An update in pictures...

Sleeping a la Grandpa Bill:


Ella and Grandpa:


Ben on one of his marathon phone calls:


Ben trying out Sari's rocker:


Ella's favorite way to sit on the little chair is this way:


At the beach!


Ben & Gord going "fishing":

(Gord might kill me for posting this picture...)

Hogging the limelight:

??????


Have we mentioned that Ella just went through a "pick her own nose" phase? She was CONSTANTLY shoving her index finger up her nostrils. Thankfully, she's pretty much stopped that, until tonight - I was showing her the parts of my face (eyes, nose, mouth), and while we were discussing my nose, she stuck her finger up it. Yuck. And then put her finger in my mouth! Double yuck. I swear, my nose was clean...

Done...

as of 2:18 pm this afternoon.

You know what I'm talking about.

Life with a 3-year-old:

Scene: laying in bed with Ben tonight, trying to get him to go to sleep.

Ben: "Mom, I used to be a little baby."
Me: "Yes, you were a very cute little baby!"
Ben: "When I was a little baby, I had little boogers."
Me: "Yes, yes you did."

Bear with me people...another HP post...with an afterthought of the kids...

Doesn't this look like fun? Who wants to go with me? If only Kathy lived in Winnipeg. Sigh. Any other takers?

I know all this blog's been about lately is Harry Potter. I'm sorry about that. So I'll add in some stuff here about the kids:

Ben is quite entertaining these days. I was talking to him on the phone one morning, and I asked him what he had for breakfast. He said, "A peanut butter and jam sandwich. Mom, jam is jelly and jelly is jam. That's the way it is!" Mmmm-kay, I guess I can figure out the converstaion he and Gord had while making breakfast! He also does this cute 'two thumbs up' thing now and says things like, "Way to go kids" or "Alllll-right!" His moodiness has eased off a little - he would melt into tears if something didn't go the way he wanted it to. Ben loves, loves, loves to be outside, watering flowers, playing in the sand, riding his bike, whatever. As long as it's outside, he's happy. He can also recite a couple of poems, which is beyond cute. He learns them off of a tv show on Treehouse called Four Square. I'm sure that some of you know that one!

Ella...she's great too. She loves to follow Ben around and do what he does, but she's also really great at playing by herself. She doesn't say very much - she says da-da, duh-duh (duck), day-doo (we think that's "Thank you"). That's about it. She signs quite a bit - more, milk, baby, book, dog, cat. Ella loves her blankie (one that Grandma Susan knitted her) and likes to carry it around. She too is obsessed with being outside and if she knows that someone is outside and she's not? She throws a fit. Ella loves to climb stuff - end tables, kitchen tables, stools, wagons, you name it, she'll climb it. She likes to give kisses and LOVES to give zerberts (raspberries, whatever you call them) on your back. If you are lying down and a sliver of your back is showing, she'll come over and get ya!

Both kids are loving berry season - strawberries, blueberries and raspberries are HUGE hits right now. I'm thinking of going raspberry picking this weekend...

Gord is currently working on finishing the deck we're putting on the house. It's a monster deck, at 12 feet x 32 feet. We ablsolutely love it already, even though it's only half done. Next, we're going to do a new fence, 'cause we hate chain link. Our backyard will be unrecognizable by the end of summer. Hopefully, sooner than that.

OK, that's all. I gotta get back to work.

6 days...

Six days people...SIX days! There is nothing more to say, or I might just explode.

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzz...

So...tired...today...but it's my own fault...'cause I WENT TO SEE THE MIDNIGHT SHOWING OF HARRY POTTER AND THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIX LAST NIGHT!

Oh yeah, I did. It was great! The writers did a good job keeping to the book - of course, some stuff wasn't in there, but considering that the book is over 900 pages long, they included the stuff that they should have. The special effects were awesome, the actors were on their 'A' game, the audience was into it...it was all good!

However, I didn't get home until quarter to 3. A.M. And Ben woke up to go pee sometime after I crashed. So I'm going on about 3 1/2 hours of sleep today. Thank goodness I don't operate heavy machinery!

And look, I can post a title today! Too bad it's a boring one.

Tomorrow is July 11th! Yay! I am so tempted to drag Gord to the theatres tomorrow night, it's not even funny.

Is it sad that I'm 30 and I am so obsessed with what is technically a children's book? Wait, don't answer that.

And why oh why can't I add a title to my blog posts? Grrrrrrr...

Harry countdown update:
Days until movie comes out: 2 (I'm getting shivers!)
Days until I'll see the movie: 5
Days until book is released: 12
Days until I buy the book: 12
Days until I finish the book: 13

I can't add a title...darnit all to heck.

A cutie-patootie

Check out the adorable pictures of our niece, Sari, at her blog.

Harry countdown update:
Days until movie comes out: 5
Days until I'll see the movie: 8 (single digit - yay!)
Days until book is released: 15
Days until I buy the book: 15
Days until I finish the book: 16 (I'll stay up all night if I have to)

Ben is currently at Grandma & Grandpa's house for a holiday. He sure doesn't want to talk at length with me on the phone; here's how our conversations go:

Mommy: "Hi Ben! How are you?"
Ben: "Hi Mommy! Fine, thank you! How are you?"
Mommy: "I'm fine Ben."
Ben: "How's Daddy feeling?"
Mommy: "He's doing good. What did you do today?"
Ben: "What's Ella doing?" (he could hear her in the background)
Mommy: "She's playing with the magnets on the fridge."
Ben: "OK, so good-bye Mommy!"

This takes all of 8.2 seconds. So I get the full reports from Mom or Dad. Of course, I'm sure that they leave out certain facts, like that Ben is eating lots of treats, having ice cream for breakfast, going to bed at midnight, listening to rock & roll music, watching PG-13 rated movies, etc.

On Tuesday night, we went to the grocery store before supper. The kids (well, Ben, though I'm not so sure of Ella's innocence anymore!) know that at Sobey's, they get a cookie, so as we entered the store, Ben says, "Yay! A cookie!" I negotiate with him that we'll get the cookies but that we'll put them in my purse to have after supper. All's good. I put the cookies in my purse, which is sitting next to Ella (Ben is in the big part of the cart). I'm pushing them around, doing the shopping, and finally notice a weird look on Ella's face - a guilty look. As our eyes are locked, I see her hand slowly reach into my purse and then travel to her mouth. I'm stunned at first at my 14 month old's boldness! Here she had been reaching in, grabbing little chunks of whatever cookie she touched, and eating them! She'd probably only successfully eaten a loonie-sized piece, but still. What...a...sneak. However, she'll eat all her supper whether she has a cookie before or not, whereas Ben won't.

Updated 'Potter' countdown...

Days until movie comes out: 7
Days until I'll see the movie: 10
Days until book is released: 17
Days until I buy the book: 17
Days until I finish the book: 18