Benjamin's Room

Benjamin has been so patient waiting for us to paint his room (his was the last of the kids' bedrooms). We started it this weekend and somehow managed to finish it yesterday. He really wanted a red room. I couldn't paint his whole room red, so we compromised on a red wall with the rest white and Spiderman and dinosaurs theme. He was pretty excited that we were finally starting. We let him stay up that night and help start the red. He painted an "i" (among many other things).

I went with his "i" theme and painted "i heart u". I had a lot of fun painting with my bugaboo.

Come on in and check it out!

Benjamin was very pleased with the end result! We like it a lot too!

He wanted to pose in all the pictures I took of his room. :)

The cutest thing was how I did his name letters. I put a sticker under his name that says "The Amazing Spiderman" and then explained how his wall read "Benjamin The Amazing Spiderman". Just like Dave and I figured, he was so tickled that his wall says he's Spiderman!!

Instead of "Where's Waldo?" it's "Where's Benjamin?"

Anna wanted to get in on the fun.....

Night, night!

The Streak is Over

Except for a stomach bug that got all five of us at Thanksgiving, we have had an illness-free winter. We were hit really hard the end of summer through fall, so I was thinking it was only fair we had such a nice long break and feel blessed to have had it. Anna and Collin had been coughing for a couple days while they were sleeping but didn't seem sick at all. Then, late Saturday Anna spiked a high fever. The next day she kept getting worse and couldn't nap she was coughing so much. She told me her ear hurt so I ended up taking her to Urgent Care to get her antibiotic started. The Dr. said she had pretty bad infections in both ears and started her medicine. That evening/night things got crazy. I have never seen her so sick. I ended up staying up with her pretty much all night just trying to keep her calm. She coughed nonstop and her fever was so high. She would wake up acting almost delusional and vomiting. Her breathing seemed pretty labored and fast too. It was pretty scary for me. I felt guilty taking her to the Dr. again after just one day, but my mom instincts told me she was too sick. Our pediatrician said her ears were still pretty bad and the other Dr. only prescribed about half the dose she needs of antibiotic. On top of that she discovered that Anna also has pneumonia. My poor girl! I hate that she is so sick and pray she never is again. The new meds are helping her and each day she's slowly improving. Five days later she's still got a little bit of a fever left, but is starting to play again and eat and drink a little. Dave said he wanted me to take a picture of her to document how sick she was. Her poor lip even got so dry it kept bleeding. :(

Now it appears the boys are following in Anna's footsteps. Benjamin just seems to have a very mild cold. But Collin is getting pretty sick and will probably take us back to the Dr. tomorrow. :( He's running a fever and has a horrible cough. I'm headed to bed in preparation for another tough night......as soon as we can get the big kids to stay in bed that is. Here are my three sickies.....

Hodgepodge - Friday & Saturday

peak-a-boo

The last couple of snows have been really really cold. Plus by the time Dave gets home from work, it's dark outside. So we decided to bring the snow into the warmth. Dave grabbed a couple big bowls of snow and dumped it into the bathtub and we let the kids have at it.

Dave made a fun fort with the kids and they loved it!

Benjamin has been complaining that we haven't gone to Chuck E Cheese in a long time so we finally agreed we'd go the next weekend. He had me put it on the calendar and then counted down the days. They all had a great time!

Collin really had a fun time driving all the cars.....

Benjamin has always been too scared to climb up into the tunnels/slides (as you can see on his face here). He changed his mind and came back down.

But because Anna climbed up and started having fun, he decided to try it and ended up loving it!

My brave, adventurous girl!

I found some kids sleeping bags on clearance. We all had fun trying them out. Until Collin came over and tried to bite my head, that is!

All snuggled in!

PS Collin decided this week that it is actually pretty fun to walk and is now all over the place having the time of his life!

Collin's Nana

Anna and Collin have been forming quite the special bond. They wrestle and love on each other all day. In our house you can frequently hear Collin yelling, "Nana! Nana!" and then Anna will come running to her baby brother sweetly declaring, "Here I am Collin! Here's your Nana!"

Their days includes lots of hugs.....

and sometimes sweet kisses too!

Benjamin and Anna each got a new game to go with their little learning video game systems. They've been cute sitting together each in their own world as they play. And they'll pause their own game when the other's seems interesting and then watch for awhile.

Look at that cute, naked bod!

Collin really enjoys honking all of our noses. "Hoh! Hoh!"

