Don't we all scream for ice cream?

Belly aches aside, there is something seriously wrong with Benjamin. He won't eat ice cream. What kid won't eat ice cream??? After a yummy home cooked meal tonight, Daddy said, "Lets go get ice cream." I think he was expecting me to veto the idea with bathtime and bedtime looming, but I was all, "Heck, yeah!"

So we go into the village, we get the chocolate mountain of ice cream, Emma and Daddy eat and eat and eat (Mommy has a few bites...), but Benny? Nope, Benny gives me the Heisman every time I put the spoon near his lips!!

At one point Daddy even questioned, "Ben, are you human?"

Good bye to you!

Benny slept 12 hours straight, has been poop free for 18 hours and woke up with a voracious appetite. I think we may finally be free of the "SVof2010." Hoo-freakin-ray.

I need to make a t-shirt for Emma for preschool with her name on the back of it. The teachers will put it on a chair and that is where she will sit for the day. I picked up a 5 pack of white t-shirts from Walmart yesterday and started decorating one with her name and cute flowers. Daddy wanted in on the crafty fun and made her a Thomas t-shirt. Daddy's shirt was the bigger hit, and to be honest, I loved it, too!!


Emma spent a lot of time in time out again yesterday. I am too tired to go into details but lets just say this, "Mine! Mine! Mine!" phase is wearing me out. When she was two and sassy, I was like, "Terrible 2s. I can deal with this..." But they LIED and it really is the "abhorrent, atrocious, awful, beastly, hellish, loathsome, obnoxious, odious, offensive, repellent, repulsive, revolting, rotten, vile, wretched 3s" tossed in with occasional "sweetness, kindness, affectionate, and loving 3s." The latter makes it all better, but the former is wearing me down fast. I once broke up with a boy after two years of dating using this phrase, "You frustrate me so much. I have run out of patience. I have even used up my reserves on you." I laughed at myself yesterday when I said to Emma, "I have run out of patience today. I have even used up my reserves on you." While I don't think I will be breaking it off with her anytime soon, I am excited for preschool to begin so I can refill my reserve tanks with the wonderful energy that is Benny - before he hits the terrible 2s come 2011. Ha ha ha.

Tomorrow we start anew...

It has been 2 very long weeks around here.

We have been blessed with very healthy children in general - a cold here, a cough and runny nose there - but nothing that really required a trip to the doctor outside their well visits. I think that is why I am so worn out tonight - I was spoiled! I have done more laundry, cleaned more stinky bums, and cleaned up more vomit in the last two weeks than I have in 3 years of being a Mom. And I thought we were past it, but that mean old stomach virus still has his claws firmly embedded in Ben's intestines. He had a diarrhea clean up shower at 11pm and 3 am AGAIN last night (his witching hours) - feel free to say a little prayer for him to sleep through the night, I have asked so many times in the past week I may have worn out my welcome! Emma, on the other hand, is either going through a growth spurt, or is making up for her lack of caloric intake last week when she was sick. She has been eating adult sized servings of dinner and requesting copious snacks in between meals.

Emma's silly of the day yesterday: I was in the bathroom and she was standing there trying to tell me a something. She couldn't get the thought out and kept having to start over so I finally said, "Spit it out, kid!" She looked at me with great surprise, leaned forward and spit a giant splatter on the floor. "Emma!" I yelled and she ran away down the hall. I bent over and cleaned it up just before she returned to the bathroom. She looked at the now clean spot and asked, "Did DoeDoe lick it?" (our dog), "No," I replied. To which she in all sincerity then asked, "Did you lick it?"

Finally, I was wondering if any of you out there had an "in" with the Nap Fairy...? You see, the Nap Fairy took away Emma's naps last Christmas, and these days she is an absolute beast by 5:30 pm. Our evening hours are full of whining and yelling and me losing my temper and threatening to take away her privileges until she gets married, yadda yadda yadda. I thought that maybe if the Nap Fairy would just give her a simple 20 minute cat nap in the afternoon while Ben was sleeping, our life could be just a little easier... Anybody? Anybody?

Ben update

Yesterday as we were leaving the Children's library with our weekly fix, I picked Ben up and he squished out the loudest fart I have ever heard. It caught the ear of a great many folk and in order to ensure them that it did indeed come from my son and not from me I said quite audibly, "Why, Ben, how nice of you to leave a blessing on the library." The librarian heard me and snarfed her Dunkin Donuts Large Ice Tea right out through her nose.

