Bunny Is In Timeout

You Wish Your Kid Was This Cool..

Mutual Admiration

Heat Wave

It has been unusually hot for early spring. With temperatures reaching the mid to upper 80s.

So I decided to pull out the new wading pool Grandpa Bob and Grandma Judi got for Ben for his birthday. As far as I am concerned this pool is awesome and perfect in every way for a toddler and baby (and mommy).

I also took a few pictures showing the layout/size of our yard since I occassionally find myself trying to explain to people just how small it is. Considering the size I do think we make pretty good use of the space.

We have beds along the left side and in front of the shed (all beds have no been cleaned out, but hadn't been at the time of this picture). And we have the sand and water table set up with actual sand now. The full yard pics were taken from up on my screeened porch. That is why they show a weird texture.

So that is the whole yard. Pretty much a postage stamp. In the below picture you can see that we have a big beautiful park directly behind our property though. This somewhat makes up for it.

I have been so proud of Ben lately conquering many of the things he was too afraid to do. Last summer it was very difficult to actually get him into the pool...let alone to stay in the pool. This year he loves it and never wants to get out. He plays with all the toys and will lie on his belly. Another conquered fear is the slides at the playground. We have never been able to get him to go down a slide, but lately he is LOVING it. Each visit to the park he has to be coaxed and eventually basically sat down and pushed down the slide the first time. But then he remembers how much he loves it and he goes round and round and round up the steps and down the slide by himself. And the other day he let me clean him off with the garden hose. He had gotten covered in sand and he has always been afraid of sprinkling water, but he LOVED being sprayed with the hose and laughed hysterically.

The enclosed red area is a separate little baby pool area, but the water in there doesn't warm up as much so I just put Anna in the regular pool.

And there is a slide coming out of the baby pool!

There is my little sweetie girl who loved sitting in the water on such a hot day!

Easter

Well with another long Lent coming to an end Easter finally arrived!!

In the morning Claudio made a delicious breakfast of pancakes, bacon, and hashbrowns.

After breakfast we went to Mass at Mater Ecclesiae.

I tried to get a good picture of Ben in his blue and white seersucker short pant suit, but as you can see I did not! First of all the jacket makes him look like Frankenstein....and he wouldn't stand still or smile...let alone keep his eyes open.

I totally forgot to get a picture of Anna in her April Cornell Easter dress. It is her first April Cornell dress and she was, of course, beautiful!!

After Mass and several mishaps involving a wallet, a pacifier, and a miscalculation of mileage we spent a good 2.5hrs in the car going to Claudio's brother's for Easter dinner.

The dinner was delicious, but, unfortunately, after a long mass and a long car drive Ben was really out of sorts and basically just wanted to play quietly in another (and not sit to eat). But he had a great time doing an egg hunt and playing on the swingset. And Anna loved visiting with her adoring cousins!!

Pretty Princess

I just can't get enough of my pretty princess. Here she is dressed to go to Grandma and Grandpa's for Passover wearing her new summer bonnet.

She is wearing adorable navy patent leather maryjane shoes that her cousin picked out for her before she was born. He has been waiting and waiting for them to fit Anna and they are totally adorable!!

She has become and expert at sitting up unassisted!! And just yesterday she finally started to do some army crawling and pushing up onto her knees!! I will try to get video of it in the next few days.

She is a little chow hound. She loves to feed herself and is in general just very interested in food. With just two little teeth her choices are limited, but we try to give her a nice variety to try out.

Felted Eggs

After seeing this tutorial I decided to give felted eggs a try so that I could put something in the kids' baskets that was homemade and that they could keep...as opposed to eat!

I made two eggs for each child and I made one little feltie toy for each to live in an egg.


This is Ben's egg and the first one I made....also the best one. Not sure what I did different, but it came out the best and most solid.

Inside the egg I made a little octopus. Ben calls them opahtapus and has just been really interested in them lately. Plus I figured it would be easy enough to make one LOL

Here is one of Anna's eggs with a little felt dolly to go inside. I thought she came out pretty cute.

