Fears, tears and lillies

Fear and sadness have consumed me this week.  I have always loved storms but not ones that are coined "killer, maxi torando" and the words from the best weaterman out there of "you HAVE to get underground" made me almost crap my pants.   John was calm. I was NOT, but when Mike Morgan says 1/2 mile wide tornado could be coming directly at Edmond, I flipped out. We don't have a storm shelter and the images of Joplin kept coming in mind. Ben watched about 10 episodes of Wow Wow Wubbzy and ate whatever he wanted, I had to keep him out of the living room where I was losing it. I never thought I'd act that way in a storm.  What has happened to me?!  I always thought I'd grab pictures, computer, etc. I grabbed nothing when we left to get in a shelter. Nothing. After the fact, I realized I have uploaded all pictures since Ben was born to shutterfly, so if you haven't uploaded your pictures to a website, I suggest do it now. You never know! Having a child changes it all. Those fears of losing Ben took over.  Unfortunately a mother in Piedmont had those fears come true. She lost her 15 mo and 3 yr sons.  Completely heartbroken for that family. I just can't imagine, she did what she could and got them in the bathtub but that tornado was so mean.  Complete devestation and so sad, however, the family will have a bundle of joy in Oct, the mom is 5 months pregnant and the baby is doing okay!
I can't dwell on sadness when I have this little man in my life. A day after the storms we enjoyed a nice evening in the front yard playing "golf". And after 3 months, what started looking like the tops of pineapples, our lillies have BLOOMED.  They are stunning :) These suckers took forever to bloom.  Thank you previous owners for planting these, I love 'em.  I hope we never have to deal with a storm like that again! But given the fact we live in tornado alley, we probably will, but this time we will be safe in Papa's new shelter he is building :)

Pool opened today

The title of this post, might have had you thinking we went to a pool that is cleaned with chlorine... but wrong. The Forrest style, backyard "bathtub" (as Ben called it), $15 Walmart bargain was purchased today. We debated on upgrading to the $30 one with the slide but -

1. John would have had to walk home with it along 15th St,...Wallies is just around the corner from us

2.   With me being the genius that I am, screw the upgrade, we have our own slide at home

I think our decision this year on the hard plastic will be money well spent over the annoying blow up plastic ones we've tried in the past.  I tested it out while Ben napped and throughly enjoyed it .  Ben obviously had a hay-day this afternoon with his naked self swimmin.  His words - "yay, summertime, pool..."!



Look at that smirk.. so ornery!!



here it is in action - SHOOSH.



I think I have the whitest caucasian child on the planet!



Always gotta see his foot steps and hand prints



Going up the "big" slide... star for his privacy :)

That's right, this is the 2011 edition of the Forrest pool,
bonus slide added this year!

Shoosh and Trucks

At 2 1/2 Ben loves to shoosh us.  Puts the finger up to his mouth and "shoosh, BE QUIET".  It isn't nice and usually ends in screaming if we don't quit talking.  This lovely new thing has been coming and going the past 2 weeks. I have to hide when I talk on the phone and John and I have been limited to conversations once he passes out.  Which this week, bed time was anywhere from 11pm-1am. What the heck?! I thought to myself what have we been doing different? BANANA.  He has been eating a banana right before bed. Sugar fruit. No more bananas before 6pm.  Unreal how much it affected him.  31 lbs of full blown energy is not my wish after my 10pm bedtime.  I get completely wore out from him going 90 to nothing after work, straight up to bedtime but don't think I'd want it any other way.  He is too dang entertaining with his dance moves, lawn mowing skills and sprints thru the house.  What else has Ben been saying....
~ "Good night Andee, Good night John...lauve you"
~ When meeting new people - "This is Andee and John" pointing at us
~ "Mommy it's a big turd!" And he spells turd while pottying. My mistake.
~ When asked are you done? "not quite mommy, not quite"
~ Ben knows cars. He associates people with what kind of car you drive. This has been going on for awhile but I am still amazed at his knowledge of the car world.
~ Ben and I watched the big storm that rolled thru Thursday night out our back doors.  He wanted to go outside and I had to tell him lightening is dangerous. So when a big flash of lightening occurred - "Oooooo big one mommy....dangerous." He loved sitting in the dark watching mother nature with me, I was hoping this would prevent future nights of being terrified by storms.  This way, I can just reassure him it's the big flashlight turning on in the sky :)  And the big boom ... well that was Thunder? His face lite up and he sang "uuhhh-uuhh-uuuhh THUNDER" Works for me, loves to watch the Thunder and now will associate the loud noise with basketball team!

