Sesame Street vs My Conscience

In my mind, the TV has become the antithesis to any good kid activity.

I'm not saying that it is...but this is how my mind works. Go with me here.

Eden LOVES Elmo, Nemo, Bob & Larry, KaiLan, Syd the Science Kid, and I could go on. And it's pretty fun to watch her get excited about cute shows. And to give credit where credit is due, she now knows numbers 11 and 12 with no teaching or prompting from us and screams out "octagon!!!!" any time we pass a stop sign. Thank you Big Bird.

BUT for every hour she spends in tv land, I feel we have to counteract it with at least a couple hours of outside activity or reading or some type of imaginary play in her room.

I like letting her watch tv occasionally because she likes it so much, but something about it makes me feel like I'm letting her brain rot right before my eyes.

So to de-warp her after any tv time, I've been coming up with odd activities lately that get her engaged, but still allow me to snuggle with Salem and feed him when he's hungry.

Today's activity...tent making!

This is what she woke up to after nap-time:

A living-room sized tent! My past-time involves some serious tenting in my grandmother's basement including several that spanned the entire distance, but without my counterpart of cousin Jacob, I'm afraid this is all I could come up with.

aaaannnndddd....it turns out that Eden is still a little too young to appreciate tents. Her thoughts upon approaching the living room monstrosity? "HAMMOCK!" And of course, the hammock thought never left her because several times she tried to climb on top of the tent. oh well. Maybe some day the tent will be a big hit.

The other day she was absolutely hysterical to go outside. But since Salem was snoozing and it felt like 1,742 degrees outside, this is what we came up with:

Yes that's a bowl of water out on the balcony. I think she ended up drinking most of it with a 2/3 cup measuring spoon, but at least she was entertained for 30 minutes. She had fun giving her tricycle a bath.

And what does Salem think of all this activity?

what a cutie pie!

Worth a Thousand Words

Here's the happenings of the last few weeks...

An influx of family! My parents, brother, sister-in-law and neice and nephew, Brandon's parents, sister, and grandmother all came out to visit. Not at the same time! phew! But over the course of the last 5 weeks we've had a steady stream of visitors!

Eden with cousin Audrey enjoying Brandon's hammock:

Salem with cousin Judah:

4th of July with Matt and Jill and the kids by eating at Pei Wei (we're all about going where the crowd won't be!) and a non-stop action packed evening of sparklers! I love Eden's face in this picture!

Beach trip!

Brandon's parents, sis, and grandma treated us to a weekend at North Myrtle Beach! It was A LOT of fun but also pretty draining with 2 kiddos! We stayed right on the beach and LOVED being a hop skippy jump from the water. Eden loved the sand and even tolerated being buried in it! She tried digging herself a hole and putting herself in it a few times. :)

Brandon and I got to parasail with his sister and that was totally awesome...well, not the part where Renee's contact went flying out of her eye because of the thrilling banana boat ride pre-parasail...but other than that, really cool!!

Salem was there too, I promise. But the whole time he was down on the beach he just slept in his new handy dandy Phil and Ted's travel cot (LOVE that thing!) So we don't have any pics of him in his cute lil swimmin trunks! But I'll probably have more beach pictures once Brandon's mom sends her pics. I was kinda a slacker when it came to taking our camera out to the beach. Something about toting a baby, a toddler, beach gear, and a camera just was too much for me to handle. So...more to come on that event probably. :)

Who needs a translator?

Eden is cracking us up lately with her ever expanding vocabulary. She literally tries to repeat everything that we say. Most of the time it's really cute...until one of us lets a "crap" slip by. That word isn't so cute when it's said by a 22 month old.

None the less...most of it is really pretty adorable.

And a lot of it is indecipherable unless you're lucky enough to spend 24 hours a day with her and happen to know what she's talking about!

So for fun (and because I'm still waiting to upload pictures) here's a list of new Edenese.

Chamacuck = chocolate milk

Mucinsck = music

Gymenasts = gymnastics (only you have to say it as GYMENASTSSSSSS!!!!!!! Because she apparently can only scream that word with extreme excitement)

Shogun = Lotion (that one took FOREVER to figure out)

Bah-Wawy = Bob and Larry (Veggie Tales)

E-tun = Eden's turn

Sayma = Salem (sometimes it's pronounced Saymum)

Cheedos = Cheetos (probably her favorite "food" it's what we bribed her with while at the Dentist...we're such good parents) :)

Coo-monks = Cookie Monster

awww-weddy = All Ready (she stands at the door and screams this after she's dressed and ready to go when we're about to leave)

Chuch = church

I watch = look, see (she says this when she wants to see something)

Chicka-wice = Chicken and Rice (what she says she's cooking when she's in her play kitchen)

and one of my new favorites:

Sayma wahhhh = Salem cry (she feels it absolutely necessary to come find me and alert me when he's crying. But when she says "wahhh" she does it in a whiney voice and makes a face like she's really crying and hurt...funny kid)

The Car Seat is my Nemesis

Me = Blogwhelmed

That's my new word for being extremely behind in blog-land. There's a lot to update our now lagging blog but I'm too overwhelmed to try to catch up with a million posts. sooooo it might all get jumbled into one. That is...one to come.

And let me tell you why.

The car seat my friends.

It hates me.

And I hate it.

Ok well, I appreciate it's use. Nice, safe, plasticky contraption that keeps my baby boy safe when hurling down a concrete highway at 70 mph. But other than the safety aspects, the car seat is completely working against me.

Salem falls asleep as soon as his little body hits it. Unless he's too hot, he's conked out in that thing anytime we're on the go. If we were a traveling family circus of 4, that would come in handy. But seeing as how we like to spend most of our time at home, car seat sleeping is just not acceptable.

So here's my excuse. The majority of the last few days I've spent helping my sweet baby boy get over his first addiction: car seat sleeping.

For nap time he prefers to either be held with his head nuzzled nicely in my neck or strapped into his car seat. The first is nice and fun, but again not something that is practical when I'm also chasing an almost 2 year old. And the second, well, it's a new phenomenon in my world.

Eden didn't use a car seat until she was 8 months old so naturally, the car seat soon became her nemesis as well. To this day she still can't nap longer than 30 minutes at a time in it. Which truly, I prefer over my current problem.

But now that we're living in the land of car seat laws, Salem has to be strapped into his car seat instead of a handy dandy Baby Bjorn like Eden used. Obviously, car seats are safer, but Baby Bjorn never waged war with me when it came to getting Eden to sleep.

So anyways, this is why our blog is now really behind.

My first excuse is that we've had an influx of family for the past 5 weeks that absorbed my blogging time. And I'm not complaining. It was truly great.

And now my excuse is Mr. Graco Safe Seat...currently staring me down from across the living room.

Salem and OU

For All You Real Football Fans! By Brandon

Future Linebacker or NCAA Wrestling Champion