The Adventures of Xavier and Bennett

Flash

2010-10-17T01:09:00.005-04:00

The above is Bennett on September 12th showing off his "shirt that makes me super fast." He is completely convinced that if he wears one of 3 particular pairs of socks, this shirt, or his white shin guards (during soccer), he is faster than he normally is.

Actually, he IS getting speedier and more coordinated when running. Someone at his soccer game today commented to me that he is "small, but scrappy!" Scrappy?! I like it! (I'm pretty sure he meant that in a good way.)

He had a GREAT game today, including a fantastic defensive kick that moved the ball 3/4 of the way down the field and led to the set up of a goal. He played goalie for a quarter and made an awesome stop too. Almost made a goal kicking the ball through 2 of the opposing team's players, but it went just on the wrong side of the goal post. UGH, I wish I had pictures of all this action! I had my camera, but my SD card was sitting all by itself on the kitchen counter, leaving my Nikon just an empty shell of an electronic. :-(

This was the last soccer game of the season, but there will definitely be more to come. Recently, Bennett informed me of the following, "My three sports are soccer, basketball, and golf." Nevermind he has never played basketball and has only mini-golfed, but apparently, this is what we're in store for in the next 12+ years. He was so excited to sign up for basketball, and that starts next month. I will be sure to bring my Nikon AND my SD card.

Barking-hole-digger.

2010-10-17T01:07:00.002-04:00

This is Stewart.

He's part Beagle, part Collie and all "barking-hole-digger". I think that should be his breed name, since he's officially a mutt.

I suppose I love him. ;-) He's almost thirteen, and has been with us for 10 years. I got him from the Summit County pound the day he was set to be euthanized. I've never known a more affectionate, appreciative animal. He still acts like he's a puppy, running around the yard like a maniac and jumping over small objects for sport. On the other hand, he also knows how to relax, and can sleep for hours without moving a muscle.

Stew is famous for digging holes underneath our fence and escaping to roam the neighborhood, eventually ending up at Nick's parents' house, getting a biscuit from them, and then carrying that biscuit a quarter mile home to eat it in the comfort of his own living room.

He's the reason that I cannot sit down with a kitchen full of dishes after a meal, even if I wanted to. He barks and barks and barks until the kitchen is clean. (He is under the impression that there's a chance I'll give him some remnant from a plate if I'm not cleaning things up immediately.)

Poor Stewart lost his best friend back in April. Our other dog Ruby's death hit us all a little harder than we thought it would. Stewy wouldn't eat and was very lethargic for weeks. He lost weight. But gradually, he's regained some spring in his step. More on Ruby when I go back and cover what I missed this spring.

The best Stewart story of late is from over this summer when he ran through FRESH TAR on one of his excursions about town. He returned home, with a front paw that looked like he had dunked it into a bucket of tar, and little bits all over his belly/chest (from running with the tar-laden paw) and on his whiskers (from trying to lick the tar away.)

He came into the garage, I opened the door, and was happy I censored expletives as B happened to be standing right behind me. I said, "STEWART!!! Are you kidding me?!" And Ben said - "Yeah, Stewart! Are you kidding me? Are you kidding us? Are you kidding EVERYONE?!"

Isn't that awesome? So, when "are you kidding me?" just doesn't pack enough wallop, "are you kidding everyone?" really fits the bill.

Back to the tar - 2 hours of cutting, using Goo-gone, and Go-Jo hand cleaner, Stewy was set free from his tarry prison. I used the Goo-gone prior to reading the bottle, which said something like, "avoid prolonged contact with skin, contains chemicals that are toxic and flammable, never ingest." I read that, and then glanced over at Stewart who was licking his paw, completely soaked in the Goo-Gone.

But what doesn't kill us, makes us stronger, and Stewy emerged triumphant over solvent toxicity and fresh tar. What a dog!!

Raspberries

2010-10-17T00:29:00.004-04:00

Bennett and I can make ourselves sick on berries. We eat strawberries, blackberries, and red raspberries by the pound. No joke. My attempt at growing our own this year was a big fat failure, so we found ourselves at Rittman Orchard about every other week throughout berry season, picking till our berry bucket runneth over. If you have a dedicated "berry bucket" that says something...

This day, September 4th, was particularly Fall-like before it's time. I LOVE Fall. Love it. I love the crisp air, the colors, the smell of the leaves mixed with the last of the season's fresh-cut grass smell. Most of all, I love the sky and it's contradictory moods - bright blue patches with glowing white friendly clouds, mingling with gray rimmed ominous looking clouds. I love the depth of a Fall sky - it always seems so 3-dimensional to me, in a sense that it rolls out in front of you across the horizon and is so fluidly dynamic. Its mesmerizing.

Here's an example that doesn't even go 50% of the way in showing you how pretty the sky was that day:

B, with aforementioned berry bucket:

He's quite the poser now, thanks to my God-Daughter, Clara. I adore her...she is drama personified. Bennett is picking up on her mad posing skills. Only her "crazy poses" though, because, after all, he is 6 and a boy.

Game Plan

2010-10-17T00:14:00.002-04:00

Shame on me.

Honestly, Kristy - what have you been doing the last few months? I'm so regretful that I haven't kept this blog up in real time. However, I am going to commit to the following:

1) Update from the day school started to present with pictures and journaling of our highlight happenings.

2) Blog our Disney vacation from back in January. (Stop it. I know that was 10 months ago. Just. Stop.)

3) Blog from January to present all the little posts I've missed along the way. And the big posts - like our vacation to Mexico in July. (I know that was 3 months ago. Stop.)

4) Accomplish all of this by the end of November. (I know this is a lofty goal. Before you scoff at me, stop.)

I will do this!! Just you wait.

(Thank you for your patience. :-)

FIRST GRADE BOYS - XAVIER

2010-10-16T23:16:00.007-04:00

Here are me, X, and B on the morning of Xavier's first day of school, August 24th.

I drop B off at 8:25, and then Xavier and I head over to his school. We sing on the way. Can you tell he's singing here?

Showing off his 2 bottom teeth that are growing in. He lost all 4 front ones this summer. :-)

Now it's Xavier's turn...it makes sense that he goes second because he actually didn't start until August 24th, one day after Benny. (Even though you are reading this first, as blogger lists things in chronological order of postings, and I typed it second.)

I actually didn't know he started the day after B until the week before. All summer, I was under the assumption August 23rd was the day o' magic, but I was wrong. Ha! Anyway, X and I had great one-on-one time while B was in school that first day...I relish those days, when I have just one of my boys to focus on by themselves. I get to appreciate all the little things that make them who they are, that sometimes slip by unnoticed when I'm multitasking parenting.

This year, Hazel Harvey Elementary has created a Multi-Disabilities (MD) Unit for Xavier and some other children in our district that have developmental disabilities. Currently, there are only three kids in the class, with one teacher and 2 paraprofessionals. Xavier gets to go into typical first grade and Kindergarten classrooms for social and learning activities. He LOVES the Kindergarten curriculum and nurturing environment. The music, dancing, and continuous doting of 5 year old children makes him grin and giggle. Its so awesome to see. He goes back to the MD classroom for therapy (PT/OT/SLP) and for individual activities with his teacher and interventional specialists. He's working on lots of communication activities, doing simple turn-taking games, and thoroughly enjoying himself throughout the day.

Unfortunately, the last eight weeks have not been all sunshine and cotton candy. Prefacing this with the fact that the school and I are working to make things better, and without getting into specifics, there was a huge communication breakdown with regards to Xavier's general safety and addressing of IEP goals in the classroom. It dominated the last several weeks of my life. As outward evidence of the intense level of irritation I had brewing within me, I walked around with a twitchy left eye and developed a monster zit during the last week of this debacle. I had been patient, my polite voicings of concern were being placated with incomplete, PC answers, and I had had enough. Long story short - I started being blunt, and things got fixed. I think we're on the right path now...although from now on, I will no longer assume, my general alertness has been raised, and I am demanding more complete communication (which I had assumed was being done, but unfortunately was not.) I'm still pretty upset and raw over this...I lost trust, and hope the school will work to gain it back. Xavier deserves more...

On a happier note - X has had the introduction of even more awesome people into his life. His first MD teacher was great, but moved onto another position 2 weeks into the school year. (Because of "the problem", I think.) The new MD teacher is also wonderful, and the 2 paraprofessionals are super. He also got to hang out with a great substitute in between teacher #1 and teacher #2.

What a year so far...and we're only 8 weeks in? Lordy - what else is in store? I hope nothing that gives me a twitch. (That was annoying.)

FIRST GRADE BOYS - BENNETT

2010-10-16T22:25:00.006-04:00

Bennett's first day at Sts. Peter and Paul was August 23rd. He is so proud and excited to be a "Grader". That's what he and the other Kindergarteners last year called the kids in the grades above them - "Graders", as in "Oh, Mom. That kid is a Grader." "What's that mean, Ben?" "He's in second GRADE, Mom. DUH. That makes him a "Grader." You know, if you're in a "grade" and not in Kindergarten." Outstanding logic. Got it. So now B's a GRADER!!

Here is B, making a half-hearted effort at breakfast before school. Notice - he is painfully skinny. Notice - his choice of food. Notice - the Pediasure box woefully neglected and looking lonely over in the corner of the chair. This is why he barely tips the scales at a whopping 40#. For awhile there (it seemed like months, and I think it actually was...) every single time he'd get on the scale (which is very often, and this is by his choosing) he weighed in at 39.6#. When he broke the 40# mark, we all did a little happy dance. It was a big moment. How about a donut instead of that kiwi buddy? No such luck.

First year of uniforms! He must wear navy or black pants/shorts and white or hunter green shirts. He can wear navy sweaters, etc too. He actually really likes the uniform (as do I.)

Requisite "silly pictures" ---

(He is a mama's boy. :-)

Bennett with some of his ladies, Mia, B, Clara, and Monica.
Bennett and best buddy, Linus.

Bennett has really grown leaps and bounds in school activities. He's reading like a champ and getting better at it each day. All spelling tests (every Friday since the start of school) have come home with 100%'s. I say, "Write you name on the top of that math homework, and I'll be over to help you in just a minute"...literally one minute goes by, and I hear him shouting, "DONE!" And he is, and they're all correct. M-A-G-I-C. Watching learning and mastery happen is amazing me every single day.

He's growing socially too, and is making such good choices in friends, and with behavior. I'm so proud of him with his tremendous growth in this arena - B really has to reign in his impulses at times, and make a conscious effort to make the right choice --- he's doing this consistently now, and I'm getting great feedback from his teacher. The reward system she has in place for behavior at school is working like a charm for him.

Bennett continues to blow me away with his depth of curiosity and questions, his perceptiveness and cleverness, and his sensitivity. Here's a quote from his teacher on his progress note: "Ben is truly a remarkable person, and I feel it is a privilege to have him in my classroom."

Mrs. Gaudio is right - he is remarkable. I know I say this all the time, but I just am completely wow'ed by the fact that this child was born 4 months early, weighed 1#3oz at birth, and has had developmental challenges all along the way...yet he his success is HUGE in every way possible - he's smart, sweet, loving, and most importantly, has so much fun. How lucky we all are. :-)

WHAT IS GOING ON AROUND HERE?!

2010-07-06T12:26:00.006-04:00

I'm sure no one has really noticed, but its been over TWO MONTHS since I posted last. That's a record as far as lapse in posting goes for me, I'm sure.

So, you may be wondering - what has she been DOING?!

Well, lots. She's been doing lots. And nothing all at the same time. You see, my friends, it is summer. As with every family - the children are out of school, which gives life at home a different dynamic. Its slower...its faster. There's boredom one day...too much to do the next. We're out of our routine, sometimes that's alright, and sometimes it just plain sucks.

