Children's Museum

We have to say thank you to Grammie and Grampie for once again buying Tessa membership to the Children's Museum for her birthday! We went this afternoon and it was Charley's first time. I did fine with both kiddos but wished later that I would have taken the carrier instead of stroller for Charley, so we could have managed things like getting onto the carosel. Oh well, live and learn.

Of all the awesome educational interactive toys, Tessa always goes for this cheapo plastic mower, and doesn't want to let go to share with other kids.

Climbing and tunneling...

One happy girl...

Charley checked out the baby zone but didn't really care about anything yet. He looked in the mirror a little though.

Who says real men don't ride in pink strollers?

Are you making fun of me?

Jeremy has still never been to the Children's Museum, so I say we start a harassment campaign until he agrees to take a Friday afternoon off and join us. Go forth and harass!

Fuzzy Ears

I'm not sure if you can see it well in this pic but Charley has really furry ears. I remember the nurse in the hospital commenting on his furry ears when he was first born.


As of yesterday the big guy is 3 months old, wow! He has slept two nights in the nursery and did just fine, waking up at about 6:30am. We sure do like having him around!

Promotion Day

Both kiddos are advancing today. It was Tessa's first time in the pre-school area at church. She is the newest member to the 2-3 room, leaving the toddler nursery a distant memory. She did really well. Alot of her little friends are in that room and new toys of course.They do more crafts and learning things and she'll have to watch herself cause they also get timeouts for misbehaving!

While it's time for Charley to try the infant nursery at church as well (I didn't have the guts yet today but regretted it when we ended up in the cry room)...he is also moving to the real nursery here at home tonight. He has gotten too long for the bassinett in our room so the time has come.

I'm happy that I was able to talk Jer into spending $30 on a second baby monitor so I can listen to both kiddos. Really I only need to listen to Tessa during naptime so I know if she's gotten out of her bed and what exactly she's doing (like pulling all of her pants out of the dresser and into bed with her).

Ah the kids are growing up! :(

Week in Review

Since I have more limited computer access, I've fallen a bit behind in the posting of random pictures from our mis-adventures. So here's a catch up on what happened this week...

Tessa and I wore matching aprons that Aunt Jessie sent. So funny cause I had just purchased my first apron, finally deciding after too many ruined shirts that I am too messy to cook without one!
Tessa wore Elmo underpants during potty time. She didn't use the potty at all but also didn't pee on Elmo, so I guess that's good. You can see she's also loving the set of four Disney high heels that Mom got her for her birthday.


I tried to get a good pic of Charley smiling and we finally got one after a few tries.






Tessa put a flower headband on Charley, about which he seemed thoroughly unimpressed


And both kiddos wore shorts today for the first time this year. It was 82 degrees! We had stroller aerobics outside and had to actually use sunscreen and hats.

Also noteworthy this week..
--I went to my first weight watchers meeting and am back in the groove. I weigh 50lbs more than the last time I was at a meeting over a year ago. Ah well, much work to do but I am one motivated Mama!

--Charley continues to sleep from 10pm-6:30am almost every night and will soon be moving into the nursery as he is outgrowing the bassinet.

--Jeremy finally got the FREE Wii using his Marriott rewards, and Mom and Dad are buying us the Wii Fit system as my early b-day present. Point is...we're going to play games and exercise after Tessa goes to bed at night. I'll post more about the Wii once I've had a chance to actually play it.

Night Night Buggies

Jeremy just took both kids for a walk and I'm all disoriented trying to figure out what to do with myself...nap, scrub the bathroom, run around in circle screaming? This is the first time I've been in the house alone since Charley was born. So I decided to blog!

That's actually a good decision because my laptop remains broken so I can sneak on Jer's computer. It looks like my computer will be out of commission for some time. It has to be sent away to CA to fix the problem (it's inability to charge) and when given the choice to use the money to save the computer or start weight watchers, I chose WW. I think when there's money burning a hole in our pockets again we will get it fixed. I actually don't mind not having it cause it's breaking my Internet addiction. Not having the laptop in the living room all day seems to be a good feeling.

So we have ants again this spring, just like every spring we've lived here. They come from the outside and crawlspace via various cracks and also the sink. We don't keep out any food that would attract them but it seems when there' s a dirty plate or crumbs on the counter they come in droves. Jeremy found some eco-friendly ant killer and they seem to finally be gone for the moment.

