More photos

Seth's crazy hair! See it sticking up :)

Ever since Halloween Ben has been obsessed with his clown hat. He needs to know where it is every moment of the day even if he's not wearing it, he usually is though. (So that's a yes, he has been wearing this hat every day for TWO months now!)

Hello, psycho Cal! Not sure what happened to smiling :)

It's beginning to look a lot like Hanukkah!

First night of Hanukkah! (Sunday night)

Snow! Thank goodness for the plow guy (who plowed down our Verizon tower :()

And more snow! See difference from pic on bottom. I think we got another foot or more of snow on Sunday! I can't remember the last time I've seen so much snow all at once. Since it's early in the winter I can say with enthusiasm - What fun! Cal stayed out another hour despite temperatures in the teens!

Ben managed to stay out for 20 mins and Cal was out for an hour 15 mins this first day. We probably got 8-10 inches from this storm (Friday).

Before the downpour of snow!

Seth Babbling

He's a talker!

Chillin', Late but free, and Bolt!

Cal and Ben's gingerbread house

3 months old - already?!

Seth loves this toy, mainly because it's the only one he sees on a regular basis!

• The holidays aren't feeling very magical this year. I think it's the lack of snow. I was excited to see first snow fall, only for it not to stick :( We did however get hit by that big ice storm. Thank goodness for those fireplaces!!! LOVE THEM! We lost power sometime in the wee hours. I was woken by the baby stirring at 2:30am and realized it was oddly dark and then saw my clock was out. After I was awake, it was hard to go back to sleep. Every minute or so I'd hear a big snap and then the thud of the branch with all the ice raining down. I was afraid to change the baby on the changing table because it's right near a window that could possibly have a branch come through it! I was a little freaked out so I woke Eric up and made him come and sleep in the room with us (he normally sleeps in the guest room so the baby doesn't wake him). Anyways, we were SOOOO lucky to get our power back with 8-12 hours. By 10:40am the next morning it was up and running! The fireplaces kept us nice and toasty for the 3.5 hours we needed them. Our neighbors on the street that literally loops around ours didn't get power back until today! Distant memories of the hurricane and being without power for 5 days with a 10-month-old Cal drift back....

• Also, what's up??! Is everyone just slacking this year? Is it the economy? What?! It's December 14th and I have only SEVEN holiday cards...hmmm...to be fair, mine haven't been sent yet...BUT...it's really really not my fault. I ordered my cards from Tiny Prints because every time I got one in the mail last year I said to myself, "Ooooo this one is nice, where from?" and every time I flipped it over I saw the little Tiny Print logo and knew I had to have it this year :) Now these dumb things aren't cheap....but they are for me this year!!! That's right...they may be late but they are FREE!! Coming to a mailbox near you soon...

• I was so bummed when I didn't get to take Cal to his first movie ever. When Eric came home and told me how much Cal LOVED Horton Hears a Who, I could have just cried to not be there. But today I got to take him to his first 3D movie ever so that was cool :) The timing worked out that the baby was fed and I could get away for a few hours so we scurried off to see Bolt! Cal was so excited...he runs around like a psycho...he's so excited at first that he just can't stand still. He even fell flat on his face once. Oy vey! He made it through a good hour and 15 mins before he started asking when it would be over. Only 45 mins of that was the actual movie. They REALLY need to make previews for kids movies shorter or NON-EXISTANT! Anyways, he liked the 3D effect and it was a cute story even for adults. I'm a big fan of going to the movies so I was just happy to be able to take Cal for the experience!
  

All in the Family

Here are all the cousins on my side of the family...We're missing Matt (17) who was too sick to join us for Thanksgiving. From left to right: Clare (2.5), Cal (4), Michelle (15), Seth (3 mos), Alyson (8), Ben (2) and Colin (5.5)

As if he needed another...

• Ben was very excited about his SECOND birthday cake with the edible Doodlebops image. First there was Rooney's blue guitar and now Moe's orange drums! I have to say that this blowing of the candles out went much better than the first where he reached out and touched the flame and then cried :( I refrained from posting those photos...

