Present Extravagnza continues...

Here are some pics from our family holiday gathering and/or Cal's birthday bash. Despite popular belief, the cake is supposed to be the moon and not the earth. Still, it came out pretty good, no? I threw one pic in of me and Ben opening gifts. Although Ben mostly sat on my lap happily eating his snack and didn't have a care in the world about all the toys I was opening for him. Below: Both boys are eagerly awaiting cake!!!!!

CAL IS THREE!

Cal woke up on December 27th and told me, "Mommy I'm not 2 anymore!" Apparently along with 3-dom comes ESP. When I told him there was a surprise waiting for him he said, "Is it balloons?" Yup! Balloons and this brand new "jump-o-line" as Cal calls it. Ben likes to get on this silly thing and go crazy too! Good exercise for winter!

Here's another surprise - Buzz lightyear (Ben is holding him) and his spaceship and the new road mat to drive all his cars. Cal is very into the moon and space so he also got a moon that lights up in different phases. We thought this would be a good idea since every night we have to shut off the playroom lights and look for the moon outside. Unfortunately, we can't always see the real one so now we can see it every night with this new toy.

Editing note

I've decided to remove the pictures on the side since it's impossible to keep them next to their corresponding print. I realize this makes some posts not make sense but if you need to read back that far...well, too bad. Now that I know how to put pics in the posts themselves I think that's a better way to do it. I've kept the slideshow of Cal's preschool activities up because it too me far to long to get it on there to even consider taking it down :)

The Crazy Blowup House

It's a shame these are so dark but, well, it was nighttime. There are probably around 80 of these blowup things on this one lawn. Cal loves it! We've been there twice already. It's nutso!!! Top pic shows the right part of the lawn and bottom one shows the left.
Below is Cal's gingerbread house that he made on Friday at Zoe's with the help of me and his friend Jake. Cal was a total pro since he'd just done this the day before at preschool. He had placing the candy, licking frosting from his fingers, eating a piece of candy (or two), and then getting more, down pat!

SNOW!

Daddy and Cal out in the snow this morning after a nightfall of 6 inches (1-3 my ass!). Luckily, mom's the one with the viral illness this time - puking all night a couple nights ago - so dad gets to do the shoveling! I guess that's not really so lucky! haha...We hear there's a real Noreaster coming with predictions of 10-12 inches. Better get someone to plow real soon!

A note on the holiday cards...

As you might have guessed there were many outakes to get one just right for the card. The lights were supposed to be illuminated and I even tried pictures in the dark but then every time the kids moved it blurred the blue hanukkah lights (as Cal refers to them). I think it's funny that my not yet 1-year-old son was allowed to have a candy cane in the name of a cute holiday picture before he was allowed to have dairy products!! He went to town on it!! PS. Ben's my little sugar plum and Cal's the spice of life!! Although once Ben is walking and talking I'm sure he'll be a little devil just like Cal :)

It's Over!

Phew! Hanukkah is over. The last of the presents were ripped open and now it's on to the next big thing - Cal's 3rd birthday! He's very excited to have cake. Here are a couple of pics of Cal with some of his new hanukkah presents. Thanks to Grammy Gotlieb we now have a whole family of beloved, homemade hand puppets. Starting from top left, that's Penelope (Penny), Webster, Fitzgerald (Fitzy), and Fiona. And then Cal with his new "shake and go" Cars. The more you shake them, the further they go! We have lots of fun racing them.

Ben has found his calling

When asked if Ben wanted to be a doctor...this was his response. I guess that's a pretty clear NO WAY! Hmm...maybe this has something to do with his doctor's visit on Friday and his 1 year shots. Cal was very excited for Ben's shots and asked the doctor every 2 mins if "it was time yet". Haha...Cal also wanted to know if we could have lunch at the doctor's office. He didn't believe me when I told him that there wasn't any lunch there and insisted he ask. He told me, "Mom, just let me ask them, ok?" Ok, ok. Sure enough, first thing out of his mouth when the doc walks in is, "Do you have any lunch here?" Luckily, the doctor agreed with me :) No lunch. Anyways, Ben is a very healthy 1 year old weighing in at 20lbs 2.5 oz and 29.5 inches although who knows on the height. They can never get that very accurate.
This is more Ben's style! I think he wants to become a chef! He has a blast with all the food toys and putting things in and taking them out of the cabinets, oven, and refrigerator.
Washing dishes in the sink...
He's actually waving to himself in this picture...I'm not sure why?!

Hanukkah!

