CarniVAL!

Em had her preK back to school carnival last Friday evening. Gramma Lou hung at home with Benny and Daddy and I got some two on one time with Emma that was super perfect and deserved and FUN.

They had all sorts of "carnival" games to play, ring toss / bean bag toss / knock down the tin cans, etc. Em got her face painted and received a clown nose, amongst other fun giveaways, to fit in with the atmosphere. I am not sure who rocked the nose better - Daddy or Emma. They are both so AWESOME!

Photo credit to Gramma Lou.

I love my husband.

Case Study #2

This photo, when studied in depth is another case study of a "day in the life of the Batter Baby Bunch."

1) Mommy busted out the Winter coat bin and is ecstatic to know that all Winter coats and snowpants and snow boots will work again for this Winter!! (Miserly Mommy bought too big sizes last year. GIGGLE.)

2) Ben is watching his favorite TV show on PBS, Peep and the Big Wide World.

3) Ben has both his hands shoved into the back of his diaper holding onto his butt cheeks. Yep, it feels good, admit it, you'd do it too if society didn't look down on you as an adult.

4) The plastic chewy dog bone on the floor behind Ben probably has only been used by the dog two times in the past 16 months, yet I continue to vacuum around it every other day... (or push it here and there with the vacuum. Shoosh! You do the same dang thing. Stop pretending you don't.)

5) There are three pumpkins hanging in the window above the tv. There is also a pumpkin in the kitchen window, on the closet door, and at least 6 hanging on the front door of the Penthouse. Pumpkin shortage, my arse...

6) The cottage in the background gets much more play now that it is in our living room versus the kids bedroom. (Versus when we first bought it and had it on our deck where the birds ate all the mulberries off the trees around us then pooped purple poop onto the roof of the playhouse!)

7) Paper book covers on books for kids are an environmental JOKE.

8) I love the "new" stickers that are plastered all over my coffee table (versus old school stickers that were impossible to peel back off any surface - the new ones come up so easily! Thank you inventor with children! Surely you were a female... Don't be offended, male readers. Simply admit you never would have come up with this idea!!)

Did I miss anything?

Tents R us

When it is cold and rainy out, Mama and Daddy have to get creative. Over the weekend we busted out the tents and had various activities in and around them. Mama's activities tend to be nurturing and relaxing - you know, reading books or coloring in the tent. Daddy's activities are, well, you know, Daddy things - like zipping the kids up inside the tent, then shaking and quaking the tent until the seams want to bust to make the kids laugh and scream and expend tons of pent up stuck indoors energy.

YEP, Daddy's version is much more FUN for all involved.

APB out on daddy

It's been way too long since daddy posted anything, and honestly, I'M EMBARRASSED.  The both of you have grown up so much, your personalities are becoming more pronounced everyday.  Truthfully, it's so much fun simply coming home and "wrethling" or playing Tunnel, Monster, Snugglehugging  or letting you jump into my arms.

I remember each of you fitting into the crook of my elbow,  your toothless grins, your cries, your 1st colds, your pouty lips, and how you both identified your worlds through the people you saw everyday: dodo, casseeee, mommy, daddeee, nobennie, EMMMAAA!!! (the aforementioned names being the most used).

As I type, you're both asleep in your room (you sleep like champs in the same room). Ben wouldn't go to bed, but Emma was out cold which is kinda opposite since she's usually like me and takes forever to fall asleep.  Ben, you are just outrageously cute, funny, tough, and a TOTAL mama's boy, and your mom absolutely LOVES every minute of it.

You've become great friends with Georgie and Christian who are the most quality buds any kid could ask for, in fact, you go to asleep many nights talking about how your next day is going to revolve around their schedule/backyard.

Ben, you've started counting, reciting the alphabet, asking "whyyy??" and all of this in pretty much the blink of an eye.  Em, you're the best example I've seen of someone who's more concerned about the welfare of others over their own.  On multiple occasions, you've asked to make cards for your classmates, whether they had a cold or even a broken arm.

I would be remiss if I didn't acknowledge the work your mom does keeping our home in order and you guys in a winning environment.  Not to mention the simple fact that she actually writes in the blog!  The words that come to my mind are inadequate to express how much I love her, but let me say it for anyone to hear (or read...whatever) I am eternally grateful that we met and that she KNOWINGLY chose me!

