Benjamin vs. Sand

Ooh, what's this?
Check it out, it sticks to my hand!
I must put it in my mouth to determine its level of awesomeness.
Blech! Not awesome! What foul trickery is this?
Systems failing... falling over...
That was a close one. Am I glad I can roll over now! Hey, what's this stuff? It seems familiar. Maybe I should taste it...

Beach Boys

More pictures from our day at the beach:

I couldn't resist taking a picture of all our flip-flops. I love the three tiny pairs that belong to our munchkins. It's too bad Benjamin doesn't have any that fit yet, although he did have a pair of swim trunks.
Speaking of Benjamin- here is the picture of the ultimate beach bum complete with drool. He was not a fan of the water and spent most of his time eating or sleeping. I guess he was working on a tan to match his awesome surfer hair.

All the boys had fun digging in the sand and hauling water to build a sand castle. Unfortunately, they were not very successful and anytime they got part of a sandcastle up a certain 2-year-old w0uld delight in kicking it down. Oh well.

There were an insane number of seagulls resting on the beach near the tree line. Periodically, for some unknown reason, they would all take to the sky and fly a lap before settling down again. Maybe they're part of a seagull fraternity and one of them periodically squawks, "Air raid!" We're happy to report that all Ricks persons and belongings were spared the seagull poop.

So far, I have avoided posting many pictures of myself but for posterity's sake I suppose I should include photo proof that I actually do go places with my family. Please remember when you view these pictures that I had a baby 5 months ago. Oh, and you may want to put on sunglasses. I actually do have a tan in these pictures but since my natural color is neon clear a tan means I am merely a hospital white. I think that still might cause blindness if looked at directly. I would be a happy woman if my teeth were as white as my skin. Okay, enough stalling, this is like ripping off a bandaid...

Phew! Did you survive? You can still see? Oh good. That means you'll be able to see this last picture of Gabriel and Elijah. Here they are with one of two "towers" they built right at the water's edge. They liked to see how long it took the water to erode their creations and knock down the sticks. Marc claims this is high art entitled "The Futility of Man" and that it should be worth a lot of money. Any buyers? Available for a limited time only, in fact it may already be gone.

Almost Heaven

Friday we went to the beach (which ar0und here means Lake Erie). It was a perfect day and the beach was almost deserted. There was sunshine with some cloud cover, a gentle breeze, the temperature stayed right around 80 degrees and the water felt great. At one point, I was laying on our blanket holding Benjamin who had just fallen asleep in my arms. I was sleepy in a good way after playing out in the sun and sand. I could see all five of the boys I love best as they played in the water, filled their buckets and hunted for rocks. I closed my eyes and thought, "This is what heaven must be like." I took a picture from where I lay to remind me that Heaven can be found wherever my family is- even in Cleveland, Ohio.

Plumb Crazy

My downstairs bathroom has issues. It's always a risk to use that bathroom anyway since it the bathroom used and abused by the boys. Last week I foolishly decided to use the downstairs toilet instead of hiking upstairs to my own bathroom. I almost screamed when I lifted the lid because a sodden Buzz Lightyear doll along with two plush puppies came flying out. That's just not what you expect to happen. David John apparently decided that several of his brothers' stuffed toys wanted to go swimming. I may never be able to watch Toy Story again without having nightmares about Buzz's evil twin that lurks in my plumbing.
Surprisingly, this is not my main problem with that bathroom. No, the main problem is that the sink is leaking copious amounts of water and the tub and shower are also developing a nasty drip. My water bill is not happy about this arrangement and I've been dealing with this problem for over a month now without it being fixed. So, I did what any rational person would do when faced with a frustrating problem- I wrote a song about it to the tune of "Gilligan's Island". Here is a link to the Gilligan's Island theme song on You Tube so you can sing along.

Just sit right back and you'll hear a tale

A tale of a fateful drip

And what's been done to stop the leak

That would be nada- zip

Our landlord is the nicest kind of guy

But he's been out of town

Vacationing in Michigan

No cell towers around- No cell towers around

By the time we talked about the sink

The drip was a mighty stream

The whole sink would have to be replaced

It was a plumber's dream- It was a plumber's dream

Our plumber, Paul said he would come on Thursday in the e'en

Before Gabriel

Elijah too

The two-year-old David John

Li'l Benjamin

And of course Sarah Jean

All left to drive to Fairborn

Of course the plumber didn't come

And wouldn't for a long, long time

'Cause even when we got back home

We had to wait in line

Each day there was some new excuse

A different emergency

“There's a toilet falling through a roof!

I'll be in tomorrow, maybe.”

In two weeks (at last!) he finally came

But the job still isn't done

The main shut-off valve is broken

And it's the only one

So join us here each week my friends

As we wait for the city crew

To turn off the water to the street

Then we'll get a sink that's new

School Days

Today was the first day of preschool. My two big boys Gabriel and Elijah are definitely growing up. While I'm glad they get to go to school and have great experiences I also feel a little bit sad about them getting older and ceasing to be the tiny babies we brought home almost four years ago. They had a great time and although David John was very sad at first when we dropped them off, he quickly adjusted to having more of Mommy's attention. I think this will be good for everyone.

Not Two Late

to post 2-year-old birthday pics almost a month later, right?
That's right. Our little David John turned 2 on July 30th. For his birthday this year he got all things "Melmo". A pop-up Elmo book with songs, an Elmo doll, Elmo coloring books and stickers, etc. He also got the movie "Tangle" (that's how he says it, I know it's called Tangled) which he adores. We watched it again this evening. When Rapunzel called the horse a "good boy" David John laughed and said, "No! Horse not good boy. I a good boy."
Anyway, we had a celebration at home on his birthday and then another little party at Grandma's house when we visited earlier this month. At the first party, Gabriel and Elijah were very upset with me because I did not have birthday hats for everyone. Grandma made sure she did not make the same mistake so there were hats at her party. Here are a few birthday pictures. We can't believe how blessed we are to have David John in our family. He is a daily source of joy and hilarity.

There Were Three in the Bed

One fateful day in July we checked out a book entitled "Thomas and Friends: The Monster Under the Shed". This book was supposed to teach children that those scary shapes you see and sounds you might hear in the dark are just your imagination and that there is nothing to be afraid of. However, Gabriel latched onto the fact that there are scary shapes and sounds in the dark and decided that he was now very afraid of nighttime.
After a few nights of getting up several times to his shouting or whimpering about the scary tree, scary ghost and scary face he kept seeing in his bedroom we forbade him from reading that book again. He was very upset since he was obsessed with the book and read it to himself several times each day. We also made a plan involving a night light in the shape of a little boy praying. We put the light right next to his bed and told him to look at it when he was scared and pray for help not to be scared. The plan was unsuccessful.
In desperation, we finally agreed to let Gabriel have his brothers sleep in his bed with him so he would not be scared. Crazily enough, it worked! Although, we're not sure how scary shapes and sounds could be less disruptive than two wiggly brothers. Take a look:
This is what they looked like just after they all fell asleep nicely tucked in bed.

Here they are 30 minutes later. Notice how Gabriel does not move, but Elijah and David John seem to be following some sort of migratory instinct.
This is one hour after the previous picture. What are they dreaming about?
The need for three in a bed continued for several nights before Gabe got over his fears. We would frequently check on the boys and find limbs overlapping or body parts over faces. Our toddlers must be very deep sleepers. There were three in the bed, two rolled over, but amazingly none fell out.