Scooby!

Every night as I put Emma to bed she asks, "Mom, what are we going to do tomorrow?" Whatever I tell her when she wakes up in the morning the first thing she says is, "Mom, are we going to ____ today?" No, good morning. No, can I have breakfast. The girl is all about making sure her social calendar is filled. Priorities!

Yesterday was event filled. I needed to make a return at Sears and then hit up Victoria's Secret to use my bra coupon before it expired. I had told Emma Tuesday night that we needed to go to the mall in the morning and she demanded to know exactly why. I told her I needed her help to pick out a nice bra and she looked at me as if I was introducing a new word into her vocabulary, "Mom, what's a bra?" A bra is what holds my boobies in place under my shirt. "Oh, yeah." When we got to the mall we hit up Sears first. We parked by the tool department and made our way into the store. As we walked through the doors Emma stopped, looked around, and promptly observed in a very loud voice to all the men waiting in line to purchase their manly goods that, "Mom, this does not look like the bra store!" (Yes, she really does start every sentence with "Mom." EVERY SENTENCE. EVERY. When she first started talking, cute cute cute. Now? Not so much...)

Before I continue I must mention that a milestone was reached during this visit to the mall: NO STROLLER WAS REMOVED FROM THE CAR. (We go to the mall about 4 times a year. Basically when I get my quarterly coupon for a free pair of underwear and $10 off a bra at Victoria's Secret. No joke. I hate malls.) Benjamin didn't quite know what to make of the whole "Hey, I'm not strapped in at the mall" adventure. He was walking on his tippy toes taking the tiniest of steps through the tool department. Emma had to continually encourage him to move forward - and by encourage I mean she would go behind him and give him a big shove.

Challenge #1 with no stroller was waiting in line at the returns counter at Sears. Luckily only 2 people were in line in front of me, but it was still five minutes of waiting with two kids that have no patience. Ben kept wandering off when I turned my head, but his internal gps always brought him around the cosmetic counter and back to me. Emma, not so much. She thought it would be fun to play hide and seek until my blood pressure was about to increase to an unhealthy limit. (Cuteness side note, I was returning a pair of Lands End boots that were in a box about the size of a pizza box, but much deeper in depth. I was holding the box like one would hold a pizza box in my left hand. From Ben's perspective down below he kept pointing up at the box and trying to crawl up my legs to get at it and open it saying, "Pizza! Pizza! Pizza!" [the way he pronounces it is more like Pisa Pisa Pisa] Everyone in line was thoroughly entertained. Me included.)

We made it out of Sears and head toward VS, of course all the way at the opposite end of the mall. Ben now had his wings and was a good 10 paces ahead of me while Emma lagged behind a good 20 paces. I was a broken record of, "Em, pick up the pace!" and "Ben, wait. Slow down, buddy." When we got to VS, we walked in the store and Ben immediately burst into tears. What is it about that store that makes the male species so uncomfortable? It's just under garments! We were in and out of the store in about 7 minutes, Ben fussing the whole time. We walk out the door, he immediately stops crying. Boys.

On the way back to the car we stopped and played on the pay to ride toys. At $1 a pop, I am glad I didn't have any cash on me. The kids were perfectly content to pretend until some girl actually put money into one and it moved. Emma immediately said, "How'd she do that?" And I immediately convinced her it was too nice of a day to play inside and we should head over to New Park and see if we can make some new friends. It worked.

At the park Ben was using his new phrase, "Excuse me!"over and over. And yes, it does sound like he is saying, "Scooby." *giggle* Em spotted a little girl running around in a bikini and said, "Mom! That girl is wearing a BRA!"

Evidence of our busy day:

Astronaut - Acrobat - Roller Derby Queen. All in a day's work.

