Easter 2011

Good Friday, before leaving for church.

Easter morning, before church.

Extra points were earned for fishing the egg out from under the spiky rose bush.

Ben 2009 and 2011. Seems like he's finally got the hang of this egg hunt thing.

Monterey Bay Aquarium

The other day our family took a surprise trip to the aquarium: we woke the boys up on Friday morning and took them out to breakfast. Then we started driving south towards Monterey. They had no clue where we were going. Eventually as we neared Monterey, they started to see sand dunes and guessed that we were going to the beach. But it wasn't until we were in the building that they realized where we were. The last time we were there, Ben was just a newborn, so neither of the boys remembered anything about it. But they sure got excited when they saw all the sea creatures. Their favorite part of the aquarium was the touch tank, full of sea stars, kelp, anemones, and abalone shells.

My plan is to familiarize them with different sea animals, then take a trip to the library to find books about the animals they are most interested in so we can learn more about them. Then in a few weeks (or months) we'll take another trip to the aquarium to visit the animals they're now acquainted with. That's the plan anyway, we'll see how it actually works in Real Life.

Truck picnic outside Dennis the Menace park

Ice cream break

Exhausted after a full day of fun!

Tommy - 4½ Years

It's been rewarding watching your personality develop more as you've progressed through age four. The newest thing about you is that you are talking a lot. And I do mean A LOT. You are constantly asking questions about everything: "What does ____ mean?", "What's for dinner?", "Why did you turn the car around?", "What are we doing after nap? And after that? And after that? And after..." Sometimes I have patience with your increased chatter, but often I have to say, "It's time to be quiet for a few minutes."

We've also noticed something a bit funny about you. When it comes to climbing and being physically adventurous around the home and playground, Ben has you beat. But when it comes to a natural environment like a hiking trail or the beach, you will scramble over, climb, and jump off of rocks like a monkey. (And equally interesting, Ben is uncharacteristically cautious and timid in these environments).

I've mentioned this in another post, but it bears repeating since we keep seeing this on a regular basis: you LOVE babies, especially ones that are 9 months and older. A calm, tender, and gentle side that we don't usually see comes out when you're around them. You're protective of them and you get so happy when you can make them smile. You also want to take them for rides in your Jeep, but we've nixed that idea.

Books: You love to be read almost any book. Your favorite books to look at by yourself are those that have simple words you can read, like The Foot Book by Dr. Seuss, and those that are about how things work. Some of your favorites are books about race cars, construction machines, trains, and how the body works. A steady favorite is anything by Richard Scarry.


Shows: You're really into trains lately, so we've revived a few old favorites like Thomas the Tank Engine and I Love Toy Trains. In general though, you only watch a few shows a week.


Toys: These days, you spend most of your time outdoors playing made up games with your brother. Today I saw you boys playing "Crash the race car", where you zoomed your bikes around the deck and pretended to crash each other and other imaginary cars. As for inside toys, Legos are your current favorite. Unsurprisingly, your favorite things to build are cars and trucks. 


Activities & Skills: The other day we did our sand-writing activity and I was surprised to see that you know how to write almost all your uppercase letters. There are a few complex ones that you don't yet know how to write, like G and R. 

I've noticed that you learn best when you can figure things out for yourself. For example, with reading, you will show interest in a certain sound combination (say, the "-er" combination), so I'll spend five minutes working with you on learning how to read it and listing out words that use that sound. After five minutes your attention span is spent, so you'll move on to another activity. Then a week later you'll surprise me by randomly pointing out a word with -er that I think you don't know and reading it to me.

You're also more interested than ever in learning your catechism. It's been amazing to see how much you can remember. You seem to be happy with yourself when you can remember all of your questions (you're up to 45 questions now!)

Behavior: Ever since you were about two, we've noted that you go through cycles of good and challenging behavior: you'll be a well-behaved angel for about four months and then go through a short period of very challenging behavior for a few weeks. Right now you're in the midst of an angelic period. I know it's going to come to an end soon, but for right now I'm really enjoying it.