Gotta throw in our activity last week - Touch A Truck.  This event was held at the UCO parking lot and we were touch a truck virgins.  Note to self - don't go if you have a headache - this event entails a parking lot full of trucks, buses, cranes... all with children sounding the sirens, horns, etc. Ben was in complete awe.  It's the best thing to see his eyes light up and his face illuminates pure joy.  I would have to say his favorite was the basic, no frills big yellow school bus.  He also enjoyed the UPS truck :)

Ben and papa

CHEESE!

In the patrol car with his sucker, not a cig!

High fivin Mr. Robot

mothership

Me and my friends in college always discussed what each other's "mothership" would be... Ben found his mothership Monday evening at Academy.  Our intent was to find mommy a new Thunder shirt, but ended up taking a tour of the entire Academy store.  The last leg of "our tour" Ben came face to face with his mothership... SPACESHIPS...ROCKETS... it was priceless. He literally stopped in his tracks and was in "aawww". These "spaceships" were really a row of kayaks lined up on the wall.  I'll give him credit, they could be mistaken for rockets.  He proceeded to try to climb up in them, in which I told him no, which lead to a complete meltdown in the main front aisle - rolling around on the floor, scooting on his butt and telling me "no mommy NO".  Mommy left with a super cute Thunder shirt and Ben left his heart with his spaceships.

CAT the CAT

Aunt Allyson's birthday present to Ben has turned into his 1st book he is reading... super cute book called Cat the Cat Who is THAT?  (hence my title of the post) :)

Field Party

Spur of the moment on Friday night, we ended up in Logan county on 160 acres fishing, cookin dogs and just enjoying nature.  This land belongs to my parent's neighbors and we tagged along for the evening. Ben got his 1st taste of fishing, as with most things, it lasted all of about 5 mintues and he was on to the next activity. He wanted to hang with the big boys (teenagers), it was pretty cute as he'd follow them around.  Ben has reached the stage of "that's scary"... he was scared of the fire pit? Goof has been around fireplaces all winter but the open flame freaked him out. He was into eating the marshmellows but not so much actually making smores. He greeted everyone with his "Hello There!", tooted away the evening (he's had a case of the stomach weirdness going around) and entertained all with his attitude. We throughly enjoyed our random night in the field!

"no way mommy.. no way!" hates to have pic taken but LOVES
 to look at himself on the LCD screen



"Ssshhooo-weee, skunky fish"



hey guys... can I play?

"sit right here"... we hear this ALOT when he
refuses to do something

Learned how to put keys in and start, YIKES!

Fishin with DAD

DAD casting his reel

entrance to land

"Don't Push MY Buttons" - sums up our Beano!

Rub-a-dub-dub..

Look at these 2 precious babies in the tub!

Miss Ellison Bloom, star of the Bloom Memoirs, stopped by for an evening of dinner and bath tub fun with Ben.  Ellison and I woke Ben up from his late (5:30) nap and he was in the best mood when she woke him up with her "hhhiiiii" to him.  He sprung right up and smiled at her. So sweet.  He was very gentle with her and she gazed and smiled at him.  Evening was cut short for Ellison with her 7pm bedtime, but have no fear, Ben stayed up until 11pm :) Thunder was on tv, he couldn't sleep. With us watching all the play off games, Ben noticed during one game Kevin Durant was wearing his shirt.  Ben says "hheeeyyy, that's Ben's shirt". HAH Ben has KD's jersey, if you remember from his Halloween costume, and KD was wearing HIS shirt!

Easter 2011

As we all know, Easter plans went down the tubes with the weather. Typical - we've been in a drought for months and the one day it decides to rain cats and dogs...it's Easter.  Anywoo, we improvised and hit eggs inside for the Ben-man.  He was quite the hunter like last year, except this year the eggs were hid in closets and tables instead of grass and trees :)  Aunt Ryan loaded up lots of eggs for him with tasty chocolate and got him fresh new pad of paper and paints! Great Easter memory from this year....we were all sitting around the dining room table enjoying dinner when Ben decides to poo in his pants. Alright we can handle that, John cleaned him up and forgot to "re-pant" him, however nothing unusual having Ben run naked, except the fact that he made himself a lil too cozy on our living room chair.  Next thing I hear is Uncle Nate saying "uuuuhhhh Ben what are you doing?" Yes Ben poop in our chair. Thankfully the poop stuck to his butt for the most part as John whisked him to the bathroom :) Popping on back deck, check. Popping in living room chair. check.  Where will he mark his spot next?!

Super-duper basket Noni made

These didn't leave his side for a good solid 3 days... always
 had to be lined up perfectly too

Ben and his Noni

Checking out his Easter loot with Uncle Nate

Easter outfit... only to sit in mud and stain the shorts :)

Wouldn't be a good day without a round of mowing

Easter Bunny stopped by

Post muddy shorts.. hunted eggs in undies and shirt