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!