Ben Theories...

I've been pondering all of the things that could have triggered Ben's current negative state of being. Aside from just a regular boring old developmental leap of some kind, here's what I have come up with...

* Lion King. He and Tom watched Lion King about a week ago and he was really quietly freaked out when Simba's father died... he wouldn't even talk about it. Then, when Tom read him the story out of one of his books another night, he acted all weird again. And now, he won't let us read it at all. (interesting to note that he told Tom he didn't want to read it last time because it reminded him of school... ?!)

* Vacation. Vacation always throws him for awhile... the lack of routine, the being away from his house, his bed, his stuff. I actually totally get that. But it has been three weeks... then again, we also came home to the house looking different than he left it (he HATES the new floor), being sick, and getting a brand new bed all within a week. Makes me dread what life will be like whenever we decide it's time to move. (not for years, thank goodness)

* Simon. Simon is becoming a way more of a threat now. He wants to play with Ben's stuff. He will even steal Ben's sippy cups and drink his juice if we're not paying attention. He gets around... Ben can't play with certain toys where Simon is because of the little pieces. He has to wait around sometimes while I feed/change/put Simon down for a nap. A lot of times, despite my best efforts to avoid the phrase, I still find myself saying "You have to wait a minute until I do blah blah with Simon." or "We can't do that right now, Simon is napping." I think this is definitely part of what is getting to him... especially the part where he has to share ME.

* The only thing school-related I've been able to piece together is that once, recently, he wasn't ready to sit down/stop playing and someone told him he had to. His teacher mentioned that once a couple weeks ago, he came to her all teary from the Big Room and wouldn't really say what was wrong.... when I try to get him to fill in the details of that, I get some version of what I just said.

So yeah... those are my theories... maybe it's one of them, maybe it's all of them... maybe it's just a random phase like Simon who currently will not tolerate being held by anyone (even Tom) if I am in his sightline or within earshot. Yeeehaw. Did I say I wanted three kids? I may overestimated my sanity threshold...