Dr. Ben

I just have to say, there is a smart little four year old living under my roof.  I might be a little bit biased, but he really is smart!

The boys have gotten interested in bones and xrays and body stuff lately, thanks to the Bubble Guppies, a sort of good show on Nickelodeon.  On one of the shows, a guppy got hurt and had to go to the hospital.  He got xrays and a cast, and we have seen it 413 times.  Thanks, DVR.

The last time we got library books, I picked them up a few "skeleton books" so we could look at people's gooey insides.  They have been studying these for a week now.

Today, the boys were on Ben's bed, and I was getting ready to come in and read to them before their naps, but stopped to spy on them from the hall.  They were looking at one of the books and Ben was showing Nate parts of the body, specifically the large and small intestines.  He went through all of the digestion stuff, and was actually right.  Then he was asking me about white and red blood cells-I think Gil was telling him about those.

Poor Ben, he doesn't know yet that we only pay for the first college degree and after that, he is on his own.  He better keep putting money in his Spider Man wallet.

Two Chefs and a SURPRISE

My favorite tall fellow is having a milestone birthday in March, and we got to celebrate it early-courtesy of his sister!

Saturday night we were treated to a gourmet dinner, prepared by two Executive Chefs, in our little old house.  Leslie, with Jim and Steve, designed a delicious menu and all we had to do was sit at the table and enjoy.

Gil's dad got him out of the house so the chefs could sneak in and get everything ready.  Ben waited oh so patiently, silly string in hand, for Dad to come around the corner.

His Mimi might have tested out her silly string on him first....

When Gil got home, he was happily surprised to see the grill already out (he thought he was going to be grilling some steaks for all of us).  He went right over and started messing with the knobs and just stared at us when we told him to keep his hands off.  We told him dinner was being cooked inside-and not by us- and he got the funniest look on his face.  I think it was at that point he spied one of the guys in a white coat bustling around the kitchen.

The moment he realized there were CHEFS in his house.

We had set the table, with our wedding china (only the third usage in its 10 year life with us).  Our original idea was to feed the boys something before we ate dinner, but as I was getting something for them, Ben told me he didn't want chicken nuggets-I asked what he wanted and he got the cutest little puppy dog look on his face and said, "Could we please have some real food?" That's my boy!

 We made the boys little fruit plates to have when we ate our salads.  Nate came across the table and climbed up there while we were outside. We tried to get him to come out, but he would not leave his food!  Poor thing was starving. 

We started with brie baked in puff pastry, with some raspberry preserves swirled in.

We had a really nice salad with goat cheese, cranberries, and pecans. Yum.  Notice that one plate is empty-that is Nate's, which I think he licked clean earlier.

Here is our lovely dinner of filet mignon, crabcakes, rosemary potatoes and fresh veggies.

And for dessert, which none of us were ready for, the best chocolate walnut bourbon pie with vanilla ice cream.  Again, yum.

These two men were really, really great.  They were so friendly and professional.  They left right after we had finished our dinner (we had to wait a little while for pie and ice cream with our full tummies).  They had hand washed and dried ALL of the dishes and had not left a trace of themselves in the kitchen.  I'm pretty sure they had some little elves helping them.

Thank you so much to Jim and Steve for giving us this wonderful experience!

Bird Poop

See, I really would have been a bad girl mom-Bird Poop really sounds like a good title to me!

Today the boys and I had big plans-BIG PLANS I tell you.  Target, they gym, the library, taking Ben's huge comforter, that won't fit in our washing machine, to get cleaned.  Big exciting plans, things little boys love to do, right?

Wrong.  Big fat wrong.  I went outside to get something out of the car and immediately changed our plans.  At 9:30 this morning it was already beautiful outside.  I had on shorts to go to the gym and I wasn't cold at all.  So-to the zoo for us!

It was so pretty and not crowded at all.  We caught the end of the fish talk in the acquarium, which is one of my favoite parts-and got to see the diver feed the fish and wear the stingray for a hat.  That stingray was so funny-he would not leave the diver alone.  The best way to get him out of the way was to actually put the thing on his head.  Wish I had a picture, but alas, no.

Ben did manage to turn my face red not once, but twice, in a 5 minute period. I have yet to have one of those oh s*** moments where he points to a large person and asks why they are so fat, or why does that little girl have 2 mommies-you know those little kid moments.  I have made it 4.5 years now and can't recall a single one.  Today he decided to go big or go home. 

I hear, "Mommy, is that a puppy?"  Really loud, about 3 times before I could figure out what the heck Ben was talking about.  There was a little girl with a backpack with a leash that her dad was holding.  I have no idea if Ben really thought the poor girl was a puppy, but I am guessing his brain just couldn't process seeing a kid on a doggie accessory.  Oops.  Stinkeye from the little girls' dad.  Amanda books it to the playground.

At said playground:  The boys had been there a few minutes and my face had turned back to its normal sickly pale color when, from across the darn play structure, Ben shouts, "Hey Mommy-this boy has his fingernails painted."  I shot him my own stinkeye and he mouthed oops, and I successfully avoided looking at any of the parents until we left. 

Maybe Ben got it out of his system.  Or probably not.  That might have just been the beginning of our inappropriate verbal adventure series.

Moving on.....

I usually let the boys do one special (paid) thing each visit.  Feeding the giraffes has been a favorite lately, but today we went back to an oldie but goodie.  We went in and fed the Lorikeets.  I forget how fun that is, but I'm so annoyed that the price went up from $1 to $2. Not a big difference, but it's just too much for the tiny little cup of juice that you get.

