Deep thoughts by children

I've got writers block these days - no desire to sit and journal. But I need to post these before they slip out of my brain forever...

The other day Emma was playing with Ben's Marble Run birthday present. She was longingly watching the marbles do their thing in the tracks and loops and said, "I wish I were a marble."

On our way to Ben's PT on Tuesday my phone rang in the car. I did not have my headset handy but I illegally answered it anyways. I got caught up in the conversation and missed the turn I was supposed to take. Ben was very aware I went the wrong way as he is a smart directional cookie. When I hung up the phone he scolded me, "Mom, when the phone rings in the car you should press the red button (decline) not the green button (accept). Then when you get to where you want to go, you can call them back."

Ha! I agreed with him, mommy needs to be safe, blah blah blah.

Then on the way home, Daddy called me and I answered the call because I REALLY REALLY needed to tel him something (I can't remember what...). But after hanging up Ben said sternly, "MOM! I TOLD YOU. WHEN THE PHONE RINGS IN THE CAR YOU SHOULD PRESS THE RED BUTTON!"

Sheesh! Who made Ben the cell phone police?

PT. PT is a riot. He comes out SWEATY after his 30 minutes with the therapist! I am no longer calling it Physical Therapy. I now say, "Come on, Ben. We gotta go see your Personal Trainer!" He loves it and I love that he is getting his move on. :)

Oh happy day

Well, well, well, guess who turned 5?

I did!

For the past month he had NO interest in turning 5 - kept saying he wanted to stay 4 (can you say "challenges with transitions?") - but last week before his birthday he asked me, "Mom, how many days until I turn 5?" which led me to believe he was finally ready. He did not want to have a big party somewhere - only wanted his besties at our house, with pizza and games and cake! You got it kid.

Luckily, he invited his big sister!

He is on a minion kick so we played "Pin the banana on the Minion!"

Jane is possibly the only girl, a-HEM (Emma), who did not cheat.

We played Animal Charades:

That's right - I'm a butterfly!

We ate pizza:

Time to take down the Santa in the background??

And we opened gifts:

The Marble Run was a big favorite!

Ben, you are our super hero. You love to make us laugh. You still love to snuggle and give "smoochiegoochies" - for that I am very grateful.

At your well visit this week you surprised me. You followed directions, and you were so brave when you got your mmr booster - not even a tear, but I could tell from your face it hurt! You weighed in in the 95th% and height was 75th% - which is crazy because you tower over your pals and don't eat...

Maybe the weight has something to do with the birthday present from Henry and Jane!

I LOVE DD gift cards!!

The Grandparents did not disappoint in their gift giving - let's just say Ben is in Angry Bird heaven.

I've collected ALL the sets!

Fly on the wall

I guess one of the positives of being in a very good school district is they really want the kids to thrive, and not just academically, but socially as well. My guess is most school districts want this for their students, but the reason we chose a small (highly rated) school district over our neighboring HUGE (highly rated) school district is the nurturing aspect of a smaller campus - everyone knows everyone!

In Ben's first month of school he didn't really want to be there. He never complained per se about having to go, but he didn't necessarily have the enthusiasm of, well, Emma! By the fourth week of school, his phys ed teacher reached out, then his preK teacher on the very same day - crazy - for this mama who knows her kid is perfect. ;)

We had him evaluated in all the areas and a psychologist observed him in the classroom ONE TIME only. (My special needs teacher friend said they should have observed him at least three times... all kids have good days and bad days.)

We finally met up for his formal meeting with the outside testing agency, his teacher, a special needs teacher, and the lady who runs the special services department at the school last Thursday. Guess what? Our little guy qualified for a "Seit" (pronounced see-it, not sure if I spelled it correctly) three times a week for a hour a day in the classroom. Her purpose will be to keep him focused, get him to reach out to classmates more socially, and to help him be more assertive should the situation arise where he needs to stand up for himself (for example, on the playground when he wants to play on the monkey bars but one of the girls says he cannot).

I'm not entirely sure I agree with the diagnosis but, heck, I'LL TAKE IT! If someone wants to help my kid focus more, make friends, and stand up for himself to bullies, I'm in! He also qualified for PT twice a week for 30 minutes. I am pretty sure he will be kicked out after the first session because the kid does NOT need PT. The therapist who evaluated him caught him on a very bad day.

So, does our school have money to burn? I don't know. Our good friends that we family playdate with on a regular basis think it is crazy he qualified. The dad is a high school psychologist and the mom is a special needs middle school teacher - my guess is they know their stuff. But they also agreed it won't hurt to have the seit in there - any extra set of hands around 16 four year olds is always a good thing!

She starts next week. I cannot wait to hear - from her AND Ben - the goings on in the classroom! Oh, to be a fly on the wall...

Back on track

We have settled into week two of school here in January. Emma's Math homework continues to fluster me on a daily basis. I contacted her teacher about her HATE of homework, about the drama, the crying, the "I can't do it, it's too hard!" The teacher assured me she understands everything she is learning in class and agreed it is probably more of an exhaustion thing than not understanding what to do. Now when she cries out the "too hard" crap, we stop, I grab her hand and ask God to help Emma get good at the hard things. When I did that again yesterday, she stopped crying and said, "Mom, you already asked that!" I told her I would need to keep asking until she GOT GOOD AT THE HARD THINGS.

We have had some pretty solid rain storms in the past week. The bad shot is a pic of the kids and Daddy being mesmerized by a down pour.

Not quite as good as a white noise machine!

We've been enjoying all the games the kids got for Christmas on a daily basis. I am concerned with Emma's observations about Santa Claus though. Now that she can read, labels like "Sold exclusively at ToysR*s" are causing confusion for her as well as the fact that Santa brought a lot of gifts that he clearly purchased at our mom and pop toy store, Lainie's Way... She has commented on both!

