Fashion

I try to pick out the kids clothes every day. Not only do I enjoy putting together cute outfits for them, but I don't always trust what my husband will come up with. So, before I left for work today I picked out a green skirt and striped shirt for Madeline, and a Mickey Mouse shirt and jogging pants for Ben. When I came home from work today this is what I saw...

Madeline was still wearing the cute striped shirt, but instead of the green skirt Jacob had put a crazy floral skirt on her. His reasoning was that I had her in a skirt and that got dirty so he put her in another skirt. Logical, right? I knew the day where my kids wore strange clothing combos would come, just not so soon. I think I will keep trying to dress the kids myself as long as possible.

Sandwiches

While I was getting ready for work today Ben was clomping around the house in my sandals. I told Ben that I was going to make my sandwich to bring to work, and he said "no Mom, I'm wearing your sandwiches." I explained to him that they were sandals, not sandwiches, and had him repeat the word to me. And, he did... kind of. What did he call them? Sandal-wiches.

Monsday and Fraterday

Madeline's birthday is in two days, so after dinner I brought down her gifts to wrap while the kids were sleeping. Ben saw her gifts including a pretty nifty new doll. Being the caring older brother he is, he looked at me and said "Mom, you open her doll for her?" I explained to Ben that her birthday wasn't until Thursday and that was when she could have her doll. He said "no, it is her birthday. Her birthday is on Monsday." Really... Monsday? Well, I guess he has been talking to his aunt, who used to have a day called "Fraterday." Now the question is, which comes first? Monsday, or Fraterday? We may never know.

Yes, I haven't written in a long time. Yes, I have a somewhat, maybe a little bit, decent excuse. I am working part time now, and I just don't have a lot of time to blog. But, starting right now, I will try harder. So, I thought I would share something I saw at work today that made my heart melt and made me think of my children. There was a brother and sister who looked to be about two years apart (same as my kiddos). The brother was older and kind of husky. Just like my son. Yes, my son is husky. He had his three year old checkup today and is 4o pounds. Back to the story. The little girl had blonde hair, just like I had as a kid and just like my little girl will probably have. You could tell these two kids really loved each other. The older brother was helping his sister pick out a recorder and telling her about all the songs he was going to teach her. Then, he put his arm around her shoulder and led her to look at more toys. Both kids were so well behaved and caring. I love it when I see kids who are how kids should be these days. Nice, happy kids who truly do love their siblings and want to share with them. I hope my kids will be like this as they get older. I believe they have a good start.

Not useful anymore

My son is obsessed with Thomas the train. All day we hear stories about Thomas, and Percy, and Troublesome trucks, and pulling freight cars, etc. Any of you with toddler boys may know what I am talking about. On the Thomas movies, they always talk about being a "useful engine." So today, when I was getting ready for work and Ben was eating his oatmeal, he came into the bathroom looking sad with oatmeal all over his pants. He also had his Thomas wooden train whose face was covered in oatmeal. I asked what was wrong, and in all seriousness Ben looks and me an says "Thomas isn't a useful engine ANYMORE!" Apparently Thomas tried to eat Ben's breakfast and made a mess in the process. Naughty Thomas.

I should have known better

Ok, I probably shouldn't have let Ben into the kitchen while I was making dinner. Actually I should have just been watching him better. But, I work all day now and when I come home to make dinner and see the computer sitting on the kitchen counter, I just want to take some time to check emails and blogs and whatnot, which I used to be able to do during the day. I just get distracted sometimes. So, when I heard Ben behind me saying "it's soft, it's so soft," I should have known it would be some kind of mischief. My darling son had found a half stick of butter in the fridge, unwrapped it (he did throw the wrapper in the garbage can), and was rubbing it all over his hands. Apparently butter feels soft when rubbed on skin. The things you learn from a two year old... especially when mom isn't watching him properly.

Do you want to be a priest?

