Arlo at 21 months

Arlo is WAY to close to turning two but for right now he is still our little bitty baby. A 21 month old is still considered an infant right? Okay, good...just checking. He's cute as a button while  ransacking the house one kitchen cabinet at a time.  We are enjoying the busy-ness of an almost two year old showing us a bit more of his personality each day. He's affectionate, snuggly, content & very much my side-kick until Daddy gets home.

21 things about Arlo Benton at 21 months:

1. It's funny to start with saying "at 18 months" after stating this is about Arlo at 21 months but, at 18 months he weighed 23 lbs & was 32 in tall. His thighs are certainly chubbier now.
2. He grosses us out everyday when he dips socks into Bella's water bowl then is spotted sucking on them. He also dips a cup in the bowl if he needs a swig. YUCK! He also can locate a toilet bowl brush at record speed. That's even grosser.
3. Setting the table comes naturally. He comes over to the cabinet where the kids plates are kept & carries over one at a time, stands on his tippy toes & places it on the table. The next one goes just behind it pushing the previous one closer to the middle of the table. He basically makes a plate train with a "I'm so proud of myself mom!" kind of face. It's a tough job for a 1 year old! He is a helpful fellow around the house. He loves to take out the "tash" & make sure everything that even resembles "tash" goes straight in the can!  He has his own min-broom that he screams for after a meal then follows behind us to spread out the crumbs we just swept up.
4. He likes to play games with his siblings. His favorites are Crocodile Dentist and a version of Hot Potato that plays a song that gets faster & faster. When it stops he always yells "Ahhhh!" He's also pretty good at Freeze Dance....he's got awesome moves. Of course he does, he is my child ; )
5. You can always find him behind the one door in the hallway that is closed. He climbs out of his crib & pack n' play & takes off on a mission to play hide & seek or SUPRISE MOM & DAD! We were out on the driveway one afternoon with the big kids while Arlo napped. We heard a sound in the garage, turned around & Arlo was there smiling at us saying "Hi!" We were shocked & thankful that he found us, haha! The big brothers certainly encourage this behavior. They are having a good time being roomies. One evening Arlo kept fussing & fussing so Robby went to check on him & found Anson sitting quietly in the middle of crib while sucking his thumb. We have also found all three boys bouncing like they are on a trampoline but the sweetest was finding Anson & Arlo snuggled and asleep.
   
6. He absolutely loves Bella. His chore every day is to feed her. He will drop everything & run to the laundry room saying "eat eat eat!" He fills the cup, races to the bowl, dumps it in & says "lella, eat!" He then stands really close with his hand on her back leaning around to watch her take each & every bite. He's so mad when we drag him away but at her old age she needs to be able to eat in peace.  He really pays attention to how we talk to Bella & does a fantastic job opening the back door & screaming "Lella!" to get her to come in. He also does a good job telling her no & calling her by patting his legs & doing a kissing sound. If you ask him to call Daddy he does the same thing! He went through a phase where he would copy her movements like yawning or shaking.
   
