Ben's First Shopping Excursion

Notice anything different in this picture (other than the fallen leaves)? Let me give you a hint . . . Ben is wearing shoes!

Last Friday, Hayes, Ben and I ventured out in the rain to buy Ben is first REAL pair of shoes. Once he had them fitted, Ben spent the rest of the day high-stepping around the house. (Luckily, Ben's reaction to the shoes was more positive than Hayes's reaction three years ago when we bought his first pair. Hayes cried and cried every time we put them on his feet for the first two or three weeks.) Ben seems to really like his shoes and nods his head whenever I ask him if he wants me to put them on. Today, he even tried stepping into my tennis shoes and came crashing down when his foot missed the foot hole.

Now with shoes, Ben's officially ready to go out and about!

H's Currency

I think we are all ready for Preschool to start!

Hayes "struck out" yesterday. What was the consequence of his not-so-great behavior? Daddy said that we would take away all of his Superhero books for two days. H is totally into anything Superhero and you can find the books strewn throughout the house. A few minutes after the punishment was announced, we found H reading a Spiderman book. We reminded him that we would have to take that book away from him for TWO days. He said, "If you guys really do that, then I will be really, really sad," and he quickly started whimpering.

I guess we were successful in determining what is important to him right now!

Wall of the World

I bought this National Geographic world map a few months ago. Since its arrival, it has sat on the playroom floor in its box because we realized that it came as three panels. We could not decide out how we wanted to hang it. (National Geographic recommended hanging it like wallpaper, and we KNEW we did not want to do that!)

Finally, two Saturdays ago when we were getting organized upstairs, I told Thomas that we needed to at least attempt to hang the map up. Well, with the help of a bunch of colorful thumbtacks, you can see the finished product in the photo above. We love it, and the kids are having a great time trying to find new places on the map.

Mastering Chair-Sitting

Ben suddenly has a fascination with this chair. It currently sits up in the playroom in a prominent location. He has determined how to get into a sitting position (it does involve some climbing), but it is a lot of work and often leaves him teetering like he is in the photo. One wrong move and his balance is gone. Usually, once he has finally propped his body on the seat, he realizes that he has forgotten a book or else he has dropped it along the way up. He then reaches down to pick it up and off he goes! The cycle then starts over from the beginning. Luckily, the entire process keeps him entertained for a good while.

Please Pause for a Moment of Silence . . .

Yesterday, Eleanor came home with the news that she got to do the morning announcements at her school over the intercom system. Hearing this immediately brought back fond memories for me, because I did them in elementary school, junior high and high school, and was always so excited to be a part of the "announcements" team.

As first graders and the oldest kids at the Primary Center (K- 1st), they are the ones who get to do the announcements at the school. Monday was the first day for the students to do it, and E's class was selected to be the guinea pigs. She was then one of four in her class who was asked to read a portion of the morning highlights. Her lines were: "Hi. My name is Eleanor Carroll. Please pause for a moment of silence." She said she wasn't nervous at all!

Our Walker

I think it is now safe to call Ben a walker, but he is still mastering the art of it all. To get where he needs to go, he has both arms up waist-high at all times for balance. He also needs to keep his head up around here, because obstacles are always in his way!Even with both arms up, he still leans one way or the other to stay upright. As you can see below, he leans a little to the right . . . and now a little too far to the left!Luckily for him, on this stretch, he did not have his older brother there to "help push him" along!

The Charmer

Hayes is becoming quite the charmer. He has gotten more and more vocal with his expressions of love. I'm sure they are sincere, but I think he's also figured out how to use them effectively to get on my good side. Recently, he's offered some lines that need to be documented. Here's a sample:

One day last week, he tried negotiating with me by saying, "If you turn the TV on, I'll love everyone in this whole family . . . except for the stinky dog." Poor Baxter.

The other night at dinner, Hayes leans over and says, "Mom, I have a secret for you. You cannot tell Eleanor, Dad or Ben my secret." He intrigued me so I leaned my ear over to hear him whisper "I love you, Mom."

Finally, just last night after he had gotten into trouble, he said to me, "Mom, you know I love you more than Eleanor, Dad, Ben and Baxter. I love you more than everyone in this family."

Now, who wouldn't find these lines charming??