The boys are loving all their presents from Hanukkah. They've gotten books, puzzles, DVDs, and toys, toys, and more toys! I need to do an overhaul of the playroom. It sort of got one once we set up the new Grand Deluxe Walk-in Kitchen. They've already spent hours in the kitchen playing with the new coffee maker, mixer, and blender. As Cal says, "They really work mommy!". Yes, indeed they do. The coffee maker is a bit of a mess but we limit the water he can have in it. He likes to have a little water in the sink to "wash the dishes". That's Ben's favorite part too. Our funny story of the season is that one day I left the hanukkah stockings up in the playroom. I thought they wouldn't bother them since Cal knew he only got one present from there a day. Well, I was wrong. I left them to play while I quickly started dinner one night. In the 5 mins I was gone they, I say "they" but I really mean Cal, had opened 4 presents - 2 of his and 2 of Ben's. The only reason he hadn't opened more was because he couldn't get them out of the stocking! Ben was sitting amidst the torn paper with a goofy smile on his face throwing around the paper - too funny!

Snow Day!

Finally, here's the picture from last Monday's snow day. That's Emily in the front, then Zoe, then Cal. He had a blast playing next door while mommy shoveled. There was one minor mishap when all the kids went in back of the neighbor's house to play on the swingset. I noticed all the girls came around the front a little while later but no Cal. I waited for about 5 mins and then decided Cal would not want to play back there by himself so I trudged over to find that he was stuck on the top part of the swingset and couldn't get down! Hahaha...he wasn't too traumatized. As soon as he saw me he started yelling, "Mommy, help me! I'm stuck!" and I didn't even see where he was at first so it was kind of comical. The girls thought he was still playing and didn't realize they'd left him where he couldn't get down. Poor thing!

HOORAY! for Preschool...

After devoting, WAY WAY too much time to figuring out how to put this dumb-ass slideshow on the blog, I finally did it!!!! I don't even want to admit how many hours this took me, so I hope everyone enjoys it. All pics are of Cal doing various things at preschool. He's had quite the first few months! They go on one fieldtrip per month...so there's pics of his trip to Applecrest to go apple and pumpkin picking. I went with him for this one. This month they went to the library but I haven't seen any shots from that yet. His teacher, Miss Carla, is pictured with him in his costume if you're wondering which one is his teacher. She's great about taking lots and lots of photos and as a camera-happy person myself, I totally appreciate this. How else would I get to capture the preschool years?! He has a blast there and I've gone a few times to "observe" him myself. They have a room with 1-way mirrors where parents can go whenever they please and see what happens during the day. I don't know if other parents go, so they probably make comments about the crazy mommy that comes in all the time (actually I've only been twice) but it cracks me up to watch him so I go. Anyways, they have visitors at school too - one of the kids dad is a firefighter so they learned about fire safety. I was impressed when he came home and showed me how to STOP, DROP, and ROLL, covering his eyes and everything! They've had the police officer at school come, a dog trainer, and someone from the wildlife preserve who brought the snake that Cal's touching, turtles, and an owl. Recently they had a bear hibernation party where they dressed in pajamas and brought in their favorite stuffed animal. There's the cutest picture ever of this but I don't have it yet. And just this week they played the dreidel game and Cal has been lighting the menorah since he's the only one to celebrate hanukkah at school. Take note of how many pictures Cal is sucking his thumb in!

'Tis the season

Mom's sick and tired too! Ben and I are just getting over yucky colds. It doesn't help that I've frantically been trying to finish my holiday card addressing and wrapping of all the hanukkah presents for the boys. It took me two and a half hours of hauling out all the things I'd bought, sorting, arranging who gets what on what night, and then wrapping and labeling. Eight crazy nights start tomorrow!! We've got blue lights decorating the picture window, Manny the Menorah is out, and I put eight candles (battery operated to boot) in different windows that we'll light for each night. It's about all the decorating I could handle this year. And just in time for all the holiday craziness, we got a couple inches of wet, slushy snow last night. Since my husband has been writhing in pain since yesterday (etiology still unknown - details later), I was the lucky one who got to shovel the entire driveway - woo hoo. I guess we'll both be in pain tomorrow. Cal had a blast playing with all the neighborhood kids who were home for the snow day today! Hmmm...homebound today and no stamps for the holiday cards, isn't that always the way?! USPS.com here I come...PS. My card list is WAY too long this year. I'm keeping track and those I don't get cards from this year are getting the ax! wahahahahaaaa

I'm sick, I'm tired...

...and I don't like this weaning business! Poor little guy. This is from the other day after naptime when instead of the warm, snuggly comfort of mom, he got plopped into his stiff highchair and handed a cracker and a sippy cup of milk. He took one look at the cracker, one look at me and then started bawling uncontrollably. After about 5 mins he gave in and started timidly nibbling at the cracker. He was still a little pissed at me in this pic! It's hard for mom too :( He's a wonderfully good eater though. I'm lucky to have another garbage disposal the second time around. He's been eating everything from lemon picatta tilapia to spinach and artichoke quesadillas - Go Ben! His favorite so far seems to be stuffed shells, yum! In other news, he's getting closer to walking on his own these days - constantly looking for grownup hands to hold on to and zoom around with. He's got much better balance now. I figure he'll be off on his own in a few more weeks. I realize Ben is getting a lot of webtime lately. More on Cal to come!