I guess what I'm trying to say is ----> Summer and I have a love-hate relationship. But I'm doing my darndest to make this summer a good one for us. The boys are involved in the community summer recreation program. We've gone on a couple mini-road trips (one to IKEA...for projects are in the works. Again. Always, really.)

Over the next few days I'll try hard to update the blog, as its still very important to me to keep these memories in written and photo form going. Its so fun to look back on, and I know I'll appreciate it when my boys are grown, and I can remember what daily life was like back when they were six and seven. When I look back at old pictures, I think, "Man, I'd like to go back to that for one day, just to live it again...I miss X and B being 1 and 3..." So I'm realizing that someday, I will look back on these days I'm living in right now, and want to experience them again. Its helping me appreciate the quiet beauty that monotonous, normal days can hold.

So, stay tuned for more, but be patient as well. Lots has happened, and you all know I take pictures almost daily. And I have lots to say. (I'm a bit of a talker...;-)

Bennett is SIX!

2010-06-15T22:30:00.009-04:00

My Bennett Paul turned six on June 15th. Benny looked forward to the day since June 16th, 2009. Every once in awhile throughout the year, he scrolls through the list of family birthdays to figure out how many he must make it through until it's finally his turn again. This year brought some confusion, because his birthday was on the 15th, but his party wasn't until the 26th. So, the date of his actual birthday came into question. (In his mind at at least. Ha!)

To celebrate, Bennett, Xavier, and I were had planned on taking a couple of friends to place with Mini-golf, Go-Karts, etc, etc. But the weather was HOT and had the potential for strong storms...therefore, we decided doing something in a nice air-conditioned space would be much better. So, Ben, Xavier, Gabe, Clara, and I loaded into the van and away we went. BOWLING!!! I suggested it (I stinking love bowling) and Ben jumped on it. I got a kick out of the fact that Gabe and Clara wanted to pretend I was their Mom for the afternoon, and went totally overboard with shouting "MOM! Look at me!" "MOM! Can I push my brother Xavier down the ramp?!" "MOM! These bowling shoes don't fit me!"

Very excited and happy -

For only his second time bowling, I was really impressed with how well he did with it. Not bad form!

The nice people at the alley set up a ramp for Xavier to get down to the lane, and then had another ramp for him to push the ball down. He LOVED it. We had to hold his hands back while we were setting the ramp/ball up for him. As soon as I pushed his chair up to the ramp, he brought his arms up and was looking for the ball to push. He had so much fun.
Looking and listening for the balls to come back from the lane.
He rolled a STRIKE on this one! (I think he knew it was a good one when he pushed it off - look at his face. ;-)
Gabe, getting ready to hold X's hands up so I could put the ball on the ramp.
Alternative method of rolling the ball...
He shouted "Wow! I threw the ball so high and far!" and then I heard him say under his breath, "I'm not sure if that's good or not." (HA!)

Four of my favorite people, EVER!!! :-)
Back home that night, Ben requested "breadsticks with dippy sauce" for dinner. Wish granted! (He thought it was so cool I stuck candles in the breadsticks. ;-)

And...the moment he 'd been waiting for. For MONTHS. The unveiling of the birthday present. A Nintendo DSi. I couldn't help but tease him a little though. I emptied the box and put in 2 pairs of socks (old ones - HA!) instead of the DSi. He was confused for a second, but then laughed sort of nervously and said, "Ummm, really. Is there a DSi in the house somewhere?"

And of course, there was. With a green cover. He LOVES green. His Kindergarten teacher said he's the only student in her history of teaching that needed multiple green crayons throughout the year. Not because he broke them or lost them, but because he used them all up. HA!

Happy Birthday, Bennett :-) Watching you grow up is probably the most magical thing I've ever witnessed. You make me laugh with your cleverness and funny, witty remarks. I admire your creativity and sensitivity. You ooze charm, silliness, and cuteness. Your strength and persistence to succeed in what you do continue to amaze me. I'm so proud of you and count myself super lucky to be your mom. I'm endlessly happy because you are in my life. XOXO with boundless love, Mom.

beans

2010-05-04T14:48:00.002-04:00

Xavier loves beans.

Whether they be green, baked, or in a bag - he's all about them.

Here he is in his new bean bag chair. Its super comfy, and he loves laying in it. Look, he's so relaxed, he's yawning. :-)

His favorite bit is rolling off on purpose. He curls up into a ball and rolls right off, lands with a giant thud, and laughs. He does the same thing off the couch these days...can't leave him alone on any piece of furniture, really. He works hard to get himself to the edge of whatever it is and rolls to the floor. THUD! "What's that?! ooooh, that's just Xavier, falling off of ________." He's quite the rascal about it. :-)

SEVEN years of Xavier :-)

2010-04-02T22:24:00.004-04:00

Today is/was Xavier's birthday (I say 'was' because he is in bed sleeping as I write this. ;-)

Straight out the gate - it had the potential for being a great day for Xavier. The weather was PERFECT (i.e. 80 and sunny, his kind of weather!) and...I couldn't believe The Disney Channel actually participated in celebrating Xavier's birthday, too... Xavier woke up late today, because its the first day of Spring Break. This meant that he missed his obligatory morning dose of The Mickey Mouse Clubhouse (by now everyone on Earth knows Xavier LOVES Mickey). Or I thought he missed it...Disney KNEW Xavier would sleep in, made the show come on 1/2 hour after it usually does, AND, made it an hour long special!! Score.

Nick was at work the first 3/4 of the day, so Xavier, Bennett and I just hung out here at home. Xavier listened to some music, played with some of his favorite toys, and was having a grand old time.

Right before lunch, a delivery man showed up with a bouquet of balloons that could nearly make our house float away like in the movie "UP". Our friends, (Aunt Court, Uncle Will, Gabe, Clara, and Mallory) had sent it for him. What a hit it was! He played with the balloons for hours (no joke) and had the best time. Mickey is bigger than him -heck, he's almost as big as me! LOL. Thanks a million times over, Dannemillers!

Look at X's arm - 'come here, Mickey. I want to whack on you.'

After lunch was more 'hang out/relaxation time', which Xavier is fond of. Clara came over and played. We enjoyed the terrific sunshine and warm breezes. What an amazing thing to have it be 'summer in April' for Xavier. He loves warm weather, and more than once (okay, a ton) I've wished that we live in a more temperate climate. Ohio weather is the pits. The PITS!

We had dinner out at The Olive Garden with The Dannemillers. Xavier's hands down favorite food is Italian, so it worked out perfectly that we had to find someplace with many non-meat choices (today is also Good Friday). Xavier had cheese ravioli and scarfed every last morsel down. And a breadstick too. The best part of dinner was watching him hold Gabe's hand 1/2 the time we were there. Gabe was sitting to his left, and Xavier kept reaching for him, patting his arm, holding his hand...it was very touching. He routinely grabs the person to his right (me) but he didn't want me, he was obviously choosing his friend Gabe, and I thought that was pretty sweet and special. :-)

X 'happy screamed' and belly laughed the ENTIRE 20 minute ride home.

There will be more 'celebration of Xavier turning 7!!' on Easter Sunday, when our friends and family are here. Stay tuned for more pictures, there are sure to be many.

What a super day, for an child who really deserves it. I'm endlessly proud of his ability to make real differences in the way others see their own lives and the world around them. He's got an incredibly infectious spirit of love and happiness about him. I will never stop being in awe of him and who he becomes to every one he touches. I cherish you, Xavier, and feel unbelievably lucky to be your Mom. <3 xo <3

X lost his first tooth!

2010-03-13T12:07:00.006-05:00

Xavier's front right tooth came out (with a bit of help from Nick) on Tuesday, March 9th, right before bed. I was unfortunately at work and missed the big event. But reports from both Nick and Bennett were that Xavier was cranky before it came out. It had started bleeding a little because X was moving around so much with his finger out of annoyance of its hyper-loose state. But after Nick twisted it just a little, it came out, and Xavier was really happy.

I took these the next morning before school. I woke him up, and asked, "Xavier! Where's your tooth?!" He put his finger in his mouth right away, pushed his tongue against where the tooth should have been and got this huge grin on his face. It was re-played just like that at school when he was showing off his MIA tooth-status to his entourage.

Look how pleased he is! Also, take note of the cool shirt Xavier is wearing, made by him by our friend, Andy. (www.wearecampfire.com) Its very appropriate, as we call Xavier "Ralphie" occasionally. He shares, we think, a striking resemblance to Peter Billingsly's character on "A Christmas Story".

We waited until Friday night, March 12th to put the tooth under his pillow. I wanted Nick and I both to be home to discover in the morning what the Tooth Fairy had brought Xavier. Here's the little case that Grandma P bought Xavier when he was born. After I put the tooth in there, I thought...this looks like a little tooth casket, with the blue velvet lining.

(My apologies to the sissies who are grossed out by the 'tooth funeral' picture below. )

Bennett's note to the Tooth Fairy (his idea and words):

The prize this morning?! A MICKEY MOUSE CUP WITH A STRAW!!! The Tooth Fairy is a complete genius. This is a perfect present! Its a well known fact that Xavier LOVES Mickey Mouse, but a little known fact that he has recently learned how to drink from a straw (after 5+ years of trying).

He loves it!

(The "Tooth Fairy" wants to say an extra special thank you to her assistant present-shopper Melisa M. You're such a caring, thoughtful friend! Xavier LOVES it!!)

2010 Polar Bear Jump

2010-03-01T14:51:00.011-05:00

February 20th, we knew 5 out of the 393 nutty (yet chariable ;-) people who jumped in the frozen Portage Lakes to raise money for the American Cancer Society. And, everyone actually lucked out...we had one of the best weather-days of 2010 so far, nearly 40 and sunny.

It was quite an event - 393 jumpers and about 4000 spectators. Nick, Bennett, and I came out to support the 5 crazies we knew who were going for a swim : Lisa, Lesa, Dr. Dang, Crissy, and Dale. Parking was insane...here we are waiting for the bus to come shuttle us from the parking lot to the jump site.

Before the jumping even started (but after an incident that acquainted me with the fact that Ben is petrified of port-a-potties)...Bennett was whining about the cold. (Even though it was so warm, that at some point I took my coat off. And this fact alone, I'll have you know, means it was NOT that cold out.) I believe in this picture he just got finished saying, "I'm cold. Hold me."

Here are my friends - Lisa, Lesa, and Dr. Dang, waiting for their turn to jump...

jumping...

...and Crissy and Dale jumping.

Look at what a good sport Lisa is...Bennett wanted to take her picture with my phone (his latest fun thing to do.) She hadn't even changed out of her cold, wet clothes. And the wind was picking up! What a trooper!

Proud popsicles.

Just a popsicle. (waiting for the bus back to the car.)

Nick and Ben raced to our car (the white one...so they've got quite a long way to go yet...) Nick was showing no mercy that day, and pulled ahead full speed. Ben stopped and performed his "cowardly lion" impression. Real, this time.

See? He's saying, "Dad's not supposed to be able to BEAT ME!!!"

So, it was a fun day. No one died of hypothermia, cardiac arrest, or the like (although the Metro LifeFlight was on standby). However, there was some excitement. Some dude stripped down to nothing, was wrestled to the ground by my friend Mel's husband who is a cop, and was arrested. Several 30-something year old guys jumped in the lake in their white boxer briefs. Looked fine jumping in, ba-a-a-ad coming out. And a spectator standing on the frozen lake fell through the ice. Wonder if anyone sponsored her retroactively, since she technically took a dunk...?

c. 1982

2010-03-01T14:41:00.000-05:00

My jacket, when I was 5/6 years old.

For those of you who aren't from Doylestown, our school mascot = "The Chipps". As in the "Chippewa Indians." He thinks its so cool that this was my jacket at his age. Its VINTAGE! HA!

Me and Bennett. I'm not sure why he was wanting to showcase this movie. It IS a really good one, though. ;-)

Here are some recent fun tales, courtesy of Bennett. (I beg your pardon if you are one of my "Facebook friends" and you're reading this for the second time...)

