Merry Christmas

The Land of Misfit Chairs was merely an appetizer. Here is Ben's holiday feature.

Are You Smarter Than a Pre-schooler?

I think I am. Mainly because pre-schoolers are unaware of reverse psychology. For the past two weeks, we had to practically drag Bradley out of bed before school, but he has no problems waking up at 5:30 AM on weekend mornings. So, on Saturday, I mentioned to him that we would be going to school tomorrow. My trick worked. Brad slept until 7:07, which I believe is a post-Ben record and a Festivus miracle without question. I tried the tactic again on Sunday, since school was closed on Monday. Victory again! Although, Brad did have the last laugh. I had set the alarm for 6:40 (to beat the garbage man), and Bradley started calling "da da, da da" at exactly 6:39.

Happy Festivus

As I said before, we are a little behind in our holiday preparations, but I did manage to put up the Festivus Pole in the nick of time. I have yet to see any "Baby's First Festivus" merchandise. Although, the existence of such merchandise would be counter to the spirit of Festivus.

Christmas Classics

With two kids and a kitchen renovation underway, the holiday season has been a little out of kilter for us this year. (Don't worry, your card is in the mail.) I think we managed to miss every single Christmas special on TV. It seems like they air them way too early each year. Therefore, we created our own holiday movie starting Ben. I hope you enjoy it.

1000 Words

This is some sticker art Bradley did while we rode the Polar Express last weekend. As you can see, apparently there are some strong winds at the North Pole. These winds caused a couple of trees to blow on the rail roads tracks which in turn resulted in a derailment. The winds are so strong that they knocked Santa's workshop off its foundation. It's a miracle the reindeer can still fly straight considering that presents are being blown off of Santa's sleigh.

The Days of Our Lives

It is kind of nice that Bradley can now communicate well. We get to hear about all the drama that goes on at daycare. Monday was particularly interesting. These are the events, although not necessarily in order. Jack pushed Ryan. Ryan got a big boo boo on his head and had an icepack applied. Jack got a time out. Thira kicked Bradley. No boo boo, no time out. This is probably retribution for when Bradley pulled Thira's hair last week. (That did merit a time out). Mackenzie had a birthday. Everyone sang. Lunch consisted of spaghetti and green beans. What a day!

Story Time

Bradley read several books to Ben this weekend. He also sang "Wheels on the Bus". It is a special one verse version of the song.

Give Peas a Chance

I never understood why John Lennon wrote that song, but it is fun to sing while feeding Ben. He has been eating solid food for about two weeks now. So far he has tried bananas, sweet potatoes, peas, squash, and apple sauce. Unfortunately the sweet potatoes made a round trip journey yesterday. None of those parenting books and magazine ever suggest putting a carpet cleaner on your baby registry, but I highly recommend it.

Thanksgiving Trip

It was quite an eventful Thanksgiving trip for Bradley. He got to see great grandma and the cousins, go to the aviary, see Christmas lights and a bonfire, work in the yard, and pet a horse.


Ben reached a big milestone during our trip. He started to roll from his back to his stomach. See the video below. Another first is that he saw his first snowflakes on Friday.

Happy Birt....

Little Ben is halfway to his first birthday. Of course, we celebrated at Heaven on Seven. Today was also Ben's first ice storm. It may actually be Brad's first ice storm. We don't get those too often.

Here are the latest stats for the Deuce. Length - 26.75 inches, weight 17 lbs 15.5 ounces, hat size 17.75. His length is at the 65th percentile, which is just about where he has been since month 1. His weight is regressing to the mean. At 3 months he was at the 90th, but is now down to 61st.