Compare, compare

I really never knew that it could be so much fun to compare children.  In the childcare world  you are basically taught not to ever compare children.  Especially when talking to parents.  You don't want one parent to think there child is better than the next child or visa-versa.  But come on, what parent doesn't think their child is the brightest, funniest and cutest child they have ever seen?  Until the next one comes along...

Well, I am currently comparing children.  It is the psychologist in me coming out.  As you know, Bennett and Will are only 6 days apart.  And Miles is just 9 months back of them.  And of course Harrison is really not that much older.  He is 28 1/2 months older than Bennett and Will.  Yet I still have a hard time remembering some of the things he used to do...

Currently Bennett and Will are learning to say words and small phrases.  Will is a little ahead in this category.  He started saying things like 'Mama' and 'ball' and 'please' before Bennett.  And now he has moved onto phrases such as 'help please' and 'up please' as well.  Bennett is coming along as well.  He loves to say please.  You still have to prompt him to say it but when you do he usually gets all smiles and puts all his effort into it.  This morning he wanted something and I told him 'help please' and for the next 10 minutes all we heard was 'elp pees.'  So cute!  

We have a magnet toy on the fridge.  It has the entire alphabet and then a place to put the letters to hear what they sound like.  Bennett is content to throw the letters on the floor or work very hard to get them to fit into the player.  Will on the other hand wants them to fit but can't always figure that out.  And the reason he wants them to fit is because he wanted to learn what they are what the sound makes.  He has a deep fascination with letters.  

The same concept happens when we get out the puzzles.  Bennett wants to put the puzzles back together.  And Will wants to know what the puzzle pieces are.  

There is also a difference that I haven't really figured out yet.  Will still loves to put things in his mouth.  I am sure it has to do with teething but he literally puts everything in his mouth!  Bennett on the other hand can be trusted with just about everything.  That is one of my secret joys at the end of the day.  I can hand Bennett a toy not appropriate for someone his age, little Legos, small screw driver set, etc and he will work and play with it for almost 30 minutes.  This is a blissful 30 minutes as I wind down before starting to make dinner, etc.  And this is about the only thing that will keep his attention for longer than 5 minutes (without me being right there).  No toys that he should be playing with!  Bennett LOVES little things.  He likes to touch them, roll them in his hand and see how they feel and he likes to try and put them together.

Cartoons is a funny difference that the boys have.  Harrison didn't watch cartoons until he was almost 3.  We watched a few Baby Einstein videos, but that was it.  Little good that did us, since now it is his favorite thing...  Will LOVES to watch cartoons as well.  And he has favorites.  Blues Clues and Sesame Street are two of his favorites here.  Bennett on the other hand could care less.  He doesn't have any interest in sitting and watching a show.  He likes to watch Baby Einstein, IF I stay and watch it with him, but that is about it.  That is, unless we are in the car.  Then he totally will watch whatever you put in the DVD player and likes it best when you put on Diego.  Strange children!!!

Miles is at the dropping from the high chair stage.  And that is a funny show to watch.  Will pays no attention to this.  Bennett on the other hand is deeply troubled.  Every time Miles drops something, Bennett goes to get it and give it back.  He does this until he can't stand it anymore, at which point he yells at Miles and then comes and gets me (pulls me by my finger) to help and assess the situation.  Often times as I 'talk' the situation over with Miles, Bennett also 'talks' the situation over by pointing his finger at Miles.  Bennett often does this as well when I am talking with Harrison.  He comes over to where we are and gets down on his knees to discuss Harrison's egregious behavior.  We have started to go to a room where we can discuss alone because of Bennett's mother-hen tendencies.  I don't know where he gets that!

Anyway - this post is getting kind of long.  There are so many other things that all of the boys do the same and all do differently.  It is just fun watching them do these things.  It shows their individuality off so well.  So fun...

Three Kings Day

For weeks now (literally) Harrison has been saying he wants to watch Three Kings Day.  They have been advertising it for weeks (literally) on Nickelodeon.  It is an episode of Dora the Explorer where they celebrate Three Kings Day and Dora, Diego and Boots ride into town on animals wearing crowns pretending to be the kings.  Yesterday Harrison walked into the kitchen talking about going to Nick Jr. dot com to get his crown.  "Can we do that, Mom?  Can we go to dot com and get a Three Kings Day crown."  I told him I would take care of it.  Chris brought one home that he printed off from 'dot com!'

So tonight we gathered around the t.v. with our crowns and watched a very boring episode of Dora the Explorer.  Not that I really want cartoons to be educating my child about Jesus and the epiphany but this episode lacked a lot.  It hyped the holiday as just another day for getting presents and toys.  Go figure.  Kids shouldn't be watching t.v. anyway...

