What Imaginations!

Tab has the greatest imagination and Benton follows right along beside him playing whatever game or scenario Tab has just made up for him to be a part of.

Tab loves to play house. I'm not sure exactly where this came from but he and his good friend Jackson always play house when they get together. It is funny watching them take turns being "the mom". In this picture Tab had made the corner by our front door into "their bedroom" and he was telling Benton that it was time for a nap so he needed to lay down.Tab was headed over to pull Benton's blanket up onto him. What a good mommy.
Another new game is to put Benton, along with a few random toys, into their "Adventure Boat" and push him all over the house. Don't think that you can play along because you would be wrong. Tab and Benton both got mad at me when I tried to pull the laundry baskets apart into two boats so that I could push both of them around. Apparently pulling them apart "breaks" the adventure boat and it "isn't mine so I'm not allowed to touch it". Excuse me for trying to play along.

Field Trip

Tab had a field trip at school recently. Their class had been learning about the mail system and how it works so they took a trip in to the local post office. They called it "Male" day and invited the significant male figure in their life to attend with them. Luck would have it that Jason had that hour off from school and so he zipped over to the post office to meet Tab's bus! Jason said that Tab was so excited to see him and he immediately ran over and gave him a huge hug.Jason said that this picture was taken in front of the cool mail sorters.
I was waiting outside of the post office to take Jason back to school for another class. I watched all of the dad's and grandpa's walking out. Tab goes to Head Start which is a free preschool for low-income families. You could tell that a lot of these dad's had taken time off of work to go on this field trip with their kids. It was really touching to see the sacrifice.

Copy Cat

For the past several nights at dinner Benton has been sitting with his right hand on his face while he eats with his left hand. I just thought that it was funny and cute. I thought maybe he was just tired.We finally realized that he was imitating me. I noticed as I was sitting their holding my head up with my hand and eating dinner. He was simply copying what he saw. You silly goose.

Park Time!

Last week we had a few gorgeous days. We were truly spoiled. We took the boys to the park one afternoon and later in the week we had playgroup at the park. It was fabulous.

Benton has grown so much over the winter. He just runs the park like he is one of the big kids. Mostly he just goes up and down the stairs. He also loves the slides. He really had fun with Jason there. Jason helped him do the monkey bars.I think that this one got the most laughs from the people around. Apparently Jason thought Benton might enjoy going across the slider thingy.I convinced Jason that Benton would probably enjoy holding on to it himself.As if Benton really needed much coaching, Jason taught him how to climb this ladder thing.
I curse him for this because when we went back to the park for playgroup, Benton kept trying to climb it when I wasn't looking.The boys had fun jumping on this thing together. (I'm sure that all of the different play apparatus have real names but to me they are all the either the thing that slides or the thing that they jump on or the ladder thing...) Apparently Benton had a little bit more of an attention span for this thing.Tab really wasn't interested in playing with us all that much after his friend showed up at the park. They spent a lot of time climbing up the slides.Have I ever mentioned how I always hated those kids that monopolized the slides by climbing up and down them? Great...now my kid is one of them. But I have to say they are getting pretty good at it.And finally a few pictures from our play group that was held at the same park. It seems like most of the boys spent the majority of their time "making chocolate" on the little slide.
I kept trying to get them to all look at me at once. Alex...the kid in the black shirt was giving me a hard time about looking for the picture. So I told him, "Fine then, I would just take a picture of his bum", at which point he turned and gave me this cheesy grin. I love it.

My New Hair

So, I finally got brave and got my hair cut. I was a little nervous, but more excited than anything.

So Before:And After:I have never had my hair any shorter than my shoulders. So this is very new to me. Although I like the change, I'm just a little bit scared of how short it is. I wasn't expecting it to be quite so short. I think what kills me the most is that I now have to do my hair every day. I can't get a ponytail out of this.

I want to be just like Daddy

Benton was in the office and saw Jason's stethoscope. He picked it up and held the ear pieces up to his ear and was trying to listen to his heart. Luckily I had the camera right there on my desk.Then Jason walked in and Benton wanted to listen to daddy's heart.