Collin is doing really well with learning his body parts. He points to and says nose ("noh") and if you ask him where his hand or foot is, he'll hold them out to you. If you ask him where his mouth is, he opens his mouth up really big and gets this excited expression on his face and he sometimes knows where his head and hair are. My favorite though is his belly button. He points to it all the time and says "Behy buh! Behy buh!" The best is when he decides he needs to find it and he's wearing a sleeper. He'll pull at his shirt and look so confused as to why he can't get to his belly button. I feel so bad for him that I usually unzip the sleeper so he can find it! :)

5 Year Old Modeling

I grabbed the camera and took a picture of Benjamin. Afterwards, he wanted to see it. He was smiling really big and his eyes were almost all the way closed. I guess that inspired him to do better, so he started to pose for me in a variety of different ways. The pictures ended up being a good representation of his personality.....extremely sweet and endlessly silly.

Still has his adorable dimples!

I gave the kids a choice as to what we were going to do while Collin took his morning nap today. Later, I asked Benjamin if he was sure about his choice. His response, "Yes, my lady."

Sometimes I can't believe how beautiful (shh, don't tell Dave I used that word) his eyes are.

He's making his dragon noise here. It's one you have to hear for yourself as I can't explain it. Actually, I can't even make the noise!

Last week Benjamin went to the bathroom and then 10 minutes or so later, he went again. I guess he didn't notice that Anna had gone during that time. Apparently, she had used up the rest of the toilet paper. Benjamin calls from the bathroom, "Daddy, Momma....I don't know what's going on in this house. There was toilet paper the last time I went to the bathroom and now there is no toilet paper! I don't know what's going on here!" The phrases he comes up with these days are really tickling Dave and I.

Blankie

I had the best idea last week!! Really, I did! I decided to try a blanket with Collin. I am super SIDS conscious and never put a blanket in with my babies until the pediatrician says it's okay (usually around 18 months). My Grandma made a blanket for Collin when he was born and I decided it would be perfect - right size, has small holes where he could breath if the blanket was caught up by his face but not too big that he would get his arm/leg caught in the holes. For those who don't know, Collin is a terrible sleeper. This is not an exaggeration. He is (by a lot!) my worse sleeper out of my babies. He wakes up if someone just breaths in his room, flips all over his bed all night long, and takes the shortest naps. He also has never learned how to soothe himself back to sleep. So anyway, I decided to try a blanket with him.......and it is amazing! When I get the blanket and tell him it's night, night time he holds his little arms up to me and becomes a sweet sack of potatoes in my arms as I carry him to his bed and he almost never cries after I lay him down (he used to almost every time). The blanket helps him to stay tucked into one place more and he sleeps so much better! So, thank you Grandma for the sweet blankie for our little monkey!

I'd get a picture of him all snuggled up and sleeping with his blanket except it would almost certainly wake him up!

Collin has been trying to trick us lately. He will point to one of us and say the wrong names (Momma, Dada, Nana, Beh-a-meh, cah, doh) on purpose to try and get a reaction out of us. He's such a character! He also continues to have a great vocabulary that is growing at a great speed!

Our new cat, Max lets all the kids pet him and that is a HUGE hit in our house. The boys especially are very tickled by Max's friendliness.

Max is trying so hard to become friends with Pepper. In the evening he gets a little spunky and tries to get her to play with him. He's very gentle and doesn't pounce on her or swipe at her. Yet, Pepper is not interested in playing with him. She immediately hisses and growls to tell him no. Dave thought maybe if we forced them to start eating together she would like him more. So far, no luck though.

Little Walker

On December 30th, Collin started pushing himself up to standing (like he's doing below). The funny thing is he did it because he wanted to dance. It was so funny to watch him realize how much more dancing he could do if he wasn't holding onto anything.

The next day (December 31st) he surprised all of us by walking.....he just all of a sudden started doing it! I joked with Dave that he decided he needed to do start that day so he'd get credit for learning to walk in 2010. Benjamin's birthday party was the next day and he thoroughly enjoyed showing off his new skills for the crowd!

Here he is dancing without holding onto anything. This kids LOVES, LOVES to dance!

All these pictures are from this week. He keeps us guessing...... some days he refuses to walk at all and other days he walks all over the place!

Whoa!!!

Here are a few more pictures of Max. Its cute how he likes to cuddle in, either in a tight place on a couch or bed or in my arms. :)