Granny

My Grandma Josie passed away today. (Granny) We are all so sad to see her go, but relieved that she did not have to suffer long. I am convinced that she and Marlene are drinking OldStyle with Harry Caray right now, having a heated debate surrounding Keith Morland, Derek Lee and the dreaded goat. I am so thankful that I got to say my goodbye this summer. Grandma knew who I was and we had some really great days together. I'll never forget Lily dancing in the halls of the hospital and coloring with Uncle Jim. Grandma had stage 4 cancer and was feeding Grandpa her hospital food. I'll also never forget where the cereal or the candy is in her house. I'll always appreciate that she always had mini-marshmallows for our hot chocolate after sledding at Belly Button Hill. We could always run over from the pool (through the path) if it was raining or we needed a sandwich. Thanks Gram, for teaching me to play cards, do insane jigsaw puzzles, tell it like it is and swear at your beloved Cubbies. I love you.

Night at the Aquarium II

Our sweet tattoos

Matt loves this picture. so typical. Lily's just hanging out and Ben is a blur.

Lily touched so many sharks. They kept swimming up by her. Who knew they were so active at night!?

Night at the Aquarium

There was a new member night at the aquarium and I'm so glad we went. We got to explore the aquarium at nighttime and check out behind the scenes stuff. Turns out the animals are crazy at night. The sea lions were barking so loud, it was hilarious. Mostly, it was just a great time being together, just the 4 of us. :)

Daddy and Ben petting sea stars

Touching an anemone

Allie & Clara's birthday

Allison and Clara were born right around the same time. They both go to LMU childcare and are basically twins from different moms. (Allie is our neighbor and very good friend). They have their birthday parties together every year, so they might as well be twins! Ben absolutely LOVES Allie's dad, Scott. He follows him everywhere and just obsesses over him. Poor Scott was trying to do daddy b-day duties and Ben was just following him around chanting Scott, Scott. Eventually, he settled for one of Scott's friends, a single guy who graciously played on the slides with Ben while I ate lunch. Turns out he is a semi-famous director and Becky was cracking up at Ben ordering him down the swirly slide.

Ben, Lily, Allison, Clara and Felix (so patient when there's cake involved)

Look at Ben: "don't mind if I do"

Poor Ben! We assumed he got a piece of cake and then a woman asked, is this guy yours, he's still waiting for cake. He had been sitting, waiting, watching everyone else eat for like 10 minutes!

Hat Man

Things Ben loves:

Smoothies

The word NO

Being shirtless

Trucks

Yelling

Buzz & Woody

Doing everything himself

Hats

Childfree By Choice

So we're outside on Saturday night, just hanging out with our neighbors. All the kids are out playing and running out their energy before bedtime. Another neighbor, that has no children, comes home and we all say hi. She and I are exchanging small talk and I bring up something about Ben being so loud, he might as well live in her house. (something like that, just totally lighthearted, we usually are just small-talky, neighborly, jokey). She says to me, "you must have done something really terrible in your past life to have gotten that one." I was so floored by this statement. All I could say was, what? Then she goes on about how cute he is. A day later, I really want to tell her that she must have done something rotten in her past life to have ended up being a conservative cat lady this time around. It just reminds me of this post I read on dooce.com. She found out about this whole counter-culture called "Childfree by Choice." If people decide not to have kids, I totally respect that. I get it. It's not for everyone. If you don't want kids, please, by all means, do not have any! But you can't expect to live your entire life without encountering any! I'm not going to keep my kids inside or strictly on playgrounds for their entire lives. We don't take our kids to fancy restaurants or adult movies, but we don't restrict ourselves to parks and play-lands either.

I guess I'm just mad that my neighbors have acted like everything was hunky dory when they don't feel that way. I hate being lied to.

Little Grocery Shoppers 2

More of the grocery store. Ben drinks this yogurt smoothie every morning, so it was first on his list. Lily's list consisted of oranges and golden eggs.

Little Grocery Shoppers

Hehe! They love the little Von's, they have the little carts. I feard Benjamin would be a renegade shopper, taking out ankles all over the place, but he was soooooo into it. Such a little man!

