Uh-Oh, Computers!

Ben has become quite the vocal little man, always babbling and no doubt telling me many interesting things that I just don't "quite seem to get". As for real words, he can sort of say Alex, he did pick up a toy phone and say hi. Last night I got him to say uh-oh. The best part is the crazy face he makes when saying it, really emphasizing the "oooooooh".

As for Alex, he has decided that he would like to have his own computer. It happened like this:

We were talking about teaching him to write. He seemed all for it and we said that once he could actually write out letters we would create an email address for him. On route to the post office Alex and I continued this conversation. Out of the blue he informed me that he needed his own computer if he was going to have his own email address. Hmmm, I think not.

These guys are too smart for me!

Art Projects

It was quickly pointed out to me that I have NOT been keeping up with this silly little project of mine. Hmmm, I guess people read this stuff afterall.

You may be wondering just what's been happening these last 3 weeks, NOT MUCH! Alex helped me plant a bunch of sunflower seeds last weekend. A bunch being roughly 300 seeds. They are sprouting and I can't wait to get them into my garden. He also helped me plant a blueberry bush and a raspberry bush. Next on the garden agenda, strawberrys, herbs and some veggies (thanks Steph for the veggie seeds!!)

But, the real point of this post is a special shout out to Aunt Stephanie and Uncle Michael. Thanks for entertaining Alex yesterday. His PMS (that would be Post Michael Syndrome) was not too bad today. For the rest of you that weren't here, yesterday was art project with Alex day!! It was a bit too cold to play outside so Aunt Stephanie had the awesome idea of spending the day with the kiddos doing art. Ben sat and colored with crayons until he just couldn't stay awake anymore and Alex got to dig into his special art box and go hog wild. We painted, and glued, and stamped, and cut, and punched holes, and everything else you can think of. I've got a stack of art to do "something" with now. I'll try and remember to get pictures and post them at some point (along with all of the other pictures that I'm supposedly going to post...)

Anyway, we really did have a great day and Alex just loves to create. He's been talking about the "projects" all day long.

New Shoes

In an effort to keep up with my goal of 1 - 2 posts a week, I thought it was time for a new one. I don't have a whole lot to write about. The weather is doing its crazy central Texas thing - 80 degrees yesterday, 45 today, 30's tomorrow, and back up into the 60s/70s Tuesday. Man these temp swings can be tough. Summer clothes never totally get packed away. Ahh, but you don't want to hear about the weather.

We bought Ben his first pair of "real" shoes yesterday, which is actually his second pair. The shoes he had been wearing were pedipeds. For you non-moms out there these are soft soled shoes, supposed to be good for those little toesies when the kiddos are learning to walk. I bought them because Ben was standing and I didn't expect him to be taking off walking quite so soon. But he did and the shoes actually worked out really well for him. That was back in the beginning of Oct.

As you well know, kids feet grow faster than any other part on their bodies apparently. I took stock of Alex's old cast off shoes and loaded the boys in the car. Off we went to Sandy's - best place in town for kid's shoes. Ben's got big feet! Alex's old shoes were either too small or too big, Ben happened to be in that one size that we never bought for Alex.

I'd like to say that Ben adjusted to his new real shoes immediately. My normally smiley baby had no problem with me or the salesperson putting the shoes on his feet but he absolutely refused to stand, for anything. Sandy's is a great shoe store, and it's got a fantastic selection of toys too. Nothing in that store would get Ben to stand. So, I left the new shoes on his feet, paid for them and carried him next door to the best toy store in town. He finally stood at the train table with Alex and Daddy. He tripped a couple of times when he first started out, but he's a pro now. I guess he just needed to have the old shoes out of sight/out of mind!

Side note to all of this. We hadn't planned on going into the toy store. Well we did initially but Alex was being a crab so we decided he didn't quite deserve the treat of Terra Toys. But, his incredibly wet diaper leaked and I didn't have a change of clothes. Normally not a big deal but we did have other things to do and couldn't let Alex be uncomforatble in wet pants all afternoon. Terra Toys just so happens to carry a little boutique line of childrens clothes. While Mike took Alex to go buy diapers (yep forgot to bring the diaper bag) I went on the hunt for a pair of pants that wouldn't bankrupt me. I finally found a pair that was obscenely expensive (considering that I rarely pay over $4 or MAYBE $5 for clothes for the kids). It would be fitting if I said that the pants were poorly made and a huge waste of money. They fit Alex better than any other pants he has and they are cute and well made and I'll be able to pass them on to Ben. Expensive, yes, but worth every penny.

Happy New Year!

Here are some funnies for the first day of 2009:

I've bookmarked my own blog in my browser favorites list, complete with a typo. It says "Christina's Bog" - a subliminal message maybe??!!

A couple more Alexisms:

• When Alex wants us to read him a story he says "You can talk it to me". This really means that he wants us to actually read all of the words instead of just flipping through quickly and looking at the pictures.


• When he accidentally gets a little bit of cat hair in his mouth he says "I have some cat in my mouth".

And Ben, well he's always mister smiley and everything he does is funny.

Have a great 2009 everyone! I'll try my best to update a little more frequently than I have in the past couple of months.