One aspect of your good behavior recently is that you have periods of being very eager to help around the house and learn how to do new things. You're actually becoming pretty helpful. You (sometimes) get excited when it's time to fold your laundry because you (sometimes) like to help me fold things. You're getting really good at folding your pants, and so I set them aside in a pile according to owner and you fold and stack. Honestly, sometimes I'm the one who gets excited because I think laundry folding time will be cut in half for me, only to find out that you're not interested in helping at the moment. But when you are interested, it's a huge help. 


You're also able to put dishes from the dishwasher away. I recently heard a speaker at my moms' group talk about how she rearranged her kitchen cabinets so her small children could help put the dishes away. This sounded good to me, so I tried it that afternoon and was surprised to see that you were able to empty the dishwasher and put almost everything away by yourself! Makes me wonder what else you're capable of...

Quotes: One day we had pot stickers with our dinner. I mistakenly called them dumplings and Daddy corrected me and said they were 'pot stickers'. We kept using both words interchangeably. Finally you declared, "I know! Let's call them Dump Stickers!" We all thought that was pretty funny. 


When talking about how to write letters, you decided, "Mommy, I think that the letter R is kind of like a B, except it only has one bump and then a slide."


While grocery shopping with me, you asked me what the red onions were. I told you they were called 'red onions'. You looked confused and said, "But Mommy, they're purple. They should be called 'purple onions'." A nearby shopper overheard you and said, "Heh, the kid's right!"


"Mommy, I love God more than anything! Even more than you!" (Music to my ears, son!)


"Mrs. ____, I'm very curious about your house! May I see your room, please?"


Sizes:
Shirt: 5 or 6 (depending on the brand)
Pants: 5
Shoes: 11

Morning Friends

This is what I see outside my dining room window in the early morning as I have my quiet time. I admit that it can be distracting at times, but it's so much fun to see the silhouettes of hummingbirds as they come to feed.

Sick Day

The only thing good about sick days is the extra snuggles that come along with the fevers, coughing, and sneezing. Benji started a high fever a few nights ago. This photo is from yesterday morning, at the height of his fever. The poor guy was so tired that he actually fell asleep on my shoulder while I was talking on the phone - canceling today's preschool co-op, which was to be held at our house. He still has a low fever today, but he's mostly back to normal, playing and running around the house with his brother. And he took his snuggles with him. :(

To-Do List 2011 Update

It's three months into the new year and a new To-Do list, so it's a good time to take stock and see how well I'm doing with my goals:

1. Lose weight. I wanted to lose about 10 lbs by my birthday this month, but that didn't happen. Actually, I barely lost any weight since committing to the goal over three months ago. I've been frustrated with myself because while it felt to me like I was putting in a lot of effort (cooking healthy meals with lots of vegetables, working out three times a week), it seems like it's been so hard to lose anything. 

But I did keep a journal of what I ate throughout the day for three months and I learned some things about myself: 

1) I think it's okay to eat unhealthy food when we eat out. BIG mistake, since food offered at restaurants is some of the most calorie-dense stuff around. 

2) I think it's okay to overindulge on the weekends, since I've "been good" all week. One yummy snack isn't going to hurt, but two full days of overindulgence can (and has) prevented me from losing weight. 

3) I think it's okay to overindulge on special occasions. 

When you put together each scenario where I think it's okay to eat badly or overindulge, it works out to several days a week. When I look at it this way, no wonder I haven't lost weight! Once I realized where I was going wrong, I made some changes to my eating habits that will hopefully produce some results. We'll see where I am in three more months. :)

2. Decrease Internet time. I've been successful with this. I keep my computer off during the day and give myself 15 minutes of "veg-out" time on the Web a day. 

3. Read the whole Bible again. More success here. I started off with the same reading plan I used last year, which takes the reader through the Bible in chronological order, starting at Genesis and ending in Revelation. Recently I changed to a different reading plan which takes the reader through four separate sections of scripture each day. This way, I'll get to read the gospels and wisdom books twice through the year, and the rest of the Bible once.

4. Take part in a Photo-a-Day project). Big fat fail. I stuck with it for eight days, then realized that between taking pictures, uploading then, selecting (the very few) good ones, editing them, and adding them to my Flickr account, it was really interfering with goal #2: Decreasing Internet Time. Also, it wasn't much fun when I had to put so much work into it. In the end I decided that for now, I'll just stick with taking pictures of my cute kids doing cute things and work on my photography skills when I have more time and interest on my hands.