Pinky Pie

My "My Little Pony" obsessed daughter had the opportunity to ride a real horse at the Harbes Farm Sweet Corn Festival yesterday. I bought the $5 ticket fearing that she would chicken out at the last minute but she proved me dumb, slipped right into the saddle and was all "peace out" for her wander around the pen. She looked like such a big girl to me riding away on a good sized pony - in a rare show of sentimentalness, I actually teared up a bit... When she was done, I asked her if she enjoyed it? She simply replied, "Yes," then ran off to play with her boyfriend, George, not really mentioning it again. When I show her the picture or video of herself on the horse she gets excited, but unlike other events where she has yammered on nonstop about them, she hasn't talked about riding the horse since it happened unless directly asked a question about it. Fascinating. So was it really fun? Was she slightly disappointed she didn't get to break out into a trot? I dunno.

We got a solid break from the heatwave today and spent the entire afternoon outdoors at Heritage Park with some new friends. Ben came home with a black eye - it turns out if someone is using the monkeybars, you shouldn't walk in front of their forward motion or they may accidentally kick you in the eye socket. As per usual, the kid stumbled a sec, touched the owie spot, and simply moved on without a whimper. I saw the whole thing go down, tried to stop him, but didn't realize the severity of the injury until dinner when it started to discolor. Ben, if you are pained, you have to let us know!

Ben had a fascinating meltdown tonight. I blame it on the no-nap let's meet new friends at the park scenario. He ate dinner awesomely, but when I plucked him from his booster seat to toss him into the bathtub, something clicked and the "terrible twos" escaped. He was a bawling tantrumming mess for a good 25 minutes, 5 of which were in a bath which meant slippery wet kid and potential for conking his head on the tub. It took every ounce of energy I had to keep him from injuring himself. I finally got him washed up, out of the tub, dried off and into a diaper - him fighting me every step of the way. I then grabbed him a milk and squeezed him so tight into my bearhug before he succumbed, drank his milk, then spent the next 10 minutes snuggling and smooching me as if asking for forgiveness. Of course, he fell right asleep at 7:30 when I put him into bed. Such a trade off!!!

But, we did bust out the kite at the park today for it's first 2011 appearance. All the kids loved it and I am so darn relaxed when flying that kite - I imagine it works the way fly fishing works for some people.

Tropical heat wave

So the other day I was in the car all by myself driving to the store (whoopee!). About 10 minutes into the drive I realized that I had been rocking out singing full voice to Elmo and friends. I promptly hit the radio button and found a good Pink song to recover with.

Ben has been extraordinarily clingy to Mama the past few days. We have had some solo time together and had tons of fun - I wonder if he is now at the age that he is recognizing that not having big sister around hogging up the attention means he gets the attention, and now when she is around, he simply smothers me wanting that attention for himself. (Does that make sense?) He is uber loving wanting to constantly crawl up into my lap and hug and snuggle and lay kisses on me. I gotta say, I am not complaining one bit! Soon enough the day will come when I am the last person he wants to be near! The funny part is when he is in trouble for doing something he knows he shouldn't be doing, instead of running away to hide, he crawls up into my arms bawling and rubs his face (hot tears streaming down his cheeks) all over mine - partly to silence me disciplining him and partly, in his own way, to apologize.

He will also come running right over to me and smother me with kisses if I am singing. You know, to shut me up. At least he is polite about it...

Friday afternoon was 103˚ with 80% humidity. Needless to say we swam all morning in a friend's pool to cool off, then spent the afternoon and evening watching our AC work it's butt off in the penthouse. (This is how hot it was - I actually dove into the 78˚ pool getting my hair wet!! Vanity lost to the heat wave!) By 4pm this is how bored my children were: I was in the living room reading a book and they were wrestling on my bed. Next thing I heard was, "Mwah! Mwah! Mwah!" which is the sound Ben makes when he kisses you. My crazy kids were wrestling and pinning each other then kissing each other! Hey, at least they like each other!

I love recognizing new words that Ben is using. This morning he was playing with his trains on the track and purposely smashing and derailing them. He would then make amends by saying, "Sorry!" and fixing them back to the track. He did this over and over!

