Muscle boy...

It doesn't matter...

That we have high temperatures and high humidity in the area. Ben and Hannah don't mind at all. As a matter of fact, they told me that they were cold. So they went to get dressed and here is what they wore.

(I don't argue with their choices anymore, it's a fight I will never win)

Talented...

OK I'm not that great of a painter but Ben and Hannah are turning out to be terrific ones! Check out what they did on the easel today!


The one on the right (by Ben) is titled: "Benjamin running down the hill and jumping over a purple stick" You have to look at it sideways to see the boy with the blue hat!

The one on the left (by Hannah) is titled: "Hannah's hand jumping over the mountain." See the hand?

HOT...

Yep. That says 103F. Outside, on our patio, in the shade at 12:00pm (noon!) Holy hot chile peppers!! Today I thought I was going to melt. We could only hang outside for about a half an hour at a time. With sweat dripping from our temples, our clothes would stick to our bodies. Thank goodness for our air conditioning! It gave us quite a bit of respit today.

The older kids went to Nannys house today, swimming in the pool and for a dip in the jacuzzi (I hope it wasn't on hot!) On their way home they stopped at Wendy's for a chocolate frosty, yum! What a treat! Later on we went to Home Depot to sweat some more. We bought a few things.

When we got home, we couldn't take it anymore.

"Want to go outside and spray each other with my new hose nozzle?" the kids jumped up and down "Yay! Yeah!" while undressing (they love being nekked while running outside in the back yard). So I screwed the nozzle on and started spraying them. Ben got ahold of the hose and ran after Corey, soaked him. Hannah wanted a little sprinkle so we made it rain on her. Ben got the hose again and ran after me laughing an evil laugh, all the while I screamed and tried to escape the cold water. Running around the backyard in circles. Why was I running away? I thought that it'd be much more fun for the kids if they saw their Mom screaching like they do running around the grass. And it was...so much fun, to just not care anymore about my clothes getting soaked, dinner not being ready and the heat! We weren't hot anymore and we let off a lot of steam in a fun way.

So, yeah...it was hot today.

Comments...

OK I worked on it and it seems to be working now. Funny computer. It was midnight last night so I could have been a wee bit tired. Thanks Elaine!!

Haloscan commenting and trackback have been added to our blog.

Taking steps!

Noah started to stand from a sitting position on May 31st (7 months old). Since then he has managed to steady his balance very well. Everyone is impressed with his standing abilities. On Friday (July 14th) he took one step! All day Saturday he kept taking one step - always with the same foot - so it looks like he is pivoting around in a circle. Last night (Sunday) he took 6 steps! (he really wanted me to pick him up and was trying to reach me while moaning and willing me to come and get him. I wanted him to walk to me...he won, I picked him up.) Today he practiced more steps, only getting to 6 or 7 though... He's getting more m-m-mobile! Three kids walking and running in the house!! Yikes, that's a bit scary!

Oh and every time I grabbed the video camera or the camera to get a video shot, he would go down and crawl to me. I guess he was thinking that it was a toy for him to play with! So I don't have any video clips of him taking steps yet!!

Hair cuts...

OK...It's official...I'm a 'real' stay-at-home Mom. I cut my kids hair today. We have been going to a kids hair salon since Ben was 18 months old and really liked the hairstylist, but she went out on maternity leave and decided not to return to work (how dare she?!). Since then we have tried many of the ladies in that salon and each time we have had to go back because they missed some hair or it was cut crooked. So I thought that I couldn't do much worse than they do. It was fun...for me.
The kids did very well sitting patiently while I tried my hand at shearing them. Hannah was very excited to have me cut her hair. She jumped in the chair and was a good little client! She really hadn't liked the lady with the loud laugh, black pooffy hair and long red fingernails...scary!

And as for how I did? Well, cutting boys hair is much harder than it looks, while Hannahs was straight across. How could I mess that up? Well, I did. They both came out a bit crooked but I think I did pretty well ...for my first time!

(I'd post pictures but sadly no pictures were taken and my computer has crashed so pictures aren't coming to the blog for a while...until my laptop gets fixed...hope that is very soon!!)

Moving day...

This weekend was moving day for my sister. She graduated from UCSD and needed to move out of campus housing this weekend. So we all went over there to help her out. She had a cute 2 bedroom apartment set up for her and her 2 children. ...and so much stuff! As we carried each box and bag out of the apartment, we don't know where it all came from (she is good at hiding things!). Ben and Hannah were so excited to help out. Hannah lost interest after carrying one thing down the steps. Ben was racing with GranDad and Uncle JP to the car and back for more stuff. He was thrilled when JP got the drill out and took apart Marissa's bunkbed. He grabbed the beams and carried them out to the front of the house. When the mattress came out or the couch he was right there carrying his portion in the middle. Lugging it to the car and hoisting it to the trailer, he loved every part of packing it all in. What a helper! He's going to be rewarded for all his hard work.

Beach party!

Today was Auntie Heather's birthday and we headed to the beach for some fun. I made cupcakes and Granny brought the sparkle candles for her to make a wish. It had been such a hot day that a splash in the ocean was just what everyone needed. Happy Birthday Heather!

Chitter-chatter...

From the moment they wake up till the moment they close their heavy eyes to sleep for the night, Ben and Hannah chitter-chatter.
All
day
long.
I wonder if my ears will ever wear out... Or if I will listen to every word so that I don't miss something wonderful that they might say.

Math...

