You heard it here first...

In the paper today there is a special section on the Bengals and it has two big pictures of Carson Palmer and Marvin Lewis. When I was explaining what Marvin's job is (i.e. telling players what to do, help them get better), Louie informs me that it God's job. God will help the Bengals.

If the Bengals are God's team this year, things are looking up for us!

And by the way, Louie also says that Babe Ruth is up in heaven helping the Reds. Maybe he's been hanging out at the hot dog stand all season, because the help he's giving us isn't getting us anywhere.

Sticker Day!

Well, it's not officially called "sticker day," but I wish the excitement of picking out a sticker outweighed the actual cost of the stickers.

The cost: we went to the doctor for Ben's 3-year-old checkup and not only did he have to get a shot, but both he and Lou got the flu mist up the nose. Oh the horror!

I'm not sure how much longer I'll be able to do this by myself. Those boys are getting strong and with all the flailing around I don't think I'll have the ability to restrain them in future appointments.

Charlie thought it was all pretty funny.

Update: Ben is up to 37 lbs. and 38 inches.

Connections

My Grandpa gave my mom a "brag book" my grandma had when I was little. Being the first born, I dominated the book and it was neat to see a small window into that part of my life that I was not completely aware of. What's also neat is to see that there's a pretty good chance that Charlie is my baby.

Yes, I realize that I was present during the gestation and birthin' of my three sons, but when you see a picture of yourself and then a picture of your baby and see all the similarities, you begin to fully realize how babies are amazing miracles.



OK, maybe he doesn't look like me at all, but when your firstborn is the exact replica of your husband and your middle-born is made from the same mold as your brother, you start looking for similarities where there might not be any.

Labor Day Weekend

We had a busy weekend: three different cities to meet with family over the holiday weekend. Our first stop was in Aurora at Uncle John and Aunt Mary's property where corn-on-the-cob was abundant and the games never stopped. The boys played ping-pong, pop-a-shot, golf, badminton, and tether-ball, among other things. The only thing that wasn't played (amazingly!) was baseball there wasn't a good area to hit because of the hills.

All week long Charlie has had a runny nose and we attributed it to the fact that he has two huge teeth breaking through his gums. We were wrong this time. All Saturday night he was coughing this terrible dry hack and couldn't sleep. It was awful. I couldn't figure out what to do for him.

Uncle Billy rallies our side of the family in a fierce game of badminton.

Cousin Tommy is the tickle-monster for Charlie.

Nothing gets you ready for the day than a rousing game of tether-ball.

Uncle John's log cabin. Most of the people blew up air-mattresses and stayed in the house or out in the building.

We stayed in the tent at the bottom of the hill.

After we had a delicious breakfast, which included "Mickey Mouse" pancakes, we headed up to Columbus to visit some more family. It was such a hot day so they went swimming then came back to the house to play in the backyard. It was a very nice evening, spent playing with Uncles Nick, Jeff, Jay, and Aunt Jill. Soon we were off to bed to rest for the next day, the family picnic up at Great-Grandpa's house in Mercer County.

Uncle Jeff had to head back to "Washington ABC" as the boys call it, so he could only stay for lunch. We played baseball, bean bags, and attempted to take a nap under the trees. It was nice to see everyone, and we had a lot of fun, but boy, are we glad to sleep in our own beds this week!

Uncle Jeff with the boys by the corn field next to Great-Grandpa's house

Our Missing Players

I realize that I haven't written a post about the boys' other beloved who left our our team and our city: Adam Dunn. Kevin and I were in Miami at that time and Kevin's dad didn't want to be the one to break it to them without us being there, so when we got home that was our duty.

They were really pretty sad for a while, but then when they played baseball the conversation would go something like this:

Lou: Mom, what's the name of the team Adam Dunn plays for?
Me: The Diamondbacks
Lou: O.K, so Benny is the Reds and I am the Diving Backs.

Yes, they're pretty upset that Adam Dunn isn't on the Reds, but we also haven't been to too many games at GABP lately and they can see Dunn highlights on the internet, so it hasn't been too bad for them. Just a different uniform.

Speaking of which, when I was in Chicago Kevin entertained the boys with one of his favorite ways of settling them down: showing baseball highlights off of mlb.com. Ken Griffey, Jr. hit a homerun, tying Sammy Sosa, and here is video footage of Ben doing the White Sox's play-by-play guy's call:

Yes, that is a big patch of mustard on his cheek. I don't have time to be keeping the kids clean, we've got to record these little gems!

A Few Stories about the Boys

We went to the museum today with Owen, Eli, and Miss Amanda. Had a great time as usual! Louie, Benny, and Owen have such similar interests that it really makes it nice that they get along so well. Owen is an extremely knowledgeable kid about all the areas of the museum, I feel like both the boys and I are getting an education! For instance, did you know that there is a dinosaur skull in the Natural History Museum that is one of three in the world?! Not only that, but it is in the best condition of the three because it has some of its neck vertebrae. I'm not sure what its name is (I'll ask Owen for you), but if you go it is to the left of the big steps in the dinosaur area.

After the dinosaurs we went to the Children's Museum. Louie and Benny have been saying for the last couple of days that they're going to work on cars when they grow up, so we headed to the mechanic's garage. It was there that Amanda asked me if Ben got a black eye. What??

Thanks to Amanda for being prepared and taking this great shot!

If there's one thing the boys like it's getting their hand stamped when we show our pass. Today it was an apple and what are the chances that before the ink had time to dry his eye would itch and he'd rub his eye with it? Voila, you got yourself a black eye!

Lou flipped out again. He didn't want to take a nap and I didn't force him. We came home from the museum and the other two went down to sleep and Lou and I had lunch together. It was nice. We had a great conversation about how he liked going up in the tree house at the museum even though he was scared at first. He was happy Owen went up with him and he wants to write him a letter to see if he'll go with him again.

I asked him if he wanted to help me make some cookies and he gave me an overly eager "YES!" It went so well. He was (somewhat) patient and listened to me and got to crack eggs, measure flour, and scoop up the dough to put on the tray. I got to thinking that maybe Kevin and I need to set aside time to spend with each kid individually so that we can appreciate them, be patient with them, and realize what great little people they are--when they aren't lumped together into one monster.

The cookies were cooling on the kitchen table and I was busy doing other stuff when my baby came to me, covered from head to toe in chocolate. He reached up, grabbed a cookie and went to town. He's all jacked up on chocolate chips, Chip!

So, instead of getting mad that he stole one of the cookies I was making for a friend, got chocolate all over the kitchen and himself, I took a picture because in the back of my mind I knew I was going to laugh at this. He is such a stinker!

Homebound

We are experiencing the '50s lifestyle this week as we have only one car at the moment. Every day Kevin asks if I want to drop him off at work, but the thought of waking the boys before they're ready just doesn't seem worth it. These past few days have been nice, actually. I think it helps that Charlie has been sleeping through the night (don't jinx myself again!).

The house is cleaner, there are more elaborate meals ("elaborate" is a relative term), and the boys have been playing really great together. It seems that when we had a car the boys were constantly asking where we were going next. Maybe I need to rethink our days. They had fun making tiger masks, talking about how they were going to wrestle Daddy the Gorilla when he got home. They built a tent and pretended to be bears hibernating (one of my favorite games). They played baseball--of course! And the day hasn't been fight-free, but it's been nice overall.

It probably has helped that the weather hasn't been all that great, so it's not like if we did have a car we'd be at the pool or zoo. But with school starting in two weeks (Lou on September 9th and Ben on the 11th), I think I may review the need to get out of the house every day. There's plenty to do around here and we enjoy doing it.