Garden pics...

hydrangea

sunflower

flowering zucchini

bean running up corn stalk

sunflower with heart center (& bee)

hydrangea

Tooth fairy (pt 2)...

Ben woke up early this morning and checked for his tooth. It was not there but there was a new envelope in its spot. He was thrilled! He knew it was from the tooth fairy because it had a big picture of a tooth on it and a fairy wand. He opened it up and was so excited to get some cash. The tooth fairy was generous, he got 2 $1 bills...$2!! woohoo! He said that he is not going to put it in his piggy bank but that he is going to save up his money to buy something good. And with his next tooth being helped out (he wiggles it all the time!) I'm sure that will be very soon! He is a good saver so he might even wait a bit longer to see if he gets even more money...from someone...

Tooth fairy...

Tonight the tooth fairy is coming, wanna know why? Because Ben (our first born) lost his first tooth today! I can't believe that we are at this stage already! He has another wiggly tooth in his mouth, and he is determined to get them out.

At his last dental visit, the hygienist announced that he had a 'wiggly' one! How exciting! His tooth was wiggling and he's 5! Wow... So he has been playing around with his tooth for a while (about 5 months) and nothing has happened, except that it has become a bit more loose. So the other day (I think Monday, last week) I noticed that the tooth was turning black. I called the dentist and she said that the tooth was probably dead but that as long as their wasn't any pain that he's OK to wait until his visit next month. So, there is no pain, we're good to wait. She also said that it might be a good idea for him to help it along by wiggling it. He wiggled it all week.

Today he ran home from the park with Daddy and showed me the hole in his mouth and his little tooth! So we got it all ready for the tooth fairy tonight.

Me: What is the tooth fairy bringing you?
Ben: Money!!
Me: Oh lucky you! How much?
Ben: Twenty-five dollars.
[yikes!]
Me: Hmm...I don't know, I'm sure you'll be happy with what you get...!

And off he went to put the little tooth under the pillow. I brought it back to put in an envelope, so it wouldn't get lost. And below is where it ended up!

Feet update...

Today Hannah came up to me again with wrinkled feet. She said that it was just one of her feet that was all wrinkled.

Me: Again? Is it all prickly?
Hannah: No it's just all wrinkled (poking with her fingers and twisting them together)
Me: Huh...mysterious...
Hannah: No well they're just wrinkled again and I can't walk.

She had been sitting on the couch for a time so I am concluding that her feet (or foot today) fell asleep.

Fancy pants....

Corey bought himself some new pajamas the other day and decided to wear them tonight. Ben saw him as he came out and said "Wow Daddy those are some fancy pajamas!" So, now that is what they are called.

Wrinkled feet...

Hannah walked over to me this morning and proclaimed:

"I can't walk anymore."

Me: Why, what's wrong?

Hannah: My feet are wrinkled so now I can't walk [as she is walking away from me & getting on the couch].

Me: Hmm...that's terrible!

Hannah: Yeah well that's why I can't walk 'cuz my feet are wrinkled [snicker, shrug].

Sling boy...

Is this not the sweetest sight you've ever seen? Putting the sling on was his idea, he got it and brought me the baby to put in for him. How does a 19mo know this?

To the ER...

Well we almost had a trip to the ER this morning.....

Lately we have felt more like short-order cooks than ever before. So, we have been teaching Ben and Hannah how to get their own breakfasts. They can pour cereal, milk, put bread in the toaster, put whatever spread they want on it... Today was no different. Ben went in and put his toast in the toaster and waited while it toasted. He was careful when getting the toast out of the toaster (an oven not a pop-up one). He spread his butter on the bread. Everything was good so far. Then he went to cut the bread, but his butter knife wasn't sharp enough. He got a better knife, one from the knife block on the counter. He stacked the bread (to do both slices at the same time, like I do) and started to cut. He likes his bread cut into four squares. He did one side, turned the bread to do the other and that is when he cut into his finger and started to scream.