Then this morning, on what Daddy and I are now calling "Upchuck Friday" (if you recall, Emma puked all over my bed last Friday), Benny, standing on the carpet right next to the kitchen doorway, vomited his breakfast. I being the intelligent being I am, swooped him up and ran through the carpeted house to the bathroom where I held him over the toilet to finish up. I then stood him shivering in the bathtub all confused while I grabbed some kitchen towels and sopped up as much as I could from the carpets before it soaked in and stained (or the dogs licked it up). Daddy was on a work call in the bedroom and couldn't come out to help, so I kept telling Ben to "hang in there buddy, I'll be right there." He was actually fine with that still trying to figure out what the heck happened to him, but Emma was crying, "What's a matter with Benny? Why did he puke??" (Proving yet again she is madly in love with her brother...) Daddy finally was able to come out and he gave Ben a bath while I furiously cleaned the carpet. Thankfully the carpet is new and the "stain guard" is still active - it is now stain free, but the smell, people, the SMELL. I am encouraging all of you to consider stock in Febreeze as I seem to be going through it by the gallon these days! After cleaning I thought to myself, it sure would have been smarter if I had just snatched him up and held him over the kitchen sink instead of dragging him through the house...

Diagram that sentence

It was a beautiful day here yesterday so I spent a bit of time out on our giant balcony cleaning up the leaves and the kid's cottage. Emma was "helping" me and at one point I saw the coolest looking caterpillar crawling across the roof of the cottage. It was extremely skinny but long hair sticking out of it and I called Emma over to marvel at it with me. She blew on it to make it inch forward and said, "That caterpillar has crazy hair like Gramma Lou." (Huh? I asked.) She rethought her sentence and replied, "No, that caterpillar has crazy hair like Gramma Lou's house." (Huh? I asked again.) To which she finally spit out in a beautiful 3 year old complex sentence, "That caterpillar has crazy hair like the caterpillar at Gramma Lou's house."

As poor Benji has caught "The Stomach Virus of 2010" he has been poohing up a storm and has his patented red raw privates. Every time the poor kid goes now, instead of changing him on the changing table with wipies, I simply toss him in the tub and hose him down and soap him up. He actually gets properly cleaned and doesn't scream bloody murder in pain. And, he smells much nicer... But that has meant that Ben has had 7 showers in the past 24 hours including one at 11pm and another at 3am this morning = sleepy parents.

Polly want a cracker

Sweet dear Benjamin bursts into tears every morning when I give the dogs their Milkbones. Why? I have no idea. Is he jealous? Does he want a bone? Does the crunching hurt his ears? Does he want to be the one offering up the dog's breakfast? Only Boogles knows...

Last night the gal I was hoping to have babysit for us ending up going to Boston, so at the last minute I found myself on a desperate search for a sitter. My friend and neighbor (Henry's mommy) offered to come hang out with them as her husband was going to be home and could hang with Henry and the baby. Phew! I gave her the 5 minute quickie bedtime lowdown and made my great escape returning 3 hours later to a cleaned-up living room and sleeping children. Nice! (Thanks, Kim!!) The best part about it was she put Ben to bed without his binky - she simply forgot - and he went to sleep without a fuss. Imagine that. That kid has been playing me for that dumb binky all along. Daddy and I decided that Ben's binky days are over! Of course, he then woke up hysterical at 11pm as he now has the poops (I think he caught what Emma had...) and needed a diaper change. He would not settle back down until I gave him the binky - argh! But I did not take it with us for our morning out and about and I put him down for his nap after lunch without it and he fell asleep. So I will now place it behind a little glass window that says, "For Emergency Use Only" and see what happens.

Emma had her preschool one hour "Meet the Teacher" yesterday morning with all the other kids in her class. Parents were asked to stay for the hour and siblings were welcome. Emma was an absolute champ sharing toys, listening quietly during story time, and waiting patiently in line when it was time to pick a prize. Ben wreaked havoc with the crayons, water table, sand table, and was an all around 19 month old boy who made Mrs. C (Emma's teacher) remark that he reminded her of her own son at that age. He even blew out his diaper toward the end and stunk up the classroom. Good work, Benny!


