.

We made a stop at Petsmart yesterday. Chris needed to get his haircut and went to a Hair Cuttery in Mount Laurel. There was a Petsmart in the same shopping center so I took Ben and Sophie in for a browse.

They are friends. Sophie is the first thing Ben thinks about when he wakes up, and the last thing he thinks about at the end of the day. She's really his best friend.

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We arrived home yesterday evening from our long weekend away and got caught in a rainstorm just as we turned onto our street. I remembered that I'd left a window open in our bedroom, so I offered to get drenched and run in and check the house out. The floor in our room was fine, and the window sill was just a little damp, to my relief.

I called Chris on his cell and told him that all was okay in the house. He decided to hang in the car with Ben and Sophie until the rain died down. It was really pouring.

I wanted to get a shower, but I remembered that the guys had been working on the house while we were out of town, so I headed downstairs to take a look. As I walked down the stairs, I saw water traveling towards the back of the house. The floor at the front of the house was completely wet, and it had traveled up into the drywall.

It was such a bummer to see. We've been so excited to have the downstairs finished for Ben so that he can run around like a madman. We've lived here for 4 years and even in the worst rainstorms, we'd never had a drop of water in the front of the basement. Chris deduced that when the walls had been studded, the guys had inadvertently disabled our waterproofing system. But things got squared away with the contractor - Chris talked to him and he said he'd replace the wet drywall and all that.

Here's why I admire my husband so much, though: He could have been cranky for the rest of the night. He could have been annoyed at the guys for messing the job up. He could have been frustrated because the job isn't going to get done on time. Instead, though, he figured out how it had happened and moved on... He made a comment that all it really is for us is a minor hassle - that we're not living in flooding and our house is fine. He puts things in perspective and has a healthy, optimistic outlook on things. He is Good.

I realized all of this as we were getting Ben ready for bed last night. Chris was tired (Ben refused to let us sleep past 6ish any morning this weekend), he had work to do, and the basement thing had caught him off guard. But rather than let all of that stress him out, he was upstairs with me and Ben and Sophie in Ben's room, sitting on the floor with us and singing silly songs to them. Those are the little moments that I always hoped to have in my life - the moments I'd like to freeze in time and always remember. Being Chris' wife has given me so many of those moments. I'm proud to have him as my partner in crime.

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So. Today Ben and I ran some errands, did some grocery shopping... He didn't take that great of a nap this afternoon, but when he woke up we got out of the house and went to Rittenhouse Square and did some hanging around. Here, Ben and some people I assume are 'regulars' at the park.


Dinnertime was a goofball fest.

Word.


Have I mentioned Sophie and Ben are friends? Here's why (in her opinion):


Getting ready for bed tonight, we hung out in Ben's room a bit. He and Soph were wrestling and having fun.


He has started to refine his stalling tactics. He climbs onto his chair; he jumps off his chair. He puts books on his bookshelf; he removes them one by one. Here, he looks at me after I tell him it really is bedtime.


Night night, Mister Ben.