One more try!

It ain't easy keeping up the 'ol blog!  It's like trying to make yourself floss...

Ben and Brannic playing in the sand.

Nevertheless!  I like checking out other people's blogs now and then; it may not always be the best writing, but to see so many different people's voices...it's at least interesting.  So, I'm giving it the 'ol middle aged effort.  And yes, I know I used " 'ol" twice already, but they were both very appropriate uses, so get over it.

Ben is in 4k now.  He's very smart, prolly a little too smart because, as always, I have a tendency to think of him as older than he is and then treat him accordingly.  He's been able to tie his own shoes since just past 4.  Able to write words, sometimes complicated ones, fairly accurately (phonetically only of course).  He even throws the right vowels in now and then, which I'm told is very rare for being four.

He loves doing experiments and making recipes.  The experiments vary, but the recipes always include sugar and pepper.  Always.

He is back into leggos and likes making spider traps in the basement using various sharp objects like thumb tacks and screws.

The biggest change in his life at the moment is that our neighbor and Ben's best friend, Brannic, is moving to Canada within the next couple weeks.  This will leave Ben with no close friends outside of school.  Unfortunately for Ben, I'm no good at hooking him up with other kids to play with either, unlike my sister who finds kids all over for her son...  I think part of the problem is that I am not a big fan of just sitting around and chatting, which is what stay at home mom's like to do.  So play groups make me want to jump off a bridge and most parents don't want to just drop their kids off to play for whatever reason (prolly the all permeating fear of your neighbor that our current society has allowed to seep in...) so they want to stay and chat.  Root canal anyone?

Julia is a little sweetie.  And ridiculously headstrong.  She just turned 18 months and can get her own socks and shoes on.  This success has spurred her to greater heights and allowed her to get her own pants on (up to just below the diaper, and usually backwards) and her own shirt on (head and maybe an arm, though more than likely the arm ends up through the head hole).  While all this is great, she will NOT let me help her.  Ever.  So when we are in a hurry and I have to just get the stuff on her, she grips it with all the power of a mighty year and a half year old and makes me rip the shoe or shirt or whatever out of her pudgy little hand.  You'd think that'd be the end of it, but she's also quick, so the second I get it away, there's the other hand flashing in to lock back on.  She's the rottweiler of 1.5 year olds.  When I finally manage to get it on her, she howls with defeat.  Until she sees a stuffed puppy or pooh bear.  Then it's ok again.

Both kids are very tall.  We just had to get Ben a new wardrobe of mostly 5T stuff, and Julia (remember she's 18 months) is wearing 2T pants and 3T shirts.

Beth is pregnant, if you didn't know, and still working 6:30am to 7:30 or 8pm every day.  She doesn't really have a choice in the matter unfortunately.  It may improve a bit when she hits the next level of doctorhood this summer....but I kinda doubt it.

I am taking care of the kids and attempting to keep the house clean on a daily basis.  This blog is now helping me avoid the latter, but the cleaning is for my wife, so I will try to make sure that this blog is the only procrastination I allow...

More to come?  Well, you start flossing and I'll keep writing and we'll see who can last longer!