We've had them for a couple weeks at least so Tessa has gotten used to them. At first she was scared of them, especially when her bowl of dry cheerios was left sitting out too long and got invaded. There were big time dramatics. I've also seen her point to a speck of food on herself and think it was an ant and scream 'bug!! bug!!'

Most recently, however, she seems to have accepted them as part of our family. On our way to bed every night we say 'night night' to Charley, Hayden and Rosie, toys, and Daddy (sometimes followed by the phrase 'wherever you are'). The past two nights she's added "night night buggies". How sweet. Now that she's accepted their existence with open arms, I will be sad to inform her of their untimely death due to poisoning. Well, not too sad.

Tessa's Party Pics

What a fun time we had on Saturday. Our goal was to keep it small but we still managed to somehow have a houseful of people. Luckily the weather was nice so the kiddos could run around outside.

The Muppets was our theme because Tessa loves the Muppet Movie so much. You may remember me posting before that I had a hard time finding Kermit or Muppet stuff because it's so 'retro'....so we got creative and made our own party stuff thanks to Google Images and sticker paper.

Here's a photo recap.

We got all dressed up.....


We had an awesome cake made by the talented 'aunt' Erin. It was beautiful and yummy, and Tessa knew exactly what to do when it was time for the candle.


Us old folks and babies sat around and visited. Note Jeremy and Charley's Muppet shirts in support of the theme....






While the toddlers and big kids ran around and played....



Tessa opened presents. She has a bunch of new toys and books, and a cozy coupe car from us.....



And we got dirty! Tessa has a bucket full of dirt outside that's hers to play with so I told the other kids they could too. No one told me that mixing bubbles and dirt in the same yard was a bad idea, note to self. Yard before party...

And yard after party. Oh well nothing a hose couldn't take care of....

All I Have to Say Today

We had a great day yesterday and I have many many pics to sort through before I post them, so stay tuned. They will probably be up tomorrow.

But when looking through the pics I found this, and it makes me sad and mad. I am FAT, like seriously huge. I guess a picture always enforces what you don't want to see...

I've been trying to do WW myself but just signed up for meetings after seeing this picture. Charley and I are going to go at 9am Saturday mornings while Jer has alone time with Tessa.

According to ww I have 100 lbs to lose, and yes I've already lost about 30 after having Charley (so that's in addition). ARRRRRGhhh!! I really want to try to do it, really all of it, but it doesn't seem surmountable.

Please my friends, I'm asking for your help. Badger me. Call me out when you see me eating something bad. Ask me if I've exercised lately. Call me a fat ass, I won't be offended.

Tessa's 2nd Year Slideshow

Wow it's hard to believe that tomorrow Tessa will be two years old. And to look back on the pictures I think it's fair to say the rate of growth and change the second year is almost more astonishing than the first.

What a cool kid she has turned into...funny, smart and independent. She loves to play with older kids and will eat almost anything. She loves to hug and kiss everyone, including her little brother. Her vocabulary is growing every day and she's starting to put together small sentences, even if I'm the only one who can understand them.

The next couple of days will be busy getting ready for her party, but I have to remind myself to soak it in and enjoy, cause second birthdays don't happen every day.

Here's a recap of the past year starting with her 1st birthday. Make sure your sound is on cause there's music of course! Click the little star-thingy if you want to see full screen.


Tessa 2nd Birthday from Laura Sargent Bennington on Vimeo.

Happy Birthday Tessa Betty!

Conner Prairie

A little late getting these up but better than never! Last Thurs we met my friend Traci and her kids at Conner Prairie, a historical outdoor 'living' museum on the north side.

I've been there many times with Mom's class on field trips and Tessa even came along this time last year...but this was the first time she was really into it. I actually had to sort of drag her to the parking lot (quite literally)after 3 hours cause she didn't want to leave.

She really enjoyed watching the blacksmith and potter and petting the animals in the petting barn. We even got to pet some really big horses that were standing by the fence. She and Mattie were both a little scared of them I think.

But probably her favorite activity of the day was just holding Mattie's hand and walking around outside. It was a beautiful day! She kept grabbing Mattie's hand and saying "c'mon!"




Proof that Charley really was there even though he slept most of the time. This is how he travels in style.

I attempted to get her picture petting animals but both she and the animals moved too fast. This is the best I got...

