Toddler Stories...

I have a few cute stories to share about my two cute toddlers...

For Ella -

The other day, she went to this little activity table we have for them and started playing the music. She would stand there and dance, lifting feet up to do so. When the music stopped, she would just start it again. Cuteness!

While at Cos&tco on Friday, Benjamin started to cough. At home, when one of them coughs, I pat them on the back. Well, while shopping, Benjamin started to cough and Ella started to pat him on the back.

Then yesterday, he was fussy about something. Most likely how freaking hot it was, but maybe something else when Ella goes over to him and pats him on the head and talks to him in this high pitched voice. What a caring little girl.

Ella likes to "help" fold the laundry. The other day, she took two pieces of laundry and started to walk away with it while shaking it in her hands.

For Benjamin -

His tooth is starting to pop through even more - you can actually see it now rather than just feel it. There might be the other one next to this one coming through too. He was fussy last night - a combination of heat and teething, I think.

Lately, Benjamin has been saying something that sounds a lot like "all done" or "done". The other day, he said it and I asked, "you're all done?" and he just smiled as if he was so happy I understood him! He also says "cat" rather clearly sometimes. It's funny that he picked up "cat" and Ella picked up "kitty" (or the way she says it is "Keh".

We bought a CR-V over the weekend though I'm wondering if we should have got a minivan...you know, in case a miracle happens ever in the future.

Videos and Pictures

More videos and pictures here.

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So I have to admit something that's been bothering me a bit. It really shouldn't, but it does. Some of you may remember that I was in a support group while we were trying to get pregnant. Most of the women in my group ending up getting pregnant or adopting.

Well, most of the their kids' birthdays were before mine. There's just one set of twins that were born after Ben & Ella. I sent birthday cards to each and every one of their kids because I wanted to celebrate their birthdays with them. I thought that my support group would want to celebrate Ben & Ella's birthday along with me too, but Ben & Ella didn't get a card or even an e-mail wishing them happy birthday.

Should this bother me? Probably not. I know we're all busy, but I did make it a point to send them birthday cards though I'm busy too (though a couple times a little late, but not by much). I have no idea if my support group friends read this blog or not - they've never said if they did or not though I did give them the link.

I guess it just makes me feel sad because I don't get to see these ladies all that often (though the reason we got together in the first place was for a sad reason - infertility) and we don't talk much anymore, and I thought this would be the one way we would reach out to each other again.

Weekend - Parades and Teething

We actually had some nice weather for the beginning of summer! June-uary (as it’s been called around here) went away for a little bit for the weekend (it’s a bit chilly out today though the weather said it would be warmer and what did I put on my children? Shorts (Benjamin) and a cute little skirt (Ella). Ugh. Actually, Benjamin wasn’t awake when I left, so I assume Jon dressed Benjamin in his Mariner outfit (we still support them though they suck)). It was nice that it was warm for the summer solstice parade in Fremont on Saturday (I’m sure all the naked bicyclists appreciate that too). It was my first time going to that parade though I’ve lived in Seattle for nearly 15 years!

Anyway, in other news, it looks like Benjamin may be popping a tooth out soon. He’s had a bit of a fever and some diarrhea of which many have told me comes with teething for some babies. Ella also had a bit of a fever too, but she wouldn’t let me check to see if there were any teeth coming through up top. Benjamin, actually, didn’t like me touching his gums either, but I did, and I noticed a little ridge poking through. Poor guy has been Mr. Cranky over the past few days because of it.

Father's Day 2008

Once again, on Father's Day, we have a houseful of people. That's what happens when Ben & Ella's birthday is right before Father's Day!

This year, like last year, Jon made everyone breakfast with a lot of assistance from all of my sister's kids. Then I told him that Ben & Ella are very excited for you to open your present. So he did. We got him 2 short sleeve shirts to wear to work, one tie (he wears ties on Fridays), and...a fruit bat. We were most excited about the fruit bat.

If you don't recall, Jon thought that Mother's Day and Father's Day should have "mascots", so to speak, just like Easter has the bunny and Christmas has Santa Claus. For Mother's Day, it is the monkey. For Father's Day, Jon chose the fruit bat. He told me he wanted a fruit bat, so we got him a fruit bat.