On Thursday we exchanged our books and dvds at the library and escaped the heat by playing in the children's area for over an hour. They have a good collection of legos and puzzles as well as books and dvds. There were a few other families enjoying the free AC, too. At about noon I said to Emma, "Help me clean up, we gotta go and get some lunch." One of the Moms we were sitting next to said, "What are you going to eat for lunch, Emma?" She replied matter of factly, "Chocolate donuts and pizza." Really? I thought. As we checked the books out I thought to myself, Hmmm, pizza does sound kind of good right now. So we walked a block to main street where we had our choice of 3 pizza parlors to grab a slice from. We settled for the one with air conditioning and a sitting area. Well AC in a small pizza parlor with 3 ovens going strong is kind of pointless, but the pizza was YUM so, what's a little sweat? The kids enjoyed every last morsel of their pepperoni slice... At one point Emma had to pee but Ben was only mid point of the slice and covered in sauce and pepperoni grease. I left him sitting at the table chowing and took Em to the unisex restroom. I made her go in and do her business solo so I could stand at the door keeping one eye on Ben and the other on her just inside the door. We made it back to the table safely and I don't think Ben even realized we were gone. Hey, the only vegetable he eats is the sauce on pizza!

After our slice, we wandered around main street. There was a good - albeit HOT - breeze coming from the marina. The mom and pop toy store had their wind chimes and twirly whirly gizmos out and the kids stopped to play with them while I sweated all the pizza out. I am happy to say, pizza calories consumed on a day where the heat index is 115˚ simply do not count. Hooray!

"If I could save time in a bottle..."

The special education department called me back today to set up an informal interview for Benny's speech therapy for next Thursday. I just need to fill out paperwork and file proof of residency and proof of kid (birth certificate), then they will send someone out to the penthouse for free to evaluate him. I probably don't need to say that I love when people follow through on their promises. Thank you interim Principal.

Emma had her first group swim lesson today. She was in a beginner class with 4 boys about her age. The instructor is a friend of a friend and she did an amazing job. Emma had focus (!), and she did some things she hasn't been brave enough to do before because it wasn't her parents requesting her to do it. She had so much fun that when it was over she melted into her usual pile of whining crying goo, "I don't wanna go home...cry cry cry... I wanna stay with my new friends...cry cry cry..." etc etc. She bawled the entire way home and frazzled every last one of my nerves. The only saving grace she had from my hand kabooming her heiny was Benjamin. As I was buckling him into his car seat and speaking rather sharply at Emma, he grabbed my face in both of his tiny hands, turned my head to look into my eyes and planted the world's most well timed sweetest kiss on my lips. It melted away every bit of angst and got us all home in one piece without spankings. Benjamin also continues to excel in the pool. He refused, again, to wear any safety device, then impressed all those watching by jumping off the side of the pool into my arms and swimming with little assistance over to the steps. I must have been rocking extra amniotic fluid with this kid, because he is a natural.

I forgot to mention our last minute escape from the massive humidity wave we had over the weekend with our pals. We ended up at the McDonalds with the giant indoor playground for about 90 minutes and had lots of fun. It only cost me one medium french fry that Emma chowed down, Ben did not want any... Weirdo. While in the play area, Ben wandered over to the birthday party room. On the wall was a giant painting of a birthday cake with lit candles. Ben said, "Candle! Blow! FFFffffffff!" as if he were blowing them out! : )

New phrase of the day: Ben loves to put his arms over his eyes peek a boo style, then drop them and wait for you to say, "Peek a boo!" or "I see you!" Well today there was no waiting. At about 10 different times today he covered up his eyes, dropped his arms and said, "See you!" on his own. (Insert melting heart here.) Also cause for melting heart:

I LOVE THIS FACE!

