A Whole New Dining Experience

When we went to Ben's 9 month doctor's appointment the doctor gave him the all-clear to eat everything except for just a few foods.  I was so excited to go home and offer Benny some new and tasty treats.  However, I didn't think about the complete ramifications of this new diet.  It set in a few mornings later when I was making breakfast.  I started to make Evan's breakfast, and I realized that Ben could really eat the same thing!  Imagine that!  I didn't have to make a separate dish for both of them.  I gave Evan muffin, I gave Ben small pieces of muffin.  I gave Evan a banana, I gave Ben little pieces of banana.  The rest of the day went the same way.  Evan ate a PB&J and mac and cheese, Ben ate a jelly sandwich for lunch with some mac and cheese.  It was great!

Ben is such an eater, so it's great to give him new foods to try.  Maybe some of his curiosity will wear off on Evan!

(Both of the boys eating the same food, YAY!

Big Boy Sleep

Evan has always been perfectly content to sleep in his crib.  I've heard stories from all of my friends about their children starting to climb out of their cribs, but Evan has never had any desire to really even stand up in his.  This weekend, that all changed.  Two mornings in a row, he woke up and the very first thing he asked us was if we could please take the rails off of his crib.  So, we figured that was the cue that we needed.

So, we drove to Babies R Us, bought a small crib rail, and headed home.  We took off the front side of his crib and put on the small crib rail just to keep him from falling out.  We had no idea how he would deal with it.  He slept well at his Gram and Gramp's house and in Philadelphia in big beds, so we were hopeful.  That night, we put him to bed, and he woke up the next morning happily in his bed.  He even called to us and asked before he got out.  It was great!

He definitely is a big boy.  Take a look!

Weights and Measures-Times Two!

At long last, almost two weeks after Benny's nine month birthday, we finally had his well-child check to see how big my little boy had gotten.  Evan was also coming to this appointment because the doctor wanted to check up on his growth every couple of months just to make sure everything was on track.

So, today we headed in to visit Dr. Pickens.  I made sure to continually repeat to Evan that he was just going in for a growth check and that Ben would be the only one getting shots.  This seemed to satisfy him and he was willing to go without complaint.  After they were poked and prodded and examined...this was the latest report:

Evan is a healthy 2.5 year old, and yes, he's still small.  He had grown one inch and only gained .5 pounds since his last appointment.  However, Dr. Pickens showed me his growth curve and assured me that he was still following his curve and growing at his own rate.  He is still happily sitting at the third percentile for height and the tenth for weight. 

Ben is also a completely healthy little boy.  He's developing just as he should. All of his little parts checked out okay except for a tiny bit of eczema on his little cheeks.  He has gotten the all-clear to eat any food he wants with the exception of nuts, eggs, honey, and shellfish.  Everything else is fair game...Ben can't wait!  I always think that Ben is bigger than Evan was at that age.  However, turns out he's basically the same in every category, except his head is just a little bit smaller.  So, looks like I'm destined to have two little peanuts. 

We finished the appointment with Ben getting a shot in his leg and a prick on his toe.  Both wounds required a bandaid, but the nurse said we should take the bandaid off immediately when we get home in case he took off his sock and managed to get it in his mouth.  Well, Benny does love to stick things in his mouth.  When we got home I walked around to his side of the car and opened the door to get him out.  His sock was off, he looked up at me, and I immediately had to reach my finger in his mouth and pluck out a wet, slobbery bandaid!  This kid truly does stick everything in his mouth!

Here are the official numbers:

Evan

Height: 33 inches (3rd percentile)
Weight: 26 pounds (10th percentile)
Head: Big

Ben

Height: 27 inches (10th percentile)
Weight: 17 pounds (10th percentile)
Head: 46 cm circumference (I think) A little less big than Evan

Another Day in the City

So, after our first day in Philadelphia, we were excited to get back out there and see what else Philadelphia had to offer.  After our first day of fun, Evan was excited to get back out there too, although he really just wanted to ride the subway all day.  

Much to Evan's dismay, we made our way to our first stop of the day via car instead of subway.  Luckily, we were headed to the "Please Touch Museum" which is basically equivalent to toddler paradise!  They have models of cars, trains, and buses, rooms where you shoot foam rockets, an Alice in Wonderland maze, a model grocery store, and so much more for everyone to explore.  Needless to say, we could spend the whole morning there and then some just following the boys around and watching them explore.  Ben's favorite spot was a mirror complete with a bar for him to hang on as he watched himself.  Evan liked everything although I think he had the most fun shooting the foam rockets off of the air gun.  When we finally had to leave to go back to the hotel and eat lunch, Evan threw a rather spectacular toddler tantrum, the sign of a morning well spent. 

(Evan and Ian show off their sweet ride.)

(Ben starts a fire.)

(Ian and Evan play in the water.)

 (Evan has an afternoon tea in Wonderland.)

(Benny investigates a cubby hole.)

After lunch and a successful Benny nap, we headed back out for one more afternoon in the big city.  Of course, our mode of transportation for the afternoon was the subway.  It took us back down to the historic part of town for our first stop.  Even though it was a chilly day, we decided we had to head to Franklin's Fountain for a delicious ice cream sundae split 3 ways (sorry Benny).  It was delicious!

