Happy St. Patrick's Day

This lovely rainbow appeared first thing this morning in our backyard today.* 

Makes me want to get in the car to go find a leprechaun.

Well it looks like we already caught one.

*Please don't mock my horrible photoshopping skills.

Rainbows & Robots

I found these two pictures of Peter showing off his letter 'R' crafts from preschool with Brittany.

Rainbows & Robots. 

So clever! I think we found his next Halloween costume.

Gone Fishing

For Presidents Day (I know I'm a few weeks late) we did a few projects around the house and then met up with some friends at Apollo Park to go fishing. 

Peter was so excited. Mainly because Daddy was home.

And even though our catch was a big fat zero, we still had a great time.

Benji was pretty tired since we went during naptime, but he enjoy watching all the commotion.

Once home again however, he perked right up when I let him go for a ride on Peter's four-wheeler. He'll sit there and ride for quite a while if I push the button for him. 

The Banjo

For some time now Travis has been pining for a banjo. 

Don't ask me why -- he just has. 

First it was the guitar about 7 years ago, then the ukulele joined the crew last September and now the banjo.

 All his boyhood dreams have now come true.

You have to admit all three look pretty impressive hanging from the wall.

I'm just hoping he doesn't decide he needs a sitar next.

We're running out of wall space.

If You're Happy & You Know It..

Clap your hands! 

Yet another milestone for the baby.

9 Months already

Last week Benji turned 9 months old. We are so proud of our little boy - he's chunked up to 15lbs 2oz (almost a 4lb weight gain in 3 months!) and is literally everywhere. Best of all his heart looks like it is completely fine - no murmur and we are even down to 3 month visits to the cardiologist (much better than every 2 weeks). So far it looks like he won't need any other medicines or treatments. I cannot tell you how good it is to have a healthy baby again.

He's starting to sleep better, still wakes up around twice a night, but we are working on that. I still don't have it in me to let him cry it out yet. This kid might be a touch spoiled. But he deserves to be, right?

Benji's a speedy little crawler and pulls up on everything.

Sporting 4 teeth (with 2 more soon to make an appearance) this kid loves to eat. As long as it doesn't come on a spoon (none of that yucky baby food for him), he will chow it down. Some favorites include: pizza crust, popcorn (pieces that I pick the kernel off of), black beans, and rice crackers. He's also mostly weaned himself and usually just drinks formula now. Which  is sorta sad because I miss those quiet moments with my baby - but also nice that others (I'm looking at you Travy) can take a turn at 2am!

One of Benji's favorite places to play is on my bookshelves. Probably cause I store his toy bins on the bottom shelf. He seems to be fascinated with books and will pull several off the shelf and sit and look at the colorful covers.

Hopefully this means he'll be a bookworm just like his brother and mommy!

I know I'm biased but...

Dang it! That kid is cute!

Potpourri

When I downloaded my pictures yesterday I realized there was a whole lotta randomness contained therein. Probably cause Travis has been either pretty busy with work or out of town the past few weeks and so the boys and I have been trying to stay entertained. Which I think we've done a pretty good job of.

We had stir-fry for dinner last week so last-minute I decided to pull out our Chinese placemats and bowls and have an Asian dinner while listening to some Oriental music.

Peter especially loved eating with the chop-sticks. 

Which should really be called 'poke-sticks' in his case.

Another day, after watching a Bob the Builder episode about recycling, Peter asked to build a bird feeder. It's now hanging in one of our trees and I don't think a single bird has found it yet. Don't tell Peter that tho. He thinks he's saving the entire bird population in our neighborhood.

It kills me how grown up he looks here.

Last week we had a couple days of lovely 70 degree California weather, so we had a picnic lunch outside. And Foxy insisted on joining us. Benji is fascinated by Foxy (Peter too to be fair). Thankfully our sweet kitty puts up with all his man-handling.

Then on Tuesday we celebrated Valentine's Day. Peter made this great picture (with the help of crafty Emily) for me at Preschool.

Good times but luckily Daddy gets home today. Here's hoping he doesn't mind two crazy boys attacking him the moment he walks in the door.

4 Big Ones

Last Wednesday Peter turned a whopping 4 years old. 

Where have the years gone?! They fly, I tell ya.

Sadly, Travis had to be out of town the week of Peter's birthday so I tried to make it extra special for him.

This is what his door looked like when he woke up Wednesday morning.

Only he refused to run through the streamers like a normal kid so they remained taped up on his door until I whacked my arm on his doorknob while bending over to get into his room. 

I still have a humongous bruise on my arm from it.

Peter asked for more Legos and a 'motorcycle that I can ride.' So we got him a motocycle Lego set. 

 The cake -- guess who helped me add the sprinkles?

Travis got home Friday and so we all went as a family to Chuck E. Cheese. All three of my boys were in heaven. Peter probably would have spent all of his tokens on this train 'game' while Benji ate his body weight in pizza crust.

Whereas Travis simply reverted to a child-like state of glee and overstimulation due to all the flashing lights and sugary soda.

Happy Birthday Peter!!

Crusing

This video is specifically for the Grandparents in which I prove that Benji will not hold still for more than a couple seconds at a time. He crawls, he cruises along the furniture -- that kid is always going.