9 months old

The girl has now spent as long on the outside as she did on the inside. So far, we are pleased with her and have no intention of sending her back :-)

We may have voided the warranty anyway; she took a tumble off of our bed this morning. Mommy is feeling very guilty for turning away for 2 seconds to grab a shirt :-(
She's now cruising and climbing and I just know I'm gonna need a leash and a bell once she starts walking, which should be tomorrow at the rate she's going - ack!

Question

How long can Italian soccer fans keep hanging those flags from their cars?
And now, some music:

So Ben's birthday party the weekend before last was great. Our guests piled into our kitchen because it rained so we couldn't do it in the park this year. Ben had a blast, everyone had cupcakes, and Ben was spoiled with gifts.

His actual birthday was not as nice. At 3am, he crawled into our bed and coughed until he threw up, then coughed more and was just burning up. The day was spent being listless and cranky and unable to settle or sleep. Finally, I went to the pharmacy and got some children's nyquil, which worked after a while. Poor thing! We had planned on visiting Angrignon Farm and having some wading pool time and then going out for chinese food at Ben's favorite restaurant.
The rest of the week was a blur of sick and semi-sick children. Naomi's still got it and last night she was either screaming her lungs out and coughing them up, or fitfully sleeping on me, we're both beat.
Yesterday we made it to Angrignon Farm and Ben had a wonderful time and Naomi had an amazing snooze in the stroller.
Click the photo to see the set.
Ben's really making progress with his speech. He's getting much better at using names, and has even referred to himself, which he's never done before. When he plays hide and go seek, he pretends not to see you and looks around saying "where's Daddy?", its very cute!

Naomi started crawling with gusto and couple of weeks ago and chasing her brother, father, mother, cats, and brooms (we can't figure that one out either). Not only that, but that very week, she also started pulling herself up to standing using the furniture, toys, and people's legs. Ben is often the target of much of the chasing and pulling up because he is his sister's favorite person in the house (unless my boobs count as people). He has been pants a few times and now tends to avoid her which makes her very unhappy. We figure that she'll be cruising by the end of the week. This has all happened so fast that I haven't had time to video it properly. If I don't do it soon, I'm going to miss all the wobbles. Ben didn't cruise until he was almost a year old and didn't walk until he was about 13 months or so, so this is a big change for us. We had to break out the playpen and put it in the kitchen for containment purposes.

She's into everything and gets so mad when you restrict her movements. I don't know where she gets that from :-)

Happy Birthday Ben

I can't believe it's been three years since you came out of me all red and screamy. You've had a very interesting year. Since your diagnoses in January, so much has changed. You started daycare, which we hadn't planned on, but it's worked out very nicely so far. You like all your classmates and your teacher Linda. It seems like the more people you know, the more people love you. You've started speaking and telling us what you want and don't want. We finally heard you say "Daddy" and "Momma" and our hearts just swelled to bursting and for weeks every time you said "Momma" I'd blink back tears I was so proud. Now you are starting to speak in two word sentences, and also say "where are you going?" and "what's up?" and it's so funny. You come into a room and say, "hi Momma, what are you doing?", and I know that you don't really know quite what you're saying, but it's too cute to hear your voice. When we were driving out in the country, you were looking out the window and looking for cows and saying "cows, where are you cows?" and your daddy and I were killing ourselves laughing. You are also the best big brother in the world. You are so gentle with your sister and loving, she's very lucky to have you.

We have a long road ahead of us, but we are making so much progress. You are the most adorable, beautiful boy that I know and I love you more than the world.
Love, your Momma

Our silent white god, oh we love you!

Our silent white god, oh we love you!
Originally uploaded by dina the m and o.

YeeHaw

Let's pretend

To encourage Ben's pretend play (which is already loads better than 6 months ago), we gave out birthday ideas to the grandparents for things like Little People and Playmobil. I went to the Playmobil site today to have a look around, and they really do have quite a selection of stuff. Two of the out of the ordinary were the Hazardous Waste set:

and the Vacation Home set:

Can I have a vacation home? Anybody?

She moves, she moves!

Our carpet commando in motion:

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What I've done so far with my summer

I was out of town the week before last staying with my folks while the landlord renovated the kitchen. I thought that it would be a nice break. I brought books and cds and stuff I wanted to catch up on. I imagined Ben playing with my folks outside, gardening and playing in the wading pool while Naomi had a nap and I could read and nap in the swing on the deck with a warm breeze. Sigh, that would have been nice. In reality, it rained all week, so everything was damp and grey and humid and hot and then cold. We took Ben out to play in the puddles which he loved, but the mosquitoes were also out in full force. Even with repellant we were getting eaten alive. Ben decided that he would forgo naps all week, which meant that I was losing my mind everyday by late afternoon. When he finally did nap Thursday, I nearly backflipped. Combine this with Naomi's teething and you have a recipe for a stressed-out mommy. Of course the last day we were there, both kids went for naps at the same time and were good all day, ugh.

We did have a few nice bits. We went out and bought fresh strawberries from a farm and ate them all week. Mom got Ben to help her in the garden and plant some beans, and we got the wading pool out for some splashing.

Our new and improved kitchen looks really nice. I have unpacked quite a bit of stuff and the cabinets are still holding it all. The best thing is the DISHWASHER! The landlord was nice enough to do the rough in for one. I phoned my lovely friend Lynda and she ordered it for me. I love having a friend who is the appliance queen. It's a nice unit with super quiet insulation and a tall tub for pots. The landlord hooked it up last night and we ran it when we came home from a movie -sweet! I feel like a grown-up again!

We went out and saw Superman last night, fantastic! I'm really not used to going out downtown anymore - so many people and cars, I was acting a bit like my parents when they come in to town. I must get out more.

Ben started his swimming lessons last Saturday and he's loving every minute. We went to Ottawa to see Steve's folks for Canada Day weekend. On Tuesday and Wednesday, my folks came in to babysit so I could go to a two-day seminar on Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) therapy being given by the adaptation centre program we're waiting to get Ben into. I knew nothing about ABA, so it was very interesting, as was talking to other parents and getting the real dope on private therapists and other pitfalls. I now have a lot more resources.