Here's Looking at You

One of the things Benjamin has focused on lately is eye color. He often asks us what color eyes we have, what color he has, what color Julia has, what color Grandma has, what color Auntie has, etc. This is the conversation we have almost every time:

Benjamin: What color eyes Mommy have?

Me: I have hazel eyes.

Benjamin: Angel eyes?

Me (as my heart melts each and every time!): hazel eyes, Benj

Benjamin: I have angel eyes?

Me: You have brown eyes.

Benjamin: Julia have blue eyes?

Me: yes

Benjamin: What color Daddy have?

Me: Daddy has blue eyes like Julia.

Benjamin: You have angel eyes?

Me: Yes, I have hazel eyes.

Benjamin: I want have angel eyes too.

So of course, a couple of times I have told him that yes, he does have angel eyes (which is the truth - they are angel eyes, just not hazel eyes!) but Auntie Lyndsay came up with the perfect answer last week... that Benjamin has chocolate eyes. The first time I told him this he was absolutely awestruck:

"I have chocolate eyes?!?!?" "Chocolate eyes, Mama??" He absolutely loves that notion.

I don't think he'll be wishing for angel eyes again anytime soon!

Julia's Gallery: The Earth Fish

Julia's latest creation - The Earth Fish

Title: Earth Fish

Material: marker on white paper

Julia's Explanation: This can be either the Earth or a fish depending on how you look at it. Or it could be a fish that looks like the Earth. 

Benjamin Hijinks

Life with Benjamin has been quite an adventure lately. Since turning 2 he has found more ways to constantly keep me on my toes.  Some examples:

Exhibit 1. Playing in water - This is one of his favorite activities and usually takes place at the kitchen sink where he has stool that actually allows him to reach the sink. But apparently that's not adventurous enough, Benjamin needs the extra effort of having to hold himself up on the edge of a sink by his stomach to play in the water.

And no joke he will hold himself up there for 10 to 20 minutes if we don't stop him... and speaking of stopping him...

Exhibit 2. I spent the better part of an hour cleaning up the kids' bathroom one day last week when they decided it would be a good idea to dump water from the sink onto the floor. In the course of about 5 unsupervised minutes they managed to almost entirely flood the bathroom! (there's no pictures of this because I was too stunned to even think about getting the camera).

moving on...

Exhibit 3. Drawing. This one isn't new. For quite awhile we've known not to trust Benjamin with anything that writes around any material that should not be written on. But last week he repurposed a tube of chapstick into a writing implement. Thankfully his canvas of choice this time was a window and not our couch!

Exhibit 4. Shopping. Until a couple of weeks ago I always insisted that Benjamin ride in the grocery cart when we're out shopping. I just wasn't prepared to have to chase him all over the store. But recently he has gotten better about listening and about staying with me so I decided to start letting him walk next to the cart if he asked. Our first outing went pretty well except for the near demise of half an aisle of tomato sauce jars as he ran his hands along them. Our second outing was not as successful as he decided that we needed a huge carton of blueberries and that he could put that carton of blueberries into the cart be himself. Needless to say, as I was lunging for the cart, the top popped off the carton and an avalanche of berries cascaded across Trader Joe's produce department. I think this incident shocked Benj just a bit because as we were walking away after the mess was cleaned up he looked up at me and quietly said "I ride now." I thought that was a good choice.

I could go on but I think the point has been made that we are now dealing with a full-fledged adventurous, outgoing, exploratory, do-it-myself little boy. Lucky for him, he is also ridiculously cute!

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Phrats!!!

No, the title is not a typo. It is a phrase I hear many, many times every day from both my children. It is the current iteration in an evolving string of exclamatory statements that has gone like this:

- "phooey!" - taken from Donald Duck on Mickey Mouse clubhouse
- "oh phooey!" - used when "phooey!" just wasn't quite emphatic enough
- "suffering bilge rats!" - taken from Captain Hook on Jake and the Neverland Pirates
- "oh rats!" - used when the the phrase above was too long
- "oh phooey ratatouille!" - how the above phrases were originally combined
- "oh phooey rats!" - the inevitable shortening of the above phrase

...and because that apparently was not short enough we know have:
- "oh phrats!!" or just "phrats!!"

an illustration of the evolution of language right in my own home!

March Madness

This is March Madness month at the Little Red Hen. Each day has a different theme for the kids to dress up (or down) or bring something representative. So far we've had crazy sock day, crazy hat day:

talent day (Julia's talent was tumbling and she volunteered and got right up in front of the class to demonstrate), inside out day and sports day:

Julia the race car driver in her Tony Stewart jacket and Lightning McQueen sneaks

More silliness will be reported as the month goes on I'm sure!

Winter Adventures

Since this winter seems to be going on and on we figured we should take advantage of it.  So last weekend we signed Julia up for her first ski lesson. 

First ski lesson at Yawgoo.

She liked it so much she asked for another lesson this weekend.  Good thing it is snowing again to accommodate her.

Swimming Progress

Julia has been taking swim lessons for almost 6 months now. She goes once a week for about a half and hour. And while there is sometimes griping and groaning about groaning, she's always saying how much she loves it and she has a great time while she's there.

In the last couple of lessons she has made tremendous progress on her strokes. The video below is of part of her lesson from last week. It's so cool to see her turning into a confident, real swimmer!

heard around our house

a few recent conversations:

One of the nights when Andrew was away Julia ended up sleeping with me for awhile and at approximately 4:30am in this conversation happened:
Julia: Mom, why are houses straight even when the Earth is upside down?
Me (mumbled from under my pillow): It has to do with gravity
... this began a few minutes conversation on gravity which I don't really remember because I was half asleep...
Julia: But why are people straight even when they're on the bottom of the Earth? like in Antarctica?
Me: Again, it has to do with gravity... can we talk about more after breakfast??
(I'd really like to know what she dreams about!!)

While watching Andrew shovel off our deck last week a day after Julia, Benj, and I had gone to have blood work done:
Julia (to the window): "you can do it Dada, you can do it:
Julia (to me): "Dad has really strong muscles... They should have checked his blood pressure at the doctor's too."

While reciting the alphabet with Benjamin:
Me: ...a b c d e f g h i
Benjamin blinks his eyes
 ... q r s t u
Benjamin: "me?"
... t u
Benjamin: "me?"
... yes, u... v w x y z
(the funny thing is he only does these when he recites the alphabet with me, not when he does it with Andrew)