Funny Friday

A couple recent anecdotes:

Benjamin woke up crying in the middle of the night. When Andrew asked what was wrong or if he had a bad dream all Benjamin kept saying was "my chocolate milk melted!" and crying more. The next day we asked him again and he said again that his "chocolate milk melted". Having no idea what this meant we asked if he was talking about chocolate ice cream or a chocolate popsicle but he kept insisting it was chocolate milk. We just let it go with a "whatever, kids are strange sometimes" shrug.

Then, this morning, Benjamin asked for a glass of chocolate milk. He made it and then walked away to do something else. When he returned awhile later he looked at his cup on the counter and started to get upset and cried, "my chocolate milk melted!" I was puzzled but when I turned to look at it myself I got it! We use powdered Quik to make our chocolate milk and if it's not stirred very well the chocolate powder sometimes settles to the bottom. Voila - melted chocolate milk! He seemed very relieved when I explained that a quick stir would fix the problem... hopefully we won't have any more nightmares over that one!

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I experienced a first today. We were at the Farmer's Market at Goddard Park and afterwards the kids like to play on this gigantic rock in the park. So we were over there and they were running around, coming back to show me treasures they had found, grab a blueberry, etc. At one point I looked around to check on them and I saw Benjamin standing on the rock with his pants around his ankles peeing away! I was shocked. I should not have been surprised as I know he LOVES peeing outside but I'm obviously still new to these boy experiences and he's definitely all boy!

Beach Day - Take 2

The weather was absolutely beautiful last weekend so we decided it was the perfect time for another beach day! And it turned out to be amazing - the weather was gorgeous, the water was clear, and the everyone had a fantastic time. We were having such a fantastic time that we ended up staying from 9:30 til almost 5:00! 

Boogie boarders!

hermit crabs!!

Periwinkles!

A big hermit crab and a teeny one!

tidepools galore!

Photo Friday

Just a couple of cute pictures from this week...

Blue-eyed Julia with a black-eyed susan hair piece!

Benj learning how to "roll the meat" for an antipasto platter...
He did great and will definitely be put into service at the Geary Christmas celebration!

Milestone - No More Diapers!!! (and no more naps)

I am very excited to be able to say that Benjamin is now potty-trained! He's been interested in using the potty on and off for a few months but this summer he had a serious motivator - the privilege of swimming in the BIG pool at the Greenwich Club.

After a couple of visits there at the beginning of the summer when he was told that he could not go into the big pool with Julia because he still wore diapers he decided that he was done. The majority of the training actually happened while we were on vacation in Maine (I'm very thankful to our family who were so very tolerant of a constant stream of discussion about using the potty and a toddler potty being prominently in view!) and he has not gone back (not that going back was really an option!).

He still wears a diaper at night and would wear one during nap time... if he took a nap anymore. Yup, that's our other milestone - Benjamin has decided that he will no longer take naps. I'm not so thrilled about this one! We still try almost everyday to have him lay down and rest but I think he has actually fallen asleep once in the last two and a half weeks. He's apparently ready to give them up; he doesn't even fall asleep in the car.

So we're working on instituting afternoon 'quiet time' instead. So far, it hasn't been all that quiet but they have managed to play by themselves in their room for a little while at a time. We'll keep working on it!

Summer Fun - Water balloons!!

Auntie Merrill very kindly invited us to her store last week so that Julia and Benjamin could throw water balloons at her during their annual "Management Payback" water fight!

The kids were a little tentative at first but it didn't take them too long to get into the swing of it and get Auntie soaked!!

If You Give a Mouse...

Julia has been participating in a kids theater class for the past few weeks. They have been learning basic acting skills and how to pantomime using the book, If You Give a Mouse a Cookie. The unveiling of their hard work took place during their last class when they put on a performance for the parents.

They showed us a few of the theater games that they have played including using pantomime to act out different objects and using different expressions and body language to portray various emotions while saying the same sentence (Julia's favorite emotion to portray was 'shy' - she has it down pat!). Then they acted out the book while the teacher narrated.

It was obvious that the kids had a lot of fun and really enjoyed the whole process.