Where it hurts

For those of you who think Eleanor is an angel, let me promise you that she has her moments of imperfection. Trying to discipline her has become quite a challenge. Nothing seems to affect her. She nearly laughs when we get upset with her. Today, she ended up having three strikes by mid-afternoon. In our house, after three strikes, something gets taken away. What did Daddy take away from her as her punishment? EMAIL. He informed her that she would not be able to check her email for seven, and I mean 7 days. She was shocked, stunned, and near tears. She could not believe it. Seven days seems so long to her, and she was floored that her father was the one to offer this sentence. (We, though, were thrilled that we had finally found something that got her attention.) So, for those of you who email her or read her blog, she's taking a seven-day hiatus! I'm sure she'll return with renewed energy next week. :-)

Friends Camp

This week, Hayes has Friends Camp. He and three of his buddies, Anderson, Lane and Sawyer, will spend Monday through Thursday at a different house, with the host family responsible for the day's activities.

Today was our day to entertain the boys. I ended up taking them to the Atlanta Botanical Gardens to get them outside and running around. (Boys this age have sooo much energy!) We then came home to eat pizza for lunch followed by some Superhero popsicles for dessert.Yesterday, the boys went to Fernbank and then they played in the fountains at Centennial Olympic Park. Tomorrow, they will head up to Dobbins Air Force Base to go to the Delta Airlines Museum or watch the airplanes come and go. On Thursday, they will go for a ride on MARTA to Five Guys for lunch and then back home for some fun with water balloons.

Doesn't it sound like fun? Maybe we should think about planning an Adult Friends Camp!

The Invasion

That's what we do when we visit Mimi and Papa's house. We invade. We takeover every nook and cranny of their house and their schedules. We did just this the last week of July, AFTER spending the week prior with them at the beach. Two weeks under the same roof with three kids under seven will drive any grandparent crazy, but my folks hid their exhaustion and exasperation well.

My parents constantly cooked, cleaned and helped entertain my three. They let the kids do their things without worrying about the messes that resulted. Eleanor took over the upstairs loft with Barbies. The boys left face- and fingerprints on the glass doors all around the house. At one point in the week, when we added three more to the mix, my parents did not seem to bat an eye. (In the photo below are Luke Pastis, Emma Pastis, Eleanor, Ben, Hayes and Zoey Pastis. The Pastis kids belong to my great friend Kara, who came over from Orlando with her clan to spend the night with us.)Needless to say, we were all smiles on Friday night when Daddy flew in to help us drive home on Saturday. Mimi, Papa and I were no longer on man-to-man defense as we had been for the previous 10 days.

Unfortunately, I don't have a picture of Mimi from our week. She really does not like me taking pictures of her. She also was busy working tirelessly behind the scenes. She woke up and fed all three kids breakfast while I slept in. She also changed diapers, prepared meals, cleaned up behind us, and did laundry. Whew! I'm tired just thinking about it!

Thank you, Mimi and Papa, for letting us invade!

Little Helper

Eleanor has been very eager to add to her Fairy Book collection. Unfortunately for her, we've told her that we will not buy her any books until Christmas. Knowing this, she realized she needed to get to work! Today marks the first day that Eleanor earned money doing a chore. (She's done chores (i.e. making her bed, feeding Baxter, setting the table) for a while now, but not gotten paid to do so.) I had her clean the plantation shutters in the living room. The shutters had not been cleaned since we moved in over a year ago (post renovation) and were in desperate need of some attention. Eleanor worked very hard cleaning each level of the shutters and even offered to Windex the windows while she was there. She did such a great job that we are ready for her to tackle the kitchen bay window next. Thanks E! You have earned the money for a new book.

Glimpse of the Past

Ben is moving forward. And he's walking to do so. I told Thomas that we'd have to get the video camera out this weekend to try to capture Ben crawling because we won't be seeing this much longer . . .

Lillian Vernon Catalog

Our Halloween edition of the Lillian Vernon catalog arrived in the mailbox two days ago. Hayes has already flipped through it so many times that the cover has come off. He has been busy negotiating with me about his Halloween costume. I won't let him buy a scary or expensive costume and these restrictions pretty much eliminate most of the catalog, much to his dismay. Now that he's seen all of the catalog's options, his opinion has changed from last year. He now wants to be either a Superhero or a Transformer, or really anything on the page below. He has made it very clear, though, that he does NOT want to be Superbaby (in the pic below too), as that would be very silly, but thinks it's a great costume for Ben. Hayes even carried the catalog over to the bus stop yesterday afternoon to show all of the big kids what costumes he'd like.

