A little BL goes a long way

OK, since Leslie has apparently given up blogging, and I've been taking most of the pictures these days, I'm taking over the blog (OK, well sort of, you won't get much of the entertaining writing, mostly just the pics). Here's some photos from our recent trip to "The BL" our family cabin at Bear Lake.

Enjoy!

Memorial Day

This blog is a ghost town. So much has happened since I last posted and rather than playing catch up, I'll just start with the present.

Since we were in town for Memorial Day, I thought we ought to do something fun and family friendly. We started out our day with homemade pancakes and strawberries. Having learned how easy it is to make pancakes from scratch, I have permanently banished Bisquick from our home.

Davie is an enthusiastic eater and enjoyed his meal.

Ben is an enthusiastic poser and enjoyed posing and then telling me my homemade pancakes were not good. Humph.

Yes, we ate breakfast with laundry on the table and my dining room has become a dumping ground for diet coke, amongst other things. Don't judge me.

Next, we made our way to the Aerospace Museum at Hill Air Force Base. It felt like an appropriate thing to do, and we even bumped into Senator Bennett while we were there. We felt like great Americans.

Ben actually really enjoyed looking at all the planes. And posing. He's a bit of a dandy. There were two hangers full of planes and outside was a bone yard of huge planes. It was pretty cool.

This is what happens when you suggest that Ben smile for the camera.


Davie and his little thunder thighs crashed midway through our tour. This little non-walking 15-month-old is 19 pounds of delicious fluff. I love him.

taking instruction

It's been a long time since I've bothered to blog anything. I've felt like I have so much to catch up on so I've done nothing. But Davie's first birthday deserves a somewhat timely post and Cam has gotten on my case, so I'm following his directions and putting Davie's first birthday on the record.

First, I can't believe my little guy is a year old. And he is a little guy. At one year he weights a whopping 17 lbs and is 26 inches tall, prompting his pediatrician to bring up the possibility of growth hormones down the road. We'll deal with it when we get there. He also seems to have inherited my poor vision so a visit to a pediatric ophthalmologist is on our to-do list. Cam and I managed to pass on some winning genes. But despite it all Davie is darling and loving. He goes out of his way to make eye contact with people and flashes his awesome little grin. People can't help but smile back and everywhere we go people comment on how charming he is. I agree. I'm totally in love with the kid.

Here are some pictures of our one-year-old bug.


He enjoyed three birthday cupcakes. The kid weighs 17 lbs. so I figured he was free to indulge.





And here are the brothers. Ben is at the stage where if you suggest that he smile for the camera he pulls some unbecoming face. But trust me, he's a cute kid.

The Rivalry

This post has nothing to do with Utah/BYU football. Or Max Hall. This post is about good, old-fashioned brotherly love, or a lack thereof. Basically it's a plea for advice from anyone, anywhere who has any idea of how to deal with a jealous older sibling.

After Davie was born people always asked me if Ben was having trouble adjusting to having a sibling. I always told them not really because Ben basically ignored Davie most of the time and just did his own thing. Recently though, Ben has started paying more attention to Davie, and the attention is generally not welcome.

Poor Davie spends a good chunk of his day being pushed over, stepped on, hit, shoved down stairs, slammed in doors, and on and on. I spend most of my day trying to referee--and it's not a fair fight. I can't leave the room without Davie ending up in tears. I've put Ben in time out countless times. He's said he's sorry and given a bagillion hugs. I tried talking to him about being kind to little brother. I may have even doled out a spanking or two (I swore I never would, but you know). Nothing seems to work. Ben just keeps beating on his little bro. I know little boys are inclined to get rough, but this is too much. Now what?

Ben-isms

I wanted to record some of the funny things my funny kid has been saying recently. I know everyone thinks their toddler is the funniest and most adorable, but honestly, Ben cracks me up.

* We've been concerned that Ben might be color blind since he's not done very well in distinguishing red from green. Last week our fears were abated after Laura discovered that he can identify colors perfectly well; he simply prefers to think of them as Sesame Street characters.

Last week as Ben was playing with fun noodles (which are basically over-sized, furry pipe cleaners) at Laura's house, Laura started to quiz him on the colors of the noodles. When she got to the red noodle, Ben paused and said, "Um, is Elmo." Blue was Grover. Yellow was Big Bird. Green? Oscar the Grouch. Color blindness is apparently not an issue. We may be watching too much TV though.

* Ben crawls in bed with me when he wakes up in the morning so he can snuggle. Yesterday I commented that he was too big to be using a binky. He responded, "No. I NOT big! I NOT!" x 50. Then he said, "Mommy, I go look in da mirror to see if I really big." He jumped down and walked over to the full length mirror in our room and examined himself. Apparently he was convinced by what he saw since he then said, "Oh, I ARE big. Here you go mommy," and handed me his binky. (For the record, he wanted the binky back about 5 minutes later.)

* Today at IKEA Ben picked up one of the strange stuffed animals in the kids section. I think it was supposed to be a ferret. After messing around with it for a couple of minutes, he walked over to the railing and threw it down to the shopping section below as he yelled, "GO SAVE THE DAY!" (I'm thinking his comment was inspired by wonder pets)

The Night(mare) before Halloween

I love my kids. Seriously, I do. However, after last night they are lucky to be alive. Davie has been under the weather and has been fussy. And Ben has officially embraced the terrible twos. (Please tell me it gets better when they turn three. Please.) Last night was one of those nights where you lock your kids in their rooms, close your door, put your pillow over your head, and try to find a happy place. I'm not speaking figuratively; that's what happened.

Davie was restless and fussy going down. Then, around midnight, he decided he'd had enough of staying in bed and he needed his parents' undivided attention. After making sure he was not dying, we decided to let him "cry it out." Unfortunately, Davie has incredible stamina and crying it out was a rather prolonged ordeal. Then, around 2:00 a.m., Ben woke up.

Ben waking up in the middle of the night is the kiss of death. He makes sure everyone in the house gets up with him. We tried desperately to keep him quiet so he wouldn't wake up Davie, who had only recently succumbed to sleep. We got him milk, let him get in bed with us, went in his room with him, fetched binkies and toys, all to no avail. Around 4:00 a.m. I had what the mental health community would probably call a psychotic break. Faced with a hysterical, sleep deprived wife, Cam gave Ben a dose of Benadryl, which was likely in excess of that recommended for his height and weight, and locked him in his room, where he kicked and screamed and woke up his brother and, finally, slept.

How's that for a scary story? And now, here are the pictures of the kids in Halloween costumes.

Davie, as the beneficiary of multiple hand-me-down costumes, made various Halloween appearances dressed as a skeleton (not pictured), a caterpillar

and a chick.

Yes, I know these two look harmless, but in the middle of the night they are terrifying.

Bathtime

I've been reluctant to put Davie and Ben in the bath together since Ben spends most of his day tormenting Davie and I was afraid that adding water to the equation could have bad results. Luckily, things worked out.




After what they put me through today, I was seriously considering selling these two on the street. But on second thought, I'll keep them.