And finally, just to prove that I hold no grudges, Em and I snuggled into the comfy couch tonight and had a nice talk and she went to bed without too much complaint. I remember talking with a friend about what age so far has been the favorite between both our kids. When Em was 2 1/2, we had so much fun. I truly love that age (Ben's current). They are just discovering communication, but haven't learned sass. How do I freeze this time in a bottle? ...I guess I just make blog books for my coffee table and reread them when I'm sassed. : )

Speak to me!

So I made the call today to the Elementary School to see about getting Benjamin some early intervention speech therapy. The "interim" principal answered the phone (his first day on the job!) and told me he wasn't sure who I needed to talk to, but promised to research it and call me back tomorrow.  He said he was a big fan of speech therapy before the kids get to school so they have one less thing they need to focus on when they get there.

The adorableness that is Ben's current speech makes us smile on an hourly basis. Today he ate a banana, then came up to me like the smart ass he is and said, "Oh, no! Oh, no!" "What? Whatsamatter Benny?" "Da nana! Da nana!" "What, buddy? Where did the banana go? Did the doggy eat it?" "No! Oh, no! Da tunnel. Da tunnel," he says pointing into his mouth and down his throat with a giant smile on his face.

Tonight, while 4-kiddo sitting at our pals house, it was getting a bit late and it was 2 hours past Ben's usual bedtime. He kept coming up to me, grabbing my hand and saying, "Bye, bye. Gotta go. Bye, bye, Mama."

It's late. Bye, bye. Gotta go. Bye, bye, internetland.

Newsflash!

Benjamin ate sweet potato fries! But only if he could dip them in marinara sauce... (Both of which he has refused to consume in the past. If only he will remember this moment and consume them again in the future.)

July = good

We had a very busy week! We came home from PA on Wednesday leaving at 8:45am and pulling into out driveway at 12:15pm. No traffic - WOOT! - and one emergency pit stop, this time at least we found a gas station toilet to use, yes, my daughter was barefoot using the toilet (gross!), but at least she wasn't peeing on the side of the road! (That's better, right? Hmmm.) Em said some really silly things on the ride home, which I wrote down but now cannot find the paper, so I will rely on my memory. Oi!

Em: My allergy hurts.
Me: Which allergy?
Em: The one in my big toe.

Em: (referring to the Ni Hao Kai Lan dvd they were watching in the car that kept skipping due to scratches) Did some little girl play with the dvd when she wasn't supposed to and drop it on the coffee table and it got a big scratch and her Mommy put it back in the case and took it back to the library and didn't tell them?" (Best run on sentence ever!)

Em: (referring to her Uncle who hunts game for food) Does Uncle Dennis shoot the deer so he can eat 'em?
Me: (not wanting to scar her for life) Yep. He makes super yummy steaks and burgers and sausages from the meat. (her favorite foods...I'd like to keep her eating them, not fear she is eating Bambi.)
Em: (accepting my answer - Phew!) We should get Uncle Dennis a shoot the deer cake for his birthday! (Can you see me at Walmart making that request? ...actually knowing Walmart in the country - they may not be surprised with that request!)

It took me all day Thursday to "catch up" from being gone 5 days, I don't know why, but the frig was empty, laundry needed to be done, etc. But we did sneak to Rocketship park for 90 minutes in the morning. The weather here has been awesome, 80s and moderate humidity, so I am trying to get them outside as much as possible. Em, who has no problem going up to new kids and saying, "Hi! You wanna play _____ with me?" got another taste of kids balking at her. She came over to me and said, "They don't wanna play with me, they keep running away." I reminded her that some kids will do that and that it is their loss because she is such a good friend with a great heart and an awesome imagination, so they are missing out on some good fun. She sat on my lap for a minute digesting the information and then grabbed her sand toys and started off on an adventure of her own. Within a minute another little girl joined her and fast friends were made. That's the spirit, Emma!