Sadly though, Emma's magical classroom behavior does not translate to our home. She is beyond "parent deaf" and battles most things we try to do with and for her. She was a bit of a beast with Henry this morning not sharing the "sidewalk" in front of our building (she was riding her scooter and Henry was on his bike). She claimed that the bricks in front of our door were hers and Henry could not ride on them. No matter how much we reminded her that sharing was awesome, she cried and whined and fussed, so I made her go inside. Then she screamed bloody murder that she wanted to play outside with Henry. Oi yoi yoi.

One of the phrases that she used during this indoor fight was, "No, Mommy. I'm done! Done! Done! Done!" which is what I have said to her when I am too exhausted from struggling with her behavior and simply give up and walk away. Cheeky little parrot remembers everything!

TMI potty humor

Things heard around my home:

Emma: "Mommy, Mommy, it's raining! Is the funder coming soon?" (I LOVE that she pronounces is 'funder' and that it is truly fun for her to listen to!)

Then at 2:30am this morning I woke up thirsty, headed to the kitchen and found Emma wide awake standing on the couch looking out the window saying, "Rain, rain, go away, come again some other day!"

Mommy: "Can you give me some privacy, please, so I can wipe my butt?"

Emma: "Whatcha doing, Daddy?"
Daddy: "Going potty."
Emma: "Are you pooping? Do you need a poopy hug?" (Last week when Emma had bowel trouble and was crying, we were offering up hugs to console her.)

Bacteria can't keep us down!

In all of the viral madness I forgot to mention 3 totally fun outings. Firstly, Emma and I had a girl's day out and saw BLUES CLUES LIVE at the theatre in the village which happens to be across the street from Emma's new preschool. Since it was a beautiful day, I decided that we would walk home after the show to see how long it would take and if it would be something I would want to do on a regular basis once school started. I am happy to report it was the perfect walk and I am excited to see real exercise in my future again.



While the girls were away, the boys went and played. As you can hear in the video, Daddy, too, got in a little exercise!!



Finally, last evening we went up the street to the Greek Orthodox Church's Summer Festival and filled our bellies with some of the best SOUVLAKI and SPANAKOPITA we have ever tasted. Afterward we walked around the little fair and Emma requested a ride on the Pink Elephants. She was so excited! You can't quite see it here, but I LOVE LOVE LOVE her smile in the video after the first loop.

Como se dice "OI!" en Espanol?

My Spanish speaking husband is having a very hard time with my dark sense of humor titling my last post. Yes, sweetheart, I KNOW they would never say that in Spanish. That is why I wrote it. It is supposed to be funny. Just like all my titles that have made absolutely no sense for 19 months now.

Hasta la nunca, virus!

The rest of the day went much better than the day started. (Feel to jump down to my morning post if you haven't read it yet...)

Emma was her happy go lucky self the entire drive home. We even pit stopped at our favorite cheap Chinese place for some lunch take out, and Emma chatted up a storm with the lady behind the counter that we love. She ate 2 giant servings of plain fettucine for lunch and didn't puke it up afterward. HOOray.

After Benjiboogles woke up from his nap, I decided to push the envelope and go into the village for some outdoor play time at Rocketship park and then over at the froggy misters in the marina. As per usual, both kids were soaked to the bone and went home in just their undies/diapers for the short ride home.



My brother in law (?) saw this pic and asked why Emma was standing in the dirty end and laughed that the sprayer was right in Ben's face. Well, Ben LOVES the powerful sprayers right in his face - hey, a free facial! and Emma is actually wading in the run off from the misters, a giant wood chip pool - takes the callouses right off the feet. (Do I know all the free beauty secrets or what?)

I purposely grilled up some steaks for dinner tonight knowing they were Emma's favorite meal. She ate about a third of what she normally would, but that is good as she hasn't eaten for days. She even had a solid poop tonight. Phew, she just may be beating the evil microorganism.

Both kids were looking pretty tired at 7pm so we put them to bed. Ben was protesting hard core and we could hear Emma talking to him to try and calm him down. She then started singing to him and he quieted down and we haven't heard a peep from either since. Sometimes, at moments like these, I am thankful we had them so close. We told Emma it was her job to make Benny feel relaxed and fall asleep and she succeeded like the champion she is.

To be or not to be

So here is how our morning went.

