Seeing Double

With the birth of Baby C just around the corner, we decided it was time to upgrade our ride. Well, to upgrade Benjamin's ride. As much I loved my City Mini single stroller, I knew that having a toddler and a baby at the same time meant that I - and my back - would be better served with a double.
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Due to the fact that Benjamin and his best bud Nolan were inseperable, I'd already had a chance to see a few "doubles" transport options in action:

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As cute as these options were to behold, none of them quite did the trick. I needed something leaner. Something less bulky. Something specifically designed for two kids that didn't run the risk of one inadvertently being flung with a quick turn or stop. And that's where the Phil and Ted's double stroller came in.
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The Phil and Ted's line features a new breed of stroller- a double stroller with the footprint of a single. The side-by-side double strollers we'd tried were just too cumbersome. And being the clutterphobes that Vince and I are, we didn't want to deal with storing both a double and a single stroller. So I sold my beloved City Mini and ordered a Phil and Ted's V2 sport double stroller in basic black.

.As soon as it arrived, the men in the family got to work putting it together. The stroller came with a free bassinet attachment, which Benjamin claimed for himself by way of having an accident while sitting inside it. Well, I assumed it was an accident, but Vince claimed he was marking his territory.
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We took our new double stroller out for a test drive with - who else - Nolan. He enjoyed sitting in it so much that Julie - who is due with her second baby in July - went ahead and ordered the exact same stroller! After it arrived, and I cruised over to her place with my own Phil and Ted's for a walk. I thought it would be adorable to push Nolan and Benjamin around in their matching strollers, but they had something else in mind. Much to our amusement, we discovered that the boys still preferred to cram themselves into just one of the strollers.
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I suppose we'll be putting the two newborns in the other one!

Singing in the Rain

Some people love rainy weather. I am not one of them. The rain makes me cranky, pessimistic, and depressed. Plus, Los Angelenos forget how to drive as soon as there is any precipitation, so in addition to being in a bad mood, the rain makes me fear for my life. Benjamin, on the other hand, doesn't seem to mind the rain one bit. In fact, he really seems to dig it, and taking him outside to splash around gives me one way to tolerate crappy weather.

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LA recently went through a week of rain. And it wasn't just any rain; it was good solid sheets of the stuff that thoroughly drenched everything in sight. So last weekend, we dressed Benjamin in his little yellow raincoat and favorite camo galoshes and took him out to search for puddles.
. We found some really good ones in Concert Park. Unfortunately, Benjamin's legs are so short that his galoshes came up past his knees, making it nearly impossible for him to manuever the steps. Luckily, Daddy was there to lend a hand.

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After a few minutes of puddle-splashing, Benjamin spotted some friendly crows hanging out nearby. He tried to run to them to introduce himself, but they were too quick for him and flew away.

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Benjamin really worked up an appetite with all that splashing around, so we made a stop at the neighborhood Pinkberry, where he refused to let either Mommy or Daddy help feed him.
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As you can see, he still needs to work on his table manners. Perhaps we should've done the puddle-splashing after Pinkberry!

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The Tiniest Poltergeist?

I've made it to 33 weeks, and I'm in the home stretch. Emphasis on stre-e-e-e-e-tch. My shirts are stretched out, my patience is stretched thin, and my tummy is stretched so tight that every time I sneeze, cough, or laugh, I feel as though my baby will come flying out of my belly button. Did I mention that our home is being stretched, too? Yup, the storage capacity of our home is being stretched to its limits with new baby crap. Even though we still have tons of gear left over from when Benjamin was a wee infant, we've acquired more stuff for Baby #2 - more cloth diapers, a double stroller, and baby girl clothes. Thank goodness my nesting instinct has kicked in, or else our place would be a total disaster. It's like I'm having a flashback to this time two years ago when I was in the throes of feathering my nest in anticipation of Benjamin's arrival. But this time, the joy of nest-feathering is tempered with the dread of knowing sleepless nights are just a month away. Yes, ignorance was bliss!
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Benjamin has been nesting, too. Sort of. He recently developed this strange habit of lining things up - his toy cars, his books, and - most strangely - his playroom furniture. I've gone into the kitchen, only to be barricaded in by a neat row of chairs. Or, I'll get up to answer the call of nature only to find that the hallway leading to the bathroom door has been blocked by the chairs.
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Benjamin's new obsession reared its head at our friend George's birthday party a few weeks ago. As soon as we got there, Benjamin got busy rearranging the metal chairs on the patio. Ten minutes after our arrival, he'd pulled them away from the table and lined them up in a neat row. Considering that each chair was twice his size, this was no small feat! The other partygoers - as well as Vince and I - looked on in amusement and a little puzzlement. Was this "normal" behavior? Sure it was cute, but the single-mindedness with which he rearranged those chairs was also a little odd. It was like he was a Boo possessed. It was strange, maybe even a bit creepy.
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If the incident with the patio chairs wasn't enough to creep me out, this was:

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It was the weekend, and I'd left Vince at home with Benjamin while I ran errands. When I returned, Benjamin was napping, and these chairs were on the table. I asked Vince if he was the one who did it, and he said, "No, that was the Boo. He's nuts." Maybe I wouldn't have found this creepy at all if it weren't for the fact that it reminded me of a certain scene from Poltergeist.
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Creepiness notwithstanding, I'm hoping that Benjamin's obsession with order will spread to other areas, too!

Benjamin's Outhouse

I recently ordered a new baby bathtub for our unborn daughter. When it arrived, it was packaged in a ginormous cardboard box. Never one to let anything go to waste, I turned it over to Benjamin to play with. I figured that a box that size would make a fine fort, truck, or cave for the Boo. The Boo, however, had different designs for his new toy.
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I watched in amusement as he removed the paper packing material from inside the box, stood the box on its end, and placed his little yellow potty inside. He then went to his potty, pulled his underpants down, and proceeded to, um... christen his new outhouse.
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Business finished, he stood up, pulled his pants back up, and went back to his playroom to continue about his afternoon. Thankfully, the deposit he had left in his potty was not of the variety that required a roll of TP and a brisk wiping!