Momma's Not Fun Anymore.....

Today was our first day back at the gym since Savannah was born. She has to be at least 3 months to stay in the nursery and today marks her 3 month birthday. Three months is a long time for a toddler so I thought maybe Benjamin wouldn't remember the place and not want to be there. Before Savannah was born he would sometimes throw a fit when I would leave him to work out and I was afraid that was going to happen this morning. I was so wrong. Since he's 2 now he's allowed to play with the big boys in the big jungle gym area. As soon as we walked in the door in the nursery he took off to play and didn't look back. I was stunned. An hour later when I picked him up he would literally run away from me and hide in the tunnels so I couldn't get him. He didn't want to leave. It took me 10 minutes just to get him out of the nursery. I guess I'm glad he enjoys it so much, but there's a part of me that's sad that he's so independent now. Just means he's growing up. Sniff sniff. Savannah was an absolute doll. They kept commenting on how sweet she is and she never even got upset!

Lily's Birthday

So we turn right around this morning from an eventful day yesterday and start a new one! Today was Lily's birthday party. For the first time (that I've ever seen it, apart from his ISR training classes over a year ago) Benjamin actually got in the deep part of the pool. It took A LOT of convincing but he finally did it. However, he did, yet again, spend most of the time in the shallow part where he could touch. And what did Savannah do? Slept through most of the party. No surprise there. She was up until 1:30am Saturday night. We had a hard time getting her to go to sleep. I had to get her up at 10:15 this morning because she was still sleeping. We're doing our best to not let her sleep so much this afternoon so maybe she'll go to sleep at a decent time tonight. We shall see.

Birthday girl, Lily.












Playing with some random big boys! Benjamin thought he was one of them. It was really cute.












Benjamin's friend, Christopher.












Benjamin playing with a plastic cup. Surprisingly he didn't drink the water this time!












David and Savannah












I was amazed that Benjamin would actually get in and out of the water all by himself. We're making progress!

Sherry's Shower

Saturday was so much fun. We started off with a baby shower for my friend Sherry. David took the kids over to Jason's house (Sherry's husband) for some guy time. After the shower we had dinner at Jason and Sherry's house. Benjamin had a blast playing with all the kids. Drums, driving cars, playing in the wagon, and on and on. Since they live out in Keller we were pretty late getting home. Benjamin didn't go to bed until 11pm. I think that might be the latest he has ever been up! Poor guy was so tired when we got home. We skipped his bath and just put him in his pj's and then to bed. He didn't put up a fight. He grabbed his pillow and put it over his head and was out until 9:45 the next morning. Tuckered out!


Sherry and me

















Benjamin playing the drums. He LOVED it!













Horsey time!













Sherry's little girl Hope. Savannah is looking a little scared - probably thinking "please don't drop me!"












Wagon time!

Who Loves Benjamin?

David and I have this little game we play with Benjamin almost daily. We ask him "Who loves Benjamin?" He'll respond with any combination of the following people "Momma, Dadda, Jesus, Grandma Nancy, Granddaddy, Grandmother, Grandpa, Uncle Abraham, Aunt Laura, Abby, Andrew, Savannah, Frederick". David decided to turn the game around this evening and he asked him "Who does Benjamin love?" Benjamin first responded "Benjamin loves baby seester (sister)!" David and I both melted when he said that. Then David asked him "Who else does Benjamin love?" There was a brief pause and then he shouts "Benjamin! Benjamin loves Benjamin!" Cute.

Where's Savannah?

I've noticed that most of my blogs have pictures of Benjamin and not Savannah. There's a reason for it. Savannah has 4 expressions at this point: crying, staring, smiling, or sleeping. Honestly, I could look at the smiling one all day and thank goodness she does it a lot! Benjamin has so many expressions and is so active that his pictures are never boring. I'm not saying Savannah is boring, just that she doesn't do much at this point. Therefore, instead of posting the same expressions of Savannah over and over, for now, there will be more pictures of Benjamin!


Sleeping












Staring












Her big open-mouthed smile!












Crying

My Do It!

Translation: I'll do it!

That's Benjamin favorite phrase right now. He wants to do everything himself.

1. Pouring his own milk (which you're crazy if you think I actually let him do it).

2. Climbing in and out of his high chair and crib.

3. Brushing his teeth.

4. Driving our car - we have to spend a few minutes before and after we go every where to let him sit in the driver seat to pretend he's driving. If we don't let him a MAJOR meltdown occurs.

