AJs Coming!!!

Ever since Andrew became mobile things have been a little tense around the Sinclair household. Ben will belt out "AJ's COMING" any time AJ heads in his direction. I do feel bad for Ben, as AJ is always giving him grief.

However, Ben found one way to escape AJ.

Though it doesn't always work.

Time to Get a Bigger House!

This past weekend we spent making room for all the new toys that Grandmom and Nana spoiled the boys with!

Ben even got to sample his first REAL Christmas meal at Nana's on Christmas Eve.Unfortunately, he wasn't too thrilled about it.

Instead he settled on 3 bowls of Life cereal, fruit snacks, and Ghiradelli chocolates. It goes without saying that Ben didn't get much sleep Christmas Even as he anxiously awaited Santa's arrival.

For Christmas, Lisa made her first turkey, complete with homemade stuffing and all the fixins! It only took 6 hours to bake. Unfortunately she was too busy running and emptying the dishwasher all day to get any real photos so this stock photo will have to do as it looks ALMOST as good as hers did.

While opening presents we had to perch AJ upon his throne as Ben didn't like his little brother 'examining' all of his new possessions. AJ didn't seem to mind.

The most popular of toys was a train that Ben received last year at Christmas that we regifted. Amongst all the other 18 new things to play with, this was by far his favorite.

Merry Christmas!!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Poo Poo on the Potty!

We've been putting Ben on the potty for a few weeks now - and he has pretty much mastered the tinkle part. Well, today, with a bribe for one of Melissa's fabulous sugar cookies, Ben did his first #2 on the potty!! YAY! As you can see, he was more excited about getting the cookie then he was achieving this milestone.

Playdates!

Melissa and I have been trying to hold weekly playdates for Ben & Owen. They play very well together (when they aren't bopping each other for snagging toys) and found some excitement by emptying the toybox and climbing inside.

It was all fun and games....

Until someone got hurt.

But no harm was done, and they quickly recovered.

They have also become pretty good at working together. When offered a special 'treat' for finishing their plates they bartered.

Well, really, it was just Ben putting all his unwanted food on Owen's tray so he could get to the prize.

Happy Birthday Julia & Reed!

Birthday wishes to our niece Julia and friend Reed (a day early)!! Hope your day is especially special!

More Snow!

Here are some more photos our weekend adventures in the snow!

Since we had no sled we took advantage of what we had...



Ben even made his first snow angel!

Today the snow stopped and the estimates were about 21 inches total. Seth built Ben a snow castle and Ben was so worked up he never napped. Andrew must have caught wind of the news because he skipped both his naps today as well!

Snowpocalypse 09

The blizzard of 09 has arrived!! The snow started last night and it hasn't stopped! Lucky for us, we inherited a snow blower from Seth's parents earlier this year and Seth put it to good use this morning. After a mad dash to the store yesterday, I found a pair of snow boots for Ben (half a size too small) and Seth (half a size too big) at a KMart swarming with boot seekers. I bundled Ben up and let him play for a bit until he was so red in the face he couldn't take it any more. Here are some photos of his experience!

Ben came in and enjoyed his first cup of real hot cocoa and will hopefully nap the rest of the afternoon!

More photos to come later - as we'll have to get a few shots of AJ screaming his head off in the snow as well.

Happy Friday!

Scared of his own shadow!

No one said he was going to be a dragon slayer. With the way Ben's brain work it wouldn't surprise me that the reason he was scared of my shadow was because his little brain was working overtime to understand the physics behind everything.

Festival of Trains

Today we took the boys to Baltimore for the Festival of Trains. I wasn't able to get very many photos of Ben looking at the camera. He was too absorbed in antiques, model engines, round house, riding trains, raiding the gift shop, etc...

This is a photo of Ben wanting to 'hold the train' as it came round the bend.

AJ was a great sport, and was just chillin like a villain as usual.

Then we got Ben to visit with Santa. Given last year's experience we were a little nervous at how it would go. As you can see, it went well.

So well, in fact, he decided to tell Santa not only what he wanted for Christmas (A "Choo Choo"), but about every train he had encountered that day.

We thought we would give AJ a shot on Santa's lap, and this is what happened. Things got a little hairy as Santa's Elf started yelling at me for taking their photo (as if!). AJ started crying once he got a good look at what was going on. You can see my photo wasn't so hot anyway, as Seth quickly grabbed AJ when he started sobbing and we bolted.

You gotta do what works!

As we've already established, changing AJ's diaper is like wrestling a wild crocodile in the Amazon. As soon as you get the diaper off, he's bolted to the nearest toy, outlet, or remote control. Needless to say, I've resigned to just putting on AJ's diaper however possible.

And that required that I just put the diaper on... backwards.