5. Read more good books. Success! Some of the books I've read this year are Don't Waste Your Life by John Piper, Intimate Issues, by Linda Dillow, Mere Christianity by C.S. Lews, Out of the Silent Planet by C.S. Lewis, and I'm currently reading Heaven, by Randy Alcorn. I was given a TON of good books for my birthday. Glancing at the growing stack of To-Be-Read books throughout the day has been great motivation for me to spend more time reading.

Deck Refinish

This weekend we spent almost every minute of daylight working on our deck. This project has been on our To Do list since we moved in to our house, but we just never got around to it until now. Earlier in the week, we spent a day prepping the deck for sanding: driving screws deep into the planks, smoothing the railings, and letting the kids feel like they were helping out by sanding the floor of the deck.


All day Saturday we spent sanding each part of the deck, and also sanding and sealing our table and chairs that go on the deck. Like the deck, our furniture was overdue for a refinish. On Sunday, we applied a coat of stain to all parts of the deck.


It was a TON of work, and both Mark and I had aches and pains in new places when it was all done. But now it's done and drying. It was a huge project on our list for a year now, and at last it is done. What appeared to be a ratty, creaky, old deck, ready to be replaced, now looks almost new, and feels very solid to walk on.

We let the kids use the power sanders on the deck while we sanded the railings and sunk all the screws.  As you can see, almost all of the original red stain is gone from erosion. What is more, a lot of the screws were sticking up 1/4 inch above the wood, the boards creaked, and the grain of the wood was so weathered it was as bumpy as a washboard.

Just sinking the screws made an immediate difference. The floor no longer creaked and shifted, and we could move around without catching on screw heads.

Mark used a belt sander for some of the railings, but others were so bad he had to use a hand planner.

There is something very satisfying about using a sharp hand plane. It is like popping bubble sheets.

Chief Sand-em-smooth

We rented a big floor sander for the day. It took five sandings of the whole deck (about 8 hours) to get it flat and smooth.

While Mark sanded the floor of the deck, I sanded and stained our table and chairs. It was harder work then you'd think. We re-coat our teak furniture every spring, so there was 3 years of weathered varnish to get off.

On Sunday we stained, starting with the railing and detail work.

In the 2nd half of Sunday, we started coating the floor with rollers on poles.  We were racing the clock at this point since it was supposed to rain that evening. Our stain was oil-based, so it wouldn't wash away, but it needed to have enough time to absorb and dry in the wood so that the finish didn't look muddled.

The finished deck. It is not completely dry yet, so it looks darker and shinier then the final result.

Hooray! A big project done!

Being Brudders

One of the things I prayed for a lot when I was pregnant with Ben was that my two boys would get along well together. God has answered my prayer beyond what I could have imagined. Tommy and Ben are best buddies. Of course, they have their usual sibling moments of fighting over toys or being too rough with each other. I suppose that is unavoidable with two little kids. But their relationship is generally characterized by a lot of love and caring for each other. They are each other's buddy from the time they bound down the hallway first thing in the morning until the time tell each other bathroom jokes before falling asleep at night. It makes my heart very glad to see my children show so much love to each other and to enjoy spending time together. I pray that this affection will continue throughout their lives. 


Here are some recent examples of "being brudders":

One afternoon Tommy woke up from nap much earlier than Ben. We fixed three snacks (one for me, one for Tommy, one for Ben) and then ate our two snacks. When Ben woke up about thirty minutes later, Tommy brought his snack and his water cup to him in bed. Then Ben shared some of his snack with Tommy. Awwww....

"Being brudders" - the boys have a game where one will lay on the other's lap and they say they're "being brothers". After a few minutes, this usually turns into one of two games: pretending to be a baby, complete with pretend crying and pretend tantrums, or a full-on wrestling match. But it's incredibly heartwarming while it lasts.

Tommy "reading" a book to Ben. The cuteness occurring here was at such high levels that we had to take a video of it to capture the moment. 

Tree House

Ever since we moved into our house the boys have asking constantly for Mark to build them a fort like we had at our old house. We've had so many more important house projects to get done that building a fort was always at the very bottom of the list. But this month we finally got to the point of being able to build them a fort. And when I say 'we', I of course mean 'Mark', because I can't be trusted with a tape measure and a saw.

