1. Today was Alex’s first day of Kindergarten. I can’t believe he’s in school already. My first nephew is growing up so fast.
2. Here are a few pictures I stole from Jenny’s Facebook page of the little dude on his first day. It’s kinda neat that he’s going to the same school that Jenny and I went to many years ago.
   
   
   
3. Mike taught Owen how to pee standing up. Hysterical. He likes to wave his pee around. Lord help me.
4. Benny can now say (well he attempts to say) the names of all the Thomas trains. He gets the first syllable out for a good number of the trains and some he can say almost the entire name. My favorite is how he says “Gordy” for Gordon.
5. Now that Benny can say the trains names, instead of being greeted by hugs when I come home from work, I’m greeted by him picking up each train to tell me it’s name. He’s all about it. He acts like I have no idea which one is which. He’s so proud of himself. It’s adorable. Yes… the child is truly obsessed with Thomas.
6. What’s also adorable is that Benny has developed this cute little brown beauty mark smack dab in the middle of his forehead. Only fitting for such a beautiful child.
7. Owen met Batman at Gamestop tonight. He was so excited and made sure he told Mr. Batman that Mario baseball was his favorite Wii game.
8. This past weekend I had a special Mommy moment. I picked Benny up to give him a hug, he put his head on my shoulder and said “I WUV U”. My heart skipped a beat. Even though it’s all slurred together I totally know what he’s saying and it’s music to my ears.
9. Breaking news in the Thomas household. We became a 2 cell phone family tonight. This is huge since for the past 5 1/2 years Mike and I shared a cell phone. With me being a manager now at work and Owen going to preschool in a few weeks, we thought it was best for both of us to have phones. I got a slick and jazzy phone too… LG enV 3 Touch. I almost got a Blackberry, but it’s not an iPhone, so I’m going to hold out until it comes to Verizon.
10. and for number 10 it’s only fitting to say… 10 DAYS UNTIL WE HEAD TO THE BEACH FOR VACATION!! Whoo hoo! We are so excited and so are the boys.

Well, since he wasn’t really into having his picture taken on my last try, this past weekend I broke out the camera again with a little more success. They didn’t turn out exactly as I had envisioned, but due to the fact this age is difficult to photograph, I’m happy I got these few half way decent shots to mark him turning 18 months old.

I love this one… it’s a little soft in the face, but there is something about it that just strikes a cord in me.

And of course, Benny as Mr. Happy. How can you not melt like butter when you see that smile.

And these, well they are just Benny being Benny… playing his beloved trains, looking up with that half smile not sure what to expect with what’s going on, and telling Mommy he’s SO BIG!

I’m going to give him a break from the camera for the next week and a half because when we go on vacation, I want to get some shots of the little man on the BEACH! I’m so excited for him to see the beach (Owen too) and to capture it in photographs. Let’s just cross our fingers he’ll be more adoring of the black box.

A lot has changed in the world of Owen this summer. He’s learned to spell a handful of words (and read some too), he can recite “Good Night Moon” to me, he’s learned that quiet time is a good thing (well usually), and for the big three…. DRUM ROLL PLEASE….

He’s been POTTY TRAINED, he got his HAIR CUT W/O SCREAMING and he will let me TAKE HIS PICTURE!!!

Seriously, it was like he turned 3 1/2 and a light went off in his head that he was ready to do these things. I give full credit for the potty training success to my mother-in-law. She really worked with him during Owen’s week long stay in NJ. He came back, we put him in big boy pants, he only had 3 accidents the first 2 days then he was done. He goes all by himself and even does great out of the house. We are SOOOO happy! Just in time to go to preschool.

For his reward, we changed up the bathroom for the boys to give him the fishy bathroom he’d been asking for. I’ll post pics later.

And pictures. For those that know Owen, they know he hides RUNS from the camera. It’s hard to take his picture. Well, when I finally decided to break out my backdrop stand and gray seamless paper I bought 4 months ago, he was totally game for being my subject. And look at the results.

On the other hand, his hatred for the camera has started to make its way to Benny. Darn it! He kept saying “No“… see, this is how he felt about getting his picture taken. But, I did get one OK shot.

Ben & O also were kind enough for me to get this one of them reading their favorite Thomas story. I’m going to try again this weekend with Ben to get some good 18 month shots. Hopefully some relief from his allergies and a hair cut will do the trick for a few minutes of cooperation.