Corey ran in one direction. I ran in another. Noah and Hannah watched TV, unbothered. Corey said that I should get dressed and ready to go in the car. So I got myself, Noah and Hannah dressed all the way down to brushing their hair & with shoes on in 8 minutes flat. Corey sat with Ben and applied pressure on his finger to try to stop the bleeding. It stopped after 20 minutes of screaming and wailing. I hadn't actually seen the cut until it had stopped bleeding. It is almost an inch in length and is good and deep. I put gauze and tape on it, I made it big and fat so that he wouldn't be able to move it around too much and it kept a little pressure on it, and then changed it a few times after that. He was fine for the rest of the day.

I'm so glad we didn't have to go to the ER today, that wouldn't have been fun (not that this was fun).

Words...

Noah's words at 19months:
mama-mommy
dada-daddy
bah-ben, bed
nana-hannah
wawa-noah
dee-mommy milk, drink or train
cow-couch
moo-cow
papoo-pretzel
poo-gas, pool
pah-potty
deedee-bird
teeteetee-cat
bo-boat
kah-duck, cracker, car, kite
mamooh-hummus
papoo-apple
naaaana-banana
gogou-yogurt
lello-yellow
buh-bug
llow-hello
wah-walk
ha-hat
gah-grass
dodoh-hotdog
toe-toe
noh-nose
tee-chin, cheek
ah-eye

hmmm...there are so many more. Definitely his favorite words are: dee, mama, dada, bah and nana and cow. He loves to have dee on the cow with mama. ;-)

One year ago...

From today, Noah was mooshing banana in his fingers, thinking about eating it.

And pulling himself up to stand (actually a year from yesterday).

Time flies...

Caught...

I snuck into the bedroom and caught Noah reading a book to himself. It was so adorable that I ran and caught him on camera. He was telling a story about the pictures in the book.

Caught...

I snuck into the (extra) bedroom and caught Noah reading a book to himself. It was so adorable that I ran and caught him on camera. He was telling a story about the pictures in the book. Our night routine is bath, books, teeth and bed. This was after his bath, I had told him to go and get some books for us to read...and he listened!

Cuyamaca...

We went to the mountains today. We wanted to get outside and see new things. Being in the city all the time makes us crave the outdoors. The children are getting older and able to walk longer distances so we thought we'd try "Stonewall Peak" in Cuyamaca. Well I remember it very well, Corey was a little fuzzy on the hike, but I was pretty sure that Noah would not make it to the top. He hates his ergo carrier and would rather walk himself or have me carry him on my hip. We always bring it though, so that we can make it off a mountain, or out of a hike in a hurry (with screaming child on back)...if need be.

It was such a beautiful day for a hike, we brought lots of water (Noah still wants a Camelback) and some snacks for all of us. We saw so many huge rocks and beautiful flowers and new growth amongst the burned trees. There were so many people hiking too and everyone was on their way down the mountain. We hiked up quite a bit, Noah couldn't take being on my back anymore and needed to get down. So we stopped and enjoyed our snack spot, snapped a few pictures and then Hannah, Noah and I headed down the mountain while Corey and Ben tried to make it to the top. They almost made it.

According to the kids, the best part about the whole day was lunch. The kids love to eat and the fact that it was a picnic lunch was even better. It doesn't matter that they had the SAME lunch yesterday...today, we were eating it in the car. And that was super awesome.

Race...

I made pancakes this morning. The kids prefer the regular ones with white flour, butter, eggs, milk... and I rarely make them anymore. We have been trying new recipes and they haven't been a great success. So I decided to make their favorites this morning ('the white ones' as they call them). Ben and Hannah were so excited that they filled their plates with pancakes and me, being the Mom in the bunch, said "you need to eat all of them before you get anymore". But before they could get second helpings someone else got to them leaving one itty bitty one on the platter.

Corey said "whoever eats all their pancakes gets to eat that last one" and the race was on! They had about the same number of pancakes (I'll say 7 each) but they started to eat them all one by one they were gone... and the winner?

Hannah! I guess she really wanted that baby pancake!

Backpack...