Today in the car we were listening to our favorite Catholic radio station. They had a little commercial about how the Church needs more young men to answer God's call to become priests. We asked Ben if he wanted to be a priest and his response was an excited "yeah!" Not being sure he knew what a priest does I asked him. His response was "TOOT, TOOT!" A little confused I asked him again "what does a priest do?" Again his response was "TOOT, TOOT!" By now my husband and I are both cracking up and to clarify I ask Ben "What does Fr. Barr do?" His response? "Says God Bless." That's more like it.

I love you...

Here is a conversation that my husband and son had this morning as my husband was getting ready for work.

Ben: Build tracks too, Dad?
Jacob: No, I have to go get ready for work.
Ben: I'll follow you.
Jacob: No, you stay here.
Ben: But, I love you. (imagine this being said with a pouty face)

Can we say guilt trip?

Happy New Year!

I was thinking back about my new year's resolution for 2008. I had said I wanted to cook better and more "creative" meals for my family. I think I achieved that. Tonight we are having Chili, which isn't too exciting, but it sure beats a frozen pizza. Now on to 2009. I was going to write some profound resolution like "I will be a happier, better mom." Or, "I will embrace all the changes that are coming with Jacob going back to school." But, this morning I came to a realization that will now be my 2009 resolution. I need to cook better pancakes. I am absolutely terrible at making pancakes. It's not an issue with the batter, it's more of a technical issue. I flip them either too early or too late, and when I do flip them they end up on top of each other. The funny thing about this is that Jacob says I taught him to make pancakes and his always turn out perfect. Half of this morning's batch ended up in the garbage because they were black, and I am pretty sure I had a couple that were doughy in the middle. So, I will keep practicing, and maybe in a year you can come over for pancakes... at your own risk.

Nice job, Mom!

If I ever feel like the cleaning I do isn't appreciated, I just need to have Ben around while I clean. Here is what happened today as I was cleaning the bathroom.
Ben: "What doin' Mom?"
Me: "I'm cleaning the bathroom, would you like to watch?"
Ben: "Yeah!"
Me: (cleaning the toilet)
Ben: "Nice job, Mom!"
Me: (cleaning the mirrors)
Ben: "Great job, Mom!"

This continued with every little task I completed, and eventually it included clapping too. I think everyone should have a two year old around when they clean.

Only a two year old boy

Only a two year old boy would take a snack of animal crackers and applesauce and make it gross. How you might ask? By covering the animal crackers in applesauce and saying "animals pooping." That kid has quite the imagination.

Drumstick

Last night we were out grocery shopping right up until dinner time, so for dinner I bought a rotisserie chicken. When we got home Ben watched Thomas while I put away groceries and put the finishing touches on dinner. I asked my husband if he thought Ben could eat a drumstick. We decided he could so I said "Ben gets a drumstick and Daddy gets a drumstick," thinking Ben was so engrossed in Thomas he wouldn't hear. He did, and that is when things got ugly. Ben thought we meant a toy drumstick that goes with his toy drum. So, when it was time to sit down and eat, all Ben did was stand by the toy closet and cry for his drumstick and drum. After about 15 minutes of meltdown we got Ben to sit down and eat some of his dinner. As sad as it is to see Ben get so confused and meltdown, I love to see him learn about language and the different uses of words. And you have to admit it's pretty cute that all the little boy wanted was to play his drum with his drumstick.

Happy Birthday

Yes, Ben is wearing his sister's diaper, and yes we are going to show this at his wedding someday ;)

We must be doing something right

I am back! We recently bought a new computer, and blogger actually works on this computer, so I will hopefully be blogging more. On to the stories....

I took Ben and Madeline Trick or Treating today and Ben pretty much melted my heart. Ben used to go to tumbling classes and his teacher, Teacher Kathy, lives right behind us. Her house was about the third we went to. While we were waiting for someone to come to the door Ben took two pieces of candy out of his bucket and said "for Teacher Kathy." I almost cried and unfortunately Teacher Kathy was not home to witness Ben's touching act of charity. At each house after that Ben would dig through his bucket for Candy to give away. The first thing he did when we got home was give a piece of candy to his daddy and say "for you." How precious that he thinks first of others before himself. Growing up the highlight of my birthday was always trick or treating, but I know now it will be taking my children trick or treating and watching them grow into caring, generous individuals.

