My M,W&F Morning

Ben goes to preschool three times a week.
On those mornings this is what goes on around here.

Carpool #1 pulls up between 8:05-8:15.
Ben has his eyes closed in this picture, but what I love is Emily carrying Noah through the car window.

This one is better. Well, not by much.


Carpool #1 leaves and Carpool #2 pulls up between 8:10-8:15.


Sometimes they overlap and then it feels like grand central station. We do the phone code of calling and hanging up after a few rings so that I know they are here. I now have to look at the caller ID to see which kid I need to summon to the front door when the phone rings.

And after my two oldest kids are loaded up and on their way to school, it's just me and my little guy.


I don't think he's too happy about it.
Should I be offended?

Around Our House

I never mentioned that last weekend we went to Wet and Wild in Phoenix again. We had a blast as always. Well the drive down was not a blast. Noah screamed for the entire 75 minute trip. We started off with a few slides and the wave pool. Then, Pam (my BFF also got a season pass to go with us), Emily and I headed off for one of the bigger slides. David, Ben and Noah hit the wave pool. When we met back up with them 20 minutes later, I couldn't believe my eyes. David was holding Noah and he was asleep. Not David, the baby! Just lulled to sleep by all the waves. I guess all that screaming really tired him out!

Ben, The Naked Chef, helped me make zucchini muffins. And was he actually naked. Yep, the food processor is perfectly placed.

And man, does this kid love zucchini muffins. I think he ate 12 mini muffins in an hour.


And this kid thinks it is so fun to walk behind things. He finds anything and everything and pushes it around the house or in the backyard.



This picture is for Grammie Gwynne. Emily is wearing her new outfit that Grammie and Grampie got her for her birthday. I had to switch out the navy leggings that came with it for green ones because it was "wear green day" at school. She looks super cute.


I scored on this Superman shirt, Superman cape and spiderman glove for $1.00 at a yard sale for Ben. He was in heaven, andnd he flew around the house all day.


I love when kids are little and it's so easy to make them happy.

Allergic To Gold?

We got Emily's ears pierced when she was 6 months old. She's always worn very basic studs from Claire's in the mall or Walmart even. She's never had any problems.

For her birthday, David wanted to get her a nicer pair of earrings. She picked out a ladybug pair in Kohl's and while David took her to the bathroom, I bought them without her knowing. She got them on her birthday and loved them.

I took out the earrings she had been wearing for almost a year straight and they were a little crusty in back with build up. We let her ears breathe for a few days and I put in the lady bugs last week.

She mentioned a few times that they hurt. I didn't think much of it. I just thought she needed to get used to wearing a bigger stud earring. Then last night after her bath, she got some hair caught in it. While I was getting it out, I noticed that the backs of her ears were raw.

This was her first set of 14K gold earrings. She had another gold pair that my Dad and Suzy had gotten her in Italy (which she lost one), but I had put different backs on that pair. The front of her ear looked fine. The back obviously did not. It looks the same on both ears too.

Can she be allergic to gold? Emily thinks it's great that she is allergic to something. I guess with so many kids allergic these days, she wants to feel cool. So, this morning she asked me, "so what happens if I eat gold?"

Ah sweetie if we had enough gold to eat, we would be living on the beach in the Caribbean.

He Didn't Look Back

Today was Ben's first day of preschool. He was excited.

First things first, you have to wash your hands when you get there.

Then, it was off to play with his friend. In the kitchen no less.

This is his friend Caleb. We are going to be carpooling with them in the future.

I think he was sick of me taking pictures at this point.

I gave him a kiss and hug and left. I looked back when I got to the door.

But, he didn't.
Which is a good thing I know, but I got choked up for a second. Not that I wanted him to cry or anything, but he's growing up and for some reason that surprises me.

Then, I was almost giddy. It was time to hang out with me and my monkey. We went to Walmart and Costco. I needed to keep him awake, so I gave him pretzel sticks in the car.

Noah is in between the stage of one nap/two naps a day. Normally, he is asleep at 11:15 when I have to get Ben. So, I have to keep him entertained so he doesn't focus on sleep. Today, everything worked perfectly.

When we got to the school to pick up the boys a few hours later, I could tell he had a good day. He climbed in the backseat with his friend and they looked at a spiderman book all the way home.

When I asked Ben how school was, he told me, "Great! I got to eat golden raisins!"

And I couldn't help but smile and look forward to all the adventures that await him.

Around Our House

I am obsessed with clean floors lately. Noah is crawling everywhere and if I pick him up and see a dog hair on his knees, it's time to start cleaning the floors again. Swiffer seriously needs to make knee pads for babies.

Noah doesn't seem to mind my obsession. He follows me around and loves the vacuum. My other two kids would cry if the vacuum came close to them when they were this young. Noah chases the Hoover.

Then, when I have to mop and he won't stay off my floors. I put his high chair in front of Barney and I get 30 minutes to do what I need to.

I used to hate Barney. Now I realize he is a gift straight from heaven.
***********
Ben is super into being a chef lately. All day, every day, he cooks for me. This was his creation of a tomato and cucumber. I have to pretend to eat it and then he makes me more, even if I tell him I'm stuffed.

