So Busy...

Whoa! My little man is getting to be quite the good crawler. He has improved his speed by quite a bit over the last week. I can't take my eyes off of him unless I want to turn around to see some disaster taking place. Last night Jason was downstairs with the kids. Ella was having some issue about folding clothes (we seem to have a lot of issues these days) so while he was taking care of that Ben made his escape. When Jason turned back around, he could hear the little guy, but couldn't see him. Turned out that Ben had crawled under the coffee table, found himself a graham cracker on the floor (a left-over from Ella, I suppose) and was sitting there munching away. When Jason found him, he said Ben was as happy as a clam and oh so proud of himself. Aahhhh, at least it was only a graham cracker! Sometimes we call him "Dennis the Menace" when he is getting into everything to which Ella replies at the top of her lungs "Menace the Menace...Menace the Menace" while running gleefully in circles. Oh, the life of a busy mom!

Ella Still Loves Signing

Ella signing "mommy"

Ella signing "turtle"

I started teaching Ella sign language when she was 7 months old. She took to it very quickly and was starting to sign back to me at the young age of 9 months old. She was a late talker...at least audibly anyway...so she used signing to talk to me most of the time. She knew a lot of signs and at one point Ella knew over 100 of them. She was a little "chatty kathy"...just with her hands. As most of you know, she is a big talker now...putting together 10 word sentences and having regular conversations with me. Even though she chats all the time, she still likes and enjoys doing signing. She's always asking me "Mom...how you sign...??" and if there is one I don't know, she tells me what she thinks it must me! :) She's funny.

Crawling is Cool...

I'm so cool!

Look Ma...no hands!

but Standing...now that's where it's at! Ben is loving his newfound freedom with crawling although it has kept me so busy that I can't take my eyes off of him for a second! He is all over Ella about 90% of the time. Although crawling is fun...he loves to try and pull himself up. He hasn't figured it out completely, but he sure enjoys trying. Nothing is safe in our house anymore. Ben loves this new activity table...I don't think it will be long until he's walking along the furniture.

Cake...What Cake??

Cake...I didn't see any cake?

Oh....THAT cake?!? Well...

Ella helped me make a chocolate cake the other day. She's becoming quite the little cook. Ella wants to help with pretty much anything in the kitchen. She loves to stir and it really good at making a giant mess. I'm okay with that though...it is a nice time for us to hang out together doing something we both really enjoy. I turned my back to get the cakepan from the drawer and Ella had found her way into the batter. She raised her eyebrows like she was a little surprised...I think it tasted better than she was expecting. Hmmm, I better keep her away from the cookie dough.

Biter Biscuits Rule!

Ben has graduated up to table foods these days and loves to feed himself. In fact, he isn't so excited about mom or dad feeding him with the spoon anymore. If it's something he can pick up himself...then he's all over it. I gave Ben a biter biscuit the other day...wow, did he love that. He smiled and laughed the entire time he was eating it. I remember when Ella was little that I only bought one box of these things because they get soooo messy. I guess time had made me forget just how messy one small child can get from one little biscuit. When Ben was done, I had to strip him from head to toe and even wash out his hair! I guess some lessons take a couple of times to learn.

Benamin Jae!! Benamin Jae...MOM!

Notice Ella's look of disapproval!

Well, it's official. Ben is crawling. He's not terribly fast, but he's efficient at getting where he wants to go. He loves his sister...and takes off after her where ever she is at. The poor girl can't get a minute by herself these days. This pic is a common occurance lately...Ella will be looking at books quietly by herself when all of a sudden I hear "Benamin Jae (which stands for Benjamin Jae), Benamin Jae...MOM!!!!" I have been trying to teach her this week that instead of just getting mad that he is pulling on the pages of her books that she should ask Mommy for help and I will move her little brother for her. We've had to go over this lesson many, many, MANY times...but I think she is starting to get it. We'll see what this week brings us as he is starting to move faster and faster with each passing day. I already feel like a referree as they sit and have a tug of war over toys, each screaming their displeasure at the whole incident. I can't imagine what it will be like once Ben starts walking...or worse...running! Life just got a little bit more busy!

The Fab Four...or is that Five?!

We had a playdate this week with a few moms I know. We met in various places...at the agency, at our travel meeting, or while in Korea picking up our sweet sons. We always have a fun time getting together and seeing how the kids have changed. Ella is the only girl and the only toddler so she keeps her hands busy entertaining lots of baby boys. Aren't they all just too cute!??!

Where's the Mohawk?

I finally did it, I cut little Ben's hair. It took me over 2 years to get the courage up to give Ella a haircut...and with Ben it took me all of 6 months. I guess having a second child makes things a little easier the second time around.

When we got our referral pic of Ben from Korea while we were still waiting, I was surprised when I took my first look at it. "hmm...looks like they shaved his head" I thought to myself. They do this sometimes to get the hair to grow in thicker. I still thought he was a cutie...just with less hair. When we picked him up, I said "so...you shaved his hair, then?"...to which they answered "no...he just doesn't really have any". Oh...well I guess I was wrong. heehee

Ben's hair has grown a lot since he came home...a lot just on the top of his head. The sides still look as though not much as happened. For whatever reason, his hair on the top of his head had soon become a mohawk. I decided to take away the punk-rocker look from my 10 month old and trim it up. I actually cut about 3/4 of an inch off the top! Here are the pics.

He is just so cute I could eat him up!!

Finally Some Normalacy!

Wow...it seems like forever since I have had a chance to post. I'm sorry for the extended "vacation"...and by "vacation"...I mean anything but something relaxing and enjoyable. Ella is finally back to her normal self, eating us out of house and home again. It took a while for her to bounce back and even longer for her to get her appetite back to where it was previously.

Ben never got completely sick although he was pretty crabby for a few days. I think he might have had a touch of the bug, but it didn't turn into much. Thank Goodness. He has managed to have another tooth pop through as of yesterday so he has been struggling with that a little. He has 5 teeth now and one more is just ready to pierce through his gumline.

Ella is requesting more book reading..."read me book, Hon" so this will be a short post. I'll be back on my game from here on out. Look for more updates from Hubler Planet.

Still Recovering

I had great plans of posting before the middle of this week, but Ella had a relapse and had started throwing up again in the middle of the night on Saturday...well, I guess it would be Sunday morning. We spent the whole weekend nursing her back to health. Ben has been a bit of a challenge as well. He hasn't thrown up, but has been a little "punky"...he is also working on 2 more teeth and they are proving to be a real pain, literally. Once I can get more than 20 seconds at a time to myself...I'll post again and share some more pics. I'm hoping by the weekend things will be back to normal around here.

A little busy lately...

Sorry for the lack of posts these past few days. It's been a long week with all of the snow that has fallen. We have gotten a lot of the white fluffy stuff here and have been cooped up inside for most of the blizzard...which means lots of extra work to entertain two little children...which also means not a lot of time for posting. Ella woke up around 5am Friday morning, I was trying to talk her into going back to sleep when all of a sudden she threw up on me. To make a long story short, it was a very long day for her. By suppertime the worst of it was over, but she still required a lot of comforting and attention from Mommy. I'll be back to posting shortly. Bear with me. :)