Welcome Home

Daddy and I have been away since early Wednesday morning for our convention in Las Vegas leaving the kiddos and the doggies in the capable care of Gramma Lou. Thanks to my iPhone, we were able to skype one or two times a day making the distance seem not so far. When the gang picked us up at the airport and I slid open the door on the minivan, Benny covered his face with his hands in his excitement, then said in the sweetest voice ever, "Mommy!" He then hooked his arms around my neck and gave the heart meltiest hug ever that last for a good 30 seconds and I loved every minute of it. Em was equally happy to see us, but its just very possible that Daddy and I were more excited to see them... I broke the law the entire way home from the airport sitting on the floor between the kids unseatbelted just so I could hold their hands and see their faces for the 30 minute trip back to Gramma's house.

While we were away Ben added about 15 words to his vocabulary, "castle, horse, come here, stars, downstairs" and a bunch more. My guess is he wants to make a fool of me when the therapist comes by for his screening next week on Monday. : )

We are heading home first thing tomorrow morning. Fingers are crossed for a trafficless trip through NYC out to the island. The kids have been so great in the car - thank you again, Mr DVD inventor.

Emmaism alert: The other night in her exhaustion after her bath while we were trying to wrangle her into her pajamas, she screamed in her hysteria while running away from us, "I'm allergic to pajamas!!"

Last Monday the kids were playing in the backyard at Gramma's with Daddy when the most unfortunate of incidents happened. They were chasing each other and dropping to the ground as children are wont to do, when they plopped onto an old gopher hole that house a massive yellow jackets nest. Emma jumped up screaming and slapping at herself and Ben was howling in pain. Daddy reacted quickly scooping them both up, racing them into the house pulling off their clothes. I caught the aftermath of bloody murder screaming and in one of the most heart breaking moments of my parenthood to date, tried to console along side Daddy two children that were beyond traumatized at the wicked experience. Ben was stung 6 times and Emma 3 that we could see (Daddy 2). Ben kept crying, "Bee! Bee! Bee!" and Emma could seriously have won an award for the most dramatic performance by a 4 year old. It took a good 20 minutes to settle them down, then for the rest of the afternoon and evening when Benny recalled the incident, his bottom lip would jut out and quiver and tears would roll down his face, "Bee stung. Bee stung. Bee." It broke my heart and I, too, kept welling up with tears. Luckily it seems that neither child is allergic, the stings barely swelled and they both woke up the next day in good spirits. Phew! Tragedy averted...