happy birthday, papa leseberg

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, PAPA LESEBERG

t-ball time...again!

Who's on Third?

Bailey had her first t-ball game of this season on Saturday. She is the only girl on her team, again. But her two neighbor friends are on her team, so she's very excited. She was also the best player, since she's the only one that has ever played before. She was really excited because she got an Astro's hat (even though their team name is the Rockets), and we bought her baseball pants, gear bag, and her own helmet. She's definitely the cutest one out there!

Benz goes in for a kiss from Guh W.

Hot stuff!

moose makes me chuckle

does this....

make you laugh like this...???

So, I know the video is too dark, but all you really need is the sound. I took the kids to 'Story Time' on Wednesday. The theme was "MOOSE," and they read all sorts of cute MOOSE stories and made cute MOOSE antlers. The antlers made Benson laugh hysterically, which in turn, made us laugh hysterically.

circus monkey

I'm always saying that Benson doesn't like to be my little circus monkey and perform his tricks on demand. It's so hard to get him to do his "tricks." Bailey is still our circus monkey, and loves to perform, whether we ask her to or not. Benson only does them when he wants, and gets shy when I ask him to do it for show. I finally captured some of them...4 out of 6 isn't bad. His monkey noise is my favorite. He's really good at that one, and only does it for monkeys or bears(they look very similar to a baby!). The dog and cow sounds are very similar and are his multipurpose noises. Everything that isn't a monkey or a bear, gets a 'woof/moo.'

v is for volcano

Bailey learned about the letter "V" on Monday in Preschool. They made their own volcanoes out of clay and then painted them. When she got home, we made it 'erupt' and all of the "wava" (Bailey had a hard time saying "Lava") came out. She was so mesmerized by it.

toxic update

Just to follow up on the "Toxic Bottle" post...I did throw away all my old bottles and I bought new BPA -Free ones. (big faux pax...I probably should have recycled those toxic time-bombs.) Target had Gerber and Evenflo bottles that are marked "BPA-Free" for $2.99 for 3. I figured peace of mind was worth it. Sorry, but there was no way in h#*% I was going to do glass bottles (even if I could find some). I'm not June Cleaver. More like a Meat Cleaver. And I wasn't about to pay $10 PER bottle for "BornFree". I spent $10 and got 9 bottles!

But here's the kicker...most of the sippy cups and plastic dishes (including real TUPPERWARE!) are NOT bpa free! So, I think I'm going to train Bailey to start drinking from a bottle again. j/k. Here's how you tell...look on the bottom of your plasticware, if it has any of the #'s 1-7 on it, it contains BPA. But not everything is marked. So the recommendation is not to heat anything in plastic. Heat it in a glass/ceramic dish. Oh, but wait? What about the trace levels of lead in those? Basically we're screwed.

I figure we've grown up on plastic, melamine, glass, and probably a lot of lead from those fancy Christmas dishes my mom bought in what was then Czechoslovakia. Aside from minor twitches, I'm okay. If I can find plastic ware that is BPA free and reasonably priced, and readily available, I'll go for it. I probably needed new bottles anyway, and I know I need new sippy cups. The teeth marks in mine are becoming very disturbing. But isn't an almost-5-year-old a little old for sippy cups? Who am I kidding? My mom made me drink out of a sippy cup until I graduated from High School. (No joke. If we had a drink in the family room, it was supposed to have a lid on it!)

Good luck, and Happy Sipping!

get your geek on

A new Saturday tradition...Bailey and Dad playing computer games together. Last week Bailey got to play Daddy's 'scary' computer games. This past Saturday, Bailey taught Daddy how to play her computer games.

Meanwhile...Benson was getting his geek on downstairs, 'reading' books.' He loves looking at books and being read to. I love how he's using his foot to hold the pages down. The picture is a little blurry because....

...someone likes to attack the camera when ever it comes out, and I end up with little fingerprints on the lens. Notice how ORANGE his nose is! His fingers, toes, and knees are even turning orange!