One day you're going to read this, and hopefully this post will remind you that we love you ALWAYS! I'm so proud of you both!  My heart swells with joy every time I think about our family, the silly moments we've had together, and for all of the times we'll spend together from today on! 

Cock a doodle doo

We had lots of fun while Gramma Lou was in town. Thursday we hit up yet another pumpkin patch and found a good one that Daddy carved into "Peep and the Big Wide World." It was windy but sunny so afterwards we tried to explore Wildwood State park, but the beach was closed due to mass erosion from Hurricane Irene, so we ended up just playing on the playground there.

We are now calling the color of Emma's hair: Dried Cornstalk.

In the car coming home that afternoon, Em was yammering on about this and that and she said something about something and I said to her, "How do you know that?" "I know everything," was her reply. Gotta admire the confidence!

Sunday after our semi-failed mission to get family pictures, we gave Gramma the quickie tour of where Daddy grew up on the south shore of the island. While driving along the beach in the Robert Moses / Fire Island area, Emma noticed all the signs that ask you to please NOT feed the deer. "Why can't we feed the deer, Daddy?" "Because then they will want to hang out near the road and they might get hit by a car and die." "Oh," she said contemplating his answer. Five minutes later, "Why can't we feed the deer, Daddy?" "Because, as I just said, then they will want to hang out near the road and they might get hit by a car and die." "Oh," she said. Seriously, not TWO MINUTES LATER she said again, "Why can't we feed the deer, Daddy?" and proceeded to ask this question at least 5 more times until we got off the island! The whole get hit by a car and die was just not resonating! I think she wanted a happy ending...

Ben, when accomplishing anything these days will exclaim, "I did it! I win!" As in, getting up the stairs fast, or drinking all his milk, or brushing his teeth. It cracks us up!

What doesn't crack us up is after two months of Ben staying put in his toddler bed until we come and get him in the morning, he has discovered that he can take charge and wander out into the hallway to rooster us awake at 6am... I don't like 6am. What is going to happen when we change the clocks back and 6am is really 5am? HELP!

Family pictures...NOT

We tried our yearly Autumn family picture at the portrait studio today. Ben did not cooperate. I really think he may have, but he got his hands on my iphone, hit the youtube app and found himself a Peep and the Big Wide World episode to watch. When I realized he had done this I KNEW the pics were not going to work out. You see, Benjamin LOVES PBS's Peep and the Big Wide World. I think he may even love that show more than his beloved Thomas. (Reminder the kid is 2 years 10 months and can work an iphone / ipad better than most adults. I should probably get him a job at the Apple Genius Bar so he can start paying for the diapers he is STILL using...) When we removed the phone from his clutches he cried and cried, "My Peep! My Peep!" reaching out his arms all longingly for the entire time the poor photographer was trying to get that "one" shot.

We did get one semi decent shot... I will pick the pics up next week and post it for all your viewing enjoyment. In the meantime, just so you have a comparison, the pic doesn't look much different than this silliness Grandma snapped in the pumpkin patch last Thursday.

Just to let Benjamin know how much we LOVE him and his predictable photo shoot ways, Daddy carved another pumpkin today Peep and his pals, Quack and Chirp. I think it looks freaking awesome, and as you can see from the pic, so does Benny.

Van Gogh lesson

It is still hard for Emma to take the time out of her busy social calendar to color nicely and not "scribble scrabble." I know she can color in the lines, I have witnessed it with my own eyes, but usually she is in a giant rush and it comes out like a three year old. I was rather impressed with this self portrait from school. She even got the yellow hair and blue eyes and red lips in the right place...

She does love arts and crafts and is constantly requesting we do a craft together. Now all she needs is to FOCUS and take her time...

Grandma Lou is visiting. Of course, we have jam packed the schedule. I hope to catch up here soon. Hopefully this heavenly image will hold you over. Photo credit to Grandma!

Time out has returned!