And he does all this half naked. See, my boy doesn't like to wear pants and he isn't wearing any in the above photo but the plates are strategically placed. The famous chef Jamie Oliver was called "The Naked Chef" for his use of natural ingredients. I think Ben gives that term a whole new meaning. He's my naked chef.
************
Ben and Emily are loving karate. Here they are defending themselves against a bully, aka the rubber mannequin. They are both doing so well. I was concerned if Ben would be able to focus enough. He's always in his own little world. And he's doing great. Totally focused and listening. Emily, well, she's always good. Well, not always for me, but for other people.


***********
It's starting to cool off around here and we go from summer to fall in a day. Ben walked out of his room the other morning wearing these.

They are not supposed to be Spiderman capri pants. I decided I put it off long enough and I need to box up everything too small for Ben and go through our hand me downs from friends to see what will fit this fall. We get clothes from our friend Dakri's son Josh and my cousin Denise's son Jude. I kept piling the clothes in the closet, so it was time to sort them.

The pants that are in the front are my measuring sticks. Anything the length of the tan pair of pants is too short. Anything the size of the navy pair is perfect. So, I made piles for this winter, next summer, next winter and beyond. Easily $1,000 worth of clothing sitting there and boy am I ever grateful. I'll only need to buy underwear, socks and tennis shoes for Ben (and Noah) for many years. But, I'm a little sad to see the "T" after the size all but disappear. He has some 4T stuff left, but 5 and 6's are popping up. Where did my baby go?
**********
We have a community pool at our clubhouse. I could go on for days about all the things I hate about it. But we go in the summer 4-5 times a week because the kids love it. On the top of my hate list is the fact that they close it all the time for the littlest thing. Now, a Code Brown, I completely understand, but they closed it on Sunday because of no chlorine. Seriously, you can't throw 5 tablets in and let it circulate for a few minutes. No, they call their pool guy and it was closed for 5 hours until he came out. We only found this out after we got everybody ready and sunscreened up and drove the mile to the clubhouse. I was ticked.

So, we came home and did this.

Ben didn't seem to mind.

And after a few minutes, I think everyone was enjoying themselves.

Except me. I wrote a nasty e-mail to the clubhouse HOA lady. Next year, we are spending some tax return money and getting our own above ground pool. We can go whenever we want and we won't have to worry about Code Brown's or chlorine.
*************
When Noah stared cruising around furniture, I thought I should get him a push toy that he could walk behind. I didn't think he was quite ready for it and then I found him doing this today.


Who needs a push toy when you can turn over a laundry basket? And it's extra motivation for me to not keep piles of clean laundry in the basket.
************
What's next?
Ben starts preschool tomorrow!

Frequent Fairy

Phew...what a weekend. More on that tomorrow when I have more time.

There are far more important things to blog about tonight than what we did this weekend. Like....

The Tooth Fairy is going to be getting lots of frequent flyer miles coming to our house. Emily's second tooth fell out tonight. Or rather, David finally pulled it out. It was hanging on by a thread. It was time.

That little sucker had been hanging on since before school started a month ago! I put a little box in her back pack in case she lost it at school. Emily's adult tooth was coming in behind it, so it must have finally pushed it out. And it doesn't really look awkward because those adult teeth are already there.

Oh my, did I just say "Emily" and "adult" in the same sentence?

Mudslide

I love our neighborhood and the friends we've made. I sometimes think how different our lives would be up here if we had chosen a different house in a different subdivision. I'm sure we would've made friends where ever we went, but it wouldn't be these friends. And these friends are great.

Last Friday afternoon, a storm moved in and the temperature dropped about 20 degrees. Our plans of going to the pool after dinner would not be happening. But our friends called and invited us over after dinner for some outside fun. They live in cul-de-sac which only got half way developed before our home builder went out of business. It's quiet and perfect for hanging out on a Friday night.

The kids got to ride their bikes.

And Noah hung out in the stroller for over an hour just watching everybody.

Ben's form here is hysterical.

With a little help from Dad, he sinks it.

We played air hockey.

And bowled.

And us Moms chatted and sipped mudslides.


Ah...mudslides...they instantly take me back to a different time in my life. Where sleep was abundant and well, so were the mudslides.

In our twenties, my BFF, Pam, and I used to take a summer trip somewhere wonderful. Our first trip was Hawaii. Our second trip was the ultimate road trip. To Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Now, before you think why would two young girls go to Wyoming, let me just show you.

We rented a Mustang convertible because our Sentra and Civic weren't cool enough.

Now, Jackson Hole is pretty country. I mean where else can you find the world's largest arch made out of antlers?

And yes, you sometimes have to stop on the road for almost an hour because buffalo are crossing and they don't care that you want to get to Old Faithful before it erupts again. They are on buffalo time and you just have to go with that.

Then, a few miles past the buffalo, you run into the Tetons, which could just be one of the most beautiful spots in the entire country.

And if you choose your hotel correctly, you'll have a rooftop view which includes champagne and a hot tub. Not too country for Gina.

But, my point is about the mudslides. On this particular trip, we were planning on staying at several little hotels along the way. The trunk of this mustang was about the size of a shoe box. So, we had to utilize the backseat. And piled on top of our make up bags was a bottle of TGIF mudslide mix and a blender. Yes, we brought a blender on our road trip. It made those stops along the way just that much more fun.

Our night last Friday, ended with the kids (and then adults) in the hot tub.

Kind of like in Jackson Hole.
I guess some things really don't change.