Make over

What do you think of my sultry new red-headed friend?

(Only positive comments allowed here).

Hi, my name is Benji, and I'm an addict.

Group: Hi, Benji!

Benji: Well, I'm 17 months old, and I already have two addictions.

Group member # 1: Go ahead, Benji, we won't judge you.

Benji: Well, I'm addicted to trash and to making messes. The trash cans and recycling bins are like magnets to me. I'm just drawn to them; I can't help it. I love to take things out of the trash and throw them on the ground, like raw chicken fat that my mommy threw away, or a sticky yogurt container, or soda can. And if there's any drops of soda left in the can, I like to dump it out on the floor too.

(pause)

Group member # 2: Go on, Benji. This is good for you. Get it all out.

Benji: I also love to put non-trash items into the trash. Like my brother's shoe, my mommy's mascara and lip gloss, nail clippers, toy balls, magnets from the fridge, socks, pajama pants, cups, toy robots, and spoons. My mommy gets very upset, but I just can't seem to stop myself. I get such a rush from putting things in the trash can! I sometimes clap for myself and say "Yay" after I put a new item in the trash. (sob)

Group member # 3: Don't worry; crying is good for you.

Benji: My other addiction is making messes. I like to destroy entire areas of the house. I'm like a tornado. My parents sometimes call me the Benjmanian Devil. I like to open drawers and take literally everything out of them. I like to carry some of the items to other random parts of the house and leave them under strange places for my mommy to find later. I like to take Daddy's books down from the shelf and scatter them on the floor. I like to take all the markers and stamps out of the craft drawer and chew on the stamps so that my mouth turns pink or blue. I like to take all the rubber bands from the bag and make it rain rubber bands in the living room. I like to throw my food on the floor when I eat, and drip water or juice out of my cup onto the carpet. I also recently realized that I love to drink liquids from my cup, then spit it out on my shirt. And I like to flush the toilet unnecessarily and then clap for myself.

(pause)

And I like to find the marshmallows and the fruit snacks in the pantry, carry them to my mommy, and whine and cry for her to give some to me.

(pause)

Group leader: Is that everything, Benji?

Benji: No, I could go on, but I think you get the idea.

Group leader: We do. Thank you for sharing, Benji.

Group: Yes, thank you for sharing.

Group leader: Okay, let's close our meeting. Lord, grant me the serenity...

A "Wow" moment

Last week, we went to Texas to see family. It was an amazing trip, and it surpassed my expectations. All three of my siblings were there with their significant others. I got to meet my niece for the first time. There were four cousins who had a great time together ... except for the frequent times they were fighting over toys. There was a ladies' lunch that was really nice. I got to reconnect with my sister. There were many rousing games of "styroball" in the swimming pool. It was all so wonderful.

The night before Chad and I left was also the night before my sister and her husband and daughter were to return to their overseas post. So we had a prayer time with the adults who were still there (my brothers were already gone). We prayed for safety, patience in travel, etc. We all took a turn praying aloud. A couple of times during the prayer, I looked around at all the people around the table and just felt a wow moment. I thought, "Wow, this is really cool. What a blessing to be a member of this family, all of whom are Christian, are serious about their relationships to Christ, worship God through their lives, and strive to be righteous people." I can't really explain this, but I felt an extremely strong connection to those members of my family through Christ. It was like he truly was there in our midst (Matt 18:20), and we were communing through prayer, reaching a level of closeness that the average irreligious person is not able to experience. It was just such a neat moment of ... realization? ... appreciation? I don't even know what to call it, but it was wonderful and really moved me.

Recent Conversations, Benji's Hobbies

Earlier today, while we were all in the car, Chad and I briefly talked about if/when to plan a third child. (NOTHING was decided, so don't get your hopes up). This evening, this ensued:

Ethan (poking my breast): There's a little baby in there.

Hope: No, that's my breast. There's no baby in there!

Ethan: I wish there was a baby in your tummy. That would be cool!

Chad didn't say anything but I saw a pained look on his face.

A few days ago, this conversation happened:

Ethan: Mommy, spies are bad!

Hope: Well, some spies are bad guys, and some spies are good guys.

Ethan: I'm a good spy. You be a bad spy.

Hope: I don't want to be a bad guy. I'll be a good guy spy. Here, why don't you hide under this laundry basket and spy on the bad guys.

Ethan (under the laundry basket): This is my spy lab! I'm in a spy lab.

Hope (laughing): Oh, what do you do in your spy lab?

Ethan: I look for bad guys, because they are bad guys.

After church today, when Ethan was picked up from the 3-year old room, I asked him if he had fun in there. He said, "Yeah, it was awesome."

Benji has a new hobby. He likes to drop things into the toilet ... yes, even when the lid is down. He knows how to open it up. If we forget to close the door to the bathroom, we might find him either playing in the toilet water, or dropping things in there. Once I found a collection of bathtub toys in there. Another time, I found four baby wash cloths mixed up with toilet paper in the bowl.

His other hobby is putting things that are not trash in the trashcan and taking trash out of the trashcan. I mean, I guess I can see how this would be really fun. He's put a pair of shoes in the trash, a new tube of mascara, and one of Ethan's toys. I wonder if some day we'll wonder where something is, can't find it anywhere, and realize that it must have gone out with the trash weeks ago.

Benji also can now say "No," although he doesn't understand the meaning yet. He just copies me when I say it. He once said "turkey" when Chad was giving him turkey. And once he copied me say "Woof woof" when I showed him a picture of a dog. He can also say, "Hi," and he does actually understand the meaning of that word.