The rest of the day, we went on the picnic I mentioned in an earlier post. Jon wanted to walk home with Ben & Ella while the rest of us went to go see the Fremont Troll. I think Jon had a good Father's Day. I hope he did!

More Walking!

Benjamin kinda sorta took a couple steps yesterday and the day before. Yay for Benjamin! He's been cruising around the furniture for a while - pretty much since he started crawling.

Ella has taken many steps but is still unwilling to try it on her own to get to stuff. She did that once or twice, but nowadays, she would much rather walk between people or hold onto one hand of mine or Jon's to walk around. Ella has become really clingy to me over the past few days. This morning, she looked up at me while crying and said "Mom, Mom!" How could I resist picking her up? Of course, about a minute later, I had to put her down because my ride was there. She, of course, started crying. :-(

Both Ben & Ella were just cracking up when I blew them kisses and made it seem the kiss was making noises as it flew through the air to them. So cute. I think Jon caught some of that on video so I'll have to upload later.

Oh, and something that Ella has found very entertaining lately is to just scream - not because she's upset - more to hear herself scream. She thinks it's funny when I scream back.

I'm looking forward to (hopefully) this weekend moving their car seats so that they face forward. It will be nice to be able to look into the mirror to see what they're up to!

Ben & Ella's 1st Birthday & Weekend

I meant to write about Ben & Ella’s first birthday before now, but things get busy when you have family in town and a party to throw!

Their first birthday was this past Thursday on June 12. We celebrated it by giving them some ice cream. They liked it, but they weren’t too impressed by it (we gave them vanilla). Perhaps they’d like it more if we gave them chocolate! We also took some photos that recreated ones we took last year right after Ben & Ella were born. That was fun - they really didn't stick with the positions they were in last year. They are a bit more squirmy these days. :-D


Then on Friday, we spent time cleaning and hanging out at home waiting for my family to arrive. That night, we just spent some hanging out and watching most of a dumb movie (Walk Hard).

Saturday was the day of the party. We had a bit of fun when our toilet decided to overflow shortly before everyone was set to arrive, but thankfully Jon took care of that while I took Ben & Ella out with my sister and her kids to shop for Ben & Ella’s birthday present. The party was a lot of fun. We had a BBQ and they enjoyed their first ever cupcake (it’s really a mini-cake since it’s from Cos&tco). Here is a video of that fun.


Ben got it all over his face and into his ear. Ella used the frosting as a hair conditioner. There are some pictures on flickr if you’d like to see. They also enjoyed opening their presents (with the assistance of their parents). They got some great presents!

On Sunday, since it was finally nice day in my part of the world, we decided to go for a picnic at Hamlin Park. After the picnic, my sister and her kids wanted to go see the Fremont Troll, so we drove over there to see it. Jon walked Ben & Ella back home from the park (his idea). After the troll, we went to Magnuson Park to enjoy the weather by Lake Washington. Then we came back home for another BBQ (we had a lot of leftovers), then a few of us went to go see a friend host and sing at an open mic at Wayward.

Monday, the kids wanted to go to Archie McPhee so we headed over there for a bit, then had some lunch and then my sister and her kids and my parents and brother were off back to Spokane. Jon and I later took Ben & Ella out on a walk after their nap. Ella got a bit fussy on our way there – I think she wanted to get out and walk, but she was happy when Jon put her on his shoulders until we got to a nearby park. They both really happy to walk around in the grass.

Eve of Ben & Ella's 1st birthday!

Some more cute stories to share on the eve of Ben & Ella’s 1st birthday!!! As of tomorrow, I will be the mom of two one-year-olds! Crazy!

Anyway, onto the cute stories…

The other day, Benjamin was being fussy about something (I can’t remember now what it was) and Ella crawled over to him and said something to him in this soft high-pitched voice like she was soothing him. How adorable is that?

So lately, Ella will steal a toy that Benjamin has (not new) and Benjamin will fuss about it. Well, in trying to teach her to be nice to share, we ask her to give it back to Benjamin because Benjamin had it first, then she will have her turn. I realize she is only (nearly) 1, so she isn’t going to quite get it but we try. Well, when we ask her for it, she will, most of the time, share it with us, but if we give it to Benjamin, she cries out as if she wanted to share it with us, not her brother. If she wanted to share it with him, she would just give it to him – is what I imagine her thinking. This morning, Jon tells me that Ella offered him one of her Cheerios, so I’m hoping that this means she wants to share with Benjamin. Benjamin, most of the time, won’t steal from Ella, so it hasn’t been an issue the other way around, but it has been a few times so we try to do the same thing with him. He hasn’t really shared quite yet, but we’re working on it.