Ben is so interested in math these days. He is always counting and trying to see how far he can count. Adding simple numbers (2+3=5) and trying even a little subtraction now and then. The other day I printed some preschool math worksheets for him to do. He is awesome at it! He is on his way! What will he be when he grows up? Engineer? Math teacher? Computer wiz...it may be too early to tell but I can still dream.

Cooking with kids...

Growing up, I remember baking and cooking with my Mom a lot. My brother and I would help her do many things in the kitchen. We loved to make yogurt cake, it was so simple for kids. We baked countless cookies. We even helped with dinner every so often.

In trying to continue the tradition (and teach the kids about the kitchen) I cook and bake with my kids every once in a while. They have also helped with dinner several times. The other day we made sugar cookies. We make a mess, it's so much fun when that's part of the plan. We talk about Martha Stewart and how she makes cookies and cakes on TV. The kids love to taste and try and lick their fingers as we go. They didn't like the baking powder, but they really liked the vanilla-y sugar-butter. They measure and pour everything. I have to stop them from eating all the cookie dough. It was wonderful. And we used Christmas sprinkles to decorate.

Treat...

We seldom have treats in our house. We try to eat healthfully so that when we do get a treat, it truly is a treat! Yesterday we went to the Coronado parade for the 4th and we got lots of treats. Hannah was the talk of the morning. Here she is eating her treat from GranDad. These pictures tell you how much she enjoyed her Drumstick!

Treat is the theme for the week at Mama Says Om. Go on over there and check out more 'treat' submissions.

Our 4th...

Happy 4th of July!

Today was really fun, for us and the kids. We go to Coronado for the world-famous parade - that lasts 2.5 hours - every year. I still have family who live there so we went to their house for a barbecue and some relaxation after the parade is all over. The kids loved the parade. They watched everything with wide eyes...the horses, airplanes, clowns, you name it.. it was there and they saw it! They also loved all the treats that were given to them (popsicles, donuts, ice cream cones)

After the parade we took the kids to the park to 'unwind' before we went to the relatives house. They rode their bikes, Marissa (their cousin) had hers too so they all 3 rode their bikes to the park. They played and ran around together in the park but we were tired so we headed to the house pretty soon after we got to the park. At one point Marissa hopped on her bike to go to the restroom on the other side of the park, neither of our kids needed to go so we stayed where we were. All of a sudden I realized that neither Ben nor Hannah were in the sand pit any more. Heather (my sister) and I freaked out with visions of kidnapping we scoured the park. We reached the restroom and they were there with Marissa. I guess all the reminders, throughout the entire day, about them telling us where they are going really did go in one ear and out the other!

We ate and talked to everyone at the BBQ. The kids love it there. They play with all my younger cousins and get to jump on them for a change. They are the only small kids on that side of the family so they get spoiled with attention.

The only other thing we wanted to do was to go and see some fireworks with the kids. I had been telling them about how loud they are but that they are so pretty lighting up the sky. They really wanted to go. But in order for us to go the kids HAD to take a nap. They did. So we went to the Lake Murray fireworks display. It was so busy but we lucked out and found a parking spot. Corey knew of a little trail between the houses (that not many knew about) and we found our spot. The kids loved them! They yelled "green", "yellow", "blue" for each burst that lit the sky. They were happy campers at the end of the night.

Here are some pics from the day

Hannah

Ben and cousin Marissa watching the parade

Noah

The biking trio

Waiting for the fireworks

Cooling off...

Last week we went to my parents house for a dip in the pool. It just made sense to go for a swim...it was only 100.4 degrees farenheit on our patio at 4pm (which is covered, so maybe warmer in full sun?). We swam and played for a long time in the water. It was great fun.

Ben loves to jump in and splash around, he's really getting good at diving down to get the rings. He can even swim the width of their pool! He is one determined boy...of course he sees his cousin Marissa and all her fancy swim work and wants to do the same.

Hannah was great at her swim lessons last year and even started jumping off the side of the pool to Corey or me. But this year she is a bit more timid. She wants to do swim lessons again, but she won't get in the pool with us. I say we sign her up and see what happens...if she doesn't get in... so be it. But if she does then we have success and won't have to go through the whiny "I don't want to go in the pool" session! And...there's always next year.

Noah is so relaxed in the pool. He lies down on our hands and lets us move him around. He splashes and tries to suck up the water off his fist. He soaks it all in. It continues to amaze me at how different each child is, why can't they all be the same and predictable? Hah. Corey and I were reminiscing about Ben and Hannah in the pool at his age. They would dig their talons into our skin if we moved an inch in the water. They held with a death grip onto my neck (or Corey's chest-the hair...not the chest-ouch!). They screached in pain when anyone would splash them. So glad those days are almost gone.

The beach...

We live about 7-10 miles away from the beach and we rarely go. Sad but it is true. So we decided to go over the weekend and we had a blast! The kids really enjoyed it. I guess it's because the kids are a little older now and we don't have to worry about them running off too much. Noah is OK to sit and play in the sand...well more like eat the sand.

So we called Heather and asked if she and her little ones would join us at the beach in La Jolla. They came and we brought boogie boards. Ben really wanted to learn how to do it. He is such a fish! The water was so refreshing being such a hot day. Hannah stayed back on the sand with me, I think a big wave (well big to her) knocked her down last time and it scared her a bit. After a while, I took her to the water to get our feet wet and before I knew it...we were pulling her out of the water to go home. She was having such a fun time running away from the waves and jumping in the water.

Here is a video clip of Ben and his first try at boogie boarding!

And some pictures:

Ben really getting good at boarding!

Nope not Noah! This is Ryan and his sandy face!!

Hannah building a sand castle!