Dinner conversation:

Me to B: "Hey, what do you want people to call you? Ben, Bennett, Benny...?"

B: "What about BenBen?"

Me: (smiling because I call him that a lot) "Well, that's cute and all, but what about in someplace like school?"

B: "I like Bennetta"

Me: "Bennetta?"

B: "Yes, Bennetta. Because it rhymes with Canada...well...not really, but it sort of does. And I'd like it to be spelled with only one 'n' just like Canada."

******

Bennett (which he eventually told me he prefers to be called) is constantly being doted on by the girls in his class. I think its because he's got a sort of 'hard to get' personality. Not on purpose, its just his nature, he's a pretty quiet kiddo, but funny, cute, and sweet...and kids having to work to get his attention to get reaction out of him is magnetic, I think. Anyway, the little girls are frequently touching him, hugging him, talking to him. We're always working with him on using words instead of action to make people aware of his feelings. So, when a friend told me she had witnessed Ben having had quite enough of the attentions of one sweet little girl, who was tousling his hair, I was so proud to hear that he looked right at her and said, "I wish you would not do that." (I laughed for about 10 min when my friend told me this, because I guess he said it with an inflection of quiet annoyance in his voice, and then walked away. So funny.)

*****

"I can't lift it!!" grunted in effort when trying to lift a 35# toddler out of his way. (LOL)

*****

I have learned that Bennett has an intense fear of port-a-potties. (But don't we all.) For the sake of not being too graphic, I will spare you the details. However, lets just say, when you gotta go, you'll figure out a way to make things work.

*****

He has acquired new nicknames - "FratBoy" (I feel he has some of the habits of a college age boy at times, save for the appetite...) and "Cowardly Lion" referring to his particular brand of sobbing (both real and fake.)

*****

And lastly (for now, I need to write more of these down to remember...he comes up with some real doozies...) he has taken to calling me "Mommy Salami." For which I have returned the favor, and am calling him "Bennett Bologna."

Happy Valentine's Day 2010!

2010-02-14T10:49:00.002-05:00

Ben's card to me (made at school). He gave it to me, and then said, 'Are you gonna eat that lollipop on the front, Mom? I don't think you really like lollipops. How 'bout I just eat it for you?"

This has nothing to do with Valentines day, but its sort of cute, so here it is. This is Ben's grass plant. He has named him "Billy". We water Billy every day, and take notice of his longer hair. I keep asking Bennett if he wants to give him a haircut, but he always refuses, saying, "Billy doesn't want his hair cut, just like I don't want mine cut."

Here are some of the Valentine's Day projects o' love that came home with the boys this year.

Bennett's most recent spelling test (Feb 12th)!

Here's the back of the card Ben made me. Apparently, he came up with these things himself, and I feel very happy that he notices some of the things I do, that I thought went largely unnoticed. :-)

LOOT! (When we were kids, didn't just a few little folded cards come home with us?)

Another card from Ben :-)

Happy Valentine's Day, to all the people who are special to me. You know who you are. :-)

100 days of Kindergarten

2010-02-14T10:45:00.001-05:00

Xavier and Bennett both celebrated their 100th day of Kindergarten recently.

Ben had homework for the day - to count 100 of something and bring them into the class to share. He chose fruit loops, and blazed through the activity as if he'd been counting to 100 for years now. He checked his work by arranging them in groups of 10 and counting by 10's to 100. (His idea, not mine.) He definitely has an aptitude for math type things...he can sort of just glance at a group of items, circle them once with his fingers, and tell me correctly how many are in the group. Its pretty cool.

And on Xavier's 100th day, he came home wearing this hat. He loves hats, and was very pleased with himself that day. He usually hates coming home from school (he screams and yells at me EVERY DAY for 10-30 minutes, complaining that he is no longer amongst his friends). But this day, he was happy.

He also cannot keep his hands out of his mouth lately. His 6 year molars are coming in AND, big news - he has his first loose tooth! Its the front, bottom right, and he has a finger or his thumb in his mouth half the day, wiggling it around. See?:

Q and U - married!

2010-02-02T12:10:00.004-05:00

Together with the rest of the Alphabet,

the letters Q and U request your presence

as they are united in marriage,

January 21, 2010 at 9am,

in the gymnasium at

Hazel Harvey Elementary School.

How clever is this?! The Kindergarten classes where Xavier goes to school, held a ceremony to marry off Q and U together. It was a big to-do, very elaborately planned, and was the culmination of the kids learning that Q must always be paired with U in a word.

The kids walked down the paper aisle runner to traditional wedding marches, and took their seats on the stage. (Parents sat behind them to watch the ceremony). I, showing not much self restraint, giggled through most of it. Because, lets face it, this is pretty funny. The kids/teachers were all dressed up in wedding attire! There were actual wedding cakes! I'm telling you - elaborate!

This is Xavier, and his beloved paraprofessional, Lauren, waiting for the ceremony to start.

Below, is Mrs. Garbinsky (Xavier's teacher), officiating. The letters were united in "qwa". They took vows...my favorite one (which I couldn't stop giggling about) was:

Mrs. Garbinsky to the girl that was "U": "Miss U, do you always promise to stand by Mr. Q in every word he appears in."

little girl ("Miss U"): "I do."

Mrs. Garbinsky to the boy that was "Q": "And Mr. Q, do you promise to understand that sometimes, Miss U will need to appear in words without you?"

little boy ("Mr. Q"): "I do." (I swear there was a tone of disappointed resignation in his voice.)

HA!!!

After the ceremony, the kids put on their coats, and went outside, so that they could give a big send off to the happy new couple, bird seed and all.

Then, on to the reception. (Elaborate!) There was a lot of dancing (the chicken dance, the hokey pokey, the twist, etc.), and cake. Here are Lauren, Xavier, and his friend Jordan getting ready to twist. (Look at Xavier looking up at Jordan and Lauren. ;-)

Lauren said, during the rehearsal the day before, Xavier was so excited about the dancing/music, that he was coiled up into a permanant, ecstatic little ball. Fists clenched, shouting glad tidings of happiness. He loves dancing :-) I get kind of sad, knowing my days of being able to hold him while dancing are in short number. He's huge now (45lbs, 45in. - or as we like to say, 45-squared.)

Xavier and the ever-present friend, Jordan. As an aside, Xavier has quite the entourage. When I bring him in to the classroom every morning, he is immediately surrounded by no less than 4-5 kids, waiting to attend to his every need. There are actual struggles over "who gets to take his coat". He's like a little magnet, this kid of mine. :-)

Chicken dancing with Lauren.

Can't say enough about how wonderful Lauren is to Xavier. He's SUCH a lucky boy.

Happy New Year

2010-02-02T10:53:00.002-05:00

Wow, I'm only a month late on this one! Awesome!

This is something Ben wrote, ALL by himself, January 1st. You can click on the picture to see it larger, if you'd like.

I like how he wrote '2010' as '20010'. Wrong, but cutely wrong. :-)

Christmas 2009

2010-02-02T10:50:00.003-05:00

HoHoHo! Merry February! I'm catching up, don't judge! ;-p

Here's Bennett, Christmas morning, pausing right before he opened his first present. Nick and I got our first present before the boys got up...Xavier slept until 9 and Ben until 10. What a Christmas miracle!

Nick, opening his gift from me, a weathervane for our shed. Before you go thinking this is really a strange gift, I'll have you know, Nick really wanted one of these, and was totally surprised and happy about it. I was laughing, because the opening of this gift was akin to the opening of the leg lamp in "A Christmas story" (see previous post)...Nick exclaimed (stealing a line from the movie), "Well, there could be ANYTHING in here!" :-)

Xavier with a few of his gifts - a favorite was the Mickey Mouse toy sitting front and center on his lap. It plays short little Mickey songs. :-)

My Dad got us a Wii. That's right. Our first game system in 15+ years. Ben was ecstatic. The picture below shows Nick and Bennett getting his "Cars" game started for the first time.

And finally, here are several of our family members, exchanging Christmas gifts after dinner (we had everyone over at our house this year.) Pictured are - Nick's sister Michelle, his brothers, Mike and Eric, his mom, our sister in law Vicki, and our nieces, Alyssa and Kathryn.

That's it! I realized when I was making 2010 calendars back in November, even though I take millions of pictures every year, I never take many Christmas pictures. Anyway, we had a great Christmas, and at this point, were really looking forward to our vacation in Disney World...where, of course, I DID take millions of pictures.

2009 Christmas Prep

2010-02-02T10:27:00.008-05:00

Happy Groundhog Day! Now...lets talk about last year's Christmas! HA!

Bennett made this card at school - apparently, in his mind, Jesus resembles a segmented insect with a mohawk.

We made our first gingerbread house. It was fun to build (construction was surprising easy, compared to other horror stories I've been told), but not so fun to decorate. The cheapo icing bag that came with the kit broke about 5 minutes into decorating it...make the rest of the job excruiatingly tedious. We did the best we could, and it came out alright.

The end product of 'the house'.

A "Thanksgiving gift" I gave Nick (so we could have it up in the weeks before Christmas). We LOVE "A Christmas Story". And it doesn't hurt that I believe Xavier bares a striking resemblance with Peter Billingsly (Ralphie.)
"NOT A FINGER!" (pronounced 'fingaaa!', and said with much frustration.)

HA!

Here's Bennett, spreading magic reindeer food. My friend Lisa has the super secret recipe, and she was very generous in giving us a bag to scatter on our lawn Christmas Eve. Ben took FOREVER in the 20 degree temps to spread it just right, so the reindeer would see it.

The bros loving on each other ----

This was Ben's pick for a pose - Xavier thought this was funny.

Here's Ralphie by the tree. I mean Xavier.

Xavier loves the white lights. He could stare at them all day long. This picture is pretty special, because it really tells you just how much wonder and amazement he feels when looking at them. Kind of an "ooooo-ahhhhh" expression, right? :-)

Bennett's Christmas Play

2009-12-30T12:08:00.005-05:00

December 14th, Bennett was in Sts. Peter and Paul School's K-grade 2 Christmas play! He was an angel, and had a line to say in the play. Much prep and practice went into the performance, and it was a huge success.

Here's Ben, when he first spotted me in the crowd. It was so cute to see him searching through everyone for me when the curtains opened.

Singing with Mia and Jacob.

He said his line perfectly (and loudly) into the microphone. "The baby is the Son of God, sent to us from above." (so proud, I was. :-)

Bennett's pensive 'waiting' expression.

Here he is, getting ready for the evening show. Unfortunately, I had to work, and only got to see the afternoon performance, but at least I got to see him in action once. :-)

I know the next pictures look very similar. But I love the "varying expressions o'Bennett" showcased in them.

He looks like he's taking off in this one.

The whole K-grade 2 gang.

Bennett is beside Mary (aka Lillian ;-)

Again, he looks like he's about to fly (this time up to the microphone for his line.)

(He's growing up so fast...)

The Itsy Bitsy Spider

2009-12-29T13:51:00.005-05:00

Xavier loves this timeless little ditty. I've sang it with him since he was born, and it's stuck. He smiles and 'sings' along with you nearly every time.

One of his creative, thoughtful teachers (Mrs. Kerr) took this fact and ran with it. She made him a little activity board for him to act out the song. There are white puffy clouds to feel, and a spider that can move up and down the spout, which is cleverly made out of a bendy straw.

HE LOVES IT.

We play with it all the time...it never fails to capture his interest instantly and bring a smile to his sweet little face.

He can move the spider up and down the spout...

Singing along -

I don't know for sure, but I think Xavier and his buddy at school helped draw the house.

Thank you, Mrs. Kerr, for being the special person you are to Xavier and our family. We appreciate you daily. :-)

On a rather unrelated note (other than the pictures were taken on the same day...), here's Benny, lining up his cars in what he calls, "the Kitchen Garage."

