Hammari visit

I didn't take one single picture. I suck. My sister Kimiko's husband had an interview in the South Bay, so the family stayed with us for a few days. Benny and Mayumi had fun making huge messes and fighting with each other. And all too quickly, his playmate was gone and he keeps asking where they all went.

This was Benny's prayer tonight:
"Thank you friends. Thank you Eli come over (we were babysitting one of his friends for the evening). Thank you friends. Please bless Uncle Dan and Iko and Ami. Please bless Uncle Dan and Iko and Ami. Thank you friends."

It was the sweetest thing I have ever heard.

Some not so sweet things about the visit:
-Kimiko and I took 4 hours to get ourselves and children ready and out the door. After driving all the way to Sausalito to go to the children's museum, we arrive to find it closed on Mondays. Good to know.
-Ben was sick and couldn't do anything with us. But the rest of us were too tired to do anything anyway.
-I got a horrible case of the stomach flu. All I could think was how I thought I was dying, but even worse, what if Dan got the flu just in time for his interview. It reminded me of a time just about a year ago when Ben and I drove out here for a job interview as well. On the way we both suffered a horrible case of the stomach flu, the worst we have ever felt in our lives. Such dejavu--same time of year, same flu, same purpose in traveling to the same area....But thankfully no one else got sick. Except for me again as now I have another sinus infection due to this year's super power pollen. But oh well, everyone is well and pretty healthy and we can't complain (even though I still do).

More Benny'isms

Ben's mom is always asking what "new and different" things Benny is doing, and when she asks every Sunday night, I can't think of anything. And while she doesn't check the blog, I think I still need to be better about writing them down. So, stop reading now if you don't want to be bored, cuz these things will never be as funny to anyone else as they are to me. And we all know most of us are in it for the pics anyway.

4/19/10-Benny often asks for some sort of snack while he is in the car. We are usually getting settled in when he asks, so I tell him to hold on and I’ll get it in a minute. And then I usually forget and he has to remind me. So yesterday we had gone to the library storytime and he was asking for snacks pretty much the moment we got there. I doubt you can eat in the library so I told him to wait till we got out to the car. He kept reminding me and said he wanted a granola bar. We finally got all buckled into our seatbelts in the car and he looked at me from the backseat and shouted,
“BAR! BAR!! BAR!!! Sorry. bar.” He was done saying he “wants a granola bar.” He had resorted to one word cave man talk.
It is one of the funniest moments I have encountered yet. I was in shock from the yelling, and then I just burst out laughing. It’s funny to me that he was so frustrated he would shout repeatedly what he wanted; he just does not do that. But funnier that he immediately caught himself, apologized, and lowered his voice. I didn’t say anything, and I don’t think my face registered anything either, it was all so fast.
You really had to be there, there is no way anyone will think this was funny, but the look on his face, and the comprehension just amazed me. He is such a thinker. It is by far one of my favorite 2 year old moments.

4/20/10-Benny kept farting tonight, a few times when we were holding him with our arms right under his bottom. Gross. His response was that he “Got lotta gas. Got lotta gas in my bum.”
And he does say “excuse me.” But it still stinks

Spring break

Ben was off all week. Yay! We were going to go to Utah but had to postpone the trip, so we tried to do a few things around here.
We went to the DMV and FINALLY got our driver's licenses after being here 8 months. It was a much better experience than my previous 4 trips to register the cars and I was almost giddy with how smoothly it went. We were in and out in 1 HOUR as opposed to 3-5.

We took pictures of Benny in weird sleeping positions. Pretty much every night we have to go in and rearrange him in the bed. Last night his body was on but his head was not. How do kids sleep like that?

We thought about going down to Monterey to take Benny to the aquarium but remembered we have Six Flags Marine World just 15 minutes away. And boy was it fun! Ben and I didn't get to do any big rides but Benny enjoyed the animals, shows and kiddie rides.

This orca is so highly trained, they had it pee in a cup for us during the performanc! Yes, a bit TMI, but wow, a potty trained whale?

They have an entire Thomas Town (Dad, I know you are excited about this) where this pic was taken.

And one very grouchy, very tired little boy who was not too tired to wake up and announce he still wanted ice cream.
Don't you think I either need a bigger stroller or a smaller baby?