...One brown courteroy monkey. Love time member of the family and well loved. He made it to Seattle, not sure if he made it back or where he has been since. Very cute, magnet hands, dearly missed.
He appeared on the blog many moons ago in the story about losing him at the mall.
Reward will be offered to his finder (or captor).
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
ABCD....wonder what you are
Everyone knows that Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and the ABC song are the same tune, right? I thought this was old news but apparently to my husband it's a groundbreaking discovery.
Tessa figured it out on her own, too and now constantly gets them mixed up. Here's a little tidbit of her singing both songs and doing some other cute antics at lunch.
ps- this loads alot quicker if you have the video set to 'HD off'...Jeremy thinks it's a cardinal sin that I'm suggesting that, whatever.
Tessa figured it out on her own, too and now constantly gets them mixed up. Here's a little tidbit of her singing both songs and doing some other cute antics at lunch.
Tessa ABCs from Laura Sargent Bennington on Vimeo.
ps- this loads alot quicker if you have the video set to 'HD off'...Jeremy thinks it's a cardinal sin that I'm suggesting that, whatever.
Sunday, September 27, 2009
8 Month Photo Shoot
Happy 8 month Birthday big guy!
Our backyard, our camera...another great set of photos. And of course we had our trusty assistant (and her entourage of princesses). If Charley looks a little sleepy it's cause he woke up literally 5 minutes before our photo shoot.
Our backyard, our camera...another great set of photos. And of course we had our trusty assistant (and her entourage of princesses). If Charley looks a little sleepy it's cause he woke up literally 5 minutes before our photo shoot.
Saturday, September 26, 2009
Family First Aid Fun
Today Jeremy and I took the kids to Erin's for about 4 hours. So you may be wondering how we chose to enjoy that long of a stretch of coveted alone time. Go out to eat? To the movies or a concert? Come back home and sleep? Make a break for it?
No, we chose to spend our Saturday in the Lawrence Library getting CPR and First Aid certified. Jeremy was certified a million years ago and I never have been, so being that we spend so much time around little kids (at church, activities, friends)...I really wanted to know what to do.
The class was 3 hours and we first did adult CPR, then child and infant. Then adult, child and infant Heimlich. We took a test and then did another class on basic first aid which was actually kind of a no brainer (no I was not the only laughing at the lame video of the guy falling down the stairs).
Presto we are both certified! I feel much better knowing the proper procedure for Charley and Tessa if they choke. And another bonus was that class let out a little early and we had time to make a trip to the Trader Joes on the north side, my favorite grocery store. Boo for there not being one closer to us, or we would shop there all the time. Yummy curried chicken and naan in my tummy :)
No, we chose to spend our Saturday in the Lawrence Library getting CPR and First Aid certified. Jeremy was certified a million years ago and I never have been, so being that we spend so much time around little kids (at church, activities, friends)...I really wanted to know what to do.
The class was 3 hours and we first did adult CPR, then child and infant. Then adult, child and infant Heimlich. We took a test and then did another class on basic first aid which was actually kind of a no brainer (no I was not the only laughing at the lame video of the guy falling down the stairs).
Presto we are both certified! I feel much better knowing the proper procedure for Charley and Tessa if they choke. And another bonus was that class let out a little early and we had time to make a trip to the Trader Joes on the north side, my favorite grocery store. Boo for there not being one closer to us, or we would shop there all the time. Yummy curried chicken and naan in my tummy :)
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Seattle
We are home and rested after our 5 day trip to Seattle. Jeremy's sister Carrie turned 40 and we had a party and mini family reunion. It was a really nice trip.
I was most worried about the long flight from Chicago to Seattle (4 hours). Tessa is old enough to have her own seat and Charley bunked with me. She took her backpack stocked with magna doodle, color wonder, toy princesses and Jeremy had a laptop with a few episodes of Elmo. She loved it! They even had a kid's meal for her, after which she took a 1.5 hour nap.
The flight home was a little harder due to a two hour delay (most of which took place on the plane) in Chicago. It was past her bedtime, we had been flying all day, we were hungry and the laptop was dead. I sat with her and did my best to keep her happy...her favorite game was making Mommy draw things on the magna doodle....elephant! baby Elephant! Mommy Elephant! Tessa with Elephant! Ah...tiring but time wasting. We finally made it home about midnight.
When we go there we had a nice afternoon at the Pike Place market (ya know where they throw the fishes) and then it was party prep time!
