My boy....

is 4 going on 14. You know how they say kids are like sponges...they absorb all sorts of knowledge. Well, preschool has proven this to be true. My son can count to 20 in Spanish and English, he's beginning to sound out words, starting to recognize and read words. He's also decided screaming is the new talking, throwing fits can be done for the sheer joy of it, hitting his sister or anyone else within distance when he is mad is acceptable, and of course, when we say no he says yes. I love the influence of other children that preschool brings! Back to the going on 14 part...when I used to ask him what he was doing, he would sweetly respond the truthful answer (even if he was doing something he wasn't supposed to!). These days he shouts, "NOTHING!!!!!". Before, when I would call his name he would say, "Yes, Mommy??" Now, its, "WHAT??????" Oh boy, what is he going to be like when he really is 14??!! Finally, my favorite is when we are not doing something he likes he tells us, "I am not happy with you right now!" God love my little 14 year old!

4th of July

I guess you can say we started the holiday weekend on Thursday when the kids and I went to Bama for an overnight visit at Grams' house (according to Benjamin it is Grams house...not Papa and Grams but just Grams!) Benjamin delved right into the task of opening the and closing the garage doors, making sure all the potty's still flushed and weren't loud, and checking the fans and lights around the house. The big decisions for him revolved around which potty he was going to use...he has them named by the bathroom color...purple potty, blue potty, pink potty, or yellow potty. Such big decisions! Alexis was thrilled to have new ground to cover on her little Disney ride-on. And she wasted no time in scooting/crawling to all the new territories! She even managed to "ride" into the blue potty and pull out all the toilet paper from the roll. Such a princess. Of course, her big brother came to the rescue, picked up the paper, put it in the blue potty, flushed, and reminded her it was not loud! We also spent some time on the "beach" splashing in the river water. Benjamin threw rocks and threw rocks, and oh, threw rocks! Alexis had fun splashing water and watching the rock throwing. The only thing she did not like were the waves that came up from the boats going by. Oh well.....we had plenty of fun, sun, pictures, and great food!

Saturday, we were lucky enough to have some friends over for dinner and fireworks. Ava and Benjamin had a great time playing together and enjoyed sparklers once they realized they were not loud. When the "big" fireworks started they doned headphones for the noise and were entranced. That is, until our neighbor made a scene about how we were spooking her horses....another story for another day!

Sunday, the actual holiday, I spent working. But we were able to get in some bottle rockets later that evening and Benjamin saw some of the neighbors big fireworks so that was fun.

All in all, what a great time we had celebrating our freedom. As always, my thoughts were on all those fighting for us today so we can have weekends like this. God Bless America!

Benjamin-isms

* Hey, how'd that happen?

* Yessiree Bob

* I'll get/fix/do it, no problem!

* Last time...one more time...

* Gee

* That wasn't supposed to happen