Oh Well

So, today, its official.  I am giving up trying to be creative on my blog … heck, even cohesive.  If i try to think of some fun way to do things or how to tie all these crazy little tidbits of life together, I'll never write again!  Evidently, growing a baby while chasing a toddler don't leave much mental energy … :)

So, here's a list of random happenings lately…

- I can't believe I'm almost halfway through this pregnancy already!  We find out on Wednesday if its a boy or girl … if little baby is cooperative that is, and we always have cooperative babies!  isn't that right?  isn't it?  anybody seen Benjamin lately?

- I saw a bib in Target the other day that said "Star of my mom's blog."  I really almost purchased it, but decided that might be a little over the top.

- We recently gave a very loud birthday gift to Benjamin's "best friend" and now I'm pretty sure we will be getting a drum set or something come October.  :)

- I must admit that last night I was proudly present at a Royal Wedding Party!  And i haven't had that much fun in ages … I laughed so hard I choked on my cupcake…

Isn't that just the most hilarious thing in the whole world!!  I still laugh when I think about it.  I'm not sure how the idea occurred to me, but I decided to run with it.  Oh sweet mercy, I probably need to be on medication or something :)  In all seriousness, however, I can only wish Princess Catherine as much happiness with her William as I have with mine!  Speaking of which…

- Easter Sunday also happened to be our seventh wedding anniversary!  We went out to dinner at Bonefish Grill, and since we had a gift card, felt free to go all out from appetizer to dessert!  yum!  Of course, we spent the whole dinner talking about Benjamin, then went to Target and … you guessed it-  shopped for Benjamin!  I guess we're officially old married parents now, but the Elmo cell phone and Fridge-phonics set were totally worth it!

Happy Anniversary to the Love of My Life!  There's no one I'd rather share life with than you!

Uh-Oh

(On a totally random note, I thought it might be time to take down the snow header here at Trautman Adventures, but since it snowed today, I guess I'll leave it up for a while longer.  oh the joy.)

Well let me tell you, we are having all kinds of fun with the learning to talk around here lately.  It seems Benjamin adds new words, expressions, and animal noises everyday.  Today's additions?  "What does a dinosaur say?  GRRR" and "Amen" which actually sounds more like "may-may," but we're big on A's for effort around here.

The confusing part is that several of his "words" sound the same.  For example, "zheezh" can mean juice, cheerios, or shoes … you have to pay attention to where he's pointing!

However, his favorite word by far is "uh-oh."  And you should just see him say it … on the "oh" syllable his lips make a perfect little circle and his eyebrows shoot up.  He enjoys saying it so much, that often he just goes around babbling "uh-oh" for no particular reason … we call this the indiscriminate use.  Then there's the correct use, which comes anytime anything anywhere is dropped, bumped, etc.

But in the last few days, Benjamin has been perfecting … how shall we call it?  The comedic use of "uh-oh."  On Sunday afternoon, he was dozing in my lap while I finished up a chick-flick.  Don't even ask why he was napping in my lap while I was watching a movie … we've been sick around here and its just about survival sometimes.  Anyway, he woke up just as the movie was ending, with a heartwarming scene of a couple embracing … the music swells, lips meet, a girls heart feels that all is well with the world.  And Benjamin sits his little self straight up and says "UH-OH!"

Yeah, okay, make fun of mommy's movie, go ahead.

Then yesterday, Benjamin was engaged in his favorite form of mischief - reserved for when Momma is distracted by a phone conversation or household chores - pulling books off bookshelves.  After the correction-distraction bit had failed numerous times, I followed him to the bookshelf, watched him pull a book off, then pulled his little hands away and said, "Benjamin, this is a no-no.  If you pull another book off the shelf, Mommy will have to discipline you."  I'm not even kidding when I tell you that he immediately looked up at me with wide eyes and said "UH-OH!"

How do you even respond to that?  "That's right kid!  You better say uh-oh!"  I don't even remember what I said.  I think I was so shocked at his response, that I just went on about my business.  Which, by the way, is such the grace of God, because I always said that the hardest part of parenting for me would be not laughing at those moments when you know you're not supposed to laugh, but its just so darn funny!

More tales from the Trautman Follies to come, I'm sure.

Family Vacation, Day 3 and 4

Sorry for the delay in completing the narrative of our family vacation … we've been attacked by some really ugly upper-respiratory-cold-virus-thingy and it just won't leave us alone!

But back to happier times … on Saturday morning, we got up early and arrived at the Please Touch Children's Museum soon after it opened (we would have gotten there even earlier, but the signage definitely lacked some clarity!)  Benjamin had a great time "please touching" everything he could get his hands on … until it started to get more crowded toward lunchtime.  He's just not a crowd-loving kinda guy.

For lunch, we ate at the Reading Terminal Market, where our food was so good, we actually took pictures of it, but i'll spare you those … :)

Then in the afternoon it was off to more site-seeing, including Betsy Ross's house and Ben Franklin's post office, but our favorite was Christ Church, where many of the founding fathers worshipped.

After a very long day, we got Chick-fil-A for dinner (twice in one weekend!  heavenly!), and then we all went to bed early!

Sunday morning, we packed up and checked out of the hotel.  We couldn't leave though without seeing a few more things on our way out of town …

So long, Philadelphia!  We had a blast and hope to be back soon!