Daddy was on kid watch yesterday morning and was in full force play mode. At one point Em shoved Ben pretty hard so he put her in time-out. He made her count to 100 before she could get up, which she did, awesome. As soon as she got up and approached the play area, Ben retaliated and gave her a shove. Daddy, trying to be the fair cop, then put Ben in a time out. He sat in the chair and immediately started counting! Except his counting went something like this, "One. Two. Three. Ready or not! Here I come!" a la hide and seek!

I forgot to post this pic last week. Em was roller skating out on our front sidewalk. She bores of the activity pretty quick although she has improved remarkably since the beginning of Summer. She took off her skates and helmet and left them laying by the front stoop. Benny picked up the helmet and put it on his head, then handed me the skates and said, "Help, Mommy!" As they are the adjustable over the sneaker kind, I figured what the heck. Let me tell you - this kid is a natural athlete. I held his hand for about 30 seconds, then he was - peace out, I got this - and skated over to the bicycle rack. He was wobbly, but not one iota scared. Yes, this pic may haunt him and he probably won't get to run for President because it is now all over the internet, but how cute is he? It's a good thing Em wanted a black and red Cars bicycle for her birthday...at least one of his hand me downs will be gender appropriate!

My manly man.

Emmaism of the day:  As she runs and hops ahead of me, "MOM! Why is my shadow stuck to my feet?"

Not a Scratch and Sniff

Take a good look at this picture. Really. Click on it to blow it up and look real hard. There is so much you can learn about my happy family from it. Come on. Don't cheat. Click and make guesses. Then read my list below.

CLICK ON ME!

1) Benjamin refused to eat ANYTHING for dinner AGAIN, but he had no problem eating the Cheerios off the Cheerios Book frustrating his sister because she wanted to play the "game" properly.
2) Ben is still train obsessed. Note the Gordon battery operated train on the table, and the miniature Henry on the floor next to the table.
3) Yes, Emma is sitting on the coffee table. That's how we roll, people!
4) The clippy I put in Emma's hair at 8am has slowly worked it's way south for the Winter. This picture was taken at about 6:15pm, minutes before it fell out for good.
5) Emma will only drink milk from her Sippy cup if I have shoved a straw into the spout rendering the non-spill plastic useless. If the cup tilts or ends up on it's side, I am cleaning up milk drips.
6) The plastic water bottle on the table is not a familiar object in our home. I am environmentally obsessed and believe these bottles are a giant waste of money and detrimental to Mother Earth. But, Hurricane Irene left us with little choice but to buy a few cases... The penthouse is small, I am trying to make space by consuming them. And, yes, I take them to the recycling vending machine at BJs so the world can have even more plastic bottles...
7) In the pic on the right you can see a Lands End catalog free shipping postcard laying on the couch. I always save them with big ideas of ordering something nice for myself, but then realize I can get the same dang thing at the Thrift store in Selden for one tenth the price!

If you see anything I forgot, feel free to comment! : )

Get Low and GO

We went to a Blue Grass festival at one of the wineries on the island on Sunday with some friends. The kids played with hula hoops and danced and generally had a blast enjoying the amazing weather and equally awesome music. Ben was not his usual chipper self. He was in a mood, a Mommy-only mood, and sat on my lap pretty much the entire time we were there. Now, I love to snuggle with my boy, but I really was hoping to kick up my feet and enjoy good music and adult conversation with our pals. I got a little of it here and there and certainly laughed a whole lot at the girls going wild, and at daddy who got sucked into the spin me around vortex by 5 girls age 3-7. Daddy woke up the next days with raging biceps and chest muscles, who knew airplane spinning little girls was such a good workout?

Cell pic:  How awesome is Emma?

Burn those calories, Daddy!

As the Mama of a pretty young thing, I often try to stress it's what is on the inside that counts. It is quite a challenge because strangers and friends are always saying, "Emma, you look so pretty today!" or "You are such a beautiful little girl." I try to counter all the outward beauty praise with phrases like, "Em, you have such a big heart!" or "You are such a good friend to ____" etc. Anything to take her mind off of the "beauty" aspect of life. I often feel I am winning the battle because she will regurgitate my phrases when talking to Ben or other friends, but yesterday she said to me, "Mommy, can I wear my fairy dress the next time I see Georgie so he will think I am pretty?" Argh. It was super sweet and innocent, but I am definitely not winning the battle.