7. While we are on the subject of dogs I must mention that Arlo loves each and every animal he sees. If we see a dog at the park, he runs as fast as possible to say hello then after we say goodbye he starts yelling "LELLA" & chasing them down the sidewalk. He would follow a squirrel for a mile & squeal while watching him scale a tree to escape the toddler. He likes to look at books that have animals & either makes some sort of sound that is supposed to be the name of the animal or the sound it makes. His favorite book for a LONG time has been From Head to Toe by Eric Carle. It has been a favorite for all of our kids in the 1-3 age range but as they get older they love it even more because they watch their siblings act like the animals. The whole book is simply perfect & easy to follow. It says "a buffalo raises his shoulders, can you do it? I can do it!" Arlo's favorite is the gorilla that thumps his chest. For at least a month he followed me around with the book, beating on his chest & saying "ooo-ooo-ooo!" which was him requesting me to read it. Loved every second of that!
8.  When he wants you to follow him he is serious. He walks up to you, gives you a tug then says "cuh-cuh" waving you along. Then he shows you some cool trick his siblings taught him like jumping onto the couch from the ottoman. When he wants seconds on something he holds his finger up to his mouth & says "moh more" like "one more." Moh-more" is also the sound he says when he sees the mower. blower, vacuum or hair dryer.                     
9. He will sit in his booster seat at the table FOREVER! There is nowhere to contain him safely at certain times of the day so I strap him in, hand him a book that he throws to the ground & he settles on sucking his thumb & rubbing his belly button.
10. Darling Arlo doesn't mind getting his haircut one bit. He doesn't move a millimeter & never makes a sound. It makes the stylist giggle every time.
11. He only says "yes" sometimes & when he does it's in a whisper with a long ssssss sound at the end. The rest of the time he says in his husky little voice, "yeah". We certainly need to work on manners. All I think of when he says that is when I was growing up I spent a lot of time with my friend Laura & her family. Her dad said that there van was the yes van & it stopped if you said "yeah." Haha! Arlo would not be able to live in this home. When I correct him & prompt him to say "Yes Mama" he says "yeah (smile) mama." I will let it slide for now. It's the blue eyes that get me with him.
12. He plays with race cars & trains using all the appropriate sounds & is starting to not be so destructive with the things his brothers work so hard to create. He loves the battery operated train with the light on the front. They build a track, turn the light off & lay on the ground to watch it go round & round.
13. He is a let no crumb go to waste kind of kid with all carbohydrates, all fruit, bell peppers, carrots, cucumbers, nuts & some meats. He loves to eat an open faced peanut butter & jelly with pretzels sticking out of it and a cheese cube on the end. His brothers taught him that. They make their creation then sing Happy Birthday to each other. He loves chocolate chips, oatmeal, peach cobbler, applesauce & ice cream. He is often found in the pantry with a bag of something in his hand scooping the content out & into his mouth like he has never been fed. He follows us around all the time saying "eee-eee-eee" which means eat. 
14. He absolutely loves to sleep. Pretty much anytime you put him in his bed he will go to sleep. He was down to one nap for a long time then went back to happily taking two many days a week. It's so nice though that he survives without a nap & it's not the end of the world! He prefers his Chugga Chugga Choo Choo book, a song while being snuggled chest to chest but like he's sleeping with his knees up so he can rub his belly button. He likes to lean down & give me kisses between the bars of baby prison.
15. He goes bonkers when Robby gets home from work & it's the sweetest thing. Arlo likes his daddy's jeep & points out jeeps when we are driving. We flipped his car seat forward just a couple weeks ago. He's a big fan & we love being able to see his chubby little cheeks.
16. He races up the stairs, to the tub & has his leg over the side while fully clothed if someone even mentions something that sounds like bath. He often bathes with Owen & Anson & they are TROUBLE! It's like 3 shamus performing at Sea World. He gets out & runs full speed down the hall (in the nude) to burst into the girls bathroom. If Eloise is bathing she screams the highest pitched scream you've ever heard. Arlo copies the wretched sound then runs back to his room where we capture him to put a diaper on that little hiney. As far as self care goes, he REALLY like to brush his teeth & let's you know by holding up his finger in front of his mouth & making an electric toothbrush sound.
17. Arlo likes to dig in the dirt, hold bugs, make mud & apparently eat rocks. I found evidence of that in a diaper tonight! He's all boy & learned to hold something such as a pool noodle & say "On guard!" We were cool with the pool noodle but then he advanced to other items such as spatulas, sticks, his baby sized fork which he actually jabbed my arm with, paper towels & even his own finger. The most memorable moment was when Robby & I were cleaning the kitchen & we had left him in his favorite booster seat. The rest of the Fab Five were acting ridiculous & apparently distracting us when Robby calmly said "Is anyone watching the baby?" I turned around to see Arlo with a butter knife pointing it at us saying "ON GUARD!"
18. He's bossy when you get him a cup of water. He starts yelling "I! I!" which means ice. I attribute this to Gigi when she visited in July. She got him saying it....it's cute. We find it really funny that an almost two year old this time around barely frustrates us. I guess four older kids really put it in perspective ; ) He is definitely starting to express his opinion when you do not comply with his demands.
19. He acts like you are leaving him forever when he is dropped off in the nursery on Sunday mornings or at school. He is pitiful! For many weeks he would be found strolling around with a mom. He now survives without tears until one baby is picked up then he thinks we forgot him. It's really sad but it's life little man!
20. He's a really big boys at the park that is confident to climb, swing high & slide down the big slides. He sticks with sliding down feet first on his belly. I'm good with that! He's more chatty but still Arlo language that we understand much better than anyone else. Some cute things he says- "Lolo" for Eloise, "Lala" for water & something that sounds like "Lalo" for Charlotte. He says his name is Bubba. He points at the guitar & says "Papa" for my Dad. "Pitzi" for pizza & "yizard" for lizard. He can also say car, truck, jeep, cho choo, book, read, milk, juice, ouch, go, NO & all sorts of sound combinations. When he had a sleepover with Grammy & Papa a few weeks ago they caught a raccoon in the trap Bob had set up. Josh from Animal Control stopped by two mornings in a row to relocate the raccoons. If you ask him what happened to the raccoons he says "dosh, bye bye."
21. He's just the most darling little person. He melts our hearts every single day. We are always silly & whisper to him when the other kids aren't around "all our kids are cute but you are the cutest!"