4:00 am Ben wakes up happy as pie wanting to play. I give him milk hoping to settle him back down. He drinks milk and still wants to play. I pop in a Baby Einstein in hopes of lulling him back to sleep. He watches entire dvd and still wants to play. Awesome.

6:45 am Tag team. Daddy gets up to hang with Ben, I go back to sleep (if you can call it that by this point).

8:00 am I get up and inquire if we have heard anything from Emma. Minutes later shes starts crying from her bed. I go in there and she looks miserable. Daddy and I decide we will definitely take her to doctor when they open.

8:30 am I call doctor to make an appointment. The receptionist takes a message and says nurse will call me back in a few minutes as an appointment may not be necessary.

8:35 am Emma pukes all over my bed.

8:36 am I call doctor's office and say she has just vomited, I should probably bring her in. Receptionist agrees and gives us first available appointment at Noon.

8:45 am The nurse calls back and we discuss Sunday's vomit in car, the diarrhea all week, the not eating, yet cheery attitude and drinking lots of fluids, and this morning's vomit session. The nurse said as long as she doesn't have a fever and a good demeanor, we should just keep an eye on her and not bring her in because there is not a whole lot you can do - she just needs to let it pass through her system. So, we cancel Noon appointment.

11:00am Emma is listless. No energy, no sparkle in her eyes. I call doctor and mention this, they tell me to bring her in immediately.

11:45 am We arrive at office, her cheeriness has returned. The doctor checks her out, throat is perfect, ears are perfect, lungs sound perfect, but, yes, her belly is quite rumbly in the tumbly.

Diagnosis: virus, lots of liquids and keep an eye on her, it should pass by Sunday.

On the ride home she was asking for pasta, and cheese, and crackers, and popsicles.

Our little drama queen.

doctor bound

Emma needs to go to the doctor tomorrow. She is her usual feisty fun self, but she is on day three of diarrhea. Today she ate one egg and one piece of turkey bacon for breakfast, no lunch, no snacks, 2 crackers and a half of an egg for dinner. That is it. She drank her usual 18 ounces of milk and 2 cups of 1/2 juice half water. I don't know how she is not starving hungry. When I ask her if she feels bad - hurty tummy or whatever, she says she is perfectly fine and because her demeaner is so normal, I believe her.

I was trying not to worry too much about it because she is so happy go lucky, but where do I draw the line and start worrying? This parenting gig can be hard sometimes.

Mirror mirror on the wall

It has been super nice out here the past few days (i.e. low evil humidity) so we have been playing outside as much as possible. This morning Daddy and the kiddos were out on the deck playing in the cottage and Daddy noticed some bird poop so he got a wipey and scrubbed it off. Emma thoughtfully watched him do this and said, "Those birds are bad. They pooped on our deck. We should..." she thought and thought and finally came up with, "We should poop on them!"

We haven't had a mirror in the house that Benny can utilize (floor length) so yesterday after his bath he was especially cute with his hair all wet so I picked him up and showed him what he looked like in the bathroom sink mirror. The kid went crazy! He was all, "Hey, that is one handsome fella and he is with a lady that looks just like Mommy." and jibberjabbered up a storm. It was hysterical. I started making funny faces and he was copying me, then I was making weird sounds and he was repeating them. I was sticking my tongue in and out really fast and he was trying to do the same but he didn't have the speed and was cracking up. He then proceeded to grab at my tongue at one point shoving his whole hand into my mouth - and yes, it fit - apparently I have a big mouth. Safe to say we headed over to Target and bought a full length over the door mirror so Ben could have another toy to play with.

Nursery school vs Nursary school

Tonight from 7:30 to 8:45pm I sat in Emma's soon to be preschool classroom on tiny little toddler chairs at tiny little toddler tables and listened as Emma's very first teacher talked about what we should expect from the school year.

Most of it made me laugh... Are we that easy going? Wait, are we TOO easy going? So many of the other parents had questions and concerns about important this and that and safety and locks on doors and peanut allergies and fish allergies and the only question I could come up with was, "Do you have scheduled potty breaks or will the child simply have to tell you she has to go?" - because if you know my daughter, she LOVES TO LIVE LIFE IN THE MOMENT and if you don't remind her every 90 minutes or so to use the restroom there will be accidents...

