i did it!

today i ran three errands with both boys. one stop included the grocery store. i was dreading going to the grocery store with both boys because i only have two hands and cole would need to ride in the cart and i wasn't sure how ben would adapt to having to walk most of the time. but we did it! no major meltdowns and almost everything on the list! hooray! i know all the grocery store excursions won't always have happy endings, but at least our first trip did!

i heart running . . . really i do

running is my drug. seriously.  which is funny because i used to loathe running. i would rather do anything except for run. but after i ditched my antidepressants a few years ago i discovered the runners high and now i am never going back. yesterday i went for my first run since having cole. it felt amazing! just to have that endorphin high again was incredible. running keeps the blues away and hopefully will give me some semblance of my normal body soon.

pumpkin patch

 

i LOVE pumpkin patches! when i was a kid we just got our pumpkins from the grocery store. it worked but it wasn't much of an adventure. we have gone to a pumpkin patch three years in a row now and i hope we can go forever. 

 

you can't test drive the pumpkins at the grocery store. 

the following is the proper technique for picking a pumpkin as demonstrated by ben.

 

1. make sure you pick the perfect pumpkin.

2. bend and lift with your legs. not your back.

3. haul it to your cool wagon.

 

problem is sometimes pumpkins are heavy and roads are bumpy so mommy needs to help. (look i exist!)

 

and if pumpkins aren't enough fun . . .

 

tractors!!! 

 

this is when ben is done. he says, "no more pitchers a ben mommy! go away!" like he ever looks at the camera anyway. nice try ben. the camera will always be in your face! i promise it is out of love!

i hope someday you will thank me!

snake

Yesterday Ben and I were outside playing with our buddies Daphne, Joseph and Beth. Daphne found a centipede and Ben and Joseph were thrilled. Ben wanted to hold it and Joseph kept calling it a "snake." I told Ben it was a centipede, but he liked Joseph's description better, so a snake it was. After a while this poor centipede grew tired of being handled by so many tiny hands so he curled up on himself trying to block them out. Ben looked up at me and said, "Mommy! He died!" Beth and I busted up laughing. But Daphne go the centipede to unroll and then Ben yelled, "He wake up now! He not dead!" Long live centipedes. (not really. I loathe centipedes.)

all aboard!

 Today while playing "choo choo twains" with Ben he once again said the funniest thing ever. We built the track and hooked all of the trains together and then he stopped looked up and said,"Choo choo! All aboard!!" And then he put two fingers up to his mouth like he was whistling, but of course he only blew out air, so he said, "Whoo whoo!" I was laughing so hard! Where does this kid come up with this stuff?

"daddy say dat word"

ben is of course a human tape recorder right now so he repeats everything he hears. which is funny and cute sometimes and not so great at others. for example when he started saying the word "stupid." luckily it is not the worst word in the world for him to say, but also not the best. so i tried to explain to him that "stupid" is not a nice word and makes people feel sad. he concentrated really hard on what i had just told him. then he looked up at me and said, "but daddy says dat word." i had to choke down my laughter and explain to him that we needed to tell daddy not to say that word either. can you believe how fast he ratted out scott? a few days later we were driving in the car and scott said the word stupid. immediately after ben pipes up from the backseat, "daddy say dat word. don't say dat word daddy. sorry daddy." scott apologized and then we silently busted up in the back seat.

so big

after i finished changing cole's bum today, i held him up and said,"cole is getting so big! i can't believe it!" ben perked up from across the room and yelled, "he wrestle now?!" scott and i laughed so hard. ben is really anxious for a new wrestling partner.

fishing

i haven't been feeling too up for adventures after having cole. ( i need some sleep!) so daddy has been in charge of adventures! today ben and scott went fishing at the lake by our house. they caught one! ben was so excited!

fishing with dad from Britta Bruderer on Vimeo.

"he got dead"

ben has now had his first experience with death. the beta fish grandma gwenya bought him for his birthday has finally left this world. (i am convinced he has been suicidal for months.) scott did the honors of explaining death to ben. scott told him that the fish died so we need to flush him down the toilet then he can be with heavenly father. so when i came downstairs ben ran up to me and said, "he got dead mommy! flush down a potty. (then he folded his arms) heavenly father amen."  he handled the passing of our fish very well, but i think the flushing of the fish was more exciting than the sadness of his death.

poop poop poop

 cabin fever has set in again. i decided that today was the day to get out. i had big plans to go to on a walk and then go to the library. sadly my boys had other plans. my darling husband let me sleep for a couple of hours when he got home from work which was divine. i woke up feeling ready to go on some adventures. my plan was to feed cole and then get us all dressed and go to the park. halfway through feeding cole i noticed his jammies were wet. not unusual for cole. (he can leak through a diaper in a hour. i have never seen a newborn pee so much!) so i went upstairs to change his diaper and clothes. however, i discovered the source of the wetness to be poop. ug. he had bright yellow poop all the way up his back and in the process of trying to de-poop him he ended up with poop up to his shoulder blades. i knew i had to bathe cole and fast. so after he was semi-cleaned up i ran into the bathroom to get a towel to wrap him in until i could get his bath set up. i wrapped him up took two steps towards the bathroom and . . . cole pooped again!!! big time. all over in his towel. awesome. by now ben who had been in the basement watching mickey mouse clubhouse (for the zillionth time. arg.) realized i had been gone too long. so he came wandering up the stairs screaming for me. when he realized that cole was going to get a bath he wanted in too. ben was such a great big brother in the tub. he was very soft and made sure cole stayed warm by pouring water on his tummy. so the worst was over right? nope. i got cole out of the bath, moved his bathtub out of the way and spotted a small brown object floating in the tub. more poop! ben pooped in the tub! gross. so i had to get ben out asap. then both boys started screaming. cole was cold and ben wanted his "cozy" (towel) wrapped around him just right. so i got a diaper on ben, and lotioned and dressed cole. then cole screamed the whole time i was dressing ben. i picked up cole to console him and he proceeded to barf all down the front my clean shirt. that's it. i give up. we are staying home today. that was enough of an adventure!