Here are some typical Arlo faces-

We are all in love with the baby of the family & agree that we will not allow him to turn TWO in October. Sometimes you want to freeze time (and sometimes you don't) but right now, we do.

Ah, summer!

We started off our summer with a bang....about 10 days in Kingwood full of swimming, playing & attempting to sleep all night. As always the neighborhood pool did not disappoint! We talked about doing lessons but once everyone was in the pool Charlotte remembered everything from last summer, Eloise got the hang of things very quickly & the boys were little bitty yet confident fishies. Arlo just liked to disobey the "no running" rule & try to climb to the top of the slide. There were a lot of overcast days & I just don't like to get in the water unless the sun is beating down & keeping me warm. I'm kind of like a snake.....that's probably why Eloise likes me so much. I was thankful that my Dad would stay in the pool for three (chilly to my standards) hours without complaint. 

 

Here's the swim team...  

 

 

There are always a lot of musical instrument sounds when we are at my parents' house. My Dad enjoys playing his ukulele & Arlo could not get enough of him! He sang "Arlo had a Little Lamb" a million times & Arlo looked like this each & every performance. This picture will be one of my favorites forever.

 

Speaking of Arlo.....remember when I said that we attempted to sleep all night? It was because of this little stinker.  There are so many options for sleeping there & long story short we had a lively game of musical beds for our entire visit. Arlo was not yet rooming with his brothers at home so we kept him separate from the other four. I also did not want to be his roommate but ended up doing just that during all the switcheroo-ing. We started him in this little closet where the modem & printer etc are. It proved to be a little too toasty & he was waking up at the exact same minute (near 5am grrrrr) everyday. We thought maybe some techy thing reset & made a noise so he was relocated then relocated again. The only place he did not sleep (for obvious reasons) was in the room with the bunk bed. He could get up there SO fast!

 

Talk about the pool not disappointing, Gaga just gets better & better! She had some crafts planned & a poster board with all of our days listed & post-it notes labeled with different outings or yummy treats we planned to have. It was fun until Arlo started ripping all of them off. It's like he's almost two or something.

The trails in Kingwood were perfect for this bike rider although Kyle said she had to pedal so fast while he was just coasting along. She enjoyed being with her uncle & doing something "big."