Tessa enjoyed hanging out with her almost-two year old cousin Zack. She's only met him once before and they made fast friends.
Friday night we went out to eat and to the casino (sans children). You can see Charley slept through the whole thing and I almost did too. Jet lag forced me to saddle up to a nice bench with my beer and people watch while the other grownups gambled. Could it be that I'm no longer up to the party life? (long time friends may contend that I never was)
At the Japanese Steakhouse everyone tried catching shrimp in their mouths. Tessa wanted to but perhaps a little more practice is required for her to catch up to Grampie and Daddy (who caught an astounding six in a row).
Because it was her birthday, Carrie got to dance for our table!
The party was on Saturday, then on Sunday we went to the Washington State Fair. After very long and tedious attempt to find parking (thank you to the house at then end of the culdesac in some random neighborhood for not towing us away) we had a great time.
Unlike the Indiana State Fair, Tessa was old enough to ride rides! I wonder if she's really grown that much in a month or maybe they were just less stringent. Either way she LOVED riding the kiddy rides. She rode mostly with her Aunt Jess and Mom-Mom while I found a place to nurse Charley. She was super happy except for her last ride which was the tilt a whirl. After that one she settled down to sit her stroller and frankly looked a little green.
Tess loves Jess
Pop (Grandpa Day) is great with babies and little guys, and Charley latched onto him all weekend.
Tessa and Zack riding in style
A great day at the fair and a great trip away from home. It was so nice to see everyone and get a change of scenery. I'm sure more pics will arise from other family members and I'll be sure to post them. Next big trip?....Thanksgiving in NYC! I'm more excited than a pig in, ahem, pig poop.
I was most worried about the long flight from Chicago to Seattle (4 hours). Tessa is old enough to have her own seat and Charley bunked with me. She took her backpack stocked with magna doodle, color wonder, toy princesses and Jeremy had a laptop with a few episodes of Elmo. She loved it! They even had a kid's meal for her, after which she took a 1.5 hour nap. The flight home was a little harder due to a two hour delay (most of which took place on the plane) in Chicago. It was past her bedtime, we had been flying all day, we were hungry and the laptop was dead. I sat with her and did my best to keep her happy...her favorite game was making Mommy draw things on the magna doodle....elephant! baby Elephant! Mommy Elephant! Tessa with Elephant! Ah...tiring but time wasting. We finally made it home about midnight.
When we go there we had a nice afternoon at the Pike Place market (ya know where they throw the fishes) and then it was party prep time!
Tessa enjoyed hanging out with her almost-two year old cousin Zack. She's only met him once before and they made fast friends. 
Friday night we went out to eat and to the casino (sans children). You can see Charley slept through the whole thing and I almost did too. Jet lag forced me to saddle up to a nice bench with my beer and people watch while the other grownups gambled. Could it be that I'm no longer up to the party life? (long time friends may contend that I never was)
At the Japanese Steakhouse everyone tried catching shrimp in their mouths. Tessa wanted to but perhaps a little more practice is required for her to catch up to Grampie and Daddy (who caught an astounding six in a row). 
Because it was her birthday, Carrie got to dance for our table!
The party was on Saturday, then on Sunday we went to the Washington State Fair. After very long and tedious attempt to find parking (thank you to the house at then end of the culdesac in some random neighborhood for not towing us away) we had a great time. Unlike the Indiana State Fair, Tessa was old enough to ride rides! I wonder if she's really grown that much in a month or maybe they were just less stringent. Either way she LOVED riding the kiddy rides. She rode mostly with her Aunt Jess and Mom-Mom while I found a place to nurse Charley. She was super happy except for her last ride which was the tilt a whirl. After that one she settled down to sit her stroller and frankly looked a little green.
Tess loves Jess
Pop (Grandpa Day) is great with babies and little guys, and Charley latched onto him all weekend.
Tessa and Zack riding in style 
A great day at the fair and a great trip away from home. It was so nice to see everyone and get a change of scenery. I'm sure more pics will arise from other family members and I'll be sure to post them. Next big trip?....Thanksgiving in NYC! I'm more excited than a pig in, ahem, pig poop.
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Rub a Dub Dub
...three babies in a tub
Our friend Olivia who you seen in the tub with Tessa before! Ryan and Allison came over Sunday for games, a playdate and dinner after which we decided this should become our Sunday afternoon tradition. Jeremy got so hooked on the pandemic game that he ended up playing by himself after they left (and I was busy nursing a baby).
edited to add- I searched and searched for the blog post with a pic of Olivia in our tub from when we babysat her and couldn't find it. Did I imagine I posted it? Did I decide better of posting a pic of another person's baby naked? Hmmm....
