When Ben was home for the month of June, none of us knew what we were going to do with him. How would we include him in our daily happenings without attenuating our daily productivity? Come to find out, he had a plan of his own - plant sunflowers. Apparently, Benny-Boo is quite the gardener. Take a peek at how beautiful his sunflowers are! And yes, we do call him Marco Stewart...clearly a fitting name. This guy is astonishing/amazing! :-)

Attenuate [at·ten·u·ate] v. 1. To reduce in force, value, amount, or degree; weaken: "The layoffs attentuated the company's sales forecast."

Adorbs...

I asked Reagan how she got so cute..."Mommy, God made me this way!"

I sneezed today and Evie said, "Bless you."

Adorable/Adorbs. :-)

Just a little change...

I have gone ahead and altered the title of our family blog. The purpose remains the same. However, I am going to attempt to improve my personal vocabulary while I plug away on these postings. My ability to speak as an educated 31-year old woman has radically diminished since around Oct. 2006! In my posts, you will find my normal bantering ways and then you will occassionally see two words separated by a forward slash. The first word represents a preferred word choice and the second is the original word that I chose. This should be compelling/interesting!

When I grow up...

Reagan said, "Mommy, when I grow up, I want to be a doctor like Daddy and drive a car like you." Wow.

Garbage Lady

Yep. I did it. I dived deep into the depths of a Costco garbage can, searching for a tiny little baby dolphin. Reagan was hysterical after Evie launched the prized baby dolphin into the awaiting trash receptacle. As you can imagine, the "can" was disgusting. Ev didn't happen to drop it into a newly cleaned, fresh-as-a-daisy, trash can. Evie threw it into the most gooped up, sticky, smelly, fly infested trash can in all of the freakin' store. I tried to get out of "going in" for it. I even circled around the entire warehouse, hoping that the sobbing Reagan would forget. No such luck. I faced the fear, and I conquered the foe. Reagan could have cared less once I finished fishing that stupid dolphin from its temporary home. Gross.

Potty Training?

Could it be so?? Evie stood outside the bathroom door and said, "Potty." I opened the door, she walked to the potty and stared at it. I took her diaper off, placed her on the potty and...she went potty. Well. That was easy. ;-) This was a solid act of potty proficiency and at a very young age. And we also know that she won't realistically potty train for a good 1.5 years. But (BUTT) it is fun for her to try to be a big girl like her sister. Way to go Evelyn!!!!

Mommy's Maddness...

Evelyn had an awful night of sleep last night. As a result, I didn't sleep either. How Ben and Reagan can sleep through her screaming is consistently amazing to me. By sunrise, Evelyn and I were up, yet again. By this time, I was honestly unable to be patient with her and parent her with gentleness and care. To be completely truthful, I had lost that ability around 2:30am. I had nothing left but frustration and "maddness". Evelyn kept screaming and screaming and screaming and I couldn't get her to stop. "Evelyn Maris - STOP SCREAMING!!!! You will wake up REAGAN!!!!", screamed her crazed mother. As one would guess, Reagan appears. She happily came breezing down the staircase. I said, "Oh Reagan. I am so sorry that Evie's screaming woke you up." "Mommy, Evie didn't wake me up. Your maddness woke me up." Lesson learned. Heart breaking. So sorry to start their day off with "maddness". Tomorrow will be better!