Laughing Ben 2

So Ben is seriously a laughing. Like he loves to just sit there and crack up. Last night in the tub Ben was cracking up and Sofie and Sofie was cracking up at Ben. They were ridiculously cute together. They look so much alike now too. I just adore the two of them! Sofie is my girl snuggle and Ben is my boy snuggle. I could hug and kiss the two of them forever. I was kissing Sofie all over her face yesterday and she was saying "Don't get my sugars" which is something that Ronnie used to say to her. :).

Uncle Chris is back!

Uncle Chris returned from India. Sofie was sooo happy to see him! Ben was happy too! We had brisket with him last night and tonight we took the leftover brisket and shredded it and made carne asada tacos with home made guacamole, salsa and carlmalized onions. It was DELICIOUS. Sofie also had loved the carne asada, shockingly. :). We leave for Chicago for a week tomorrow and Texas for the following week but luckily we got to see him for two days.

Dino Rock

On Thursday we went to Wolftrap theater in the woods to see Dino Rock. Sofie loved it so much that you would have thought that she was a tween seeing the Jonas Brothers or me seeing Guns n' Roses. She was jumping up and down and screaming at the dinosaurs. When they sang the bonehead song, she sang along, when they sang Lumpy Bumpy she sang along. I had to buy the CD. She loved it so much! We went with the cousins and Becky and Cooper. We had a great time. I wish they played all the time I would take her every week! She keeps saying "I saw Dinosaurs yesterday!" Even when it was the same day and several days later. Ben loved it too, he was laughing and squealing through the whole show. We had a picnic afterwards, I think this will have to be a yearly activity. Even I danced to the CD's Pandasaurus song. The show was about Dinosaurs no one has ever heard of. Terrible but awesome at the same time :)

Zachy!

On Tuesday we went over to the cousins to play. Sofie just loves Zachy. She follows him around and does whatever he is doing. In fact she eats her best over there because Rachel puts all the food in the middle and lets the kids feed themselves so she has to "compete" with Zach to eat. She chowed on some mac and cheese over there and she hasn't eaten mac and cheese for me in months! Anyway we came home and Sofie and Ben crashed out for two hours. I had two hours of dead silence when suddenly I heard "ZACHY!" I went into Sofie's room and she was standing up and she said "Mommy Zachy's under the cribby Mommy!". HA! I said "Sofie, Zachy is not under the cribby!" and she said "Yes he is!" So I look under her crib and I say, "Sofie you sill girl you must have been dreaming, Zachy is not under your cribby!" So she says "Yes he is mommy, Zachy is under the cribby!" So I let her out and she looks under the crib and says "oooh he's not under the cribby mommy!" hahaha - hilarious

Ben the Ladies Man and the things that come out of Sofie's mouth

Ok so I spend all this time and energy finding play dates and play groups for Sofie, it never occurred to me that 6 month old little Ben might want some friends too! We went to the playground today and for the first time since Ben can sit on his own now, I put the little guy down on a blanket with some today. One of Sofie's friends Cassie has a little sister and their parents but Cassie's sister down next to Ben. Ben looked right at her and smiled a HUGE smile and then leaned over and I kid you not HUGGED her and tried to eat her face. Like grab her face and opened her mouth and tried to eat her nose. We were dying laughing and so was Ben! He was loving little Blaine. He kept hugging her and Cassie and Blain's dad was all that is definitely a hug and he is definitely flirting too - too funny! Who knew Ben was such a little social butterfly ladies man? Guess I need to start working on building his little friend network.

Sofie is way to funny, the things that come out of that girls mouth... The other day she came down stairs with a treat for Barth and was all "Barth! Are you excited???" I about fell over laughing. Tonight I went to work out and when I got home she was still upstairs talking. I went to get her since she still takes her diaper off after she goes to the bathroom and when she saw me she yelled "mommy are done exercising??" I hadn't even told her where I was going, I just left, Erich must of told her but she sure remembered. Then she asked for milk so I went downstairs to get her some and left her door open. Erich told me she had asked him for some too but he said no and I said I was just going to give her a little bit. So when I give it to her upstairs she says "its just a little bit!". I mean seriously she is too funny and too smart. She also said yesterday "Actually mama Sofie would like to have a popsicle for breakfast" to which I could only respond "Although that was an EXCELLENT sentence Sofie I actually can not give you a popsicle at 8:30am!

After today I have a good feeling that Ben is going to be just as funny. :)

Weekend in the Hood

We had the best weekend ever in Cameron Station. The weather was PERFECT. It was in the 80's and sunny. Saturday was the Cameron Station pool party. We started off the day by walking through the Cameron Station Art Festival and then making our way over to the pool by 11. I have made so many great friends with kids here that its really really nice to walk around and know everyone and their kids. Sofie has so many little friends to play with every time we walk out the door.

We immediately ran into Sonya and Nadia and Brady and Katie. Sofie looooves them. She is really starting to get to know and to like the other kids too. JJ and Pam and Cooper and Maggie and Abby and Maddisyn. She ran around the pool and played and screamed and jumped.

Oh side note - this past Wednesday was Nadia's third birthday party. They had pizza at the party and Sofie climbed into the toy box and yelled "MOMMY FEED ME IN THE BOX" Everyone died laughing and brought it up again at the pool. Crazy girl. I just rolled my eyes and was like I am NOT feeding you in the box.

Ok back to the pool party, Sofie then ran from the pool to the BBQ area because they had bounce houses which she calls "sport bounces" she was all "I want to sport bounce daddy!" She wouldn't even stop to eat So she started to have a complete meltdown around 1pm. She was screaming and crying and nothing would make her happy. I finally just had to toss her in her crib and tell her to go to sleep! She slept for 2 and half hours!!!! Erich and Ben slept for 2 and half hours too. I enjoyed some time to myself to walk around the festival :).


Today we went out to Arlington with Noah and Lori and we went to the spray park. It was the best park I have seen in the DC area. A huge playground, sandbox and water spray park. We had a blast playing with them and Sofie loooved the sandbox.

This afternoon we went to the pool with my new friends, Sonya, Becky, Kelly and Tracy and their kids and husbands for pizza and beer at the pool. It was so great, Sofie had a blast. She can jump into the pool now with no one holding on and she and Erich were playing in the pool almost the entire time. They ordered pizza but also had cookies. I couldn't get Sofie to eat pizza to save my life because of those damn cookies. mmmm cookies.

Anyway it was a great weekend hanging out in Cameron Station and we really enjoyed the pool, kids and parents. :) Ben had a good time too, he was in a great mood too, now I just hope he stays that way for this week!

Paci Failure

Sofie has had a pacifier in her crib for nap time and night time her entire life. Once she could put the paci in her mouth by herself, we threw like 8 paci's in the crib so she could just reach around and grab one in the middle of the night. Once she reached the age of 2 and started getting those 2 year old molars she started chewing on the pacis. Chewing on them lead to breaking them. She broke them until there were only 2 left. I told her that we weren't buying any more, that once she broke them they were gone and there would be no more so she better protect them. Well she broke one right away and was down to just one paci. That one paci has been hanging around for four months.

Well today... it happened. She broke the last paci, I am suspecting it is because she is working on the top molars now. So anyway it took her an hour to fall asleep for nap and about two hours for night time. I finally relented and gave her one of Ben's pacis at night time. I was feeling so bad for my poor girl, I mean she is only 2 after all and she is all alone in her crib without her paci. I feel like she has had so many other things she has had to do that it just seemed mean. Sigh I am a wimp - but she is still a baby after all right!? Its not like she is going to college with it - it is messing up her teeth a bit, but she doesn't stand a chance with that anyone right, both Erich and I had tons of dental work.

So for now, she still has a paci - she was so happy when I brought it up she said "this is not a blue paci, its a green paci and this parts yellow" (the handle is yellow) and then she went right to sleep. Little sweet pea :)

SANKING!!

The other day at the pool Sofie was jumping into my arms in the big pool. She threw a couple of toys in that she wanted to float on the water that she could jump to. The toys she grabbed were weights that sink to the bottom of the pool. She was getting frustrated so I told her "Sofie these toys are sinking, they won't stay on the top of the water, they sink" and you would have thought that I had just explained that Barney was coming to the pool in the flesh. Her eyes grew wide and she got a huge smile and she pointed at them and shouted "ITS SANKING!!" and I said, "yes that's right sInking". She then spent the rest of the time at the pool running around screaming at the top of her lungs and throwing weights into the pool "IT'S SANDKING IT'S SANKING!" and squealing with laughter and delight at the top of her lungs. Everyone at the pool was cracking up at her excitement and the fact that she was running around to each of them, throwing a toy in the pool and yelling "ITS SANKING!" at them. :). She is too funny.

Josh and Screaming

Cousin Josh has a new band called Among the Oak and Ash. We went to see him on Thursday and they were GREAT!! I loved them and am so excited for their new venture. Josh stayed with us the night of the show - he and Erich were super excited to get Wendy's on the way home - so that was fun. Erich and Josh together are pretty funny.

Anyway yesterday we all went to dinner together at Food Matters. At the restaurant Sofie was a wild woman so we decided to have her run home to burn off some energy. I asked her on the way out, do you want to run home? And she says "And scream?" and I said what? and she says "Run home and scream?" I was like OK go for it, so she ran the entire way home and screamed the whole time. It was pretty great. Josh likened it to the Simpson episode where Homer has to take care of a screaming worm.

Her run is also really funny where she runs with her arms out like a little fairy. And her scream she says "BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA" in a pitch that I think I could only reach when I was that age.

Funny Sofie

I just wanted to post some silly stuff Sofie says -

Sofie LOVES to tell daddy to take his shirt off - we aren't sure why but every time he is where a shirt she says "Take your shirt off daddy!!" for the first time this has transferred now to other people. We went to the pool on Saturday and Sofie was telling her little friend Brady "Brady, take your shirt off Brady!" haha, Brady's dad Chris helped him to take it off! At some point this will be inappropriate, but right now it is funny :)

Sofie also LOVES her little brother right now. She is so proud of him for his new accomplishments I just hope it stays that way forever! He had his first popsicle yesterday and Sofie was yelling "He did it!!!! YAY BENDY YAY!" and she was just as excited as if she had done something new. Ben is also sitting up now and she screams with excitement and claps for him every time he does it. Yesterday I left the two of them in the basement alone while I packed us up for the pool and I could hear her first reading to him, she was reading "Panda Bear Panda Bear what do you see". Then I heard screaming and laughing and I went downstairs to see what was going on - Sofie was yelling "Mommy! He said MA MA!" and Ben was cracking up laughing and saying "MA" and every time he said "MA" Sofie would scream with delight. It was SOOO adorable. Ben just adores her and gives her the biggest smiles when she seems him and Sofie loves it when he smiles and laughs at her, she will scream with laughter and delight every time.

Barth is also getting alot of love these days. Sofie hugs him tight and says "good dog Barth good dog" (she also will yell "BARTH!" in the exact way that I yell at him when he is in trouble). She also tries to pick him up all the time and she tries to tell him what to do, or to give him sticks or crayons to play with and color with or grass to eat. She also loves to feed him so if she sees his bowl is empty she fills it and then some with his dog food. Ben also loves Barth and Barth seems to love him just as much. Ben gives Barth huge smiles and he is always trying to grab his fur. Barth loves to lay down next to Ben and lick his face which makes Ben crack up. So little Barth is making his way back into the fold. It is nice that it is nice outside too and he can walk with us and go to the playground where he gets tons of attention too.

Sofie finally loves Mommy and Me and Lily the nanny who watches Ben on Tuesdays while we go to Mommy and Me. Sofie for the first time walked with Lily and Zach to get Emily from the bus while I stayed home. Normally she says "No I want to stay with Mommy, Mommy Mommy!!!" So yesterday she finally went and you would have thought she discovered gold, she was SO excited that Emily arrived on a school bus. She could not wait to tell me about it - "MOMMY!! EMILY WAS ON A BUS!!" then all day she wanted to ride on a bus and hear the Wheels on the Bus song and to talk about busses. It was so adorable.

Sofie has also shocked me recently with her crazy memory. It was raining one day and I was ransacking the house looking for Sofie's Texas rain jacket. I couldn't find it and finally I said to Sofie - Sorry I don't know where your Texas jacket is, and Sofie looked at me and said "Texas jacket is in the wagon, in the garage" and I just looked at her dumbfounded. I went into the garage and looked in the window and lo and behold - there it was!! So now I just ask Sofie where things are. Today she said " I want to take my binoculars (BANOCULARS) to school. I said, "Ok where are they?" and she said "BANOCULARS are downstairs". And there they were.

Ben is also doing lots of new stuff!! As noted above he sits up and now and he says "MA" and he says "Blah blah blah blah blah" and he laughs like crazy and is great eater and super snuggly. He was sick this past week which was super sad, throwing up and crying in stomach pain, but he was such a good sport about it, he was in a good mood in between throw ups - poor guy. Between that and Sofie continuing to explore the world of poop there has been a lot of laundry going on in this house.

Anyway - I feel pretty lucky to be the mom of two of the worlds cutest and nicest kids :)