Parenting Fail
We ordered Ben a play kitchen for Christmas and enjoyed a 2-hour marathon of putting it together when it arrived after Thanksgiving. Then we promptly hid it in the guest bedroom which we rarely open.
Well, Jake lost his cell phone on the bus a couple weeks ago (long story, subject of a whole other post) and he was going into that room and into boxes stored in the closet looking for our old phones that he could reactivate. We had a couple close calls where Ben started toddling down the hallway toward the bedroom where Jake had left the door wide open. Still, we managed to keep the kitchen a secret from him.
This morning, Jake or I had been in the office for something and then we were talking over our coffee in the kitchen when we heard the distinctive noise of the toy kitchen's stovetop being turned on. Somehow Ben had made his way into the bedroom and was playing with the kitchen! Oh well. At least we know that he likes it and was willing to play with it :-) Hopefully he'll enjoy it just as much when we get back from NY (The kitchen is staying here, to be a 'Santa' present at Ben's real house).
While Ben and Jake have been napping today, I have been a model of accomplishment. I finished wrapping nearly all the presents we had remaining at this house (things ordered online were shipped to NY to save us the hassle of carting them ourselves). I figured the more I got wrapped now the less I have to do Christmas Eve. I just hope that the customs people are nice and don't ask to rip open every single wrapped gift I'll have in my trunk when we travel through Canada. *crossing fingers*
I also managed to FINISH THE STINKIN LATCH HOOK RUG I've been working on for Ben since I was pregnant with him! I need to finish the trimming around the edges, but I need a sewing machine for that and I'll use my mom's when we get to NY. I'm so excited to have that done and I really hope Ben likes it. I plan to put it in his room so he has someplace soft to sit and play with toys (without climbing on furniture and being a bulldozer as he usually is).
I really wanted to pull all the photos I could off the camera before we leave on Weds/Thurs because I know I'll have at least 1000 by the time we come back.
We finally got some decent snowfall last weekend (the big storm that swept through half the country deposited around 6 inches for us) and went to get Ben some snowpants and snow boots so he could play in it.
He had a hard time walking in his boots, so most of his time was spent belly-down in the snow. He tasted and liked it, though!
He lasted about 12 minutes outside before he was too cold to stand anymore. To be fair, the mittens he was wearing were soaked through within the first 30 seconds or so and his fingers were cold!
On Monday, Jake had a snow day. He picked out their outfits to match on purpose. What a guy.
I hemmed and hawed all morning about whether or not to head in, refreshing the traffic page to check on the status of the highways.
In the end, this is what made the decision for me. That's a car, off the road and straight into a telephone pole, in our BACKYARD. No driving for me, thanks!
The driver must have called 911 because the whole brigade came out for the rescue. It was quite the scene. Too bad Ben was napping at this time, because he would have gone completely nuts over 'Da Fire TRUCK!!' (In fact, he is climbing all over me right now in attempts to point to the FIRE TRUCK on the screen)
Last night Jake and I attended the wedding of a co-grad student and lab-mate at the Detroit Yacht Club. Fancy schmancy!
Jake was the ceremony musician, so we got to head over extra early and see all the set-up.
I didn't take many photos at all, but this was a nice one during the ceremony.
Dr Erica and Mr Trevor (lol) made the trip all the way from Portland! It was so great to see them again.
A good time was had by all, especially Jake. I love this picture of him, it suits him perfectly.
Two nerdy white girls dancing.
And from today:
Coloring must be taken seriously.
And he's left-handed! My smart boy :-)
Well, Jake lost his cell phone on the bus a couple weeks ago (long story, subject of a whole other post) and he was going into that room and into boxes stored in the closet looking for our old phones that he could reactivate. We had a couple close calls where Ben started toddling down the hallway toward the bedroom where Jake had left the door wide open. Still, we managed to keep the kitchen a secret from him.
This morning, Jake or I had been in the office for something and then we were talking over our coffee in the kitchen when we heard the distinctive noise of the toy kitchen's stovetop being turned on. Somehow Ben had made his way into the bedroom and was playing with the kitchen! Oh well. At least we know that he likes it and was willing to play with it :-) Hopefully he'll enjoy it just as much when we get back from NY (The kitchen is staying here, to be a 'Santa' present at Ben's real house).
While Ben and Jake have been napping today, I have been a model of accomplishment. I finished wrapping nearly all the presents we had remaining at this house (things ordered online were shipped to NY to save us the hassle of carting them ourselves). I figured the more I got wrapped now the less I have to do Christmas Eve. I just hope that the customs people are nice and don't ask to rip open every single wrapped gift I'll have in my trunk when we travel through Canada. *crossing fingers*
I also managed to FINISH THE STINKIN LATCH HOOK RUG I've been working on for Ben since I was pregnant with him! I need to finish the trimming around the edges, but I need a sewing machine for that and I'll use my mom's when we get to NY. I'm so excited to have that done and I really hope Ben likes it. I plan to put it in his room so he has someplace soft to sit and play with toys (without climbing on furniture and being a bulldozer as he usually is).
I really wanted to pull all the photos I could off the camera before we leave on Weds/Thurs because I know I'll have at least 1000 by the time we come back.
We finally got some decent snowfall last weekend (the big storm that swept through half the country deposited around 6 inches for us) and went to get Ben some snowpants and snow boots so he could play in it.
He had a hard time walking in his boots, so most of his time was spent belly-down in the snow. He tasted and liked it, though!
He lasted about 12 minutes outside before he was too cold to stand anymore. To be fair, the mittens he was wearing were soaked through within the first 30 seconds or so and his fingers were cold!
On Monday, Jake had a snow day. He picked out their outfits to match on purpose. What a guy.
I hemmed and hawed all morning about whether or not to head in, refreshing the traffic page to check on the status of the highways.
In the end, this is what made the decision for me. That's a car, off the road and straight into a telephone pole, in our BACKYARD. No driving for me, thanks!
The driver must have called 911 because the whole brigade came out for the rescue. It was quite the scene. Too bad Ben was napping at this time, because he would have gone completely nuts over 'Da Fire TRUCK!!' (In fact, he is climbing all over me right now in attempts to point to the FIRE TRUCK on the screen)
Last night Jake and I attended the wedding of a co-grad student and lab-mate at the Detroit Yacht Club. Fancy schmancy!
Jake was the ceremony musician, so we got to head over extra early and see all the set-up.
I didn't take many photos at all, but this was a nice one during the ceremony.
Dr Erica and Mr Trevor (lol) made the trip all the way from Portland! It was so great to see them again.
A good time was had by all, especially Jake. I love this picture of him, it suits him perfectly.
Two nerdy white girls dancing.
And from today:
Coloring must be taken seriously.
And he's left-handed! My smart boy :-)