Summer is for catching up on reading…

Summer is for Coloring!

Yup, that's MY child!

Does every mother start out this journey imagining that her home will continuously be a place of peace, cleanliness, and harmony?

Not to mention things like basically sanitary and halfway normal?

Maybe it was just me.

Lately, I've just been laughing at how far off my expectations were sometimes - maybe its because I have a boy, maybe its because he's a toddler now, maybe its because we're off our rockers, or maybe its because we're totally normal… but we've been enjoying the unexpected, the off-the-beaten-path, the …clearing throat… creative moments … that have been happening around here lately.

And things that I never thought would happen to me … played in the toilet water?  check.  melted down over having to give up the bottle of teriyaki sauce at the grocery store check-out? check.  ran around the house with shorts on his head instead of his bottom thinking he was utterly hilarious? check.  in learning a new word, continually mispronounces it as an awful curse word?  been there, done that.

And these are just the things i don't have pictures of!

Choo-choo!

He loves trains (this must be an innate boy thing) but doesn't have any toy ones.  So in a moment of desperate creativity, he dumped out his toy bin, climbed right in, and insisted on being pulled around the house while he sang out, "CHOO CHOO!"

Why are you lookin' at me?  This one's totally on Momma!

Will and I were going out that night, and I hadn't done my hair and make-up yet … so yes, that is MY child, eating his snack out of a pot with his booster seat pulled up to bathroom door.  Hey, this momma will try just about anything if it means she can enjoy an evening with her husband once in a while!

Truck!  Beep-beep!  Wow!

When we got home from Wal-mart, there were trash men (complete with diggers and dump trucks to get people's yard trash) as well as the mail truck, outside our window.  Benjamin usually "helps" me unpack the sacks - meaning its not unusual to find various goods stashed in random places around our home - so i didn't think anything of it when, out of the corner of my eye, I saw him toting the package of tissue boxes around.  But then I didn't see him for a while…  it seems he needed a better view of all the excitement going on outside!

Yup, that's MY child!  and I love him so much I can hardly stand it … and can't wait to add his little brother to the mix!

Happy Father's Day!

To our Dads and Granddads ... whose love and legacy have made us who are today….

And especially to Will, my amazing husband and best Daddy two little boys could have … 

Happy Father's Day!

Vacation Recap

I can't believe its been three weeks since I posted … oh well.  Moving on with no guilt :)

My explanation is that we went to Florida for vacation, then have been super busy since we got back and I feel like I'm just now catching up on my to-do list.

So, though I took (literally) over 250 pictures with my awesome new camera :) and I could detail every moment and happening of the trip, we'll just try to summarize it by saying …

it was an AMAZING vacation!  Benjamin did great - he even earned himself the nickname "Super Trooper."  In addition, all the attention from Aunt Mattie, grandparents and great-grandparents inspired him to discover his "inner ham" … and ham it up he did…

ALL!

WEEK!

LONG!

We even got to enjoy a few blissful hours at the beach … showing off our "Syracuse tans"...

discovering the utter awesomeness of the waves…

learning how fun it is to play in wet sand ...

and generally enjoying ourselves in every way possible!

But by far the highlight of the trip was watching Benjamin fall in love with the family who have loved him since before his birth!  We love our life in NY and see the fingerprints of God's faithfulness to us in so many ways, but we will never get used to being so far away from our families!

Me and Nana love our green beans!

My great-grandparents are great in more than one way!

Aunt Mattie … well, what can I say?  She's awesome!

I learned to call you Pa-pa … and I thought you were pretty awesome too!

I even fell in love with Gomer the dog … too bad I'm allergic!

On the Joys of New Technology

Alternately titled: HOW MUCH I LOVE MY NEW CAMERA (but I didn't want to shout at you :)

Back in February, when I was still in the throws of the first-trimester nastiness, I neglected to mention that Will gave me an awesome Valentine's Day gift … an Ipod Shuffle!  and in pink too!  Isn't it cute?

I was a little intimidated to so fully immerse myself into the world of Apple/Macs/I-this-and-that, but it seems that if you're going to have a Mac laptop, its going to refuse to communicate with any other MP3 player, so there ya go.  And seriously, I have loved my Shuffle!  It's like having your own personal radio station with only your favorite music playing all the time.

And for my next technological upgrade, as a combo Mother's Day and Birthday present, Will has given me an incredible DSLR camera!!!  I was so excited when he came in the door with it one afternoon last week that I almost set some hamburger buns on fire (true story).  So naptimes and etc. during the past few days have found me trying to figure out millions of little buttons, and though I don't know nearly enough about it yet, I do know that I ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT!

Don't I look cool behind it?  (haha) and I feel that I must add that, though I love my new haircut - which you can't really see in this picture - she kinda messed up my bangs again.  oh well.

So, Friday, when we got a "just because" care package in the mail from my mom, I took the opportunity to snap some pictures with new camera and see what I could capture…

Even though the care package came in a pretty small box, Benjamin really wanted to get in it.  This is because we use his huge diaper boxes to play peek-a-boo or choo-choo train or what-have-you, and now he thinks that any box in the house is something he is supposed to climb right into.  So this is his please-mommy-can-you-help-me-get-in-the-box face!


Mom added some old crepe-paper party decorations to the box just for fun, so I thought I'd let Benjamin "play with" (read: destroy) one just for fun. Since it captured his attention for the better part of thirty minutes, I think it was totally worth the 25 cents or whatever I paid for it in high school!  :)

Watch this, Momma!

Whoa!  That was awesome!

Ooh!  Gotta pick up all those pieces!

Look!  I CAN sit down in this box!

…a tiny slice of the aftermath

There are no words...

… for this level of preciousness!

And on the subject of words, I've been meaning to document Benjamin's 18-month word list … I'm already forgetting the days when he had a set repertoire of words he can say.  Now, he just tries to repeat everything, perhaps mashing it up a bit (or a lot), but trying nonetheless!

Benjamin's Words at 18 Months:

- Momma

- Dada

- Hi

- Bye-bye

- Bus

- Truck

- Ball

- Juice

- Shoes

(Since then, he's added so many others - chair, cup, bowl, spoon, no, yes, book, beans, cracker, etc.)

Benjamin's Animal Noises at 18 Months:

- Lion … "Roar!"  (also dinosaur)

- Dog … "Woof woof"

- Cow … "Moo"

- Dolphin … "EEEEE"  (That's my personal favorite :)

- Rabbit … clicking tongue