Ben regurgitates things he hears often, too. Apparently he has been watching too much tv lately because this morning he heard an announcer say PBS kids and Ben immediately yelled, "Dot org!" If you watch any PBS kids, they always talk about going to the website to play games or view missed episodes... HA!

Then this afternoon as we were leaving BJs, it was a bit misty out and the parking lot was busy. Em was walking all willy nilly next to me and I said (for the millionth time), "Em, we are in a parking lot! What do you have to do?" I was hoping for the reply, "Hold hands." or "Be safe." NOPE. She happily shouted, "Stop! Drop! and Roll!"

Needless to say if there is ever a raging fire in the middle of a parking lot you won't have to worry about Emsadoodlydoo.

busy beavers

It never ceases to amaze me what a good eater Emma is. The other day she was eating thin sliced raw onions from Daddy's bbq chicken salad. (I hate raw onions...) Today, Daddy treated us out to dinner to celebrate our best month ever in business and she was chowing down on calamari and spicy broccoli and shrimp without hesitation. Ben, who's food intake has been beyond terrible recently, actually ate two chicken fingers, some broccoli and calamari! At one point Em picked up a breaded shrimp and proceeded to eat it tail first. We said to her, "Don't eat the tails!" She replied, "I like the tails." "You're just going to poop them out," I offered. "What?? I don't have a poopy mouth!" she exclaimed!

Speaking of Ben, we have been enjoying a toddler library class together every Friday morning while Em is at school. Last Friday they had a guest speaker in the class, a nutritionist, and I was all over that poor lady. She asked what he ate, gave him the once over and said, "He's perfect. Stop worrying about him." Basically, she said, a two year old need the equivalent of 10 tablespoons of food a day, preferably broken down into 5 small meals a day. She then showed us what a typical snack should look like, a tablespoon of bananas and a tablespoon of cheerios and I realized that I really should stop worring about him, he's eating fine!

Our stud at the library class.

Ben has started to "name" his friends at the class, as in, "Mommy, butterfly girl play ball," and "Thomas boy crash frain (train) on frainfracks (traintracks)." Basically what you have on your shirt is your name for the class! His speaking continues to improve daily and this morning I was trying to finish up some work and he wanted me to get him some juice. I told him he needed to wait one minute and he looked at me with the saddest eyes and said, "Please, Mommy?" Needless to say I got him the juice immediately - that kid knows I am a sucker!

At the park this morning Ben kept calling the monkey bars "Hold On Tight" because that is what I tell him to do when we are playing on them. I was over by the swings and he came running over saying, "Mommy, Mommy! Play Hold On Tight!" grabbing my hand and pulling me over to them.

We were out of the penthouse more than we were in today enjoying the 80˚ weather. We started out the day at Rocketship Park, then hit up BJs where Emma had the biggest meltdown she has ever had. (We were birthday gift shopping for a friend, she also wanted the gift we bought for the girl. I said NO, it was for Hailey's birthday, she freaked out and CRIED like crazy for 25 minutes. It was ugly. In the end I told her I threw the gift in the trash and she wasn't going to the party unless she behaved like an absolute angel for the rest of the week. - She was pretty dang good the rest of today!) From BJs we came home for lunch, then headed over to Heritage park to see the flags of the States festival. We played there for about 45 minutes and then decided to head over to the beach. The water was freezing, but that did not stop a fully clothed Ben from splashing and rolling around in it. I did not have any towels or spare clothes, and the child rode home in his car seat with only a clean diaper. He wasn't complaining whatsoever.

Emma "reading" about the flags on the left.

Cedar Beach goodness!

Both kids behaved impeccably at dinner. Seriously, the waitress was very impressed! I didn't even once have to bust out my iphone to entertain either kid because they were getting rowdy. Thank you, kiddos!

Why I love kids...

Short and SWEET story:

I was at a playdate today with about 8 parents and 14 kids. It was a beautiful Autumn day and we had an absolute blast running amok.

