Adventures in Bennionland

* Will has been sick (again) for the past couple of days. Poor guy. He does love the extra attention though.

* Walker is off the binky! My Dad started in on Friday when he just put him to bed without it – and succeeded! When he asks for it, which is relatively rare, I tell him that his binkies have moved on to a new baby who needs them. That usually works though one time Walker retorted with ‘Mom. I need to lay in my crib. I’m a baby.’ Yeah, he’s smarter than me already.

* According to my iPod** the most frequently played song is (drum roll please): ‘Eric Singing the Lullabies’. It has been played an amazing 5, 895 times. No I’m not grooving to the sounds of Eric singing Once There Was a Snowman – we play it when the boys go to bed sometimes. 5,895 times evidently. The closest ones to that are ‘Grace Kelly’ – Mika (34 plays), ‘Sin Sin Sin’ – Robbie Williams (32 plays), and ‘Credits’ – Dario Marianelli/Pride & prejudice Soundtrack (30 plays).

* We are potty training Walker right now and have managed (cross your fingers) NOT to flush any underbunders down the toilet.

* Two favorite words in our house right now are Will’s ‘eitherwise’ and Walker’s ‘Timpanogos’.

* We decided to hold our annual Chinese New Year party again this year! If you are in the same general area that we are and would like to come – we’d love it. Just let me know. (February 16th @ 5:30pm)

* Will likes to furrow his brow and pretend to be mad. He’s often asking ‘Do you understand what I am saying Mom/Dad?’

* Walker is already a teenager. He blatantly refuses to do things, gives you an evil eye, and is often running into runs and slamming doors. Hum…

Speaking of potty training my sister-in-law Ali sent us this video link. It is hilarious! I’ve also included the second one where they discuss

Japanese Potty Training Video: At Home
(use of a minor swear word in the subtitles – probably not for readers!!)

Japanese Potty Training Video: In Public
(use of ’s’ swear word in the subtitles – for adult laughter purposes only!! Plus the squatty-potty would only confuse kids.)

**Happy thoughts and well-wishes are needed for my iPod which is a 1st generation that Eric got while working for Apple. It is slowly ending it’s run. I need it last a few more months.**

Well our little gluten-free family made it’s first foray into the GF online menu world.

Check us out!

And thanks to Liz and Melony at Kill.The.Gluten for letting us submit a recipe. I get so many ideas from their site – it helps make my GF life somewhat sane.

For those of you gluten-eaters – try this recipe only instead of making rolls buy Pillsbury Crescent rolls and put a little bit of the chicken mixture inside of it. Then bake according to the crescent roll directions – put a little dab of warm cream of chicken soup on top and presto!

Life’s not always a beach. Especially at the beach.

We headed down to the beach on Saturday for a little family time. Will wanted to see the sunset at the beach so we were trying our best to get there post-nap-time. Walker, well we all know from previous experience that he just really wanted to get to the sand.

We packed our hot dogs, our regular and gluten-free buns, ketchup, mustard, charcoals, and a lighter. Since we had no newspaper Eric grabbed printer paper. That should have been a sign.

As we neared the beach we decided to get some firewood so that we could have flames and heat as well as a place to cook. I got out and grabbed it. I couldn’t get it to scan the price tag and when I tried to pull on it, it was wet. That should have been a sign.

Still – we trekked onward to the beach. We made it just in time for the ‘Rainbow sky’ and got set up. The boys immediately jumped into the sand activities and Eric started in on the fire. And a story was born…

So – life isn’t a beach. OH who am I kidding! No fire, Eric’s damaged lungs, not beach hot dogs for Eric & I and we still had a blast. We’re lucky to be at a place to have these adventures and this time with each other.