge them. She finally gave up on his hands and went right for his head trying to rip him out of the chair!

Of course, we plucked her off of him and tried to explain the whole sharing topic...

For the next few hours she was an absolute pisser. She wouldn't listen to any of my requests. She demanded things and demanded them NOW. Whenever Ben had a toy in his hand and I wasn't watching, she would snatch it out of his hands leaving him staring at her in disbelief as if saying, "I didn't request the high chair - they just did it!"

To top it off, she kept requesting I help her into the chair to sit - something she only does at meal times. She sat in it for over an hour - not eating, just playing with her Little People on the tray and talking away. Basically just using the chair so Ben couldn't.

Stairmaster

We hung out at my girlfriend Angie's townhouse in Burbank today. It has three sets of staircases and - wow - did they ever keep Emma busy! She went up and down them at least 20 times encouraging me to do the same. I tried convincing her that I didn't need that much exercise but apparently she thought differently with her "Come on, Mama, Steps!"

Seriously, they kept her occupied for almost the entire time we were there. I may look into adding a second story to our little rental cottage just to keep her occupied and interested in fitness!

Here is a quickie cell phone video I took of Emzilla today after we got home. She is no longer DEATHLY afraid of the plastic swimming turtle, as you can see from the video, but she still has a bit of hesitation - at least now it is a bit funny to her.

Random stories of the day

Today I caught Emma whispering a phrase over and over. I couldn't quite understand what she was saying but she kept saying it and saying it and saying it. Finally I got up really close to her and heard the words, "Swiper, no swiping." Possibly, my child watches tv at 4 pm every day?

At another point she was exploring her head and I noticed she had her fingers in her ears as she is wont to do when she is playing the what happens when I do this game. She said to me, "Emma got ears?"

Ben is developing a bald spot on the back of his little head as he is on the move as I mentioned earlier. If I put him on the floor, he will do a 90˚turn in about 4 or 5 minutes. I remember Emma having one, too, but hers stood out more because she had so much dark hair compared to Ben!

When Emma and I were coloring today I reached for the purple crayon. Emma said, "No, no touch, Mommy. Emma's!" ...and so it begins!

Then when I was exercising (yes, it's true, I started exercising again...) I had finished a particularly grueling butt exercise and collapsed on the floor. Emma came over and pulled at my pony tail lifting my head off the ground and said, "Mommy okay?"

We decided to take the bassinet portion of the pack n play out and to use it as a play pen from now on. Ben was getting restless fairly quickly in it because when he was laying there he couldn't see the outside world. Now he is a happy camper as a bit of mesh is all that separates him from the rest of us. And he seems a bit safer from the attacks of Emzilla - that is until she finds a way to crawl into it with him... Yikes!

And finally, my idiot move of the day: Ben had received some teether chew toys in his Easter basket and as he is chewing on everything in sight these days, I figured it was time to open them up and sterilize them for his chomping pleasure. I dropped them in a pot of boiling water for what I thought was 2 minutes - my typical sterilizing process. Well, I either left them in there way to long, or my water boils at higher than 212˚F because when I went to remove them they had melted together into a big pile of goo. Maybe I can reshape them and use them as a paperweight?

Benjiboogleheimer

Ben is on the move. I want so badly just to leave him to wiggle around on the floor but I can't as Emzilla is always nearby ready to terrorize.

He will hang out in the jumperoo chair for a bit, but after 5 - 10 minutes he is ready for something new. I swear the jumperoo has made his back, neck, and stomach muscles stronger because when I am holding him on my lap he just wants to lean forward. I have to be careful as he almost tumbled out of my arms today and did a faceplant on the floor. Good thing I played sports in high school and have pretty quick reaction times!

Daddy suggests I leave his wiggling times to when Emma is napping to which I say, "The kid wants to wiggle ALL DAY LONG and we are lucky if Emma will even take a nap anymore!" (I did get a 2 hour one out of her today! Phew!)

He is also nonstop chewing on everything. I keep mistaking his chomping for the fact that he is hungry and think maybe my milk production is down. So I thawed out some of the frozen stuff in the fridge and he doesn't want that either - he just wants to chew on the bottle.

In fart news, I tooted again this afternoon (Daddy made me eat a double double animal protein yesterday...). This time I was holding Ben when it happened. Emma heard it and asked, "Ben pooped?" You betcha - I let the baby take the blame. "He sure did. Stinky baby, huh?"

Emzilla strikes again

This morning in church Emma was being particularly disruptive in what was supposed to be a quiet moment. Brian snatched her up and headed out the back doors into the lobby area to quiet her. When she realized what was happening, she yelled, "Oh, man!" The ENTIRE congregation lost it. I was laughing so hard I was crying and it took me at least 5 minutes to regain my composure.

Then this afternoon, Ben was napping and Emma was sitting on my lap and we were chatting about this and that. She was bouncing around the lounge chair and landed on my stomach pushing a poof of air out of my intestines (some would call that a fart...). As the chair is leather, the poof of air made quite a rumble and stunned Emma into silence - for about 3 seconds when she looked at my butt and said, "Mommy pooped?"

Lobstergate

I just had a staring contest with Ben as we lay on my bed. I watched his eyelids grow heavy until I won the match. We have played this game many times and I think we are at about 50-50. It is one of my favorite ways to relax in the afternoon...

Emma enjoyed the afternoon at a friend's birthday party. The kid was turning 5 so the majority of kids were quite older than her. She pretty much kept to herself exploring the backyard jumping in small puddles made from the over splash of the pool, attempting to blow bubbles, chasing the one's I blew all over the yard, and playing with the ice in the drink bin. While the gaggle of pre-kinders were busting down the pinata, she braved the big jumper. She didn't quite get the idea of it until I started saying, "Mama called the doctor and the doctor said, 'No more monkeys jumping on the bed.'" Then she started jumping like crazy and had a blast. I may have to look into one of these things for her birthday party this year!

I forgot to mention the other day that I bought two cheapo water toys for Em's pool - a turtle and what I thought was a lobster. She LOVED them until I wound them up and put them in the pool and they started moving on their own - then she FREAKED. She thought they were alive and kept calling the lobster a "monster".

"Mama, no! No turtle pool. No monster!" But Emma, they are just toys - see? Mommy is winding them up, look.

"No, Mama, no! No monster." It's not a monster, sweety, it's just a plastic lobster. Turns out it is an alligator, not a lobster... But no matter - still scary to a 22 month old!

So I gave the toys to Ben. He smiled and cooed and chewed on their heads. Emma witnessed this and, of course, all of the sudden they weren't scary anymore and she wanted them back IMMEDIATELY.

"Mama, turtle swim! Mama hot. Turtle swim, Mama. MOMMY! TURTLE SWIM!"

Yowsa.

Splash splash splash

Tuesday was my birthday. My girlfriends came over after work and we ordered in Thai food. We were going to take the kiddies and go out, but it is just so much easier to order in than getting the two of them into the restaurant and praying Ben will not want to nurse and Emma will behave!

Nic brought a red velvet cupcake with mad yummy butter something frosting for dessert. Emma was fascinated with the whole candle and singing process. Maybe by her birthday in July she'll "get it" a bit better than last year when she was way overwhelmed. She kept saying ever so dramatically after every bite, "Dewishiss!" I think she has developed Daddy's sweet tooth!

In other exciting news, Emma completed her first "chore" today. Daddy had left his shoes in the middle of the living room and Emma wanted to play legos. So, I told her to take the shoes to the bedroom and put them away. She picked them up and headed toward the kitchen. I said, no, put them in the bedroom, daddy's bedroom. She looked to the hallway then headed off toward his room carrying the shoes. Now if only I can get her to wash the dishes - I might even consider having another kid! : )

Emma LOVES her new pool. See video:

Gamma Woo in the house!

Gramma Lou is in town for a few days and "Wow! Wow! Wow!" have we been busy. I can't remember what we did, but it's Monday night already and *sniffle* she's heading home tomorrow already.

I know Emma is going to miss her like crazy. "I can already hear it, "Where'd she go? Where Gamma Woo?" But I am going to miss her more! You see, I get to do things like go to the dentist and stand in a 90 minute line at the Records office waiting for Ben's birth certificate child free! That's right. Gamma Woo took the littlies out of my hands and I got things done that I have been needing to do for - how old is Ben? - almost 4 months now...

My favorite silly Emmaism of the day:

Me: "Wow, this is delicious." Emma for the next 30 minutes: "Dewishiss. Dewishiss." while playing with her tea set pretending to eat and drink.

Gamma Woo bought Emzilla some Dora the Explorer Pull-Ups in preperation for potty training. She discovered them in her closet and now refuses to wear regular diapers. She even had a toddler tantrum today when Gamma tried to get her dressed and put some shorts on over the pull ups. She wanted to be able to see Dora!

And the band played on...

Random quickies from the past few days:

Talk a toddler for a walk and see the world in a whole new way. We stopped at every single flower that was growing along the sidewalk - they are all "pink" by the way... "Bird, Mama!" And just in case you didn't know, "Dog, Mama! Awrf awrf awrf!" She is getting better about stopping at the curbside but makes the occasional dash into the street so I can't get casual!

Yesterday when Ben cried, Emma went over to him and patted his head, "I know, sweety, I know." Her first use of sweety...

Ben packs a punch! As he still has limited arm control, his little fists create quite a wallop when you are not expecting them. He whaled me in the chest while nursing yesterday catching me completely off guard. I was surfing the net at the time and he was like, "Yo! Lady, pay attention to me!"

Those of you who know Brian know he has THE deep booming voice made for radio. When Emzilla is acting up, the voice makes an appearance attempting to stun her into better behavior. Actually heard this morning, "Emma! Don't make me use the voice on you!" Problem is, all attempts at discipline are funny to a 22 month old, so although the voice works on the dogs and me, it brings out the uncontrolable giggles in Emz.

An elephant is a "hoppy" by the way...

I made an attempt to sort out the toys in the toybox yesterday. I retired the ones she doesn't play with to the garage, put the ones she plays with limitedly in her bedroom toybin, and left the ones she plays with regularly in the living room. Of course, last night after I put her to bed I was feeding Ben in the living room and I heard what we will now call "band practice" going on in her room in the dark. She had discovered the toy swap and was playing with the toy guitar and drum she hasn't touched in months...in the dark. Might I add that with the shade pulled, her room is VERY DARK! This kid is certainly not afraid of the boogy man - or maybe she is and she was scaring him away with all the racket!

I am no Octomom.

Today has been an interesting day and it is only 4pm!

I'll hit the highlights. 1) Ben's back and neck are getting pretty strong. He now enjoys the bouncy rainforest jumperoo chair - although he doesn't bounce, just kind of hangs out and reaches for the animals. The only problem is, when he is enjoying the thing, Emma wants to "help" him out and overwhelms him. So, I've had to place it in the corner and barricade him in. He was in the thing for about 15 minutes this morning before Emma even realized it and started clawing her way through the barricade. See the picture below and "Where's Waldo" or should I say, "Where's Ben-do."



Ben is also digging his new hand-me-down chair big time. He loves sitting upright and watching Emma do her thing. Before lunch today, her "thing" was having a tea party. She decided that Ben needed to play, too. See the pic below to get in on the action. Ben is looking at me like, "Tea party? Really? Can't we go dig in the dirt or something?"



Finally, my girlfriend had a doctors appointment and asked if I could watch her kids so she could go childfree. Knowing how much I enjoy a childfree visit to the doctors I gladly said yes. She dropped them off at lunch and let me tell ya... It was like having two sets of twins at the house. Evie and Emma at one month different in age as are Ben and Emry. It was fun to watch them interact, but challenging to keep the toddlers from trying to "love" the babies too much! I truly don't know how someone with triplets and above does it!

At one point the toddler lovefest got a bit overwhelming so I had to separate the age groups. The babies landed safely gated into the kitchen in chairs staring and cooing at each other, while the toddlers had run of the rest of the house. I tried to get a picture of the silliness, see below!

I think I watched an inning or none.

Way to much has happened since we last met, so I am forced to give you the short versions:

Saturday at the supermarket Ben, Emma, and I were halfway down an aisle when Emma screamed at the top of her happy happy lungs, "Whoohooooo! Mama, balloon!" It scared the crap out of me and Ben. Once I calmed Ben down, I laughed until I almost peed my pants... At the checkout stand, the cashier gave Emma a balloon and Emma said, "Tanku. Hold on tight, Mommy. Hold on tight!"

Then, Saturday evening, we took the kids to the Dodgers/Padres game with about 100 other people from our company and had a blast. As we were pulling into the parking lot I said, "Hey Emma, if the kiss-cam comes on, you have to kiss Daddy." Without missing a beat she replies, "Oh, no!" Brian nearly rear ended the car in front of us we were laughing so hard.

Before the game started, we were jibberjabbering with some friends. Emma was sitting on our buddy, Mauricio's lap. We got a sweet picture of them, then she climbed down leaving him with a soaking wet lap. Her diaper had overflown and poor Uncle Mo was the sham-wow!



To top off the evening, Emma had a blast during the wave. When it was our section's turn to stand, Brian would toss her into the air. She was laughing like a madwoman. I got the best 18 seconds ever on video. Watch it to the end and see if you fall in love with our kiddo as much as we have.

Nap time

I just put Emma in for her nap. I wish there were a way to stream what is coming out of her mouth for you right now. It started out with:

"Oh, no!" as I closed the door behind me. Then,
"No n n n n n noooooo nap!" as she jumped on the bed.
Then it progressed to, "Waaaah, waaaah, waaaah!" screams of hate for the bed.
Now it is straight up crocodile tears crying... with a few "Mommy, please!" thrown in to tug at my heart...

Wolf?

I put a very unsleepy Emma in for a nap today after lunch. She jumped around on the bed for awhile, she sang songs, she counted to ten a bunch of times... Finally after about forty minutes I heard, "Help! Help! Help, Mommy! Help!" I didn't rush to the room as there was no 'fear' in her voice, but I did feel "Help!" warranted an investigation.

Upon entering, I saw a very smiley little girl with her arms outstretched wanting me to help her get out of bed. I thought about where she learned 'help' from and wondered if 21 months was too early to teach her the story of the boy who cried, "Wolf!" I don't think she understands 'help' as a the word we use in a rescue situation - I think she understands it only in the render assistance to means. Daddy reminded me I often say, "Help Mama pick up the toys." or that she hears it on The Wonder Pets when they are saving some small creature...

Emma also broke Daddy's heart today. As he was leaving the house to head out to work she said, "I miss you, Daddy." Needless to say, Daddy had a very hard time closing the door behind him...