fake temper tantrum

how do you not love a kid in a hooded towel?

just like dad

 when scott was little he used to drive his hot wheels cars along the window sill for hours on end. looks like it is a genetic thing because unsolicited ben loves to do the exact same thing!

 

brotherly love

ben adores his little brother. he used to ask for me when he was ready to come home from an adventure, now he says, "go home, find baby cole." sometimes he over-loves his brother, but i guess at least love is love right?

baby cole

so i admit that i am completely obsessed with cole's mullet. it is so cute! one picture just wasn't enough.

it has only been three and a half weeks since baby cole has joined the family, but he is already so big! again, how did this happen? haven't i been here every single day making sure he didn't grow up? haven't i been watching him every second? yes. but somehow i am missing it! it is flying by. he has almost outgrown all of his newborn outfits. it is breaking my heart. he is still an angel baby and i love every minute with him.

mr. mischief

this is what happens when i try to take pictures of cole. ben insists on getting in cole's crib and playing with his mobile. at first he is very gentle, but gradually the taps turn into right hooks and i am afraid the whole thing is going to come tumbling down!

ben loves to be mr. fix-it. he loves to fix everything with his drill, of course safety goggle are a must too. after a successful repair ben will say, "ben did it by hiz-self! like manny!" (that is handy manny on disney channel). no lack of entertainment here!!

baby brothers

benjamin

coleson

well they are definitely brothers!! we couldn't figure out who cole looked like, scott or me. turns out he looks just like his brother. i found a picture of ben when he was a week old and compared it to coleson, and what do you know! they look alike!

family night

i have had enough of being on lock down after having cole. serious cabin fever set in so i suggested we go bowling. we haven't gone in a really long time and i wasn't sure if ben remembered what it was or if he was just as excited as i was to get out, but either way we were all excited. we got to the bowling alley and ben got his very own pair of bowling shoes! i wasn't sure if this was going to be a good or a bad thing because he gets really attached to his shoes. He loved them and couldn't wait for me to get them on him. not only did he get his own fancy shoes but he got his very own orange bowling ball! when it was his turn to bowl he insisted on picking up the ball himself (we were impressed he could carry a six pound bowling ball all on his own) and then humming a tune as he hauled his ball the ball roller thing (that is a technical term). he would put his ball up and say, "wait for it" while the machine puts the pins in place then he would yell, "GO!!" and push the ball as hard as he could. he usually hit some pins, thanks to the bumper lanes, and then he would sprint back to the ball return and call to his orange ball and clap his hands. after we finished a game where all of us took turns we bought another game just for him to go over and over and over again. i think it is safe to say that bowling was a huge hit!

my boys

 didn't we all loathe it when our mothers dressed us in the same thing as our siblings? yep. have i gone and done the same thing to my boys? you bet! how could i resist matching rocket ship jammies? maybe they will love me for it later. but i can still remember the awesome hot pink shirts with zebra leggings kiersten and i had to wear to seaworld. yeah . . .

night shift

what happens when both parents are on night shift? chaos. scott is working a real night shift at work for the next couple of months and i am working the mom night shift with cole and ben (who has decided he wants to wake up at random hours or way too early just for fun. arg.). on friday night i saw every hour on the clock aside from the 12:00 hour. scott was at work so i was totally by myself. here is how the night went down:

9:00 pm ben finally in bed
9:30 pm mommy in bed
10:00 pm cole wakes up hungry, he stays awake and fussy until 11:30 pm
1:45 am ben wakes up wanting to come "lay in mommy's bed one second."
2:00 am cole wakes up hungry and stays up and fussy until 3:30 am
4:30 am cole starts grunting and fussing, so i feed him again
5:30 am ben wakes up and i give in and let him come lay in my bed
6:30 am ben finally falls back asleep, but cole starts fussing and crying.
7:00 pm ben starts jumping on me saying,"mommy the sun is awake! get up mommy! get up! mommy stand up! please! please please!"
7:30 am daddy is finally home! mommy gets to sleep for an hour before daddy has to go back to bed.

yikes. aren't you all so jealous?

papa clark comes to visit!!

 oh how we miss papa clark! especially ben. he will wake up in the morning and say, "go bye-bye. go tek-as (texas). go see papa clark. ride boat really fast." or he will ask to go to lake powell and ride on papa clark's big boat (the houseboat). we loved having him here for conference weekend. ben loved having someone new to entertain. ben dragged him in his tent, "played toys," read books and ben managed to beg papa clark to "lay down by you" and take a nap in his big boy bed with him!

how cute is this onesie from grandma linda? i love it!!

ratatouille

scott brought home these plastic creepy rats for halloween decor thinking they were so funny. ben thought they were great too. he pulled one out and put it on his head and said, "look at my little chef!" just like in ratatouille (aka the mouse show)! then he asked if we could make cookies, because now he had his own little chef to help him cook!