He used only wood that we had in a pile of scrap in the back of our property, leftovers from various structures we've taken down since moving in. It took him about four afternoons to complete. The boys are thrilled to have a tree house. 

A few days ago while I was busy working on something in the house, I noticed that it got very quiet - usually something worthy of investigation. The boys weren't in the house, and they weren't in the backyard. Then I remembered about the tree house, so I looked in the way back of our property to see if they were there. There they were: at the tree house, Tommy pushing Ben on the swing. It was a sweet moment, made possible by my awesome handy husband. 

Snow!

It's been raining for the past week, and so there's been a lot wrestling on the couch, indoor tag, and general bouncing off of walls.

After five straight days of being cooped up indoors, I got desperate one day and sent the boys outside in the rain. They didn't last very long in the cold and rain, but they lasted long enough to drive their trucks through some fun puddles.

And so on Saturday morning we drove up to snowy Henry Coe Park (about 40 minutes from our house) to take a hike.

 When we first arrived, Mark accidentally hit Ben in the face with a snowball. Ben was not too happy about this. Every 10 minutes for the rest of the hike, he would ask Mark, "Daddy, why you hit me with a snowball? I didn't like that." 

 The last leg of our hike was uphill. Normally, Benji doesn't last very long on walks just down the street, let alone an uphill hike. But this time he walked three-quarters of the way himself. It helped that we kept asking the boys to find the source of this little stream, so they had some motivation to read the top of the hill (where our car was parked).

Snow! Seeing the snow falling in heavy fat flakes reminded me of the sense of excitement I got as a child waiting for the first snow. In Connecticut, the first snow could come as early as the beginning of November, and it was always fun wondering if it would be enough to go out to play in or enough to cancel or delay school the next day. Unfortunately (or fortunately, I should say) since we live in California and will be homeschooling, my kids probably won't ever get to experience the joy of having a snow storm cancel a few days of school. 

This is the best snowman we could come up with given the sparse amount of snow on the ground. He was about one foot tall and the kids loved making him.

When we got home, we built a fire and thawed out while we ate our lunch. The rest of the day was a pleasant blur of family naps and hanging around the house.

School Time

Lately I've been experimenting with fitting some school time into our day. I've realized that it works best to give the boys playtime right after breakfast, then have a family devotion, then have more playtime, and then have school time. I'm hoping to have 15-30 minutes each day where we can have a purposeful time of learning, even if we just put an alphabet puzzle together or draw with crayons.


On this day, they practiced writing letters in sand, an activity I learned of from a preschool teacher friend of mine. It's said that kids learn best when they are using as many of their senses as possible, which is why we have colored sand and they are using their fingers to trace. Benji mastered "O", and Tommy got some help writing his "M"s (since he usually spells his name T-O-W-W-Y. Of course, they also had to draw silly faces, which is what Tommy is doing in his photo.

Ben is Three!

You are three years old today! Actually, you think you should be four, just like Tommy. It took quite a bit of convincing to make you believe you're not the same age as your brother. This is probably due to the fifteen-month gap between you and your brother; you are so close in age to Tommy and your abilities are so similar, not to mention the fact that neither of you remember life without the other - that you probably think you're Tommy's twin brother rather than "little" brother.


All about you:

