Zoo Train

The train was last on our zoo agenda and by far Will's favorite. He sat still, and loved every minute of it. Abbie was a bit scared going through the tunnels. Her little hand reached out for mine as soon as we entered the dark. All in all, a good day!

Carousel Pics

Riding the carousel was a highlight of the zoo.
Abbie loved it, but Will only stayed on his animal long enough for the pictures.
Andy held him the rest of the time.

Random Zoo Pics

The only picture taken of poor little Ben.
He was such a trooper all day!

Zoo Part 2

First a giraffe story. The ostriches were right by the giraffes, and Andy told me a story about an ostrich loose in Bunker Hill when he was mayor. Apparently an ostrich crashed a tea party. Yes, true story!
I actually had already forgotten the story, but when Memaw asked Abbie how the zoo was, Abbie busted out the ostrich story.
Their memories are amazing.

The failed attempts at pics with my children were taken in the monkey house. Will thought it stunk, which of course it did, but he thought it was pretty neat to see Monk Man's family. For those unfamiliar, Monk man is his stuffed pal.
You can check him out a few posts back.

The Zoo

Last week we took an impromptu trip to St. Louis. Andy gets 3 weeks paternity leave, and due to session, had only taken a week while Ben was in the hospital. He took a few days off last week for some family fun time. First stop was the Zoo!
There will be a couple of posts with zoo pics. I can only post 4 at a time for some reason. Abbie & I liked watching the hippos under water. Will was a little apprehensive. At one point a hippo came straight at the glass which sent Will jumping off the ledge. The elephant was one of Will's favorite animals. In true 2 year old fashion, he pointed out the big pile of "poopy" with the elephants. He really seemed to prefer the fish. He and Abbie also liked the puffins. They thought it was funny when they splashed us.

WOO-HOO!

Mommy's new little man is THE MAN!
We have officially made it through the night...3 NIGHTS IN A ROW!
Woo-Hoo!!!
We have been hit and miss since my last post where he slept through the night, but seriously...3 consecutive nights!
Loving it!!!
Here's to you my little Benjamin Buddy... Mommy's New Man!

Benny Buddy

Here's my little Benny Buddy fresh out of the tub.
I think I could just eat him up!


I apologize for the flood of posts.
I am trying really hard to avoid the brownies upstairs.
I have already ate 2 rows. YIKES!
Family Fun trip pics tomorrow....stay tuned!

First Day of Dance

We have started Abbie in a dance/tumbling class one day a week. The first half is dance, the second half tumbling. These were taken the first day of class. Not very good pictures because her brother either kept running in front of the camera or acting goofy during the picture. She really liked her first class. She has perfected her forward somersault and is working on her backward somersault. However, I saw her cartwheel and....well, let's just say we have some work to do. Hopefully she didn't inherit my gymnast genes!

Big Brother, Little Brother

Aww...Brotherly Love! Will decided on his own to read to Ben. I love it!

Another Monk Story...

Monkey's butt

Monkey's face

Here we have a picture of Monkey's butt and Monkey's face. Now the story.

Abbie: Will, is monk a girl or boy?

Will: Nothing. (He's very sensitive about assigning a gender to monkey)

Abbie uses a different approach. "Well, does Monk have a peanut or 'gina? (Yes, I believe in identifying our body parts by the anatomically correct name versus some silly made up name...although as I'm sure you have figured out Abbie thinks penis is peanut and often leaves out the va part of vagina. Anyway....

Will: Nothing. (He's getting angry) Monkey is not ANYTHING! (He's yelling now).

Abbie: Well, Monkey has a butt on his face!

Good insult, and good point. Monk's butt and face do have quite the resemblance!!

Monkey's New Boo-Boo

Will brought me Monkey this morning with his ear dangling by a thread. Looks like we are going to Nona's for ear surgery. And then we have Monkey's tail. Notice the bandages, Scooby Doo & Spiderman, lovingly chosen by Monk's owner.
He has a hole in his tail. The bandages are my creative way of holding in his stuffing.
This is Monk Man's second tail! Looks like we need a third.
And yes, Monkey needs a bath.
However, as I'm sure you can tell by his "wounds" this is no easy feat.
I have to find just the right moment and then sneak him into the washer!

Mini-daddy?

Will loves to be in daddy's office. He really likes to talk on the phone just like daddy. I caught him here in deep conversation with Aunt Katy.

No more monkeys...

No more monkeys jumping in the bed....Wrong!
These were taken just days before I moved Will into Abbie's room. This is how I found them in Will's old room, now Ben's room. I snapped some pics before yelling at them to quit jumping in the bed. And the last picture is Abbie's "butt buster" move! I'm pretty sure they will be just fine rooming together for a bit! I'm not sure I'll be fine! This can only bring T-R-O-U-B-L-E!
And for those wondering about the sticker on Will's bed, it's a Star Wars sticker he got at the doctor's office. Apparently he felt his bed needed a dash of flair. I feel quite the opposite, but have only halfway tried to remove it. Oh well!

Cheese...or not!

Trying to snap some pics of the kiddos. Will was not participating. Abbie, on the other hand, was more than willing. And the swim suit....you guessed it, Ocean game! Will prefers to use Abbie's camera to take pictures of Ben. All while yelling, "Cheese Ben!"

Random pics from last weekend

Slooping and other games...

Aside from Abbie & Will's "ocean" game that I have previously blogged about, they also have a game called "slooping."
This entails sliding down the stairs to the basement. They are NOT allowed to do this. However, on occasion they try to sneak in a slooping session. Generally when they try to sneak sloop they have on footed pajamas, thus protecting their skin. However, as this picture shows, they apparently tried to sloop in regular clothes. Here is the product of slooping on Will's back....carpet burn!
One other game they play is "big muscles." In this game they push the ottoman over and then back over. Abbie took a spill during their last big muscles session. The ottoman is leather so she slid right over the top of it while pushing it on it's side. Unfortunately I wasn't able to capture this on film. She banged up her chin and smacked her forehead. Big muscles is now temporarily banned!

Garage sales have also been added to their selection of game playing, though this is reserved for outside play. It began 2 weeks ago.
The first time went like this:
I was outside on the porch rocking Ben. Abbie & Will were riding in her jeep. Abbie points to our house and tells Will, "There's a garage sale at that house."
They walk up to me. Here's the dialogue.
Abbie: Excuse me. We have a baby in the jeep over there. Do you have any baby stuff?
Me: Yes. It's over there.
They walk over to where I pointed and pretend to look around. They walk back.
Abbie: You don't have our size. We're leaving.
Back in the jeep, and a few laps around. Jeep stops. I'm on the phone.
Abbie to Will: Just a minute she's on the phone.
Me: That's okay, what do you need?
Abbie: We need baby clothes, do you have any?
Me: What size?
Abbie: About the size of your baby.
Me: Girl or Boy?
Abbie: Girl.
I point them in the right direction.....game continues.
Now, I love to garage sale, but I don't know where she came up with the asking for items. I am a looker, not an ask-er. Someone suggested to me that perhaps she wishes that I would ask. Maybe she doesn't enjoy the sales as much as I do!