PS, I realize that my voice is so loud on these videos! I'll try to work on that!

Kai is 5!

I can't believe Kai is 5! It feels like he just turned 3! His birthday parties are always so much fun. The kids have a blast and then pass out. Sweet!

Shanon made this cake! She MADE it!! She's crazy! Every year, I wonder how she'll outdo last year's cake and somehow she tops it. P.S., I know she made this because it was in my fridge during various stages of its construction.

And Erik MADE this crazy monster truck track. Sometimes, we find Ben and Ava on top of it, covered in dirt. I'm surprised that Lily and Ava are into the monster truck thing almost as much as the boys are. They only roll with pink ones or dog themed trucks though.

Matt did face painting.....the whole time.......he had a waiting list :)

Lil got a snake painted on her face. (Kai got a snake for his b-day, it's nocturnal, I know because he and Lily tell me every five minutes)

Ben and Ava = trouble

Taking out her hidden boot frustration on the truck

Tales from the Boot

The boot has been going well so far. Almost half way there! It hasn't really slowed Lily down at all. She runs and plays with it on and is really good about wearing it. Occasionally, she'll ask how many more sleeps till it comes off. When someone asks her about it, she'll say, "I don't want to talk about it" or "Please, just try not to look at it." Or she'll ask me to tell them what happened and then chime in about it once I do. I am just amazed at a child's ability to adapt. Here's some boot shots:

Bling'd out boot

Still riding her Scuut

At Kai's b-day

Gina and Nicole's birthday

Gina and Nicole turned 5 and 4, respectively. They are great friends of ours and we had a fabulous time at their gymnastics birthday. You give some kids mats and space and there is bound to be some fun!

Miss Ava

Lily, Nicole and a girl I don't know :)

Obviously, this was before the boot.

Sea Lion fun

More Aquarium

We LOVE the aquarium! Daddy got to come with us recently which was extra special. It was pretty hot out, but we had a great time.

Ben loves birds. He watches them out the back door and just laughs. Here, he gets to feed them and hold them, which he finds hilarious.

The ice cream was a little messy.

Sea lion fun

King of the world......or so he thinks

Happy Birthday Papa!

Happy Birthday Papa! We love and miss you.

Birthday wishes (at least from Lily).

Lily's foot

Wednesday night, bath, jammies, normal night...until Lily jumps off her bed and screams in pain. We check her out, she can wiggle her toes, so we move on. Poor kid. We were all, go to bed, you'll be fine. She wakes up a few times in the night crying, "my foot still hurts!" In the morning, she won't walk on it, so I take her to the doctor. When he comes into the room, Lily says, "I'm ok, it doesn't hurt anymore." Dr. Lau checks it out anyway. I tell him, that it's hard to tell what is really going on because Lily is such.....umm......a fan of the theater. He has a daughter, nods, understands. When he touches a spot a half inch above her left toe, she groans. So, it's back home, have Matt come home to stay with Ben, go get an x-ray. We go, we wait, we wait, we get 2 x-rays, we wait, we wait, we get 1 more x-ray, we wait. There's a fracture, wait for your Dr. to call and tell you what to do next. Wait some more, call the office, they're at lunch, wait, wait, page him, wait, he calls, go to Orthopedic, no appt. until tomorrow at 2. We go home, carry Lily everywhere and try to keep Ben (WWF Loco Chickito) away from her. Back up to Santa Monica. We were given the wrong address. Late for appointment. Pay another parking charge. Finally get to the orthopedic (for our 3rd copay and 4th parking charge). There's a fracture. Yes, we know that, now what? She needs a boot, you have to go to this other place. Soooo, another copay, another parking charge. (I don't know what to do about insurance, but this is NOT it). I must say that the people involved in this whole process were wonderful. It's not their fault that the system is bonkers. They were so good to Lily. She is the bravest kid! She was such a trooper and just hilarious. She was so excited to get that boot. I can't even tell you all of the hilarious songs and stories she made up during all that waiting. She kept me entertained!

Lily, you amaze me, my little booted beauty.