…and one more on the way

Life is very interesting when you have all boys. I have three, very soon to be four.

Life with boys includes, but is not limited to:

Farting noises

Uranus jokes

Superheroes

Video games

Toy dissection

Knights and battles

I have also made some observations along the way:

1. Never say “okay” if you weren’t paying attention to the question.

2. Fighting over the baby brother can quickly turn into fighting on the baby brother.

3. A single baby fart can entertain the older brothers for hours.

4. So can a baby booger.

5. Boys have the coolest section in the toy store and the Disney store.

6. But not the clothing store.

Ben is two today

Well technically his birthday was Wednesday. It took me a while to come up with something to write, though, because at first I was kind of sad. Remembering back to what was happening in the days after Ben was born can be tough. We were glad to have the little guy around, but sad that he’d have to deal with these disabilities his whole life. And Ben is developing very slowly. But then I started looking through the pictures we’ve taken throughout the last year and it made me feel better. It’s very cool to look at where we’ve been and see how far we’ve come. So that’s what I’m going to do.

This is how small Benjamin was when he was first born:

Here he was a year later, on his first birthday:

Isn’t Mommy pretty?  Since his last birthday he’s learned to do a few new things. He’s started rolling over onto his belly by himself consistently.

He’s even started rolling around the room to get to toys.

He’s learned to hold onto things, like toys,

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

drumsticks (he also likes to play the drums),

and even his mic-key tube.

He’s even started bringing things to his mouth, which we think is very cool.

But the coolest of the cool is that he sits up by himself very well now, and he likes doing it.

I just need to work with him on his balance so that he can catch himself before listing over too far. There is a point of no return on that right side since he has no way to catch himself over there. In the past year we haven’t made a whole lot of progress with “mouth food,” but I like to attribute that to the fact that he’s been teething constantly since Thanksgiving.  Ben is interested in food, but it usually takes some convincing to get it near his mouth.

Happy Birthday Ben. We love you.

Do the laundry

And when you’re done with that clean the fireplace.

The Cliffs of Insanity

Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. That pretty much sums up how I’m feeling right now.

This summer we’re going to start this big comedy all over again. This is the reason why blog posts have been few and far between lately. Karen said that there was an elephant in the room that we didn’t want to talk about. That’s great for her to say but I’m not going anywhere near there. Rule #1 is husbands of pregnant women should not compare them to pachyderms. EVER.

Does whatever a spider egg does

Easter brings to mind many different images.  Crosses, Bunnies, chocolates, eggs, and of course Spider-man.

Jonathan’s preschool had an Easter egg hunt and along the way he found this little gem. I mean, of course there’s an Easter egg in the shape of Spider-man’s head. Why wouldn’t there be? And why would I think this is the slightest bit weird or creepy? Well, there is the notion of popping open his noggin to get to the booty inside:

This brings up an interesting question. What kind of candy is filling Spider-man’s head? Candy corn, perhaps, because of all of his corny jokes. Or maybe candy bugs.  Spiders eat bugs.  What do you think?

Blogging the talent show

Isaac was in a talent show last week. He played the Windmill Theme from the Legend of Zelda. We’re dorks, I know. But he did really well and we were very proud of him.

What we didn’t know when I talked Isaac into this was that this talent show is a pretty big deal at the school and there were enough acts to fill three hours of time. It was okay, most of the acts were very cool, and the kids were very excited to get up in front of everyone.

But something struck me as I sit there watching all this. There were 15 dance numbers in the talent show, and the majority of those were accompanied by music from a little side project Disney’s been working on, you may have heard of it.

List this as Reason #384 Why I’m Glad I Have Boys. Hanna Montana is Disney’s cash cow so I suppose it’s inevitable that there are posters, Barbie dolls, two video games for the Nintendo DS, CD’s, DVD’s, the clothing line and accessories, blankets & bedding, musical toothbrushes, breakfast cereals, toy guitars, books, teddy bears, and, um, oh yeah, there’s also a movie. And isn’t there a world tour as well, selling out stadiums and ruining art shows all over the country? (Here’s a shout out to my bud Bennie down in SC!)

But alas, as I write all this down I realize that I am a hypocrite. Yes, it is shameful the overmarketing of Miley Cyrus by Disney, but honestly I’ve got a bunch of Star Wars stuff in the house so I have no room to talk. But I am happy to play video games and Star Wars and Buzz Lightyear with my boys, and now I have renewed appreciation for all that goes with it.

The Wii dance

We play video games in our house, and the Wii is a big hit. It is possible, however, to look a bit silly when you’re playing Wii games, and I suppose that’s part of its appeal. Here’s Jonathan going to town on a punching bag in Wii Sports.

It’s much more impressive as a slide show, but slide.com made all these pictures landscape.  So you’ll have to use your imagination.

I guess I should take those weather warnings seriously

The Weather Channel’s website has been calling for snow every day this week, so why should I believe them today?  Okay, maybe not every day this week, but they’ve certainly been crying wolf this month.  But it snowed today and we got a couple inches.  No big deal, no early dismissals or anything, but the boys wanted to play in the snow.  Actually Jonathan started asking to play in the snow while you could still see the grass.  I told him to wait until Isaac came home from school.  So he did - quite impatiently I might add.

Isaac came home from school and Jonathan assaulted him at the door.  Isaac wasn’t in the mood to play in the snow and asked if he could do it tomorrow after school instead.  “Um, I think it’s supposed to get warmer tomorrow, the snow may melt,” I told him.  So he changed his clothes and indulged his kid brother.  It didn’t take much doing, honestly.  But Jonathan was out the door before Isaac even had his clothes on.

They had a lot of fun (of course they did!).  Here’s a picture of Isaac throwing a snowball at Jonathan while Jonny gives him a target.

A great time was had by all, and the best part was Isaac didn’t miss any school.

Where did I put those receipts?

Isaac goes to a Catholic school. Since we’re not Catholic his religion classes are often very enlightening, especially through the eyes of a seven-year-old. Apparently one day early this week they were introduced to the differences between “wants” and “needs.” This lesson came complete with an in-class activity:

What an opportune time to have such an activity! I noticed that he crossed out “Toys” five times on the worksheet. “So Isaac, that means you don’t need toys? If only I’d known sooner! Maybe we should include this paper with your letter to Santa!” Isaac didn’t think it was such a good idea.

Playing in the snow

Do you know how long it takes to get a kid ready to go play in the snow? Last year Jonathan spent a total of 10 minutes outside playing in the snow. We’d spend 10 minutes getting him into his snow pants, snow boots, coat, hat, gloves, and scarf, and he’d be out there until about the count of three. He didn’t like the cold, the wind, the snow falling on his face, nothing. So this year the question was how long Jonathan would stay outside and play. Isaac almost answered that question quickly. As soon as Jonathan stepped outside into the yard Isaac dumped a shovel full of snow on his head. I hadn’t even gotten my camera out yet, and I was furious. Imagine what a great picture that would have been. I told Isaac and Jonathan not to throw snowballs at each other (Jonathan’s no good at it), but to throw snow at my car instead. I’ve had better ideas.

I then got out the sled. After Isaac went down the “hill” a couple times Jonathan said he wanted to try. Isaac held the sled still while he got on and then gave him a shove to get him going.

While I was outside taking pictures of those two I found my morning newspaper in the yard.

For some reason Isaac kept picking up snow and eating it. We have dogs in our neighborhood, so I told them to only eat snow that’s falling from the sky. Here’s Isaac trying his best.

Through all of this, Ben stayed warm and comfy inside, wondering what had gotten into his brothers today.