Dress up

Somewhere in one of the library books we borrowed a story came up about dress-up.  I've never told Zeke about dress-up, and I certainly didn't teach him how to play, but he managed to play anyway.   

One random Wednesday, Zeke came to find me and Ben with two gigantic socks on his hands (and arms and shoulders).  He told me they were Daddy's socks and that he was playing dress up.  I followed him into my bedroom and watched him assemble incredible outfits while pulling most of Mike's clothes out of their neatly folded positions in the drawers. 

Zeke the photographer

Zeke asked for the camera one day.  I was feeling crazy, so I gave it to him and showed him which button to push.  I think it was an excellent gamble. 

 Ben "the Cheese", by Zeke 

 Mom, by Zeke

Daddy, by Zeke

Hand, Foot & Mouth

Ben caught the dreaded HF&M disease.  Here is happy Ben before:

 And here is afflicted Ben during:

We don't have any "after" photos yet, because he's not better yet.  HF&M disease is a common childhood illness that presents strong symptoms in young children (similar to chicken pox), and mild symptoms in older children.  Lucky Ben caught it almost six months sooner than Zeke did (Ben is 16 months old and suffering his first infection, Zeke was 22 months old when he first got it).  Ben spent five days not eating or drinking very much because of the red blisters in his throat and mouth and his bum was very sore and had innumerable blisters.  (The doctor admitted that the name is misleading - it should be called "Hand, Foot, Mouth, Legs, & Bum" disease.)
He's now progressed to some impressive, pus-filled blisters on his feet and one toenail is purple and looks to be trying to fall off.  He is also very irritable.  Very un-Ben like.
We're hoping for a recovery this week - Mom is tired of being inside and tired of worrying about spreading sickness to others.  We have a lot of park time to make up.

Watermelon King

On Memorial Weekend, we bought a gigantic watermelon and stuffed ourselves silly.  Zeke helped me cut some of it into fork-sized pieces and liked the circular rinds I left beside the cutting board.  He put one on his head and declared himself the Watermelon King.