Unfortunately, that did not warm us up any for our next adventure, a walk along Penn's landing on the riverfront.  The wind was pretty fierce, but I don't think the boys really noticed.  They had a great time watching the water and seeing the big boats.  We were able to see a couple of military ships, a big one with sails, and even a submarine!  After we had seen the boats, we all started to notice the chill, so we decided to find some place to get out of the cold.

We all quickly made our way to the dinner spot that we had picked out earlier, The City Tavern.  We had picked this one out earlier in the day based on online reviews that mentioned an award-winning kids' menu.  However, when we walked in the historic building, we thought we might have picked the wrong restaurant.  It looked pretty fancy.  They seated us, and we crossed our fingers and hoped for the best.  It turned out to be one of the best Valentine's dinners that Ian and I had ever had, right up there with our first Valentine's ever at The Melting Pot.  The restaurant was apparently built back in the time of the American Revolution, and it was where all the founding fathers ate and relaxed.  The original building burned down, and they had to rebuild, but this current building attempts to replicate that restaurant in everything from architecture to cuisine.

We had a great time learning about all of the food, and the boys had a great time flirting with the waitresses, watching the live fiddle music, and just taking in the whole scene.  We were so glad that the boys had such a great experience out at a restaurant.  Ben ate his sweet potatoes that we had brought as well as some of their delicious bread.  Evan had a grilled cheese sandwich, as usual, and one of their sweet potato biscuits.  Ian enjoyed a lobster bisque, veal sausage, and mashed potatoes while I tried the turkey pot pie.  It was all delicious!  What a great dinner!

After another ride home on the subway, we retired to our hotel room.  The next day, we drove back home.  On our way, we were able to stop in DC to visit our friends Sarah, Christopher, and Alexandra.  It was great to have a place to stop about halfway through our drive so that everyone could stretch their legs.  They were even nice enough to treat us to pizza and delicious cupcakes to celebrate Sarah's birthday.  I've known Sarah forever, and it's always so nice when we get a chance to see each other, even though this time was far too short.  Hopefully, we will see the Yurasko family again very soon.

Ian and I always went on weekend trips and adventures before we had the boys.  We were a bit worried that the boys would limit our opportunities to travel.  It was so nice to see that we could still take fun trips and that the boys could really get something out of it and have fun.  Where will we go next?
.

Cobblestones and Cheese Steaks

When we last left off, the boys were busy not napping in our hotel room.  Evan was too busy stacking the pillows up on his big bed, and Ben was soooo lonely and just kept screaming in his little closet bedroom instead of napping.  So, we gave up and headed back out for more Philadelphia adventures.

By that time, it was about 4pm and sights in the old historic quarter of town were starting to close.  So, we decided to head down there in our car so it would be faster.  We hopped in the car and started on the brief one mile drive to the historic part of town.  However, after about 3 blocks of driving I turned around and looked in the back seat and both of the boys had passed out.  So, Ian and I had a lovely driving tour of Philly while the boys snoozed on which we did manage to see Betsy Ross' House.

After a short drive Evan woke back up.  So, we decided to put our other little sleeping beauty in the stroller and get out and explore a little bit.  We parked the car and walked down to Elfreth's Alley.  It's a little alley filled with residential houses whose claim to fame is that it is the longest continually inhabited street in the country.  It was a very cute street.  The houses looked small and quaint and the street was cobblestones.  For some reason, this was Evan's favorite part.  He loved walking on the rough cobblestones.  Ben, however, slept through the whole thing, even the rough jiggling of the stroller over the stony streets.

(Elfreth's Alley)

 

 

(Evan checks out a pinwheel.)

 

(Ben checks out his eyelids.)

 

(Evan walks the cobblestone streets.)

As the afternoon grew into evening we drove a few miles down the road to the intersection of 9th St. and Passayunk.  At this intersection, across the street from on another, stood Pat's and Geno's-the two most famous cheese steak restaurants in Philly.  They have been in those locations for decades competing for customers and their reputation.  Neither had indoor seating, so we ordered our cheese steaks and ate fast sitting out in the chilly Philly weather. 

Our first stop was Geno's.  There we got a sandwich with provolone and onions.  It was okay, but a little dry, and you couldn't really taste the cheese.  We rated it about a 4 on a 1-10 scale.  Across the street we decided to change it up and get the "whiz" or cheese sauce instead of provolone.  We thought this steak at Pat's was much better.  Finally, we headed up to Jim's, a short drive away.  Several people had told us that these were the best.  It actually had seating in the restaurant, so we got our food, got Evan a cheesesteak, minus the steak, and sat down to enjoy our dinner indoors.  We were getting pretty tired by that time, and we didn't think that the Jim's cheese steak was that good.  So, Pat's was declared a unanimous winner!  Ian was amazed, but he had to admit that Cheese Whiz was definitely the way to go on an authentic Philly cheese steak.  It was great fun, not even dampened by the parking ticket we got when we had returned to our car. 