Speaking of park friends, we spent Friday morning at our pals house that we met at a park last Summer. Em loves these girls because they are extra "girlie" and have tons of dress up clothes. They decided on a princess theme that morning and the girls dressed up and had a princess picnic. Ben was not at all interested in picnicing. He played BOY and got filthy from head to toe. So dirty that I had to strip him down to his diaper before he got in the car. But as you can see from the pic (click to enlarge), it didn't help much because seriously, the kid could give Pigpen a run for his money.

We spent the week enjoying the presents that Em got for her birthday. We did some regular painting and finger painting (hereby to be known as "paint in your bathing suit then go swimming immediately afterward painting). Em has been practicing on her new bike and is getting very good at riding it! She has only taken one spill and that is when she went off the end of the sidewalk and couldn't get the brakes to work and she headed down a slope and into the tree line. She crashed just in time before heading over a stone wall and into the street below. I was running after her and grabbed her seat just as she tottered over. It scared her, but she wasn't hurt. She cried, but actually got right back on and road back up the sidewalk to our place. Go Emma!!

Feliz Anos, mi Emma

We packed up the kiddos and the dogs after work Saturday morning and headed to PA to celebrate Emma's birthday with my family and to get Mom packed up as much as possible for her move at the end of the month.

The ride was our fastest yet, 3 hours and 15 minutes, and the kids were great. The only time Emma needed to pee was in the middle of a long stretch of forests (of course) with no exit / rest areas for miles so I pulled to the side of the highway, popped her out and she peed in the grass once again getting a big kick out of "peeing like a dog."

We partied up at Grandpa's pool on Sunday. It was a beautiful day, a little hot, but that is where the whole pool thing comes in handy. Grandpa even got in on the action. That's right, Aunt Miki, Grandpa went swimming!! (Hell was very cold that day...) We had a yummy BBQ, swam, sang Happy Birthday to my now 4 year old and opened presents. For every single present Em unwrapped she would say, "Oh, my!" It was too freaking cute and I think I have it on video somewhere, I just need to find it.

Rapunzal cupcakes - frosting, yum!

Benny got a book, Emma got a bike!

Swim time!

Her big ticket score was a 16 inch bike (Cars, yes that is what she wanted! And, yes, I agreed because we can recycle it for Ben) from Gramma Lou. She received a bunch of arts and crafts supplies (hooray!) and some board games to get us through the rest of Summer. She was very pleased with her gifts and Benny loved his book, too.

We spent all of Monday, her real birthday, packing up the POD for Gramma Lou's move. The cousins were here to entertain the little guys so Gram and I could go crazy. We got the attic, the two upstairs bedrooms, and most of the basement sorted into lawn sale / trash / packed into the pod. My muscles are sore, but the stair climbing is done - now just the main floor (Living Room, master bedroom, kitchen) to go today! I felt like the little engine who could yesterday. I had my iphone in my pocket the entire day just playing music and every time I wanted to stop I would just sing whatever was playing and keep on trucking. We were pretty proud of ourselves by 3:30, tossed our bathing suits on and crashed her neighbor's pool for a cool down / relax. Dinner was leftovers but they tasted delicious and I don't think I remember falling asleep...

Tennis, anyone?

I continued my journey into a "Real Housewives of Long Island" lady today by playing tennis with some gals on the North Shore. We played on some fancy courts just off the exclusive beach with an awesome play ground next to the courts. All the ladies had young'ens like mine and we took turns alternating playing and watching the gaggle of children. I got some serious exercise in without looking over my shoulder every 6 seconds to see if Ben was making a run for the street or if Emma was attempting to do the monkey bars on her own. My body loved the workout and I have not sweated (wait, "perspired" - if I want to be a "Real" housewife) like that in a very long time. Although I will pay for it dearly tomorrow with some sore muscles, it was fabulous and fun and all the other Moms were seriously cool chics.

We already made plans to do it again next Friday. Hooray!

