Life

There hasn't been anything really exciting or interesting going on lately with us...just life. After the last time I blogged, Grace's cold turned into bronchitis and tonsillitis. We had several sleepless nights and many hours of trying to convince her to take her medicine. After 6 days of trying to get her to chew up her antibiotics we finally gave up and hoped she would just get better on her own. We tricked her into chewing it up a few times, but then she got wise to us and would just hold the darn thing in her mouth without chewing or swallowing until she either a) threw it up along with the contents of her stomach or b)started slobbering pink sludge all over because she hadn't swallowed for so long. Fun! In case you are wondering why we got the chewables rather than the liquid it's because she just spits the liquid out all over.
Our Labor Day Weekend was fairly uneventful. Mike's brother Eric was in town for his 10 year high school reunion so we enjoyed spending some time with him. We took the kids to the Duck Pond, which is another Bartlesville spot with lots of childhood memories for me. We fed the ducks and Ben and Grace tried fishing. They loved to reel the line back in over and over and over again.

Benson feeding the ducks

Grace knows no fear. She smacked this duck with the bread numerous times. It never actually ate any.

Sabrina was really excited to be out in the heat

Fishing

We had a funny experience with Benson this afternoon. He was sitting on the floor in the kitchen looking at something for a long time so I asked him what he was doing. He said "Mommy, I found some little baby ants. They are sooo cute." Sure enough there were ants running around all over the kitchen floor. So Mike proceeded to get the vacuum out and suck them all up. Benson started screaming and crying "Don't get the ants!" He tried to pull the vacuum out of Mike's hands and was completely hysterical. We calmed him down a little bit and told him that ants belong outside, not inside. Then he looked at us with tear filled eyes and said "Next time can we take the ants outside?" If was kind of hilarious, but very sweet. So then he and Daddy went out on the porch and had a talk about animals and where they live and he felt better after that.
Other than that it has been business as usual. We think it will still be another month or two before we move down to Tulsa, hopefully before the weather gets bad so Mike doesn't have to drive 100 miles a day in the snow.

The kids all wanted to get in the crib one morning, so we took a picture.

Aunt Jenny found some leftover sparklers and smoke bombs, so we lit them one night.

Grace would scream "look at that" for every single smoke bomb.

Benson "sparkling"

Girls

This week we have again been amazed at how girly our 2 year old is. We don't understand where these behaviors have come from. She is so into clothes, jewelry, and purses it is ridiculous. Lately when Aunt Chelsea has come home from work at lunch time Grace has insisted on putting on her shoes and wearing them around until Chelsea has to go back to work and is forced to rip them off of Grace's feet with lots of screaming and crying. The other night Mike had put pajamas on the kids and Benson was wearing this oversized t-shirt that Grace had worn one night in the recent past. Grace was screaming and crying and carrying on and we had no IDEA why she was so upset. She was sitting on the stairs and Benson walked past her and she grabbed onto his shirt and wouldn't let go and then bit it and held onto it with her teeth. It was then that I realized she was shrieking "My turn, my turn." She was pitching a huge fit because she wanted to wear that random t-shirt. Our kids are 3 and 2 and we've already had a fight over clothes! Anyways, I told Benson he could have some chocolate chips if he would give up the shirt, which he was more than happy to do. Then tonight Grace was downstairs and decided to go through Aunt Chelsea's closet. She found a yellow shirt that she convinced Aunt Sarah to put on her and she hasn't taken it off all night. She wore it to bed. Girls!

In other news Sabrina has learned to wave this week. She is such a cute baby. I'll have to try and get some video of it and post it for all to see. All 3 kids have had a cold with runny nose and cough this week, but other than excessive nose wiping it hasn't been that bad. I've decided I'm going to develop a belt with a space for clean tissue, dirty tissue, and hand sanitizer - that would have really made my life easier this week.


Aunt Jenny with the kids - right after we took this picture Sabrina got excited and was waving her arms and smacked Ben and Grace both in the face at the same time - pretty funny

Aunt Chelsea with Grace in Aunt Chelsea's yellow shirt

Kiddie Park

Last night Mike and I took Benson and Grace to the Kiddie Park (Sabrina stayed home with Grandma and Grandpa). For those of you that don't know, the Kiddie Park is a small amusement park in Bartlesville that is perfect for little kids and very cheap at just 25 cents a ride. Mike had actually never been to the Kiddie Park before, but I have MANY fond memories of going there as a little girl. Anyways, Benson and Grace thoroughly enjoyed themselves. They rode on little cars, airplanes, boats, turtles, the carousel, and even a small roller coaster. We thought for sure that they would pitch a big fit when we had to leave at the end of the night, but thanks to snow cones and popcorn they left very willingly. Here are some pictures of all the fun.

Gracie driving her new set of wheels (with no hands)


Benson, Mom, and Grace on the carousel


Ben and Grace enjoying a leisurely boat ride


The end of the night - popcorn and snow cones

Tonight we went out to dinner with my family since my sister Kathleen and my brother Paul and his wife Molly have been here visiting and will be driving back to Utah on Monday. At the restaurant there were clowns, one that made balloon creations and the other that did face painting. The balloon clown made Benson a fishing pole with a fish on the end of it and made Grace a teddy bear holding a heart. In the car on the way home Grace was hysterical because she really wanted the fishing pole. We told Benson that Grace was sad because she wanted the fishing pole and asked him if he wouldn't switch with Grace just until we got home so we could ride in peace. So he switched with her. It was amazing and a little heart-warming that he was so willing to share with his sister to make her happy. I think he does love her even if he mostly just beats up on her. The take away from this experience is that if there is ever another balloon clown, we will have them make the same thing for each kid or nothing at all. :)

Benson the big boy that goes poop

So last night my sister Jenny (16) had some friends over and one of them (Clint) asks Benson what his name is. To which he replied, "Benson, the big boy that goes poop." I'm sure that was more information than Clint really wanted. But we are very proud of Benson and his progress in that area, and we have obviously done a good job of letting him know that. We can finally officially say that he is potty trained, a journey that we began almost a year ago before Sabrina was born. Our last hurdle is just getting him to put his underwear and pants back on after he uses the bathroom rather than running around half-naked. So we are saving money now that we are back to only 2 kids in diapers. :)

3 kids = 3 times the fun

This video is from a few weeks ago, but it could have been from yesterday. Sabrina is really into eating people right now, which can be especially dangerous because she just got her 4th tooth. She also really likes to stick her hand down the front of people's shirts. What a funny girl. She has started pulling herself up to standing on everything too. I'm sure she will soon be cruising all over, they grow up so fast.

We tried to take pictures of the 3 kids together on Sunday because they were all in matching outfits. Below are the best we got from the "photo shoot". I have hope that there will be a day when all 3 of them will sit still at the same time so we can get a decent picture of them together. Sunday obviously wasn't that day, but we try.