• We had Ben's physical today. He's growing like a weed: 35 inches (more or less) since that is never accurate and 26lbs 8oz. We were in the same room that he had his flu shot in a month ago so he was not too happy to be revisiting the doctor today but we managed. He also had a re-evaluation on Monday with his speech therapist. I thought for sure we were done with free services but we were granted 2 more months on account of him not doing too well on the S and Z sounds.

• Also had our first successful potty experience on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. Ben was eager to sit on the little potty before a bath and told me he needed to go poopy. He sat and sat and sat which is unusual since Cal was already in the bathtub but he refused to get off until he went pee! Woo hoo. Not making too much of this since I have neither the time or energy to potty train him at this point (and don't think it would be too successful). He's interested and I indulge him when he catches me at a time when I have a second to put him on the potty and wait with him. I'm hoping the whole experience is easier the 2nd time around since he has Cal as the "big brother" who already goes in the potty.
  

Blasts from the past...

Cal's 1st Birthday cake

Cal's 2nd Birthday

Cal's 3rd Birthday

Ben's 1st birthday

So it all started with Cal's 1st birthday cake and the 3D duck. To give proper credit, I did NOT decorate that cake. My sister-in-law Jill did - great job huh?! After that I was inspired to always make a cake and decorate it myself. Now I have to try to come up with good stuff THREE times a year.

Happy 2nd Birthday Ben!!!

Yummy cake!

He didn't put Dee Dee's keytar down all day!

Opening prez

Waffles and balloons for breakfast!

The cake didn't quite turn out the way I wanted. I messed up on the light blue part (not that you'd be able to tell) but it doesn't look like the picture. I also realized late in the decorating game that I was missing my writing tip. So I got a shoddy plastic one from a neighbor and that's way the strings on the guitar aren't straight :( The frosting kept getting clogged in the tip. Oh well...this cake was just for us anyways. We're going with a Doodlebops theme so this is Rooney's guitar. Had I known the keytar was going to be more popular I would have made him a pink one! I'm making Moe's drum set for Thursday's gathering with family...stay tuned!

"Feels Like 9 Degrees"

Brrrr....

This is what weather.com reported it to be yesterday!! I think it was actually 19 but feels like 9. Lovely!! We were getting ready to go to Chuck E Cheese in these pics for Ben's birthday!

My Little Chub-a-lub

• Wow! Days are just flying by!! Seth had his 2 month checkup on Monday (well, 9 1/2 weeks really). He weighs 11lbs 4 oz and is taking after his chubby older brothers quite nicely. He LOVES attention and will promptly reward us with huge smiles and ah-goos and gurgles. He's up to 6-8 hour stretches at night with one wake-up for feeding. I've pretty much mastered this sleep thing by now!!

• Not too much to report....Ben is about to turn 2 this Sunday. What we missed with Cal not having terrible 2s, Ben has decided to fill us in and then some! The kid is a terror. I say that semi-lightly...not so terrible as some toddlers I've seen but I like my children to be well-behaved MOST of the time and lately Ben barely ever is. No, I take that back, he's a perfect angel out in public (well except for his FUN screaming session at the grocery store today. He thought it was funny to see how long he could scream for...meaning at the top of his lungs until he ran out of breath). Other than the yelling, which happens mostly at home and mostly at the dinner table, we are also in the throw food/spitting milk phase. I can't wait for this to end! It's so annoying. I think mostly I haven't been able to nip these behaviors in the bud because I don't have time to! With Cal I could discipline and swiftly take care of problems. Now I sometimes just have to ignore them and move on just to get things done! Oh well...poor, poor middle child. I can see why you get super lenient on the last kid! By that point, you just don't care anymore...

• Cal is doing well. He's learning to write all his letters as he just recently demonstrated to me! I didn't even know. I guess preschool is doing its job :) He continues to be the best big brother there is!

What's all the Buzz about?

