Threefer---

Haven't updated in awhile... so here's a three-fer! :)

Let's see...

Ben -- Ben started a little one-week camp on Monday at his school run by the gym teacher. It's like little boy heaven. I suppose it's heaven for some little girls too, and there are plenty of them there, but mostly, it looks like little boy heaven.  You see, it's the Whittle equipment. Not sure if schools outside of our county have this or not, but it's this massive, room-sized climbing/rope swing/cargo net/monkey bar/gym mat/structure. Ben says they played some organized games, but mostly they are just allowed to go nuts on it the entire three hours. It's his idea of a perfect camp. His quote at the end of yesterday? "There was NOTHING that was boring... NOTHING!"  LOL. It helps that a lot of his old neighborhood friends are participating too and a kid or two from his class and some from our pool.

In other Ben news, there is no clear-cut obsession right now. Yes, we are in that heavenly place called "obsession limbo" where we anxiously await what's next. I spend a lot of time trying to keep video games out of the running...  HATE the video game obsessions. The science-y ones are way more fun for the rest of us... ;)



Simon -- Simon has truly been the angel-child lately. I don't know what else to say... he's obedient and pleasant.  My only issue with him lately has been getting him to clean up his Legos.

He says he will definitely go to the camp Ben is going to when he is old enough (next summer).  I have felt bad for him this summer... not old enough to do any of the special things I found for Ben to do and I didn't find anything interesting that just he could do, other than swimming lessons. Speaking of swimming lessons, he made HUGE progress just this past Saturday, which was our last one until fall. He swam halfway across the pool AND stopped to breathe without being reminded. He was pretty proud of himself, and rightly so. I'm pretty sure next summer, I will have two kids ready to take the deep-end test. Not sure I'm ready for that though. It's so easy to watch them in the shallow end! ;)


Jonathan -- Jonathan has been relatively easy lately too.... by Jonathan standards, anyway. Learning some consistent words has definitely cut down on the all out screaming fits. He even woke up in the middle of the night two nights ago, REALLY upset and when Tom went in to help, I heard him say over the monitor that he was cold. Tom covered him up and that was that. WOOHOO!

I think there is possibly some two-year-molar action though because he's been gnawing on his hands like a fiend and sometimes waking up upset and asking for medicine. (by pointing to his bathroom where we keep it) I can't feel anything back there but that doesn't mean anything....

Trying to decide what to get him for his birthday and leaning toward a little Casio full keyboard piano. He really doesn't need any toys, honestly... and I think he would love the piano and maybe eventually learn to play...  the other boys might like it too? We'll see... still undecided...

So that's my update. Off to get everyone ready to take Ben to camp and figure out how to spend the day!

Aww....

The boo-boo bunny fell out of the freezer this morning and I hadn't bothered to pick it up yet.

Jonathan, brought it over to me, placed it on the floor and bounced it around, saying, "Hop! Hop! Hop!"

I did the appropriate amount of yaying and jumping around and high fiving him.

After that, he brought it back over, put it to his cheek and said, "Cold!"

Not gonna lie... may have teared up some!

One little word at a time.... :)

Jonathan is 23 Months Old!

Dear Jonathan,

Today you are one month shy of two. Not that it matters, I've been cheating and calling you two for a month or so now when strangers ask your age. No one feels like doing the math on 20-some months, frankly.

I'm almost afraid to type this, but I *think* you are becoming a slightly more rational human being. As evidence, I point to your recent crib climbing issue. You see, you, being the monkey that you are, figured out how to climb out of your crib earlier this month. I don't know WHY this surprised me, but it did... completely caught me off guard. We had a nightmarish two days where you climbed out (proudly and with an evil laugh) every time we put you in. But it only took a day of explaining that you needed to stay in and repeatedly putting you back in every time you escaped for you to understand and obey the rule. I was kind of impressed by this! I thought for sure naptime was doomed forever....

This is not to say your strong-will has wavered in the least. OH the stubborn.... but, I can reason with you more and that has helped a lot. It also REALLY clicked for you about a week or two ago that using words for things means you actually get them. A few times this week, you've started to whine about something, stopped, thought for a moment, smiled and said the word for whatever it is you were whining for.

And the angels sang.