Our friend Olivia who you seen in the tub with Tessa before! Ryan and Allison came over Sunday for games, a playdate and dinner after which we decided this should become our Sunday afternoon tradition. Jeremy got so hooked on the pandemic game that he ended up playing by himself after they left (and I was busy nursing a baby).
edited to add- I searched and searched for the blog post with a pic of Olivia in our tub from when we babysat her and couldn't find it. Did I imagine I posted it? Did I decide better of posting a pic of another person's baby naked? Hmmm....
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Friday, September 11, 2009
Notes to Self
First of all, baby cucumbers with smoked salt or red salt are a delicious snack and Tessa agrees. Thank you Mamaw for the idea!
Secondly, while making an ocean scene with real goldfish crackers is incredibly cute, after about a week the fat leeches out of the crackers and your paper will become an oil slick.
Secondly, while making an ocean scene with real goldfish crackers is incredibly cute, after about a week the fat leeches out of the crackers and your paper will become an oil slick.
Thursday, September 10, 2009
New Stuff!
I'm not trying to get all caught up in materialism or brag or anything, but sometimes you just need some new stuff. Following a summer spending freeze in the Bennington house, Jeremy got a bonus at work and we were able to buy a couple of nice things for our house before reinstating our normal budget.
One thing I laughed at and said we didn't need was an Irobot Scooba. It's like a roomba (you know those robots that vacuum) except it's for mopping! Because he likes gadgets and we have over 700 square feet of hard floor now, Jeremy insisted that we needed one. He got one barely used on Ebay and it arrived last week.
I have to admit he's right. Not only is it conveinent, it cleans the floor way better than I can with a mop AND it has a little vacuum so you don't usually have to sweep before hand. You just fill it up with cleaner and turn it on and it figures out the rest. It's super smart and a little creepy actually...it has chased me around a couple of times.
We went down to North Vernon on Monday and just briefly visited the Vernon Labor Day Antique Market as it was closing up....briefly enough to end up with a new peice of furniture though! It's a pie safe that is perfect for our living room for toy storage. Nice huh?
With the except of a couple of bigger pieces (on the floor), this will be the amount of toys allowed into the living room. There used to be a small overflowing toy box here that has been moved into Tessa's room to house her dolls, babies and girly things.
The thing that drew us to that vendor in the first place were his old fashioned desk chairs. He had three so we bought them all and put one upstairs...these two are now in the living room. Aren't they cool? What can I say...I like old stuff but Mom and Mamaw would contend that I come by it honest.
Last week we went shopping with Erin who is expecting her second child in April. I'm so excited! It's been about 12 years since she shopped for baby gear so we went out on the town to browse and price.
While we were out Tessa got her first bang trim at a real salon (in the mall). I didn't have my camera but she did so good....she wouldn't talk or barely move. She sat so still in fact that they were able to french braid her hair, which they kindly did for free.
Now why won't she sit still for me every morning when I try to do her hair and she screams 'no Mommy! Daddy HELP!' I think she's wise to the fact that he doesn't care about hair bows and may free her from the torture. She even yells for him when she knows he's not here.
I also discoverd a shoe store called Aldo where I purchased a real pair of shoes. They are not pleather, plastic or rubber and did not come from Payless or Target. They are REAL leather from a real shoe store and I am now their proud owner! I feel like such a grownup.
Lastly we hit the Labor Day sales at the Edinburgh outlet mall on Saturday. They had some serious deals and the crowds were there to get them. One employee told me it was worse than black Friday.
We did the most damage at the Carter's store, which had 50% off the entire store. The line was backed up out the door and onto the sidewalk so Jeremy got a spot in line while I was brave enough to go in and grab a pile of kid's clothes.
We worked well as a team...divide and conquer! It was a long day but the whole family (even Mommy and Daddy!) got new clothes, shoes and jackets for fall and winter.
And now the shopping is over and with our abundance of new stuff we can sit back and look toward fall.
One thing I laughed at and said we didn't need was an Irobot Scooba. It's like a roomba (you know those robots that vacuum) except it's for mopping! Because he likes gadgets and we have over 700 square feet of hard floor now, Jeremy insisted that we needed one. He got one barely used on Ebay and it arrived last week.
