The week of brotherly love

To my Dad…hope these pictures boost your spirits a little.  Feel better soon!!  

The thing that I AM LOVING this week is how much more the boys interact with each other as Ben gets bigger and bigger.  He has started to say "Dadadadada" over and over…and Charlie often runs into the kitchen yelling "Momma, Momma. B is talking to me!"  Charlie can't wait to wake Ben up from his naps, feed him solid food with the spoon (oy.) and hand him toys.  And even Ben is starting to get a kick out of his big brother…evidenced by a lot of laughter coming from the little guy.

We had our first snow of the year on Monday…and finished the week with a tornado warning.  I LOVE living in the "Midwest."       

Nothing better than waking up to snow.

Bringing him back inside was next to impossible. 

Charlie taking over Ben's new toy

The highlight of Charlie's week was easily the "BALL FACTORY"…a new play place here in Naperville where kids can run and run and run.  They have kid sized tractors to ride, a ball pit and huge slides/jungle gyms for the kids to explore.  AWESOME right??  Well…yeah, once I got over the price to get in ($9 a kid) and the crazy fear of germs that overcomes me every time I see thirty other kids running around (coughing and slobbering!)  He was so tired after we went the first time, he slept for 3 hours. (HEAVEN!) So of course, we went again. 

Two types of kids in the pit: the ones who jump and the ones who disappear.  Hmmm.

Brotherly love…Charlie wanted to nap with Ben (or just take his binky) 

Highlight of Mom's week.  Watching Charlie with Joe. 

Crossing his legs like Dad  (Excuse the mess.)

And watching cartoons like Dad

Highlight of Ben's week.  Discovering the baby in the mirror and playtime with his big brother.  Oh wait…these are my highlights as well!  

This kid went crazy for his reflection

Playtime...

Playtime…in our almost cleaned up front room

And Dad's highlight…I'm guessing here.  Must of been taking the boys to Choo Choo Johnny's for a train-inspired lunch date.  More like…Joe chasing a wildly excited Charlie around the restaurant as he discovered all of the games/trains. I gladly held Ben when we walked into that place and didn't let him go.  Sorry Joe. 

Yep.

Well that was our week.  Glad to hear that this blog has been successful at letting our friends and family peek into our daily lives.  Have a great week everyone. Thanks for visiting!   

The cold season has arrived...

As soon as last week's post was up, Charlie started going downhill.  The poor guy had a fever for two days, had a nice cough and is finally gaining an appetite and is on the mend.  Luckily, Ben hasn't shown any signs of getting sick…(knocking on wood now.) So I'll start with a pic of little Benji…because this week has been all about the first child.  

super star of the week

Yes…we let him enjoy Ben's binky collection for the week. Poor guy.

So with a sick 2 year old…what do you do?  We cancelled two days of preschool and one day of music class, let him sleep in our bed as needed and REALLY tried to find something to entertain him around the house.  Oy.  So THANK YOU Mimi for coming to the rescue on Thursday afternoon and visiting us for an extended time.  It truly made every one's week.

He did a lot of this during the week…thanks Mimi & Bubba.

Cartoons in the office...

Kicking Mom out of bed…but resting peacefully

Watching squirrels with Mimi

Charlie was itching to get out of the house and run around after being cooped up all week...so on Saturday we finally let him run loose out in the yard.  We raked leaves, watched big city trucks out on the street and had lunch on the deck (with a lady bug.)  Ah…the simple things in life. 

Sick Charlie = 'SO SWEET TO HIS BROTHER' Charlie

A good half hour of fun.

Trucks!

Happy to report that Ben has hit the 18 lb. mark (50% percentile across the board) and is starting to get more mobile.  Not yet crawling but the guy can roll anywhere he wants and is starting to get a bit more vocal. 

Hope the family is well.  Happy Veterans Day to Bubba and Grandpa Jay.  Thank you for all that you do!!

Have a great week! 

Happy Halloween

I know I've only been at this parenting thing for two years BUT I truly believe Halloween is the longest day of the year.  Thank goodness it is relatively fun and there is candy along the way.  I passed out at 9 pm right after shutting off the front porch light to trick-or-treaters and pouring a glass of wine.     

I shall now reminisce via pictures…

Charlie painted his pumpkins this year, made popcorn balls and ate M&M's the day before Halloween.  He just might have had a sugar high for 24 hours straight.

Real focus

Sugar high off of M&M's…and we had just gotten started

Of course, Charlie only wanted to eat the candy…

Then came the big day.  Woke Charlie up, bathed him and quickly explained that he had to wear his Tow Mater costume to school if he wanted to eat some treats.  He whipped that costume on and even wore the hat…WHAT????  Up until that morning, he had refused to wear it.  

When being dropped off, he was pretty excited to see that his teacher had dressed up as a PACKER and chanted "Go Pack Go" as he got out of the car.  It was a great start to the morning.    

Ben and I dropped back by the school an hour later to watch Charlie's Halloween concert in the gym…Charlie was excited to see us.  However…as the line of 2 year olds were being marched into the gym, Charlie took one look at the 40 other adults in the audience and collapsed in tears.  He is definitely like his Mom when it comes to stage fright.  Poor guy.  

The teacher picked him up and brought him to me…

The music teacher then informed me that I should just go sit with him on stage so that he could participate with his classmates.  SURE…so up we go with Ben in the Baby Bjorn to sit on a kiddie stool. Charlie took a while to warm up to the crowd... 

Charlie scanned the crowd for a while. 

When I thought he was comfortable…I walked back off the stage and snuck a nice little picture in.  

So cute.

 But Charlie soon realized what was going on…and down he went again. 

And that's where he stayed for the most of the performance.  

Still cute.

Good thing for parties though…Charlie was the first one in his seat for cookies and juice when we got back to his room. 

And the first to find the open package of Oreo's on the big table…and sneak a few extras. 

How do you eat your Oreo??  

OK…full day already in my book BUT as soon as nap time was over, we were off to Joe's office for trick-or-treating.  Finally Ben gets to participate.  Whether or not he was happy about it…we will never know. 

"Cheeeeese!"

Little Ben didn't make a sound nor did he really crack a smile the entire time we were at the office.  Either he was afraid or he was really HOT.     

Packed the boys up…headed home and not ten minutes after landing in the garage the door bell started to ring with trick-or-treaters.  Charlie LOVED this part the best.  He was on cloud nine as he picked out candy bars and dropped them in the kid's pillow cases.

The last part of the day was to take the boys out to ring some doorbells…or "ding bells" according to Charlie.  They were real troopers…and happy until the end (even in the rain.) 

  
In an effort not to make this post terribly long, I'll try to be a bit more concise. We had a few firsts this week.  Ben sat in the big high chair for the first time and Charlie had his first brain freeze. 

Little guy in a big chair

ouch.

We had a quick visit from Mimi and Bubba on Saturday, which made everyone SO HAPPY!  A lot of hugs with Joe.  A lot of smiles from Ben.  And we raked some leaves this morning.  

A perfect morning for these boys.

Nice job Joe...

the things you'll do for a Ben smile are endless

heck yeah...

Hope everyone had a great week.  We are busy working on some projects in the house…the goal is to be finished with decorating our front "formal" living room in two weeks when new visitors arrive. IKEA here we come!  

My workers...