Um....really....The Sandlot?

Jason and I love the movie, "The Sandlot". It is just a classic. However, at one point in the movie, Jason starts laughing. I laughed too. You know, one of those couple second that was funny laughs. Minutes later Jason was STILL laughing. It really wasn't THAT funny. Then the tears started rolling down his face. I just had to show you all how big of a dorky kid my husband is.Doesn't he look like he is in pain? The weirdo. Sorry, I swear I love you dear, I just had to show everyone how silly you are.

Home Depot Kid's Projects

We recently learned about Home Depot's kid's projects. On the first Saturday of every month they offer a free kid's project. This month was a little "trinket" box. I put Benton down for a nap and Tab and I went on a "date" to Home Depot. At first he was mad at me for taking him to a store when I told him I was taking him on a date. Apparently shopping is not his idea of a good date. Once he realized that we were there to do something fun, he chilled out. We had fun putting his box together. He insisted that we had to put the heart on the top to finish it. I tried to convince him to save the heart for another project, alas. He is happily storing some Transformers Valentine's cards in his new box.He is so excited about going next month. They had a flier their for next month's project. They are making a racetrack. I have the flier on the fridge so I won't forget and he just keeps looking at it and asking when we can go make his racetrack. I think we are going to go a little earlier in the day next time so that Benton can go too! We are excited to make this a monthly ritual.

For Miss Ginger

Tab has been loving preschool. He is always talking about the different classroom aides etc. He tells me random things about them. So and so is nice, so and so doesn't love him because she doesn't give hugs (LOL), so and so makes lunch. But he has a special place in his heart for Miss Ginger. She is the bus aide. She helps all of the kids get buckled in and such. He tells me about her pretty hair and that he loves her and loves her and loves her and...well... you get the picture. So one day he decided he wanted to make a "picture". He decorated a paper with Spiderman stickers. He told me that it was for Miss Ginger. So we flipped it over so he could write her a note. After writing "Dear Miss Ginger" he not only ran out of room but got bored with writing. I am still proud. I had to take a picture. He is learning so much at preschool. I have tried over and over to teach him various things but he is just not interested in me teaching him but he eats it up at school.I don't know what Miss Ginger has done but she has completely stolen the heart of my 3 year old. The poor boy thought he was being punished or something when she wasn't on the bus for a week. It very nearly broke his poor little heart. He was practically gasping for air he was so excited on her first day back from her break.

**And I just have to say how much I love the way he writes his "E". He draws a line down and then starts drawing lines across until his verticle line runs out of room. Sometimes the E gets three horizontal lines, sometimes it gets 4 or 5.

Twinkle Twinkle

Tab has been a particularly hard kid lately. There have been a lot of tantrum and screaming at me, etc. But it moments like these that help me not to throttle him.

I had just put Benton in his crib for a nap and he was crying. Tab came over after I shut the door and told me that I needed to sing Benton a song. I told him that Benton just needed to be left alone so that he could go to sleep. Tab didn't agree and so he stood outside the bedroom door and sang Benton "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star". What a good brother.

Happy Valentine's Day!

This year with Tab in preschool I decided that I should make some cute valentines for his classmates. I don't know what I was thinking. I should have just bought some silly cards. Alas. I made about 35 of these little roses. The are made out of those foam sheets. I cut out the hearts and leaves and then hot glued it all together. I hope someone can appreciate them.The boys helped me make this candy bouquet for Jason. Or more like, they got in the way.I was pretty happy with how it turned out.Since the summer Jason has been periodically asking me to make him one of these. It is a name tag type thing for his stethoscope. Tab helped me with the beads. It isn't quite as nice as I would like it to be, but we made do with the tools and such that we had.
And this is what I have sitting on my counter that I have been waiting until valentine's day to use. I'm very excited. It is a set of 3 new mixing bowls, all with lids! Ahhh.. the simple things.And did I mention how much I love the color? They match my Cuisinart. Yes, I'm a nerd. Don't tell ok.

Naptime anyone?