Go, Granny, Go

Daddy and I are always on the look out for a good house bargain. As much as I love the ease of living in the penthouse (ease = can clean it fast!), it would be nice to put the kids in separate rooms and for them to have a fenced in back yard that they could wander around on their own without me having to be outside with them. We have seen a few homes that caught our eyeballs, but we continue to see house prices fall and more and more Granny houses coming on the market. (Granny house = a home that hasn't been updated since the 70s that little old ladies are selling so they can downsize and move to FL.) We definitely want us a good Granny home - one with good bones that just needs some updating. The reason I even mention it is because I am changing my mind about having a pool.

I have never really been a pool person, but this week we found ourselves in the water every day - twice to the beach, twice to friend's pools, and today in our kiddie pool. While I truly do love the beach, it EXHAUSTS me. We have so much fun while we are there, but to DRAG the kids away, then rinse them down, get them dressed and into the hot van then drive home listening to their whines of "I wanna go back to the beach!" takes away from the fun of it! Not to mention the immediate baths needed upon getting home, the rinsing of the water shoes and suits, and the extra laundry from the salty water / air. Utilizing our friend's pools is awesome, but there is still that drag your kid away / get dressed / whine all the way home factor... If I had my OWN pool, I could invite all my friends over to play and they would be the ones dealing with cranky toddlers on the way home! : )

Em's preschool teacher asked me last month how the house hunt was going. I said I found the perfect house but it had a pool so I wasn't interested. She said when her kids were young she felt the same way, but now that they are older she couldn't imagine not having the pool as it entertains them to no end. After seeing my kids getting stronger in the water (Ben even swims in the deep end on his own! ?? !), I am wondering if I am turning into a pool person...

Decisions, decisions...

Happy Birthday, America!

I am behind on our doings and will attempt to catch up here... Sunday Gramma Lou was still hanging out and we got invited to a pool party at our friend's house around the corner. As Gramma likes swimming in pools and I am not fond of it (vanity - don't want to mess up my hair, haha) I jumped at the chance to let her play with Benny who is a fabulous swimmer for his age.

We had a blast! He swam for a good hour, maybe more, jumping off the side into Gramma's arms then dog paddling back to the steps where he would climb out and repeat the process. Once again, no fear, no intake of water into his lungs when he went under, and great overall water instincts. Did I mention he had FUN?  Gramma then took him home for a 2 hour nap and brought him back for more swimming - this time I got in on the action and let Gramma relax poolside. I cannot even begin to express in words how this amazing kid surely added a good 5 years to my life that afternoon with his laughter and smiles. He was so darn HAPPY, grinning from ear to ear. So much so that when I woke up to pee at 3am that night I couldn't get back to sleep for 3 hours because I kept thinking about him SMILING in the pool! It looked a lot like this but showing his cute little chicklet teeth:

Emsadoo on the other hand was in the pool for about 5 minutes the entire day. She decided the hot tub was more her speed. I would blame it on her vanity with her hair, too, but as you can see it is pretty wet from the splashing with her girlfriends and their ponies in the tub. Emma is a water wimp - I really need to get her in swimming classes sooner than later...

We spent the late afternoon and evening of the 4th of July at Emma's fiance's house. He has a ginormous back yard and his daddy puts on a fabulous fireworks display at dusk. The kids ran amok and the parents ate amok. George is Greek and his grandparents know how to cook some good Greek eats. George's Mommy was super sweet, too, and made a birthday cake with the attendees with July birthday's names on it. Emma was the lucky one who got to blow out the candles with the help of some of her pals...

 

Daddy took Ben home from the BBQ at about 7:30pm and Em and I stayed for the fireworks. I could tell she was getting tired but she insisted on staying. Of course, when the loud kapows! started and the explosions with lights were going off 50 feet over our heads, she got extremely upset and kept saying, "Mommy, I wanna go home. Fireworks are SCARY." We saw about 10 minutes of the 30 minute event before heading out. Oh well. Mama had fun and got to hang out with some pretty cool peeps.