I have to admit he's right. Not only is it conveinent, it cleans the floor way better than I can with a mop AND it has a little vacuum so you don't usually have to sweep before hand. You just fill it up with cleaner and turn it on and it figures out the rest. It's super smart and a little creepy actually...it has chased me around a couple of times.
We went down to North Vernon on Monday and just briefly visited the Vernon Labor Day Antique Market as it was closing up....briefly enough to end up with a new peice of furniture though! It's a pie safe that is perfect for our living room for toy storage. Nice huh?
With the except of a couple of bigger pieces (on the floor), this will be the amount of toys allowed into the living room. There used to be a small overflowing toy box here that has been moved into Tessa's room to house her dolls, babies and girly things.
The thing that drew us to that vendor in the first place were his old fashioned desk chairs. He had three so we bought them all and put one upstairs...these two are now in the living room. Aren't they cool? What can I say...I like old stuff but Mom and Mamaw would contend that I come by it honest.
Last week we went shopping with Erin who is expecting her second child in April. I'm so excited! It's been about 12 years since she shopped for baby gear so we went out on the town to browse and price.
While we were out Tessa got her first bang trim at a real salon (in the mall). I didn't have my camera but she did so good....she wouldn't talk or barely move. She sat so still in fact that they were able to french braid her hair, which they kindly did for free.
Now why won't she sit still for me every morning when I try to do her hair and she screams 'no Mommy! Daddy HELP!' I think she's wise to the fact that he doesn't care about hair bows and may free her from the torture. She even yells for him when she knows he's not here.
I also discoverd a shoe store called Aldo where I purchased a real pair of shoes. They are not pleather, plastic or rubber and did not come from Payless or Target. They are REAL leather from a real shoe store and I am now their proud owner! I feel like such a grownup.
Lastly we hit the Labor Day sales at the Edinburgh outlet mall on Saturday. They had some serious deals and the crowds were there to get them. One employee told me it was worse than black Friday.
We did the most damage at the Carter's store, which had 50% off the entire store. The line was backed up out the door and onto the sidewalk so Jeremy got a spot in line while I was brave enough to go in and grab a pile of kid's clothes.
We worked well as a team...divide and conquer! It was a long day but the whole family (even Mommy and Daddy!) got new clothes, shoes and jackets for fall and winter.
And now the shopping is over and with our abundance of new stuff we can sit back and look toward fall.
Okay Bloggers
I had like 15 blogs I was 'following' and today my dashboard says I'm not following any. Anyone else have this problem with blogger? It stinks!
Tuesday, September 08, 2009
First Day of Dance Class
Tessa has known for a couple of weeks now that she had dance clothes and shoes but today she finally got to break them out and use them....she was so excited! I told her she couldn't put on her leotard until she went potty. Never seen that girl run to pee and back so fast!
So Tessa is in the preschool class at Tippy Toes, which is 2-4 year olds. She is the youngest and smallest one, but potentially the most enthusiastic. They do 20 min of ballet, and 20 min of tap all while Mommy and little brother watch from a holding area on the sidelines.
The studio is SO cute and the class is definitely tailor made for little brains with short attention spans. They played with all kinds of little props while learning how to pliea (sp?) and shuffle step. Tessa did very well when they were working in a group and basically followed every move of the older girls. When they took turns jumping across the room that was a little harder for her....turns? standing in line? She preferred to just jump around like a monkey,
Her only meltdown came much later in the day when she had an accident in her leotard and I had to take it off. She had a full blown lay on the floor tantrum at which I told her she could choose to eat dinner or scream alone in her room...she chose dinner and that was over.
Here are some pics. Surprisingly there were only two of us with cameras and about halfway through I decided to turn my flash off cause I was annoying even myself with my paparazzi antics. Apparently the other Mommies weren't thinking strictly of their blog fodder.
She's easy to spot in the hot pink!
Today was also the first day of Wee School. It's kind of a pre pre-school class for kids Tessa's age (and parental accompaniment) at the community center, taught by our stroller aerobics instructor. It was fun...art, snack, playing, Mommy chit chat. Home for a quick lunch and nap before dance class. Tuesdays will be our busy day!
New Family Portrait
Labor Day 09 on Mamaw's porch following an impromptu visit to North Vernon. Tessa is 28 months, Charley 7 months (Mommy and Daddy are just old)We are blessed.
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