Budgies, Weees and Dohs

Come over to our place and these are the words you might hear right now. Nate is starting to get very, very vocal and what's coming out is just too sweet and funny. He's still using his signs frequently and often uses them as he's speaking the word as well, for added clarification I think. Ben did this too with the signs and I know it's just how they process it, and I think it's the cutest thing in the world.

Nate's most popular words right now are as follows:

Budgies - sounds like "budge - eees" - The name for bunnies. This is mainly in reference to Annie's Bunny Grahams and Max and Ruby, (the cartoon) but is applied to all bunnies.

Weees - Sounds like "Weeeeeeees!" - The word for Slide. Nate's favorite activity at any playground is the slide, no contest. Thankfully we've also got a small slide in the backyard just right for him, so we don't have to drive to a playground to enjoy the Weees. At the playground today I asked him if he wanted to go down the slide, his response was a very clear head shake NO! followed by pointing at the slide and saying "Weees!" I then asked, "Do you want to go on the Wees?" He nodded vigorously.

Dohs - Sounds like "Dohs" as in Playdoh. Nate says this while pointing his finger, or wagging it. He's most often seen wagging his finger at the floor and saying "Doh! Dohs!" in a very stern voice. It sounds silly because you can probably guess what word this is, but it took Tim and I a while to figure it out. We believe this word is Don't. Where the finger wagging came from though I'm really not sure. I don't wag my finger at the boys.....at least I don't think I do.

Simplify - Can We?

Maybe it's because Spring is starting to show signs of arriving or maybe it's Cabin Fever gone wild but for some reason lately I've been really feeling the need to simplify our lives. By that I mean reduce the amount of stuff in our home and reduce the amount of time that we spend doing "nothing", like watching tv and surfing the web aimlessley. I took the first step in this process yesterday and called the cable company and reduced our cable. They haven't come to switch it yet, but are supposed to "sometime this week" so we'll go from having 72 channels to about 20 - essentially just the major networks and PBS. I like to think that I'm really ok with this but that's easy to say when I still have access to the 72 channels. My main motivation for reducing our cable is that it will reduce the number of shows that Ben can watch and hopefully reduce the amount of time he spends watching tv. I know I could limit how much he watches, I get that - I'm the parent yes, thanks for pointing that out. But we've been trying to let him learn his own boundaries more and realize the consequences to his choices so that he understands cause and effect and so that he's not just hearing us say No. My theory is, if we only have PBS for kids shows during the day he'll be more inclined to shut the tv off and find something else to do. As I type this, he's actually shut off the tv (after realzing he didn't want to watch Nick Jr) and is in the playroom enjoying his castle and its figures. So we'll see how this pans out.

I'm also hoping to go through the house and get rid of clothes that we don't wear, magazines we aren't reading anymore etc. There's something very freeing about that idea, about not being tied down to a bunch of stuff. I also love the idea of not having hampers full of clothes that we never wear but need to be washed, or of my cupboards being full of dishes and mugs that we rarely use. I want it gone, I want that space back and not to fill with other stuff but just to be empty space. Plus, I'll bring everything to Goodwill where someone else can use what we donate and enjoy it. That's better for us, for the person who gets it and for the item - at least it'll be appreciated. Now I just have to actually do it! No better time to start than now huh? That said, I will stop blogging now and get to work.

Sick, sick, sick

This winter has been soooo long and so snowy, even for Maine. We've been battling cabin fever and doing a pretty good job of it too. Now that we've passed the spring equinox I was really hoping that it would start to feel like spring and we'd be outside again, playing, walking, running - basically anything except being cooped up in the house. No such luck.