The first week we were there which happened to be the week Eloise turned six was monumental in her life! Suddenly it clicked & she dropped the training wheels & was pedaling with a big smile on her face!

There were lots of wobbles along the way which made us laugh so hard. She just has the best facial expressions ever. She was cruisin' a little too fast around the cul-de-sac & got pulled over by a constable! Marcus lives across the street & we always enjoy visiting with him & his family. He checked her rider's license, gave her a few tips & sent her on her way!



I must give credit to Paw Paw who got her on the right track. Eloise is one of the most determined people I know & it was serious business to ride that bike! The neatest part of this major accomplishment was that the bike belonged to my friends Laura & Bethany that grew up down the street. It is a vintage Schwinn from the 80's. Can you call that vintage? Not only that but I was sitting on the curb of the same street I practiced riding my bike as a kid & near the spot that I crashed on my rollerblades, busted some teeth along with my chin. Glad she didn't re-enact that ; )

While on the topic of vintage toys, we found the Talkboy & had a blast recording & explaining what a cassette tape is, ha! It made me want to watch Home Alone with my brothers.

Uncle Scott came to play too & got some attention from little Miss Elo. Since the 25 year old playground was demolished as soon as my dad retired the only playing in the backyard was yardwork which the girls happily did.

A huge highlight of our trip was spending a couple hours with Edie. She was a good friend in Orlando that took care of Charlotte when she was teeny tiny & I was working a shift a week. She also came over on my 30th birthday when the twins were two months old. She brought party hats, we celebrated then she sent me to take a nap. I woke up FOUR hours later. That is in top five best gifts for a mother! Another story about Edie that still makes me laugh is when Charlotte was about two. Edie was looking at some books on our bookshelves & Charlotte came up to scold her saying "No touch, Daddy's books!" I wish Arlo was trained that well ; )

It made me teary eyed when she pulled away. Charlotte was standing by me waving & yelled "Bye Edie! I love you!" Then she looked at me & said "I really do. She is so special." It was the sweetest most natural thing. I was teary eyed thinking about the little pieces of her life story that began in Orlando. Char was right. Edie IS special!

 

Back at the pool....or the waterpark driveway....

 

Oh what fun it is to be there! Robby picked us up in a jiffy the following weekend & we were headed north! It's always painful to detox from so many adults & SO many fun activities but we keep going back for more...it's worth it!

Red, White & no Boom

Celebrating red, white & blue was a relaxing day for our crew or as relaxing as a house full of seven people can be! I'll rewind through the day. I love that our kids don't even know what rewind means, ha! So, the kiddos went to bed before fireworks even hit the skyline. We are lame parents & don't even take them to see the bright & sparkling sky on the celebration of America's Birthday! I think the word lame is appropriate because they are just now realizing they exist & it's not because we told them! Basically, we have not mustered up the energy to take everyone out way past bedtime. The girls could easily handle it but the boys, oh my! It's just not worth it yet. Anyway, all lost their marbles by 8 o'clock & hit the sack covered in sunscreen & bug spray.

 

Before the marbles rolled away....

 

Our friends Matt, Jen & their cute little Henry joined us. They are holding a patriotic picture Eloise colored for them.

 

Here is the artist with her art. She drew the picture on the left & said she did the US flag....it sure looked a lot like the Texas flag. LOVE IT! Texas did use to be it's own country & should be celebrated I guess : )

Arlo took a snooze then smiled for the camera.

 

The earlier part of the day was spent doing a craft I found in desperation. When we visited my parent's house at the beginning of the summer Owen played with my brother's old periscope. From that day forward he has tried to make a periscope out of every cylindrical shaped object & is SO mad when he can't see what he wants to! He takes paper towel roll after paper towel roll, bends the ends & then tells me it won't work. He follows me around all the time asking me to make him one. Enter Pinterest. Seriously, what did we do before Pinterest? I found a tutorial on making one out of PVC pipes so mama bird  + 5 took a trip to Home Depot.  We were wandering around looking for fork lifts to watch & attracted plenty of attention (as expected).  We have been a few times in the past couple months while I have worked on another project & I am always thankful for all the help we get. I think we stand out amidst their usual shoppers in the lumber or pipe area.