Nate was not at all interested, since he is our designated family chicken.  Daredevil Ben jumped right in though. He got a little bit pooped on, but he didn't seem to care.  Nothing a little wipe couldn't handle.  Not as bad as when he got hit on the head with some.

When it was time to leave, we went around a corner to wash our hands and met the funniest little bird.  This little guy was playing in the sink the whole time we were over there.  And we might have let the water fun a little too long to give him a nice big pool.  He started off just licking the water, then he started rolling around in it, and finally, when it got a little deep, he would swim up and down the whole thing.  He was so entertaining.

I sure do love these little monkeys.

Testing Testing 123

I think I figured out my space issue.  I disabled some of my picasa albums and that seemed to do the trick.

And just to make sure, here is a little more little boy yummy-ness.

A Walk in the Park

We are bound and determined to enjoy the beautiful weather this week. The boys have ended each day dirty and today will be no exception-really-they actually stink right now in their beds as they nap.

We met some friends after school at a park very close by and ate some lunch, kicked some rocks, saw a waterfall, and poked a pond with sticks. Sounds like a perfect little boy day, huh?

We were not short of little boys. We had 5 today and maybe another in Laura's tummy (??? we'll find out soon if that jelly bean is a girl or a boy).

And here, in no particular order, are some pictures from our day.

And now I have to go do a murder because Google/Blogger says I am out of storage space and I need to BUY more?????

I have the tiniest little blog ever-there is no way I'm out of space.  Maybe it's some Nigerian scam?  Send money, get our leader out of prison-just cash our check and you will have riches rain down on your head.  I have got to go and figure this out.

Swamped

Sorry for yet another long absence from my little corner of the blogosphere.  Of my two courses this semester, I really like one of them, but man is it a lot of work.   (shhh-don't let anyone at my graduate school program hear this, but....) It's really the first class I have taken that might be useful as a school librarian.  It's a children's literature class and there really is a lot of reading and work in general. You wouldn't think it would be difficult to read 40 children's books, we read that in a normal week around here.  But it takes time to read them and write up quality summaries and personal responses on each.  The professor also asked many times to read books you haven't read, don't just raid your kids' bookshelves.  So I am spending a lot of time reading booklists from the past few years and requesting them from my public library. 

I know one thing though-there are some amazing kids' books out there.  And quite a lot of duds. 

I am really close to finishing an assignment I have due this weekend-and I want to share pictures of our weekend in the mountains (stolen from Robin and Kristen since I forgot my camera!)

So-see you soon, with pictures of little people flying down a mountain on tubes.

From Ben

A few minutes ago,

Ben:  "I'm hungry"

Mom:  "What's new?  You are always hungry"  Or at least telling me he is

Mom:  "What do you want to eat?  It had to come from the ground."  And no, fruit snacks aren't food.

Ben:  "I want to eat an inch of your blood."

Mom:  "Gross, go away."

Groundhogs

These two little groundhogs had a big time chasing their shadows this week.  Nate's class talked a lot about shadows, and he has been looking for them all week.  Ben is humoring him and playing along.  When we got home from school on Groundhog Day, it was so pretty, we just didn't want to go inside.  So we ate lunch outside on a blanket and went for a walk. 

Ben hung out in the wagon, making me pull his heavy self, but Nate and his shadow walked along beside us. 

These two wear me out, and I am thankful for them everyday.

Gotta get some Star Wars action in!

The Mancave

Ben's room is the room over the garage, so it is huge!  The builder did such a nice job, though, of making it not seem like the room over the garage.  There are no steps up or down from the hallway and it just flows naturally from the rest of the upstairs.  Because his room is so big, we can kind of do fun things with it.  Including the jutted out area for a dormer window.

This is what it looked like before (ignore the huge tv-it is still there from a New Year's Eve party-our feeble attempt to keep the children upstairs and away from the grownups!) 

Wow, that picture makes me dizzy just looking at it.  Way too much going on.  It's basically a toy storage area, which is great, I would much rather have it stashed over there, but since we have lived here, I have felt that the space deserved something more.  It has a semi-ugly built in desk, which will come in handy down the road, but for now, it's blah.  There was a shelf mounted along the wall where the toy cubbies are, but my sister and I ripped it out.

Ben decided he wanted it to be his Mancave.  I said something about it being a fort or a hide out-and Mancave is where he went. 

So, this is what it looks like right now....

I have been told that even though it says Boys Only, Moms are allowed to enter-but only sometimes.  And Allie and Coleman can come in, too-sometimes. 

It still isn't too Mancave-y, but at least we have it closed off and cleaned out!  And the curtains are really navy, not puke blue-the flash must have been mad at them.  

 Looks like a nice blank canvas for our resident artist, huh?  Anyone have any ideas for man-cave-ing it up?

Irony

I am now taking my 7th and 8th courses for NERD SCHOOL-ok, I am getting my masters in Library Science-but it's totally nerdy.

Yesterday was the first day I had to set foot in an actual library to work on an assignment (God bless Al Gore).

Don't you think that's funny?  I finished exactly half of my masters course work in LIBRARY without going to one.  I'm at our public library pretty regularly to get books for the boys, but never for LIBRARY school.

Kind of funny, huh?

Or is it just funny to nerds?  Speaking of which, the word "nerd" itself is pretty funny.