Ben's Day!

All week, we've been telling Ben that his birthday is on Saturday. Even though it was yesterday, we pretended like it was today so that Joel and I could have the whole day with him to shower him with Birthday Love. We had the perfect day! We decided to keep it low key and just spend the day together doing fun things as a family. When he woke up, Joel and I walked into his room singing happy birthday. Then we came downstairs for pancakes with candles.

After breakfast, we opened a few presents (we planned to spread them throughout the day). Joel and I got him a tball and 2 different baseball bats, which were a hit (no pun intended)! 

We played around for a while then headed to Old McDebbie's Farm. Joel took Ben a few weeks ago, but I had never been. It was so fun! Ben was more interested in all their play toys and the water pump than he was in the animals, but that's ok! 

The farm has a U-Fish pond, so we gave it a try. Ben thought he was supposed to put the pole IN the water, tip down. But, we still managed to get a fish every single time we cast our line. Luckily, the fish almost always got free, otherwise we would have been bringing home a bunch of fish. We ended up bringing two home. Ben wasn't scared of the fish at all! He even watched the lady gut the fish and got to see the heart beat (sorry to any vegetarian friends). 

After the farm, we went out to lunch. He was being so silly. I love that little face! 

 

We came home and Ben went down for a late nap. I finished making his cake and then I took a nice, long nap while Joel went for a run. I can't remember the last time I had a nap!! I felt like I was on vacation! As soon as Ben woke up from nap, we sang happy birthday and enjoyed some cake. He ate some, but we told him we had a special surprise in the garage, so he was happy to ditch the cake. 

Joel and I decided to get Ben a trampoline for his bday. It's a small, child's trampoline. Ben was so excited! It's so cute watching his solid little body jump and fall and bounce. He was all sweaty by the time he was done! After bouncing for a while, we opened a few more presents and had dinner. I made veggie fajitas. I was trying to take a picture of the meal, but I noticed that Ben stole the cheese in the 1 second it took for me to look at the camera :)

We couldn't have asked for a more special day! It was so fun to just focus on Ben and not worry about anything else. We need to make more reasons to have days like this! My soul is happy after so much quality time with my family. 

Benjamin is TWO!

I feel like the post for two years should be extra special...but I don't even know where to start. It's crazy to think that at this time last year, Ben was mastering his walking skills and couldn't say much (not that we could understand anyways).  It blows my mind how much changes in a year!! Let's see...where are we at right now...

 

For starters, we had his 2 year doctor appt. He's 34.2 pounds (90th percentile) and 36 inches tall (above 95th percentile...off the charts).  

 

This boy amazes me every day with how well he can talk and how much he learns every day. Four word sentences are the norm, with the occasional longer sentence and he pronounces most things pretty clearly. Although,  maybe I'm wrong. My mom occasionally sends me videos of Ben saying something for help translating :) The past few days, he's been asking "Why" whenever we tell him not to do something. I need to work on a list of funny things he says.

 

Lately we've been working on alternatives to screaming and shrieking when he wants or doesn't want something. He's been good at saying thank you/please/no thank you for quite a while...but now we're trying to teach him to use those polite words when he's in a frustrating moment. It's so rewarding to see him stop in the middle of a scream and ask nicely!

 

I was talking to a friend at work and she asked me if we were having a theme for Ben's birthday. The answer is no. It got me thinking....there's nothing that Ben is over-the-moon obsessed with. Some kids looove trains or trucks or balls or whatever...we can't think of anything that Ben just can't get enough of. He likes lots of stuff, but there's not one thing that rises above the rest...maybe balls/sports?

 

There's so much about Ben that brings us joy every day. He is the sweetest guy. Most of the time, Ben prefers that Joel do things for him (change his diaper, read him books,  etc). Some days, when I'm feeling extra moody, it kind of hurts my feelings. The other night ben did NOT want me to read his night time stories. I was sad and decided to go down stairs while Joel read (we normally all 3 hang out together). Joel told Ben that I was sad. When I came back up, Ben hugged my legs and looked at me with the most curious face.  He really looked at me to see if he could see what "sad" looked like. I wonder if that's what compassion or empathy look like in early stages?

 

His energy and glee also bring us so much joy. He loves to race around the house in the evening with Joel and I. We chase and tackle and tickle and dance. Joy just pours from his little (big!) Soul. One other thing that we can't get enough of is his hilarious, expressive eyes and faces. He does silly things with his eyes when he's confused or when he's thinking or being silly. He'll look far up or to the side or roll his eyes around. He sometimes does a cheesy grin or an "ooooo" face while moving his eyes around..it's so darn hard to catch on camera! 

 

He's been so happy and full of laughter lately. Today, Ben was laughing hysterically when Joel was pretending that Tucker was tooting. After dinner, he was running around the backyard chasing Emma, laughing and laughing. I could just eat up his real, belly laugh! He's also been more lovey. He's been more willing to get kisses from us and he'll run up and hug us at random times. I LOVE it when he runs up to me at the Taylor's and hugs my legs! I also love seeing him snuggle into Joel's chest when they're reading at night or when Ben is sad.

 

He found my makeup. We came up the stairs to see him putting it IN his eye.

 

 

Pure Glee! He just started loving slides! 

 

My mom took him to the Spring Fair! 

 

Ben decided to show Brenna a good tantrum while she was watching him a few weeks ago. They had just gotten to the park when Ben showed off his tantrum throwing skills (this was the last time he threw a major tantrum and this was more than a month ago!)

 

He got some new goggles :)

 

 

Earlier this week, Ben insisted on taking his golf set to the Taylor's.  This is him and Joel getting ready to head to the Taylor's in the morning. Notice he also has his shades in his hand :)