Cal had a superhero birthday party to go to where they had to dress up. So he borrowed this Buzz Lightyear costume! He loved it!

Smiles and coos

• Cal and Ben think it's hysterical that they can lay down and have Seth lay on their tummies. I have a picture of Cal and Ben doing this when Ben was a baby too. I should post that. Seth loves all the attention. When he's awake (which still isn't all that often) he is very alert and is smiling and cooing A LOT! He's also experimenting with raising his eyebrows and sticking out his tongue - fun! Seth is even holding his head up and doing a mini-pushup for 30-45 seconds at a time. I was amazed today!!

• I'm sad to see in these pics though that Seth is looking less like a baby and more like a little person these days! I think his "newborn" phase is over :( Boo hoo...I'll never have a tiny critter again. He's definitely made it to the 10lb mark, maybe more. He'll have his checkup in a week and a half.

• In Ben news - he's reached toddlerhood and the terrible 2's in FULL swing. Bring it on! He's a fiesty one that Ben...I'm missing the days of calm, sweet, quiet Benbo. He's quite often the one who's sparking the food fights, screaming matches, and the occasional swats at his older AND younger brothers. He has found lots of ways to test the limits lately: yelling at naptime, spitting milk out, throwing food all over the place, to name a few and being yelled at by mommy doesn't seem to phase him.

• He's also talking up a storm and well out of the "delayed" phase. He was re-evaluated and it looks like they're going to cut us off in another 6-8 weeks. The therapist who evaulated him was great and got him being silly and talking and laughing like crazy last week. He even talked about an activity after they had moved on to the next and she said that was something that is deemed "a 3-year-old" level. Cheers for Ben! He even remembered the activity (popping bubbles with his nose) today when Denise brought out bubbles!

• **It seems the only way I can get paragraphs anymore is to bullet them? Otherwise it all runs together...weird.
  
  
  

Mall Trick-or-Treating

• Since Portsmouth is strange and celebrates Halloween on the night before, we get to do other fun stuff like go trick or treating at the mall on the actual night of Halloween! I'm all for this! It's so much fun...you're warm, you don't have to walk far to get lots of candy, and you get to see tons of kids in costumes...what could be better?

• Ben was much happier on Friday night and willingly put on his costume...all except for the clown nose, it scared him for some reason. I was thrilled to get some pics of him wearing everything and with a smile on his face. He was mesmerized by all the goings-on at the mall and had a ton of fun. He didn't want to take his hat off or give up his bag of candy. He dragged it all around!
  

Happy Halloween!

Trick or treating in 29 degree weather didn't stop Cal!

Ben was so sad...didn't stop crying the whole night :(

He's a candy corn, people, not the pope.

Hehe...

One of the MANY fittings to see if this would work!

Halloween sends our household into stress-filled pandamonia until it's over...thankfully it now is...since we are now known for our costumes and are expected to come up with something good, especially after this year. The main questions we get are:

• How did you come up with that idea? On the internet.
• How long did it take to make? I have no idea since Eric did most of it at night but we started working on it weeks in advance since it's always a matter of trial and error.
• How did you make it? The balloons are attached by duct tape I think. Eric said it took "a long time" to pump all the balloons up. It's a box with lots of hot glue, PVC pipes with foam, and lots of cardboard for support. No, it's not that heavy!
  

Where'd I go?

I will SO miss the days of the awkward head position in the bouncy chair when they're gone :(

• It's been awhile since my last post...I've been wasting time on this little thing called Facebook which I knew would be bad to join but my curiosity got the better of me. Everyone in the world is on that dumb thing EXCEPT the 3 people I actually joined to find. Go figure! So now I think it's bullshit but still waste time on it - oh well. It did get me back in touch with a couple people from far away times and I did find out a friend had another baby I didn't even know about. Hmm...I guess that's when you know you haven't talked to them in so long you aren't even friends anymore!! - startling but true revelation.