The best part of the day was me walking in on pure innocence / love of a 4 year old's FUN:

I wandered into the kitchen to find Em and her best bud, George, laughing hysterically in the hallway by the half bathroom. "What's going on over here?" I happily inquire? What I see / find is this: another 4 year old pal had just taken a poop on the potty. He was standing outside the bathroom door with his pants around his ankles trying unsuccessfully to wipe his butt. Finding his failure funny, he had turned to George and Emma bent over, grabbed his butt cheeks and was making them 'talk' a la Jim Carrey saying, "Hi! I just took a poop. I should wipe!" over and over.

I'm not sure how I did it, but I contained myself from falling into a heap of laughter on the floor of the kitchen, somehow found the parent of the kid in need of a wipe, and wrangled George and Emma out into the yard changing the subject quickly.

Life is good, my friends. And POOP will ALWAYS be funny to me.

Twofer Tuesday

What's more fun than taking one 2 1/2 year old boy to BJs while his sister is at school? Taking TWO! Meet Christian. Ben's best buddy, and my kidswap pal. They behaved like champs, even though the deli line was ridiculously LONG. Ben hardly even fussed when Christian was stealing his beloved pretzel Goldfish. : )

After lunch we headed over to Christian and Georgie's house for some Picasso practice. Thankfully their table is on linoleum, not carpet like mine!

Guess what Grandma is getting for Christmas? hahaha

To get to the other side.

Sometimes when Daddy comes home after being out of the house for the day, I put on my shoes, grab my purse, get in my car and drive somewhere (usually the library... I LOVE our library!). Friday was one of those days - Emma didn't have school Thursday or Friday in respect for our Jewish pals celebrating their new year, and I was in some serious need of ME time. As I was walking out the door, Em said to me, "Hey, Mommy, where are you going?" I replied, "Out." "Can I come, too?" "No." "Why not?" I looked at her a smiled a very weak smile and said, "Because my brain hurts." She accepted that and happily skipped down the hallway to her bedroom to wrestle with Benny and Daddy.

Sunday morning was beautiful and sunshiney, so we were out the door early and headed to our favorite farm to visit some animals and pick some pumpkins at the pumpkin festival. Upon arrival at the farm, about 30 National Guards looking young men and women, directed our car to a distant parking lot and parked us with giant arms gestures as if we were a Boeing 777 coming in from an international flight. We had about 20 minutes to kill until the farm opened so while the kids watched a movie on the van's dvd player, Daddy and I busted out the iphone to see why the heck there was so much commotion for a pumpkin festival. Turns out, we stumbled upon one the the largest festivals on Long Island, and most expensive to just get in the door... As we were just looking for a quickie pumpkin picking outing, we decided that 1000s of people and 100s of dollars were not what we were hoping for and started the car and headed for what we hoped was an exit route. An older guardsman looked at us like we were crazy as I requested the exit lane, then shouted into his fancy walkie talkie, "Outcoming!" A young gal then directed us, robotic arms and all down a lane through the field to the main road. It was a surreal 20 minutes!

We then simply started driving unknown roads stumbling across the sweetest pumpkin patch and had a blast picking and playing in the field. We got three very nice specimens for a whopping $11.

On the way home we decided to drive more country roads that we have never been down and ended up at Wildwood State Park via a quaint little hidden town called Wading River. (One of the fun things about living on the island is discovering these old [as in original late 1600s and early 1700s!!] towns.) At the state park, Emma - who we have absolutely now decided is hypoglycemic, had the meltiest of meltdowns and, dare I say, ruined our short time there... It was about 11:45, the kid was hungry, the parents wanted to walk to the beach, she spied a playground, she wanted to play on the playground, because of her whining she made Ben discover and want to play on the playground - ergo cry and whine, too! But, thankfully, the minute Ben saw the "wadder" he was all, "I wanna splish splash," and Emma FINALLY stopped whining and got on board the train...

From here we headed home, with a pitstop at McDonald's because the whining needed to stop and because Wendy's, our fast food if we have to do it place of choice was no where in sight. The FUN of the drive thru pit stop was this, "Hey, Emma, do you want a cheeseburger or chicken nuggets?" "Cheeseburger, please." "Hey, Benny, do you want a cheeseburger or chicken nuggets?" "Chicken crossed the road??" Yes, our comedic son replied the line to our "favorite" joke around the penthouse!!!

Parenting is FUN.