I have no doubt Emma will thrive at preschool. I am concerned about one thing. Batter. The kid's last name is Batter. As in A B C - she gets to be first in line for everything because alphabetically she reigns supreme, Batter. If you know Emma at all, she does have a slight ego. This alphabetical domination just may cause problems. Also, there is one other Emma in the class. Get this. Emma Cross. As in A B C - my Emma gets to go first. (Is it weird that I am sort of rooting for my Emma and her alphabetical supremacy?)

Lastly before I go night night. Most of you reading this (translated to: all of you reading this except for possibly Henry's Mommy) are not living on Long Island and just may get a chuckle from this. Tonight, while sitting on my tiny toddler chair surrounded by about 25 other parents, was the first time I was overwhelmed by the accent. You know, THE accent. The LON GUYLAND accent. Everyone had it. I was odd man out! Does that mean I am the one with the accent???

Also, I had to write out three checks tonight. First month's tuition, last month's tuition, and field trip fee - each time I spelled nursery WRONG. I prefer it with an "a" - apparently. Maybe I am the one who needs to go back to school.

Regurgitation nation

We are back home safe and sound and that is the last of our weekend trips we had planned for the summer. Emma will be starting pre-school in September 2 days a week (T-TH), the morning session giving me and Benny some much anticipated one on one time. Hooray!

Our travels back to New York after a fun filled weekend kind of solidified it for me that we need to find a new route back - especially if the plan is to return on a Sunday evening. The traffic from people leaving the Poconos and heading back into the city is horrific. PA only has 2 lanes highways so what normally took 1 hour to get to the border of PA/NJ took 3. UGH!

30 minutes of that 3 hours was not entirely to blame on traffic. That 30 minutes I will blame on McDonald's. You see, there is not much to eat off the highways of PA so we ended up at the golden arches buying chicken sandwiches. And, thanks to Daddy's cravings, a small french fry. Well, of course upon smelling the fries, Emma wanted nothing else to eat, only them salty potatoes. We got back on the road and not 5 minutes into our journey, we hear a choke, then see vomit pouring out of her mouth. She has never really puked before and had no idea what to do as she slowly hurled and hurled and hurled. She was crying as if she was going to get in trouble but we kept reassuring her that it was okay, she just swallowed the fry down the wrong pipe and when she coughed it up, all that birthday party food came up, too. JOY!

Daddy pulled the car over in the rain and scooped her carefully out of her seat placing her on the sidewalk. We stripped her down as the cars passed, Daddy got her into new clothes and cleaned up while I removed the car seat and hosed it down as best as possible with 2 small bottles of water. We used a whole pack of butt wipes cleaning off Emma, the car seat and the minivan seat, but nothing would get rid of the SMELL.

Our favorite line of the whole adventure was when Emma in a soft sickly voice said, "Daddy, there's a puke on your shoe." - as if you can quantify puke.

The 3 1/2 hour trip took over 6 and 1/2 hours. Thank you again, VinnieMan for your built in DVD player to entertain the kids. Now if only you had a vending machine that sold cold drinks and a self cleaning mechanism.

Infant cpr? Nope, not necessary.

Today brought some of the funnier / obsessive Emma-isms ever...

Aunt Lisa, Cousin Leah, Emma and I went to a baby shower today. All week long we have been talking up this "baby shower" to Emma who was very excited to be accompanying us "big girls." Upon arrival, we scoped out all the gifts, the dessert table, the buffet and the "dancing floor" (an open space where Emma decided she would boogie to the elevator music that was being piped throughout the venue). About 5 minutes into the event, Emma said, "Where's the baby shower?" "Right here, " I answered, "We are at the baby shower." She looked around slightly confused, "No, Mom, where is the BABY SHOWER?" My adorable 3 year old was seriously looking for a baby being cleaned by a gush of water being sprayed from a shower head. I LOVE THIS KID!

After the baby shower, we stopped by the local grocery warehouse, Sam's Club, to grab some meat in BULK for Cousin Frank's 10th birthday party tomorrow. Emma was riding in her usual spot in the double seater cart when she glanced at the empty seat next to her and said, "Where's Benny?" - knowing very well that Ben was having boy time with Daddy back at Gramma's house. I replied in jest, "Benny is right here, don't you see him?" and I pretended to give the empty space a giant kiss. Well Emma didn't like that at all and said, "Mom, NOOOOO, Ben is not here." I, being the good parent I am, said, "Yes, he is. Hi, Benny, I love you!! Let me give you a giant hug." I then hugged the empty space next to her. She was greatly offended by this LIE until she realized I was teasing, then finally found it in herself to give pretend Benny some pretend hugs and pretend kisses. Phew! I thought she was going to ask the chicken nugget sample girl to have me committed...