And he calls this - "the overhang, so they don't get wet." Ha!

W-I-N-T-E-R !!

2009-12-23T10:16:00.001-05:00

YEEEEEEEESSS! I have made the leap in my blog from Fall to Winter. Fantastic. :-)

This picture was taken in early December, and you'll notice - Ben is ready to go outside...but there is NO COAT. I can't tell you how happy I was to have a longer Fall this year. I would hang onto a 50 degree Winter all season long if I could. (Btw, he's quite the picture poser these days, isn't he?)

As is Pandrea tradition, our tree was up the weekend after Thanksgiving. Ben was especially taken with decking the tree out with ornaments this year. Crazy excited about it. We turned up the Christmas tuneage (which Xavier LOVED) and let him go to town. An hour later, the bottom 1/3 of our tree was heavy with doodads, and Ben was very pleased with himself. We told him they needed to be spread out, so Nick lifted him so he could reach higher spots when redistributing the 313 ornaments he had put in 5 square feet of tree.

And then the moaning about "the Christmas train" began. "Now we nneeeeed the Christmas train." We ran out of time to put it up that night, and everyday thereafter, we heard about it. Its sort of a pain to put up, and we knew that it wouldn't really fit around where we put the tree this year, so I was avoiding it.

On a day I was being bombarded with begging, I told Ben, "Listen, your dad's not here. And the box is too big and heavy for me to carry up from the basement by myself. We'll have to wait." That smartiepants looked at me and said, "Well, duh, Mom. You and I can just open the box and carry it up piece by piece."

Huh.

Dangit! My kid is getting smart! Last year that would have sailed by and he would have accepted my explanation as gold.

He did accept my alternative excuse though, because it was true...I had no idea how the train track would fit around our tree...So he decided to use his Geotrax set to temporarily. Again, smart, clever child :-)

Thanksgiving

2009-12-22T12:09:00.001-05:00

So I lied, there's one more Fall 2009 post. This one is about Thanksgiving. I only have one picture...but I like it. Its of Ben and the turkey he made at school.

To celebrate the day, we had dinner over at Nick's parent's house, relaxed, the boys played and decorated the Christmas tree with Grandma and Auntie Meam. I fell asleep on the couch for about an hour, and then went to work. Not bad. :-)

Raking leaves

2009-12-22T12:01:00.002-05:00

Question: What better posts are there to make on the week of Christmas, than ones about raking leaves and a Halloween party?

Answer: Many multitudes of different wintery/Christmasy subjects, of course! However, I'm still committed to catching this blog up...so deal with it, my friends. Deal. With. It. Tonight, I will finally work on some winter/Christmas style posts, and I will therefore feel at peace with life. ;-)

Okay, so I'll get on with the final posts of Fall 2009.

Raking leaves is not something we're especially fond of, but its a necessity, so we try to make the best of it. We have oak trees in our yard, which means that we are STILL raking leaves mid-November.

Here's me and Xavier prior to Leaf Fest 2009. I had Nick take this to prove Xavier is giant (compared to me, anyhow.)

T-shirt weather in November is soooooo terrific!

The leaf tarp...oh, the leaf tarp. The only effective way to take leaves from the back to the front for pick-up.

This picture I'm sure will someday horrify poor Bennett. But I have to remember the times when he tells me, "you are the best mom in the whole world, and I love you with my whole heart, forever and ever." :-)

Ben was so pleased that the leaves he threw landed right on my head.

Xavier was not amused with the leaf festivities this year :-( ...

...but Bennett was. :-)

Bennett's Kindergarten Halloween party

2009-12-22T11:30:00.002-05:00

The day after trick or treat, the boys had their Halloween parties at school. I helped out with Bennett's (I'm trying to alternate helping with holidays between the boys, since they're at different schools.)
When I arrived, the kids were already in their costumes. You'll notice that Ben decided he wanted to wear an alternative to his "Hillbilly Spiderman". He chose to be Mickey Mouse out of an assortment of costumes offered to us his older buddy, Gabe.
Here, the kids are getting instructions on what's going to happen. First, there will be class pictures outside (another beautiful Fall day) and, then, a Halloween costume parade through the main street of our town.

Sts. Peter and Paul School Kindergarten class with Mrs. Dragovich and Mrs. Williams.

They were the first class ready for the parade, so Mrs. Williams suggested a game of duck-duck-goose to pass the time.

Ben and friend, Lillian.

I took this picture to showcase our new library. What once was an empty lot, is now a highlight of our little community's downtown area.

The Kindergarten building at Sts. Peter and Paul School.

I blew my tire out on my way to the party. Hehe.

Costume change! I knew B would be hot in that Mickey costume, so I had "Hillbilly Spiderman" stashed in the car, just in case. The poor child was sweating after our walk, and asked me to switch outfits. Here he is, entering the spooky Kindergarten building. (His friend, Jacob, is also Spidey in the background. ;-)

The party consisted of snacks, "scary" stories, and games. Ben and I made those hands hanging down from the ceiling (gloves stuffed with gummy worms and and candy corn :-)

Listening to "spooky stories" told by classmates. This was really cute, as the stories were completely made up on the fly. Kindergarteners are kings of improvisation!

We played games too - Halloween Bingo...

and Twister...

and another round of duck-duck-goose.

trick or treat 2009

2009-12-10T11:14:00.002-05:00

October 29th, our town held its annual trick or treat. Again, we were incredibly lucky to have yet another unbelievable fall day...dry, sunny, warm. No-coat weather!

Here are Nick and Xavier, getting ready to receive the hundreds of children demanding candy. Nick doesn't know what's coming...but Xavier seems to (he's looking up in this picture and smiling, like he know's Bennett is behind Nick...)

Sneaky Ben :-)

Ben wore his Spiderman costume again this year, because he loves it just that much. As my friend Lisa would say, "it wasn't exactly the same as last year...this year, it was Spiderman with a Wedgie." Her son (also named Ben, hmmm) had done the same thing years ago when he was a little boy...so she had experience with this 'my costume shrunk' phenomenon.

Xavier was a 1960's Mouseketeer. I know it looks like he's just dressed in khaki's and a coat...but you can't see his shirt with "XAVIER" spelled in big block letters, and that coat is actually a Mickey Mouse letter jacket. I chose this for him, because X LOVES (loves.) LOVES Mickey Mouse. He is an unruly, riotous child in the morning, if he does not have his Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. I've DVR'd thousands of episodes (that may be an exaggeration), so that we can stop the rage. Its like a happy pill for him. :-)

The other really funny part about Ben's costume: We had 2 of these last year (one for each of the boys), and because I am a very clever person, I snuck one away from Ben after Halloween 2008 so that only one of them would get the wear and tear of year-round dress up play. I was banking on him wanting to be Spiderman again this year. And when he told me that's what he wanted in early October, I thought, "JACKPOT! I've got a perfect one already saved!!" Because of course, the zipper on the one he plays with almost daily is broken, and there's a hole in the knee.

So, about 30 minutes before Trick or Treat was to begin, I triumphantly pulled the "new" Spidey from its hiding place, congratulating myself silently on how much of a forward thinker I was (and remembering where I had put it...) to realize that... that zipper was broken too. Noooooooooooooo!!! Somehow Ben had managed to get to it before I had put it away last year, I guess, and I hadn't noticed the damage.

Three safety pins later, my son looked like a hillbilly, but at least he was happy and in a somewhat functional costume.

So Ben and I walked around our neighborhood, while X, Nick, and his parents stayed back at the house to hand out candy. Xavier loved seeing all the kids trick or treating in their costumes, and B had so much fun this year running up to the houses. I was proud that he said 'thank you' to everyone, without prompting. He gets overwhelmed by the amount of candy, because we don't typically have candy in our house, so its very much a novelty for him.

Bennett couldn't wait to get to Grandma McNutt's house. She is our backyard neighbor, and Ben really likes her. It was funny, because he's not really used to seeing her house from the front, and all the way around our block he kept saying..."I can't wait to see Grandma McNutt! Let's go!" and after all that, he totally ran right past her house, even though she was yelling..."Bennett! Bennett!! Come here, buddy!" as he went by. LOL. He was completely focused on the neighboring house, which he thought was hers...he eventually found her (I let it go on, because sometimes its funny to me, how oblivious to general whereabouts he is. hehe)

After visiting with Grandma McNutt, we headed back home. I lagged behind Ben, wanting to take a picture. As I was shooting, out of the corner of my eye, I saw a squirrel tousling in the leaves on the side of the road. I thought to myself, "Watch...that squirrel is going to run right in front of him, and scare him half to death." And guess what. I was right.

Seconds after I took the picture below, that squirrel darted in front of Benny and he was so freaked out, he threw his pumpkin up in the air, candy flew everywhere and he ended up falling.

And there I was, about 30 feet behind him, laughing hysterically.

All the retired people that live on that section of our neighborhood, handing out candy in their driveways must have thought I was a total nutcase mother. I don't think they saw the squirrel and there I was, struggling to get it together to help my wailing, scared child gather up his candy that was now stewn about the road.

It still makes me laugh to think about it.

I hope he's not scarred for life, by the squirrel who dared to play 'chicken' with him, and his mother who couldn't stop laughing at his expense.

Grandma P and Xavier.

Xavier and Grandma governing the candy-give-away process...

M-I-C...K-E-Y...M-O-U-S-E!!! (sing that to yourself as you look at the next picture. :-)

And finally ... our jack-o-lanterns in all their glowing glory.

And so, dear friends, I nominate myself for Trick or Treat mother of the year 2009. My kid looked like hillbilly with a safety-pinned costume, I let him run around aimlessly looking for Grandma McNutt, and then I laughed at the fact that he was nearly attacked by a squirrel while he shouted, "ITS NOT FUNNY!!!" at me. (I'm still laughing while I type this...and that makes me a clear winner of the proposed award...)

Happy Halloween!! (approximately 40 days late. ;-p)

Pumpkin festivities

2009-12-09T12:48:00.007-05:00

I realize its December 9th, and I am 2 holidays behind. But I am bound and determined to catch up this blog to the present in the next few days. So, kindly reset your mind from Christmas trees and refrain from singing Silver Bells, whilst I take you back a good month or two for a few moments. Humor me.

This year, we were lucky enough to have the weather stay so nice, so late in the fall season. We carved our pumpkins outside, which everyone enjoyed immensely. Ben was very contemplative about this year's pumpkin carving design...

As usual, Xavier loved holding and whacking on his pumpkin and then pushing it off his lap to the ground. This year, we had an especially resilient pumpkin, which survived 2 roll-offs onto our concrete patio without catastrophe.

The well-thought out design, coming to life, from the mind of a great artiste:

Ben said his "jack-o-lantern is shy, and does not want his picture taken." ;-)

After the pumpkin carving was all said and done, the boys played on the swings (it was too nice to go back inside...) Xavier's glasses seemed to be bothering him while he was swinging, so I took them off. He looks so different without them. I love those big brown eyes. :-)

I gave him some leaves to play with. He LOVES this, and was intent on grabbing them, crinkling them, and trying to eat them for about 40 minutes.

Bennett stopped swinging, running, and raking leaves with Nick long enough to quickly take a couple shots by the tree. :-)

and then he was off to better things... :-)

Strange child...

2009-12-09T12:39:00.001-05:00

but I do love him.

I've mentioned before that Bennett does not like to get his hands dirty. Even to eat a yummy doughnut. So, he problem solved himself right into mess-free enjoyment of a delicious breakfast. He found some disposable gloves I had left over from a Halloween craft, and sat down to watch some TV and eat a snack...

H1N1

2009-12-09T12:34:00.001-05:00

I believe our family had it!! It wasn't too bad, Bennett caught the brunt of it and missed only 2 days of school (and was sick over the weekend too...) He had a high fever (104) and coughed like crazy...but the rest of us just got low grade fevers...so who knows. This was back in early October (since I'm so dreadfully behind in blog post-age...)

