Ben & Becca March 2012

Becca is getting so big!  She often insists on eating with her fork or spoon herself.  She's not very good with the spoon yet, but it's not for lack of trying.  This morning, she wanted to eat her blueberries with her fork, trying to poke each one.  With a little help from me, she got each blueberry on her fork, and was so happy to feed herself with the fork on her own.  Blueberries were easy to keep on the fork, yogurt or applesauce with a spoon is a whole different story.  Becca still has a very healthy appetite, and is willing to try a wider variety of foods than Ben, eating Grandma Nita's pork roast last weekend.  She eats a good breakfast too, enjoying eggs, pancakes, waffles, or oatmeal and always with a side of fruit.  She's more interested now in having enough banana to hold onto instead of banana slices.  Within the last week couple of weeks, she's also decided that she's too big for the high chair but instead sits at the table in the booster seat.  She feels like such a big girl at the big table.  A few times, she's shown a preference for sitting in the big chair without the booster, but I don't let her sit there long for fear she'll fall off.

Becca also shakes her head "no" whenever there's something she doesn't want.  She makes it very clear if she doesn't want her drink or anymore of her food.  She also seems to really enjoy being on the go, walking to the mudroom to get her coat and getting excited when I pull it down and help her put it on. 

Ben is also getting bigger so quickly.  Recently he has started getting out of his bed by himself and coming into our bedroom, especially on the weekends when try to sleep in a little bit.  Ben is also showing a preference about his things.  He has certain cups he is willing to drink out of, sometimes wanting a big boy cup instead of a sippy cup.  He also has a preference for one of his jackets over all of the others, preferring his navy blue windbreaker over his Lightning McQueen cottom zip up coat.  Luckily there are a few navy windbreakers and I can fool him some mornings when I can't find the real favorite one.  Ben is also trying to differentiate between the 2 chickies that live in the house, often asking me if the one he has is "Ben Chicky" (instead of "Lara chicky").  Whichever one he has, I always answer "yes, that is Ben Chicky" which seems to satisfy him.

Ben really likes reading and we started going to the library this winter to get him books.  He's enjoyed the Arthur series especially these past few weeks.  After several nights of reading them though, he moves onto something else.  More recently he was really into the Disney animal story book that Lara gave him, insisting we read Tarzan for about 5 nights straight.  Daddy bought him a series of Caillou books 2 weeks ago and we've spent several nights since then reading 2-3 of those books each night.  Ben isn't one to settle for just 1 book a night, but instead convinces me to ready at least 2.  Sometimes he likes to "read" a book to himself, remarkably remembering much of the story and reciting it as he turns the pages. 

Ben asked something hilarious the other day.  I was telling him about a time when Becca was in Mommy's tummy and explaining a time when he was in Mommy's tummy too.  He turned to me and innocently asked "Did you eat us?"...how precious.  Yesterday he told me that he had a baby in his tummy, I'm not sure where that came from!

January 2012 - Ben's little accident

We've taken advantage of the mild early January weather as much as we can.  On the first full weekend in January, we went to the park both days!  On Saturday we met Allie and Henry at "Choo Choo Park" where both Ben and Rebecca had a great time.  Ben climbed very high to slide down the spiral slide.  Rebecca enjoyed sliding down, with a little help, and climbing in and through a big tube and looking out through the circular peep holes.  On Sunday, we went to Deep Run Park to meet Lara.  I brought some juice and snacks for Ben and offerred them to him in the car but he wasn't interested.  When we arrived at the park Ben pointed to the picnic tables and asked for a picnic, explaining why he wouldn't touch his snacks on the drive over.  We ate a little and then headed into the play area, where Ben climbed and ran around.  He decided he wanted to move our picnic to the pavillion which had lots of picnic tables.  After setting up, he stepped away a few feet to play in some leaves.  Then on his way back to the picnic table, the poor little guy tripped on the edge of the concrete slab and cracked his front tooth on a metal brace under the picnic bench.  We were so lucky that he didn't injure himself any worse.  He cried for a few minutes and once we realize the extent of his injury, carried him to the car to try to get him into my dentist.  By the time I strapped him into the car seat, he was saying "I feel better" and he was upset to be leaving the park.  Lara took Rebecca home, while we saw the dentist.  Unfortunately, there wasn't anything they could do for him until Tuesday morning, when our little guy had to get his tooth pulled.  He underwent mild sedation, had a very quick procedure, and then went home with Mommy and Daddy.  Ben slept most of the rest of the morning, and then took it easy the rest of the day.  After a visit from the tooth fairy that night where she left him $5, Ben was recovered and ready for school the next day.

Christmas 2011

Ben and Rebecca had a great Christmas.  Ironically, Christmas morning they slept in later than they ever do, past 7 am, which I enjoyed after being up later than normal on Christmas Eve.  This year at over 2 1/2, Ben really enjoyed receiving presents as he visited with each set of grandparents and even received a goody bag at his great-grandmothers.  Ben's big gift from Santa was a Thomas the Train set, complete with table, train track and train cars.  Rebecca's big gift was a ride-on giraffe.  She loves to climb on a off each of the 3 ride on toys that we have in the house, the "muffin man" car my coworker handed down to us, the Chicco bike that steers that we bought for Ben, and now her giraffe.  Ben and Rebecca also received a set of play food along with a grocery cart to use with their kitchen handed down from Allie and Henry just before Christmas.  We have been emphasizing healthy food with Ben, especially since he's got such a sweet tooth.  All of the food represents either a healthy lunch or dinner.  Ben also received his first game, Memory, and Rebecca received a singing picnic basket.  They enjoyed Christmas morning, but Ben did get a little upset when there were no more presents to unwrap.  He handled that much better at Grandma Nita's later that day, where he received a set of Cars sheets from Aunt Lacie, a tractor with a wagon from Aunt Glenda, and a dinosaur book for bedtime from Grandma Nita.  Rebecca got some of her first dolls and some pajamas. 

The weather was mild so we went for our usual visit to thee farm with Allie and Henry to see chickens, pigs, and cows.  Each trip seems to amount in more time spent climbing into the driver's seat of whatever dump trucks we can find.  Afterward, I picked up Kelly from Lacie and Robert's new house to bring her to Grandma Nita's so that she and Ben could play.  They've gotten interested in playing with eachother this year.  I'm looking forward to them playing together more this coming year. 

Grandma Marla and Papa Harvey visited on the day after Christmas, bringing gifts for the kids.  Rebecca received a beautifl red-haired doll and some 18 mos clothes (it won't be long before she's in them!) and Ben received the Toy Story movie set.  Needless to say, the next 2 days were spent wactching each of the 3 movies.  Papa Harvey also brought down a Santa train, which both Ben and Becca enjoyed watching go around the track and play Christmas music.

One particularly special event from this Christmas was having brunch with Santa at Independence Golf Course with Allie and Henry.  Neither Ben nor Rebecca did that great in Santa's lap, but they were able to visit him multiple times, and Ben was able to utter that he wanted "train track" for Christmas.  Another really nice time was when Grandma Nita visited and she and Ben made gingerbread men together.  Ben really enjoyed standing on a chair at the island counter and decorating the cookies with m&m's, which happens to be one of his favorite treats.  Ben also enjoyed visited the "tacky light" houses, including walking through one of the displays where he could look through the windows of the garage to see a vast doll collection.

12-20-11 - Rebecca is the queen of sleep!

Rebecca is sleeping like a dream these days.  She gets fussy between 7-8pm and once she has a bottle and her pj's and sleep sack, she actually giggles on the way up the stairs to her crib.  I can place her in her crib, turn on her music, and she is content to go right to sleep without a peep.  Scott says it's because she tired after 11 months of not sleeping!  It is wonderful and she just looks like an angel when she curls up with her thumb in her mouth and her froggy in her arms to go to sleep.  She will usually sleep until between 6-7am, when we'll hear her calling for us (but not usually screaming) and we'll bring her into the bed with us for a few minutes.  She will not usually go back to the sleep though, but will sit still for a few minutes watching Semsame Street.  She is still a baby that is on the move, and doesn't seem to enjoy sitting still for very long.

Ben is getting so big and grown up.  Many days after school he exclaims that "I want to go somewhere", which usually means he wants to go to Arby's or McDonald's for dinner.  Just these past few days he's started using the words "Dad" and "Mom" instead of "Daddy" and "Mommy"...I hope that doesn't stick because he sounds way to grown up doing that...but still so cute!

The last several weeks Ben has picked up a habit of asking "who bought it" for anything from his clothes and toys to the food he's eating.  We have found it hilarious and most times when we ask him who he thinks bought it, he says "Mommy", which mildly annoys Daddy since often times it's Daddy who's picked out food or toys for him.

This past Wednesday night 11/2, when Lara was over with Ben to watch Cars 2 with him, Ben said he needed to go to the poddy.  I asked Lara to take him, assuming it would be another false alarm.  But this time, for the first time, he went poopy in his training poddy!  Now in the week of 11/7 he has gone pee pee in the poddy at school more than once!

Rebecca took her first real step on 11/8!  She has been getting to a standing position on her own without holding onto anything for a good while, but hadn't taken a step on her own until that night.  She seemed proud and excited, but was satisfied with one step.  Tonight (11/9) she took two steps.  I'm sure if I encouraged her more, she'd take a few more, but I'm sure it's just a matter of days before she takes several steps on her own with or without me pushing it.  Even without walking, Rebecca is into everything and anything that sparks her interest.  She wants to do anything but sit still, even as it gets close to her bedtime and she's tired, she is still on the move. Tonight she tried to help Ben with his alphabet puzzle, recognizing that the pieces needed to go on the board.  Ben would have liked her to find something else to play with of course!

Ben has been very interested in the alphabet puzzle from Aunt Nikki the last several days, saying he wants to fill in all the letters by ssaying he'll "do it by myself" and exclaiming "I did it!" when he's done.  I'm really amazed that he can do it without help and he remembers what word each letter is associated with, like that h is for hat.  This evening while getting buckled into his seat, we saw one of his classmates, Kaitlyn, leaving the school with her monther.  Like I always do, I asked him who it was and he referred to her by name and then said "we saw her at the pumpkin patch".  I was really surprised and impressed that he remembered we saw them there and that he could refer to the place correctly.  I asked him what we did at the pumpkin patch and he responded "took pictures"!  He may remember that because of how uncooperative he was when I was trying to get him to pose for a picture with the pumpkins.

Ben refers to the "family" often now.  He's always loved what we call "family hug" where Scott and I put him and Rebecca in between us for a 4 person hug.  But now he also likes asking for the family to be in bed with him for story time.  I suspect it's because Scott refers to us as a family alot.  It's cute to hear him refer to our family.  Another thing Ben has started doing lately is explicitly ask me "Can I" do this or that versus simply making a higher pitched grunt.  He'll ask "can I play with this" or "can I have that".  He even knows raises his pitch at the end to make it clear he's asking a question.  Sometimes, he calmly says "ok", if I say no to something, which is refreshing vs when he whines or does a fake cry upon hearing no.  His conversation is really progressing so much and he is sounding so grown up!  He's also been interested more in washing his hands at the sink, but still likes to play with the water and whatever may be in the kitchen sink at the time!

Ben and Rebecca are growing and changing so much.  Ben is still very attentive and loving with Rebecca, although he did get upset this morning when I gave her a piece of his pancakes at breakfast.  Even though, he refers to her as his baby and loves to touch, hold, and hug her.

Ben has said the funniest things lately too.  Last week he woke up after I came into his bedroom and the first word he said was "nocturnal".  When I asked him if that's what he said, he said that "owls are nocturnal"...that they sleep in morning.  He remembered that from school I expect.  A few days later he said "Bisquick" and then said he wanted some pancakes.  I don't know how he knew that pancakes are made with Bisquick.  He is learning so much so quickly.  In the last week or so, I've noticed that he's started saying "why" after much of what I tell him.  I wonder how long this will last, but I think it will take a long time for me to tire of his questions.

Ben loves his school, especially Mrs Carrie and his friend Will, who he now calls William...I think because Mrs Carrie calls him William alot at school.  Ben is transitioning, now that he's 2 1/2, to Preppers from Toddlers, where he's been for just over 6 months.  I'm worried about how it will go because he loves Mrs Carrie so much.  At least Will is transitioning with him.

Ben has started watching movies over the last several weeks, really since we went on vacation in mid August when he watched Cars for the first time.  Now we watch it almost every day.  Mater is his favorite.  He asks to watch a movie now more often than he asks to watch Caillou or Backyardigans, his earlier favorites.  Cars is his favorite movie but he also has Finding Nemo and likes that one.  He doesn't like Lion King and won't even watch the preview.  I wasn't with him, but I understand he got very upset the first time he watched it when Simba's daddy died.  He is a very sensitive little boy, so I'm not really surprised.

Rebecca has been crawling for a couple of months now, beginning to crawl much before Ben did.  The last couple of week she has begun standing by herself, mostly with her legs spread under her a little wider than shoulder width.  She hasn't taken her first step yet, but I think it will be any time now.  She's also eating alot of adult food now, she seems to love macaroni and cheese.  She also loves yogurt and pancakes, and even seems to enjoy eating broccoli off of Ben's plate.  She is still very attached to me, and sometimes will not relax when being held by others if I am in the room, even with Daddy.  She was sleeping better a few months ago than she is now.  She has spent alot of nights in the bed with me, but I've put her in her crib the last 2 nights and she's done very well, although I have had to let her cry for several minutes.

Ben loves the pool - Jul 2011

Ben and I went to the pool this evening.  He loved it, even though we only had about a 1/2 hour once we got there after supper.  He seems to have no fear around the pool, throwing himself into water deeper than he is tall.  I have to be there to lift him up.  He enjoyed jumping around in the shallow water too, and of course liked walking under the "mushroom".  Daddy said Ben had a great time at the pool with him last night as well, and got very upset when pool time was over.