• Anyways, we've been very busy around here "standing by" for all the deliveries from our summer purchases. This Thursday will mark the 3rd attempt Jordan's is going to make to deliver a dresser for our bedroom. It's been damaged the last two times. We're working on getting our gas fireplaces installed. We bought an insert for our existing fireplace since we can't deal with wood and then put a cabinet with another gas fireplace in the living room. When they're all in and looking pretty I'll take pictures! Our entertainment center came damaged too and now I have to wait for the "furniture medic" to come repair it. Warning: Never buy a large piece of furniture off the internet...of course, you probably already knew that. It's been weeks of calling and calling to finally have them come repair it when really I just want a NEW and wholesome one! Mmmm..and did I mention that our new flat screen broke a week after it was installed. They came to fix the faulty wiring the day after the Red Sox got knocked out...sorry Eric. Not to mention that the receptionist at Amerigas now probably thinks I'm a lunatic because I asked to NOT have a specific repairman (who creeps me out) come to the house to hook up the fireplaces. Turns out it was him scheduled to be here so I had to make arrangements to not be here by myself all day!

• FLOOR UPDATE: Well, posting that my floors hadn't been cleaned in forever finally gave me motivation to get them cleaned....by someone else! I'm just never going to do it so I hired myself a cleaning lady to come once a month and do all the big stuff (dusting, floors, etc). Not that this is going to save me any time since it's the daily clutter, dishes, laundry that is constant and most time consuming...BUT at least my house will be cleaner.

Good thing for the 1st amendment...

...or this sign would likely have been torched already! This is why we sometimes cringe to live in NH...ugh...the Live Free or Die! state. I cringe when I see that on license plates too. Give me a break! Anyways, we're not sure why a business would post utter ignorance on a very large sign in a very public place but stranger things have happened I'm sure. Among the other asinine things that have been posted recently: "Hamas endorses Obama" and "Barack Obama is from Kenya". These people aren't the sharpest tools in the shed - enough said.

Landscaping update

Here's the house, done for the fall! The rock walls are finished, the front yard got leveled, sprinklers installed, and mulch was put in. It looks gorgeous!! Of course, now our walkway, front steps, and front door look atrocious next to the new stuff :( That'll be a project for another day. Can't wait until spring when we plant and hydroseed. We could use some color!

Leaps & Bounds

If it weren't for the scary red eye the above picture would be good! Oh well. We're closing another crazy week at the Gotlieb household. Ben is sick, still and/or again, I don't know which since he never seems to get better before another cold piles on. After telling a neighbor my motto this winter is "Wait it out", I promptly took Ben to the doctor this morning :) haha...well, to give myself credit, I WAS going to wait on this illness before handing over my $20 for them to sing the song doctors love, "Viiiiiraaaalllll...tra-la-la" but Eric got Ben up this morning and even he said I should take him to the doctor. Now that NEVER happens, and I know you other mommies are with me on this one with dear old dad always thinking we're psycho for rushing to the doctor at every whimper! His ears and lungs were clear but they gave me an antibiotic to treat for a "sinus infection". Hooray! The mother's stamp of approval: ANTIBIOTICS - also known as "See honey, I'm NOT crazy...they gave me medicine!"

So this is likely the last pictures you'll see of Seth for a couple weeks. He's starting to get baby acne as all my kids do at this age and they look horrible! Ben was ecstatic for me to put together Seth's bouncy chair - easy access to pummeling Seth now :) He does swat at him now and then but mostly is still overjoyed when I tell him he can hold Seth. He sits right down, reaches his arms up, and tries to grab him like a sack of potatoes. It's rather comical.

Ben is improving his speech SO much week to week that I don't think they refer to him as delayed anymore. We'll hold on to Denise as long as we can though. It's secretly mom's idea of an "activity" and Ben basks in the one-on-one attention which he doesn't get much of these days. He's using 2 and 3 words now and sometimes sentences, "I want apple too!" He can generally get his point across CLEARLY which is great for all involved. Hooray!

FLOOR UPDATE: It took me over an hour to scrub the food off my dining room floor, but at last, it's clean! One down, 2 more and a hallway to go!