Despite the fact that I think we all had it, I'm positive you'll all be very relieved (lol) to know that my boys and I got vaccinated for the virus anyway. Poor Nick did not make it into a high risk group, and therefore, does not yet qualify to receive the vaccine. I pledge to keep vigilant watch for a vaccine for "normal" people (hehe) so that he stays healthy too. "They" promise a second wave of H1N1 is coming in the spring. Yippee!!

Here's Benny on one of his days off from school. In true Bennett-fashion, that kid would never let a sometimes-lethal virus get him down. Nope, not one bit. He insisted on HOURS of boardgames. This is his favorite - "Make or Break" Its a block patterning game, and its his favorite. When Xavier's home (he was at school this day), Ben does the "making" and Xavier does the "breaking". Ben was happy he got to do both on this day. ;-)

Walsh Farms 09

2009-11-27T09:39:00.001-05:00

Well, here I am again...woefully behind on blog posts. But I have a slew of them almost ready to go...

October 18th, we went to Walsh Farms in Doylestown to get our pumpkins for Halloween. It was a little bit chilly, but there was lots of sun and an awesome fall sky above.

Another bonus - we were driving past my Dad's house on the way there...he was outside (had just finished some yardwork) and I pulled in the driveway to see if he could come with us. And he did!

Nick and Ben ran through the hay maze, while my Dad supervised.

Ben could have spent all day dumping corn down the slide in the corn pit. He was making a huge pile at the bottom for other kids to slide into. It was a little surprising to me that he was directing all his efforts towards the enjoyment of the other kiddos...last year, he might have freaked out had another kid wrecked his pile. But he really liked helping the other kids have fun. It might have had to do with the fact that the other kids that happened to be there at that time were a couple years younger. Whatever the reason, I was proud of him for being a team player. ;-)

Xavier is usually very excited about all that corn, but he was not thrilled this year. Not sure why. :-(

B looks 15 in this picture, doesn't he?

That wretched animal tried to bite him for no reason about 30 seconds after I took this picture. Poor Ben.

We headed over to the animal enclosure next. As is par, all the animals dropped what they were doing and gathered around Xavier. There were probably 20 other people standing in the enclosure, but all attention was directed towards Xavier. I'm telling you, its almost eerie. They flock. Xavier was in all his glory. The goats were butting his feet and I swear I saw the cow smile. ;-)

Hayride, woohoo! So, as we were getting ready to board, a woman coming off took one look at Nick holding Xavier, and said, "Um, I don't mean to be rude, but I just want you to know it is a VERY BUMPY ride." Nick laughed and said, "He'll love it even more, then." She looked unsure, and walked on. That lady wasn't kidding. It was terrifically bumpy. Xavier laughed the entire time. Ben looked worried, and I struggled to brace myself to take some pictures (the sky was so pretty!)

Thank you, Walsh Farms, for the fun times. And thank you for being only 5 minutes from our house. :-)

Field Trip to Boyert's Farm

2009-10-28T13:28:00.013-04:00

Back on October 9th, I went with Bennett on his first Kindergarten field trip. We loaded up a few vehicles with kids and chaperones, and off we went to Medina to Boyert's, which is a family farm that provides an educational experience for local kids.

After a car-ride full of the antics of three, 5 year old boys (I was very amused), our first activity was a ride on the straw wagon. The children were adament that it was NOT a hay-ride. Hay is green not yellow, they had learned. So this was obviously a straw-ride. Duh.

As a sidenote, all the adults on the ride were truly afraid we were going to get stuck in the mud and have to bail out. It had been raining for the last several days, was sort of drizzly that day, and the ground was like dirt-soup.

Bennett and friends Mia and Alex:

B with Cooper and Alex:

Our ride's destination was a pumpkin patch, and Ben was the LAST child to pick out his pumpkin and get back on the wagon. Contrary to popular belief, not all little boys like dirt. Ben despises being dirty, and before you assume, I swear I did not create that in him. Other kids were trudging on through the mud, while Ben looked rather horrified by the prospect of getting a speck of dirt on him. One little girl came up to him and said, "Hey Ben, I dare you to kick in that rotten pumpkin." He looked at her with disgust and said, "No way. My boot would get dirty. That's so gross." HA!! He didn't want to touch a pumpkin if it had dirt/mud on it. Finding a non-grody pumpkin was a rather tall order under the circumstances, but I eventually found one he approved of.

Happy to be out of the mud, and back on the ride...

...and even happier that Mrs. Williams (his teacher) had the forethought to bring plastic bags for the kids' pumpkins. Now he could hold it without getting dirty.

We stowed our pumpkins back in the cars, and then we were off to see the farm animals. There was a mama pig with her piglets, and the kids got to see them eat. The mama pig came over to see Ben, which he was both nervous and excited about. When I took this, he was saying, "I want to touch her, but I'm scared!"

His teacher and I encouraged him, and he braved touching her with one finger. Mrs. Williams told him he showed courage, and he was so proud of himself. He mentioned to me later in the day that he "had a lot of courage for touching that pig." :-)

We also visited some cows (the kids were both perplexed and weirded out when the guide told them that their hamburger was once a cow), and rabbits.

After that, we went through a smaller pumpkin patch that grew those giant pumpkins you see in the "biggest pumpkin ever" contests on TV. The kids loved climbing on them, sliding off them, and standing on top of them. Good fun.

Learning about where milk comes from, and what products you can make from milk.

Learning about corn and its byproducts.

Mrs. Dragovich, the Kindergarten aide, helped B feed the goats some dried corn.

The kids lined up to learn about the birds on the farm - peacocks, chickens (meat and egg), and turkeys.

Checkin' out the turkeys.

We were lucky, because that morning, chicks were hatching. This really captured Bennett's attention, and he didn't want to leave. He and I hung back to watch the little baby chicks totter around, while the group moved on to look at all the "meat" chickens. I was happy about that. Chickens stink, in case you didn't know.

Sts. Peter and Paul Kindergarten class of 2009-2010! (minus one kiddo who was on vacation.)

Ben and Alex with a slobbery dog, who begged while we ate our lunch. One of the other moms had brought her 15 month old in her stroller, and this giant animal slurped Cheerios right off of her tray. Blech.

Mia, Bennett, Cecelia, and Lily.

Alex and Ben, with yet another slobbery dog in the maze. He was also a culprit in the Cherrio incident.

Each of the kids got a turn trying to rope cattle! Bennett almost got it this time!

Bennett played in dried corn with Cooper...

...and Trevor and Jacob.

The very last thing we did was play a game of tic-tac-toe, boys v. girls. To earn an "x" or an "o", the teams had to answer questions about what they had learned. Neither group missed a question, and they were very strategic with their "x/o" placement, so it ended up being a "cat game". Just goes to show you what little smarties these kids are. :-)

Learning

2009-10-06T13:04:00.002-04:00

Its just amazing what little sponges children's brains are...

Ben is learning to read, spell, and write sentences more quickly than I ever would have imagined. He knows punctuation already. "Mom! You forgot a period there!" And I have to admit, I'm a little sad he doesn't mix up the name for this ---> ?, anymore. He used to call it a "martian quest." LOL. I'll miss that.

Another sign of growing up: Ben WILL NOT permit me to hug/kiss him in the lunchroom at school where the other kids are when I drop him off in the morning. He stops me short of the door way everyday, pulls me gently down by the arm and whispers, "You can hug me right here, Mom." WAAAAHHHH!!! He's FIVE!!!! Man, I expected this in first grade, but this is only the second month of Kindergarten! What's going on here?! At least he still holds my hand. I'm clinging to that ... (until that's embarrassing too...) :-(

Xavier is doing great in school too...continuing to learn to use a 'switch' for communication, and he's definitely picking up more consonants. He's saying "Dadada!" now for Nick. And I can't be sure, but I THINK he has said "Bububu" for Ben in the last couple days. He's also learning a great deal about being patient and tolerant of differences in routine.

Last Sunday, we were working on Ben's homework for Monday. He needed to find an item to put in the "secret bag" for school...a guessing game to share with his classmates. He was to write four clues to read to the class, and have them guess what he hid in the bag.

After MUCH deliberation, he chose an item and wrote these clues. He came up with them entirely on his own. I helped him sound out and spell the words he didn't know...(click on the picture for a closer look)

Ah-ha! Its a bike bell!

Here's Bennett, posing cheesily with his spelling test from Friday. Go Ben!

Xavier, babbling away at me on the couch after school on Friday. :-)

Wayne County Fair

2009-10-02T13:59:00.010-04:00

I'm behind on posts again! Monday, Sept 14th, we went to the annual Wayne County Fair. As mentioned in a previous post, we live out in the country. I mean, the kids in the county get the day off to go to the fair, for crying out loud. And its tough to say this without sounding pretentious, but I'll say it anyway -- the collection of folk and their wares assembled at the fair always provides us with a certain amount of entertainment...sometimes its laughable...and most of the time, disturbingly so. I can't even write what some of the t-shirts said that were hanging on display directly next to a church's booth at the fair. Who decided to place the two adjacent to each other, I'll never know. But, to further explain things, let me just say, it takes a special talent to create and then openly display a t-shirt with profanity, a misspelling, and bad grammar all in one. HA! (Why didn't I take a picture?!?!?!)

But I digress.

First and foremost - the fair is for eating enjoyment. Here's Ben, discovering, without a doubt, the fair's largest fry, while Nick ate a steak sandwich of questionable origin.

In search of more food...

...food found! Here's Xavier, with the telltale remnants of an area-famous Lerch's donut. Cinnamon sugar. MMMM.

B pointing out some poor kid's balloon floating away.

The boys, marvelling at the pint-sized roller coaster.

B, on his first coaster!

No! They're not! And shame on you for thinking so! Really, I put this picture in here, because a goat like these almost ripped the sleeve off my tshirt. I was taking a picture of B (the one after these goats who, in this picture, are trying to eat their neighbors hay, people. Stop thinking otherwise!) and the goat grabbed hold of my tshirt sleeve, and started pulling. It was a battle of wills and cotton's tensile strenth. And I'm very pleased to say, cotton and I won. :-)

B and X LOVE goats. We spent quite awhile in the goat barn.

Quote from B:
"MOM! Why is this phone hooked to the wall?! Why are the numbers on the wall part? What?! You put MONEY in it?!"

Why are these cows spots ringed in turquoise?

I used this opportunity to explain in detail where milk comes from. Bennett knew milk comes from cows, but I wasn't sure if he knew exactly how. My explanation which took place right next to an actual cow that desparately needed milked (lol) was met with astonishment and disbelief. He was so stunned, that a couple minutes later, he said, "Mom? Cheese is made from milk from cows, right?" I said, "yes, that's right." He looked very troubled by my answer, and said, "But where does the CHEESE come OUT of a cow!?"

He got over his distress from the "origins of milk" conversation, and enjoyed his 3 scoop ice cream cone.

Xavier was tired and wanted to go home. (But he still got some ice cream too.)

Ben was wound, and this is the only way I could get him to stop and pose with me and Xavier.

Passing the Wooster courthouse on the way home...

Late to bed for the boys on a school night...but worth it for an evening full of discovery and interesting people watching. ;-)

long walk

2009-10-02T11:16:00.001-04:00

Pictures from a recent walk in the woods on a sunny, early fall day...