5. Changing his diaper - again, he's pretending. He loves for me to put a diaper on his teddy bears!

6. Putting his shoes on.

7. Helping me unload the dishwasher.

8. Dusting, sweeping, and vacuuming (I love, LoVe, LOVE this about him!)

There are countless other things he likes to try and do all by himself - but those are the ones just off the top of my head. The funniest one yesterday was Savannah's Bumbo seat. Of course, the little chair used to be Benjamin's when he was a baby so now Savannah uses it. He saw her in it yesterday and says "My do it". When I walked back in the room this is what I saw. Here comes the little green monster. Yep, jealousy has started. No way around it I guess....it's obviously human nature.

Father's Day Weekend

The weekend was jam packed full but it was a lot of fun. Three big things went on this last weekend. We celebrated David's birthday on Friday; early Saturday we celebrated Father's day with David's parents and his sister and family; late Saturday afternoon/early evening we attended Calisa's beautiful wedding in Bells, Texas; and Sunday we celebrated Father's day with my dad. Whew! What a busy last few days. The kids were so tired that they both slept a straight 12 hours last night!

Out of all the Father's Day cards to choose from my dad and David picked the exact same card for each other. We got a big kick out of it.

The outside of the card:












The inside of the card:

Christopher's Swim Party

Benjamin partied at the pool today with a bunch of his friends. It was Christopher's belated 2 year birthday party. Benjamin was the only one who HATED the deep part of the pool. He preferred to stay in the shallow end where he could walk around. Since I didn't wear my bathing suit (because I'm totally not ready to be in a swim suit yet since just giving birth 11 weeks ago - yikes) Leesa tried to get him to swim with her and he totally flipped out. Poor little guy. Broke my heart. Well, unfortunately for you son, you start swimming lessons in about 2 weeks. Oh boy....should be interesting.

Birthday boy, Christopher.














Paige

















Lily and Mimi










Benjamin preferred splashing around in the shallow end.

















Pizza time!













Mimi













Savannah, being the life of the party. Sleepy head!

Benjamin a.k.a Bob Marley

Benjamin found our smaller camera and figured out how to turn it on and take pictures. I let him play with it for a while just to see what kind of pictures he'd take. They all turned out to be pictures of my feet - geez. After he looked at all the pictures he took he said "scary mon". Okay, seriously, where did he learn Jamaican talk? And wait a minute kid, my feet aren't THAT bad are they?

Here's what most of his pictures looked like. He needs some practice....

Surprise Visit

I got a surprise visit from one of my oldest and dearest friends this last weekend. It was so good to see her. She was my roommate at Baylor and I just absolutely adore her. She lives in College Station now (Aggie town....hmmmm....trader). We had a great evening! We started off at the Ritz Carlton and enjoyed their patio for a while then headed over to one of my favorite sushi places, Nobu in the Crescent Court Hotel. Deanna is the person who introduced me to sushi in college. The first time we ate it I totally snubbed it, decided I didn't like it and ordered chicken instead. But a few days later a strange thing happened. I started to crave sushi! From then on I've become I sushi fanatic. Thanks Deanna!

Vacation Bible School

Yesterday was the first day of Vacation Bible School for Benjamin, Savannah, and me. Our church suggests that the mothers of the younger kids stay with them in class - which I thought was really neat. That way I get to see what he's learning first-hand. It was quite chaotic with both kids but I know Benjamin had a blast. I ended up putting Savannah in the nursery and that helped out a lot. Unfortunately, I don't think Benjamin is getting anything out of the class since he's still so young. I think he was more of a disruption to the class than anything. (He's in a class with a bunch of older kids.) He did however LOVE the live donkey, goats, chickens, and dove in Fellowship Hall! Live animals in the church was a TOTAL surprise to me too. How cool is that?

Don't Drink the Water!

As strange as it sounds, Benjamin likes to drink his bath water. I was relieved to find out from other moms recently that he's not the only one. Anyway, we had a fun playdate over at Riley's house last weekend. Not only did they play in the pool, but they had to drink the water in the pool too! Wonder why kids like to do that?

Giving Rosco some water.












Benjamin drinking the water.












Now Riley's drinking the water!












Now together!













Bye bye!

Does She Look Scared or What?

Benjamin leaning in for a kiss....this picture was too funny not to post!

Sharing

Sharing. If you're thinking I'm about to blog about my son's sharing habits you're WRONG!

Sharing is something any good mother would and should teach to their child. However, when it comes to Benjamin's left over birthday cupcakes I can't seem to share. I'll actually hide from Benjamin when I'm eating one so I don't have to share. I've been giving him one after lunch and dinner so it's not like he's not getting any.......so I've kind of been sharing.....

So I'M the one with the problem sharing. So bad.

Pump it Up

We partied today at Pump-it-Up with a lot of Benjamin's friends for his belated birthday party (it was postponed due to the swine flu). Playtime, pizza, cupcakes, and more! Ben had a blast. Some of the kids played so hard and were so tired that by group picture time they decided to lie down in the picture (notice 4 of the kids in the picture below are lying down!) Too funny.