Catholic Bling Yo!

A Delicious Slice of Life

Bunny Wabbit

This huge bunny was a gift to Ben on his first Easter. He lives on the rocking chair in the basement and lately Ben has been dragging him up the steps for a snuggle.

This picture I asked Ben to not look so serious and to smile for the camera...LOL

Imagination

Daddy and Ben playing lego before Church.

Ben's sweet little imagination has been blossoming. He will often come to me to show me a lego creation and tell me it is a tree or he will draw a scribble and tell me it's an alligator. It is amazing to see his mind developing.

Another interesting development is he is recognozing songs on the radio and trying to sing along. And the other day Lady Gaga came on and he said, "Gaga!!" We found this amazing, but, unfortunately, it also lead to daddy putting an end to Ben listening to Lady Gaga.

Sesame Street Meets Passover

We have been eating matzo for breakfast the last several days. Ben calls anything small, round, or crunchy a cookie....so cookies are cookies, crackers are cookies, chocolates are cookies, etc. So he when he wants some matzo he will ask, "cookie?" So Claudio said to Ben the other morning, "This is called matzo. Can you say matzo?" Ben replied, "cookie?" so Claudio says, "No, it's matzo." Ben replies, "montsna?" Claudio says, "Right! matzo!" Ben looking perplexed, "Cookie Montsna??!"

Bedtime for Benjamin

Just a little glimpse into bedtime for Ben. We have said our family prayers, gotten a new diaper and some pajamas. Then Ben picks out a bedtime story. He almost always picks "Engine" which is The Little Engine That Could. This is currently Ben's favorite book.

Once the story is done Ben puts the book back in the book basket and collects his little travelling companions.

He has three main stuffed animals: Froggy, Foofy, and Kitty. Kitty is a recent addition. He used to live at Grandma's house but Ben just could no longer bear to leave it there so he has become a permanent fixture here.

As you can see tonight Ben also wanted TWO Elmo dolls in bed.

So he piles them all up in his arms and then waits for me to come carry him upstairs for bedtime.

Stupid flash prevented mefrom getting a picture with his eyes open!

The interesting thing about these stuffed animals is that he only seems to have an attachment to them during the time it takes to go up to bed and come down from bed. He does not hold onto them in bed and he almost always brings them all down in the morning and after naps, but then doesn't give them a second glance all day.

Here is Ben losing his patience with me taking pictures instead of taking him to bed! But the rest of the routine is pretty boring. We go upstairs, I lie him in bed, I tell him I love him, and stroke his hair for a moment, then I shut the door and it is off to dreamland for little Ben.

Freecycled Sand and Water Table

I got this sand and water table from freecycle during the Fall sometime and so today was the first day warm enough to use it. We haven't gotten the sand yet so I just put some water on each side and Ben had a ball. He probably spent about an hour and half playing at the table. And then he only stopped when the neighbor boy came outside to play. He always distracts Benjamin...and then we had to come inside to get Anna who was waking from her nap.

In the background you can see a little Benjamin style picnic table that I also got from freecycle.

Here is the little bead toy I got for Ben at the consignment sale...guess it isn't too clear there on the chair, but Ben loves it and played with it all afternoon (before and after the water table)

You can see on Ben the shorts and sandles we got today....looks nice right?....

Hmm, is that a little bit of diaper I see?

Perhaps a little droopy?

Ohh yeah...this is what you get when you have a 2yr old that weighs only 23lbs. These shorts are size 18M.......and literally fall off him. I have to take them in obviously.

It is hard to hear Ben's responses here, but when I ask, "What does mommy say?" he responds "I love you" and when I ask, "What does Annabella say?" he says, "wahhh wahhh" and when I ask what Bunny says he says, "meow meow".

And lastly, I would consider today a perfect day.....My house is a mess and my laundry is still unfolded and there are dishes in my sink and toys on the floor, but while we played outside Ben turned to me, came over with a big smile and gave me a kiss. Kinda puts life in perspective.