September (aka - post for Rachel)

2009-09-21T10:47:00.004-04:00

I LOVE fall. Perhaps not as much as my friend, Rachel, but I do love it. This post is a tribute to the start of the fall season, and to one of the people who understands me and my life like probably no other person can. Love ya, Rachey :-)

Yes, I live in the country:

For 3 years now, Rachel has been raving about how great it is to have her front porch decorated for the fall. She goes all out every year, and is quite the homemaker and gardener, so this is small potatoes compared to her efforts. But, like I said, I do LOVE all things fall, AND I had the time this year because the boys are in school...so, I'm giving it a shot, and here's what I've got out front so far:

And just some early fall shots from a recent walk:

Yay for Fall! Yay for Rachel! I'm so grateful for your friendship :-)

Parish Picnic

2009-09-21T10:37:00.001-04:00

Wow, am I ever behind on this. These pictures are from Sunday, August 30th, when our church held it's annual Parish Picnic (indoors, even though it was a beautiful day? I'm confused...)

It was a delicious concoction of food and friends, and unfortunately, we had to leave a little early due to the fact that I worked that afternoon.

Xavier - happily anticipating lunch:

Bennett, talking with his super duper kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Williams:

Mmm. Cupcakes. (Benny's favorite.) :-)

Status updates

2009-09-21T10:29:00.001-04:00

Here are some facts and thoughts about how the boys' first several weeks of school have gone...

Xavier:
Part of me has looked so forward to him going to school a full day, and another (big) part of me has viewed it with much reluctance and anxiety. From the time we realized Xavier had a developmental disability, we wondered how and where he would go to school. Preschool worked out so beautifully, but I have always been so stressed over how his transition to elementary school would go.

I am relieved beyond imagination that things have gone so well. Perfectly, actually. As in, I couldn't have asked for things to go any better. :-)

Xavier has unbelievable people surrounding him all day. His primary paraprofessional, Miss Lauren, and kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Garbinsky, are compassionate, interested, caring, and excited to have him around. He has classmate helpers, that help him do activities, and relay information that I write in a logbook for circle time (what we did over the weekend, etc.)

The kids in his class are learning about what it means to have a disability, and that its okay to be different. Another paraprofessional that works with him everyday, Mrs. Smith, told me a cute story that happened out on recess. Tons of kids (15 or 20, she estimated) were in a jammed in a circle up against his wheelchair. (He's a bit of a curiosity there...no other children are physcially disabled...) The kids were all asking Mrs. Smith why Xavier can't walk/talk etc. She explained on their level that his muscles aren't strong like theirs, and his brain isn't able to let him figure out how to talk, but he's trying to learn. One little girl (a first grader) leaned over and touched Xavier's shoes. She said, "Boy, he may not be able to walk, but his shoes sure are clean!!" How funny. I love answering kids' questions about Xavier. They're questions even adults have, but don't ask because of the 'filter' we develop as we mature. But children's questions are so innocent and special because they honestly care about the answers. I also love that they tend to look for the positive in anything - yeah, he may not walk, but that means his shoes never get dirty! We should all take a lesson from kids and their way of thinking...

Xavier's favorite class is music (no surprise there.) He works with Mrs. Kerr who is a terrific interventional specialist, and Dylan, a little boy who I have yet to meet, but I look forward to the opportunity to do so. Dylan is in 4th grade and works with Xavier everyday. I'm told the two are developing a special friendship, and it makes me so happy to hear about how much fun they have together.

Overall, X seems to be a little happier these days, and I can't help but attribute that to all the attention he gets from his peers, and activity he does. He's still continuing with OT, PT, and SLP. He's having fun, and that's the most important thing to me. :-)

Hooray for Hazel Harvey Elementary and Chippewa Local School District in Doylestown!

Bennett:
I remain very happy that we chose to send B to kindergarten this year. He's grown so much in just the last few weeks, its mind-boggling. He's gaining social skills, and learning so much academically. Most notibly - he can actually READ simple books. He knows many sight words now. I'd write them all out, but I realize that would be boring and take up way to much space. Suffice it to say, he can read Dr. Seuss books almost all by himself. :-)

Ben has developed a solid friendship with a few kids in class, but he talks the most about Alex. He tells me they like to watch the recycle truck come to pick up the papers and bottles during recess. He was also very troubled when Alex got stung by a bee out on recess and is now terrified of almost all bugs (bees cause him to scream and run now...) There has also been a 'hugging incident', where Ben came home with a bump on his forehead and a note in his bag explaining that he and Alex had been hugging each other so intensely that they had fallen on the ground and knocked their heads together. :-)

Ben is learning to add, can write all the sight words he knows how to read, and got a 5/6 on his first spelling test. All this both amazes me (its like magic to see him read!!), and makes me happy...but the best part is, when I wake him up in the morning to get ready, he says, "Mom, is it a school day?!"...and when I say, "It sure is!", he shouts "YES!!!" and leaps out of bed. Can't get a better gauge on how school is going for him than that! :-)

Here are some pictures I've been hanging onto from before school started when Ben and I dropped off his enrollment papers. He's so proud to be a big kindergartener!!

(this next one makes me laugh...he made me take this because he thought this sign was just as important as all the other ones I had taken pictures by...even when I told him what it said. Heehee ;-)

Kindergarten

2009-09-08T17:26:00.004-04:00

The last week of August was a big one for us. Xavier and Bennett faced a humungo milestone - their first day of Kindergarten...and I'm delighted to say that they both made the transition better than I could have hoped. I don't think I give them nearly enough credit for adapting to new situations. I'm writing this post at the beginning of their third week, and I'm still happily surprised that they're doing so well with their new routine. What isn't surprising is how much they love going. I knew they would. What 5/6 year old boys don't like being around a bunch of other kids their own age and learning? These are the easy 'school years', I'm imagining. And I plan to enjoy every second of that.

Ben's first day was Monday, August 24. It was a just a 1/2 day from 8:25-11:30, helping the kids (and the parents?! ;-) adjust for the full days ahead. He picked out his outfit the night before.

He said - "MOM! Take a picture like this, I want to see how my backpack looks." (Complete with require ID tag from the school :-)

Here's Bennett, figuring out the whole "where do I go every morning?" business. This is in front of our church (which is right next door to his school), and I think he was confused, because when we go to Mass, we park in a different lot. Hehe.

He requested I take this picture too.

Clara and Ben. Clara has been so wonderful looking after Ben and making his transition smooth. She's in second grade, but they eat lunch and have recess at the same time. Clara also keeps an eye on him in the gym after school, where all the "pick-up" kids wait for their parents to come collect them. Love that girl.

Here's Bennett strangling Gabe. With Avery and Cooper as witnesses.

Waiting at his table for his teacher, Mrs. Williams, to come get him and his classmates, Cooper, and Linus.

And off to class he goes!!

His first day was super. Heck, his first weeks have been super! I'm sooo glad we made the decision to have him go to Kindergarten this year (even though he's a "young 5", with a June birthday). Preschool would have just been way too repetitive for him. He loves school and is ready for the challenge of making new friends and learning new things.

Xavier's big first day came on Thursday, August 27th. Here he is, all dressed up for the occasion. Notice the look goes from "unsure to ecstatic".

We dropped off Bennett first (as is our routine everyday), and then drove over to X's school (its close, you can see Hazel Harvey Elementary from the parking lot of SPPS, and viceversa.) I had just moved him from his carseat to his wheelchair, and he was not too sure about everything.

But then some kids went by, and a bus pulled up (he likes to hear the big diesel engine), and that made everything better.

After that, I pushed him to his Kindergarten classroom and helped his paraprofessional, Lauren, get him set up for the morning. He needed a little music to get him settled down (he was unsure and anxious, which came out as whining.) Here is a picture I quickly took as I left. Just look at him gazing up adoringly at Lauren and holding her hand.

Xavier had a super first day. Unbeatable, really. We knew he'd love school, but the overwhelmingly positive experience he's having and the enthusiasm of the school/teachers/paraprofessionals to support him through all the challenges to come has really exceded our expectations.

Can't believe both my boys are in all-day elementary school. This is nuts. As an aside, all of you might be wondering what I'm doing with all my "free time". Well, to start, I'm tackling every organizational/thorough cleaning project I've looked at over the past six years and said..."Um, yeah...I'll have to get to that later." After that's all said and done (which I'm projecting will take another couple of weeks from now - HA!), I'm not sure what the plan is. Read ... Search for/listen to awesome old/new music ... Have lunch with friends ... Learn more about photography, for sure. The list goes on and on. And on. And on. And on. :-)

Me and my buddy

2009-08-25T21:46:00.004-04:00

Xavier and I have been soaking up some quality time with each other because Ben started school on Monday, but Xavier doesn't start until Thursday. We've been doing some therapy activities, having lots of fun, and today we got to meet his new paraprofessional, Lauren. She will be by Xavier's side this year in Kindergarten and I have a feeling they will become fast friends. Xavier took to her right away, and wanted to hold her hand. I can't express how happy this makes me. All the staff at his new school has been so welcoming and are really putting effort and enthusiasm into making sure he has everything he needs. This is going to be a great experience for him and our family. JOY!!!!

So, here are some self-portraits of the two of us, enjoying our together-time. Ugh, I just love this little boy endlessly.

Mallory

2009-08-25T21:31:00.007-04:00

By now, everyone knows that we see a lot of our friends Will and Courtney, and their kids, Gabe, Clara, and Mallory. Well, one day last week, X, B, and I spent the afternoon with Mallory, and although it was busy (she was fussy due to teething) it was really a fun time. She went to karate with us too in the afternoon, where she showed off her new skill of clapping countless times. :-)

You know me and photo opportunities. Mallory loved this little tunnel :-)

I assure you, that is lead-free paint on the car. Ben thinks it is so cool that Mallory loves his "Lightning McQueen" ":-)

Please excuse Xavier's partial nakedness in these pictures...he was hot, and I was lazy, so it all worked out just fine. HA!

Ben wanted to take some timed shots. He loves acting goofy in these.

Tiny baby clapping = very cute.

I love these next 2 because I have a picture of Nick tempting Gabe when he was just about Mallory's age now, with a piece of steak. Ben's taunting her with a cracker, but she has the same longing look in here eyes. I'll have to dig out that old pic and post it...

This one also makes me smile, because Ben said to me as I was taking it. "She's scaring me with that spoon. I think she's going to whack me with it." I told him, "Oh, no, Ben. She's not going to." Then, as if on cue, THUNK, right on B's forehead. I laughed and he yelled at me for laughing. :-)

Teething :-(

A clever move!

Poor baby had ouchy gums. She was chewing on everything and anything. :-(

Can't get enough of that little Malibu. We love you, sweet girl. :-)

Shopping

2009-08-25T21:13:00.001-04:00

Sunday, August 9th, we took a trip out to Lodi Outlet Mall to do some back-to-school shopping. In all actuality, we just wanted something to do. It was crazy hot, but we were in and out of a/c all day, stopped to get soft pretzels (which X "mmm'd" about the whole way through), and had a pretty great trip. You wouldn't guess it from this photo though! LOL -

Ben had piled on top of Xavier, claiming he was "soo very tired". Just look at them. So funny that this occured while Nick was looking for new work shirts. I guess that's B's way of saying - "hurry up, this is just not exciting enough for me."

What was very exciting for Ben was ... a TRAIN! There's a track that winds through the mall and all around the grounds. This was a huge incentive for Ben to mind his manners and be patient while we went to stores. The reward was a train ride.

The beginning of the well-deserved reward:

Rogues Hollow Fest 2009

2009-08-25T20:35:00.003-04:00

August 7 and 8th, Doylestown held its annual street festival and parade. I was scheduled to work that evening, but with the help of two great friends at work (Sara and Annette!) I was able to take some time off to see Bennett in his FIRST PARADE!! Alright, so he was just walking with the Vacation Bible School group from church, but still...this is big-time stuff in the land of parenting.

Here are some pictures of Xavier, Nick, and Nick's parents waiting for the parade to begin. Xavier was seriously loving all the attention he was getting.