Can you believe Benny’s 18 months old already? He’s such a little ham and we LOVE IT! He makes us laugh every day with his antics. Whether he’s climbing onto/into something, flying his arms in excitement, trying to put on his shoes (or walking around the house in ours), saying lots of new words, chasing after the cat or dog, running in circles with his brother, quietly flipping through the pages of a book, or playing with his trains… he steals our hearts with everything he does.

This child has no fear either. He’s not afraid of anything and takes each new experience as a learning adventure. He’s soaking in life right now like a sponge. He’s very observant because you can see him starting to do the same things his brother or we do. His vocabulary is growing leaps and bounds too. It’s amazing.

And we weren’t the only ones pleased with Ben’s progress, so was his pediatrician, especially his use of words and the fact he can walk up and down stairs by himself. At our last visit, the Dr. told us by 18 months he should be doing X, Y & Z… and he was already at that point. The same thing happened at his 18 month visit this past week. He is already doing almost everything he should be doing by the time he is 2. Way to go Beano!

Up until the age of 2, I like to take a picture of the boys getting weighed at their well baby visits to show how they have grown. I forgot my camera at Ben’s last visit. OOPPS!! But, this time I remembered and while we were waiting for the Dr., I took pictures of him exploring the room to kill the time. See… he’s a silly goose. Playing with the bucket, trying to weigh himself on the big boy scale, checking out the shot information sheet, spinning himself in circles. He had a blast.

Oh – and Mike and I grow giants…. Benny was 28 pounds 12 ounces and 33 3/4 inches. He lost a little weight since his last visit, but that’s probably because he’s become a picky eater. BUT… once again, I’m very happy with a clean bill of health. I think of him as my miracle baby from all I went through while pregnant and all the medication I was on, so when I get the “He’s great!” at the well baby visits, it is a blessing.

It was such a nice day yesterday that I decided to strip the boys down to their shorts for some finger paint time! We got all the supplies around and off to their picnic table on the deck we went.

Ben had never finger painted before, so he was iffy about it. He didn’t want to use his fingers, he wanted to use the bottle to push the paint around. I’ll have to get him some brushes and sponges for next time.

Owen knew what he wanted. He asked for specific colors and made a pretty picture (with some help from daddy).

Afterwards Owen and I continued creative time and drew with chalk in the drive way. I drew, he colored. It was also a great chance to do letters and spelling in a different medium than the Magna Doodle.

Being a creative person I want to foster that in the boys so I need to do more things like this with them more often.

1. I need to get better at doing these 10 on Tuesday posts. I know they are a lot to read sometimes, but it’s my way of jotting down the little things in our lives so I don’t forget and so I can look back and read this record of our life someday and smile.
2. I’m so happy to have my boys home. We sure did miss them, but the reaction we got when they saw us after a week was priceless. O just kept hugging us and Benny kept looking at me like, “Mama… is it really you?”. Then he just leaned over, gave me a big kiss and laughed. LOVE HIM!
3. While the boys were gone, Mike and I had some big dates… Harry Potter, a morning at the spa for massages and dinner at the Melting Pot. It was nice to spend quality time together away from the chaos that is our daily lives.
4. Owen’s new thing is asking us how to spell words. Basically, anything he comes in contact with or hears he asks us how to spell it. Seriously, like 50 times a day. Hopefully he’s soaking it all in so he’ll be a better speller than his mama. I’m horrible, even with the advanced technology of spell check.
5. Today, Benny started to spin himself in circles to the point he gets dizzy. When he falls down, he laughs. He’s so silly
6. I turn 31 on Sunday. Blah… my grandfather was right. When you get older, birthdays are no fun. They just remind us that we’re getting older. But, they say 30 is the new 20, so I guess I’m turning 21 again!
7. Owen’s really taking an interest in baseball. He has a tee, but doesn’t want to use it. He wants you to pitch the ball to him. He’s getting pretty good for a 3 year old.
   
8. We finally broke down and got a laptop on a great back-to-school sale, and I must admit, it’s nice. I love the fact I can be online in the same room as the kids, take it on the deck, etc. Plus, if guests want to use the computer or look at pictures, I don’t have to take them to our bedroom. The desktop is now just for photo editing and design work.
9. I’m getting very excited for vacation…we leave one month from today! The boys have never been to the beach and O keeps asking to go, so I hope he likes it!
10. On Saturday, we met Grammy & PeePaw Thomas at Knoebels to pick up the boys. They had a ton of fun. I only had my old point and shoot camera so the pics aren’t the greatest quality, but it shows the fun of the day! ENJOY!