Four More Days...

...until the official start of Spring! Can you tell we're excited?

Benjamin was telling me to "put the camera down and play soccer" with him. OK, so I'm a little fanatical with the thing. Benjamin was building a brick house "his size" today.

Oh, and have I mentioned how happy we all are that DADDY'S HOME!?!?

We're pretty happy!

I realized I have no pictures of me lately. Here's proof that I hold Peter (about 90% of his waking hours).

The Latest Craze

I'm sure it's a common two-year-old trait to be obsessive about certain things, but I think Benjamin is somewhat of an extreme case. Don't get me wrong. I think his determination and persistence is admirable. He's a sponge. But it can also be a little tiring for me, the one who is usually required to participate in whatever the latest craze may be.

Lately, it's been his games. He would play "Candy Land" all day every day if I let him. He's good about taking turns, and I think he gets the concept of the game, but the way he likes to play goes on forever. It's not so much a linear game for him as it is an eliptical one. He loves to pick up the special candy cards, and especially "Lolly," so while I play the normal way, inching my way to the top, he's going from Grandma Nut to the Gumdrop Monster to the Gingerbread tree, all with equal enthusiasm. And I always "win," not that he cares. Paul's a lot better than I am about making him follow the rules.

Benjamin also loves to play "Memory" with me, and he always wins. It's sad, but I really don't have the memory I used to. He has a new cute Cranium game that we just got out (thanks, Grandma!) called "Hullabaloo." I like it because it makes you move, crawl, spin, stomp, etc. to each space, and teaches kids colors, shapes and animal/instrument/food categories. Oh, and if you're on the winning piece at the end, you get to do a "funky monkey dance." So I really like playing that one with him.

This week, we got "Hi Ho, Cherry-O" and he's a lot more cooperative about following the rules with this one. It teaches counting. I have no idea how many times I've played it in the last two days, but it's not "Candy Land," so I don't care. I'm just enjoying this special time that I have with just me and him, before he's off to school and has no time left for Mommy.


Oh, and Paul sent this to me today. Doesn't he look like he's missing a certain signifigant other? If only...

Some Much Needed Energy Expenditure

Since Paul took the camera with him, all I have is my phone. I took some cute pictures of the boys though today at our children's museum. I use my year pass all the time since it's so close. Benjamin had a blast, running around for a few hours, and Peter patiently went along for the ride.
Peter playing in the water works area before he settled down in his stroller for a nap.

Brothers in the water works area.

Benjamin by the enclosed spray guns. You can aim the water at people here without getting wet.

One of Benjamin's favorite spots is this ball ramp. The tennis balls ring the bells along their way.

Benjamin playing at the sand tables.

A new feature is this pipe organ that releases bubbles when you hit the keys.

And another ball ramp that hits the pans, ringing different tones.

This ball ramp is pretty cool. It plays "Ode to Joy" on chimes as the the ball slides down the ramp. And there's Benjamin, hurrying off to show us the next thing!

Oh wait, no more room on the phone for pictures! But here's a cute one of Peter that I caught after his nap. You can see how bad his eczema is today. Poor guy!

Benjamin also went down the slide, crawled through tunnels, peeked in a mouse's house, went fishing, did some grocery shopping, rang us up at the cash register, fixed a car, served us up at a pizza kitchen, played the entire percussion section of a symphonic orchestra, went for a ride in Cinderella's pumpkin coach, hammered some nails into some shoes, and sat down to feast at Beauty and the Beast's table. It was a busy morning! Little boy energy officially expended. Sleep deprived Moms are so not good for that kind of thing.

Wish you were here!

I just dropped Paul off at the airport this morning for a business trip he'll be on all week. Oh, and he's going to Hawaii. It's a rough job, I tell you!
Yeah, so before you all throw a pity party for me that I'm not there with him, consider this; yesterday, we had temperatures in the mid-80's. Our house was actually hot. And today, it's been in the upper-70's. So I'm not feeling too bad about life right now! Just husband-less is all. We miss you already, Paul!

Rankings

I'm kind of a sucker for the dumb stories that pop up when I check my email. I like reading various rankings, even though I'm not sure I believe whoever is conducting the surveys and their biases. A few years ago, I found an article that ranked my home town in Virginia as the fourth best place to live in America. That was of course a few years after I had moved away from home, but I still thought it was pretty cool.
Then a few months ago, I found an article that ranked the five best and worst housing markets in the U.S., and was shocked to find Provo among the worst, up there with Las Vegas, and a bunch places in Florida...Huh?!
Then yesterday, I got curious to know which of America's cities were the unhappiest, and St. Louis was ranked #2. Interesting...I mean I already knew the crime rate here was the worst in the country when we moved here, but still. That surprised me. I'm pretty sure we're still happy!

Our Little Performing Monkey

Disclaimer: This is intended to be a "grandma post," so I don't expect all of you to sit through Benjamin's little performances. I think they're pretty cute.

This is Benjamin's current favorite library book. He memorizes books after he has me read them to him several times. You might not be able to follow the story line if you're not familiar with it, but it's pretty accurate. This story also captures his budding sense of humor.

And a little "Hot Cross Buns" on the piano. Paul taught it to him, and now he loves to perform it even for strangers. Sometimes he'll open the music book to a specific page so he can "read" the music while he plays.

Happy Days

Peter holds his head up really well now on his tummy. It is crazy how fast time flies. I swear Peter is growing up at least triple the rate as Benjamin did. I was trying to remember when Benjamin finally tolerated tummy time, and I think it was around seven months when he also started to scoot. I was looking through some old pictures of him tonight and found evidence to prove me wrong. He was doing this at four months, too. It was all a blur to me. Here's a little blast from the past. Benjamin was SO fat.

And here he is with his little clone. Although they seem to be diverging more and more into their own little persons. Oh, and I weighed Peter this week. He's a whopping 16.5 lbs. He's definitely outgrown the size one diapers I've been mistakenly squeezing him into for the past few weeks.We had some nice weather this week and got to play outside more than usual. Benjamin enjoyed pushing Peter around in the stroller.

And of course working on the compost pile.

So here is my little triumph of the week. I finished TWO projects! I finished stitching together this rug for Peter's room and made the fabric shade.

I like how it turned out. It was really easy, so now I'm confident that I can tackle the five windows in our room and make it look decent.