X has made great strides in tolerating crowds, noise, and commotion in general. Chaos no longer makes him anxious, instead he deals with it well, and really, I'd go so far as to say that he enjoys it. Two years ago, the parade was a challenge for him. This year, he was totally enthralled. He laughed and shrieked with happiness through the entire thing and kept saying "MORE!" He was especially thrilled with the bands. We all know how Xavier loves music. :-)

Here's Benny, walking by us in the parade. Actually, at the moment I snapped this, he saw us and promptly decided he was done walking because he had spotted a giant Spiderman balloon and came to me to beg for it. HA!! That's Aunt Court there right behind him, with the classic, "Oh-my...what is Bennett up to now!?" look and body positioning. All adults tend to have this particular expression and stance at some point when interacting with Ben. I love him, but he's crazy fast and curious. ;-)I can't look at this picture without laughing.

After the parade, we met in the church parking lot to have a treat. Here's Clara...

...and Ben (wearing the shirts they made at VBS)...

...and B and Gabe enjoying their ice cream bars...

The mini horses had their trailer in the parking lot. Ben and Clara were excited to watch them walk by.

And Bennett snuck in a little pat. :-)

Mallory and Xavier entertained each other for awhile too. She's a glasses thief. Sneaky girl is distracting X, getting him to laugh at her, so he doesn't expect what's coming.

Now, she quickly moves in for the swipe...

...and success!! (so funny - look how pleased she is with herself! and how bewildered, yet patient, X is ;-)

Saturday night, Nick and I risked our lives to go out onto the roof to catch the festival fireworks. Well, Nick wasn't risking his. But, clearly, I am clumsy, and therefore was risking mine. I guess it was worth the gamble though, because there was a perfect spot right through some trees where we could see the entire show.

(didn't know I was zoomed in so far on this one...)

This also makes me laugh. Nick was not pleased with my use of flash. HA!

This is fantastic...

2009-08-23T22:22:00.002-04:00

Alas, he has since had a haircut. What makes this photo so great is that it was totally not staged...it was untampered-with bed head.

Inquiry

2009-08-23T22:02:00.001-04:00

What is this thing? Anyone...anyone?

I know its a bug, people. I'm asking what kind. These things started showing up last month, and reappear every now and then. Nick and I honestly first thought it was a bug trying to fly away with a piece of a napkin or kleenex (don't laugh) until we saw 5 or 6 others just like it, and took a closer look. They're tiny - that pic is an extreme close up. Weird, isn't it? Help me out here.

Legos

2009-08-23T21:38:00.004-04:00

Benny has moved on from those enormous 'Duplo' Legos to the Lego kits with the teeny-tiny pieces that have the curious ability to:
1.) get lost within approximately 3.7 seconds of opening the package
2.) resist separation from another lego piece with such persistence that a poor soul (me) has to bend back and break fingernails before figuring out that using another implement is necessary to separate them
and
3.) embed themselves into the bottom of your foot

Thankfully, 3.) sometimes remedies 1.), and that is its only saving-grace.

Ben devotes at least one day a week to obsess over building these kits. One of them is a three-in-one kit, which necessitates building all three models, of course.

Its a good exercise in following a sequence, and looking at a schematic to assemble the pieces. I've gone from helping him do nearly the entire thing, to just helping him look for the pieces that have been lost and blended in with the wood or carpet.

The fruits of his labor...

...arranged just "so"...

What I think is really funny is B always chooses this little man (out of many) to stand by the cars. He likes that he's holding a clipboard and says he's "a worker who built the cars". :-)

Still in pj's at noon - being lazy the last week before school starts -

His favorite:

Beverly Shores

2009-08-14T00:45:00.003-04:00

What a vacation we had back in mid-July!

There are just too many pictures and memories to document everything in one post, so I decided to divide it up by days. Sooooooo, here we go! 7 new posts !!! ... ... ...

If you read the entire thing, God bless you.

:-)

Saturday, July 11

2009-08-14T00:44:00.002-04:00

Nick and I packed up the boys and drove 6 hours to Beverly Shores, Indiana on Lake Michigan. We rented a house there with our friends, the Dannemillers (Will and Courtney, and their 3 kids Gabe, Clara, and Mallory...you've seen them if you read this blog;-). It was a week of fantastic fun - a perfect mix of doing nothing, and getting out and doing something. Xavier had a terrific time, and with the exception of about 5 hours in Chicago (more about that later), Nick, Bennett, and I did too.

The boys did amazingly in the car. I was anxious about how we'd handle the drive, but they were perfect the entire way there. It was actually fun - imagine that!

This is the house that we spent the week in. It was located in a lake-front, wooded neighborhood. The house was great, the bugs were huge, and the proximity to the beach was super.

I took this picture on our first walk down to the beach. It was about a 2 minute walk from our door, but included a treacherous descent down a sandy and rocky hill. I had to give up the job of carrying X over to the guys, because, well, lets face it ---> I'm clumsy. Amazingly enough, though I was worried about it all week, no one fell to their death down the hill. Actually, no one fell at all. How 'bout that!?

Bennett spent most of the week throwing things in the lake. Here he is skipping a rock. He also lugged/heaved countless pieces of driftwood back in.

Xavier loved everything about the beach - the sounds, the breeze, the sand. And he uses the sand to get leverage for balance too. Look how straight he's sitting! Yes, he's wearing his old, old blue glasses. He broke another pair just before we came...so we were keeping his "good pair" safe.

We were the only ones on the beach most of the time.

Chicago was 45 miles across the lake. We could see it everyday, because the weather was so perfectly clear (lucky us!)

Football - Clara made it past all three boys to score a touchdown. :-)

Clara is a little mother hen with Bennett, and he looks up to her so much. (His shirt is on backwards. lol)

Here's Ben, in one of the bench seats in the house. He was totally into Gabe's little travel Etch-a-Sketch. He became very proficient at drawing "stacked boxes", as he called them. And that's exactly what they looked like, actually - I need to get him one!

This is Xavier, awaiting his post-beach shower. Look what a happy little guy he is, just playing with the towel and shower curtain. Love that kid. :-)

Oh, and our children slept in closets. What?...They requested it! They were actually giant as far as closets go...big enough to have two twin mattresses shoved in and still have room for another. Their willingness to sleep in them was actually a Godsend - the bedrooms had no curtains, and skylights. Bad news with our kids. Bad, bad news. So, Bennett, Clara, and Gabe slept in one closet, and Xavier slept in ours. (Lol. Its still funny to say. "Time for bed, kids! Run along to your closets!" HA!)
Here they are, in their luxurious sleeping quarters:

Xavier getting a little love from Clara :-)

Sunday, July 12

2009-08-14T00:43:00.002-04:00

Sunday we awoke early, to get ready for our trip to Milwaukee. We had arranged to meet our friends, the Bergs, at the Milwaukee Zoo.

Here are B, X, Gabe, and Mallory engrossed in cartoons that morning.

X drinking his milk, and hanging out with Malmal.

Ugh - soooooooo cute - he reached out to touch her. Total sweetness. :-)

He kept his hand like this for a few minutes and she had fun trying to eat it. That's just what 6 month old babies do.

We loaded the car back up and headed out for another drive, this time 3 hours to Milwaukee. Nick took this picture as we drove through Chicago (I'm the driver when we go places. Otherwise I get sick.). Chicago is nightmarish with respect to traffic, construction, and just outright confusion, if you haven't had the priveledge of driving there lately.

Family shot at the zoo - thanks for offering to take this, Darin!

Nick, Bennett, and Olivia, watching the hippos...

...and now the elephants.

Poor X was so exhausted from all the travel, along with the usual effects his seizures have on him. He fell asleep and missed out on a pony ride :-(

Hannah, Livvy, and Bennett waited patiently for their turn to ride the ponies.

Love this - look how excited he was :-)

B grabbed Hannah's hand as we waited in line to ride the train. They had both waited soooo LONG for the ride.

On the train ---

Nick and Ben stopped to watch the train take off again. It was a real steam engine, which was really cool to see.

It was a great zoo trip, and we were so happy to see the Bergs after two years! Thanks for meeting us there!

Then back to the beach house - battled 3 hours of construction and traffic, to make it home just in time to watch fireworks on the beach.
Here are a couple pictures I took during the fireworks. Just because.

More Mallory-Xavier bonding time. They love each other :-)

Look how GIANT Xavier is. Whoa.

Another great day. Tiring, due to the travel (after the previous day of travel), but great.:-)

Monday, July 13

2009-08-14T00:42:00.001-04:00

This day, we spent entirely at the beach. It was wonderful, wonderful, wonderful. So relaxing and fun. I'd like to be able to do this once a week, if I could, please.

Here's a run of pictures from that day, where we headed to the beach right after breakfast, ate lunch at the house, went back to the beach until dinner at the house, and then back for a beach bonfire. Fabulousness.

Here was our laughable attempt at making the trek to the beach a little easier on Nick and I. We usually carried Xavier all the way, but let's face it - he's huge. Everyone else had gone down to the beach for the bonfire. Nick, X, and I were lagging behind. On our way out the door, I noticed Mallory's umbrella stroller sitting there, and suggested it may be a viable option to get us to the hill. We stuffed X in there (quite literally). Look at him. He looks ridiculous. He giggled the whole way, as if he realized what a stupid idea it was. And yes, he's wearing long sleeves/pants on July 13. Remember - the bugs were plentiful and huge.

The view at the top of the hill:

And from the bottom. I'm telling you, its a small miracle no one got hurt during the week.

Bonfire on the beach ... one fantastic memory :-)

S'mores!!

Tuesday, July 14

2009-08-14T00:40:00.000-04:00

Miracle of miracles ---> just one picture for this day! HA!

We spent the day at the outlet mall in Michigan City, had lunch at a local pub on the patio (I got sunburned), and then came back home to have a tasty dinner prepared by Nick.

Here are the kids watching a movie (Wall-E) that evening.

After the kids went to bed, we just hung out, like old times. The four of us (Will, Court, Nick and I) have spent COUNTLESS hours over the years discussing all the minutia of life. Its hard to do that on a regular basis like we used to, but it was so nice to be able to do it again for a week. Love you, Will and Court :-)

Wednesday, July 15

2009-08-14T00:39:00.000-04:00

Wednesday was supposed to be our day in Chicago, but it rained in the early morning hours and the forecast was iffy, so we decided to go Thursday instead. It turned out to be a full day anyway...

The rain never came, and we headed to Valparaiso about 30 minutes away. First stop was an awesome playground.

Here are Clara and I in the playground's bubble mirror:

And Mallory and I...She LOVED this mirror. It had tongue smudges all over it when we left. That's gross, I suppose. But let's look at the positive and just decide it boosted her immunity.

While the kids were getting their final playground minutes in, Court and I consulted the internet trying to find somewhere to eat. In the end, the old fashioned way of "driving around until you find somewhere interesting" actually worked better. Heehee. We were trying to follow the cardinal vacation rule of eating out --> "you can't eat at a chain restaurant!"

We found Jimmy John's Gourmet Sandwiches. Looked great, and no one in our group had eaten there before. Apparently, in talking with the staff, there are 2 within easy driving distance from us here at home. Whoopsie! HA! We weren't too upset about it though, the atmosphere was great, the food was yummy, and the staff were very accomodating and friendly. One staff person even ran to a nearby restaurant to get a plastic spoon for Xavier, after we asked, and they didn't have one. Love places like this. :-)

Entertaining signage -

Then we moved on to Ceramix 101, where we created masterpieces on ceramic bisque. Our pieces were painstakingly selected (which took hours) and painted (which took countless more hours). Coat after coat after coat of paint. I think we were there approximately 15-17 hours total.

Xavier slept for about 14 of the 17 hours we were there.

It was fun, but the big bummer is, we may never see these things we worked so hard on. After being told we could pick up the glazed and fired finished products later in the week, no one was there when Will and Courtney arrived to pick them back up. There was a telephone altercation over promises broken, and now we may never have them sitting on our bookshelves and mantles to look at for years to come. :-(

Look how into this he was!! That's Lightning McQueen! It really is sad he doesn't have it right now. It was such a labor of love. :-( !!

