Our Weekend In Pictures

Playing in the sand during downtown Iowa City's "Sand in the City"

Showing off the art projects made during "Sand in the City" on Saturday (bracelets, visors, and sand art)

Sitting on the firetruck at the airport pancake breakfast on Sunday morning

Age

(NOTE: The following conversation occurred a few weeks ago).

Cate: Mom, how old is your baby?

Me: Oh, about 18 weeks old.

Cate: Then when the baby is born it will be one?

Me: Well, actually when the baby is born the numbers start all over again. First one week, then two weeks---it's kind of confusing.

Cate: Then the baby will be one? And two?

Me: Yes.

Cate: Someday I'll be sixteen.

Me: Oh Cate. I don't even want to think about you being sixteen.

Cate: Mommy, I'll still be your little girl.

Me: Good.

Rock-n-Roll Baby

Hidden Talents

Cate: Mom, I'm a really good barrette-putter-inner. I can do it myself!

Cate's Second First Day of School

Ultrasound: An Update

We had our 20 week ultrasound yesterday morning and everything looks great. We took Cate and Ben along. Cate was fairly interested in the process although Ben was more interested in the toys in the waiting room.

We did get a great profile shot (see above) of Baby K #3, making him/her my most cooperative child (by a long shot) yesterday.

We didn't find out the baby's gender but here are our predictions:

Chris: Boy
Erin: Girl
Cate: Girl
Ben: Sister
My brother (who accurately predicted the gender of both Cate and Ben): Girl

I Love Martha Stewart.

I picked up these very cool puppet kits a while ago when they were on clearance at Wal-Mart. Cate was thrilled to piece together this cute little green frog during Ben's naptime.

It was like, totally rad.

Some friends threw a rockin' 80's party on Friday night. As has become his habit, Chris wore his signature mustache to the party.

While the grown-ups thought it was a riot, our kids were a little perplexed by Chris' sudden growth of facial hair.

Ben kept touching Chris' upper lip and saying, "What that? What that, Daddy?"

Cate asked if she could "pet" it.

Neither Cate or Ben had much to say about my outfit. Apparently I must always look like a 5-months pregnant, rocker chick.

Evil Knievel (aka Ben)

As many of you know, we are the proud owners of the World's Steepest Driveway. We've lived here 10 months and have already lost count of the number of tennis balls and plastic lawnmowers that have rolled down the driveway, out into the street and down the cul-de-sac.

Cate and Ben regularly sprint down said driveway in hot pursuit of these items. For the most part they've managed to stay upright, avoiding skinned knees and bruised foreheards. Chris and I are mostly numb to these displays as our kids are weirdly nimble, like little mountain goats.

My neighbors, who outwardly cringe at the sight of one of my kids careening down the driveway, have placed bets on how long it will take before we end up in the emergency room for stitches or a broken arm.

On Monday morning, we were playing in the green space directly across the street from our house with some neighbors. Ben wandered back to our house and into the garage. Assuming that he was going to get a toy, I didn't pay much attention.

Big mistake.

A few seconds later I turned around to see Ben, at the top of the driveway, perched on his Little Tykes trike. His tiny hand gripped the green plastic handlebars and he grinned maniacally at me.

I started walking slowly toward him. In some ways, small children are like wild animals. I didn't want to make any sudden movement that would catapault him into motion (and down my driveway without a helmet). I knew that he was watching, waiting, to see what I would do and that an extreme reaction would make flying down the hill seem all that more appealing.

"Ben," I said calmly. "Get off your bike."

He didn't answer. And he didn't get off his bike.

I had reached the bottom of our driveway when he started his descent.

And, really, there was nothing I could do to stop it.

He zigzagged back and forth across the driveway, hunched over his handlebars. ("Did he look scared?" Chris asked me later. I had to admit that he looked perfectly happy).

Just when I thought he was going to crash into the giant maple halfway down the driveway, he swerved and careened in the opposite direction.

Finally, he came to a complete (and rather graceful) stop in the grass at the bottom of the driveway. Not a scratch, bump or bruise on his sweet (thankfully intact) head.

I scooped him up and said, "Ben! We can NOT ride our bikes down the driveway. It's too dangerous. You could get hurt"

He looked up at me, smiled and said, "Again!"

I think he might have to start wearing his bike helmet every time he leaves the house.

Hello. My Name Is...

As I've noted in previous posts, our kids have a lot of nicknames. Cate often refers to Ben as "Benny," which was definitely not a diminutive of "Benjamin" that we had hoped would be used with any frequency during his lifetime.

And we've all started to refer to him as "Benjer" or "The Benjer." Again, another permutation of "Benjamin" that we didn't anticipate when he was born. I have no idea how or why we started calling him "Benjer" but it stuck.

Now that Ben is becoming more verbal it's funny to hear him talk about himself. Most often he simply refers to himself as Ben, in the third-person. As in, "BEN DO THAT" or "BEN NEED THAT" or "BEN TURN RIGHT NOW."

The other day the little caveman surprised me.

We were at the store and someone asked, "What's your name?"

Quite clearly he replied, "Benjer!"

Even though the person gave us a strange look (no doubt thinking, "What kind of a name is BENJER?"), I love that he has internalized our silly, sweet nickname for him.

Sneak Preview: An addendum

I just showed Cate the previous blog post where she is shown painting the dining room.

Cate: But you can see my underwear!

Me: Oh, I guess you're right. Do you want me to take it (the picture) off?

Cate: No, it's okay.

Permission granted.

Sneak Preview

The first thing we did when we moved into our new house in October of last year was remove all of the wallpaper. With the exception of the dining room, we managed to get most of the main floor repainted by Christmas.

After careful deliberation, I decided that I wanted painted wood paneling on the lower third of the dining room. I got an estimate.

I almost fell off my chair. Seriously.

So...we decided to simply keep the existing chair rail (for now) and paint the room. I'm not sure that I'm pleased with the effect but am trying to withhold my judgment until after the room is finished (e.g., new light fixture, curtains, art).

If all goes according to plan I should have new photos to share with you by Sunday. As you can see from this picture of Cate "helping" paint the dining room, the kids are definitely enjoying the process---they've pretended to paint every room of our house and most of their toys this week.

The Joker

Our 13-year-old neighbor agreed to watch Cate and Ben for an hour this morning while I went to a doctor's appointment.

Me: Ben, do you want to take any toys with you to Emma's house?

Ben: Yeah.

Me: Okay, what do you want to take?

Ben: Take beans.

Me: Beans? What are you going to do with beans at Emma's house?

Ben: Nose. Ha-ha-ha.

Sunday Afternoon Shopping at Hy-Vee

Ice Cream

I just finished telling Cate that I was going to write a blog post about Ben saying, "I like beans." She demanded that I tell all of you that she likes ice cream.

And she does.

Beans

We're sitting in Cate's room while Cate and Ben play with the Fisher Price doll house.

Ben looks up at us and says, quite clearly, "I like beans."

Cate and I look at each other. Cate smiles, puts on her "mommy voice" and says, "Awww, Mommy. Ben likes beans!"

This entire exchange cracked me up. Ben does, in fact, like beans but having this statement materialize from his mouth on a random Friday afternoon in the form of a complete sentence was pretty funny.

Yet another reason why I LOVE my neighborhood...