The weather here is still freezing. We're excited that it might hit 40 today. Ok, it's still COLD. AND, there is a good two feet of snow still all around our driveway and in the backyard. So it feels nothing like Spring to us. To top that off we are stuck inside because we're all sick. I came down with some weird stomach thing on Friday and it's still kicking around a big. I don't feel sick to my stomach anymore, but I've been having bad stomach pain, like the pain that sent me to the hospital last summer - so of course I'm paranoid that something bad is coming. Nate came down with the stomach bug on Saturday night. He seems to be doing better today, but he was sick again last night and so I'm raelly not sure. Of course, just when I think we're coming out of it, Ben woke up puking at 1am this morning. Poor kiddo. So, we're holed up in the living room with saltines, juice and blankies. We're attempting to find a movie to watch and hoping that this bug passes soon. I'm annoyed that it's not feeling Spring-like outside right now, but if we have to be inside suffering with a bug I'd rather it be cold and unwelcoming outside. The snow and wind make the couch look a lot friendlier.

Happy Birthday!

So, Ben is officially five now. 5!!! Five!!! five? I admit I'm having a little trouble processing that. Especially considering that I was pretty young when we had Ben, it just feels a little strange to see him as five years old, a school-age child and to realize how much time has passed. He's very proud and excited to be five. He received his very own library card this week which was a big milestone for him. Plus, it means we can borrow more things from the library now, since I have my card and he has his. Above are a few photos from his birthday party that we had at the Children's Museum a few weeks ago. We all had a blast. I only wish that it could have lasted longer. This was Ben's first real bday party and it was such an amazing feeling to celebrate his birth and life with our friends and family.

Political Spin

My head is spinning with political spin and coverage. I'm still totally confused by the results of Super Tuesday-I mean, litterally, yes I understand them, but I'm feeling conflicted. I think I lean more towards Hillary as far as the issues go, yet at the same time I'm really pulled by Obama as well. I've taken a bunch of online quizes to help determine which candidate's stances on the issues matches mine. Every time I come out with Hillary but only by a few points. I'm not worrying about it by any means but it is interesting to see it all play out.

I DO worry that the democratic party is getting divided and as the saying goes 'divided we fall'. I'm so scared of seeing this country run by McCain. For our troops to stay in Iraq indefinetelty and so many other sad results. We need a change and it's certainly the buzzword of this election, but who do you think we really deliver on that promise?

Tell me what you think if you feel. There's also the Ron Paul campaign plugging along (the man terrifies me - if you want to know why just ask) and I heard on NPR this afternoon that Ralph Nader is considering throwing his hat in the ring. It just keeps getting better. :)

This is the latest quiz I've subjected myself to.
http://www.wqad.com/Global/link.asp?L=259460

When bad naps happen to good families

Yesterday was a great day in our world. Nothing too exciting, but enjoyable. We visited with friends for most of the day and had a wonderful time. The mamas got to talk, laugh and reconnect with friends we haven't seen for a while thanks to the cold weather and the holidays. The kiddos ran amock and thoroughly enjoyed themselves. We all enjoyed some amazing soup and a very yummy cake -it was a good day.

After leaving both boys fell asleep in the car on the drive home. I wasn't surprised by this at all, they had both been playing very hard and were showing signs of sleepiness before we had left. When we got home Ben woke up enough to walk himself into the house and proceeded to fall asleep half standing on the rug, half resting on the couch. Nate slept through being moved into the bed. I moved Ben into th ebed as well and let them both sleep. thinking they'd only be out for an hour at most, I did some dishes and puttered around on the computer. Two hours later at 6:30 they woke up.....it wasn't pretty.

They were both in great moods but Tim and I were about ready to go to sleep. Normally, Tim gets home at 6:30, we have dinner and then tub for the kids and bed. So by 9pm they are both asleep and I usually am as well. Last night we were all wide awake until about 11pm. It was a long evening. So, fortunately today they both slept from 12:30-1:30-2 and I'm hoping that they are both ready for bed by 8pm. It's only 2:30 now and the bed looks very inviting to me!

Happy Halloween!

A few late pics of Halloween! Ben was a Knight, aka Sir Benjamin. Nate was a Turtle and happily wore his costume through trick or treating and a Halloween party. Pretty impressive!!! (real blog to come soon)