 

Back to the periscopes. I was in shock when I saw how many options there were for pipes & connectors! We looked & looked, asked for some assistance with having a pipe cut down to the length needed & were on our way to the checkout. Once she was ringing all the pieces up I realized I had chosen ones that were different sizes....grrrr. So back to the aisle we went. Once we had what we actually needed, we paid & were on our way to the car. I started loading everyone up & looked at my 6 foot PVC pipe & thought, where on earth am I going to put that in my vehicle with all these car seats???  The funny part is that the same thing happened with a 6 foot board earlier in the summer. Both times I have been parked near the contractor parking area & have been offered help by the nicest guys. I'm sure they were laughing in their trucks & making bets on whether I could play Tetris or not. Then out of the kindness of one of their hearts (two times) they decided to rescue me. They jammed it in there somehow & I prayed we would make it home without getting in a car accident. We did & I was unable to un-jam it so we could get the party started.

 

4th of July morning the project began. Rob cut the pipe into 4 pieces while I cut 2 inch cardboard squares & glued circular mirrors onto them. The kids got to work with some paint so they would be officially camouflaged & within a couple hours we were ready to play!    

 

 

Grammy & Papa came by for a visit, lunch & a game of spy on the neighbors across the street.

 

They were so cute hiding out behind the only tree we have in our backyard.

 

 

 

Instead of "Telephone" we can play "Periscope" end to end which actually offers a clearer sound.

Poor little Arlo didn't get to have one so he would wait till someone wasn't looking & steal it. He decided to go elephant style & spy under things since it was a bit heavy.

By the end of the day all the mirrors fell off due to the hot glue being hot again. Should have thought of that when we knew it would be over 100 degrees. The boys were jamming sticks & the like down into the ends...that was nice. It was one of those moments where I want to yell "Don't you see I am trying to do something fun for you & you are destroying it??" I think I kept that to myself although my memory may not serve me well a month later. I have tried a few different methods that have held for a bit but they are currently being used to roll golf balls through. The boys, or mostly Owen has hi-jacked all four, perfectly aligns the holes & maintains the right incline to send ball after ball down. Basically it is just another thing to keep that engineering brain occupied. I can't ever have enough of those!

No conclusion to the 4th of July/periscope making party other than we are glad the kids aren't tall enough to use them to peep over the fence! Maybe next year we will use them to watch the fireworks.

Summer Safety Camp

During the last week of June Charlotte & Eloise spent a week at Safety Camp which was offered through our local police department for 1st-3rd graders. I saw the advertisement & thought it sounded perfect for these two curious little girls. $25 per child for a week long camp sounded perfect to us! They were a little nervous but after check-in confidently walked to their professional looking desks, gave me a smile & three boys + mama bid them farewell.

Each day was filled to the brim with presentations & tours. On the first day they learned about the role of a police officer, their uniforms & got to check out an SUV, sirens & all. They loved sitting "where the bad guys ride"

They also got to check out a Fire Engine & learn about the uniform. They really liked this one!

 

In the mix of all the sessions they learned about poison & water safety, gun safety & emergency conditions. My favorite conversation with Char regarding her time there went like this. "Mom! Today was so fun!" me- "That's awesome! What was your favorite thing you learned about?" Char was talking extremely fast about internet safety then stopped abruptly & said "wait....do you know what the internet is?" I almost fell out of my chair laughing. I regained composure & attempted to explain how we didn't even have internet when we got our first computer in the mid- 1990's & it was a BIG deal to get dial-up. Anyway, it was hilarious. She was adorable & did learn a lot about the new-fangled idea of a world wide web.

