milestone

if you have a girl you'll get the significance of this post...sarah can FINALLY fix her own hair. she worked and worked to get these 'ponytails' just right...she wanted them to look kind of messy and tucked in so this is actually the "look" she was going for - it's been a looooooooong road for us.

i did cringe yesterday when she said she wanted to learn how to braid.......by the way, this is exactly what rob would look like if he had pigtails. seriously.

artist in residence

our kids draw..they love it and sometimes they even use paper.

ben loves to draw. at his 3 year check up the nurse asked him to draw a circle so he did ... a circle with eyes, hair, ears, a mouth, nose and legs, arms...

that brings me to this picture ben drew at lunch. he was VERY proud of it. he couldn't wait to tell the waitress ALL about it, every part...EVERY part. he named each part, the eyes, the ears, the hair, the 2 arms....the 2 legs and the other "leg".

that poor waitress...how do you respond to a 3 year old giving an anatomy lesson during the lunch rush?

we haven't been back to that restaurant yet.

blog wars

long long ago in a galaxy far far away...rob and i argued about "who gets what" on the blog. (it's our own competition...number of visitors, hits per day, you know, the superficial no one else really cares kind of stuff).

because i got the latest blood shed with ben rob laid claim to sarah's debut at church yesterday...

there is no rule against linking....so here she is

unfortunately....she LOVED performing. yikes. we can't afford another musician in the family. we just got another .05¢ royalty check again the other day.

:)

the rest of the story...

i didn't want to go to press until i had the full story...i had no idea i had such a captive audience.

here's what "supposedly" happened...

sarah and our other daughter/neighbor were playing with ben...they zipped him up in a folding chair carrying bag and were holding him and walking around. of course, he loved it, he had their full attention and could "breathe, mom, we didn't zip his head, just to up above his elbows."

the girls put him down ("please put him down girls, you might drop him and he could get hurt") and when they put him down he tried to take a step...in the zipped up bag. ouch.

that's it, nothing too unusual...except that everyone actually had the same story, even ben.

of course he fell on the playground this morning at church....and i'll give you ONE guess what he hit.

yep.

join the club...

the new family trait...stitches on the chin. i had them (thanks anya for throwing me in the pool, i almost made it to the water). sarah got her chin stitches a few years ago when she tripped at a restaurant and hit the table. tonight ben joined the club (actually, i guess he's an honorary member because they used surgical glue instead of stitches. i hope our insurance covers "glue.")

ben is such a trooper...amazing. he was so excited when the assistant tried to take his blood pressure with the infant device and said, "man, your muscles are too big, i can't use this one..." ben smiled REALLY big like, that's right.

ben went to bed with his favorite buddy, bobby...after he applied matching spider-man band-aids.

caleb went to bed wondering when it'll be his turn and after rob's day (check out his post) i'm thinking he may be next...

like mother...

SCENE: ben walking through the hall at church - he spots the bucket of chocolate kisses on the sign-in desk...

ben says (or yells, whichever)
"CHOCOLAAAATE....me, me, me"

I say (in my best parenting voice since we ARE at church...)
"what do you say?"

his reply: "i want TWO!"

now and then...

for caleb's 5th (and final grade) at the elementary school we have the option to put a little ad in the directory so of course we did...

i pulled some old pictures and couldn't believe how much he looks the same but different...

and to have the same group of boys in the neighborhood has been the best thing ever!

Mr. Happy

with caleb and sarah in school all day ben is a little bored...his entertainment is gone.

thankfully our church has a little kid-care going this year and ben gets to go to "big school" just twice a week for a few hours. he has 3 years until kindergarten...3 years til caleb is a teenager, 3 years til sarah hits double digits, 3 years til millie stops chewing stuff...3 years til the house is clean.

this was ben on his first day at "big school"...we got there early, seriously, i did. we played on the playground for a while before class and he got to hang out with kids his age. wow. what a concept!

i know what you're thinking, "he's really dressed up for his first day..." well, his new favorite shirt is Mr. Happy and in order for him to BE Mr. Happy i didn't really fight him on his wardrobe.