A few weeks ago we went to Mission Trails for a kid-sized hike with a big group of kids and their parents. I had the kids take their Camelbacks for water mainly because they are old enough to carry their own water and I was going to be taking care of Noah. Previously (in April) the hike was long but this day was only a little walk on the road. Even though it was a short hike/walk Hannah got tired of carrying their Camelbacks, I didn't have any extra arms so I put it on Noah's back. He wouldn't take it off and drank all of Hannah's water. We got home and I told Corey that we needed to get one for Noah and left it at that.

Today Noah was waiting for the others to be ready to go to Nanny's house. We got his backpack all ready and full with his pj's and extra diapers for the evening. (They go over to Nanny's house while I have class in the house). He wanted to wear his backpack on his back. He is getting so big, I had visions of him running off to school. And then I got sad that he is growing up so quickly...where has time gone? Today he is 19 months and 2 days old.

Dora...

Today we finally did it! Hannah got some Dora fabric transfers and a plain t-shirt for her birthday. We got them out and she designed her shirt. I ironed it and here it is! She loves it! And the best part is that there are more designs, so if this one comes off...we can create a new one!

Before

After

Good-night love...

I love putting the children down for bed, here's how it works most of the time in our house.

The kids brush their teeth and we all jump in bed, get the covers all right, fluff the pillows and arrange stuffed animals into their spots. Noah and I are in the twin bed which is pushed between the wall and the king sized bed. Facing away from the wall, Noah starts to nurse and Hannah grabs onto my finger. Corey lays between her and Ben, who is guarding the outer edge so no one falls out of bed.

Everyone starts to quiet down.

Noah nurses for a few seconds while beating my stomach with his foot, hitting his little head with his hand, doing a hand-stand and eventually breaks his latch to do a little dance on the bed on his knees. Sometimes he adds a little head-banging in there. And then back to nursing, eventually quieting down and falling asleep.

Hannah's breath is regular, she turns from side to side without ever letting go of my finger, gripping her stuffed animals. Once in a while she'll hurl them to the floor. Her breath changes to deep rhythmic breathing and her grasp on my finger slowly loosens and eventually lets go.

Ben is squirmy and trying to figure out his blanket, it has to be just right. He takes his pj's off and then puts them back on, "settle down, Ben". It only takes a few minutes for him to decide to settle and he is out like a light.

They usually all fall asleep around the same time. Corey falls asleep too. His rhythmic breathing seems to lead the kids in their slumber.

I sneak out of bed and have some time to myself. :-)

Graduation....

Today was Ben's last day in his preschool Sunday school class. He really enjoyed the class, he loved the teacher and he even liked the aides in the class. There were about 10 kids in the class. The teacher "Miss Diana" had nothing but good things to say about Ben. She took them all around the church grounds and did lots of fun stuff. They blew bubbles at the tree (in response to a story they read) and threw pennies in St Anthony's pool, they learned about snapdragons, flew like airplanes, learned about God and some important people (like Noah, Daniel...), about guardian angels and some prayers.

Here he is getting his hat

Presentation of diploma and pin.

With diploma

His class

Yay Ben! Off to Kindergarten!!!

Mooo...

Tonight Noah and I were in bed, I was attempting to nurse him to sleep. Ben came in to find out what we are doing tomorrow. I told him that we were going to a park for a birthday party, that we'd been to the park before and then went on to see if he remembered the park and I described it. Remember? He said no and so I described it a bit more, remember? No, so I told him about the last time we were there...rember? (no, not a typo I have a finger in my mouth) Yes! And Mommy you said 'rember' like we kids say 'remember'. Well, Noah had his fingers in my mouth while I was trying to talk. So then the conversation went a little like this (with fingers in my mouth)

Me (to Ben while chewing on Noah's fingers): Oh...I am so hungry I could eat a ...cow!
Ben: hahaha a COW!!
Me (nursing with Noah sticking fingers in my mouth): Oh I'm eating a little Noah cow!
Ben (to Noah): Noah are you a little cow?
Noah (twisting his head to see Ben while nursing & trying to talk): Mooo

Strawberries...