Although Benton doesn't talk yet, he has his special way of letting us know just when he has had enough and is ready for a nap.If that one didn't let you know he's ready, this one will.

Outside Play

So a few weeks back the weather was gradually getting warmer (as in not negative digits)and I just needed to get out of the house, so I bundled the boys up and we went outside to play. Tab wanted to know why he had to wear his snow pants when it wasn't snowing outside. I guess that I was just trying to make myself feel better about how cold it was when I was taking them out to play.They refused to have their gloves on though because all they wanted to do was play with the chalk. Thus the trip outside didn't last as long as I would have liked.

We've got a climber on our hands

We've known for a while that Benton was interested in and frankly pretty good at climbing. But one day, I found myself quite shocked and impressed and well.... scared.

Let me explain the following series of pictures. First of all, I came into the kitchen to find Benton sitting on the floor in front of the stove with a bowl of cereal and a spoon as he was picking up dropped cereal from the floor and placing it back in his bowl. Curious, I looked and saw this.And then I noticed my cupboards were all open.
Notice where the bowls came from.
And then there was the spilled cereal on the counter.
This is what the series of events left... a very happy boy. Apparently he was starved to death and decided to take matters into his own hands.
Mind you, Tab was not home and the time and all of the items he had were put away. He had to have climbed onto the counter and taken the bowl and cereal out of the cupboard and filled his bowl and climbed down. I guess I'm just glad that he didn't fall and get hurt. Mostly, I'm scared. I'm in for a lot of trouble with a climber like this around. Mysteriously, he hasn't tried to get out of his crib yet, thank goodness.

Some more story time

Every night before bed we read stories with the boys. It truly is a rare occasion when both of the boys will sit on my lap at the same time for a book. Benton is usually trying to climb on the recliner so that he can turn the lights on and off, thus I am sitting on the floor.We got Tab a new book called "If you're Angry and you know it". We are trying to teach him how to deal with his moods, specifically the tantrums that are reappearing lately. It has worked a little, but we still have a ways to go. It worked long enough for Tab to be willing to share my lap for a few minutes.

Soccer

Jason joined an intramural soccer team at school this year. He has games about once a week. A few nights ago I decided to take the boys to watch daddy play. It was kind of hard to keep them corralled but it was worth it. Tab really enjoyed watching dad play. He kept wanting to go out and play with him. The funniest part about the whole night was that he kept pointing at Jason and telling everyone that his dad was the one in the sweaty red shorts.

For Curious Minds

I have had inquiries into the size of my growing belly and so I will appease those living far away. This was taken at 22 weeks 3 days.

Independent Play

Benton isn't usually all that great at independent play. He has always had Tab in his face playing with him so he never really did the independent play stage. With Tab starting preschool, Benton has been left to figure out how to play by himself. Jason caught a great moment the other day. He was in the playroom playing quietly.

I'm a Big Boy!

Benton is trying to hard to be just like his brother. He has on many occasions lately insisted on sitting at the table and in a regular chair to eat his meals. The only problem with this is that he is always falling off and hurting himself. I have tried putting him in his highchair and pushing him up to the table but he just won't have it. Special times at our house right now. There is either screaming because we are forcing him to sit in his highchair or screaming because he just fell off of the chair AGAIN.

A break from the Winter Blues

A little while ago we had a two day break from the winter blahness that is Missouri right now. IT warmed up into the low 50's and we were in absolute heaven. I was frustrated the first day because Tab had preschool during the day and I was too busy after he got home with making dinner and such to play outside with them before it got cold for the evening. So on day two of the warm weather I wised up and threw dinner in the crockpot in the morning so that we were all ready to play when Tab got home from school.

And play we did. We got out the bikes and sidewalk chalk. Tab was kind of possessive of the sidewalk chalk container and held it as he rode his bike around the entire time.Benton has finally decided that it is ok to ride the bike instead of just pushing it around. Well... sometimes.
Benton just being cute and running around.The boys coloring with their sidewalk chalk. (It was kind of fun to see it under the powdering we got shortly thereafter.)