A cute Ben story.

The other night at bedtime I was telling Ben how much I loved him a la 'Guess How Much I Love You'. Our conversation went like this:

Me: I love you!
Ben: I love you, too!
Me: I love you more.
Ben [illustrating by extending his arm]: I love you this much.
Me [illustrating by extending my arm]: I love you this much.
Ben: I love you to the moon!
Me: I love you to the moon and back!
Ben: I love you to the moon and to Mars and to... [insert pause]
Daddy [helping out]: To Pluto...
Ben: To Pluto, and to Mickey Mouse, and to Saturn!

Adorable. I love this kid!

Great allergy news for Caitlin!

Since it's flu season, and the season of H1N1 no less, I wanted to determine whether or not it'd be safe to give Caitlin this season's flu shots and the deciding factor was whether or not Caitlin had an egg allergy. Ben had to opt out for a couple of years due to an egg allergy, and since Caitlin's at greater risk of food allergy because clearly it's in the family, I decided allergy testing prior to administration of a shot that could potentially cause anaphylaxis in an egg allergic person was the prudent route to take.

Anyway, after a brief chat with our new allergist (whom I looooove -- he's so awesome) we decided to go ahead and test for egg and peanut. I am ecstatic to report that Caitlin tested NEGATIVE to both! Woohoo!!!

Such a sweet talker!

Ben, that is. He's way too cute for his own good.

Tonight he found a necklace he made for me last year in preschool, placed it around my neck, then followed with 'Mama, you look pretty with that necklace on.' and rounded off the night by saying, before bedtime, 'I love you, Mama. You're the best mama I've ever had.' as he gave me a big hug. Haha! What a cutie pie, this kid.

School drop-offs

My poor boy. He cries every morning that I drop him off at school. Last Friday, however, we were running late so everyone was inside when we got to school and I just ushered him in, said a quick good-bye, and all was fine. But usually when we arrive on time the kids are in the school yard with a few playing, but many just standing in line waiting to go inside. Most times Ben will bring his bag into line then run back to me sobbing, telling me he'll miss me, and it's so heartwrenching (but I remain calm and don't show any upset myself as I know he'll settle in when he gets inside).

But this morning. Oh man. My heart was bleeding for my boy. He said good-bye to me at the gate, we had a hug, talked about the fun stuff he does at school, and off he went. He stood against the wall with the other kids outside, in line, waiting to go in. But when I looked at him I could see he was fighting back tears and wiping them away. And then his face began to contort and I knew he was crying. He tried so hard and couldn't hold it in, yet he didn't come back to me. He was trying so hard to be strong. I so wanted to just give my boy the biggest hug ever and hold him forever.

Commando crawling and other stuff

Caitlin's been crawling the last little bit. She's not up on her hands and knees, but rather drags herself around using her forearms while pushing with her knees and feet AKA 'commando crawling'. She really gets around too! It's so much fun watching her explore and the things she gets into. She's fascinated by door stoppers and heat vents. And she's stealthy! I couldn't find her this morning! Eventually I located her under the dining room table. I think I'm in trouble with this one! Not to mention her love of scavenging 'floor food'. The other day I found her picking out and eating puffed wheat from my floor sweepings. Yum.

She's also able to push herself up into a sitting position from her tummy. I think she's been strong enough to do it for a while now, but only recently figured out the logistics.

Ben has to guard his HotWheels at all times. I call Caitlin 'my little magpie'. She loves shiny bobbles, and especially shiney bobbles with wheels.

Caitlin also had her first swim at the public pool this past week. She loved it! We have another water baby on our hands. :)

A long overdue photo update

I'm sorry I've been so negligent! I find myself much busier these days that the blog is being a bit ignored. Not to mention that I find use Blogger a bit annoying, cumbersome, and time consuming to format, so I've been hoping to find time to transer everything to Wordpress in hopes that it'll make publishing quicker and reduce the amount of formating time.

Anyway, enough about my Blogger woes. Here's the good stuff - a bunch of photos of the kids! :) (Plus a few with Grandpa and Nanny taken during their visit in late August.)