Henry is FOOD

(Jenn) In case you didn't think "Bommy, Baddy, Bellis, Benry, Bessica, Biss and Bevan" was funny, here's a little video to prove that mixing up letters really IS the most hilarious thing on the planet! It has become the ongoing entertainment in our house. My favorite thing about this clip is just watching how Henry cracks up with every new phrase.

Funny Spelling from Ben and Jenn on Vimeo.

Speaking of Resemblances . . .

(Jenn)

No, I'm not talking about the resemblance between Ellis and Frankie (the monkey)! Zoom in and check out that unruly eyebrow! This kid is the spittin' image of his Daddy-o. At least where eyebrows, back hair, and pudgy fingers are concerned. We're loving this handsome guy!

I Love . . .

(Jenn)

1. Days when we don't have to go anywhere! It's nice to be able to stay in our pajamas until 11:00 and go outside to splash in rain puddles if we want. To me, this is what being a mom should always be like.

2. When babies start getting reliable nap schedules. The morning nap is just starting for Ellis, and it allows me a little bit of much-needed one-on-one time with Henry.

3. Umbrella pictures! I'm adding a picture of little Jenn with an umbrella too, just for fun. Everyone says Henry looks just like me. What do you think?

A little Christmas cheer, a little early

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Bevan, Bessica, and Biss!

(Jenn)

We had a special treat last weekend: a visit from our best New Jersey friends Evan, Jessica, and Chris! Evan and Henry have been missing each other terribly since we moved, and we were dying to get them together. It was so fun to be together again and for them to meet Ellis! While they were here, I realized that Evan and Henry really are meant to be best friends. They got along so well and just played happily together the whole time! I've never met another kid who was so willing to play cars, make silly faces, and make up crazy words with Henry for hours on end. The adults had a great time visiting because the boys were so occupied with each other -- we really hardly had to watch them at all!

I think the boys would have been happy just staying home playing with cars the whole time, but we did a few fun things to keep ourselves busy. On Friday we hit the children's museum, where we spent most of our time playing with the (you guessed it) trucks and trains. The boys both bought a toy train from the gift shop, which provided hours of entertainment for the rest of the weekend! On Saturday we went to the Watertown Family Network's "Touch the Trucks." It was a dream-event for Henry and Evan both: an open parking lot filled with all sorts of trucks, from fire trucks to dump trucks to school busses. The kids were allowed to touch them, climb in them, and learn all about them. Can you think of a better idea?

So Henry's favorite quirky habit right now (aside from burping, which is still going strong) is changing the first letter of a word to another letter and then laughing at the result (he'll sit at the dinner table for hours talking about his landwich, luice, and logurt!). It's pretty funny stuff. Trust me. Last weekend was no exception, and this fun game continued until I'm afraid it drove everyone nuts. We spent the entire car ride home from the restaurant on Friday listening to Henry go through all of our names with EVERY letter of the alphabet numerous times: Bommy, Baddy, Bellis, Benry, Bessica, Biss, and Bevan! Wommy, Waddy, Wellis, Wenry, Wessica, Wiss, and Wevan! Tommy, Taddy, Tellis, Tenry, Tessica, Tiss, and Tevan! Occasionally it got really exciting: Sommy, Saddy, Sellis, Senry, Sessica, Siss, and Sevan! Seven? That's a number! The best part of this game is when you end up with names that are real words. The highlight was when we got "Hellis" and "Hevan" both in one round.

The game continued pretty much nonstop for the rest of the weekend. Bessica, Biss, and Bevan endured it pretty well, and they still stayed until Sunday like they planned, to my relief! If only they could be here now . . . they could hear how much Henry misses them. On he goes, including Ressica, Riss, and Revan in all of our topics of conversation.

Ah, this too shall pass.

Piano

(Jenn)

Happy 5th Anniversary to us! We've been dreaming of this piano for a long time, and finally, here it is! Isn't it beautiful? It plays beautifully too (although it needs a tuning). I think we got quite the steal: $250 for the piano from craigslist. And yes, we used the piano movers mentioned previously (no prize for professionalism or congeniality, but they did a great job and were very careful). Hooray and hoorah! Bring on the Christmas music!

