Ben’s Milestones…Kindergarten!

I just don’t even know how Ben got so old on me. Also, I learned today I am a terrible parent and I guess I’ve been expected to take them in for well child check ups every year on their birthday? Obviously, I missed something because Ben hasn’t been in for a year and a half (other than flu shots two months ago, I’m not totally terrible) and I’d be pressed to imagine the last time Eli went in other than his flu shot. I thought you just took them when they got sick. I got a mini-lecture from the doc today. Talk about embarrassed. At the same time, if they are basically well, I have a hard time feeling too badly about not dragging them in to the doctor so they can tell me that yes, the boys are tall, yes, the boys are healthy, and yes, the boys sure do talk a lot. (I’m joking, I get it.)

That being said, part of the reason we went today was that Ben needed to finish off his immunizations so I could send in the kindergarten registration. He got five vaccines in three shots on his wee little legs. I told him this morning he’d be getting shots and whereas Eli usually blew it off, he immediately started with the big fat tears. I reminded him it just hurt for a second and his silent crying and fat tears made me break down. “But you get a lollipop!” (Tears) “It only hurts for a second!” (Tears) “What do you want? I’ll buy you ice cream!” (“Chocolate?”) And so now we are on our dessert of chocolate ice cream with whip cream and strawberries.

I started my new job this week but then after two days was informed that HR isn’t able to move me to my new status in the middle of a pay period so now I don’t officially start until Monday. So all of the sudden, I have tomorrow off when I already booked the nanny. She was gracious enough to take shortened hours tomorrow (I felt bad cancelling her outright) and after swim class, she’ll come over and watch Ben while I go have coffee with friends, go have lunch with another friend, and then basically wander around until I told her I’d be home. In my new role, I’ve had the opportunity to attend some ED management meetings and learn a lot of things I hadn’t been privy to before and wow, things are in massive upheaval right now.

I’ll be emailing the grandparents with phone numbers and names for our emergency contacts here. It occurred to me while filling out Ben’s k registration that you guys need to know how to contact our friends here if something should happen. They are listed as first on our emergency contacts since they live here and more likely than not if they are needed, it would be an instance where the kids need to be picked up but y’all are listed immediately after. In any case, you need to know who they are and how to contact them. So please expect that email.

And with that, I have to go dispense whip cream and strawberries. Good night 🙂

Christmas Cheer

I’m happy to report I’m feeling better lately. Sorry for the vagueness of everything but the nausea is improving and overall, I am doing a lot better. I hope to get back to running this weekend once I feel my strength is back up. Thank you for your concerns.

That being said, we had Eli’s parent-teacher conference today and she continued to confirm his brilliance. They do a yearly standardized test here called the MAP and Eli has consistently ranked in the 99% in all areas since he started taking it in Kindergarten. Apparently, if a kid ranks above 96%, the parents are to be notified that their child has been recommended for advanced placement testing but for some reason, we never were. I’ve been trying repeatedly to get that rescheduled but again, for some reason, I keep getting emails replying that we missed the test date and it’s been rescheduled for 11/5 (one might note that was two weeks ago. I’m beginning to think the Seattle school system might not be so advanced with the learning). His teacher today said that our principal would advocate for Eli to be excepted into the testing despite potentially missing the deadline since I have documentation that I’ve been trying to get it corrected for weeks.

In any case, we all know he’s smart. What I loved hearing was that he is a joy to have in class. She said he was one of the most thoughtful and caring children she’s met. No behavioral issues and he is a team player. I think that part spoke to me the most because smarts aside, I want a compassionate, loving kid. She said “Good job mom and dad! Thank you for letting me learn to know Eli.” Wow!

Ben continues to work on reading and it is slow going. He’s got his phonics relatively well down but he’s just at that point that he can’t connect. He also doesn’t enjoy reading as much as Eli did so our opportunities to work on it when he is motivated are limited. He is much more into physical activities and working on things with his hands. He enjoys anything creative and making art. He will often run up to me out of nowhere with a hug and say “I just love you so much.” So I think all in all, the boys are doing okay.

I’ve updated their amazon wish lists with Christmas suggestions. Clothing wise, Ben is in 4T pants, 5T shirts. Eli is in size 10 shirts and size 8/10 pants. Ben wears a size 12 shoes and Eli wears a 3. They’re pretty well outfitted but Eli could use more long sleeve shirts and proper pjs. They are very into Skylanders Trap Team on the PS4 and Ben is heavily into his Minecraft phase. Ben is at the point where he can follow and build the easier legos without our help and his pride at doing so is palpable. He is really mastering his ability to overcome frustration when he gets to a sticking point.

This Thanksgiving will be very low key. Will is coming over and that’s the extent of it. Andy and I are both fortunate to both be off work and he’ll be doing the majority of the cooking. I look forward to a lot of board games and puzzles and watching the Cowboys lose (I don’t even know who they are playing but still). The kids are home with me tomorrow since school is out and I’m looking around for something fun for us to do.

I’m working on uploading a lot of iPhone pictures to Flickr. I also have some pictures from the camera I need to upload as well. These are on my to do list to get done before Christmas.

I hope you all are doing well.

Maybe he’s actually ready for it?

So far, Ben’s potty training has been very anticlimactic. He and I talked about it several days beforehand and he was excited about it. The first day went bizarrely well. He had one accident and I hesitate to even call it that–it was a few pee drops, enough to make him feel wet and tell me that he needed new underwear but in all (kind of gross) honesty, I had to squeeze his underwear pretty hard to feel what he was talking about when he said he had gone. That was day one. Day two, I was a bit too relaxed about the pee clock (during potty training, we set the phone timer for 45 minutes and every time the timer goes off, on the potty they go) and he ended up pooping in his diaper around 10:30 AM.

I feel like that was sort of a misunderstanding on his part because once he went he came up to me and told me the poop needed to go in the potty and it was only when I had him by the toilet did I realize he had already gone. He and I had a short talk about his underwear was not the middle man and it needs to go straight in. He was very earnest about it “Oh, so I need to poop in the potty, not my underwear?” and then I felt like he understood. The rest of the day went well with him being okay with most of the timed potty sittings (although he did complain about a few, insisting he didn’t have to go but he managed to squeeze something out) but mostly okay with the idea in general. Last night, he hadn’t pooped (he’s usually a twice a day pooper, sorry if that’s TMI) and I asked him a few times “What’s your body telling you?” He kept saying his body was fine but then shortly before bedtime he started suggesting I put a diaper on him. He was shrugging and holding his hands up as if to say, “Why not?” and saying “I think maybe you can put a diaper on me?” in a very casual way. I reminded him that he only wears diapers to sleep and he insisted he wasn’t ready to go to bed. A few minutes later he says again with the shrug, “I think maybe you can put a diaper on me?” and I asked him if he needed to poop and he very shyly nodded yes.

I reminded him that he poops in the potty now (and he gets CANDY! for pooping on the potty) and that was what sold him on it. Twenty minutes and three potty sittings later, he pooped. He’s still a bit nervous about pooping on the potty but mostly has done okay with it and it’s one of those things that will get easier with time.

Today, he went to Small Faces as a potty trained kid! He did amazing! He didn’t have an accident all day except when Andy picked him up from school, apparently he peed. Andy likes to think he was just that excited. In any case, not too shabby, Ben! We will see if we can get a poop out of him before bedtime. My mom suggested that maybe he was just ready to train and that’s why it’s all going so easily but I can’t help but thinking this is like Binky 2.0 when he was all relaxed the first few days after then once he realized Those Days are over, he rebelled. I sure hope it’s this easy.

I have a learning story from Small Faces for Ben to post and I scanned the pages in but I am having the hardest time trying to figure out how to post the pages in a way that’s readable. The pictures are really great. I’ll be working on that tonight but wanted to publish this now.

*sigh* I thought about this for a minute. I scanned the pages in but I can’t immediately figure out how to post them to this website. I could spend the next hour trying to figure it out and maybe still not get it then I’d have to stop because of bedtimes and whatnot and nothing would get posted. OR I could just let you know that I’ll email the grandmothers with the scanned images and if you have problems viewing them, let me know. If anybody else wants to look at them, let me know and I’ll send them along. It’s an adorable story about Ben’s learning process in making a kite on his own at school.

It reminds me of the chat I had with Sue about trying to make things perfect vs. getting things up so people can see them and in this instance I’m voting for getting things up 🙂 So out it goes 🙂

The (almost) end of summer…finally

Have I mentioned I overdid it with the summer activities? Lo, I have. The trip to Portland was a lot of fun. The boys and I visited my friends June and Kristen and their two little girls. We spent a lot of time playing in their neighborhood playground and we went to the Clark County Fair. Their smallest, a cute one year old named Lexi, had a pretty quick meltdown upon arrival (it was sunny, it was hot, it was VERY LOUD and pretty much a recipe for overstimulation) and Kristen had to whisk her off to the petting zoo for most of it. The older one, Jordan (3), did a little better but seemed kind of overwhelmed. I think the combination of having the boys in town and the constant playing (Ben and Jordan hit it off) as well as the fair was a bit too much. I’ve heard that since we left they took Jordan back and she had a blast.

The boys loved the fair. The fair is stinking expensive! I bought 80 tickets ($70) and didn’t get to ride a single ride. I really look forward to when the boys are bigger and can ride some of the cool rides with me. We were mostly exiled to toddler ride land for the whole day. We split off from June and Kristen since the boys wanted to ride EVERYTHING and met up with them at the end of the fair trip for snacks and the ride back. Kristen’s dad commented several times that the boys were great fair goers, nothing fazed them, they never got grumpy, and had a great time. That was a nice thing to hear. I do have some pretty fun kids and their ability to handle being tired is pretty awesome. It does get easier once they’re older, though. I can’t attribute all of their awesomeness to my parenting skills (but I will try).

We came back Sunday and promptly went into zombie mode. We were all so tired. We had bike day at Small Faces Monday. Monday, I worked a swing (3-11:30) then back up the next morning for a 9 AM meeting. I was in that from 9-11:30 then left for a quick lunch. I went back to work from 12:45-11:30 that night. I have moved to a .6 position so I have to work another 8 hours a paycheck but I don’t have an actual shift, I’m just putting in the hours when I can. Since the boys are already at 3 days a week for Small Faces, I don’t want to increase their hours since they don’t offer 4 day a week care, it’s either 2, 3, or 5. Moving to 5 days a week would erase any benefit from the extra 8 hours I work and actually end up costing us more so right now I’m just tacking on 2 hours here, 3 hours there to work four extra hours a week.

So I got off work at 11:30 that night then back up at 7 the next morning to get ready to go to Bellingham. Ananda’s 40th birthday was Wednesday and she was having a family celebration at her grandparent’s lake house on Lake Whatcom. The house was unbelievable and the boys had so much fun playing in the lake and going on speedboat rides. The house is on a bit of property that used to be a small resort so in addition to the main house there are five small cabins and we stayed in one. After the boys went to bed, we put sleeping bags out on the lawn to watch the Perseid meteor shower and saw some really amazing meteors! It was a fantastic evening and a great way to celebrate Ananda.

We came back Thursday afternoon and Andy has been on 12 hour days from Friday until Monday night. I worked Friday and the rest of this weekend is pretty much dedicated to getting ready for our camping trip to Glacier on Tuesday. We plan to leave about 5 AM Tuesday so it’s necessary to get it all done by the time we go to bed Monday. We are driving to Kalispell, MT on Tuesday (about 8 hours) then staying in a hotel that night. Wednesday morning, we will drive the additional hour to Glacier to set up camp. We will be there through Saturday. The plan is to drive back Saturday but we will probably opt for driving a bit then staying in a hotel Saturday night so we can get showers, pool time, and some rest. I’m not too crazy about the idea of packing up camp, driving 8-10 hours, then trying to get the boys washed up after 4 days of camping before putting them to bed. It would be about 2 in the morning at that point! So we’ve left it open.

Unfortunately, Will can’t go with us (but for a great reason, he starts work with the gaming company this week) so he will housesit for us while we are gone. I’m super bummed he can’t make it since we all had so much fun on the Deception Pass trip but there’s not much to be done about it.

So now we are almost off to Glacier and aside from booking the campground, I have done ZERO planning for it. I remembered to book the hotel for Tuesday so at least we have places to stay. I printed out a page of short kid-friendly hikes to do around Glacier. We are debating bringing the bikes but Glacier doesn’t seem very bike friendly. We are thinking of bringing our bikes with the two trailers (Eli’s trailer bike and the Weehoo) but there don’t seem to be a lot of places to ride other than the actual road through it and even that has time constraints on when you can ride it so I’m thinking not. I hate riding on roads with cars and Glacier sounds like a tough ride without hauling 30+ lbs. I’m trying to think of ways to keep the boys occupied at the campsite because we’ve gotten totally spoiled camping with other families this summer and having built-in distractors. There is a water park close to Glacier and I figure we will do that one of the days. The other days will probably just be short hikes, Junior Ranger missions, and a lot of staring at a fire (no burn ban yet! If we do get one, man, this is going to be rough). The weather at Glacier seems to vary wildly depending on where you are in the park–I’ve seen forecasts for nights as low as high 30s (if you look under “Glacier Nat’l Park” in the weather app) or as low as low 50s (if you look under “West Glacier” which I think is closer to where we will be staying. In any case, I’m having to pack us for EVERY POSSIBLE WEATHER PHENOMENON and it’s a lot! We are so lucky to get to go on a trip like this and our kids are so fortunate to live in a part of the country where things like this are just a day’s drive away.

Tomorrow, the boys and I are doing the grocery shop for the trip and going to the library to stock up on books and DVDs. Aside from throwing everything in the car and some camping meal prep, there’s not much else to do.

The potty training will begin in earnest once we get back. I haven’t been consistent about it and I had no intention of winging it on the camping trip so I haven’t really pushed it all that much. Eli starts 1st grade in early September and we will be settling back into a routine. I received invites for two more kids’ birthday parties the weekends after we get back and I declined both. I felt badly about it but I am really trying to be mindful of how frazzled we all are and how much we need to slow down.

I do have one last trip planned for the end of September. My friends Carrie and Wendy are coming on Weds, Sept 23rd and just the three of us are going to Orcas Island to stay at a B&B until that Sunday! I am so excited about it I don’t know what to do with myself. Aside from the idea of just having 3.5 days without kids, the opportunity to get to spend that time with my oldest and dearest is mind boggling. I plan to do a lot of reading, a lot of napping, a lot of chatting and laughing, some kayaking, and just spending time with my girls. I expect this trip to be very rejuvenating for me and I am so looking forward to it!

Milestone news- Eli is about to lose his first top front tooth. It’s quite loose and keeps bleeding but he won’t let us yank it. He now says his “r”s like an adult and that is bittersweet to me. Ben can buckle himself into his carseat and is very proud of this accomplishment. He’s riding the small bike with training wheels like a pro but still doesn’t like the balance bike. Quite often Ben will refuse hugs and kisses at bedtime which is sad but that kid is all about controlling his environment so I don’t hassle him over it. He still follows me everywhere so I know he still likes me 🙂

Going to put this up for now and hopefully will get more pictures up before I hit the sack.

Freeze! Go! (but not really, please freeze)

Oh my. If I could freeze time right now, I completely would. Ben is two, wonderfully, gloriously, two. That has all the inherent two-ness involved, of course, but he has reached the delicious stage where he is amazingly verbal yet still has the very Two way of pronouncing things and declaring whatever is running through his very Two brain. He is ridiculously cute. We thought (knew) he was already cute but I can’t tell you how many times a day Andy or I will talk with him or he will run up to us to tell us something he’s discovered and we just look at each other and remark on how absolutely delicious he is these days. He’s finally at an age where he and Eli can play–really play- together and although there is much injustice and screaming in the household over various and perceived slights, they have as many moments where they delight in each other and make the best playmates. I can only see their ability to play together improving (and getting louder) and it’s just amazing. Right now they mostly bond over pillow fights, hide and seek, and Ben copying whatever Eli does (this is not always so awesome, parentally speaking).

Ben is just bursting every day with new words and thoughts. He always wants you to “Yook!” “Yook what I doing!” He wakes us up every morning declaring “I get out of bed! No seeping, Mommy! I want a waffle/cereal bar/cereal/bacon!!” Most days, he eats like a horse. Although he continues to miss school and is looking forward to going to Small Faces, he seems to enjoy his time at home which is heavy on the local playgrounds, long walks to take Eli to or pick him up from the bus stop, or helping out around the house. There is one huge puddle that is pretty much always there on the walk to the bus stop and we routinely spend a good 20 minutes there both in the morning and in the afternoon so he can throw rocks. This week, it’s been frozen in the mornings which has made the puddle even more exciting than usual and has led to long talks about why the ice is gone when we go back in the afternoon to get Eli.

As Ben was rapidly outgrowing his crib, we decided to get some bunk beds for their room. I spent a few weeks compulsively refreshing craigslist and we finally got an amazing set for $200, easily a $650 set if we were to buy it in the store. Go Craigslist! Although Ben is slightly bummed over his lower bunk status, we set it up on Tuesday night. Eli loves being king of the mountain and Ben really seems to love being in a big boy bed. I will either get around to posting his crib on Craigslist or we will have a garage sale next summer since our garage is filling with things we really need to get rid of but I think we could make some money off of them in the process. I expected to be a little sad that our crib days are behind us but I’m really glad it’s done. I love (other people’s) babies and I sure loved my babies but big kids are just so much fun. The baby days were amazing but it’s so great to be able to really communicate with them and do family stuff together where everyone can participate.

Halloween was super fun with the boys. Ben totally got into it and although he had some trouble keeping up with the big kids, he got into it in a way that Eli couldn’t at two because he didn’t have an example to follow. He mostly went up to people’s houses and would just hold his bag out or if they let him take his treat, he’d just keep taking and taking until they would look up at me and I’d have to remind him to knock it off. It was so much fun. Although Andy had to work that night, he arranged to go in an hour late so he could go with us. After the trick or treating, Andy went to work and the boys and I came home to watch the Nightmare before Christmas and the boys ate their weight in candy. Such a fun night.

Eli’s birthday was great as well. We did Remlinger Farms and on his actual birthday took cupcakes to his class so they could have a little celebration for him. That night we went to the Hi-Life (his request) and Ananda joined us. Eli requested a “Halloween cake that is chocolate with orange icing and looks like Halloween”. I feel like I delivered:

I just checked and I haven’t uploaded videos since May. I say this with all seriousness, if you’d like to see more videos, please text/email and remind me to upload. I am always recording videos of them and I usually (mistakenly) think I’ve updated more recently than I have! I do not mind ONE BIT if anyone sends me a reminder that it’s been a while since I’ve posted anything. Although I can’t update with the frequency that I used to, if the blog is still something people look at and not just my own baby book, I really could benefit from a friendly nudge now and then. Knowing that others look and enjoy is very motivating.

Developmental info: Eli’s got a second shark tooth coming in. It’s the other bottom front and we’ve set him to wiggling the baby tooth but it doesn’t really feel loose at all. Ben’s got pretty much the whole alphabet down! It seems to have happened overnight–a month or so ago, he had five or six down now he’s whipping them all out on command. Unfortunately, he has ZERO interest in doing this when he’s being taped so I can’t provide a video but it’s stinking impressive! He loves going to the library (so many books to pull off shelves!) but still not as into reading although he does really like the Little Blue Truck series. He has no interest in sitting on the potty (It’s too big, Mommy!) although I suspect that will change once he starts Small Faces in January and has a little peer pressure. Eli continues to read up a storm and can read somewhat comfortably at a second grade level and can read a fair portion of what the internet says is a third grade level. He’s doing a lot of math at school and really enjoys asking about numbers and several times a day is showing off his addition/subtraction skills.

We enrolled him in some karate classes at the community center but I’m less than impressed with them. The classes don’t really seem geared towards kids at all and the instructor has what Andy referred to as “the personality of a dead fish”. He’s not very good at engaging the three kids in the class. They also started off with instructions in Japanese (without explaining to the kids what they were saying and just expected them to follow them, which they eventually did but then the instructor seemed annoyed that it took them a minute to catch on). I guess this is what happens when you pay $9 a class. They started straight in with punches and kicks with instructions like “If you want to knock the wind out of someone, this is where you hit” and things like that. I’m not totally comfortable with that. So I’ve been calling around to other places that have kid-centered classes to try to find a better fit.

So that’s all for now. Here’s some videos to help pass the time:

I have a loud, awesome house:

Pillow fight:

This is from Remlinger Farms. It cracks me up because Ben is so very two and over it quite quickly whereas Eli really struts his stuff.

Life with boy children, it’s so spitty.

The part where he closes his eyes to wish gives me the warm fuzzies.

The cutest Power Ranger

What’s the point of 2 year olds if you can’t have any fun?

Nothing happened in April 2014.

Oh, I wish that were true but in all honesty, I could just not get up the motivation to post.

In April, we went to Oregon. We took a two night, three day trip. We drove to the coast to the Garibaldi/Tillamook area and went to the cheese factory. We also stopped at Haystack Rock on the way down and the boys really loved playing at the beach. The next day we drove to Portland and went to the children’s museum, walked around downtown and got some Eritrean food from a food truck, and camped out in the hotel. The next morning, we walked to the donut shop, then went swimming before checking out. Our plan was to go by Mt. St. Helens on the way back but it was pouring rain–like Louisiana downpour–and we decided against it. Eli and I were a little bummed about it since we had gotten a DVD from the library called MT. ST. HELENS-BACK FROM THE DEAD (ha) and he had been learning about volcanoes and whatnot to get ready to see it. However, the weather was so bad there wouldn’t have been any way we could have seen anything from the car and I was not about to drag those two out in that weather to go for a hike. So, maybe next time. It’s only a few hours away.

Ben’s language is EXPLODING. Words, words everywhere. Some of them even sound like they’re supposed to. For some unknown reason, banana and airplane both continue to be “mee mee” although airplane has an ever so SLIGHT difference of “mah mee”.  In all honesty, I usually only know which one he’s saying by seeing if he’s pointing to the counter or the sky.  He can repeat most words quite well if he’s in the mood for it but he doesn’t enjoy showing off what he can do as much as Eli did. Usually this means he does something cool, I ask him to do it again and he refuses. Especially if I have my phone on him to record it! Obstinate second children!  He’s getting his manners down lately and it’s adorable.  Please “meesh” and thank you “Tay-too mahmee” are about the cutest things ever.

We are getting things ready for lots of changes in the fall–Eli will be at kindergarten full time and our beloved Berry Patch is closing so Ben will temporarily be relocating to the daycare where I work. He has a spot at Small Faces starting January 2015 but we have to cover that gap so he’ll have to switch for five months. I hate putting him somewhere for such a short period of time but he’ll get over it. Eli will be starting North Beach elementary this fall. Unfortunately, it’s one of the few schools that you have to pay for full day kindergarten ($280 a month). Between that and having to pay for part-time before/after school care at Small Faces, we aren’t going to be fully going back to just paying for one in daycare for another year.  However, it will still be a little cheaper and anything is better than how it is now!

We finished the Whole 30 a while back and it was fine. We were really glad to be done with it but I feel like we’ve gone too far the other way now. We’re having wine/beer probably 3 times a week and our diet, although it has never been full of processed foods or anything, hasn’t been so great with the grains and breads and all that. There have been a lot of tacos. We’ve both noticed the change in how we feel daily and so we’ve been talking about what to do about it. Neither of us want to do the whole 30 again for a loooong time but we’re figuring out what we can cut out (or at least minimize) to feel better without breaking the budget–a diet of nothing but meat and fresh produce is pretty stinking expensive. We’ve switched to a lot of frozen vegetables which works fine for some stuff but we tend to roast veggies a lot and the frozen stuff, it’s squishy even after you roast it for a long time.

I’ve got a lot of videos and pictures to get on this blog. I’ve been uploading videos for the last few weeks and i haven’t done the pictures yet but Saturday night Andy is on a night shift and once the boys go to bed, I’ve scheduled that evening for getting all those online. I find I do better if I actually put it in my schedule.  Our calendar looks a bit nuts with all the varying work schedules, fencing, crossfit, boys’ stuff, and everything else.

Ah, life is wonderful and hectic. Today the boys are at school. Ben is normally home on Tuesdays but since I work a swing tonight and Andy doesn’t get off until 6:30, we paid for an extra day. Currently, one of the BP teachers, Neale, is watching them when Andy and I have scheduling conflicts. She and Ben take the bus from BP to Small Faces, pick up Eli, load Ben in the stroller I leave at SF, and walk home. Tonight, since Andy is off at 6:30 she’ll just be here a few hours. Other times, like this Friday when Andy is on a night shift and I’m on a swing, she’ll stay here until I get home at almost midnight. Oh, I am not looking forward to tomorrow and Saturday! The boys are home with me both days and I don’t get off work until 11:30 (if I’m lucky and get out on time). Then up early with both of them and it’s go go go all day long because Andy will be at work and then fencing tomorrow. Saturday, he’ll be asleep all day then back to work at 6 PM.

The days are long but the years are short and I have to get ready for work. 🙂

 

Big news for Ben!

Tonight for the THIRD night in a row, Mr. Ben sat through two entire readings of Goodnight Moon!  Seeing as how he’d usually rather try to eat a book or club you with it rather than have it read to him, this is a big event around here.

He even asked for us to read it to him!  Maybe I’ll turn that kid into a reader yet 😉

Berry Patch Teacher Observations for BEN!

Somehow, Ben’s nickname went from a prenatal “Zap” to the current “Ben-Ben”.  I have no idea why everyone calls him this. I have no idea why WE call him this.  I kind of miss Zap.  I still throw it in there every once in a while but it never sticks.  Sigh.

I had the parent-teacher conference for Ben the other day. As usual, my children are brilliant, socially adept, and handsome. I’m sure they will never misbehave (cough, cough) and will always obey their mama (COUGH, COUGH).  Here’s what the BP has to say about ZAP:

Play Preferences:

Cars and food toys top Ben’s list of play preferences though he is slowly becoming intrigued with constructibles (legos, trios, etc). If markers are available, Ben can be found wandering around looking for furniture to graffiti (TELL ME ABOUT IT). He is fairly young for his ability to uncap and use markers and then switch to a new color! He is just beginning to discover sensory trays (you may have noticed a few changes of wet pants being sent home!) and it’s no secret that water trays are right up his alley. That boy loves water!

Peer relationships with children:

Ben seems to have a genuine affinity for Sadie and will often say her name when he sees her and hand her a baby doll! The big kids and their wacky pursuits are always fun for him to watch and (try to) tag along with as well. (Sadie is only a few months younger than Ben)

Relationship with teachers:

Flirting is one of Ben’s favorite activities! So far he’s got Neale’s name down and will sometimes say “Ninny” for Nicolie (following in his big brother’s footsteps), “Veronica” is a tricky one!  (Eli used to call her Boditah)

Language Skills

Every time we seen Ben he’s picked up a few more words. “Help”, “more”, “me”, “mommy”, “daddy” and names of his peers are most common. Currently he is working on sounding out and repeating words he hears others say.

Emotional expression:

Generally Ben is a pretty happy go lucky guy though sometimes he will react to feeling frustrated by crying. He is fairly easily consoled with a hug or a quick snuggle with sock cat and transitions emotions quite easily.

Fine motor abilities:

Ben’s affinity for markers has helped him in this arena. He is great at capping and uncapping pens, pulling bins out, and picking up smaller items.

Gross motor abilities:

More recently Ben went on an alleyway walk without the stroller! This, of course, made for a fairly slow place, but he did it nonetheless. For being fairly new at walking he is sure footed and doesn’t fall down to often. In addition, he is a pro at moving up and down the stairs. Early on this seemed to be a goal for him and he would often practice crawling up and down them with a teacher near by.

Conceptual grasp:

While still fairly young to grasp provided concepts, Ben does pair animals with their respective noises and has a fairly solid grasp on our schedule. If we’re soon to head outside he can be found digging through the shoe bin to find his shoes or retrieving his coat from his cubby.

Learning trends and other notes:

It’s been a blast to have another Smith boy around and Ben is such a joy. He’s very bright, silly, and sweet. It will be fun to watch him as he gets older and becomes more purposeful in his actions. For now, he’s having a great time observing the older kiddos and trying out new choices and activities.

That’s the end of the yearly summary.

Ben’s language is really exploding. He’s getting better at communicating some complicated thoughts through signing and using what near-words he does have although at this point, I’m really the only one who gets it.

Example: Ben is one of those who gets hangry. When he gets hungry, it often seems like he doesn’t have a lot of warning but he wants food NOW NOW NOW.  He will make this naggy half-scream until he is fed. I will often give him a little piece of a bagel and he will walk around munching on that so I have some time to prepare food for him.  Bagel sounds like “Bay-el”. The other day, he was in his high chair eating and Andy was hanging out with him. Ben pointed at the bagels on the counter, said “bay-el!” and then gave the sign for all done. Andy asked me what he wanted since he was saying he was all done but then also seemed to be asking for a bagel. I said that Ben was all done eating his dinner but he wanted down from his high chair and wanted a bagel to snack on while he walked around. Andy turned and said, “You want down and you want a bagel to munch on once you’re down?” and Ben gave a big ol’ nod of his head. It was pretty cute.

I’m on a swing shift tonight (3-11:30) so I have to go get ready for work. The last three shifts have been nonstop busy (lots of suicidal folks, drunk folks, and a few people who basically came to the ED for comfort care before they passed, those are always so sad). I hope tonight is a little more mellow but since it’s a Friday I’m not going to hold my breath. I have my LAST on ramp class tomorrow morning at 8 so after working until midnight tonight, I’m sure that will be a challenge but it’ll be fun!

Percolating

I think of posts to write quite often but somehow I get sidetracked somewhere between thinking about them and actually writing them down.

It’s Friday night. Andy just left to go to a small fencing tournament (foil, I think)…it’s 7 PM. I think it starts at 8. He was off all day and got some work done on the garage (the garage is our never ending project ever since I ran into the door a year and a half ago) door. I got off work at 4:30 PM, drove home, switched out cars, and went to pick up both boys. I got home, we fed the boys, Eli goes downstairs after dinner to work on Legos while Ben gets a bath. Eli is generally against sharing a bath with Ben on principle. Every now and then we’ll just tell him tough, you have to share the bath and he deals with it but he doesn’t like it. Ben gets a bath and once he’s post-bath and doing his usual pre-bedtime “What can I destroy?” tour of the house, Eli gets ready for his bath.  Eli goes in, Ben goes to bed. Eli will get out in about 15 minutes and then get a little ice cream and two stories and then it’s bedtime for him as well.  THEN the real fun begins. I get to eat my dinner (leftovers but good ones–we’ve been cooking a lot the last few days so there’s lot of variety in our leftovers, score!) and then fold some laundry while watching Dr. Who. I have an introductory/free class at a Crossfit gym here at 8 tomorrow morning so I’ve got to get to bed early.

Ben finally dropped (or rather, we stopped giving it to him) his only remaining bottle four days ago.  It’s kind of horrible that we were still giving him one but we were. He’d wake up about 5 AM every morning and we’d give him a bottle, then he’d go back to sleep for another three hours or so. Since Eli wakes up at 6:30 AM but is pretty self-sufficient so long as you leave out breakfast and some cartoons for him, it was really hard to give up that extra bit of sleep.  The first day, Ben woke up at 5, wanting to eat. For some inexplicable (but hilarious) reason, Andy got up and cooked him two scrambled eggs, fed him, then put him back in bed and he slept until 8 as usual.  I pointed out that this sort of not only killed the whole idea of losing the bottle in the first place but actually made things more difficult and Andy agreed he had no idea what he was doing. Complaining, hungry child=Andy autopilot. Funny. The next two days, Ben woke up at 6:15 AM (yes!) and was just up for the day which is pretty much what I figured we were in for. Today, he slept until 7:30!  He squawked for about a minute at 5:30 AM but went back to sleep.  I’m not holding my breath but it was at least nice for today.

So aside from his crib, Ben is practically in college *sniff*. He walks, he uses utensils (fairly well), he doesn’t drink from bottles, and we are seriously going to take away his pacifiers in about a week. He only gets it to sleep but they still need to go. He’s a constant chatterbox and we’re actually starting to understand some of it.  “UH! UH!” (UP!) We were looking at the 100 First Words book and Hand Hand Fingers Thumb that were favorites of Eli’s. Ben likes them both as well but they endured so much abuse from Eli that they didn’t last long with Ben, he found their weak points and pretty much shredded both.  I’m going to run to Barnes & Noble after the gym tomorrow to pick up new copies.  He’s getting a little better about reading–he will sometimes sit for an entire book now although we generally still have to break them up.  He does request books now so that’s something.

Ben is doing great at Berry Patch. They close at the end of August so I’ve put him on the wait list for childcare at hospital. We will only need it Sept-Jan but hopefully it will come through in time. He’s on a bit of a hitting streak.  He gets slap happy when he’s frustrated but it’s also quite obvious that he’s hitting just because he’s seeing what will happen.  He will say, “No!” (sounds like “Nyah!”) and give you a little swipe but then usually start his kissing “mmmmm” sound and want to kiss where he hit you.  He’s so conflicted.  Eli automatically yells NOOOOO at the TOP of his lungs whenever Ben is doing something he doesn’t like. The other day Andy and I were in our room and we heard Ben toddle in the living room and presumably start messing with Eli because a little back and forth started.  “NO!” “NYAH!” “NO!” “NYAH!” and so on for a good two minutes.  It was HILARIOUS.  Particularly since neither of them seemed to inclined to come drag us into it and Ben was holding his own with Eli.  We still have no idea what it was about but I guess they settled it.

I’m signed up for another half marathon at the end of March, the Mercer Island half. Nothing to write home about, just something to sign up for so I will run regularly. I want to do the Hot Chocolate 15K as well on 3/2 but that mostly depends if I can find a sitter.

Christmas! Christmas was great. Eli was very, very excited about it. Although the elf did little to improve his behavior over the course of the month, the immediate days leading up to Christmas were delightful. Kid must have sensed some sort of Santa near because he was laying it on THICK.  He was all, “how are you this morning, my majesty?” and “You look beautiful, my majesty!”  I don’t know why he has settled on “my majesty” but when he’s trying to butter me up, that’s what he calls me.  It’s pretty stinking cute. We put out cookies on Christmas Eve and each opened a present. The little boys went to bed and then Andy, Will, and I set to playing Santa. On Christmas Day, Rachal and Matt came over and we had “the feast” as Eli calls it. It was a very nice, laid back day.  At this point, we’ve pretty much de-holidayed the house except for the lights are still up outside–those come down tomorrow.

A few quick videos, Ben loves giving kisses

Saying goodbye

I’ve worked in an ER for 4.5 months and now I think I’m a doctor.

Lo and behold! The thing that has made me Most Miserable the last few months, I have diagnosed myself:

<a href=”http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piriformis_syndrome”&gt; Piriformis Syndrome! </a>

Basically, I have a pain in the butt.  Quite often it translates into some wretched sciatica that shoots down to about my knee or so but now that I’ve started focusing more on core work, it has retreated largely to the glute area.  I consider this to be a GOOD thing–if it’s just a muscle thing then it’s not a back thing.  Woohoo! The fact that after all the extra strengthening/stretching it’s retreated to mostly just the glute region lends me to buy into the piriformis idea.  That and I’ve never wanted to accept the idea I have a bulging disc or something like that.

Which all goes to say that it’s been killing me lately.  It used to shoot down my leg and now it’s mostly just in the glute and sometimes shoots down the back of my leg to my knee–usually when I’m trying to sleep, it seems–but it just is really bothering the bejesus out of me most days the last week or so.  Good, non-butt pain thoughts appreciated!  I have started googling specific stretches for piriformis syndrome and have also started working on my foam roller several times a day.  Hopefully, I can get rid of this soon or at least make it less annoying.

/And…that above bit is from 11/23 (shows you how well I’ve been doing updating) and I’m glad to report that the stretches/exercises have relieved about 91% of the pain!  For some reason it bothers me a lot driving in the van…something about how the seat hits the back of my leg really seems to set it off if I have to drive for longer than 10-15 minutes but I feel pretty confident I can get it to go away entirely.

Everything here is going swimmingly.  Eli is doing well and is as smart as a whip, which usually is really enjoyable but sometimes, the questions, you know? Constant questions. How does this work, why does this do that, etc. The other day driving home from soccer I had to field in depth questions about (1) evolution (how did a bird get to be a bird? did it just show up on the earth as a bird? what do you mean it used to be something else?) and then also (2) urban planning (how did they know to put houses here? did they put the electric poles up around the houses that were already here or were the poles first? what about the streets? how do they decide how long to make the blocks?)  I often say at work that I enjoy training people because it really reinforces that I know what I know but having an extremely inquisitive five year-old? Really points out HOW MUCH I REALLY AM GUESSING.  I answer a fair amount of questions with “let’s look that up when we get home” or “why don’t we google that?” (and I can hear my dad laughing from here but now I know THAT YOU JUST WEREN’T SURE) and then I also answer a good bit with “Let’s ask your dad about that one” because Andy will tell him.  Andy is really amazing at giving very complex explanations in a way that really holds Eli’s attention.  It’s kind of amazing and also funny that Andy didn’t decide to teach–he’s so good at explaining stuff in a way that people can comprehend.

Mr. Ben is doing just as well.  He is still a constant chatterbox and comprehending more day by day. He’s starting saying his own version of “cracker” and is getting fairly good at getting his point across to us. He still loves nothing more than to be outside and we take him on a lot of walks.  He looooooves animals and particularly dogs. We are watching our friends’ dog for the next week starting tomorrow so I’ll get a chance to see how he actually does with one in the house (no, I am not ready for one yet). Ben’s been catching his quota of daycare illnesses over the last few weeks–a respiratory bug, then a weird stomach bug that mostly killed his appetite and made for some NASTY diapers but left his mood intact, now another mild cold that is hard to tell if it’s a cold or teething–he’s drooling up a storm (soaking shirts, that’s how bad it’s been) but also has a super runny nose (clear). His mood has been mostly fine, if a little tired.  At this count, he has 11 teeth and usually will eat most of what you put in front of him although he’s definitely showing himself all around to be more particular than Eli was (or at least that I remember).

Both of them hit some kind of growth spurt two weeks ago because we had this weird 5 or 6 day stint where they were both eating nonstop–and I do mean pretty much nonstop, and Eli kept complaining that his legs and arms hurt–then all of the sudden their clothes didn’t fit.  For Ben, this isn’t as much of a problem–we have all of Eli’s hand me downs and so it’s fairly easy to size up.  For Eli, all of his 5T shirts suddenly hung above his wrists and his pants are fitting perfectly–which means he has about another week or two left in them. I’ve never seen him do such a noticeable spurt–really, in the course of a week, ALL of Eli’s shirts were really short on him–and I was not prepared. He went to school for a week with cold wrists and an easily exposed belly until today I got to the store to get him some 6/7 shirts and larger jeans. He had worn his 5T stuff for about the last 8 or 9 months so now that he has outgrown that, his wardrobe has significantly shrunk.  I gotta get on that.

We are gearing up for Christmas.  Is there nothing more fun than the holidays with little kids?  We have a gate around the Christmas tree because of Ben and his liking of smacking down ornaments but other than that, the house is festive. Andy ended up picking up an OT shift on Thanksgiving night so we had dinner early that day so he could go to work on time. We weren’t going to do the elf this year but Eli somehow remembered him and started asking about him when we were unpacking all of the Christmas stuff.  We went to cut a tree weekend before last and Will went with us.  It was a fun day, we went to the tree farm and they cut it down, then we all went for lunch and Will came over while we did ornaments and tree decorating and all that. He was also here on Thanksgiving and we had a great time.  At some point since he moved out he watched all of the Doctor Who series and I’m only on the 3rd season (of the new ones that started in 2006) so he watched some with me. It was nice to spend some time with him.

I’ve got a little bit of online shopping left then I have to hit the sack.  Good night!