So your words are coming along, slowly but surely. You repeat a lot now, which is great and Miss Cindy, your speech teacher, says this is exactly what she needed you to do in order for her to really be able to get down to business. I do wish you'd start taking a little more initiative to use words without having to be reminded, but it will happen in time. I'm happy for any progress, so we'll take what we can get.

Some days are more word-filled than others, no rhyme or reason. One day last week, you came running up to me and clear as day asked for "Moh boo ba-ooon", since I had been blowing up blue water balloons for you and your brothers to play with.  It was like you lost your mind and forgot you don't "do" the talking thing. LOL.  Silly closet talker... just like Ben. Just. like. Ben.

In other news, you can jump now and your feet leave the ground. LOVE that milestone. :) You are also a pro at doing laps around the first floor on your little wheely bug. MAN, can you fly on that thing, whipping around corners and dodging furniture. It's quite the sight. ;)  I now mostly trust you to go up the stairs safely, but not necessarily come down. Though you KNOW how to bump bump down on your backside, you'd rather walk down and you still seem to think you can just dive from the top and arrive at the bottom in one piece.  Sigh.

You still *love* your music and your guitars and violins. You dance and sing and play pretend instruments with unabashed enthusiasm. Music definitely brings you a great deal of joy and I hope you keep that! "Guitar" ("gahhhh") is one of your every day words, and so is "piano" (I couldn't not even begin to spell that one phonetically)

These days, you are equally likely to be squealing with delight and laughing or throwing yourself on the floor in a total fit. There is rarely a middle ground. Any day there is more laughing than screaming is a good day.

Not sure what to do about your naptime. No matter what I do, I simply can't manage to move it beyond 11a.m. This is going to present a problem when school starts in the fall if I can't fix it by then! Hopefully, necessity will be the mother of invention at that point and things will just fall into place. Otherwise, you are going to be notsomuch a delight in the classroom once 11a.m. rolls around. Naps still don't last very long either -- an hour, two at most. (sigh) At least you are still napping though. I'll hold onto that for as long as I possibly can! You nap is what saves you from being listed on Ebay, with a really cheap Buy it Now price.

So that's 23 months! See you in a month for the big 0-2, buddy! :)

I love you!
Love,
Mommy

Look! I'm Picasso!

I've taken to leaving the watercolors out in the kitchen lately because all three kids enjoy a good painting stretch once in awhile and the watercolors are WAY less messy than the poster paints.

Anyway, Ben, in particular, has really gotten into it this time. He has been creating at least one masterpiece a day and they are gorgeous! He says they are abstract. They are far from random though... he talks to himself (and me) the whole time he is painting and so I know that each one depicts a different shark battle or some other deep sea scene. They take him hours to finish and he makes me leave them out so he can keep coming back to them... 

It's nice to see him enjoying something like this... he was anti-painting/coloring for such a long time. Since first grade or so, he seems to have more fun with it and even get kind of into making really neat works of art. :) 

It's also good to see him wandering away from the logical, "makes sense" stuff now and then... it seems to really relax him and I'm happy to see he has it in him. :o) 

Jonathan Says...

uhh... mulch?

I was filling some flower pots on the deck awhile ago and he wandered over. He pointed to the bag of soil and made some mouth movements like he was really trying to get a word out... a few seconds later, he came out with, "Mulch!"

I didn't have the heart to correct him with "dirt". Instead I did the "You said ____!  _____! Good talking!!! YAYYYyyyYYYYYyyYYY!!! praise/dance I've been trained to do by the speech lady.

I find myself having to do this crazy fool routine in lots of fun places... but it must be effective because the words, they are a'flowing!

LOL!!

The Glasses....

I really need to take a better picture today.... and get this child a haircut.... he loves the glasses though and wore them the whole rest of yesterday. He kept announcing all the different things he could see better. I tried them on and clearly my prescription needs to be much stronger than his, seeing has how I STILL can't see things with them on. LOL.

 He

More Words!

Today's words brought to you buy the letters A and C.

Apple!

Cup!

I think we're not far from the target "50 by 2" :) Can't wait for our next speech teacher visit!!

Funny Phases...

Jonathan has reached two funny little toddler phases lately...

First, if he sees something in a book or in the tv/computer screen that he likes, he reaches out tries to grab it... angrily. He gets SO frustrated when he realizes he can't. It's quite amusing to watch. I don't remember the other two doing this ever?

Second, (and the other two DID do this one and I seem to remember from one of those baby development documentaries I watched a long time ago that this is a thing...) he is constantly trying to get into or on to toys that he is way too big for. He sat on the the Little People pirate ship the other day just as pretty as you please. He has also gotten his feet stuck in countless toy trucks and cars.

I like how the toddler cuteness works to balance out the headaches they create... at least a little... ;)

ETA: HA! I was right! I knew I remembered seeing this somewhere. It's called an "Error of scale" and it's a behavior that peaks around age 2!

All Inclusive Update....

I love summer.... I think this every single day, multiple times a day even though we've been stuck inside a lot lately because of 100 degree temps and no car. I just LOVE the laziness of it all. I'm trying to savor it and store it all up in my mind because the crazy days of having to be out the door at 8:55 every morning are fast approaching.

Okay, so updates...

Hrm... 

Ben -- has mostly phased out of sharks and has yet to pick a new obsession... waiting anxiously to see what we'll all be living and breathing for the next few months and hoping it's not Metroid. He has become VERY into the old Nintendo game lately. I told Tom to do everything within his power to make sure this does not become the next 24/7 obsession because I HATE the video game phases... gahhhh... 

We went to the eye doctor the other day to follow up on his second grade teacher's observation that he couldn't see the board/projector well this past year. As we suspected, he is ready for glasses. We knew it was coming after he had his first appointment three years ago (apparently they can predict these things now with eye measurements), so no surprise, He is super excited to go pick them out! 

Simon -- has been super sweet and pleasant lately. I feel sorry for him sometimes because he is often the odd man out when we have playdates. Ben likes to hoard any older kids that come over and he is too old to play with the toddlers. I'm excited for him to make some new friends at school this year that are all his own.  I'm also looking forward to him playing soccer in the fall because I think it will do him good to have something that is all his own... he is constantly being dragged to things Ben is doing or interested in. I have toyed with the idea of putting him in the new martial arts school that is right by our house, but not sure if we want one more commitment right now.  

Jonathan -- BIG happenings on the talking front in the last two weeks. He has a solid 25 words that he uses every day now, including his newest ones, "Hot" and "Cold". Also, just this week, something clicked and he is repeating most things if you say, "Say, xxxx" And... we got our first multi-word phrase when we were playing with water balloons the other day! H came running in to the mud room, where I was trying to fill them faster than they could break them, tugged at my leg and said, "More blue balloon!" (it sounded like "Mo boo ba-oon.") So things are coming along. We continue with speech therapy because he is still behind at this point. It can't hurt and the teacher has given us lots of ways to encourage him to use words... but I do think it's all going to be fine. :) 

OH! And in even bigger news, we broke him of the crib climbing thing and I am STILL shocked that it worked. It's proof that Super Nanny knows what she is talking about. I basically just went in every single time I saw him throw his leg over the side and made him lay back down. (five times the first day at naptime) At the end of his nap, if we went in and he hadn't climbed out, we praised him and clapped and made a huge deal out of it.  It only took about two days... and no more climbing! Thank goodness... that was bad times.

So that's where we are lately... :) Summer is flying by and I have a birthday party of some kind to plan soon... how did THAT happen?!

Four Eyes...

At the eye doctor... 

Different....

My two oldest chidren are SO very different from each other in such interesting ways. (so is Jonathan, no doubt, but he's not old enough yet to really compare) Anyway, I love when they do something together that visually shows just how differently they think.

I need to take a picture of this... but, here's the story.

Aunt Debbie dropped off two little invention/electricity experiment kits for them to play with yesterday.

Ben sat down and immediately dumped everything out. He broke a couple pieces trying to do things without the directions and then called Tom in to fix it.

Simon waited quietly at the table for Tom with all of his pieces in the box, carefully deciding which experiment to build.

Ultimately, Simon chose a little battery operated pinwheel. Tom built it with him and Simon carried it gingerly up to his room to put it out of harm's way. He brought it back down this morning, intact, and continues to play with it and explain to us what the purpose of each pieces is and how it all works

Meanwhile, back to Ben. He let Tom help him build a little beeping alarm (after he fixed the wire Ben accidentally broke while not waiting for help). He beeped it a few times, tossed it aside, found a bar magnet among the leftover pieces he had scattered all over the table and built a sculpture out of paper clips, which he said was Pinnochio. I'm not even sure he knows where Pinnochio is right now. (sitting on the end table in the living room)

I'm not sure what to call these two personalities... but the stark difference in choices when presented with the exact same task just made me chuckle.

I Think This Might Be My New Favorite Picture....

Quick-snapped cell phone pic taken against the dolphin tank at the aquarium today... my only regret is that J isn't in it.  Love this... I hope it will print okay (being a cell phone picture) because I want to get a little frame for it.

Camp Invention 2012

Well, I am proud to say that Ben made it through the full week this year! Hooray! And by day two, he wasn't complaining anymore and was actually excited about what he had done there when I picked him up every day.

He loved all the different activities this year and loved his two counselors. I didn't realize until this year that EVERY actual teacher working there is a teacher from his school. That was nice. There were five of them and three of them knew him, at least in passing. Bonus. It made him feel really comfortable too, which helped a lot.

It's an awesome camp and I would send him again in a heartbeat, but he says he doesn't want to do it again next year even though he had a great time, but we'll see. Maybe we'll find something new and different for next summer.

Here he is with his camp trophy and his "invention". He calls it a Denti-blood-luna and, as far as I can tell, you put shark teeth in the top and it sharpens them and makes them so humans can wear them and be sharks.

Yes, the shark obsession is ebbing some, but still continues...

Maybe This One Will Be the Music Maker?

LOL.

Milestone... of Sorts...

I was on the phone with my mom yesterday afternoon and had put Jonathan down for a "wishful thinking" late afternoon second nap about a half hour prior. He had been completely quiet, so I thought it was a success.

I was mid-sentence when I heard a door open, then close and saw a diapered toddler run down the hallway laughing maniacally.

It so caught me off guard that my brain took a good ten seconds or so to process what had actually happened and who the diapered child was.

I caught him, immediately popped him back in the crib and said, "Show me how you did that."

And he did. Three more times.

An hour later, I removed the side of the crib and made it a toddler bed, figuring he may not stay in it, but he's clearly not going to stay in the crib either so at least this way he can't hurt himself. I also gated the top of the stairs, moved his bookshelf (which he has taken to climbing so he can play with the light switch in his room) and set up video surveillance.

So he spent his first night in his "big boy bed" last night and actually stayed there. However, at 6:20 this morning, instead of happily lolling around in his bed, playing with his aquarium and books, he appeared in my bedroom, duckie and binkie in hand and asking for milk.

Naptime lasted about 45 minutes today before I saw him make his escape over the video monitor.

Some who have traveled this road before have suggested just making his whole room a crib and putting a child-proof knob on the other side of the door and I think it won't be long before I do that.  I NEED an extended break from this child every day for my own sanity.

No... this just won't do. This won't do at all...

(cry)

Camp Invention -- Take 2

I decided to have Ben try Camp Invention again this year. It has such potential for awesomeness and last year, he didn't make it through the whole week. First off, he didn't know anyone. Secondly, on the third day, he got kicked in the eye during a game and got a black eye... it ruined his day and his week. He still talks about it.

This year, I played up the fact that it was AT his school... he'd be sure to know TONS of kids in his group because again, AT HIS SCHOOL.

Sigh.

We got there this morning and he was already anxious and not really wanting to stay. I knew if I could find his friends, he'd be fine... we approached the third grade table and.... not a single soul from his school. Worse, they were all classmates from the other school closeby, so not only did he know NO ONE... they ALL knew each other. Socially anxious kid's worst nightmare. I cringed FOR him.

Meanwhile, at the table next door, were the second graders. He knew for boys right off the bat. I knew they had no problem switching kids to other groups to be with people they knew, so I told him we'd move him.

No go.  He was worried they wouldn't pay any attention to him because they were already having fun with each other.

OMG... this is a GENE, I tell you.

We stood there for an agonizing 20 minutes... Ben with tears in his eyes, me with Jonathan on my hip and Simon at my side, trying to figure out what to do. I could bail, but the camp offers no refunds past a certain date and we were three weeks beyond that. I kind of figured though if I called and plead my pathetic case about my sad little guy that maybe they'd at least give me SOME money back.

I was getting ready to go let the check-in folks know to cross him off the list.

Then at the check-in table, we saw a familiar face. It was one of the teacher's from Ben's school. "Ben, isn't that a teacher you know?" "Yes", he replied. "She teaches third grade."  I walked up to her  and explained our situation. She recognized Ben immediately and chatted him up about how much fun they would have and how he should stay and how "Look! This other awesome teacher who you like is here too!!" He nodded, but still wasn't sold.  I asked to have him moved to the other group and of course it was no problem. However,  Ben was still not having any of it.I made him walk over to the group's table with me anyway. This was when he threw his lunch box on the floor and REALLY started to cry.

This was also when a minor miracle happened.

"BEN!" cried the table full of boys, most of whom I knew from both school and Ben's basketball team. "Come sit with us!" Ben's whole dimeanor changed and he sat right down.

"Are you okay now?" I asked.

He smiled and nodded.  I gave him a kiss and started to walk away.

As I turned, I heard the boy he was sitting with say, "Ben, you're not upset anymore, are you?"

"Nope!" he said, confidently.

Ahhhh....  thank goodness.

Hm...

In the last two days, we have heard from Jonathan:

"wanna go over there"
"All gone"
"That one"
"Cold"
"Uh Uh" (as in no)
"Boot"
"Ball"
"Have that"
"Pah Pah" (for potty... and no, we are not doing any potty training for QUITE awhile, but he is fascinated with flushing it)
"Piggy"
and an attempt to mimic "If You're Happy and You Know It"

He is really getting the hang of mimicry and is responding more frequently to "say x!", almost always imitating at least the beginning sound.

My friend's mother-in-law is a speech pathologist (huzzah!) and it just so happened she was in town yesterday when we went to our friend's birthday party. She observed and interacted with J for a good 45 minutes or so intermittently.

She heard a lot in his babbling that we hadn't noticed... sentences, for instance. (She's the one who first noticed he was saying "Wanna go over there" while pointing to the playground) He said a few other more incomprehensible strings like that too while we were there and she said that though we don't understand them, those are his words he is putting together. Interesting!

Just Busy Summering...

Not a whole lot going on around here... mostly visiting the pool and playing Cootie and building Legos. It's a good summer so far.

Ben has been a reading fiend lately, determined to get all of his stickers for the library's summer reading thing. He only has one more book to go. I promised him that as soon as that book is finished we will head right to the library to claim the prize. LOL. That more than likely means I will at the library twice this week, but so be it. I actually would love to just hang out with them for hours there just laying around picking through books and reading...  but Jonathan makes that impossible right now. (sigh)

The kid really is my nightowl. Now that it's summer, I have been letting him stay up and read/color/talk to himself about sharks until he gets tired. I have gone in as late as 11:30 and he is still wide awake. He can outlast us by HOURS and then still get up the next morning completely rested and happy. It's weird, I tell you.

Jonathan... Jonathan... Jonathan.... not much more to say. He's just HARD right now. Really, really hard. One on one with lots and lots of attention and patience, he is fun and adorable. But with two others kids that also need attention and patience, things don't always go smoothly. The tantruming levels are up around here and my nerves are frayed... sadly, no "back to school" is really going to solve this.... Only time and patience and a little growing up. We just take it day by day.

Simon. Simon is a joy lately. Pleasant and happy and just enjoying life. He has learned to jump in the pool on his own and is just an all around waterbug now! I am so proud of him. He's getting excited for kindergarten and has been working hard on his handwriting and some of his sight words. He's ready as ever! He is still head over heels with Legos and I have given up cleaning up his room until he starts school. There are Legos on the floor in there 24/7, more of them every day... and every time I try to pick them up, he gets mad because I have wrecked one of his ongoing projects. Yes, he takes his Legos VERY seriously, this child.

I love listening to him talk. He has picked up a lot of "big" words from Ben (and from us, obviously) and uses them the right way. It's not unusual to hear him talking about sharks with "serrated" teeth or Legos on a particular design needing to be "flush". It's really REALLY funny. ;)

He has really come into his own and is just a fantastic, fun-to-be-around kid. I think his kindergarten teacher is going to enjoy him this year. At least, I hope so!