At Sunday School this past Sunday we did learn about the real Three Kings Day, which is today.  That is where Harrison made the crown that Bennett is wearing.  Luckily Harrison didn't connect that the two were related to each other.

For those of you who want to know, Three Kings Day is also known as epiphany and/or the twelfth day of Christmas.  It is the day that the three wise men traveled to meet baby Jesus and bring him gifts.  It is the official end of the Christmas season in the Christian faith.  Class dismissed.

Cartwheels and Somersaults

For whatever reason Chris asked me if I could do a cartwheel.  Of course I can't!!!  What is he thinking.  But I tried anyway.  This led to much comic relief for our family in the next 30 minutes.  The first thing that happened was that I practically fell down.  The second thing that happened was that Chris almost got slapped for laughing so hard.  The next thing that happened led us all into a fit of laughter.  Bennett tried to do a cartwheel.  And of course because Chris, Harrison and I laughed at him he tried to do another and another and another each time the laughter getting louder (and me close to tears).  Now, these 'Bennett cartwheels.'  I don't know exactly how to describe them to you.  Imagine standing straight up and then dramatically leaning  your head to the side, holding it there for 2 seconds and then falling down.  It was just hysterical.  

With the gymnastics theme going, Harrison declared that he could do a somersault.  We asked him to show us and what came was no somersault.  It was more of a flop to the side of your body...thing.  So after some coaching, he can now do a semi-decent somersault.  We are a little worried about his neck as he seems to be doing a lot of resting of his entire weight on his neck while he waits to push over to his back.  So a little more practice will have to be done with that!

Bloody Wii

So the Neipert family got spoiled over Christmas this year and a Wii was delivered from Santa Claus.  It is so fun and I especially love my Wii Fit.  

But - I don't know what it is with Harrison.  We have Wii Sports (bowling, tennis, baseball, etc) and Wii Play (ping-pong, cow racing, air hockey, etc) and then the Wii Fit.  All he wants to play is the one war game we have.  It is on Wii Play and it involves tanks shooting other tanks.  What is it with him?  All we have ever done is force feed him sports and it's like he is turning on us!  He just wants to shoot things.  And the duck hunt game on Wii Play isn't good enough for him either.  All you do on that are shoot targets and clay pigeons.  He wants WAR!  

We don't need any more games right now as we are still trying to master the ones we have but we might have to make a run to Game Stop to pick up Go Diego Go for Wii.  It's not sports and not the game I want (Mario Cart!) but at least I know Diego doesn't shoot anyone (although I would like my turn at Rescue Pack!).

What day is it?

I am so confused on the days.  We have been doing so much traveling and then I have had no extra kids at the house and then Chris is here and then not here that I am having serious issues!  

Harrison is very concerned when Ian will be coming back and even I have to admit I am ready to back into our routine again.  

New Years was uneventful for us this year.  I tried to explain to Harrison that he would be going to bed this year and waking up next year but it was still to over-his-head.  He saw an advertisement for Noon Year's Eve at the Science Center and I think we will totally do that next year.  They have a big kids party and celebrate at noon by ringing in the noon-year with streamers and noise makers and hats.  It sounds fun and I am a little sad we didn't do it this year!

What we did do is really unblogable.  That is a new one for Merriam-Webster.  Chris worked at Hy-Vee from 7:00 - 11:00 and I stayed home with a bottle of Merlot and season one of Sex and the City.  I was asleep by the time Chris got home but I do remember him saying "it's 11:59 pm.  Now it's 2009!"  But I know that I responded by grunting and rolling over.  A party and a half I am! 

We are looking forward to a happy and healthy year.  So much to be thankful for and so much to look forward to.  Happy 2009!

R.I.P. Elwood

We lost our fish last week.  Poor Elwood had been laying on the bottom of the tank for over a month.  He was breathing, but that was about it.  When he first started laying down there, he would swim away from the net or even try and bite it (which he still could do).  But after awhile, the fight was all gone.  When we left for eastern Iowa on December 19th I told Chris that he had to 'help' Elwood if he wasn't gone by the time Chris left to come back to Davenport.  So, on Tuesday night (Dec 23) Chris got out the net and Elwood didn't fight at all.  He was over 10 years old and I thought that might be pretty old for a fish, but after doing some research, some piranha's live up to 20 years of age.  

I really hope it is not the case, but we got a batch of goldfish about a month before Elwood got sick that had ick.  Ick is a gross, white spot disease that fish can get.  We didn't see any ick on Elwood so we are hoping he just lived his life to the fullest.