Today we went to an organic farm to pick strawberries with a preschool homeschool group that we're in and boy did we have fun! There were lots of us and we just went up and down the rows with our little baskets and picked and tasted and picked and tasted some more. Noah loved it. He didn't get one strawberry in his basket, they all went into his mouth! Hannah and Ben picked and tasted but filled their basket over the top! Daddy decided to come too and we made a family trip out of it! After all the picking we sat and ate snacks or lunch together and enjoyed good company on the working farm.

Fishing....

This afternoon Corey took the kids to a local kids-only fishing lake. They had a lot of fun and none of them fell in! Ben helped keep Noah on the dock when he was helping Hannah and Hannah did her share of helping out too. When they got home they told me that they wanted to catch a big fish for Mother's Day "Wouldn't that be nice?" I said yes but I guess they'll have to try again next time since they came home empty-handed today.

Later on, Ben told me that he caught a little fish but that he had to throw it back because it was so small... So this must be when the fishing stories start!!

Little mamas....

On our way to playgroup this morning, my three kids were busy mommying their babies in the back seat. Noah was yelling "deeee" which I found out was his word for "sling" and he wanted it for his baby. Hannah had her baby and was holding on to her sling. Ben had his baby but didn't have a sling for his, he was letting Noah have his. It was precious the way they imitate what we say to babies. To hear them nurse their babies because they are crying or hungry. Then they burst into laughter when one of the babies 'does applejuice'...which means that they passed gas.

And no, I was not actually driving when I took this picture. I was in the Starbucks drive-thru :-)

Bugs inside...

This morning Noah woke me up earlier than usual and I thought I was seeing things. As I passed the sewing machine I caught a glance at a little grasshopper just hanging out by the window. After everyone woke up (hours later) I went back in to check on the grasshopper and see if he was really there. He was and I took a picture (of course) and then captured him in a jar for the kids to watch during the day. We let him loose in the front yard at the end of the day, bye grasshopper! Stay away from the garden! ...and the house!!

Peek...

I am still loving my new camera and 'test' it out on various objects or settings to see what kind of picture it will take. So here are some pictures I took today. The first is of Hannah's green eye peeking through my camera case's strap hole and the rest are of the kids.

Slings...

Noah hasn't been feeling well for the last few days. I think he has a tooth coming in (maybe 2 or 3 with the way things have been going). He has had a fever and a runny nose and is tugging on his mouth and chewing on his fingers, so those were my clues. It has been many many months (maybe a year) since I last used a sling to carry him around but today, I couldn't carry my little munchkin any longer (he's so darn heavy at 34 lbs!) that I pulled this sling out. He fought me while I tried to get him in it but he settled down as soon as he figured out that it was a good thing. Ben and Hannah saw the sling and ran for theirs (I made them) and put their babies in to hold too. Cute!

More planting....

We had Hannah's birthday party a few weeks ago and we had some of the party favors left over. So we decided to plant them all and see what happens! So here they are, little itty bitty potted daisy seeds...we also had tomato, strawberry, marigold, basil, chives, & parsley...hope they grow!

Starfish....

Today we went to Sea World with a homeschooling group. There was a bit of a wait to get in but when we finally made it in it was well worth it! We walked around with some friends and saw lots of stuff we had seen before but some new stuff too! We went to the educational show and caught the last 3 minutes of it, but from the sounds of it it would've been a good thing to see. We saw the manatee rescue while the others in our group checked out the sharks (my kids didn't want to see the sharks today). After that we went and had a snack (we had only been at Sea World for about 40 minutes but it was still snack time). We bought popcorn and opened the cooler. After they were all refreshed, we walked around and saw other animals. We headed to the tidepools and even Noah was excited about seeing the starfish! I am always amazed at what he understands. Anyway, here are some pictures of each of them picking up starfish in the tidepools.

We had to go to a store because Ben and Hannah had decided that they were going to spend some money and they already knew what they were spending it on. Noah fell asleep and I suddenly didn't feel like I was in a big rush to leave, so we took our time leaving the park. We stopped near the clydesdale horses and watched them hitch 8 horses to a wagon and learned about those amazing horses. The kids were in awe with the horses and didn't want to leave until it was over. Noah woke up and we started to head home. We love going to Sea World...especially with the homeschooling group!