I steal

I loved Jessica's post like this so much, that I'm stealing her idea. However, I must warn you that mine will not be as funny as Jessica's because in hers, she describes how 2-yr old Ella told her all about how boys have a penis and girls have a magenta.

Interesting tidbits:

When Ethan talks on the phone to the grandparents, he talks to them as if they're actually there. For example, "See, look at this snail. It's really big," or "I show you a spider web. See, it's yucky."

The other day, Ethan was playing with a transformer, making it run along the couch. He said, "See, it crushes everything in its path." Later that night, I realized it's a line from a book, where "The omnidroid crushes everything in its path."

Ethan's concept of time is limited to the past, but he calls it "next week." For example, "That was where we went next week" or "Where's the toy I played with next week?"

I recently made Ethan instant oatmeal, which he hasn't eaten in a long time. The packaging and the method of cooking it is so similar to Easy Mac, that he confused it with Easy Mac, and called it "mac 'n' moley." "Is my mac 'n' moley ready yet?"

Ethan is obsessed with good guys and bad guys. He asks about every toy, "Is this a good guy or a bad guy?" When we play with transformers or anything for that matter, it's "You be the bad guy; I'm the good guy."

He's also obsessed with flying and powers. He asks me frequently if such and such toy can fly and if it has powers. This morning he asked me if he had any powers.

Watching SpongeBob last week, Ethan picked up an unfortunate word: "butt." When he used it by repeated a line from the show, I snapped, "Ethan, I know SpongeBob uses that word, but we do NOT use that word in our house." He promptly replied, "I can say it in someone else's house?"

I've been babysitting an adorable and chubby little girl lately named Lilliana. The other day, she had her arm up on the table. Ethan pointed to one of the fat rolls on her arm and said, "Wee-anna has strong arms. Her arms are so strong."

Our once-innocent Benjers is already a pro at tantrums. If you take him away from something he wants, he screams "Aah, aah, aah, aah," kicks his legs simultaneously, and shakes his head from side to side. The kid can get so frustrated!

Benji really enjoys throwing things off the high chair, or out of his bed, or out of toy boxes and then saying, "Uh oh."

He LOVES his blankie. At night time after bath, he's usually really fussy and crying. We have a routine where I say, "Let's go find your blankie. Where's your blankie?" He half-laughs and half-cries "huh huh" till we see it. Then I say, "There's your blankie!" and he laughs and rubs his face into it.

He got his first pair of Robeez last week. They're brown summer sandals and they're super cute.

Thanks to Chad, Benji thinks it's time to wrestle whenever I'm lying on the floor. If I lie down, Benji drops what he's doing, laughs, comes over to me as quickly as possible, and lies down on top of me, laughing, expecting me to wrestle him.

He likes to give kisses. He opens his mouth really wide, goes "Aaaaah," and plants a literal wet one on your face.

He's walking more and more and likes to toddle around the house. If he's unhappy, then he toddles around saying, "Mommm-my, mommm-my." If he's happy, then he toddles around saying, "Wuh wuh deesh. Ah bah mush mush, ooh uh, nuh nuh naaaaay no nooo, boosh ayay."

Over the past 3 or 4 years, I have grown to like ice cream less and less and cookies more and more. Cookies are my weakness. Big, fresh-baked, soft, gooey cookies. And I didn't used to care for peanut butter cookies; now I love them. Here's a FANTASTIC recipe for them! Use Skippy natural super chunk.

The best pesto you will ever eat in your life

I have a brilliant plan for this week. I'm going to make the following pesto sauce, and then we're going to eat it all week:

Monday: pasta with pesto sauce, broccoli, grilled or baked fish (tilapia I got on sale)

Tuesday: grilled cheese sandwiches with pesto spread on 1 of the slices of bread, carrot sticks

Wednesday: leftovers from ... last week...

Thursday: hamburgers with the neighbors before they move

Friday: grilled chicken sandwiches with pesto, lettuce, tomato, and onion

Saturday: pesto pizza (spread pesto on the pizza dough, then add red onion, feta cheese, whatever else you want, and mozzarella cheese), salad

So this pesto recipe is from my friend Rena. It is TO DIE FOR; you will hear angels singing when you eat this stuff:

1/2 cup walnuts

1/4 cup pine nuts

3 Tbsp pressed garlic (9 cloves)

5 cups fresh basil leaves, packed (washed and dried thoroughly)

2 tsp kosher salt

1 1/2 cups olive oil

a food processor

1 cup freshly grated parmesan (the Kraft kind is not good enough for this recipe)

To clean basil, remove the leaves, swirl them in a bowl of water, and then spin very dry in a salad spinner. Place walnuts, pine nuts, and garlic in the bowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade. Process for 15 seconds. Add basil leaves, salt, and pepper. With the processor running, slowly pour the olive oil into the bowl through the feed tube and process until the pesto is thoroughly pureed. Add the parmesan and puree for a minute. Use right away or store in the fridge or freezer with a thin film of olive oil on top.

Prepare your eyes for pure glamour

First of all, make sure you're sitting down. Then, prepare your eyes to see me as you've never seen me. It is purely glamourous and beatific. In other words, I look darn good. I haven't looked so good or felt so pretty since my own wedding.

This is me in Chad's sister Amanda's, wedding. Chad was an usher, I was a bridesmatron (which is a truly horrible word; it sounds so matronly), and the two boys were ringbearers. The wedding was fun and the kids did great. We were very impressed. It was fun to have my hair done and my nails done and have fancy make up.

Okay, here it is. Are you ready? Ta da!

Do I not look AMAZING?

And here is the lovely bride Amanda with my two adorable children: