Home Alone...

In the summertime, Ben always hates having to make Safeway runs in the mornings. Whines and complains. Asks how many things I have to get. Blah blah blah. So starting this summer, after talking to some other friends with kids his age, I started offering to let him stay home. (Safeway is only 30 seconds away and I'm only ever gone a half hour or so) He'd always say no. But every time, I'd offer. Well, finally yesterday, he took me up on it. I was shocked when he said, "YES!" "You sure?" "Yes!" "You're not going to get scared?" "Nope... gonna sit here and play my DS."

I put his iPod Touch next to him and told him to text me if he needed anything. Taped my cell phone number to the back of the phone and put that next to him too. "Okay! We'll be right back! You SURE you want to stay here?"

"Yep."

Out the door we went. Came home a half hour later and it was a success. He was right where I left him.

Then I was putting groceries away and noticed the pantry door was open and there was white powder all over the floor. Weird. I hadn't baked or anything that morning...

"Ben?"

"Yeah?"

"What happened over here?"

"What?"

"Why is the pantry open?"

He wandered over and stood next to me, apparently also studying the scene.

"Oh."

"'Oh', what? What did you do while I was gone?"

"Um... this..." he said, and pointed to an open bag of powdered sugar on the shelf. Apparently he had helped himself to a handful of sugar as soon as I left.

"Seriously? You ATE powdered sugar?"

"Well, It was really.... yum!" he replied, grinning from ear to ear.

Sigh. After that we had an obligatory talk about trust and how if he's going to have the privilege of staying home when I run out, he can't do things he knows he's not supposed to do. He nodded and understood... I think.

I have to admit though, I was secretly kind of amused and wished I could have seen how it went down. It was like he just couldn't help doing SOMETHING "forbidden" while he had the house to himself... so a handful of sugar was the first thing that came to mind. LOLOLOL!! And I love that that's the first thing that came to mind... so innocent and kinda cute.  (does it make me a horrible mom that it made me laugh? When I recounted the story to Tom later, he thought I should have punished him....)

So Far, So Good, Random Stuff and Almost Beach Time!

This is the first year Ben has actually been into summer reading! I really think it's that the school librarian told them they had to do it and signed them up at school. In his mind, that makes it completely black and white, no question, done deal. AWESOME.

We have been back to the library once already for one of the four stickers and I think we'll be back before we leave for vacation for yet another one.

Bridge books are going well too. I took a clue from the above fact and told him the pages get turned into the third grade teachers. Voila. Compliance. And since Ben is into it, Simon LOVES them... he feels like such a big kid when he sits down to do his "homework." :)

In other news, Ben hit a HUGE milestone at swimming lessons yesterday and swam all the way across the pool!!!!! The teacher pushed him a little more each time. She kept looking over at me to make sure I had seen how far he got and I could tell she knew he could do it. So the third time, she just kept backing up and he just kept going!!! He was pretty proud of himself. :) I wish I had gotten a photo after, but I was busy chasing crazy monster baby.

We are headed to the beach this coming week for Shark Week 2012. Yep. Big surprise that is the theme this year. ;) Sometimes I feel guilty that Simon is just along for the ride with Ben's obsessions, but he doesn't seem to mind and gets as into it as Ben does for however long it takes to run its course. Yesterday, they played with the Playmobil boat stuff for THREE HOURS, meticulously setting it up all up Simon's bedroom floor and recreating pirate and shark attacks.  It was SO sweet....

Anyway, stay tuned for the traditional beach pictures - Ripley's big tire, boys digging in sand, 156 pictures trying to get one of all thee boys in front of the dunes looking at me and smiling....

Can't wait! :)

Signature....

"Mom! I wrote my WHOLE name in cursive!!!" (he finally learned the letter "G" yesterday, I think)




This doesn't do his cursive justice, actually... when he is writing the assignments for handwriting on the lined paper it's beautiful! I can't get over how quickly he took to cursive after struggling with legible printing for so long!! Is it just the novelty of it?

Two Wheels!

On Sunday, we were playing outside with the boys in the driveway and I suggested to Ben that maybe we should try taking his training wheels off of his bike again. (we've tried at least twice before in years past and it has NOT gone well)

He's been playing with our neighbor a lot lately who is a year older and who zips all over the place on his two-wheeler and I could tell Ben was kind of wanting to keep up. He hesitated, but then I suggested maybe, since Simon was tall enough for BEN'S bike now, that we try taking the training wheels off the smaller bike and maybe he'd feel a little safer.

This line of thinking seemed to click with him.

"Okay!" he replied, enthusiastically.

In 30 seconds, Tom had the training wheels off of the smaller bike. He held Ben's shoulders and the bike seat two or three times as Ben pedaled back and forth across the driveway. Tom stopped to help Simon with the other bike and the next thing we knew, Ben was off...

Guess when they're ready, they're ready! (reminds me so much of potty training... and is another reminder to me of the "when they're ready for something, it's easy and quick and painless" mantra I need to keep in my head in the coming years with Jonathan)



Not sure what to do about the bike size situation now. Simon doesn't want to go back to the smaller bike. But I'm hoping to convince him to want to try two-wheels too on the smaller bike so Ben can get back on his slightly taller and more age appropriate bike. LOL. We'll see how that goes. ;) I think he has a little more natural coordination than Ben, plus there is the motivation to keep up with his big brother, so I think if he really wanted to, he could definitely do it. (but again, if he's not ready, he's not ready.... which means we have a bike conundrum... new bike may end up having to be his Christmas present)

This video was taken almost two years ago to the day... Ben Reads

It's amazing to me that this is where he is now! A lot of this progress has been made just since September. He was reading well by mid-Kindergarten, but this year, he has made great strides in paying attention to punctuation and reading amoothly and with expression. He used to get SO frustrated when pages had a lot of words on them and would just quit, even though he could easily read it. Now he's not intimidated at all!

A Benjamin First...

Ben has his first ever TEST in school today. (dun dun DUN!) It's a math test. I reminded him on the way to the bus stop to make sure to read all the directions, check his work and make sure he didn't forget to do any of the problems. (these have all been homework issues lately. ;)

He replied that he would, but he was pretty sure he'd get them all right. Oh, the self-confidence of that kid!

Can't wait to see how he does!

Speaking of first grade math, check out the homework that came home the other night. Just the very mention of "algebra" made my stomach a little queasy. Ack. Algebra concepts? In first grade? Seriously? I'm going to need a tutor by the time he's in second grade to help with the math homework! What happened to 2+2 and "Around the World?" And what do they have against + and - signs?

No Teeth Ben...

My card reader finally arrived and thus, I can post this picture of my child with no teeth. He even has a little lisp now. ;) Lucky for him, the permanent tooth of the FIRST tooth he lost on the bottom is almost all the way in, or he'd really be in a bad way!


I apologize for the lack of posting. It will improve soon, I promise. (especially now that I have a card reader and can post pics!)

This Moment Brought to You By Baltimore County Public Schools...(okay, and five years of consistently being read to)

A few nights ago, Ben declared that HE was going to read Simon his bedtime story. And he did. (he has tried this before but it has always dissolved into silliness and Ben totally making up a different story than what is in the book)

He read one of Simon's Thomas the Train board books, a book about opposites, The Foot Book, and a Little People School Bus book. The funniest part was after that when Simon said he wanted Ben to read Green Eggs and Ham. Ben started out at a nice clip on the first few pages... but then he turned the page and saw the ridiculously long list of places and ways Sam's friend does not want green eggs and ham and said, "This is WAY too long. Simon you have GOT to pick another book." LOL!

Last night, we were getting ready for bed and Simon said to me, "Can Ben read my bedtime story?" at which point I melted into a puddle. I managed to compose myself and sent him into Ben's room to ask.

"Ben! Hurry up and get dressed! I want you to read my bedtime story!" he yelled.... about a hundred times, in true Simon fashion, since Ben was too busy trying to find his pants to answer him.

Finally, they settled in. And last night, Ben read ALL of Hop on Pop to his little brother. (except for the words Constantinople and Timbuktu) Seriously, sweetest. thing. EVER.

I didn't want to ruin the moment with a camera, but tonight I may try for the picture and video because it will make your teeth hurt, it's so sweet.

I love that they have each other and I love the brothers relationship they already have, even though Simon is only two... :) Makes every pregnancy annoyance I ever experienced worth it. I do hope one day they can have another sibling to join the mix, but even if I only have just these two, life's pretty darn good.

Huge Milestone...

Ben read the bedtime story last night. :)

It was 'Pumpkin, Pumpkin', and he read it cover to cover... he's read bits and pieces of "real" books (as opposed to school readers or Bob books) before, but this was the first FULL, REAL book he read to me. i begged him to read it again so I could film it for posterity, but he declined. Maybe today. ;)

We Have a Wiggler!

This morning, while rushing around the house to get both kids and myself out the door, I came down and noticed Ben sitting in the corner by our front door, looking sort of forlorn. His breakfast bar was in one hand, half eaten and he looked like he was about to cry.

"What's wrong, buddy?" I asked.

"My tooth feels weird!" was his reply.

It took me a minute to put the puzzle together, but as soon as I got a look at the tooth, I could see what the problem was.

"Ben! You have a loose tooth!!"

Suddenly, his mood changed to total excitement. He spent the whole rest of the morning wiggling it with his finger and rattling off the names of everyone in the class with loose teeth and on and on and on.

I emailed his teacher to just give her a heads up in case his mood changes back to freaked-outedness... she sent me back a somewhat terse, one sentence reply: "We'll take care of it.", so I guess she was either busy this morning or annoyed with my naivete about the whole ridiculously common kindergarten loose-tooth routine. Whatever. It's a first for him and I wanted to make sure he was okay all day and also that if he happened to lose it at school that she'd put it someplace safe.

I have since learned (from other moms, not from the teacher) that school is THE place to lose a tooth... they make a huge deal out of it and have a special "lost tooth" envelope they send it home in.

I'm sure he worked at it all day, so I'd be surprised if it hung in there for very long. LOL. I need to come up with our tooth fairy system, pronto!

ETA: Check this weirdness out. It's been nearly exactly five years since that little tooth made its first appearance. Seems like only yesterday... (sigh)

He's Getting It!

Ben has started taking an interest in learning to read! Not that he didn't have any interest before, but something seems to really have clicked in the last week or two.

He is sounding out words all over the place and is starting to recognize more and more words just by sight. It's very exciting to watch him light up when he realizes he knows a word!

I'm thinking I need to pick up a few really simple, repetitive early reader books (Hop on Pop and maybe the Bob books) to really get him going. Most of his other books would still be really frustrating. Recently, he was upset because we said we had read enough stories for the night but that he could stay up and look at his books by himself... he replied, oh so pitifully, "But I don't know what any of the words say!" Hopefully, that will start to change!

Simon's Surprise!

Last night, I guess Simon was feeling like he was missing out on the daddy/Ben party in the basement because he DID NOT want to go to sleep. I went up around 8:30 and just rocked him and talked to him for awhile. Eventually he put his head on my shoulder but continued to babble away.

Just for fun, I said, "Simon, where's your nose?" (not expecting a real response because usually he just giggles at me or pinches MY nose)... he sat up, pointed to his nose and said, "Noh". So I tried another one. "Simon, where's your mouth?" He pointed to his mouth and said, "Meh." I tried to stump him with teeth, but apparently he has figured out where those are too, and calls them "Chee" That was the end of the game as it seems eyes, hair and ears are still a mystery to him. ;) Oh, but he DOES know where his big 'ol belly is!

Anyway, I was so surprised! I had NO idea he knew any of that yet. That's kind of the sad part of the second child... you don't have as much one-on-one time as you do when you only had one, so sometimes they learn things without you even realizing it.

I can't wait until school starts in September and I have that little chunk of time in the morning with just him. :)

One Foot in Front of the Other...

Yay, Simon! :)

Because the Blog Curse Apparently Goes Both Ways...

(which means now that I post THIS, it will probably reverse itself) ;) But anyway...

Guess who started walking all over the house just after my post yesterday!? So far, his longest trek has been from his room all the way into Ben's room. He has also done almost the whole length of the living room. You can tell he is quite pleased with himself because he giggles with every step! Either that or he just thinks all the clapping and "yay!!"ing we're doing is funny. ;)

Seriously... He Really IS a Closet Walker...

So, yesterday, I was walking Simon around the living room and at one point, I let go of his hands and was holding onto his overalls instead. (he actually checked to make sure I still had him)... I could feel he was completely balanced, so I let go. He walked 3/4 of the way across the kitchen! Then he realized I wasn't holding on, plopped himself down on his diaper and angrily screeched at me.

Lordy day... I can't WAIT to teach him how to ride a bike. ;)

Closet Walker...

By my best estimate, Simon walked five or so steps this morning to get from the nightstand in our bedroom to the vacuum cleaner in the middle of the room. That's a guess, however, because I only caught the last two steps before he saw I had spotted him and promptly sat down.

The sneaky little guy is becoming a closet walker, a term coined by my mom's friend Hope, whose grandaughter (same age as Ben) used to walk all over the room until someone came in and then she'd sit down and pretend she couldn't walk at all. I don't think she "came out" until several months after her first birthday.

Simon will do positively ANYTHING to avoid walking, including crawling on his hands and the tips of his toes outside so he doesn't scrape his knees on the sidewalk. He will also leap from object to object even if they are ridiculously far apart for cruising purposes...

At this point, I'm very curious to see just how long he can draw this out. I'm really thinking he might go as long as the end of the summer or even September. I figure the longer it takes the more money I'm saving on shoes, right? ;) LOL! These days, it's all barefoot, all the time!

Another One for the Baby Book!

(Ben's baby book, that is) I don't often get to update Ben's baby book anymore since it's mostly filled in, except for birthday #5 and the pages about kindergarten and first grade... in fact, this may be the last unfilled blank on the milestones page.

Today, we were all signing his Uncle Taylor's birthday card. Like I always do these days, I made his name in dots so he could trace over it. He announced that he didn't need the dots, that he could write his name himself. This was news to me! We told him to go right ahead... this is what he did. :)


Not bad, eh?

In other exciting news, not to be outdone by cousin Ben, my niece took her first steps tonight! I missed the actual steps, but I was there for this:


I believe she now holds some kind of baby record for going from crawling to walking! (two weeks!!)

Progress on My Children's Various Addictions...

Well, after a whole week with no binky to fall asleep, I am now officially declaring Ben binky free!! He did it all on his own, so take that, Nanny 9-1-1! I am of the mind that there is no reason to put yourself or your child through a night of screaming just to break a habit. And I am proud to say that we (Ben, really) accomplished this with NO screaming, NO crying, and not even a mention of wanting the binky once he decided he was ready. :)

We're also making progress on Simon's bottle addiction. ;) During the day, he's down to a bottle before his 9a.m. nap and one before bed. The rest of the day, he drinks whole milk or formula from the sippy cup. He still wakes up once a night or so many nights and takes a bottle (or part of one) then too, but he'll naturally drop that when he's ready. He really is still hungry... it's only on the days that I get three really good-sized, protein-laden meals in him and two nice snacks that he makes it all night. (sigh) Feeding him takes a good chunk of the day!! Anyway, back to the bottle... I think we're going to work on eliminating the morning one next. The nighttime one will be the hardest, but it'll happen eventually. Shooting for by his birthday, but time's a tickin'. ;)

Now, speaking of addictions, if someone would just come hide my laptop a few times a day...

Both of Them Are Doing Fun New Things! :)

Ben:
I sat down with him this afternoon to help him make some Christmas cards for his class and his teacher. He has shown some interest lately in tracing letters and numbers, so I thought we'd give it a whirl. I wrote each classmate's name on the fronts in dots and his name on the inside in dots. He traced all of them...and rather well for a child who usually doesn't have the attention span for that sort of thing and therefore, hasn't had a lot of practice. He also drew a little picture in each of them (okay, mostly scribbles). I'm so proud of these little cards because I totally didn't expect him to sit there with me all that time and he really did do such a good job.

We do have one last one to do... a thank you note for someone who just sent him a really thoughtful gift in the mail... but her name is kinda long and he gave up two letters in. ;) So, if you sent Ben a gift in the last two days, (wink wink) please know his thank you is coming... it just might take a little while. ;)

Simon:
Simon has fallen in love with Ben's Cabbage Patch doll, Molly (the doll formerly known as Reggie). And, as I discovered this afternoon, he understands the word "baby" as it pertains to Molly. (the doll formerly known as Reggie) ;) When I say, "Simon, where's the baby?" He looks for the doll, spots it, smiles and crawls over to get it." He also seems to know the word "kiss". When I say, "Give baby a kiss!" he leans in to Molly's face, makes a "mmmm!!!" sound and then smiles a HUGE smile at me. Too cute, this kid. ;) I think he is starting to understand "more" and "all done" too, though for some reason, he just thinks "all done!" is the funniest thing ever.

The Real Deal...

So I dropped Benjamin off at preschool around 9:15 without incident...

Well, there was ONE incident. I totally broke a rule and proved I did not have my listening ears on last Thursday when they were telling the parents how drop-off goes down. We got there about 15 minutes early, (since I am perpetually early for everything) and walked downstairs. I saw two other kids in the room, so I took Ben in, dropped him in his classroom and kissed him goodbye. Then I got kindly reprimanded for coming too early... apparently the doors do not officially open until 9:12... sure enough, I turned around and there was a hoard of parents and kids standing behind the closed doors. Gah. How embarassing. Of course, once they told me this, I did vaguely remember this topic being discussed last Thursday. D'oh.

Anyway, here are some highlights/thoughts thusfar: (it's 10:30)

* I feel like I am missing an appendage. It's not a bad feeling... just strange. I swear I keep feeling like I'm forgetting something.

* I drove for probably ten minutes before I realized I was still listening to the Sesame Street alphabet cd.

* I decided that 2-1/2 hours is a LOT longer than it sounds....

* Then I panicked when I realized I couldn't remember if I'm supposed to pick him up at 11:15 or 11:45...

* Also, I did not plan very well. I ended up just driving until I got to a shopping center by my inlaws' house. I stopped for coffee and sat around for about 15 minutes before realizing this was going to be a VERY long 2-1/2 hours...

* Then I did exactly what I did NOT want to do with this time, I came home. (mostly to check what time school is over) Note to self: plan better on Thursday. I do actually have things I could be doing... I just didn't really give it much thought when I left the house this morning.

(sigh)