Thursday, September 29, 2011

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Boys

Sitting with Pop Pop after his nap.



Ben was napping when I took all of the pictures of Lincoln for his birthday....I figured I'd take the opportunity to get a few of the boys together when he woke up.



I asked Ben to give Lincoln a kiss...


And a hug. I think he misunderstood because he was hugging himself.



Lincoln is 3 months

Another month and Lincoln is getting more and more aware of his surroundings. He smiles (or cries) when people talk to him, giggles when you do things like tickle him, holds his head up better every day, and sucks on his hands a lot. We are working on rolling over and grabbing for hands/toys but neither have happened yet. Maybe by next month!








I really thought he was going to roll over here....just tip a little farther, Lincoln!


A picture to prove that Lincoln is NOT following in his brother, mom and dad's footsteps and so far, has kept his front hairline!


Playtime

One of Ben's favorite places to be these days. He's playing with water. He's really very dedicated. At one point, I looked out and he was holding his umbrella with one hand and playing with the other.



Playtime for Lincoln inside.




Preschool!

Last Thursday, Ben started preschool. He will go on Thursday and Friday mornings from 9:30 to 12. The first day was a sort of "open house" where the parents had the option to stay to get a feeling of a typical day and make sure the child settles in. I chose to stay the whole time. I had told Ben I'd stay, so I didn't want to leave, but primarily, I wanted to see how the day would go. I have to say it's really really weird for me to think that Ben will have 2 1/2 hours twice a week where I won't know exactly what he's doing. This has never happened before. Even on the rare occasion that I've left him with a babysitter, I could ask the babysitter exactly what they did while I was gone. Unless I want to become a completely neurotic parent and quiz the teachers at the end of each day with everything, I'm just going to have to trust my instincts that the school is a good school and that Ben's having fun (unless I hear otherwise).

So back to my recap...

In the morning on Thursday, Ben was really excited. First, he wanted a picture with Lincoln who was set for a morning with Daddy, wearing his "My Daddy Rocks" T shirt.



Then we tried to get a picture of Ben all ready for school, but honestly, he wouldn't stop dancing and showing off his backpack. He was quite excited to go to school just like Sid the Science Kid!







So on that first day, Ben played with play dough, made an acorn out of tissue paper, played with toys, had a snack, played in the gym (it was rainy), had circle-time where he sang some songs, and had his first lollipop.

The second day, I was about as emotional as Ben was. One of the hardest things that I have ever done was walking away and letting someone else console my child. "Mommy, I want to hold your hand" and "Mommy, I want to sit on your lap" while he was holding onto me tightly made walking out of that school nearly impossible. However, with a mom who was a preschool teacher, I knew that lingering would be the worst thing I could do. According to the teachers, he was fine soon after I left...but from what they told me, it sounded like he got a little special attention throughout the day.

As I wrote earlier, I am not going to like not knowing what Ben is doing while he's away from me. All I really got from Ben about his second day at school was that he saw a big bug out the window. I guess I better get used to him being on his own a little bit each week.

Ben's favorite thing about school so far is the "Teddy Bear Teddy Bear" song and dance. Tomorrow, he is going back to school and when I asked him what he was excited about, he said "Snack!" Let's hope he enjoys more than that. :)

He seems like such a big boy going off to school! I'm praying that in a few weeks, he'll be begging me to take him to school and having no trouble saying goodbye to me when I drop him off!

Monday, September 26, 2011

Ben 2 3/4 Update

I know I have a ton to update on, but before I get into things like PRESCHOOL, I am going to give an update on what Ben's up to at 2 3/4.....

- Ben's favorite "characters"/TV shows are Sid the Science Kid, Curious George and Mr. Steve (Steve Songs from PBS).

- Ben's favorite songs are "Opposite Day" by Steve Songs and "Guitar Player" (i.e., Peaches & Cream) by John Butler Trio.

- Ben's favorite food is ketchup (on anything), peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, yogurt, lots of fruit, hamburgers and pizza. His favorite snacks are cinnamon sticks, z bars, raisins and cereal (golden grahams and "nana's cereal" (i.e., Basic 4)).

- The activity that keeps Ben's attention for a LONG time involves pouring, sorting and moving things from container to container. These "things" include water, sand, change, shells, acorns, etc. He also loves puzzles and trains. (As I read back through this out load, Ben keeps telling me to add that he "loves packages!!!"

- Ben's daily phrases continue to improve and amaze me with his memory, his thought process and his humor. He says things like "Ben show you what I'm talkin' about" when he wants something that he doesn't know what it's called. Similarly, he'll say, "I want what you're talkin' about." When visiting my Mom he says he wants to "soft cookie" - which means he wants to pet the cat softly. He speaks in very long sentences and eventually gets his point across if you pay attention long enough. Often he is referring to something that I have forgotten about and more often than not, his references are right on. He's starting to sing more and we sometimes catch him singing songs to himself. Hopefully, he'll learn even more songs in preschool. He's also really working on words like "you, our, your, her, his, etc."

- He LOVES his little brother and is so good with him! I couldn't be happier about that!

- Ben started PRESCHOOL last week! I am optimistic to say that he's going to love it. Too soon to tell. He's had two days....the first day, I stayed with him the whole time and he had a great time. The second day, I left him and that "leaving" was quite difficult on both of us, but it seems like he still had fun. His favorite thing that he has learned is the "Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear" song/dance.

- No child is perfect, so I want to make sure I remember some of the things that are not-so-good at this challenging "terrible twos" stage. Ben has developed a consistent "temper tantrum"...how do you say it...bodily motion? He jumps up and down and flaps his wings like a bird. From experience with my younger sister, I'm sure this will be something we tease him about when he gets older. So.....of course I don't want to forget it.

Additionally, I've written about it before, but Ben is not consistently sleeping through the night. He seems to almost sleep walk to the door and yell to us. Fortunately, it's easy to get him back to bed. I hope I can report by the time he turns 3 that we get this under control.

After our 2nd solid potty training attempt, we have concluded that Ben isn't ready. Maybe in a few months. Everyone keeps saying that it will be easy when they are ready...so we are still waiting.

Can't believe Ben is getting close to THREE YEARS OLD! Crazy. He's a little kid now and I love it!

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Sleep in the Kray House

Since Ben moved to his big boy bed, we've had many nights where he wakes up throughout the night, goes to his doorway and yells to us. He goes in spurts and recently, he's been getting up every three hours. It's not fun having to get up with him and also get up to feed Lincoln during the night. Luckily, Lincoln (at 2 1/2 months) has consistently been only getting up once - between 4 and 5:30 and usually going back to sleep for a little longer.....until last night! Last night, both boys were asleep by about 8:45 PM and Ben got up the first time around 6:20 AM and Lincoln around 6:55 AM. That's through the night for both kids....on the SAME night! What a feeling to get all that sleep at once. :) Let's hope it wasn't a fluke. At least I now know that it's possible!

Monday, September 19, 2011

Making apple sauce

Nick arrived home just in time to participate in making apple sauce. Ben thought it was very cool and then didn't want to eat the apple sauce because it was warm. Oh well. The activity was fun! Do you notice something funny in the background?


Let's zoom in....


Pumpkinland 2011

We have made the trip to Pumpkinland every year since Ben was born. This year, Lincoln go to experience the trip. We will probably go to another pumpkin patch before Halloween so Nick can participate, but since we were already at Linvilla to pick apples, we had to stop in to the pumpkins. As usual, it allowed us to get some nice pictures of the boys.

Lincoln's first "picture where you stick your head in the hole" experience.

(Sidebar: I was about to type this and couldn't decide what to call them. Can you believe I found an article about how it's really confusing because there isn't an official name for these types of boards? What do you call them?)


Ben is an expert at this game.



Ben was intrigued by the painted pumpkins. I meant to paint pumpkins last year and we ran out of time before Halloween. We will be sure to paint some this year if I can figure out what kind of paint to use.












Apple picking at Linvilla

My mom and I took Ben and Lincoln apple picking so we could make some apple sauce. It was similar to peach/pear picking, which we did a few weeks ago, but Ben still had fun! He even enjoyed eating an apple straight from the tree!