Fast forward one hour - we are now all together swimming in Grandpa's in ground pool surrounded by a 3 foot concrete border path that Ben LOVES to run around no matter how much we council his 19 month oldness. At one point, he is standing near the corner of the deep end which he often does but NEVER makes any effort to go into the water until - WHAM - "Hahaha I lulled you into complacency!" and he crouched down and backed slowly into the 8 foot water. 12 year old Cousin Leah swam like a lifeguard champion to his rescue while I sprinted down the sidelines and Daddy was frozen stuck afraid to leave the 3 year old in the shallow end freaking out about her brother falling into the pool. We pulled Ben out of the pool only to find A GRIN FROM EAR TO EAR AT THE ADVENTURE. No sputtering from taking water into his lungs. No crying from the scare of falling into the water. Just a super happy boy who has PERFECT water instincts - Thank you, God.

(DADDY INSERT) all of this happened at a very leisurely pace, but in hindsight it seemed to go a thousand miles per hour. Leah was absolutely anticipating Ben jumping in and swam like flipper to the corner where he was looking to dunk. And yes, HE ABSOLUTELY ENJOYED EVERY SECOND OF THE EPISODE...

(P.S. Not 5 minutes later he tripped on the concrete and skinned his knee and cried like a mad man. I just don't get it!!!)

Then, just to prove my daughter is more obsessive than me... Tonight as I was putting her to bed, she asked, "What old is Frankie?" - meaning 'How old is Frankie?' I said, "Frankie is going to be 10 years old!" "Just like Diesel!!!" she replied. (HUH?) "What old is Benny?" 'Benny is 1 year old." "Just like Thomas!!" She went through her list of best pals - Evie, Porter, Lawrence, Henry, Sadie, Elle, Skylar, and Leah - comparing each person's age with the corresponding number painted on the side of Thomas the Tank Engine friend's sides - eerily accurate.

I am not sure what is wackier, the fact that she got them all correct or the fact that I KNEW THAT SHE got them correct. (Help meeeeeeeeeeeee!)

Out of town auto responder

We are back in PA for the weekend for a baby shower and my nephew's 10th birthday party. The kids did great again during the 4 hour ride to get here. Have I mentioned how much we like our minivan? Seriously, Toyota needs me in their next ad campaign - kids and dogs and suitcases, oh my! And it gets such good gas mileage for a V6...

Wrap around porch

It makes absolutely no sense to my skin cancer paranoid self that I am more tan after living on Long Island for 8 weeks than I ever was my 12 years in Hollywood. Granted, yes, I have young children now that REQUIRE outdoor time to fill their lungs with fresh air and sufficiently tire them out for a good nights sleep (haha...more on that in a minute). But you want to know something? I look better with a tan! I feel healthier when I look in the mirror! Yes, I had over $3000 in insurance claims paid out in May to remove 5 scary moles, but hey! it's all about my vanity, right?

Sleep. It is 8:30pm and everyone in my family including my husband and the dogs are sleeping and have been doing so for over an hour. The only reason I am still wide eyed is I consumed a 5 hour energy drink at 4 pm. I should be coming down off my vitamin B high soon enough to join the family. Why are we so sleepy? Ben woke up at 4am, I didn't get to him fast enough to quiet him down which means he woke Emma up. They were both WIDE awake until 6am, when I finally separated them, making Emma sleep on the couch. She would only agree to that if I, too, slept on the couch (thank you sectional sofa!). The kids then slept until 8:30am, but mommy and daddy just kind of tossed and turned. Joy of Joys.