Benjamin doing the slide all by himself.












First try for group picture - notice 4 kids lying down! Benjamin is at the back and in the middle.....pooped!












Another attempt at a group picture (only part of the group - missing Lauren, Nathan, and Suzy). Of course, Benjamin is still lying down.












Blowing out his candles.

Paige's 2nd Birthday

We had a good time Saturday evening at Paige's birthday party. She held the party at Gymboree. Benjamin decided to be anti-social and spent a lot time playing with a toy by the front door while everyone else was doing group games in the main room. Shy, anti-social, tired? Not sure what his deal was. The only time he joined the group was for bubble time and pizza.

Benjamin playing with a balloon. The toy in the background is the one I couldn't keep him away from!













Paige, the birthday girl.

Look at that Snake.......Part II

For real this time! Yep, I found a snake in Benjamin's room. Sadly, I thought it was one of Benjamin's toy snakes (it was about the same size and color). As I was reaching down to pick it up I realized it was REAL! David came and saved the day though. Benjamin got a kick out of a real snake. Not sure how it got in the house.....S-C-A-R-Y!

Temper Tantrums that Tickle Me

Am I the only one? Sometimes Ben's temper tantrums make me laugh. Seriously! Some of the fits he throws are so over-the-top and ridiculous I can't help but to laugh. I always turn my head or cover my face when I'm laughing at him so he doesn't think he's being funny and that it's alright for him to act that way. But holy cow! Of course there are many times I just want to throw my hands up in the air and surrender with exhaustion but yes, there are times that I can't help but to laugh. Can you imagine if we acted that way as adults? Why do we have to grow out of that stage when it seems to work so wonderfully to get what you want? :)

Playdate

I hosted my first playgroup with the Gymboree group this morning. It was so much fun! Unfortunately, we thought that we had turned the sprinkler system off in our backyard but we didn't. Even though it was beautiful outside this morning we woke up to a very muddy back yard. Surprisingly it didn't turn out to be a big deal. Mud actually cleans up pretty well!

When it was time for everyone to leave Benjamin threw a fit! He didn't want anyone to leave. Here's a picture of him standing at the front door crying for them all to come back. I had to deal with that for 10 minutes after they left. Poor little guy.


















Benjamin, Christopher, Natalie, Lily (missing Paige).

Savannah Smiles with an Afro......

Savannah is such a happy baby! I just love it. She melts my heart when she tries to talk to me and gives me that big open-mouthed smile. I've never seen a baby at this age smile as much as she does. Actually, she smiles the most when she sees me and not so much other people - not trying to sound conceited, promise. I think she just sees me and thinks "FOOD" since I'm her only source for it! I'll take the smiles any way I can get them though - even if she's just using me for food. I don't remember Benjamin smiling so much at this age. Maybe it's a girl thing?

On another note, Savannah has wavy hair....when it's dry. However, when it's wet she has very tight curly hair. It's odd. Here's a picture; although she'll probably not be very happy with me for posting this picture in about 12 years.












P.S. ASHLEY IN ORLANDO, FLORIDA - I'VE LOST ALL OF YOUR CONTACT INFORMATION. CAN YOU PLEASE SEND ME YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS AGAIN?

Dare I Say It?

Okay, I'll say it.... I'm bored. Benjamin is at Grandmother's house for the next couple of days so it's just Savannah and me during the day. Was it really this easy when Benjamin was her age with only one child? It's a breeze! I think it was so hard with Benjamin because it was such a drastic change of life. I wasn't used to getting up early and taking care of squawking baby all day. But now that I'm used to it, taking care of only one child is a piece of cake. I've got a routine now and I know how the day is going to go therefore making things much simpler.

Since I had some free time, I dug my guitar out of the guest closet and dusted it off. Ok, ok, ok, I should've been doing chores and running errands with my newly found "free" time but decided to be lazy instead. I thought Savannah might like to hear some amateur guitar playing. The dreams of becoming a famous guitar player came rushing back to me - ha, just kidding. Anyway, I took lessons for a year not too long ago and gave up. I admit. I stink at playing the guitar. I guess I bored Savannah because she slept through the whole thing. I played a few songs, enough to make my fingers hurt and said good-bye to my guitar until next time. (Next time probably being once it' s collected another year's worth of dust.)

So what did I do after guitar playing today? Nothing.

I'm a self-proclaimed neat freak and love routine and schedule. With Ben gone my schedule has been disrupted. I've only accomplished one item on my list of chores that I do each day. I haven't even picked up after myself and the house actually looks worse than when Benjamin is here. Strange how I feel like I need him here to stay on my schedule.

Okay, so the blog today was about nothing really. I sure wish David would come home from work now....I'm bored.