While they enjoyed all the sessions it was a toss up between bike safety with McGruff the Crime Dog & learning to be safe around animals with Richardson Animal Control. Regarding the first on the favorites list, does anyone remember McGruff? He came out in the 80's...if not, search on that thing called the internet, find a picture & if you went to public school, I'm sure it will ring a bell.

Anyway, the girls talked non stop about the bunnies & kittens they were able to pet. They learned that when they turn 15 they will be able to volunteer. The countdown is on! I should have them make a paper chain just to give them an idea of how long it will actually be. For Charlotte there would be 2,555 links & for Eloise, 3,285, ha! That would certainly keep them busy for awhile & their hands may never be able to function normally again after cutting & attaching that many papers together. I just acted excited with them & let them know they would be fantastic volunteers. They told me they already knew how to be safe around animals....the session was just a bonus. That may actually be true because they have cleaned out the shelves of the Richardson Library animal section week after week & they watch Wild Kratts. They are always spouting off facts I have never heard & I usually just go with it!

McGruff also taught them a bit about bike safety which is exactly what we need around here. In actuality it would have been extremely useful for two maniac scooter riders. Eloise was so excited that she had just gotten the hang of riding her bike the week before. There was only one kid that had training wheels & she was proud to be without. They came home talking about this incredible obstacle course they went through & asked if we could make our own. When asked to describe it they said the best parts consisted of big boards that were bumpy & a scary see-saw like board. When these pictures were posted I smiled ear to ear being reminded of how something so simple (on our part) feels like the coolest thing ever! While we haven't filled our cul-de-sac with a neighborhood obstacle course I think it would be manageable to put together a couple pieces.

 

While the girls were learning about safety, the boys & I were practicing ours!

We drank bubble solution & helped our pit-bull take a nap...

We wore goggles while completing household tasks like scrubbing dishes or taking out the trash which are both things that are on Arlo's chore list...no kidding. Owen stuffed his face with a cookie making me think through my Heimlich Maneuver procedure. He also stood up in the grocery cart.   

Arlo tried to scale the refrigerator while Anson coated his nose in peanut butter & let Bella lick it right off.

 and we practiced climbing on window sills.

I practiced safety while retrieving my children from camp until the last day. It was only about 20 yards to the check out station that was inside double doors yet I was convinced they would give me a ticket for leaving my children unattended in my vehicle. So I unbuckled, hauled then re-buckled my best buds until the last day when I decided I would rather get a ticket than release them from car-seat captivity. We really did have a great time just the four of us. They are still busy but without two other mothers there to boss them around they played so well together & didn't stress me out (till that last day).

Mid-week Charlotte sat down & began composing her thank you notes to each of the officers. I wish I would have taken a picture. They were sweet talking about how they are so good at their job & how she wants to be a police woman someday but I'm guessing that is only if she doesn't work for animal control.

Eloise is our little artist & came home each day ready to add more pictures to her paper. She drew a picture for each thing she learned then on the last day wrote "Thank you for teaching me how to be safe." One of the officers came to tell me it melted her heart. Pictured are the following- guns..lots of them, a helicopter, spider, snow, a tornado, rescue boat, spikes that a police officer would throw onto the road (her favorite part of their job, haha) & various other items that I can't identify but she certainly could.

They made it to graduation day which Eloise kept referring to as "congratulations day." I'd say those terms are interchangeable right? They were proud to receive their diplomas, eat a special cookie or five cookies & drink red Kool-Aid. They came home the first day saying they drank the best drink ever & it was called "koo-luh." It took me a few days to realize what they were referring to & then they had the nerve to argue with me about whether it is called "koo-luh" or "Kool Aid." Whatever it was called, they loved it. I even took a swig of the blue raspberry at the "congratulations" ceremony. Bob & Jeannine had come up to have lunch with us so they enjoyed seeing the girls smiling with their favorite, Officer Evans.

It just might be the best $25 x 2 we have spent all summer long! They said that they never wanted it to end & that's a good sign.