What We've Been Up To

Life has been a little busy at the Chapman house lately. Where do I start.

Well, after not blogging for about a week, I suppose I have some tales to tell...

Like when Benjamin dropped his little yellow car in the toilet which I unhappily rescued like any insane parent would for their 3 year old. Of course, this happened right after Benjamin declared "No toys on the potty." Because that is exactly what his mommy preaches. Unfortunately, he slipped and didn't follow those rules and before we knew it that yellow car was swimmin' in a freshly peed in potty. ugh. Oh the joys of parenting. But that was last week.

On Saturday our big outing was to Toys R Us. It was a rainy day. A perfect day for such an outing. Samuel had received a gift card for his birthday and I was anxious to get him a small basketball hoop. He LOVES balls and has been practicing his moves for some time now! (seriously, he's great shooting form!). We spent some time at Toys R Us and had a nice time checking out all the toys! Benjamin was in heaven, as you can imagine. We managed to get out of there with the basketball hoop we went for, 2 small cars from the Cars movie and diapers so I thought we did pretty good considering we were there for at least a good hour.

The basketball hoop was a big hit! We all enjoyed it and Samuel figured it out right away. He loves to make baskets, as I imagined he would. And he also loves to sit in my lap while I shoot baskets. As the ball comes back to us after going through the net, he laughs hysterically until he gets the hi cups. He's such a funny lil guy. I love it!

Sunday night I was setting out Benjamin's clothes for school the next day and I set out his "Army" sweatshirt. When he saw it he pointed to each letter and spelled "A-R-M-Y". I was so surprised. He's learning his letters but I was shocked to hear him read it. He knows this is his "Army" sweatshirt so I said to him, "And what does that spell?" And he proudly responded "Mommy!" Well, at least he got the letters right. We have been practicing spelling his name verbally and today something clicked and he got it! Again, I was so proud and excited. He said each and every letter. And "Benjamin" isn't the easiest of names for a 3 year old to spell! Ahh. The lil victories in life.

On Monday, Samuel went for his 1 year check up. He weighed in at 30 whopping pounds and is a little over 33 inches tall. Following in his big brother's footsteps, he is totally off the charts in both height and weight for his age. Health wise and developmentally he's doing well. He is starting to say words "banana", "ball", "nana" (for Mama), "naanaanaa" (for Benjamin) and he loves to wave! But he was due for a round of shots. So, he has been a bit sluggish and napped most of the day at the sitters yesterday and then slept through the night last night. Hopefully, he'll be back to his happy energetic self soon.

There have been days lately that I have been a tad stressed out. Not over the kids really. Just busy at work and busy at home too. I guess I've just felt like I've been pulled in a lot of directions lately. Although, when I put things in perspective it's not really that much more than usual. Anyways, sometimes I will say to Benjamin "That does not make me happy." Then he says, "I will make a funny face. That will make you happy." And he does. And it does, make me smile. The sweet innocence of youth. You gotta love it.

Don called yesterday when I stopped home for lunch. It was a nice surprise. He had tried to call on Monday but missed us. He sounded good. He says he's keeping really busy. He misses us, of course, as we do him. Those twenty minutes on the phone once a week just go by to fast. We are just so fortunate to have the Internet these days. I can't imagine him being apart from us without this amazing way of hearing from him on an, almost, daily basis.