Two Favorite Females

Ben loves his Mama, there's no question about that, but Ava is a close second.  She can get him to laugh like nobody else and he looks at her all the time.  It's a good thing she adores him just as much, she can often be found choosing to play with Ben over other activities.

How Old Are You?

Ben has been super strong from day one and when I gave him a bottle of juice for the first time in his life, only the second bottle he has ever even been near, it wasn't too surprising that he not only sucked the entire thing down without stopping, but he did it while holding it all by himself.  The kid is amazing!

Juice Anyone?

This little guy doesn't go #2 as often as I'd like and when it gets to be day 8 or 9 in between stinky diapers I whip out the suppository and get the job done.  Now that Benny boy is old enough for some less aggressive therapy, I am as happy as a clam.

Slow Down

Wow, this girl has the most scrapes of any of the other kids and today put another scar on her body.  I was getting the kids pumped up about looking at their Halloween costumes online and told them to race upstairs to look at them with me.  I was just sitting down to take my shoes off when Norah barreled into the chair I was in and literally bounced back and grabbed her eye screaming.

There was blood gushing instantly all around her eye and panicking, I screamed for Kyle and was so relieved when I realized he was home! 

He ran in and diagnosed the need for stitched immediately, and I got on the phone with our pediatrician.  Luckily we got it to stop bleeding and slapped a large band-aide on it and flew to the doctor's office.  Our pediatrician wasn't confident stitched could be avoided and was trying to refer us to an E.N.T. for the patch job when he told us to wait a minute and came back with the E.N.T. doctor we would be seeing.

The E.N.T. said he would glue the gash shut and not do stitched after all.  Our pediatrician heard the go ahead from the E.N.T. and Norah was on her back with me holding her arms five minutes later.

She took it like a pro and only freaked a tiny bit when her eyelashes got stuck in the glue and pinned her eye open until the assisting doctor could pull them apart with some tweezers.

All in all it was not nearly as bad as I expected and we even got some McDonald's for lunch on the way home.  We have to keep it dry for 7 days and the glue will flake off some time after that.

I am hoping it doesn't scar, but at least it is in her eyebrow and nowhere else more conspicuous. 

Nice Lights

One of our two-4 year old pendant lights in the kitchen pooped out on us about a month ago.  We brought out an electrician after sparks started flying all of a sudden and the guy told us someone had drilled through the wiring of the light with a drywall screw.  It was obviously not repairable, and that gave me the go ahead to find some replacements.

We happened upon these glass jar lights at one of our favorite stores and when we found out there were only 3 left in the store and back-ordered online, Kyle made an afternoon trip to bag two for us immediately.  It took some time to get the electrician out again to install them, but with Kyle's busy schedule we figured the wait for the electrician would still be shorter.

In the end we made the right decision and the lights were up in about 15 minutes and since we used the same company that wired our house when it was built, the installation was free!  Yum.

Half Birthday

Ava's half birthday just happened to be today.  We didn't realize it until this morning and decided to make a big deal out of it.  We only had brownie mix on hand and since it wasn't her real birthday, cupcakes seemed a little extreme anyway.  She loved all the attention and the yummy dessert and we loved having an excuse to celebrate our sweet Ava.

Ready By 9...

PM!@#!!!  Jack is starting preschool today and was ready last night at 9 o'clock.  He came downstairs fully dressed and wondered why we weren't taking him to his new school as promised. 

We are hoping this new activity will give Jack an opportunity to shine outside of Ava's giant shadow.

His face says it all!

Loose Tooth Alert

Ava woke up this morning saying her tooth was hurting her. I thought it odd when she showed me the general area of her mouth that was hurting and after a second glance I was able to deliver the news Ava has been wishing for since she threw a penny into the wishing well at Disneyland's Toon Town-you have a loose tooth! She couldn't be happier to talk funny and eat even less than before.

New Rooms

Now that we are back from our trip to South Padre, and Ben is way too old to sleep in a closet, we did a little shuffling. Norah is now sleeping in the white crib in Ava's room, while Ben is sleeping in the black one in Jack's old room.

Things are a bit crazy right now, for instance, Norah isn't falling asleep until around 9:30PM, but Ben seems to be digging his new mattress and slept 11 hours straight last night and then went back to sleep for another 3!

The arrangement is also more conducive to showing the house to potential buyers. Girl room, boy room and no pack n' plays in the master closet.

T-Guards

After battling, yes it has been a battle, with Jack over his thumb sucking habit, and trying everything including nothing, we opted for a treatment plan that included strapping a piece of medical grade plastic to his digit and not taking it off no matter what for 4 weeks.  We'll see how it goes...

Can't Get Enough

Jack was much more into this beach than San Diego, from the moment the sun rose in our living room he was asking to go to the beach. In fact he can still be heard around the house mumbling, "I wish I like to go to the beach!" And it's been over a month since our return.