Ben learned a lot of useful skills on his mission,

including how to kill a Thanksgiving turkey and what to do when you get fleas. Today he showed off yet another skill: mouse-catching. Apparently he "only" did this 5 or 6 times as a missionary, but 5 or 6 times was enough to make him an expert!

So Ben and I were sitting at the computer together when we both saw a small, black shadow scurry across the corner of the room and into the closet. I think if we hadn't both seen it, either one of us would have brushed it off as an illusion. I was sure it was just a big spider. Ben (remember? He's the expert) was certain it was a mouse. Eek! We moved things around in the closet long enough to coax the little guy out to the doorway to peek at us. Sure enough, a tiny mouse! He was so cute I was determined to catch him and keep him as a pet! That determination quickly dissipated as we followed through with the details of Ben's mouse-catching plan. He was not nearly as cute while scurrying under my feet! Ben started with the broom and swept the mouse out of the closet while I chased him with a garbage can. Once we realized my reflexes were not going to cut it, we switched jobs and Ben took the garbage can. I poked the mouse with a broom; he ran out from under the computer desk; and Ben caught him on the first try! Unfortunately, the mouse was either a tiny bit too slow or too fast. He got caught right under the rim. So much for our new pet (and your appetite, if you're reading this before a meal -- sorry)!

Would you dare?

(Jenn)

Would you ever dare use these guys to move your piano? Here's the ad direct from craigslist:

do you need a piano moved. well we charge $190.for 2 guys and $240 for 3 guys.call mike at 781 373 1028. ask for mike .thank you for reading this add.

What if you were just buying a used craigslist piano anyway? What if they are by far the cheapest guys out there? Hmmm . . .
More information to follow!

Halloween

(Jenn)

I don't think I'll ever be one of you people who makes posts declaring "I LOVE HALLOWEEN!!!!!" But I did love lots of things about Halloween this year (see, I'm coming around). Here are some of them:

1. Not having to make Henry a costume because we "recycled" his garbage man costume from last year. Hey, it was a hit last year, and no one here had seen it yet. And Henry doesn't know any better to object!
2. Not spending ANY money on costumes. I scrounged together Ellis' garbage can costume with stuff from around the house and touched up a few things on Henry's garbage truck. Together, they still looked pretty awesome, and they made quite the appearance at the church Halloween party.

3. At the grocery store yesterday when Henry saw a slightly scary-looking white-haired bearded man. He said, VERY loudly, "Is that man Santa?" And of course the man heard, and I tried to laugh and make a joke out of it, and then the man looked at Henry and said, "Hey, I like your scary mask. Is that your mask or your face?" And he tried to pull off Henry's mask. VERY spooky!

4. Making doughnuts with our new friend Eliza. It took about 2 hours longer than I was expecting, and we learned a few lessons (don't put your favorite plastic spoon in hot oil!), but it was fun and festive, and the doughnuts tasted fabulous.

5. Trick-or-treating with Henry. He was much more excited about driving his garbage truck really fast through the street than getting the candy. He skipped about half of the houses because he got going so fast and didn't want to stop.



6. Seeing how Halloween CAN bring out the best in people. We got to meet all of the neighbors we haven't met yet while trick-or-treating. Since our neighborhood doesn't get many trick-or-treaters (I think we got 12), most people took a minute to talk to us and get to know us before we left. LOTS of nice people live in our neighborhood. They were sweet with Henry and kept saying, "Oh, take a few more." Kathy even gave him 2 extra gummy eyeballs for Mom and Dad (score!). And our next-door neighbor Peggy came to our house before we even left for trick-or-treating and gave Henry a gallon-size bag full of candy bars. Okay, so maybe they were just trying to get rid of their candy, but I'm not complaining.

7. Now it's over and everyone will take their morbid decorations down and we can just enjoy Autumn as it was meant to be. Happy November everyone!