Thursday, January 29, 2009

Little boy

I am amazed at the naughty things that Benny does that he is to innocent to realize that they are naughty. Its so cute and so annoying at the same time when you want to say "no-no" but you want to laugh, too. :-)
Last night, while Ben was on his way home from work, I sat on the couch nursing Ezra. Benny was playing in his room. At one point I heard something crash and fall and I thought "Oh no! Benny fell and got hurt!" But when he didn't cry and I heard him continue playing I just assumed a toy had fallen. I continue nursing and watching some TV and I hear this rustling sort of noise in his room. I worried, wondering what non-toy thing he had gotten his hands on and then realized I knew what he had. I assume he was playing with his new chair-its a bean bag filled comfy chair that's low to the ground. The rustling noise I was hearing sounded like the bean bag filling being tossed around...you know, a "swish swish." That was all the noise I could hear from then on...no noises from Benny and no music from other toys.
Ben then got home and I was finished nursing. I got up to take Ezra to the bedroom and walked past Benny's room and looked in to see what he was doing.
He was sitting in a sea of diapers! Diapers ALL OVER the floor in his room! He looked up at me with his eyes clearly saying "Uh-oh"
I tried not to laugh! He got up and handed me a diaper and then said to me "thank you." I then just HAD to laugh! The 'crash' I had heard earlier was the box of diapers falling off the little table and the rustling wasn't bean bag filling, but diapers being pushed around the floor and around him.

But I can't complain. I've taught him well. He knew he had done something wrong, even if it was really cute and when I started singing the clean up song he very quickly picked up the billion diapers on the floor and plopped them back into their box. :)

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

$30,000 - Immigration stopped us and I fainted!

My cousin (whom I call my aunt because she is much older than I) shared this story with my parents who of course, in turn shared it with us.

The phone rings at my "aunt's" house in Mexico-its 6pm. My cousin Josue (Josh) picks up the phone and listens to a man tell him something to the effect "What? You don't care to remember family anymore?" and Josue says, "Benjamin, is that you?" The man answers in the affirmative and asks who he's speaking to and my cousin says "its Josue" then the man asks how hes doing and asks "Is you mom there?" So Josue hands the phone over to my aunt and tells her its Ben (which they all call him Benjamin, not Ben-its a Spanish thing).

Aunt: Hi there Benjamin, son, how are you? Whats this that you're calling? Is everything OK?
Man: Of course Auntie, everything is fine. I'm calling to tell you that we're arriving tomorrow! But its a surprise! You can't tell anyone because its a huge surprise!
Aunt: (she gets extremely excited and can't wait to see us and the boys) Oh my goodness, so I can't even tell Gaby (her daughter)?
Man: No, not even Gaby... So what would you like me to bring you?
Aunt: Nothing,nothing! It will be enough to have you here in our presence. We can't wait to see you!
Man: Well, what about Josue? Ask him if he wants anything.

My aunt asks and Josue says he'd like some chocolates filled with sweets. She tells the man.

Man: Will you go pick me up at the airport tomorrow?
Aunt: Of course!! Of course!! So where are you staying?
Man: Well, we were hoping we'd be able to stay with you! You have such a hospitable house.
Aunt: Oh yes, of course you can stay with us! We wouldn't want it any other way!
Man: OK, Auntie, I will call you tomorrow with more details about our arrival and such. Don't forget its a surprise!

They hang up. Later that evening my aunt and my mom have a long telephone conversation and my aunt mentions nothing about this surprise. That same evening my aunt starts to stress out making sure the house is ready for us. She starts to clean massively (since obviously she wasn't expecting company!) and even starts rearranging furniture in the bedrooms. Beds get moved from one room to another so that we can stay in the nicest room and with the biggest bed, since we'll have the boys with us. Desserts get made and even plans for a fancy dinner for the next evening since we'll be there. She tells her husband to clean the car out because they are going to go to the airport the next day to pick someone up. He asks "who?" and she says "its a surprise! I can't tell you!"