My dilemma

Ben is a great sleeper. He rarely wakes up in the middle of the night - if he does I don't know it because he gets himself back to sleep on his own... He is still in the crib and will be there for as long as he stays put - if that is five, then five it is! (Emma comes to our bedside every single time she wakes up because she is not locked down... drives me batty.)

Y'all know I am kind of a schedule nazi when it comes to bedtime. Emma got two stickers taken from her "Get a Rapunzel Dress" chart tonight because she was fussing and whining and wouldn't stay in bed. She also then got all her dolls taken away and the final threat that kept her in bed and finally asleep was the fear of me taking away her precious blanket. It is now 8:23. Poor Benny who still shares a room with her (Penthouse is only a 2 bedroom) gets to lay there and listen to her go on and on. She is now asleep but he is quietly awake. I can hear him chatting to himself as I type.

My dilemma is this, when the kid gets a nap he ends up not falling asleep until 8:30-9:00. When he doesn't get a nap, he is passed out by 7:30... Emma stopped napping at about this age as soon as she was potty trained. Ben is no where near being potty trained, but could probably give up the nap - if only for my ability to get him to sleep in a timely manner.

It really is just me feeling guilty and selfish. I like having time in the evening to clean the kitchen / penthouse and possibly read / blog before going to bed. I can't do any of that if BOTH kids are awake. I feel guilty because Ben lays wide awake for 90 minutes quietly in his crib. I feel like I should be stimulating his brain instead of letting him lay there doing nothing.

But if he gives up his nap, he can be pretty cranky by dinner... It is challenging enough to get him to consume anything as it is...

So, let him lay quietly nightly for 90 minutes hoping his cute little brain is concocting fabulous plots that he will someday write about? Or take away the nap so he goes to sleep quicker risking dinnertime melt downs?

P.S. Daddy and I decided to call the speech therapist for Ben. He now has tons of words but when he goes to string them together he gets seriously tongue tied. I am trying to get him in starting August...

I still have the 4th of July and today's fun to write about but I have to CLEAN the living room first.  Anyone know a good maid who will work for free? : )

Busy beavers are we...

We have been go-go-go for what seems like non-stop this past week - and good times were had. Gramma Lou was in town for the long weekend (can I get a whoop whoop?) so we had an extra set of hands to handle some of the excitement.

I'll start with cute random-isms...
1) When Ben comes upon a scary part in a movie he looks at me and says, "All done. All done."
2) Em continues to use her cuteness to try and get out of trouble (operative word being TRY). The other day I was asking her over and over to do something, "Emma, will you please ____." She finally looked up at me and said, "I'm not Emma, I'm sleeping beauty!"

3) Ben continues to be "tunnel" obsessed. When we drive through a real tunnel he says over and over, "Tunnow! tunnow!" When we drive under a large bridge, "Tunnow! Tunnow!" When playing out side with his trains he will drive them into the plastic drain from the lawn, "Tunnow! Tunnow!" Then the other day he was sitting on my lap playing with his Mater small tow truck and shoved it down my shirt into my cleavage and said, "Tunnow! Tunnow!" 

We hung out at the beach Saturday afternoon as it was a beautiful day. Ben beelined for the water and literally DOVE it before I could get his suit on him. New rule, get his suit on him before we leave the house (or car). He continued his fearless streak venturing out further and further into the water. I had set up the umbrella and beach chairs for Gramma and me to relax - fat chance - they didn't get sat in once! There were a lot of families enjoying the day and I think Ben was observing them swimming further out into the ocean (the sound...) and was all, "Hey, I didn't know we could go out there. Let me try it!" He was slipped up by the surf on many occasions landing face down dead man's float style but the natural got out of it every time not once taking in water. He is the complete opposite of his sister who hung out along the edge the entire time collecting rocks and shells.