SO! all in all - we spent in the neighborhood of $647 and 43 hours on 4 ceramic trinkets. With nothing to show for it. Waaah!!!

Blissfully unaware of the ceramic catastrophy yet to come, we moved on to the fun park. Go karts, bumper boats, arcade games and Benny's first game of bowling! :-)

...then back to the house for dinner and sleep to rest up for our big day in Chicago!

Thursday, July 16 - Chicago!

2009-08-14T00:38:00.002-04:00

We were up early and out the door to catch the 8am train into Chicago. Lucky for us, the Beverly Shores train station was a mere 5 minutes from our house.

The trainride took a little over an hour. Xavier loved it. I can't express how much of a trooper he was the entire vacation. He thoroughly enjoyed himself, which made me endlessly happy.

Out of the station at Millenium Park, we headed straight for Navy Pier. The following are shots from along the way.

Waiting for the Navy Pier Trolley. Ben really liked this lamppost, I guess.

The trolley's driver made some entertaining comments on the short ride there, and was also very nice, asking everyone to "please give my little friend up front and his parents time to get off without crowding them." I have no idea who that man is holding onto Xavier's stroller, but he helped us get the stoller on and off in that tight space, so he's great in my book. :-)

If you've never been to Navy Pier, I'll have you know, if you go in the summer, its hot, there's no shade, and its crowded. Despite that, its F-U-N. There's a lot to do, and its very kid friendly. (Important for our crew of 10.)

X and I at an art exhibit

Boats of all kinds dock on the pier. So its actually a working pier, how 'bout that!?

We stopped at the Children's Museum gift shop, and Ben played with these trains while we waited for the Dannemillers to get out of their IMAX film. (IMAX and I don't get along well.)

After eating some really awesome Chicago style hotdogs, we met back up with the Dannemillers.

Ferris wheel from the bottom...

...and views from our ride.

Those are the Dannemillers WAY down there!

The carosel. Ahhh...the carosel. This, my friends, is where it all fell apart for us. Up until this time, vacation had been blissful. Not that we hadn't had our little bumps in the road here and there, but on the whole, it had been pretty perfect.

Ben had decided he DID NOT want to ride the carosel (duh!) and preferred to put $10 worth of quarters in the remote control boats to drive around for 3 minutes. We said 'no'. Disgruntled, he sat by Nick on the bench while Xavier, Courtney, Clara, and Gabe, and I rode the carosel.

After that last picture was taken, the mother of all public temper tantrums ensued. He was already upset about the boats, but now, he wanted to button the top button of his shirt, and was having trouble. I was hot, and perhaps a bit too quick to get irritated with his insistence of sitting RIGHT THERE until he buttoned it "just right" (which sometimes takes several minutes). It was our plan to head to the end of the pier, a good 20 minute walk in the crowd with the 10 of us, to catch our friend doing a special helicopter fly-by. We didn't want to be late.

So, I insisted he needed to 'walk and button' or 'be carried and button'. Neither of these choices was acceptable to him, and without warning, the dam broke. What he unleashed on us was embarrassing, raw, primal anger. It was awful and will probably be remembered by us forever. Yikes.

Eventually he calmed down (it took over a half hour), but the rest of the day was spent with raw nerves, teetering on the brink of either Nick, Ben, or myself losing it all together. We were all very hot, dehydrated (despite trying to keep up with fluids), and tired. Not a good combo.

Anyway! We made it to the helicopter fly-by from our highschool friend, Mike! Super awesome!!

Clara, Will, Abram (Courtney's brother), Gabe, Bennett, and Nick at the end of Navy Pier:

Bennett, cooling off. (Literally and figuratively.)

Leaving Navy Pier...hoping changing venue will change the mood.

X can sleep pretty much anywhere, anytime.

Next was a 1 hour architectural river boat tour. Interesting. Nice photo ops (which made me happy). But again - hot, dehydrated, tired, and now add hungry to the mix.

Mallory, about to attack Benny!!

More love between Malmal and Benben.

After the boat ride, we walked 1.2 miles to eat at a great deep dish pizza place Nick had seen on Food Network (Lou Malnati's). It was awesome, and I would have eaten a ton, had I not wanted to vomit. I was so hot, dehydrated, motion sick, and stressed. I'd had it. Nick and Xavier ate (did I mention how good Xavier was the ENTIRE TIME?!), Ben bounced off the walls (his meds had long since worn off), and I contemplated jumping in the Chicago River our way back to the train. (kidding. lol)

When we left the restaurant - it was pouring down rain. No umbrella (of course). Ben decided he didn't want to walk or be carried, and sat down on the sidewalk. 1 mile later, the skies clears up, we found the train station, bought tickets back to Beverly Shores, our friends met back up with us just in time and life was good again. The bag of candy I bought Ben at the train station could have helped with that too. Oh, what!? Give me a break. I was on the verge of a breakdown people!!! ;-p

SO, Chicago was:
uhhh...
memorable.
End of story.

Friday, July 17 (last day)

2009-08-14T00:35:00.002-04:00

We decided to cut out a day earlier than planned for a few reasons (see previous post for most of those reasons. lol). In spite of having a really great time, it just made sense to have an entire weekend at home before having to head back into normal life again. In addition, Ben was ready. Really, really ready to be back home again.

Here are some shots I love from our last day on the beach:

The drive home was just as relaxed and uneventful as the ride there. Hooray for that!

Alright, to summarize the entire vacation, it was unbelievably good to:
1. Hang out with friends who are more like family
2. Unwind
3. Do nothing
4. Do lots of things

We made great memories. And that's pretty much the best thing you can get out of a family vacation. :-)

poor little canon :-(

2009-07-06T21:18:00.002-04:00

This post, along with the following, are a tribute of sorts to my little Canon pocket-camera, which is now sadly out of commission due to an overzealous 5 year old I know. Yes, I realize you may think me silly to be so attached to a camera, but that little wonder and I have been through a lot, and I will miss it. :-(

So, here are some last glimpses of it, in its former glory. Bennett had recently been taking it outside for photo shoots, taking 100's of pictures at a time, and having a lot of fun with it. I encouraged him, because of my own love of photography. Unfortunately, he made off with it unsupervised once, got curious about how the zoom lens moved in and out, and the rest is history. Poop.

We were having fun taking pictures of each other taking pictures...

B's setting up his shot:

And a few of him, just being cute:

park

2009-07-06T19:40:00.002-04:00

Here's some pictures from a trip to the park a few weeks ago. They are the last pictures that my little baby pocket Canon took before Ben manhandled it into extinction. R.I.P., dear old friend...you will be missed :-(

The boys can barely fit in the bike trailer now.

Sand angel!

Xavier loves sand, because it helps him balance while sitting.

Bennett was saying, "what the heck is this thing, anyway?" HA!

And in this one, he's pointing out an airplane.

B took these next two:

The last timed shot from my little Canon. BOOHOO!! :-(

ouch

2009-07-06T19:36:00.004-04:00

We spent the 4th of July at home, just having a little cookout with our family and Nick's parents, because I worked at 3pm. After we ate, Nick was pulling the boys in their wagon - very fast - through our backyard. He does this all the time, but on this go-round, he hit a hole in the yard. The wagon tipped, and both boys flew out a few feet. B popped up right away, unscathed. Xavier fell hard (he can't protect himself from falls...his trunk and arms aren't strong enough) and hit the side of his head.

His glasses didn't break, but they managed to cut up the side of his face, give him a little shiner, and he got some grassburn on his forehead.

He took it like a man, only cried for about 3 minutes, and then just "talked" about it to us for awhile. It was very pathetically cute how he seemed to be saying, "we were going really fast, and then...and then..." :-) Nick finally let me hold him (he wouldn't let me at first, because he felt so bad about it). We were worried about him, because he fell asleep right after it happened. But he was tired before the fall (which was a reason for the wagon ride, we were trying to perk him up)...so we think he was just completely wiped out from all the drama.

Right after:

I didn't want to leave for work. :-(

This was the next day. He was getting ticked at me for taking so many pictures.

And today (2 days out...)

(I love the picture above, even though he has a little black eye in it. :-)

Car rides

2009-07-06T19:32:00.002-04:00

have been (shhh! dare I say it??!) enjoyable lately! Ben has always been a good traveler...Xavier...uhhh...no. But times, they are a changin'! Don't know why, but I'm not going to try to figure it out. Lets just be happy about it.

This comes with excellent timing, as we have a lot of driving to do soon. We're headed on vacation July 11th to a rental house on the dunes at Lake Michigan, and will be taking additional trips into Chicago and Milwaukee from there. Cross your fingers for us, pretty please. :-)

mini golf

2009-07-06T18:26:00.009-04:00

Saturday, June 27, Nick, Bennett, and I met our friends Will, Gabe, Clara, and baby Mallory at a Rinky Dink Minature Golf for a benefit for Akron Children Hospital's Cancer Center.

The weather was super, and we had a ton of fun. I LOVE minigolf, and I hadn't been in a long time. Will mysteriously threw out the score cards at lunch before we tallied up the totals...so we have no idea who won...but I have a feeling the evidence was disposed of because Nick and Will secretly did not want to be beaten by a girl. I totally rock at mini-golf. ;-p

First we golfed. Here's Gabe, Clara, and B waiting to begin our 18 holes:

Me and a half-naked, uncontrollably cute baby:

More cuteness:

Hanging out in the shade, waiting for our turn about mid-way through:

This was B's first time mini-golfing. He was focused. He was driven. And, actually, he wasn't too bad either! It took him from 4-10 shots on each hole. Not bad for never having held a putter before. :-)

Instruction from Uncle Will, with approval from Nick and Mallory.

Lunch from Panera. Yum.

Here's Gabe, Clara, and Ben waiting for our turn at the bumper boats. At this time, I had no idea how soaked I would be in 15 minutes.

Drenched, and trekking to the go-karts:

B was distressed he was no where near tall enough to drive the go-kart.

Nick and Ben:

Nick and Gabe:

Watching Will in the batting cage:

Another first for B :-)

Seizures

2009-07-06T17:59:00.002-04:00

This is what increased number of seizures, combined with a change in seizure medication does to my poor buddy:

He's tired!! For those of you who have known Xavier for awhile, you know he's never been a sleeper. Now, he'll just fall asleep in the middle of an activity. And he routinely sleeps until 9AM or later, which is totally uncharacteristic for him.

His seizures have been changing. Increasing in number (about 15-20 a day), and they look different now too. Anyone would be able to recognize them as a seizure. His arms fly out to the side and pulse in and out a bit, he grits his teeth into a grimace, his eyes go out of focus, and his legs criss-cross straight out in front of him. This lasts for about 10-30 seconds, then he relaxes, and it continues on as a focal facial seizure. He clicks his tongue on the roof of his mouth and stares out of focus for about another 10-30 seconds. They're the same everytime.

He currently takes Depakote and Phenobarbital. After seeing his neurologist a couple of weeks ago, we increased his dose of Phenobarbital. We go this week to have a blood draw to check the level to see if he is in the therapeutic range. So far, I have not seen any improvement in the seizures themselves, or any decrease in their number. This is frustrating and worrisome to us. Updates to come...

Frightening.

2009-06-26T10:05:00.003-04:00

Ummm, yeah. Nick will be promptly teaching him how to shave as soon as the first hair sprouts.

No glasses

2009-06-19T15:07:00.003-04:00

Xavier broke 3 pairs of glasses in the span of a week. Right now, he's wearing his old blue glasses that are over 3 years old, while we're waiting for new glasses to be made. But before I came up with that idea, he was glassesless (is that a word? I just made it one...) for a few days.

He may not be able to see, but he still manages to look very cute. :-)

A first

2009-06-19T14:19:00.004-04:00

in pictures: