The last few weeks have been a little better than the weeks before. Last month I wrote about how challenging the previous weeks had been. I think some of his attitude and irritable-ness was because he was in pain from teething. His four I-teeth have been pushing through since Christmas. When he gets Ibuprofen, he's much sweeter and more cooperative, but we don't like to give him medicine too often....Especially Ibuprofen since it bothers my stomach so much.
I have lots to say about Ben at Karen's. Until lately, Joel was picking Ben up and dropping him off so I never had a chance to talk to Karen about Ben. Now that I've been picking him up, I get to ask some more questions. We agree that this is normal toddler behavior, but she says that he's the most extreme toddler she's taken care of. She says he is improving and that the things we work on at home is definitely helping. He screaaaams whenever anyone wants to play with anything of "his" (which is Karen's entire house....), but he immediately calms down as soon as Karen says "Abby's turn" or whatever. So that's progress. Her concern is that he's constantly aware of all the other kids. He tries to boss them around no matter what they're doing. They can be in a different room sitting on the couch and Ben will say "No Cade Couch!". She describes him as "stressed" over what the other kids are doing, but I don't really think it's stress....When we see him do that at home (with Emma or cousins or us), "stressed" is definitely not the word I would use to describe him. It's hard because we get a 10 minute update from Karen at the end of the day...and most of what we hear is how much he screamed or how long his tantrums were...we don't hear tooooo much about all the fun, cute things he did (I'm SUUURE he's not always challenging and frustrating!). Joel knows that as a teacher, when someone calls him to ask how a student is doing, he doesn't spend much time talking about all the great things the kid did...he tells them what the challenges are and what they need to work on. Despite all that I'm writing about the challenges, Karen does say good things about Ben...she told me yesterday that every kid has their challenges and that there are things that Ben is great at that other kids aren't. Last week, she told us Ben had his Best Day EVER! And the next day was his Best Day EVER EVER! She also keeps saying that Ben is so smart and advanced, which she thinks is part of why he's so challenging. I have to keep myself from nodding excitedly and saying "oh yes yes yes!! Tell me more!!". FYI, she has never used the word "challenging" to describe Ben. She has her own, nice way of saying it. She is great with Ben. She is consistent and positive and loving. I know he's in great hands when we're not there.
Despite his bossiness, he loves the kids at daycare and they love him. Ben looks up to Cade (The only other boy) soooo much. We're pretty sure that the reason Ben started carrying around his blankie is because Cade does it. When Cade wears a cool shirt, it's the first thing Ben wants to show us when we pick him up and we hear about it all evening long (Cade Football shirt!). Cade looooves that Ben looks up to him. He's a sweet guy and takes good care of Ben. Abigail and Ben are total buds. When they're not fighting, they sweetly bring each other their lovies and are learning to play nicely together. A few weeks ago, they were playing nicely and the big kids pointed out to Karen that this was the first time they'd seen the "babies" playing nicely together (progress!). Yesterday, Ben was sick so I had to come pick him up. When I got there, Karen had all the kids in the other room and Ben was snuggled by himself on the couch. Karen was trying to keep Abby in the other room away from Ben, but all she wanted to do was come hang out with "her Ben". Ben talks all the time about Natalie (who lives a few houses down from us), Natalie's dad, Natalie's truck and Natalie's Dog, etc. He no longer talks about hitting Abby (again, progress!!). He only talks lovingly about the kids. I love that he has a little family away from us! It's like having four siblings! Side note: As I'm writing this, Ben is beginning to wake up and he keeps saying "Abigail no no no!".
Lately, I've started to see Ben's imagination start to develop. His thing lately is to be a "Big Kitty". He goes around all day doing really loud meow/roars. He's not a tiger, not a lion...but a Big Kitty (big ditty). He has been pretending that random objects are rocket ships. He'll build a stack of legos or roll a log of playdoh and fly them around saying "Rocket ship!". He's also started pretending that Tucker is doing stuff. I pretend that Tucker is talking to him or playing hide and seek. He gets a huge kick out of that. Lately he has liked to pretend that Tucker is reading a book.
Another thing that just developed this month is his love for his blankies. It started at Karen's...after nap, he would want to carry his blankie around. She asked if we had a smaller blanket for him to use since the blanket he had at Karen's was kind of big. So, at home, we started giving him his thin swaddling blankets. He immedietly started referring to his big quilt that my mom made as his "Heavy Blankie" and his swaddling blankets as his "baby Blankies". He thinks heavy =big and baby =small. He uses these to describe all different kinds of big or small things (balls, cars, and even his toots!!).
Ben really is SUCH a sweet boy. On his very best days, he just ooooozes sweetness. He says "Sank Ou" (Thank you) for everythinnnnggggg, shares everything and even gives the occasional random kiss (My favorite!!). A lot of times, I'm surprised at how well he listens when we tell him to do things. Even if he whines or complains that it's time to get ready for bed, he still goes upstairs when we ask him to. Brushing teeth has become SO much easier. We ask him to hold his hands and open his mouth. It's not perfect, but it's sooo much better than it was. I used to joke that brushing his teeth every day was worse than when he was circumcised!! Ben still really likes to have some alone time. This weekend, Joel's parents were here and I think he was a bit overstimulated. When they left to run errands, Ben sat quietly playing and reading by himself for at least half an hour before he wandered downstairs to see if anyone was even home. When we go to other people's houses or when people come to our house, he is very quiet and just observes what is going on. When our neighbors come over, he dives onto the couch and buries his head in the corner the entire time. haha. Just like his mom.
And just two quick sweet memories:
1) Last week, as we were saying our prayer before bed, Ben looked up at me with his little hands folded and sweetly said "papa happy". I texted Bill to let him know that a special prayer had been said for him.
2) Every night before I go to bed, I put Ben's sleep sack on him. Sometimes he's totally asleep and doesn't move a muscle. Sometimes he wakes up and we have a sweet little conversation (pretty sure he's still half asleep though). The other night was one of the sweet conversations. He excitedly said "truck!! Voom!!"...A very loud truck had driven by a minute earlier. Then he sweetly asked for his water bottle and baby blankie. When I gave him his pillow he sweetly said "sank ou mom" and then "night night mom". I love his sweet, sleepy self. He's so happy and sugary sweet and loving. It's my favorite :)
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