Easter 09 Picture Overload

You know what's a little bit stupid on my part? Between our pics and Mom's we have over 100 photos of this Easter and not ONE with both of my kiddos together. Oy. I told Jer there are some ways in which I'm still not used to having two kids, and I guess that's one of them. I resolve to do a better job of posing them together!!

Anyway, here's the best of the best pictures from Easter 09. Enjoy!

Our church egg hunt on Saturday...
Anyone else think Tessa's bunny ears look more like a donkey's? I'm blaming her Daddy who helped her make them and possibly didn't understand the directions :)
While the grass was too muddy for egg hunting and it was done inside, there were lots of outside games in the parking lot. Really the weather was great all weekend. Tessa really got into doing this parachute thing with the older kids, who did a great job of toning it down just for her.


Easter morning Tessa found her basket in the kitchen and got the day off to a good start with candy after breakfast. I put Jer in charge of her basket this year and wasn't surprised to see Lindor dark chocolate with hazelnuts. Apparently he planned on her sharing.


Tessa liked the peeps...bleck. Mommy's not a fan.

We went to church service Easter morning, for which we tried to teach Tess to say 'Hosanna'. It sounded more like 'Osama'...maybe next year. After church we headed down south to North Vernon for food, family, and egg hunt and candy!

By Sunday Tessa knew exactly what to do with the eggs. Mamaw was worried about her getting left behind by the older kids, but I'd say she held her own.

Big cousin Mark showed her the ropes
I'm not sure what's crazier to watch, the 7 kids posing for a picture or the parents trying to make them sit still and smile





David will be 1 soon! These babies are growing too fast.
7 cousins all together, getting them to all look the same way and smile may be asking too much

The hostess with the mostest, Mamaw



Charley and I look tired. I really can't blame him though, he's been sleeping through the night more and more.
He was cute to start with but add a baby blue newsboy cap and forget about it!


Tired after a long weekend, we layed low today to recoup. And thankfully Tessa's cold seems to be clearing up!

Crazy Easter Video

Who doesn't love a large family gathering?..especially when there's lots of sugar loaded kids hunting easter eggs and parents laughing at them.

Excuse the shoddy camera work (by both Jeremy and myself), make sure your sound is on and click the little star-like thingy to make it full screen.

Becky I apologize in advance is posting this will scar Mark for life. Is so let me know and I'll take it down :)


Easter Family Circus 2009 from Laura Sargent Bennington on Vimeo.

Happy Easter!

I know you are all awaiting a myriad of awesome pictures but you'll have to keep waiting, probably until Tuesday when Jeremy is out of town and I can commandeer his computer (and more importantly his office). Mine is still broken and may apparently need to be sent away for healing. How am I to be a world famous blogger with no laptop?

Anyway, we had a great Easter. Friday night we had a really cool Good Friday service at church, then Saturday a big egg hunt and cookout at church, then of course we were there again this morning for service and then off to the farm for family meal, another egg hunt and sugar induced child insanity.

Tessa had a great Easter although she's not feeling so hot tonight. I'm hoping she's not starting to get sick, but given the amount of mucus and meltdowns I saw today, I'd say it's possible.

Stay tuned for pictures and a pretty funny video....

Monday's Oprah

I realize I'm a little late getting to this but I'll blame my broken laptop and the fact that I have to use Jeremy's work computer. That's also the reason I can't post pics of our outing to Conner Prairie until my laptop is fixed. Feel free to file your complaints with IT (Jeremy).

I'm not an Oprah lover, I could take or leave her most days, it really depends on the topic. On Monday I was sure to tune in because she had a show on motherhood and how stressful it is. They had working mothers and stay at home mothers, mostly of diaper age kiddos, and the basic conclusion was that no one tells you how hard it's going to be and no one give moms enough credit for how hard it really is.

They had a panel of mothers from all over joining the convo via skype and many of them had confessions of 'horror stories' related to diapers, forgetting to feed or bathe their children and in the most extreme case....using a baby's diaper to pee while driving cause she didn't want to stop the car and wake the child. Personally I think that lady was a little nutso.

All of the moms on the panel seemed overly frazzled to me. Oprah greeted the mom of a 3 week old by asking her when was the last time she bathed. I was a little surprised by the stereotype that stay at home moms are all unkept, unbathed frazzled women with messy houses who's heads are about to explode. Certainly the women they featured fit into that description.

