8 weeks - Second pregnancy

I just went back to my blog posts about my pregnancy symptoms from my pregnancy with Ben.  It's been kind of fun to compare this pregnancy to the last one, so I want to write down a few things about my symptoms so far. My memories of the first half of Ben's pregnancy are...awful..I was pretty nervous that this pregnancy would be as miserable, but I'm happy to report that so far my pregnancy this time is much easier. The hardest part last time was the anxiety and the insane emotional rollercoaster my brain was on. So far I haven't had an ounce of that! I've had a bit of nausea and some days are worse than others. Today I came home from work early because I was so tired and nauseous. Other than the nausea, I've been a little tired. I've been sleeping totally fine at night, but I have really low energy during the day (with Ben, I slept terrible right from the start and had to get a prescription for Ambien at my very first appointment). I avoid nausea by eating...all the time...And nothing sounds good, so I end up eating not-so-healthy food. Looking back at this time last pregnancy, I didn't think I had gained any weight...well, this time I've definitely gained a few pounds. I had a little bit of bleeding one day this week, but I went it for an ultrasound and they weren't worried about it at all...and there hasn't been anything since them. My worry-o-meter was pretty low on that one. So far so good! Overall, I feel like a normal person!

We're not keeping the pregnancy a secret from Ben, but we're not really trying to make him understand what's going on yet. For starters, we don't want him telling the Taylors that I'm pregnant. We want to be able to talk to them about our plans for maternity leave, etc before they find out from Ben that I'm pregnant.

Good News!

(Written on 1/1/15, but not posted until 1/23)

Soooo, good news! I am pregnant! We found out on Tuesday, December 23rd (Fun fact: We found out about being pregnant with Ben on August 23rd, 2011). Double fun fact is that Chauncy is also pregnant (About 2 weeks ahead of me). There's a bit of a story about it, so here goes:

On Sunday night, Joel and I went out for an early anniversary date. I had a little bit of a head cold, but I was still feeling pretty good. The food was DELICIOUS and I had two amaaaazing moscow mules. YUMMY. But, oops...later that night I felt miserable. It was only two drinks, but I had to make myself throw up that night. I barely got any sleep because my head was spinning. Uuuuugh. The next day was miserable. I was soooo hungover. I told Joel to never let me drink more than one drink ever again! Hmmmm. Odd. Two drinks don't normally do that to me. Maybe the restaurant just made really strong drinks?? The next morning (Tuesday), I woke up from a dream that I wasn't pregnant. I took my temperature like normal and it had taken a slight dip . Bummer. It was still a few days until my period was expected, but I woke up and took a pregnancy test just so I wouldn't have to wonder. I was feeling pretty down in the dumps. I took the test and my eyes bugged out of my head when I saw a second line develop. EEEEEE!!! It was 5 am on a vacation day, but I woke Joel up by tapping him on the shoulder. He woke up and thought something was wrong! I just gave him a huge smile without saying a word. He knew exactly what the smile meant!! The day we found out I was pregnant with Ben was, hands down, the happiest day of my life. This time, I was still very happy, but now that I know the work involved with kids, the excitement was mellowed with some thoughts of "EEEEEK, what are we getting ourselves into?!?!"  I took another test to confirm and went to the clinic for a blood test to triple check. All positive!! Telling the news to my sisters was fun. I texted Chauncy in the early morning, since I knew she'd be up...but I forced myself to wait until 8 to tell Brenna.

That night, Chauncy and I announced our pregnancies to my mom and Steve. My mom was shocked to learn we were both pregnant. The next day, on Christmas Eve, we announced together to my dad and twins. Again, shock all around.

Since we were doing fertility treatments, the clinic is having me come in every few days to see how my HCG levels are progressing. They are increasing "verrrrrry nicely" as the nurse keeps telling me in a high-pitched, excited voice. Of course, every time they tell me my levels for that day, I google the heck out of everything. There are calculators that show how fast the HCG levels are rising and then compares that to a normal "singleton" pregnancy and a twin or triplet pregnancy. My levels are much higher than the average singleton pregnancy. GULP!!! I'm trying not to get too excited about the possibility of twins, buuuuut, there weeeerre three eggs there when they did the IUI....so the chances aren't too far fetched! However, HCG levels vary widely...and as Brenna pointed out, maybe my kids just like to be off the charts on everything. Maybe I just have one super cooker in there! We go in for an ultrasound on Sunday. They won't be able to see any fetuses, but they'll be able to see how many gestational sacs there are.

My due date is 9/5/15. Chauncy's due date is 8/21/15. It will be a different experience being pregnant with Chauncy than it was to be pregnant with Brenna! I'm so excited!

The picture below shows my hcg levels compared to "average" and "high" hcg levels for a single pregnancy. Mine is the green line.

New Year Update

Today is the first day of 2015, so I thought I better do a quick update! I guess one of the most exciting things to report is that Ben is about 90% potty trained. He just wears pull-ups at night, but otherwise we're calling it done! This summer, Ben would frequently wear underwear, but I thought it was too early to really push him, so we just let him do it for fun whenever he wanted. Over Christmas break, we started having him wear underwear and we haven't looked back. We're out of diapers and I'm hoping not to have to buy anymore for a while! For the first week of Christmas break, Joel and I would try to remind Ben to go potty...but he would resist and fight us. I thought this was maybe a sign that he wasn't ready...but, instead, he just goes whenever he feels like it. We'll be playing and suddenly he'll sprint to the bathroom and slam the door. Pretty soon we hear the toilet flushing and the sink turn on. We come in at the last minute to help him wipe, but otherwise he is totally self-sufficient. It blows me away how independent he is. I joked that Ben would just potty train himself, since he's managed all other big transitions in his own, independent way. We have a few more days of Christmas break and then it's back to the Taylor's...hopefully his potty training habits carry forward to their house!

  Another fun thing about Ben that has become more developed in the last few months is his sweetness!! Oh my goodness, that kid pours on the charm! On a normal day, he tells us mannnny times throughout the day "mommy, I yike you" or "daddy, you're nice". Often, those words are followed by a hug around the legs or a kiss to whatever body part is closest to him at the time. He says this at anytime....while we're playing, eating dinner, going for a walk or loading into the car. It melts my heart every.single.time. When we tell him "I love you", he often says it back. The thing that kills me is his sweet, sincere voice and the way his big eyes look up at me when he says it!! Gah! How did he learn to be so sweet??? He's also a big snuggle bug. I'm sure I've mentioned it before, but one of his favorite things to do is bring a big stack of books home from the library and spend an HOUR sitting on the couch snuggled with mom or dad, reading every last one. He likes to snuggle us both before bed (we call it Sandwich time), we snuggle on the couch watching movies, we snuggle in the love sac after nap, we snuggle a lot with that little guy!! He sure fills my love tank!! (How many exclamation points did I use in that paragraph?). 

Oh...I guess I have more sweet things about him...he seems so thoughtful of others. He is hyper-aware of what others are doing all the time and wonders why they're doing it. This comes out as sweetness a lot...he'll notice a new shirt of mine and tell me that he thinks it's pretty. Or, the other night, I did my hair for a date with Joel. I came out of the bathroom and Ben immediately told me my hair looked pretty. My mom got a new kitchen table and Ben's first comment was that it looked nice. It blows me away how aware he is of other people! I hope to continue to nurture that trait! He is also EXTREMELY sweet around babies. OMG. He has lots of babies in his life. His cousin Aldon, our neighbors just had a baby, and he also has 2 babies at the Taylor's and 2 babies at the Stueckle's on Mondays. He looooves holding babies. The first time I saw him hold a baby was our neighbor baby, Camden. Ben turned into a giant puddle of mush. He sat on the couch with the baby in his arms and had the most dreamy look on his face. He gently touched the baby's face and hands and leaned down and kissed him on the cheek. He didn't want to give the baby up! The first time Ben held Aldon was even sweeter. Ben kept trying to snuggle closer and closer to Aldon, so pretty soon they were all smashed together in an awkward heap on the couch. It was almost like Ben was in a trance! He kissed Aldon and just wanted to keep snuggling. He talks so sweetly about the babies at the Taylor's and Stueckle's, When we talk about the possibility of Ben being a big brother some day, he gets all mushy and his voice gets all sweet and soft as he tells us that he'll hold the babies in his arms and how tiny they'll be. Gah. His sweetness kills me. 

So, wanna hear the flip side of all that gushiness? The sweetness is the norm....but on occasion (sometimes more frequently than others), his other side comes out. And I don't have much patience for this side of Ben! ugh. He's started a new thing where he demands us to "listen!". If we're not letting him get what he wants, he'll demand "Listen! Listen! Mom! Listen!". It's quite funny, but that habit can't be allowed to stick around! I don't know where he learned this. Neither Joel or I say "listen" and I'm sure the Taylors don't. When he resists stuff, he usually resists furiously and strongly. Also, he still throws the occasional MEGA TANTRUM. The other day when Joel's parents were here, Ben was being rude to Emma. I calmly took him upstairs for a time out. As soon as I set him down, he melted dowwwwwn. Eyeroll. After battling with him to stay in his room, I decided it was time for bed. Putting jammies on him when he's having a tantrum like this is nearly impossible. I had to sit on him just to barely manage to get his pants on (I was laughing out loud at this point because it was so crazy). I came down stairs to see Joel's parents looking terrified. Their eyes were wide open and they were awkwardly trying to talk about happy things and ignore the screaming octopus upstairs. A while later, Ben started to wind down, so I went upstairs. After a few minutes of me sitting with him, his tantrum turned off like a light switch and he suddleny started talking happily about something else laughing and joking as he was telling me about whatever it was. As fast as his tantrums turn on, they turn right off again! (I just read through this paragraph and it dawned on me that his Mega Tantrums aren't as "Mega" as they used to be. He hasn't banged his head against the wall or floor in a long time and these Mega Tantrums never last as long as they used to...so, that's good!!)

Ben is sweet to 99% of other people. The only exception is our poor neighbor boy, Kyler. Kyler loooooves Ben. Everytime Kyler sees Ben out the window, Kyler begs his mom to let him go outside to play. Kyler is always asking where his "buddy, Ben" is and if he can play. Kyler is a well-behaved, easy going, sweet kid (he's 8 months older than Ben). For some reason, Ben is so rude to Kyler! When Kyler comes over to play, Ben bosses him around and says rude things to him. When they're playing cars, Ben just bulldozes Kyler all the time with a mean look on his face. Whenever Kyler is around, Ben simply acts MEAN. He gets a mean look in his face and his voice is mean and pretty much all his actions are mean. This is the only time I see Ben like this. He doesn't get like this with his cousins, or other friends...or other strangers that he meets at the library or whatever. Most of the time, he's a normal person around other kids. I can't figure out why he's like this with Kyler! I feel SO BAD. We have to bribe Ben just to go play at Kyler's house....but that backfired a few weeks ago when Ben came back home waaaaailing just two minutes after being at Kyler's house. hmmmm. I was trying to analyze it...and you know how it's a common thing for kids to be mean to kids of the opposite gender who "like" them? I kind of wonder if it applies to all people, not just the opposite gender. Because Kyler SO OBVIOUSLY likes Ben, I wonder if Ben picks up on that and feels the need to resist equally strong. I've noticed similar reactions with Ben and adults. With adults that don't try too hard for Ben's attention, Ben seems to open up to them more and has an easier, more relaxed relationship with them...but the adults that try too hard to give him attention or make him like them, Ben resists them more. So, since Kyler tries REALLY hard to play with Ben, it's almost like he's resisting extra hard. Weird...

A few things about Ben's language...He still says "Ben" instead of "I" 99% of the time. This is an improvement, though, because he used to say "Ben" for "I" and "me"...now at least he uses me/mine/my properly. It's hard to try to get him to say "I"....but I feel like we need to get better about it before it becomes too ingrained in his mind. Another thing is that he can "spell" his name. He says "B-E-N spells Ben!". He recognizes those three letters anywhere. It's fun to see him start to learn his letters. We play with magnetic alphabets at home, and the Taylors are working with him a lot on his alphabet and identifying letters.

Below are a few emails that I've sent to my sisters recently. Basically, my emails with them should all be documented in this blog...

Ben has been telling such long, elaborate stories lately. They're just getting longer and longer and more detailed and imaginative!  And he tells them with such conviction that I sometimes wonder if something really happened to him. A while ago he told me an elaborate story about how he got knocked over by a car in the street and got hurt.  Tonight he was telling me a really long story...I wish I could remember more of it...but it involves bad guys and shooting (i have no idea how he knows about bad guys and shooting!). This particular section of the story was seriously 10 minutes long. Somewhere in there, it also involved alligators and crocodiles coming up the street.  I've mentioned before that when Ben talks about animals that could be scary (wolves, bears, dragons), Ben is so sure that when the animals meet him, they'll be happy and nice to him(and want to shake his hands and say "nice to.meet you" and have good manners). Today when he was talking about the bad guys he said that they would be happy when they saw Ben...but that they would still be bad guys....they still wouldn't be nice like Ben. It fascinates me how he processes possibly scary things!!

Also tonight at dinner, Ben said something again about Habi and Ding Dong. We asked who they are (we already know)..he casually said they are his sisters. Haha!  Tonight was just one long story!  It just wove through the whole evening no matter what we were doing. Gaaaah. I'm obsessed with his little brain!!!

side note about Habi and Ding Dong. He continues to tell us that he has two sisters named Habi and Ding Dong and when they come out of mommy's tummy, he will hold them in his arms. He has talked about Habi and Ding Dong for months! I have no idea where it came from! The other day he told us we needed to talk quiet because there are two babies asleep in the house. 

11/24/14:

Guys...i had another heavenly weekend with Ben. How can he be so perfect and sweet? I'm seriously concerned that since he is so easy, that my next kid will be difficult.  There's no way I would be lucky enough to get another as easy,  perfect, sweet, well behaved and polite as Ben....is there? ??

Ben and I baked a ton yesterday. Like I said in my text yesterday, The whole time he repeatedly said "Ben yikes you" in such a sincere, sweet voice. And the fact that he wanted to wear underwear...it was his idea...i have a feeling he's going to potty train himself. That's what he's done with other big transitions...He just takes care of it himself. I feel SO OBNOXIOUS gushing about ben so much but it can't keep it in. My heart overflows!!!!

In the (CRAZY) mind of a toddler..........

Juuuuust in case I ever forget the craziness that comes with toddlerhood, I wanted to jot down the rollercoaster of today. Just this morning, I was sitting at my desk in a warm glow, thinking about the wonderful, beautiful, sweet, angelic child that I just spent the weekend with. I was so proud thinking about how polite, sweet, and easy going he's been lately. So much of the time, he blows me away with his sweetness. He's constantly saying "thank you", "umm, no thank you" (in the sweetest voice!), "Ben's fine!", and "sure". All of this is said in an angelic, sing-song, laid-back voice. I wanted to tell the world how incredibly sweet he is!

This afternoon, we had a normal, happy evening. We went for a walk (And got drenched in the rain), ate floppies for dinner and then rough-housed. Joel and Ben played the guitar for a while and we just hung out. At bedtime, Ben went upstairs just fine...but for some reason, he lost it and started a melt down. He is so big and strong and it's almost impossible for me to wrestle him enough to get his diapers on. We wrestled for at least five minutes and I got his diaper on...meanwhile he's thrashing and screaming and hitting and kicking...My frustration was quickly rising, but I kept it under control. Joel sat on him to brush his teeth, meanwhile he's still screaming and thrashing. Obviously, story time was out the window. So, I picked him up and put him in bed (trying to keep my frustration under control to avoid throwing him in bed...). I told him if he got out of bed, we'd shut his door. Of course, at this point in the meltdown, allllll logic is lost so he thrashed himself out of bed and began throwing himself against his door. As he's screaming, and wailing, and thrashing his body all around the room, we could hear him throwing his stuff all around his room and banging things against the door, wall, etc. I tried to go in his room a few times to try to calm him down and negotiate with him (HA!). All I got was a swift kick in the eye and an angry whack to my head. It took allllll my control to keep it together right here. Somehow, he calmed down after about 30 minutes...and as quick as the tantrum started, he was as sweet as pie, chatting in bed with Joel. They were talking about the tantrum and how it wasn't nice to kick and hit mommy...Ben crawled out of bed and very sweetly said sorry to me. Although, he never opened his mouth as he said the words, so all I heard over and over was an angelic voice saying "mmmm mmm-mmm" (Ben Sowwy) and then I got the sweetest little hug. Now he's upstairs banging his head to sleep as if nothing happened.

One of the hardest parts of these tantrums is keeping my frustration under control around Joel. I can usually keep my frustration under control around Ben, but if Joel's around, it provides an outlet for my frustration. Sooo, it's just better if we don't say a woooord to each other for 20 minutes or so after these huge meltdowns. Ben threw another tantrum like this the other night when it was just me at home. It's crazy how quickly things can change with his mood!!!!! There was nothing in our evening that gave the sliiiightest inclination that he was going to have a monster meltdown tonight. Good times!! I sure love him, though!! His sweetness makes up for these crazy tantrums a billion times over!

Summer 2014 update

Well, I thought it was time for a little update.  It just so happens that this week, his constant protests and persistence has been especially frustrating,  exasperating and exhausting. I get home from work and for the rest of the evening, it seems like a battle of wills. He seems to protest eeeevrrything I say. It seems like Ben and I "but heads" more than Joel and Ben. He almost always wants Joel to do whatever it is that I'm trying to do (dress him, put shoes on, put him in the carseat,  etc) which only adds to the frustration for all of us. Tonight (and many nights) he fights me as I brush his teeth and put his jammies on. Then he demands that I go downstairs while he snuggles with joel....but, 10 minutes later when he's alone in his room, he wails for me, beggggging for a "nuggle", saying Oh-so-sweetly "mommy, I need you.  Mommy I want you". Of course, I want so badly to give in and snuggle him, but I don't want him to figure out that he can just delay bed time by doing that. The times that I do snuggle him are ooooh sooooo sweet. It's like his brain relaxes right before bed and he pours out everything in his brain. He sweetly chatters away about whatever is on his mind...He talks about memories from weeks or months ago...or he tells me what his favorite things are...or he talks about the day... or asks questions about loooots of things. We can easily do this for 20 minutes before I have to cut him off and say good night. I loooove that special time with him!!

Even though he can be a little frustrating,  the joys continue to be endless. The things he says are always entertaining (see list at end of post). I love the way he gets excited about things. The other day we were at my mom's and he wanted to ride the riding lawnmower but Steve wasn't home. All of a sudden, Ben started jumping up and down, shrieking "Gamma bev!! Gamma bev! Papa Steve is here!!!!" He was like a tornado of excitement all of a sudden, running around trying to figure out which door Steve would be coming in. There is so much excited energy that comes from his body!! It's contagious!

We're enjoying watching him learn how to ride his bikes (tricycle = "bicytle" and strider bike = "bike"). He's a pro at pedaling his tricycle and can ride it all the way to the park. We've started to gradually increase the seat on his strider bike so he has to rely a little more on balance. On slight declines, he picks both feet up every once in a while. He loooves taking his strider bike everywhere...When we went to oregon,  it came with Us to the beach every day. He likes to ride his bike over things, like pinecones, rocks, leaves, etc.  If there aren't enough obstacles,  he'll get off his bike and throw a bunch of stuff on the sidewalk and then ride his bike carefully,  making sure he rides the wheels over each item.

We have had a wonderful summer so far.  I need to make a separate post about our little trips. But, other than that, we've done lots of small things. I'm loving all the time I've had to just enjoy Joel and Ben. Ben has been loooving swim lessons and anything else that involves water. At the pool, he loves wearing the "puddle jumper" life vests and paddling around the pool by himself. At Wildwood park, there is a stream that runs through the park. We love going there on hot days because it's totally shaded. I love watching Ben take off and explore the stream and the surrounding forest.  We try not to interrupt him and let him get lost in his exploration (in his mind...not actually lost).

One more thing...Ben is fearless.  It's rare that he is startled, surprised or scared by something. He's definitely cautious sometimes, but it's usually (usually...not always) mixed with glee and excitement.  It's so interesting to observe. I remember making this observation about him when he was a tiny baby and it's a trait that has stuck around. I don't mean to say he's a daredevil, because he's not the biggest daredevil I've ever seen (he never even climbed out of his crib)...i just mean that we rarely ever see fear or hesitstion or uneasiness in his eyes...not even a flash of it. Although, it was funny...at the beach,  Laurel and Gabriel were watching a funny youtube video where a guy demonstrates how different animals eat their food. The first one was a cow, so the guy slammed his head down on the table (it makes sense in the video). Ben did not like that!!! He wanted us to turn it off and kept talking about it the rest of the day in a very curious tone of voice ("man eating and hit his head on table. Why mom?"). Instead of fear in unknown or new situations we usually see determination (sometimes displayed as STUBBORNNESS),  curiosity, confidence and observation...again,  all traits we've observed since his baby days. Sigh. This child is so fascinating (duh. All children are. But he's our very own!  We get to know and see all of his teensiest qualities and personality traits!)

Funny things ben says:

At bed time, Ben to me: "Neeeed you, Ben want a nuggle." As he confidently reaches around my neck and pulls me down towards him

Saying "oh sure" in a relaxed, happy tone of voice when we ask him to do something (I wish this was how he always responded! )

Every morning when he feeds our new pet goldfish: "Good morning orangey!!!! See! I opened it!!" (Opening the jar of fish food; saying good morning with so much joy, excitement and happiness)

In the locker room the other day, another mom asked how old Ben was. Then this exchsnge happened:
Me: "he's two"
Ben: "mommy tirty"
Me: "mommy's thirsty?"
Ben: "no, mommy's tirty! Ben's two, mommy's tirty!"

Joel: "you have two choices.  You can either walk with me or I can carry you"
Ben: "those aren't Ben's choices,  those are your choices"

Ben was very proud of his first bloody nose. When he told people about it,  he kept forgetting what it was called,  so he'd do his little "uh, uh, uh..." then look at joel or I and say "what's it's name?"

He likes watching dirt bike videos (great...). This was his reaction when I made him turn off the computer. It's a hard life.

We were practicing different emotion faces (happy, mad, thinking,  pirate...)

He was blowing up balls with an air pump. .the football exploded in his lap, cutting up his legs and belly and doing this to his diaper (we took him to the doctor to make sure nothing was damaged)

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 :)