Oh, and one cute thing that Benjamin does is when there is music playing somewhere (and sometimes not), he will rock his head back and forth almost like the night at the Roxbury” guys (from SNL). It’s so adorable.

I know there was one other thing, but I can’t remember what it is.

So tomorrow is their birthday and on Saturday, we are having a party for them. I’m looking forward to it! Now, I just got get everything together for it and do some grocery shopping!

Cute & Not So Cute Stories & More

Cute stories:

So after nearly two weeks of not taking any more steps, Ella took some steps on Thursday night and many over the weekend. Sometimes, the steps were without me prompting her to do so. She is so excited to be walking and I know she loves hearing us say “Yay Ella!” while clapping our hands. Benjamin sometimes joins in on the clapping.

Benjamin just all of sudden started waving when it was time to say hi or bye to someone. I noticed him do it for the first time when we were visiting Jon’s work on Friday. So cute!

Last night, while giving Ella a bath, she became really fascinated by her belly button. She would grab her belly and look down and just laugh. She is also fascinated by the fact that mommy has a belly button too.

Not so cute stories:

So on Friday, I get a call from the daycare saying that they think something is wrong with Benjamin’s eye. He won’t open his left eye and he is being extra fussy. Jon thinks that maybe Ella might have scratched it when she was trying to get Benjamin’s bottle or get him to play. They said they’d watch him and let me know if it seems to get worse. Well, they called me back about an hour later and said that they really think he should be seen by a doctor. So since Jon couldn’t leave work, I made arrangements to get to my car (I’m still in a vanpool) and got Benjamin and off we went to the ped’s office. They didn’t find anything wrong with his eye – no scratches or anything. He does rub his eye every so often and appears upset by it, but his eye isn’t red. A coworker suggested it could be an eyelash since he has long eyelashes – I’ll have to see if there is one sticking into his eye that might be bothering him.

Benjamin was standing by one of our dining table chairs and drumming on that when Ella wanted to join in on the fun, so she pulled herself and started to move the chair like it was a walker (they’ve been doing that with a lot of things – chairs, high chairs, boxes, etc). Well, Benjamin wasn’t prepared for that and down he went and hit his head on the hardwood floor. Poor guy! That was the 2nd time in about 3 or so hours that he did that – the first was when he slipped when pulling himself up using the Pepsi box. My poor little guy!

In other topics:

I came across this today and noticed that Ella is becoming quite the popular name in the last few years – it seems to be making the comeback after being popular in the early 1900s. Benjamin seems to always be a popular name. In 2007, Ella was ranked 21, according to the SSA, and Benjamin was ranked 26.

Yesterday, I was by myself for about 6 ½ hours because Jon had to go to work. It is so much easier on my back when there is another person there to help. My back was just killing me taking turns walking one baby around, then the next, then go back to the other, etc. It’s no wonder why my back is so tight. Thankfully for my back, Ella is starting to want to walk on her own.

Pics and Stories

There are some new pictures and a couple videos on my flickr site if you would like to see my cuties. Can you believe that next Thursday they will turn 1? I can’t.

So there are a few cute stories to share:

The other day, Ella and I were sitting on the floor and she kept lifting up my pant leg and her pant leg as if she realized that we both had legs under our clothes.

Also, the other day, Jon told me that Benjamin found Jon’s hairy chest very fascinating and funny.

Ella still hasn’t really taken any more steps. She kinda took one last night, but I don’t know if that should count. She has stood all by herself many times (though several times, if I say “Ella, look at you! You’re standing all on your own!” she stops as if she didn’t realize what she was doing.

They are really starting to fight over stuff a lot more these days – they could both have their own toothbrushes, but they want the one that the other has and the one that they have. Fun times!

Over the past weekend, we met some new people and got together with a friend of Jon’s from his old workplace. It was good though Ella is rather afraid of strangers. Benjamin seems less so, but he still has a bit of that fear.

I’m sure there is other stuff. I really should write more often so I remember these things! Perhaps they’ll come back to me.