These little piggies needed more Omega-3 fats...

Danny's Nursery Rhyme of the Day:

This little piggy went to market
This little piggy stayed home
This little piggy had roast beef
This little piggy had nuts (?!)
And this little piggy went "weeeeeee!!!"

Who, me?

What brother? I swear, officer, I was just minding my own business and running around naked. Never saw him. Benjamin who?

(By the way, doesn't Danny look alot like Matt here? I think it's the cheesy smile and the "I am SO innocent" look he's practicing!)

Have you seen this child?

Benjamin Joseph Varga

last seen with his brother Danny

near the vicinity of the "pobby" (potty)

......Danny's taken the fifth

Hail, hail, the gang's all here...Red Robin style!

Well, this is as close as we get to a full family portrait in our house - and it's not even at home! Bill called us all to get together for dinner one night a few weeks ago with Diane's family and mother-in-law, Becky, and since it was a night that Erin worked at Red Robin, we "invaded her personal space" and crashed one of her tables for dinner. We had a great time and the boys were really good - for about 20 minutes or so. But long enough - and it gets better all the time!

Okay, I put the food in here first BEFORE I fling it on the floor, right? I'll get this one day...

Old MacDonald had a cow...

This is Danny's new version of an old classic. :) Does that mean Old MacDonald got mad? What happened to the farm? Did he "buy the farm"? Am I searching desperately for something cute about the boys and I'm really stretching? Yep. Well, at least it IS kid-related.
While Danny mutilates nursery rhymes, Benjamin just keeps adding to his vocabulary. Along with "pobby" for potty, "Erin", "EJ" and "outside", he just keeps adding about a word a day these days. Just soaking it up and spitting it out (language, that is....well, he does that with food, too, but that's another story).
Just to keep you updated on their adorable looks, here are some new pictures!

Hey, where did YOUR week go?

Ours went by in a blur - obviously, since I'm just now realizing I haven't blogged in here for a week! George was home on vacation last week and, although we didn't go anywhere, we went everywhere! Actually, we got home Monday night VERY late because we stopped off to see Teta Helen before we left Johnstown and then stopped at Prime Outlets in Hagerstown to do some quick shopping (hurray for the new playground next to the Carter's outlet!). So Tuesday was a total recovery day, then we geared up for serious vacation "fun", Varga-style. In 100 degree heat. In 150% humidity. What are we, nuts? Wednesday was the Baltimore Zoo. Not a great idea after all. The ZooTrain in the kiddie section wasn't running and the Petting Zoo was closed. Most of the animals were being taken into cooler barns because of the heat and the ones that were out were in natural habitats now - which means you couldn't see them! I think Danny did get to see a rhino. And a cheetah. Something like that. The monkey house had chimpanzees, lemurs and crocodiles-we felt a little jipped. The most fun Benjamin had was watching the excavating team demolish the old hippo house!

Thursday was the Howard County Fair. In 100 degree heat. In 150% humidity. Did I say we were nuts? And didn't learn from our mistakes? But we had a date to pick up Kelly as well as her new boyfriend, Danny (really!), so we tried for a couple of hours in the afternoon before Kelly had to go back to work. We took the boys home and everyone napped until 7:30pm, then we all woke up and went back to the fair for dinner and it was much better! The bands were out and the lights were on the rides and Benjamin just kept staring at the Ferris wheel and saying "Roun' and roun'!). Friday was collapse day again with a few afternoon errands, then Saturday we went to the Maryland Science Center in Baltimore. Indoor. Air-conditioning. Aaaaaaahhhhh! That's more like it! A nice dinosaur exhibit, the Titanic artifact exhibit, a short stint in the Kids Room (they really should tell you that room closes 2 hours before the museum does- it would help the visit planning and we would have had more than 20 minutes!) and a nice dinner at the museum cafe. The boys were great - except for the Planetarium - but what was I thinking? Sunday was major cleanup day for Mom (me) and back to work George went yesterday. We already can't wait for our Labor Day visit to Johnstown and our timeshare week in Massanutten in October (anyone want to crash? We have plenty of room?). I'm trying to plan a family vacation for Spring Break, already, too!

Well, that's a long boring passage to catch you up on things. Oh, yes, Danny's potty training has definitely "taken" - diapers are gone forever for him! Miracles are wonderful! Tomorrow we may try to tackle visiting Daddy at work for lunch...if Mom feels up to the challenge! More tomorrow - Same Bat time, Same Bat channel.....

Thanks, Zach!

Actually, we should thank Aunt Susan for helping us use the last available floor space in our playroom in the basement. And totally blocking Erin's exit from her room! :) But it is great and he and Benjamin (and Daddy) love to crawl around in it while Mom thanks Aunt Susan for the distraction and tries to get some housework done.

Oh - and for you who don't know -

DANNY'S POTTYTRAINED!!!!

Yep, no more diapers AT ALL! Miracles do happen every day and you've seen one here, folks!

Other families gather in the kitchen, right?

Another one bites the dust

And another carefree childhood ends....with the first day of work for darling daughter Kelly! Here's my very proud, hardworking "baby" girl getting ready for the first day on the job at Panera Bread in Columbia Mall. Panera Bread is a sort of cafeteria-style breadery/bakery/sandwich shop that is very chic around here and has really good soup bowls and desserts! Kelly worked so hard last night from 4:30-10:15 that instead of staying up all night talking to her friends on the computer, she said goodnight to ME and toddled off to bed at the relatively early hour of 12:30am. Still sleeping at 10:10am, of course, but here I go to wake up her sleepy head and get her started on her second day of reality...Way to go, Kel!

Nice and shiny!

That's Danny's favorite phrase when he's done his teeth or washed his hands - "I'm nice and shiny now!". So our little gremlins are nice and shiny for another day and another daily pick-me-up for working girl Katie! Off to the races...

A Bless You for today

Well, I'm sorry it's taken me since Saturday, but I hope this story makes up for the delay...

Saturday evening we took the boys to Vigil Mass at St. Paul's in Ellicott City and since we missed the processional (this is a surprise to you?), we decided to not try to sit in the pews with the boys and went straight to the nursery with them. The nursery's closed-circuit TV was working great and we watched the Mass while the boys amused themselves. I did sneak up to listen to the Gospel and homily (George got the honor last week) and came down to get the boys for Communion. But the summer crowd was very sparse and by the time we rounded up the boys and headed upstairs....the last person was leaving the Communion line and Father was already putting the Host away. So, we tromped back downstairs and figured we'd make it up at Sunday Mass if we had to. But as we were leaving, Danny pulled on my hand, looked up at me and said, "But we didn't do Jesus!". I was pleasantly surprised he remembered that we go to Communion each time, but told him we'd do "Jesus" next time. He didn't look too happy about it, but didn't make a fuss. As we were walking into the parking lot, I saw Father Mike, so I decided to ask him to give Danny his blessing so Danny could "do Jesus" and feel better. When Father Mike found out we missed communion, he hustled us right into church, took the Host out of the Tabernacle (is that what it is called behind our altar? sorry - I'm not sure) and gave me Eucharist. Then he turned to Danny and gave him a lovely blessing. Danny was SO happy while Father was blessing him and had the most beatific smile I've ever seen while Father was doing it. I've never seen that look on his face before, except when we brought Benjamin home to him from the hospital. He was truly happy to "do Jesus" in a way in which I've never seen a child of 3 capable. It really brought tears to my eyes. I tried to explain it to Father, but he didn't understand what Danny had really done.

As we walked back to the car to tell George (he had taken Benjamin ahead to the van), he looked at me so contentedly and said, "I got my Bless You!".

Amen.