(Geno's)

(Our little family is about the check it out.)

(The Geno's sandwich)

(Pat's)

(Mmmmm, cheese steak)

(The winner: Pat's with Whiz and onions)

(A bite of Jim's steaks)

(Evan tries a cheese steak modification.)

(Benny still seems happy even though he didn't get any cheese steak.)

(We forgot to take a picture until we had already eaten half...sorry.)

After a good night's sleep in our hotel room...we will be back with tales from day #2 in Philadelphia!

On the Streets of Philadelphia

As we hinted at earlier, last weekend our family went on an adventure to Philadelphia.  We just decided that we would go and check it out because we had never been there.  We were all a little tired, and we thought it was just a little crazy to attempt this trip, but we headed out anyway.  We left home about 5 o'clock after Ian got home from work.  We knew it would be a long drive but hoped that the boys would sleep in the car.  Well, after dinner, Ben happily snoozed, but Evan just really couldn't drift off for very long.  Every time we would go through a toll or in a tunnel he would wake up.  We finally arrived at our hotel in Philly at 2am, and every happily fell into their beds: Ben had a crib in the closet and Evan slept surrounded by pillows on a regular bed.

After a night of sleep that was far too brief we all woke up ready for a day of adventures.  Our hotel, The Windsor Suites, had a great location in the middle of downtown with a great view of the city out of our window.  We all ate our little breakfast at a table looking out our window at the big city below.  Then, we bundled up in our winter woolies and headed out.

(Evan scopes out the city from the window.)

We decided to walk to the historic part of town.  Benny rode in his Bjorn carrier on Daddy and Evan hitched a ride on Benny's stroller.  As we made our way through the bustling city, we all enjoyed just taking in the sights.  Evan's favorite was definitely the big guitar on the Hard Rock Cafe.  Once we arrived at the historic part of town we headed to the visitors center and were directed to the building that housed the Liberty Bell.  We went in, took a look, and Evan got a little upset because, or course, all he wanted to do was ring it! 

(The bustling city)

(Our little family in front of the Liberty Bell)

Once we convinced Evan not to ring the Liberty Bell we headed on to Independence Hall where the Continental Congress met and basically, our country was founded.  We went on a tour and listened to the tour guide describe the scene.  Evan did remarkably well listening to history, and it was great to see where so much of our country's history actually happened.  I think the history was all a bit much for Ben because after the tour and a little bottle snack, he passed out in his stroller.  Next, we stopped by the mint to see some money being made.  Evan had a great time watching the conveyor belts take the coins here or there and pressing metal into coins. 

(Evan and I in front of Independence Hall)

 

(A room in Independence Hall)

 

(Our tour group)

(Evan loved the piles of snow around the city.)

After we left the mint, we stopped by Evan's favorite stop of the whole trip, the subway!  It's funny because when Evan really loves something he just sits and zones out.  You really can't even tell that he's enjoying himself.  He just sat in the subway seat and stared.  When we got off the subway we had to sit and watch it drive away.  He was hooked.  It was the first of several trips on the subway that weekend that Evan is still continually talking about. 

(Here comes the train!)

After that busy morning we headed back to the hotel for lunch and a futile attempt at napping.  In our next installment, find out what happened when we head out in search of Philly's best cheese steak.

Nine Months

While we were on our weekend getaway (which you will hear more about later) our littlest man had his nine month birthday!  It's amazing how time has flown by.  We will update you on all of his statistics in a little while after he has stopped by Dr. Pickens for his check-up.  Until then, all we can tell you is that he's growing up fast. 

He's still not sleeping through the night, but we're finally getting used to that.  He just always seems to have some excuse why he needs to wake up (teeth, stomach bubbles, loneliness, etc).  While he is awake, he's very busy.

Ben's discovered mobility.  He has his own way of getting around.  He doesn't crawl in the typical fashion.  He prefers to army crawl to his destination using his arms.  He will occasionally push off of his tummy on to all fours and teeter in place, but it's not his preferred position.  He also loves to walk around while holding on to mommy or daddy's hands.  Recently, his feet have really started to move! 

While he loves to move, I think there's one activity he loves even more...putting things in his mouth!  We tried to make Valentine's by having him draw on some cards with crayons, but I gave up because he kept eating the crayons.  (Sorry people, no Benny Valentine's this year!)  All toys will go in the mouth.  Hands...in the mouth!  Playground equipment...in the mouth!  Shopping cart parts...in the mouth!  Mommy and Daddy's hands...in the mouth!  You get the picture.  Fortunately, this desire to eat things also extends to food.  He can power through so much yogurt that I've had to start making my own to keep costs down.  This month he has also discovered rice, cheese, bread, and goldfish.  He's looking forward to when he can eat everything that his brother eats, or should I say everything that his brother doesn't eat!

Ben is still our little happy guy.  I just love to watch his smile during the day, comfort him when his little sensitive self is startled by something, and watch him sleep before I put him to bed.  I love seeing my boys grow up...as long as it's not too fast!

(a few days old...)

 

(3 months...)

(6 months...)

(9 months!)