They've got... Personality

Right before heading out to the beach I snapped these pics, not only because Zoe was looking so adorable in her new bathing attire, but because Ben and Zoe were both doing things that so embodied their personalities. Ben loves animals, especially ferocious ones that roar, bite and eat a lot. And Zoe loves anything that beeps, lights up or plays music. She especially looooooves anything remote control. Here she is controlling a remote motorcycle given to Ben for his third birthday. He doesn't care about it at all, but Zoe HAS to play with it if she sees it. I've taken to hiding it, just so she can't get frustrated when it hits a wall and she can't back it up by herself. Seriously.

Battle Wounds

While Zoe perfects her walking, her body and my soul take a beating. Whenever she falls and hurts herself it tears me up that I can't take the pain for her. Although I admit I like her tough new look, scrapes and scratches all over, including some good ones on her face.

What up?

I saw these glasses on our way out of Venice beach the other day and knew Zoe just had to have them. When I put them on her, she knew too. But in a very different way than I had expected. She dropped the sweet smile and with a straight face she said, "What? What? Yeah, that's what I thought b*tch. You in my house now."

Ben's pregnancy and Zoe's new attitude?! Not even Oprah can help me now.

Toddler Pregnancy

As teenage pregnancy rates drop, toddler pregnancy rates rise. Have we neglected our toddlers in favor of teens, only to create a new and even more socially devastating problem? See pictures below to discover the seriousness of this issue.

Ben's desire to be naked has taken a turn. Now he has taken to running around wearing nothing but string. As if that weren't cute enough he saw a pregnant lady the other day and then asked me, "mom, will you strap MY baby to my belly so I can be pregnant too." His words exactly. Who can argue with a great idea like that? He's either going to be Edison or a porn star. The opportunities are endless for a mind like Ben's.

Indie Look Out!

On a recent trip to the Natural History Museum Ben and Zoe were in the excavation pit looking for dinosaur bones when all of a sudden Zoe yelled, "Benny look out!" as she pelted him with the fake dirt. Ben managed to grab his hat four seconds after the dirt already should have hit him and captured the dirt in it right before it almost hit him. Yes, you read right. He's that good. A regular Indiana Jones. He was even brave enough to pet the giant dinosaur (man in a real looking dino costume) while Zoe screamed her head off in fright. "But Indie would have saved the damsel in distress," you say? Not after she tried to pelt him with fake dirt. :)
Oh, and Zoe's walking now. Yay.

old man pants

In addition to Ben's silly walks, Ben has upped the humor to include silly walks while wearing his pants old man style. I swear he comes up with it himself. Of course, it helps that we carry around canned laughter for his every shenanigan. If only we could get a real studio audience... Maybe I should hit third street to find seat fillers for our household. Really boost his confidence. Or creep him out.

Pier Pressure

The older Ben gets the greater pressure there is on us to find new and exciting places to go for fun. At three years old he's so been-there-done-that, jaded, about so much that L.A. has to offer. But every once in a while we remember a place we haven't been in a while. The Santa Monica Pier. This lovely gem is only five minutes away. Can't believe it's been so long since we've been there. At least a couple of months. Which for Zoe is like a lifetime. When we arrived she said, "Whoa, why haven't we ever been here before?! This place is awesome." Ben rolled his eyes. We expect this same scene two months from now.

The first picture is of Ben holding Zoe's "hand" in the car on the way. It's so damn sweet, but sometimes slightly heartbreaking. Sometimes Ben loves her so much he absolutely HAS to hold her hand. He rarely does anything temper tantrummy anymore, but the other day (not the day of the pic) he cried so hard because Zoe wouldn't let him hold her hand. I could see it was really tearing him up, but there was nothing I could do while driving and I guess "love hurts" is a message we all have to learn eventually. Considering he recently peed on her, the holding hands bit it especially nice to see. Although, about the pee, it might have just been that he was naked and didn't make it to the toilet in time, and well, she was there looking awfully Bonzai tree like. It really is love to come up with a story like that to save your child from the probably truth... he just wanted to pee on her.























































































I love the picture where Ben won't let the maintenance guy mess with his truck.

Including the bathroom sink

If ever there is a quiet moment in the house these days it means Ben is somewhere getting undressed. It used to stop at just being naked, but now he has upped the excitement to include sitting in water, like the bathtub, the outside water table and even the bathroom sink. I know it sounds like I'm being a neglectful mother, but Ben is so usually right next to me at all times, that when he is alone being quiet I relish it and try to put out of my mind what he could be up to. It's usually pretty cute when I finally go to find him (only after a couple minutes). He always has this adorable guilty look on his face, which works out perfectly for when I tell him how ashamed he should be, that being naked is sinful and awful and he should go take a hot shower with his clothes on. I'm still not sure how screwed up I want to make him, but this seems to really be working right now.

Easter Afternoon

On Easter afternoon we went to Grandma and Grandpa's house and... had ANOTHER Easter Egg hunt. Ugh. But amazingly this was still a fun idea to Ben who by now had already done four in two days. Only the catch on this one was that there was NOTHING inside the eggs. SUCKERS. Yet amazingly again, it was STILL fun for the kids (Ben, and cousins Anthony and Nicole). They competed for the eggs like there was liquid, injectable golden chocolate inside each and every one of them and they were chocoholics badly in need of a fix. And when the eggs were all found... they did it again. Guess chocoholics don't think very straight sometimes.