I don't know if it was the lack of sleep or the 5 hour energy shot, but I needed a Brenda night tonight. Not a mommy night, or a wife night, just a me, myself and I night. So after the kids went to bed, Daddy cracked open a book and I grabbed a book and my keys and drove to the marina where I was greeted by a summer concert series I wasn't expecting as the sun was setting and a cool breeze was coming in off the water. In LA I was happy to live in the hot stinky valley because I never wanted to be near the ocean and it's dreary daily gloom that took ages to burn off. But here, I spend as much time as we can in the park by the port or at the beach. Maybe because it is just so convenient compared to LA (3 minutes door to door!), but I have found it to be truly "healing." Whatever was bothering me that I needed time for me dissipated within 90 minutes of fresh Long Island Sound air and I might have to insist that when I decide it is time again for us to buy a home, it is one right on the water... with a wrap around porch... and lots of spare bedrooms so you all can come and visit me.

Out of the mouths of babes...

We are noticing more and more that Benjamin is initiating the "wrestle party" play. That is where one kid - usually Emma - just goes up to the other kid and randomly tackles him/her and the fun begins. As of the past few days, Ben has been initiating it!

Milestones update. Ben is now scribbling with crayons and chalk and his new favorite toy is the small travel sized magnet scribbler screen that you write on and then erase with one swoosh of the lever (what are they called?). He drags it with him everywhere! Emma didn't start the scribble activity until she was two (she preferred to eat the crayons), so this is one place Ben is excelling. He actually has been quicker to milestone on all physical activity (surprise surprise, he is a boy) - running at full speed, climbing up and down stairs, etc. Now only if he would speak something other than jibberjabber.

Then again, he might sound something like his sister... Yesterday I was laying on the couch reading a book while Ben was napping and Emma was coloring. She looked over at me and said, "Mommy, you have giant boobies. Can I hug 'em?"

Sand Bar Beach funnin'

For someone who is not fond of the water (read: Mommy), I have certainly been spending a lot of time in it this summer. Possibly it is because it certainly helps to beat the humidity, but mostly so because I am madly in love with my kiddos and they are madly in love with the water.

We spent Sunday late afternoon and early evening picnicing and playing at West Meadow Beach (from here on out labeled sandbar beach). Our new friends invited us to hang out there with them and while I am reluctant to be out of the house that late knowing Ben will not eat anything if he is not sitting in his highchair and would probably get to bed crazy late, I chanced it anyway and it paid off big time.

We timed it to be there for low tide because you can wade quite a ways out into the water and play on the sandbars and see tons of crabs and snails and other oceanic goodies. The water was WARM and refreshing and, of course, Ben WENT CRAZY, purposefully falling face first under the water and swimming (flailing) about. We would snatch him up and he would have a smile from ear to ear. While I want to encourage his explorations, it gives me mini-heart attacks every time he goes under. I think I will buy him a snorkel and fins for Christmas and let him be the world's youngest treasure hunter next summer!

We had a picnic on the beach as the tide was coming back in and we watched the sun slowly set. The kids went to bed without a peep and slept through the night sufficiently tuckered out from the afternoon's adventure. It is safe to say I will be bookmarking the tide chart and we will be heading back there often! (See how far we were able to get from shore?! Emma LOVED wading through the clear water, too.)



As we were packing up, Daddy was on Ben duty and I had Emma. We went back to the minivan to change and when Daddy stripped Ben down to his birthday suit the kid was covered in sand. So he rinsed him off in the freshwater sprinklers next to where we parked and as he approached the van, Ben decided it was time to let loose the biggest pee you have ever seen from and 18 month old kid. He peed all over the side of the car and made a giant puddle next to it. Safe to say his plumbing works fine... (Click on pic to see full size of wet spot and reflection of pee puddle on van door! HA!!)

Happy Birthday, Henry.

We had a glimpse of our future yesterday at our neighbor, Henry's 2nd birthday party at Detmer Farms. They had those power wheels jeeps for the kids to drive and Emma had a blast. She grasped the concept of the gas pedal pretty quick, but had ZERO concept of steering - I blame those shopping carts that looks like power wheels with their loosey goosey wheels that are just for show. She kept driving up and over the wooden barriers and we would have to lift the front wheels all Heman like and put her on the right track. She enjoyed playing in the jumpy jumpers and especially liked being the Conductor on the wooden trains as she is so Thomas obsessed these days! Here are our favorite pics of the day. The 3rd one wasn't meant to look this way, I just got lucky. Have a look at our favorite 007 Bond Girl. (click on pic to enlarge)









Ben on the other hand had no interest in the power wheels. Our son, as per usual, only wanted the WATER. He either wanted to play in the puddles or run through the giant misters and was soaked to the bone by the time we left.