Where did the summer go?

I cannot believe preschool starts on Wednesday. I feel like I am ready, but at the same time still have so much to plan. I am really excited to have my own classroom this year. Technically it was a storage room but the principal kindly gave me the room instead of cancelling the two year old program all together... thanks to many requests from parents :) The past two years of teaching this class I have had to drag everything out of closets into a multipurpose room each week, and then put it all away when I was done. No more of that this year, thank goodness.
On top of starting school I am up to my ears in craft projects. This year we are making all the Christmas gifts for family. Actually it is more like I am making all the Christmas gifts which means I should have started last Christmas. Right now I am working on a quilt for my nephew. Next on the list will be some hemp diapers inserts for Maddie's cute new diapers. I found a website, www.diapercuts.com, where I can buy cotton/hemp terry and make inserts for about 1.50 each, when the cheapest I could buy pre-made inserts is 2.00 each. Exciting isn't it? If this works out I may tackle cloth diapers next.

Why!!!

Blogger no longer works on my computer at home. Anytime I try to access a blog, a lovely blank screen shows up. I really don't understand why this is happening. I am not a big computer person, but I have tried to get it to work with no success. If anyone has any ideas they would be much appreciated. I am so behind on reading blogs (not that it's a necessary part of life) that it will take a long time to catch up. I have a new tutoring job at the library every Saturday, so until my computer at home decides to work again, my blogging will be limited to Saturday mornings. I will try and post pictures of my crazy kids next weekend, but for now I have to hurry home to help with our huge garage sale we are having. We are hoping to sell enough to buy more Fuzzi Bunz (cloth diapers) for Madeline.

A compliment... I think.

Yesterday after my shower Ben started stroking my hair and saying "handsome." Either I have very manly features, or he really meant to say "pretty." I'll go with the latter.

Holy Beers

Ben knows a lot of words. The problem can be in his pronunciation. For example "thank you" becomes "gee goo", and for a long time "Grandpa" was "Pampa." Last night while getting ready for bed I was asking Ben to say the names of all the people in our family. Then we moved on to saints' names and "God" and "Jesus." When I asked Ben to say "Holy Spirit", he said "Holy Beers." God must have a sense of humor.

Busy busy

This past weekend was a very busy one. On the fourth, we went to the traditional Bernhard family extravaganza at the farm. There are always games, lots of food, and lots of family. This year there were several new games including a moon bounce, and a "name that grandchild" game, in which we had to write the name of each child under their photo. Keeping in mind that my grandparents have 55 grandchildren and 2 great grandchildren, this game was impossible. I think I was able to place names under about 10 of the pictures, and this includes myself, my siblings, and my children. They were all baby pictures though, so I get a break right?

Some of the many cousins tearing apart a Sponge Bob Square Pants pinata... classy.

On Saturday Madeline was baptized. I was able to finish her gown on time, and we had family over for dinner afterwards. It was a wonderful evening, and Maddie still smells like the Chrism, even after a bath today. Forget about new car smell, I'll take new Catholic smell any day.

Yesterday, my aunt had a baby shower for Madeline. It was nice to get together with family and I think Maddie has enough clothes now to last a year. She is going to be one well dressed baby.

After such a crazy weekend all I really want to do is sleep, but with a new baby that is near impossible, so I am blogging and posting pictures instead. C'est la vie...

Old News

Well, everyone who reads my blog probably already knows this, but I thought I would make the official blog announcement. Madeline Rose was born June 11th at 3:45pm. She weighs 9 1/2 pounds, is 20 1/2 inches, and absolutely beautiful. Her big brother loves her and calls her "baby." He is a good helper, and his favorite thing to do is give her a pacifier. I would post a picture, but we had to switch computers recently and am still not sure if our camera will work with this computer. Someday I will post pictures.