I'm not saying that there aren't days when our house is a disaster and I don't get out of my yoga pants, it happens...but I hate to see women have such a negative view about the reality of the "job". I think like any job or life choice, it is what you make it and I've found that having a sense of humor about things like potty training and breastfeeding, rather than stressing out, always seems to make things smoother.

I don't claim to have it all together but I would like to think that my last two years as a SAHM have been my happiest and my succesful 'job' to date. At the risk of sounding overly confident, which is NOT my intention....I would like to share a few things that have helped me not only survive but thrive in this job.

Releasing control- we are Christian and believe that God is in control of all things anyway. When you try to relinquish control of your life, I'm pretty sure God just laughs at you. Giving it over to him is the easiest way to relax and de-stress.

Laugh- ever hear that saying that I had to laugh, otherwise I'd cry? I put that into practice alot around here. Although I did cry a little when I broke the bed in the middle of the night, but I blame hormones.

Stay Social With Your Peers- if this were a corporate job, I'd be expected to network, right? So I network around town. We go to stroller aerobics, MOPS, library time...where I am literally surrounded by other SAHM's on a daily basis. This is nice to help us from feeling lonely, but also they are a great resource for questions about parenting or what's going on in our community, or where is a good place to take the kiddos. I also have an online community that I've been on since we were all pregnant with our April 07 babies and I LOVE these women. They are usually the first ones I go to for advice.

Organization- every day is exactly the same, yet always different. We follow a daily schedule that very rarely changes. If you peek into our house on any given day at 1pm, Tessa will be asleep and Charley and I will be on the couch surfing the web. I've also recently started a weekly schedule that includes what days I'm cleaning what and what we're eating. Not ONCE has the weekly calendar gone perfectly to plan and it probably never will, but the point is it's there as a guideline.

A Good Hubs- cause even though childcare is my 24/7 profession, everyone needs a break now and then. Jeremy gets stressed out when it comes to having both kids under his care, but he does it anyway cause that's what Dads do! It allows me a chance to nap or get my hair cut or whatever. He also knows what his tasks are around here (like groundskeeper, IT and sommelier) so we can operate as a well oiled machine... and the less we stress the more time we can have fun.

I'm sure there's more but I've got one with a full diaper laying on the floor crying and another one running around naked guzzling milk and singing Elmo's song. So I think my time is up.

Thoughts??

Hi all!
Well Tessa is turning 2 (boo hoo) and while we do a good amount of interacting and learning out there around town, I think it's time to start some pre pre-school learning at home like numbers, shapes, etc.

Being that I'm neither disciplined or creative enough to do it on my own, I'm looking for some sort of curriculum or plan or book to follow.

I'm looking at this, a pre-school curriculum for 2 year olds that's basically just worksheets and you work at your own pace. I would love any input from you Mommy experts. We plan to put her in preschool when she's 3.5 so this would just be some learning stuff to do until then:

https://www.abchomepreschool.com/productdetail.php?product_id=79

Leak Proof Sippy Cups- a Suburban Legend?

Tessa has long preferred straw cups to sippy cups. We really haven't used sippys much at all. The problem is of course that the straw cups aren't exactly leak proof.

We are fans of the Munchkin brand straw cup. They are pretty good until the kiddo chews on the straw a little and then they dribble. We just steam cleaned our living room carpet like a month ago and it already has little droplet spots everywhere from her waters (I figured out long ago to ban milk in the living room or things get stinky). I think the drops on the carpet may be just enough to push me over the edge and try new brands.

Last week she found an old Avent sippy in the pantry and was so excited by it, I guess just because it was something new. I'm surprised to find she's actually drinking out of it quite well but it has a major drip problem.

So today I bought these, the Playtex insulators, which claim to be 'spill proof'. We shall see...she's sipping on one right now. Does anyone have any brands they swear by?

I guess at this point it's fair to ask..why use sippies at all? Why not let the child have a real cup? We might start trying that during mealtime but it just doesn't work for an on the go lifestyle that includes drive by drinks and snacks where the kiddo sprints past, grabs a sip from the cup, throws three goldfish in her mouth and sprints the other way. That kinda life needs some durability!

btw- yes I saw Oprah yesterday and yes I have things to say but since my computer is broken and I'm sneaking onto Jer's, I'll have to do it later.

And no Steph, my love for poofy hair will not snowball into pageant mom extremes. Hell to the no, those people are pyscho and I'm not afraid to say it.