San Diego Shades

While we were in San Diego I told Kyle I really wanted to buy a pair of white Ray Ban's with mirrored lenses. About an hour later, we ran into a shop on the beach that sold them for $5. Best five bucks I've spent in awhile, the shades are super dark and the fit is good-wish I would have bought in every other color available!

Hangin' on the Shore

Ben, Norah and I could be seen most often parked on the shore with sand washing itself hastily into our swim suits. Normally I am not a fan of this position on the beach or having my swimsuit filled with sand, but the amazing water/waves outweighed the annoyance of the sand. Both the temperature of the water and the consistency of the waves were so enjoyable, it was perfect despite the sand.

Norah's face in this picture is classic!

Stayin' Shady

Reusing Jack's old hat, was pretty useless at keeping the sun out of Ben's face well, until this trip. It not only began to fit him quite well, it saved him from the sun while still allowing him to see under it's rim. Our baby Ben is growing up!

Back 'n Forth

Norah was really into keeping her hands free of sand for some reason. Until we got a bucket filled with water and parked it at our camp, she could be seen running back and forth to clean up nearly every other minute. Despite all this exercise, Norah didn't sleep very well at night or at naps-what gives?

Tide Pool

This beach was no different from San Diego for Ava, it had sand and water-she was in heaven. Despite the stiffness of the sand at Padre, Ava was able to dig a huge tide pool and because of it's texture, the pool lasted longer than anyone she had dug before!

Walkin' The Shark

Norah was so thrilled to be in the water once she realized how cool it was, that to keep her from drowning, I invented a game called walking the shark. Basically she and I would drag the shark boogie board along the shore non stop, while chanting "walking the shark" over and over and over. What a cutie!

2-Year Old Alert

Norah was so full of it throughout our trip, it was a little hard to handle at times, but looking at these pictures, it reminds me that she is still two and an incredible one at that.

Always discovering and living life to the fullest! She grew so much on our trip, too, she wouldn't go near the water in the beginning, but by the end, we were extremely cautious about not being right by her side, for fear of her going under the huge waves she was trying to jump.

$16 Shark

The rental had so many beach toys, but no boogie boards. After the second day, Kyle went down to one of the many shops and picked this bad boy up. Everyone used it at least once, good purchase.

Norah Blue

Look at this little girl, the eyes, the lashes, the hair, the tude-she is so awesome!

Not Sleeping

This guy was not very good at sleeping on this trip, he was up in the middle of the night, not taking naps, etc. etc. Fortunately for us, another renter had left this little beach tent, allowing Ben some "down time" while hanging at the beach.

Kakerlake House

This was our rental right on the beach. It was so close and had the right amount of bedrooms and space for our large family, the only drawback it had, was the large amount cockroaches both alive and dead, inside and outside of the house.

The bug situation wasn't that bad, even thought the master bedroom was right next to where the cockroaches were seen most, but having one crawl up my leg while eating dinner at the dining table, was too much for me to handle. I am still fuming and wish someone who reviewed the rental would have mentioned the bugs, because we would have stayed somewhere else.

No One Likes a Frowny Face

Norah was sporting this face quite a bit on the trip. We aren't sure why a trip to the beach could produce this reaction, but it did. She is so cute regardless, but this face was too much!

Shark Tooth

Kyle and Ava found something they were convinced was a shark's tooth. Whatever it was, it was neat and worth keeping.

Beach Bums

We decided when we got back from San Diego that we needed to make another beach run before the end of the summer, especially with the kids asking nearly everyday to go back to the beach. The nearest beach to us, is South Padre Island. It turned out to be a mere 8.5 hours from us and after leaving at 6:30AM we made it to the island around 3:30PM after making only 1 stop.

As soon as we got there, we headed straight out to the water, which was magnificent. I have never been to Hawaii, so this was the best beach experience ever for me. The water was clear and warm, the sand was free of seaweed and jellyfish.

All in all, I loved the beach, Kyle was hoping for softer sand, but the kids didn't seem to mind it at all.

Without You...

Ava and Jack were troopers, they are the oldest kids and therefore less stressful than the younger two (sometimes). Thank goodness for my small helpers while Kyle was gone.

We Missed You

Kyle needed to take a trip to California to meet with some clients and hit up a wedding for one of his law school classmates. It was a whirlwind trip with him leaving super late Wednesday and coming back the middle of the day on Sunday.

It couldn't have been harder the first two days to take care of everything and the kids even with me taking one meal off a day. Ben's weird sleeping schedule was making me so tired and impatient for Kyle to come back.

In the end, things worked out and Kyle came home on time. We made him a cookie to celebrate his return and I think despite him also being tired, we were all excited to be together again.

1st Haircut

While Kyle is out of town partying it up in California, I am at home making good use of my time.  Ben has had some of his hair since birth and those hairs are not providing him the cutest do.  Today I took matters into my own hands and buzzed his hair down to the same height and blended the back a bit.  He didn't mind it too much with all the distracting Ava was in charge of and the end result is more full and even at the same time.