Though still has no doubt that Santa is the real deal.

Well, lookie here. Emma started indoor lacrosse this past week. The Sketchers sneakers she had were not holding up to the rigorous play, so we went to an actual sporting goods store and bought her a pair of proper athletic sneakers. Thanks to Abuelita's generous support over the years of shoeing up our kids, this is the first pair of real sneakers we have ever had to buy. She was so excited she wore them out of the store.

I'm the real deal now.

Em and I had a big shopping day together the other day - just the two of us. We hit up 7 stores making holiday exchanges / returns / using gift cards and she was a real trooper. When we got to VicSecret, she saw this pink chair and plopped down. "Hey, Mom, take my picture!"

Cozy cozy cozy

Ben has been cracking us up on a continual basis. The things that come out of his mouth at random times bring great joy. For example, in the car the other day he asked me a question, I answered the question, then at the top of his lungs he yells, "You are correct!" He is questioning his privates a lot lately too and it's cute, "Hey, Mom, why is my penis frozen?" (He was cold, his testicles were shriveled up... ha!) "Hey, Mom, why won't it stay down?" (I'll let you figure that one out...)  Here he is trying to juice a lime for me. Wow, my kitchen looks a cluttered mess in this pic. Doesn't it make you feel good about your own homes??

Look, Mom, I'm doing it!

Ever since the "Let it Go" song from the movie Frozen has come into our lives, these kids love to sing and dance to it. They entertain not only daddy and I, but all our dolls, too. Today after school we were playing outside and Ben was "singing" it full voice. Seriously, I could see all the way down his throat! If ever I need to check his tonsils in the future I will simply ask him to perform this song for us.

a captive audience

We continue to take advantage of the Maritime Explorium in our village on the weekends in the afternoon. This is another pic of Ben playing in the rice boat - these kids cannot get enough!

And neither can the little blond boy apparently, he is ALWAYS there in that spot when we go!

home, schveet home

I landed at JFK at 6:48am. It was cold. I did not have a jacket. Oh, wait, let me clarify cold - 10 degrees with a wind chill factor that felt like - 7 degrees. It was the bitterest of owie immediate frostbite fingers I have encountered in many decades (surely had something to do with the NO JACKET bad decision I made...).

I caught the air train from the united terminal to what I THOUGHT was the connecting train to Jamaica (not the warm Jamaica - the NY Jamaica which equals -7 with windchill factored in...). Turns out, in my red-eye flight sleepiness I went too far and had to catch a return train back two stops which led me to MISS the ultimate LIRR (long island railroad) train I was hoping for that would have gotten me home in a timely fashion. Did I mention when you miss a train and it -7 and you aren't wearing a jacket because you didn't want to have to haul one around CA where it was 80+ degrees, you get bone chilled-ed-ed cold and almost just almost wish you had bit the bullet and drove yourself to JFK like you normally do and parked in long term parking like you normally do but didn't do because you were going to be gone for 10 days which costs like a semester of college somewhere like ND?

Anywhooo, I made it back by train (which once I got on the LIRR was quite pleasant and WARM) to PJS where I was met by my minivan chariot, my handsome prince behind the wheel and my sweet male offspring in his car seat behind me. The entire ride home, Ben was giddy - GIDDY - with love love love and appreciation that I "came back" (I always do, as he reminded me). When we entered the penthouse the kid jumped in my lap snuggled into the comfy couch where we spent the next 20 minutes hugging and snuggling and reading books and chatting before he needed to get ready for school. Pure awesomeness, I tell ya.

Fast forward 3 hours. I meet Em at the bus stop at the end of the school day. She hops of the bus, sees me and immediately asks, "Can my friends come over for a playdate?" No, MOM, YOU ARE HOME!! MOM, I MISSED YOU SO MUCH... our social butterfly! Once we got into the penthouse, the mood shifted and we snuggled on the couch and caught up on our 10 days apart. It was awesome and it 'completed me' ( I mean made me feel so much better about being away for so long...).

But here's the real deal. We are BLESSED. Blessed to have a Gramma Lou who can - with enough advance notice - take time off work to be our kiddos caretaker. We are blessed with an Aunt Lisa and her GOOD hearted teenage kids who have never hesitated to love on and play with E&B. Without them, we would never be able to achieve all the goals we have so far for our family and our business. Sprinkle in a little Abuelita-love and KABAM! we are the perfect family unit.

Blessed, I tell ya. B L E S S E D...

If u are having withdrawal pics.

My handsome hubby putting together Em's bike on Christmas Eve.

Me at age 24, I mean 42!! (with exceptional lighting / my good side / throw in a little black and white) HA!

This pic encapsulates all the GOODNESS that is our BEN. I cannot love him any more than I do.

My amazeballs little big girl. Moxie x12 / sweetness / old soul / world's biggest challenge... I love you, Emma B.

Our kickarse neighbors - photo by me - and it is pure perfection so I had to post the JOY it gives me to hang with these kiddos.

The sisters and their husbands. Wow, are those boys lucky to have won our hearts! Hmmmm, or maybe just maybe, it is the other way around.

On the road......still!

I cannot remember the last time I blogged. It surely was way back in 2013.

I am in LA.  I have not snuggled my babes in 9 days. I am going through withdrawals. I travel a lot and I do love it, but I have not been away from them this long before and it's just weird. I miss my Benny "I love you, mom!"s. And the Emma toothless smile as she crawls up next to me on the comfy sofa and reads me a book.

I am hoping and praying that JFK stays open for the next 15 hours...