And lastly...I heard some folks were unable to view pics posted here on the blog. Everything looks coolio here on my computer so if you're still having trouble please let me know and I'll look into it.

Isn't it Grand Being a Girl?

I don't have a ton of applicable skills but I was blessed with the ability to do good hair. Maybe this will be my job in my second life, who knows? When I was in PMO I would say give me a curling iron, a bottle of hairspray and 10 min and I can do anything!

Anyway I think Tessa is finally old enough and with long enough hair for a hair curling! We were practicing for her birthday 'do'. Not cause I'm that anal, just that bored today.

You need one small curling iron, elastic hair bands, a soft brush, a cup of coffee and aerosol hairspray. While this is an otherwise 'green' household, I have to have my hairspray in aerosol form. So sue me, everyone needs a vice.

Next purchase one incredibly cute Miss Piggy hairbow on Ebay. It's actually a set of two...the other one is Kermit and green. On her birthday I'll wear whichever one she doesn't cause we're cool like that.
Toddler distraction is important, try snacks and play doh (but not play doh as snacks). Get in as many big curls as you can, spraying as you go. Careful iron handling is crucial.

Don't be afraid of hairspray and teasing. A toddler girl may seem young for such techniques but given her baby fine stick straight hair, it's really essential. Since her hair's not long enough for one pony, we did two together.
Ta-da!

Playing with Tessa's hair is motivating me to grow mine back out. It's been a while since I could do a fun updo on myself. Hmmm.

A Cuddly Guy

Charley doesn't like sitting in his swing, bouncy seat or carseat (unless the car is moving). When I put him in his swing to do things like cook dinner and whatnot, he usually looks like this...


So today I drug the walker out of storage for him to sit up and play in it. He liked it for about 10 min then started crying, then his big sister reclaimed it as her own even though her legs are like two feet too long for it...


So it's fair to say if he had his preferences he would spend the whole day like this....
Luckily he does like the stroller!

We've Been Pimped

Check out the new look of the blog here, cool huh? Thanks to my friend Lauren for doing it for us. I've had the same green format on here since I started in Aug of 06. A little update is nice huh?

Tessa's Photo Shoot

First for comparison...Tessa's 1 year photos, April 2008

And her 2 year photos, April 2009

Wow what a year it has been. It's hard to even believe that is the same kid at this point, and I wonder what her pics will look like next year, haha! We are lucky to have such a scenic background in our own backyard, but will have to be more creative with Charley's yearly pictures since it will always be the dead of winter.

Charley's Photo Shoot

9 weeks old...



As always we had an assistant...

Thursday Breakfasts with Mommy

Thursdays are library day which doesn't start until 10:15 so it's our only late morning where we don't have to be out the door by 8:30 or 9. So when Jeremy's out of town I've gotten into the habit of taking both kiddos out for breakfast at Sophia's pancake house before library.

It works out really nicely cause we have plenty of time to have a nice big breakfast (then Charley eats his breakfast at the library)and take our time out on the town. Sometimes we go to Target afterward because we aren't in our usual hurry to get home for lunch before the toddler loses it.

The lady at Sophia's has come to know us and now looks forward to seeing us once in a while. They all dote over Charley while he sleeps through the whole thing. Tessa has a kid's breakfast plate that consists of eggs, a sausage, a piece of bacon and toast. I myself have to be very careful not to be gluttonous with options like biscuits and gravy tempting me....instead I go for eggs,turkey sausage, and wheat toast.

The best part is the that we get out of there for $13 and Tessa usually has enough breakfast leftover for Friday as well. Oh and I don't have to cook anything or clean up the kitchen. Double yay!

btw Charley's one full night was indeed a fluke. Last night he was up at 3:30 like normal and just to make it extra fun he choked while nursing and threw up all over both of us so we had to change clothes. That's more like it.

My Hero

Look what Erin did as a practice run...WOW. Wahoo for an awesomely cool homeade Kermit cake. I'm going to bake and Erin's going to pretti-fy cause we're cool like that.

April Fools

Charley surprised us by sleeping through the night last night...from 10-6:30. Is this an April Fools joke or what?

The more surprising thing was that I slept through the night as well, and wasn't up checking on him, peeing or getting a snack. I couldn't believe the clock at 6:15...whoah!

I feel strangely energetic today! :)