• You love to tell stories. Sometimes your stories are imaginative, about you flying around, or sleeping in a tree. But often they are mundane: "So, I turned off the light, and then Tommy turned on the light. And then I said, 'Tommy, don't do that!' And then he said, 'Okay'. And then we played!"
• You get very annoyed when you are interrupted. 
• You enjoy meeting new people and talking to them - kids and grownups alike. When we're out shopping, you'll often try to talk to grownups we pass. The younger ones usually just look uncomfortable, but the older, grandparent-types seem to enjoy talking to you.
• You do NOT like it when we laugh at you when you're being cutely defiant. 
• You like to ask people, "What's in your mouf?" when you see them eating something. 
• You have a sonar for food. You could be three rooms away and hear me opening a bag of pretzels, and you'll come running asking, "Is that a snack? Can I have some?"
• You have a heart that enjoys sharing. I've caught you spontaneously sharing snacks and toys with  your brother. 
• You do not like having your picture taken (much to my dismay).
• You like to match things that you see, only you say they "rhyme" instead of "match". We often hear, "Blue cup...blue fork...that rhymes!"
• You love to sing and make up songs. One common song we hear might go something like this: "God is.....so great....and....so niiiiiiice! God is nice, is nice, is niiiiiiice!" You also make up songs about what's going on around you: "I see a truck....it's a nice truck....it driiiiiiives...truuuuuuck, truuuuuuck, truuuuuuck!"
• You think "VeggieTales" is actually called "Benji Tales".
• You love to have an audience. If you realize that people are watching, you'll start making funny faces, doing a funny dance, and basically doing whatever it takes to make people laugh.
• You spontaneously say "Mommy, I love you" many times throughout the day, in a very sweet way. Melts my heart!

Some of your favorites:

Books: Your favorite books are anything by Mo Willems, like the Knuffle Bunny series and the Pigeon series.

Shows: Bob the Builder is your current favorite show. 

Food: PeanutButterJellySammich. Which is really a peanut butter and honey sandwich. That's what you say whenever I ask you what you want to eat. You would eat PB&Hs for every meal of every day if you had your way. You're warming up to veggies, but still don't like to eat anything green. You like carrots, but only raw, not cooked. You love bell peppers strips, raw. You eat slowly, and you're often the last person left at the table after meals, which everyone involved is perfectly fine with (we try not to make a big deal about eating quickly). 

Toys: Tools, or anything that can be made into a tool. Drums, and anything that can be made into a drum. Also, a bungie cord. It's amazing all the different ways you boys can play with a bungie cord.


New things: You are becoming very expressive when you talk - complete with perfectly timed breath-intakes and "Wow!"s. You can almost independently use the potty now. We just send you off in the direction of the bathroom and you (usually) do the rest. 

Other: You're proficient at riding your two-wheeler bike, but you still need help getting started. Your behavior has been, overall, very good in the past six months. You used to be very stubborn about some things and we'd have frequent battles over what seemed to me to be a very small issue (like cleaning up a spill). Nowadays, you clean up after yourself without prompting.

Ben's Pre-Birthday Interview

Here we continue our tradition of a birthday interview for our newest birthday boy, Ben, who will be turning three in just a few days. We had his family birthday party today, which is why he thinks he's 3...it was really difficult for him to understand that his party was today, but his birthday isn't until Tuesday. 

What is your name?  

Benji.

How old are you?  

Four. (Then after Tommy whispered in his ear)...Oh, three. 

When is your birthday?  

I don't know. 

What is your mommy's name?  

Mommy.

What is your daddy’s name?  

Daddy.

What does your mommy do all day?  

Work. In the kitchen.

What does daddy do all day?  

Work in the workshop. (He doesn't, actually). 

What do you like to play with mommy?  

Play hide and seek.

What do you like to play with daddy?  

Read a book with him.

What is your favorite color?

Green.

What do you want to be when you grow up?  

Tommy.

Where do you want to live when you grow up?  

I don't know.

What is your favorite food?  

Cupcakes for my party. And peanut butter jelly sammich.

What is your least favorite food?  

Poop. (after further questioning...) Spinach. I just like peanut butter. I don't like lettuce.

Do you know what church is? 

Singing.

What is your favorite thing to eat at a restaurant? 

Chicken. 

What do you like to play with Tommy?

Catching balls. (They actually rarely play with balls at all, so I'm not sure where this answer came from).

What is your brother’s name?  

Tommy.

Do you have any friends? Who are they?

Hannah. Maffew and Cwaire.

What is your favorite thing to wear?

Doggie jammies. 

Where do babies come from?

From cribs. (I can see the logic here...)

What is your favorite show?

Bob [the] Builder 

What is your favorite toy?

My favorite bwanket.

What is your favorite thing to help Mommy do?

I like fixing something.

What is your favorite vehicle?

Daddy's twuck.

What is your favorite thing to do outside?

Spin around.

Where do you like to go in the car?

To a pwaybwound [playground].

Where do you live?

At Bible study. (With how often our family is at church, it sure must seem that way!)