True love

I used to put Benny to bed a good 30 minutes before Emma to ensure he is good and sleepin' before big sister comes in and wreaks havoc. Oddly enough, the past week, Emma has been announcing at about 7:00 pm-ish that she is "ready for bed." So we put her in bed, then I rock with Ben (something NEW and I am LOVING it) for about 5 minutes, put him in the crib, close the door, then listen to the two of them chatter away for a good 30-45 minutes until they pass out. Sometimes Emma comes out asking for a drink or this or that, but often we can just hear her entertaining Ben with songs and jibberjabber as they wind down.

Have I mentioned how much we love our kids?

Grammy nominations, please.

I needed to stop at Staples today to pick up some supplies for home and office. As we were pulling into the parking lot Emma said, "What's this place?" "I don't know," I replied, "What does it say? What letter is that?" She read the big letters over the door and got them all correct and I said, "Emma, that's awesome, give me a high five!" She high fived me and started singing at the top of her lungs our favorite chorus, "New York, concrete jungle where dreams are made of, there's nothing you can't do, when you're in New York." But she didn't stop there to the delight of a few shoppers and the whole front desk staff, "The streets will make you feel brand new, big lights will inspire you! When you're in New York!" She sang this over and over again while I shopped. I joined in here and there and couldn't have been prouder!

If you have no idea what I am talking about, go to youtube and type in Alicia Keys and Jay-Z and watch the official video. (When we watch it, Emma always says during the actual verses, "No, Mom, just go to the New York part." meaning get right to the chorus!)

In need of a shopping spree?

Yesterday I caught Ben drinking from a sippy cup in the kid's bedroom that had unknowingly been there for about a week. I panicked and yelled across the apartment, "BEN, NOOOOO!" Then I lunged into the room ripping the cup out of his hands chanting, "Please be apple juice. Please be apple juice. Please be apple juice." I guess I figured week old apple juice would do less damage to his already fragile GI tract than curdled milk... Thankfully God was listening and it was apple juice!

Tonight after work Daddy changed into shorts and a tee shirt. As I am still catching up on laundry from our week away, he grabbed a shirt from the bottom of his drawer he hasn't worn for years and didn't really pay much attention to it when he put it on. 2 hours later as he was helping Emma on the potty before bed, she said to him, "Is that a picture of Mommy on your shirt? What is she doing?" I heard this from the living room and for the life of me I had no idea what shirt he was wearing as I hadn't paid much attention to it (neither did he...). Turns out it was an OLD Hustler Home Crew shirt with a faded outline of a very voluptuous half naked pretty lady leaning up against a motorcycle quite provocatively. Next thing I know Daddy has changed his shirt and I found the old one in the trash can in our bedroom. HA!

Home

Our Sunday homecoming was super sweet. Once I picked up Benjamin, he would not let me put him down. He was a permanent fixture on my hip for a good hour upon our return. He wouldn't stop hugging me and he refused to go to Gramma and cried like a madman when Daddy tried to hold him.

Me thinks my boy wubs me. HOOOOOray.

Emma was just as happy to see her Daddy. She was shy for about 3 minutes, then jumped into his arms almost knocking him over. She then wouldn't shut up for the rest of the night telling us the details of her previous five days.

We ended up having dinner at Gramma Lou's Sunday night and driving back to Port Jefferson right after. The traffic was a bit crazy with all the NY-ers returning to the city from the Poconos for the weekend, but it was better than Monday am traffic and construction would have been. Plus, we had trusty DVD player in VinnieMan, so the kids didn't mind a bit!

For those of you who think my 18 month old shouldn't be using a bottle anymore I say, "Shoosh your mouth." Here is the reason why: the kid KNOWS how to use a sippy cup. He constantly steals his sister's / kid's on the playground and drinks from them with no problem. The problem is, when I give him one for himself (i.e. one he has not stolen), he uses it as his personal squirt the liquid out through my teeth fountain and down the front of me and makes a giant mess. As he cannot get as much liquid from a swig from a bottle, he just drinks it normally. THEREFORE, it is for my own personal sanity and desire to not change his outfit 5 times a day that the kid still uses a bottle 5 times a day. Kapeesh? (sp?) = you get my drift? Thank you for not judging me. Gramma was was sure to break him of the bottle this past week while we were out of town until he played the same spit games with her and she was done! HA!