I Almost Forgot

To ring in turning 4 years old, Ben got married. He and Lexi (next door), had a beautiful fall wedding (that's what Lexi said). They had leaf decorations with sticks and twig center pieces. The bride wore a lovely white veil and purple princess dress and carried a lovely bouquet of daisies. The groom wore muddy fleece and dog poop shoes and carried a big stick. The bride had some trouble with a run-away groom a few times, but once she trapped him in the garden, she was able to make it down the aisle to her waiting groom. It was kind of a last minute affair, so we were not able to hire a photographer. I believe there is one picture floating around somewhere on an iPhone, though. If I get a hold of it, I'll post the picture of the cute couple.

Happy Birthday, Ben!

Ben is officially a 4 year old now. But man, the first day of 4 was a rough one. Ben started out the day by waking up early, sneaking into the kitchen and taking a huge bite out of his birthday cake I had left on the counter. Well, that led to a morning of time-out in his room which led to a nap while I ran to the store and made another cake. Both boys napped and Adam had to go into work while I decorated Ben's Captain America cake. Then both boys woke up, while I was still finishing up the cakes, so they were left to play in the living room by themselves. Well, somehow Ben got mad at Nick and Nick ended up with a big puzzle piece to the eyebrow, resulting in blood shed. Ugh. So, that resulted in more time out and the faux cancellation of his mini-party. Which led to tears. Ben might have been a little dehydrated today from all the crying. 

But, by the end of the day, he more or less pulled it together and we had the Secrest's over for dinner and cake. Luckily, Adam was able to make it home for dinner. Ben's mini party was a combination Jake and the Neverland Pirates (because Walmart had some cute stuff) and Captain America (because it was a pretty easy cake to make). 

He is still so weird about singing Happy Birthday. He does the same thing at other kids' birthdays, too. Blowing out the candles was a group effort. Maybe all the hyperventilating and crying throughout the day left him a little short of breath. Sorry for the bad singing!

Here's to hoping that the first day of 4 was a fluke and not going to be the norm for the next 364 days!

Me Too!

And this is how 2 year olds break their arm. Once Ben had finished riding his bike, Nick had to have a turn. I guess we will be looking for a 10"or 12" bike for Nick at the garage sale this year. 

The Most Important Thing

So we are at Toys R Us trying to pick out a bike and what happens? Ben gets totally distracted by the safety cones and signs. It is the only thing he is focused on - forget the bike, forget the horn, forget everything but the safety sign. I wasn't sure we would be able to get him to ride his bike without it, so we picked up a safety sign. It had to be placed in the driveway before Ben would get on his bike. 

The Bike!

Saturday was a beautiful day for mid-January - 60° and cloudy - so we decided to get Ben's bike a day early so he could enjoy it. We took him over to Toys R Us and let him pick out his bike. He said he wanted a blue one. We ended up getting him an 18" which is just a smidge too big, but will probably be perfect by spring/summer. Well, the only blue bike they really had in that size just happened to be an Avengers bike! Perfect!

Ben helped daddy put his bike together. It took them about 10 minutes.

He was a little whiny when he first got on and tried to start, but once he figured out how to petal and not apply the brakes, he was off! He rode for about 15 minutes before he went onto the next thing but then once our neighbor Lexi came out, they were racing their bikes around the cul de sac and showing off his mad biking skills. He did fall a few times, but no tears. He just got back on and took off again! Hopefully he'll remember the next time he gets to ride his bike which probably won't be until May!

It was such a nice day, Ben ended up playing outside with Lexi for almost 5 hours! A great way to spend a January day!

Playing Trains

One of the things the boys played was trains. For some reason they crammed into a tight space in front of me, between the ottoman and the coffee table for this. But they played trains for probably 30 minutes together and we had no issues other than Nick getting in Ben's space a few times. I did some toy rotating and organizing. It is amazing to me how much they are playing with toys they haven't touched in months!

A Night of Play Time

Tonight the boys played with just about every toy in rotation. They played together for 3 hours non-stop. There was no yelling and no fighting. They were 'going camping' when I got home. Then Ben had to cook dinner with his camping equipment. Then they played animals and cars and trains, bowling, and built with blocks. And amazingly, every thing was cleaned up and put away in its proper box by the time the boys went to bed! 

More Bouncing

Nick has been wired in the evenings lately to the point of being in time out a lot in order to settle down. He took out some of his energy on his bouncy horse.

Water Optional

Nick hasn't gone swimming in a week, so he had to improvise. I particularly like the arm swinging before jumping. Helps get more air time. 

Pants Optional, Apparently

Nick has officially come into his pantsless phase. Every night this week I came home to a pantsless child. He now goes into the bathroom and acts like he wants to sit on the potty, so we take off his pants and diaper, he sits on the potty for 2.5 seconds and then he jumps up and runs away as fast as possible. You will notice a lot of half naked Nick in future posts. 

Just Hanging Around

Last Friday we went over to Playland with Little Ben next door. Nick figured out how to swing on the rings and did it several times, sometimes with my help and sometimes by himself. He could hold on for quite a while.

Still A Very Trying Activity For Me

Decorating cupcakes or cookies with the boys is still a very trying activity for me. I just can't handle the 'Ben Method' and we won't even begin with the 'Chaokolas Effect' that is Nick decorating anything. Anything Ben 'decorated' was deemed to be edible by only Ben, which meant Ben had like 6 cupcakes to call his own. Nick just ate anything he could get his hands on. Needless to say, Ben was pretty happy with just sugar sanding the cupcakes and not going the whole nine yards of creating billiards balls. 

Hello, Cupcake

I have an app on the iPod called Hello, Cupcake. It is based on a cupcake decorating book and it shows videos on how to decorate cupcakes various ways. Ben loves to watch the videos. Saturday he asked if he could make the billiards balls cupcakes. I figured what the heck, so we made cupcakes. Nothing fancy, just straight up chocolate cake mix from the box and Thursh's frosting (which can always be found in my freezer).  Ben even sported his chef outfit for the baking adventure. I also got out the remote for the camera. I believe Ben may have had more fund with the camera remote that with making cupcakes. He took 50 pictures of himself in about 1 minute. I deleted almost all of them because they were the exact same thing, 50 times over. 

Action shot - scooping batter, while taking a picture with the remote. 

The Many Animations of Nick

We all know we love a good Nick crying face - they really are priceless. Here is a sampling of other Nick faces (again, modeling so I could practice with my speedlight)

My personal favorite, the finger thinking pose.

'Huh, you don't say...'

'Oh my goodness, would you look at that!' 

And smiles for mommy

Bucky and Trucks

Last week Nick gave me the opportunity to play with my flash some more while he played with his Bucky ship and trucks. We even figured out how to use the flash and the remote shutter release! Nick loves playing with Bucky and his trucks. I cleaned out the toy room and started a toy rotation and they do seem to be playing with their toys a lot more. The boys have also been playing very well together...Sometimes a little too well resulting in chaos that leads to timeouts, but what are you going to do?