Moving day

I just wanted to say a big thank you to everyone who helped us move yesterday. We've never had anyone help us and I can't believe how nice it was to have so many bodies carrying boxes and loading items, and even providing an extra truck. To top it off it was 96 degrees here on the coast. What a day.

We just moved to the next little neighboring town into a home with a little bit more space and yard for a growing 2 year old.

My parents hate attention, but I especially want to say thank you for all of their help. They drove the 4.5 hours up and helped move a bunch of stuff, babysat, mowed the lawn, ran errands, and cleaned. My mom is going to stay all week to help me clean and babysit. And to top it off then my dad is going to make a second trip up to pick up my mom. I think this is a very, very nice thing for them to do, especially as this is not a fun trip for things like sight-seeing or relaxing.



Thanks again! Benny is sure happy to have had you come.

Happenings

Benny and I went to Utah for a family reunion and my cousin's wedding. It blizzarded in Idaho and dumped snow in Provo. Then it was sunny the rest of the time. Well, kind of. CRAZY weather.
We also celebrated my mom's bday. We went to the Cheesecake Factory (yum!). We drove A LOT. Can we say I can't remember when I have been so exhausted. And grouchy (sorry Mom).

When we got back I started a new job. I have been off the past 9 months except for a few days subbing here and there. It's about 16 hours a week and Benny is going to friends' homes to be babysat and play. So far it's working out Benny enjoys the friend time.
And then this week we are moving to the next town to get into a house with a bit more room. Right now I am supposed to be packing while Benny naps but I am too tired:)


Little Farm in Berkeley for a friend's bday. You can feed your own lettuce and celery to the animals. And it's free to go there. The kids loved it and we'll have to go again:

He LOVES these sunglasses, but even more, he loves wearing them upside down:

I bribed him into wearing them correctly. Big Ben thinks he looks like Bono. He does love music...

The biggest marshmallow I have ever seen. You only need one to make a full size s'mores.

He actually did a pretty good job watering my parents' plants in Lompoc and only got a little wet:

I just want to kiss that sweet face:

Mother's Day

I am sooo behind. I just wanted to quickly jot down a big thank you to my boys for really doing a great job this Mother's Day.
Since church is early, Ben did most of the Mother's Day stuff the day before on Saturday. I was awakened to breakfast in bed (which of course Benny wanted to help me eat). Then Ben cleaned the entire house including sweeping, mopping, vacuuming, dishes, and even dusting. I got to take a nap, and when I woke up, there were these on the table:

I love all lilies.

And we all just spent the day together. Ben also cooked Sunday dinner. He remarked how it was funny that on Mother's Day a lot of times moms want a break from their families/kids, but it's those little ones who make the day even possible. I am thankful for my sweet little boy who truly made me a mother. And for a wonderful husband who does his best to make me happy.

My grossest day ever

Not for the faint of heart!

I will spare you the pictures. Yes, Ben took some while laughing his head off. Our new landlords were also laughing their heads off. At least there was humor in the situation, even if I wanted to puke from the smell.

We met up with our new landlord to get the keys to the house and go over a few things. Benny has had diarrhea this week after our trip to Utah but he has been acting fine otherwise. So he was running around with the other kids while we talked to the landlord, so we didn't notice the smell until the end. As I lifted him to put him in his car seat, Ben noticed the brown streaks on Benny's leg. Uh oh, that must be a pretty bad diaper if it's running down his legs. I took him back down so I could line the carseat with paper towels so the leaky diaper wouldn't get everywhere. Then all h-e-c-k broke loose. As I lifted him back up to put him in his carseat, I kind of swung him over the edge of the seat. That small swing was all the momentum the poop needed to fly up and out the top back of the diaper, smattering my shirt, pants, shoes, the ground, the car seat, the car, the tires with nasty stinky poo! I stood there in shock not knowing what to do, where to move or how to breathe. I sent Ben into the house to strip Benny and rinse him off in the tub, but unfortunately I would just have to wait till I got back home to clean myself.
Now I have dealt with leaky diapers and accidents and puke, but the volume of this splatter was incredible. I have never seen so much poop in my life.

The reason for such a graphic post is to give background detail to precede the words which then came from this little two year old's mouth.
I found Ben and Benny in the bathroom and when Benny saw me, he said:
"You got lotta poop on you. Probably change clothes."
Uh... you think????

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?