The next morning her phone rings and its the man again.

Man: Auntie! I need your help! Immigration has stopped us! I have all these presents that I'm bringing for everyone and some money, too, and they've stopped me because of it. Listen, here's the lawyer that's helping us out. he'll tell you everything.

So the lawyer tells my aunt that we were stopped because we were trying to bring in $30,000 US Dollars and we hadn't declared it or something like that and that we had a bunch of gifts we were bringing for them-perfumes, jewelery, clothing, toys...

What the lawyer needed my aunt to do was deposit 32,000 Pesos (which is like $3200 US Dollars) into a bank account. He gave her the bank account number and said that it would cover the fine and Ben would be released. My aunt spoke to the Man again and tells him that she's going to have to make some calls to see if a friend can lend her the money. The man tells her that hes thankful and that it won't be a big deal because he'll pay her right back when he gets there since he has money (but its been confiscated and paying the fine would release him and his money and his gifts).

My aunt calls her daughter Gaby and tells her the story asking if she can offer any money. Gaby says "anything for Benjamin, of course!" This happens with another cousin of mine and then my Aunt takes money that is set aside for a huge wedding/anniversary party they are having next month and tells her husband, "OK! lets go to the bank right now...hurry up, lets go!" My cousin Josue isn't liking the smell of the situation and tells his mom that she needs to call my parents to make sure this isn't all a scam. My aunt tells him that she cant because Ben told her it was a surprise and she couldn't tell anyone! Of course he persists and she calls my parents house.

Aunt: Hi Will (my dad) where is Benjamin?
Dad: At home, at work. Why?
Aunt: Are you sure?
Dad: Yes, why?

She tells him the story and he's like, "Woman, call the cops! Its a scam!"
She asks my dad to please call me and make sure that Ben isn't in Mexico (lol)

My dad calls me and asks where Ben is and I tell him he's at work. He then tells me the story(which was not the whole story, because my aunt hadn't been very detailed with him) and I get creeped out. I call Ben and he gets creeped out, too. My dad calls my aunt back to let her know we're fine and at home. While he's on the phone with her, my aunt's cell phone rings. Its the Man (he had asked for her cell number). My aunt puts the phones on Speakerphone so my dad can hear whats going on.

Man: Auntie, why did you trick me? You said you would pay the money.
Aunt: Oh son, its just that the woman who was going to lend me the money didn't have it and I don't have the money so I can't pay it. I'm sorry. Why don't you just leave half the stuff-we don't need the presents anyway we just want you safe. Is your wife there with you?
Man: Yes, but she fainted! The stress is too much for her and she fainted!

My aunt then tells him again to leave half the stuff and that she will see him soon, when he's released.
My dad is laughing saying "That sounds nothing like Ben!"
She says she swears it sounded like him and my mom of course understands...my dad talks to us regularly, my aunt however does not! So of course, the excitement and nervousness blurred her judgement.

My mom gets home from work that afternoon and hears all about it. She then calls my aunt and gets the full story. My aunt reported it to like a scam hotline of some sort, where you can remain anonymous. She gave them the account number and they said they had already received scam reports for that account number.

Its bizarre. I feel somewhat guilty that "we" caused such grief and stress to my family. I feel bad that they had to make so many changes to the house and that they stressed over some major cleaning. I also feel embarrassed that she had to call around and pool the money needed to bail us out-even though it wasn't us at all!

This was yesterday. And even today I am still very grateful to my Heavenly Father that they didn't fall for the scam and that they aren't out of so much money! He hears our prayers when we ask him to bless our family wherever they may be, even if our family is a bit naive and gullible. lol

Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Sleep Patterns?

Why is it that when I go to bed late the kids stay asleep, nice and cozy no issues, no wake-ups in the middle of the night? And then, why is it that when I go to bed early they wake up and won't let me get back to sleep?

