Acquiring a Taste for Flour

The other day as I was getting ready to prepare dinner, Ben was insistent on being included in the activities. This is a regular occurrence which makes cooking rather difficult and exasperating much of the time so I decided to let him help thinking it would be nice to have him occupied for a while. I think I'm a glutton for punishment, but he sure had fun!

"Hmmm...What should I add to compliment this lovely powdery mess?"

"Mmmm... Yes, this is turning out quite nicely."

"It just needs to be stirred a little bit more."

"Mom, you've got to try this!"

The most scrumptious treat there is! (In my humble opinion.)

Brothers

Catherine, this one's for you. ;)

For those of you wondering if Ben and Cedric look alike, here are some photos for you to compare. I'll let you judge for yourselves.

Ben

Cedric

Ben

Cedric

So... what do you think? Can you tell they're brothers?

To complete the post, here's a photo of the boys together. I hope they're always such good friends!

To Grandmother's House We Go

Yesterday the boys and I went over to my Mom's house for the day and saying that Ben had fun is an understatement. We played outside all afternoon - Ben played with the hose (and got completely drenched), he played on the slide, he jumped on the trampoline, and explored the backyard. Cedric just slept most of the time. Here are some photos of our day at Grandma's!

Ben loves to snuggle with this big teddy bear!

Here's Grandma multi-tasking with her two grand-babies while I sit by and watch...

It's a good thing she loves me!

"What do you think you're doing, Mom?"

A nap on the lawn

"Hooray for water!" he says. "How does it work?"

And finally, here's a video of Ben jumping on the trampoline. We couldn't get him off it and to tell you the truth I think my mom and I enjoyed it as much as he did...

Request

I have a request regarding the previous post... Now that the comments are coming through (hurray!) I'd like to ask that if you post a comment you include your name with it. Thanks!

Just FYI

I know that some of you have had a hard time posting comments on our blog, so I'm just letting you know that I've finally figured out a way to eliminate that problem! Anyone should be able to post now. Therefore, please post as many comments as you like. We love to hear from you!

A Whirlwind

Just as the title of this post implies, it has been a whirlwind for our family this last week. To much has happened for me to go into detail about all of it, so I'm going to overload you with pictures instead...

But first, here is a quick summary of our week: Cedric was born and brought home, we found out that Brian passed his PE Exam, Cedric is diagnosed with medium level jaundice and is put into the hospital for a couple days, Ben gets spoiled by all of his grandparents (what's new, right?), Cedric gets to come home for good but didn't respond real well to treatment in the hospital so is being monitored carefully, we are overcoming nursing challenges, Brian buys a new bow (along with some new brewing supplies) as a result of his passed PE Exam, and we're finally trying to adjust to life with two children.

And now for the pics:

Here's Ben chilling in the chair Grandpa and Grandma G. gave him. He feels like a big boy with the cup holder and all.

Ben gets to hold his baby brother for the first time... Quite exciting!

Just plain cute.

Ben gets his first bike from Grandma Parker - Big Boy!!!

Papa gets Ben a real sandbox to put on our patio! Ben also gets spoiled by Grandpa and Grandma Schultz who came to stay with us for a week.

When only a few days old it was determined that Cedric had a medium level of jaundice so he had to be hooked up to this "bili blanket" virtually all the time.

We called him our little Glowworm!

After a day with the "bili blanket" Cedric was reevaluated and we found out that he was dehydrated and the jaundice was not getting better so the doctor decided to put him in the hospital. We were in the hospital for two nights and two days.

He loved his hot box!

Nice shades Buster!

Because he was dehydrated we had to get as much fluids in him as possible, so here I am supplementing with more milk after nursing.

Papa's new bow. Talk about exciting!

Cedric comes home and gets his first bath! (He did NOT like it.)

Today Cedric and Papa take a nap on the couch. Life is finally starting to look a little normal!