Meet "Chop-it the Robot"

Benjamin is really into robots these days. He has developed quite the imagination which includes elaborate robot inventions. Here is "Chop-it the Robot" who has incredible powers! Benjamin's nursery leader tells us that he organizes robots now in nursery. Another favorite robot activity is that Stephen is often now the robot. Benjamin pushes buttons and tells him what to do. It is the new trick to get him ready for bed. Daddy robot puts jammies on, reads stories, and sings songs in a robot voice. New interests can be used to Mom and Dad's advantage!

Daisy's First Haircut

I hadn't realized how specific one has to be about telling the groomers exactly how to cut the dog's hair. I guess we didn't really do very well this time. Anyone have dogs that can give us some advice? She looks like a splotchy mess. Oh well! Live and learn. . .

Mr. Independent

I don't know when this started, but in the last few days I have noticed how independent Benjamin has become. Two days ago he decided he needed to answer the phone by himself while I was in the shower. He told me some amazing story about how he answered the phone and then it was Star Wars. I thought it was a made up story until he told me a little later on that Daddy had called. I asked him when, and he responded that he answered the phone while I was showering. I called Stephen, and he told me that indeed Benjamin had answered the phone. The conversation went something like this. "Hi" said Benjamin. "Is this Benjamin?" "Yes." "Where's Mommy?" "Mommy's showering." "Please tell Mommy that I called ok?" He then pressed the off button on the phone and hung it up. Nothing looked out of the ordinary so as to draw my attention. Benjamin did finally relay the message and after that we had a long talk about how he could only answer the phone if Mommy or Daddy asked him to.

The second sign of independence was when I was cleaning. My normal routine is to clean in the morning while Benjamin plays in the playroom. As I cleaned my bathroom, I heard the dryer door opening. I immediately went on red alert to hear if number one it would next turn on and number two if I could distinguish what could have possibly been put inside. Imagine my amazement when I came around the corner to see him unloading all of the clean clothes out of the dryer into a basket. He then pushed the basket proudly into my room and tried to dump it on my bed just like I do. He told me "See Mom, I did your job!" with the biggest, brightest grin on his little face. He repeated the second task again this morning only the bottom of basket had dirty clothes in it. Stephen showed him to always use the blue basket as that is for clean clothes and the white ones are for the dirty clothes.

The third example of independence has lead to a new lock on our front door as Benjamin decided to open the door when he heard a knock. Luckily no one was there as it was the wind banging the decoration against the door. I am also grateful that our alarm sounded so I knew the front door opened.

I am now just awaiting the next appearances of Mr. Independent, whether incredibly helpful or scary there is sure to be more!

We're going private...

We've known for a while now that at some point we'd make this blog private. Rebecca's friend here just had 100 visits in one day from people around the world on a blog she just set up. That was kind of the last straw for us. This will also allow us to be a little more free with what we can write about because we'll know exactly who is reading it. We'll be sending out an invitation to subscribe in a little while. We know there are probably some old friends (from Utah, Ithaca, etc.) that have found this blog. We may not have your email addresses so please leave a comment if you'd like to be included. Or better yet send an email to stephenandrebecca (at) gmail.com so that we can be sure to send you an invitation. Thanks!

Introducing Daisy Mae!

We have a new member of our family. We got Daisy Mae about 5 weeks ago. I was nervous to post about her because a few days after we got her, Benjamin got a runny nose. It seemed to get worse after he held her. We were nervous that he was allergic even though she is a poodle mix and is suppose to be low allergen for people. I took Benjamin to the doctor, and he gave me some prescription allergy medicine to try. I was waiting to fill the prescription when the runny nose seemed to go away on its own. Stephen had some really bad spring allergies at the time so I think that Benjamin probably has those same allergies. Daisy Mae is a schnoodle, a schnauzer and poodle mix. The parents are 12lb. and 15lbs. respectively so we think that she will be about that size. We choose the smallest and mellowest puppy of the litter. We found her from a hobby breeder south of us. She is also doing so well with house training. The only accidents that we have had lately were when we had visitors late at night (Bekki and my parents) and she got too excited about it. Otherwise, she now goes to the door when she needs to go outside. She is a great fit for our family, and we are happy to introduce our Daisy Mae.

Below: Pictures of our first few days together. She was 8 weeks old.Below: Pictures taken one week after we got her. She was 9 weeks old.Below:Pictures taken today. She is 13 weeks old.

Benjamin and Grant

My cousin Jana was in a neighboring town visiting her in-laws. Her husband is currently serving in Iraq, and she came to be with his family for a wedding. She came over on Monday afternoon. We decided that the last time we'd seen each other was 2003. Far too long! She had never even met Stephen or Benjamin, and we'd never met Grant. Benjamin and Grant played so well together. They had a fun time and now Benjamin keeps asking if he can have a play date again with Grant. Jana called me today and left a message about how Grant was asking the same thing. If only we lived closer! Thanks Jana for making time to come see us. We really enjoyed to visit!