Finally, at breakfast this morning, I just had to stop him. I told him that I was done talking about Halloween costumes until September. August was just too early to be having such intense, CONSTANT discussions. I think he heard me, but an hour later, he was right back at it, asking me which Superhero costume I wanted him to wear on Halloween night!

1st Day of 1st Grade

Eleanor headed off to school today to officially begin her first grade year! The morning process was so much easier this year when compared to last. (Maybe because we had a six-week-old last August?) Thomas made Eleanor what has become her traditional first-day-of-school breakfast: a fried egg with bacon. She and her Lolas enjoyed the hearty breakfast. Then, it was off to the bus stop where she ran into her fellow first graders, Francie and Maddy. My, how they have grown since last year (and haven't our photography skills improved as well)!And finally, on to the bus she went!After school, E reported that she had had a fantastic day. She was just as excited about the "First Day of School" dinner she got to choose: teriyaki pork chops, Asian pole beans, braised carrots and couscous. (She kept reminding us at dinner that the pork chops and pole beans are her all-time favorites.)She devoured her dinner and went to sleep a happy and full little girl!

Sprinkler Fun

With school starting tomorrow for Eleanor, we decided to invite some neighbors over to play in the sprinkler in the front yard. The heat was rather suffocating, but the kids did not notice as they frolicked in the cool sprays of water. The kids spent quite a bit of time being really silly. Ben was there to witness all of the pandemonium, with Dogdog, of course!
Then, it was like a switch went off in their heads. They remembered that school started tomorrow and that they needed to be ready! What did they do? The soon-to-be first graders read to the younger two and they even mixed the siblings up a bit. Pretty cute!

Baseball Cards

H got a packet of baseball cards from one of his friends for his birthday. I'm not sure who was more excited, Daddy or Hayes. Baseball card collecting and trading was one of Thomas's favorite childhood hobbies. (We have baseball cards all over our basement because Thomas CANNOT part with them.) As I just heard Thomas tell Hayes,"We have boxes and boxes of them downstairs." When I walked in the door this afternoon after a brief, hot walk, this is what I saw:

Ice Cream Truck

We've been trying all summer to get ice cream from the ice cream truck. It is on our Summer To-Do List. It has been a challenge, though, since we've been gone so often. This afternoon, I heard some children's music and just thought that it was the kids playing with a toy in the family room. Then I heard Eleanor scream, "It's the ice cream truck!" I told her to run out there and catch him while I grabbed my wallet. Eleanor ordered a Sour Pop, just as her daddy would. Hayes ordered a Spiderman ice cream. They enjoyed them in the shade of the front yard.

The Pool was Cool

While at Mimi and Papa's house, the kids practically lived in the pool. They had so much fun swimming at the house that we never even made it to the beach! I did not complain, though, because I know that Hayes was boosting his confidence every time he got into the pool. By the end of the week, he was swimming under the waterfall and doing laps in the shallow end of the pool. Eleanor was a fish, as usual, and took full advantage of having a pool in her backyard for the week!

The Twins

While at Jekyll, Hayes spent a lot of his time with my cousin Sarah's twins, Gabe and Patrick. They were always playing outside. Most of the time was spent arguing over whose turn it was to ride Hayes's Spiderman bike. Gabe (below) quickly learned to perch himself on that seat and fight for his right to stay on it. I think one of them was on that bike most of the week and another one was usually close behind, yelling that it was time for his turn.

Whenever you saw the three of them or two out of the three, it always looked like trouble was near . . .if not already there.
I do think that they had a ball togetherand know that Hayes really missed the boys once our week at Jekyll came to an end.

First Sleepover

Eleanor survived her first sleepover! Her good friend Margaret Evans invited her to spend the night last night. Since school starts in a week and knowing that E had soccer camp this next week, this night served as a great opportunity for a first try. We packed up her clothes, little pillow, 2 Lolas, 1 blankie and her sleeping bag and away she went. At 10pm, I emailed Margaret's mom to see if the girls had fallen asleep yet. (If not, I would have been on my way over to pick Eleanor up.) They were sound asleep! We were very relieved that our first sleepover experience ended positively and look forward to returning the favor to Miss Margaret soon!