My Interesting Little Eater

So my children are big eaters as everyone knows. When I say big eaters, I mean BIG eaters. They already eat as much as adults. They are not fat kids, they just have extremely high metabolism (thank Daddy for that!). Anyway, Ben is learning how to use a spoon at school. What I mean by learning how to use a spoon is that he holds the spoon in his right hand and bangs the table, while picking up and eating (throwing) food with his left hand. Watching Ben eat is always a very entertaining experience.

One day, we had take out (not uncommon) and they got chocolate chip cookies with their meals. We were sitting at the table, eating and all of a sudden we looked over at Ben and he had a chocolate chip sitting on his head. The really funny part was that it stayed there for the rest of his meal. Funny, funny. Gigi was here and REALLY thought it was funny.

One weekend I actually had some time, so I made a pot of spaghetti for us to have for the week. I gave Ben a plat of spaghetti (against better judgment) because I figured if he ate spaghetti at school, surely he could do it at home without making too much of a mess. Yes, I was wrong. The kid ended up with spaghetti everywhere! He at his entire plate though!

Mom, what is this stuff all over me? (Please note the finger prints on his forehead)

Where is my sweet Jack?

I think we have hit the "terrible two's". Jack has turned into the devil child this week. His teachers have been sending home notes about him not listening, and today while Jon was picking them up from daycare he ran away in the parking lot! Jon was furious to say the least. When they got home Jon took away all the movies and took the TV out of Jack's room. Who knows when, or if, he will ever get the TV back. If he is good he might get Mary Poppins back over the weekend since he spent part of dinner telling us "I love Mary Poppins." Of course, this was then followed by "I love birthday cake" so who knows! He has not been sleeping well at night, so hopefully we can get him back on track and then maybe his attitude will change. I HOPE!

Here is a picture from our Potty Weekend. I thought this was pretty funny, and a typical male!

My Silly Boys

This morning Jack and I were watching Noggin. Moose (for those of you who follow Noggin) was talking about names. For example, his name is Moose A. Moose. This is how our conversation went:

Me: What is your name?

Jack: Jack

M: Jack who?

J: Big Jack

M: Oh, what is your brother's name?

J: Ben

M: Ben who?

J: Little Ben

Do we think he might have control issues? :-)

Today one of the lady's in Jon's office had a birthday party. She sent home some mini cupcakes for the boys. Always a big hit in our house as previously mentioned. Jack saw them and immediately began singing Happy Birthday, to Chloe! She is the little girl in his class that hugs and kisses him every morning. Oh dear! It is her birthday on Friday though, I think he is just warming up for the party on Saturday!

Ben enjoyed the mini cupcakes, as usual. Jon and Jack had left the kitchen to go get everything ready for bath time. I went to the sink to get a paper towel to begin the process of getting Ben clean enough to get from the kitchen to the bathtub. This is what I saw when I turned around:

Even with a foot in his mouth he is cute as a button!

A Rainy Day

Today was awful! It poured until almost 2:00. Jon was sleeping in this morning and I was thinking to myself, "How can I entertain the boys and not have to watch Mary Poppins again?" The answer was the John Deere train that Uncle Maurice and Dot, Jennifer, Jase and Jayden gave the boys for their birthdays.

First, let me explain the train. It is a battery operated, ride on train, complete with tracks. It also makes "train" sounds. Yes it sounds like a train, I was regretting that by about 4:00 this afternoon.

The best part of the train is that Jack can ride it by himself. Which means that he spent most of his day going around in a circle on the train. Ben is learning how to work the controls, but by the end of the afternoon he pretty much had it figured out. He just needs a little help with the holding on part.

We only had a few incidents. Jack turned it over twice, becuase he thought it would be fun to ride sideways. He also almost ran over Ben once, but we are learning!

They had a great time. I cannot wait until nice weather so we can put it outside!!

Potty Training

We decided that since it was going to be nasty all weekend, we would start potty training Jack. So far so good, only 2 accidents. Let's hope we can keep up the good work. I made him wear real underwear today so that he could "feel" when he was wet. The struggle of the day was not pottying, but wanting to wear a Pull-Up instead of underwear. Hopefully we can get over that.

Happy 1st Birthday Ben!!

Ben had his first birthday last week!! Wow time has flown by! I cannot believe that this time last year we were at home with a newborn! He has been a very good addition to the Bridges family! He has definitely started developing his own personality, and he is so different from Jack in so many ways, but they are also so similar! Ben is much more clingy and attached to people than I remember Jack being. Ben is also not a big fan of "strangers". However, once he gets to know you, he has all the personality that Jack has.

We went to the doctor for the one year visit and we measured up pretty well. It just confirmed my feeling that he was tall and skinny. Here's how he measured up:

Height: 30.5 inches - 74%

Weight: 20 lbs - 13% (yes only 13%)

Head: 46 cm - 40%

On his birthday we celebrated with cupcakes at school. Unfortunately, I was the "bad mom" and was not able to leave work to make it for the actual party. They did print some pictures and send them home, but of course our scanner is broken! We did celebrate as a family that night with cupcakes after dinner. Always a big hit!!

In this picture you can see him thinking, "Mom, it would be really funny if I threw this handful of cake at you right now." He is a little bit mischievous.

I love cupcakes! Please note the toe on the bottom of the tray. This is how he eats ALL of his meals. It is really quite funny.

Saturday we had the BIG Birthday Bash. We invited family and lots of friends. A good time was had by all. Ben did not enjoy is cake as much as Jack did, but he did enjoy the bowl of ice cream that he ended up eating!

His reaction to us singing Happy Birthday. Can you really blame him?

This is about as involved as he got with the cake. He did end up eating some of it the next day, but was not too enthusiastic about it at the party.

The balloon was kind a distraction from the cake. He was also interested in looking out the front window.

The happy Birthday Boy!!

The rest of our friends (Thomas, Elizabeth, Harley, Jase and Jayden) had lots of fun playing outside. The older ones even started raking the yard (with the mini rakes). If only we would have had about 5 more rakes, my whole back yard would have been raked by the end of the party!! They were all very cute, and played so well together.

Thomas and Ben taking a "spin" around the yard.

Jack and Elizbeth getting ready to enjoy some "Birday" cake. That is how we now say it at our house.

The yard men! Jack and Jase raking. If only I had a few more rakes!!

First "Snow"

Well we had our first "snow". We woke up the morning of the 20th to find a slight dusting, well not even that really. Of course you have to remember that we live in SC and "snow" around here shuts everything down. All of the local schools were being closed the night before (the snow had not even started and it was still 45 degrees outside).

Everyone had to be in on the snow action. Even Barney and Teddy, or course, they are in on EVERYTHING!

It was however, just enough snow for Jack to be able to tell that something was going on. He found it quite fun, but kept saying "Cold mama." We were trying to show him how to make a snowball, but we had to scrape snow off of the slide to have enough! Oh well, at least he got to see snow! Who knows when it will come around here again?! Gigi has us all set for the next time, the red sled is in the attic!