When Chris got Elwood, he was about the size of a quarter.  Really small.  He soon got bigger and bigger.    He eventually got to be just a little bit bigger than my hand.  Nice sized fish!  I can't remember how long it was after Chris got him that one of his friends (Scott!) was messing around with Elwood.  He stuck his hand in the tank and was chasing him around.  Eventually Elwood had enough and he turned on Chris' friend and bit a nice sized piece out of his finger.  Very funny and also very bloody! 

As much as I hated the noise that the tank made and the space that it took up, I will miss Elwood.  He was exotic and cool.  Things that Chris and I are obviously not!

Just funny

"That way.  That way for pants that fit!"

"And for nicer parents.  That way for nicer parents!"

The Cake

Last year for Harrison's birthday I asked him what kind of cake he wanted.  He said peanut butter with peanut butter frosting.  I did what I was told and the end result was actually pretty good.  I thought the cake itself ended up a little dry but the frosting more than made up for it.  

This year when I asked Harrison what kind of cake he wanted he said "a dinosaur cake."  Uh-oh.  So on to the internet (god bless the internet) I went looking for dinosaur cakes.  First I had tried the library, but all of the cake books I found had no dinosaurs.  So anyway, Harrison was with me while I was looking and wouldn't you know the first GREEN dinosaur cake that he saw, he wanted!  This was not the easiest one on the site.  I was not thrilled.  And, to top off the challenge, I began to stress about not having a cake plate big enough for this cake.  Then after the 'dumbness' wore off I was able to realize that a sturdy piece of cardboard and tinfoil is what I was in need of.  

So now that we knew what the cake was supposed to look like I asked Harrison what it should taste like.  

"Chocolate.  With Chocolate frosting."  

Ummm, Harrison, I can't make it green with chocolate frosting.  

"Oh, ok... (sad face)"

But it will be green!

"YEAH!!  I love green!"

Luckily the website I found this on came with some instructions and getting the body made was really not that hard.  

The frosting of the dinosaur took forever and I almost ended up with not enough frosting.  If you take a good close look the dinosaur footwear may look a little off to you.  But, you can think it is perfect and not look to close!

I used fruit-by-the-foot for the spikes and chocolate frosting for the eyes.  Those were my ideas!

Harrison was very pleased with the final product and I was glad to have it done with.  I procrastinated until late the night before to finally put the cake together.  

Harrison turns 4

Harrison's birthday was a lot of fun this year.  It seemed like we celebrated for days.  But we kind of did.  His birthday was on a Wednesday so we got up and made him M & M pancakes (a stolen idea from Nathan and Meredith!) for breakfast and then opened presents before Dad went to work.  This turned out to be not such a great idea because one of the presents he got was a giant Lego set and I ended up helping him put it together all day.  Next year we wait until Dad gets home from work to open presents!  I had 3 other children I was supposed to be watching!

During the day Harrison asked me when he got to blow out the candles on his birthday cake: before or after dinner?  Ummmm... I hadn't planned on making a cake for his birthday today and then another for his party!  Scrambling - no cake mix in the house - I made a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting.  All from scratch.  Not bad.  Not bad, if I do say so myself!!!  We had delicious cupcakes for dessert after a special taco salad birthday dinner.  At least he has good taste in food!!!

On Friday, he brought treats to school, Snowman Peeps (gross!!) and they had a celebration for him there.  He came home with a birthday crown he had gotten to wear and was so excited that his friends loved Peeps (GROSS!!)!

Friday night, Uncle Ryan and Aunt Kaylee came to stay with us.  Gpa Greg and Gma Pam came too, but they stayed at a hotel this time.  Harrison was not so keen on this but then Gma told him she would bring bagels for breakfast and he was excited.  "Plain.  With plain cream cheese!" was his order.

Saturday was the party.  It is our tradition that we always go to Plaza Lanes for Harrison's birthday.  It is sometimes the only time of year we go bowling and we all love to do it.  Although this year they had automated bumpers that only went up when Harrison was bowling.  This made my mother a little sad!

Harrison did great.  He tries to push the ball hard, but it's a heavy ball.  He is much better at making scary faces. 

Bennett LOVED the ball return.  It was like magic, EVERY time.  Kari, Joe and Will came to bowl.  Will was fascinated with the balls and couldn't get it through his head that they were too heavy for him to lift.  Luckily we made it through the morning with no one getting their fingers pinched!  Andy, Claudia and Miles were there as well and Miles. of course, had more than enough smiles for everyone there.

Next it was back to our house for chili and cake.  It seems to be a running theme in our house.  If you come on the weekend and it is cold outside, we are probably serving chili!

We had a great day and Harrison couldn't have been happier.  

My Hawkeye boys

I'm doing what I can but sometimes it is hard.  They are cute...