Latest Updates:

Bailey got into the Cy-Woods High School Preschool Program for this fall! We are excited because a lot of her little friends from church will be going too. Oh, and the best part...it's only $70 a month, unlike the other preschools around here which are about $200-$300 a month! YIKES!!

Benson's newest tricks:

Says, "NyNy" (night, night)

Knows what a dog, monkey and cow all say.

"Woofs" whenever he sees a dog, cat, squirrel, roadkill, trees, trash, etc.

Says "Maa" (more)

Pretends to burp when I pat his back (he's a total boy!)

SLEEPS ALL THRU THE NIGHT (for the last 4 weeks!)!!!!

Toxic bottles?

I'm not usually one to get caught up in hype, but this latest buzz has got me thinking. First of all, let me get this out in the open... I ENCOURAGE my nearly 14 month old to take a bottle. I weaned him from the breast to a bottle about 3 weeks ago, and he loves it. I know that the AAP (American Academy of Pediatrics), recommends that babies should go from the breast to a sippy cup, and bottle fed babies should go to a sippy cup at 12 months. I just feel like, what's the rush? They are only little once. So there. I said it. Go ahead and call my pediatrician, I already confessed to him too.

Now that we have that out of the way, here's my dilemma...BPA in bottles. It is a chemical found in most baby bottles (and other plastic bottles) that is released when the plastic is heated (microwave, dishwasher, etc), and the older the bottle, the more BPA that has been released. It has shown in some studies to be linked to premature puberty, breast and prostate cancer, and other developmental hazards. For this reason, most athletes/health-nuts go for the "Nalgene" bottles.

Should I go out and get all new bottles? I checked mine, and many are old (from Bailey), and none of them are BPA free...including the favorite AVENT bottles (which for the price, should make the milk themselves). I've researched it for those of you who care, and here are some of the BPA free bottles:

Medela ($$)
Born Free ($$$$)
Gerber Clear and Pastels ($)
MAM ($$)
Glass Bottles ($$) (seriously, glass?)

So what do you think? Is it too paranoid? Does everything cause cancer in lab rats? Do you drink from a "Nalgene" bottle?

**PS: I'm not interested in taking away the bottles all together**

super bubba

Benson calls Bailey, 'buhbah' (I think because we say, "say, ba-ba-ba-bailey!"). Now she's morphed into "Super Bubba."

big steps

Look at him go! He loves to 'scoop' things up with his truck. He's starting to stand all by himself, too.

head over heels

Look very carefully at this picture....notice anything?? Benson's feet are actually off of the ground as he's reaching into the toy basket for something. There's a reason why I don't dump the basket out for him (besides the fact that it's HILARIOUS to see this), if I dump it out or even tip it on its side, that apparently is an invitation for Benson to turn it up side down and stand on top. He also likes to push that his big truck (bottom right corner) over to our ottoman and use it as a ladder to climb up and stand/crawl atop the ottoman. He's learning how to stand on his own, with out holding onto something, and he loves to practice it EVERYWHERE. He has no fear of heights or dangerous situations. But sneeze too loudly, and he'll collapse into a fit of inconsolable tears.

His new favorite obsession is this clear plastic cup. He loves to 'fill' it up with things (as seen trying to put a squeaky fish in it) and see what will fit in it(When things don't fit, he gets very MAD!). He also loves to roll it around (while it's filled) to see the things rolling around in it. All I can think is, he'd have a blast with a hamster ball.

handsome

I must say, he is one handsome little devil!

what I love about Texas...

Bailey and Gavin

On Saturday, we went up to Brenham, TX (a small, old town, famous for Blue Bell Ice Cream, and AMAZING wild flowers) with all the other Wallace's. The wild flowers are really a site to behold! It was SO BEAUTIFUL!! We had fun and got lots of pictures.

Benson amid bluebonnets.

Beautiful girl!

Monkey's swinging in the trees at Old Baylor College.

View from Old Baylor College. (Baylor College was originally founded in Brenham, then moved to Waco, TX later on.) Brandon took this picture, it looks like a postcard!