Is it a curse? Is it a blessing? Heaven only knows! :-)

I went to bed early tonight (or should I say last night?) since Ben has to get up at 3am (in a half hour from now) to get to work and Ezra would not stay asleep. At least Benny has not stirred.

Ezra is different from Benny. He loves to be cuddled all the time. If he isn't cuddled he won't sleep through the night. So unfortunately since I need sleep myself, he has been sleeping in bed with us. If not, he just cries and cries. Yeah, I know, it will be a hard habit to break. But I need sleep!! So for now it will do and I will deal with the consequences later, when I'm a bit more rested. hehehehe Wish me luck! I need it! Ezra will, however sleep great in his car seat when we're going out. We have tried putting him to sleep in his car seat at night and it worked for about a week and then he just bawled it out until we picked him up and laid him in bed with us. **sigh** Benny hated sleeping in bed with us. He still does!
At least when Ezra does get comfy and falls asleep he will sleep for at least 5 or 6 hours straight. That's been a blessing for me because I can get rest.

Ezra was sleeping in his cradle when he woke up. I'm thinking that might be why he woke up. Ezra does not like to be swaddled. He cries and grunts and complains. Benny on the other hand loved it! Swaddle him all day and even nice and tight and he was as happy as could be. I think that if Ezra would tolerate being swaddled he would sleep better on his own.

I just hope I can have the strength, in all aspects of the word, to get Ezra sleeping on his own soon. I'm tired of sleeping on just one side (since I'm holding/cradling him).

**yawn** He's asleep in his sling (which is around me at the moment) so I'm going to try and put him down and get some more sleep myself. :-)

Oh!!! And Benny started saying "night-night"!!!!!

Monday, January 5, 2009

Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes...

We kept it a secret and now its official!

We moved out of the 4th Branch and into the 3rd Ward. Yesterday was our first Sunday. It was weird, I have to admit. All day it felt like we were just visiting. I guess its because visiting the 3rd Ward was something we were already used to. I had to keep telling myself "this is your ward." Everyone was really nice and really welcoming, though. I appreciated it very much.

Yesterday was also Benny's first Sunday in Nursery. He loved it!! As we were in line to drop him off he was getting so impatient and was making noise because he wanted to go in already. No patience, my little turkey! Anyway, he did really well we were told and I'm sure that next week will go just as well. He did cry, though when it was time to leave. Can you tell he's not social enough?! lol I guess thats what you get when you're the eldest child and you're still only 19 months. :-P

Today will be a busy day I think. We're going grocery shopping and hopefully we'll get some other errands done. Ben is on vacation starting Wednesday! WooHoo! I think we're going to try to relax a bit and also get some painting done in the basement.

Happy Monday!

Thursday, January 1, 2009

Happy New Year!

I can't believe its 2009 already! I'm so excited for this new year. I'm excited for all the new things we will encounter and for the new people and places we will meet.

My hopes for this year are many. Although my resolutions for the new year have not been established yet. I've heard that when you write your resolutions down and look at them frequently you are more likely to stick with them. I hope to get these written down this week. I do know of one "goal" I have for this year: No Soda! I want to try and not drink any soda except for special occasions (i.e. at parties). Soda put on the pounds, and of course like the many other million Americans, I too, have the goal of losing weight this year.

Another goal of mine this year is to read The Standard Works. It seems like it will be hard and overwhelming, but at least I can try-and something is better than nothing.


Things at The Queendom are going well. I have my off days when both boys seem like they're going to make me go crazy, but for the most part I am really enjoying being a mom of 2. I am also getting more accustomed to all that this new duty entails. Ezra is now 1 month old, over 9lbs and breastfeeding is going well. I couldn't ask for more! Well, maybe a little more sleep-but I'll survive. :-)

Well, I should go now. I'm surprised I even got a chance to blog anything, so I'm not gonna push my luck! I'm gonna get going on some other Internet things that need to get done and then off to feed Ezra!