Wednesday, December 21, 2011

First school picture

A stranger wasn't going to get a smile out of him like we can. Can't wait to see the class picture. :)

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Ben at 3

The last time I did an update on Ben was about three months ago (). As I read back through it, not a ton has changed.

He still likes the same "characters" (Sid and Curious George) but has calmed down a bit about his obsession with Steve Songs and John Butler Trio.

He likes the same foods, but I would add that pasta is by far his favorite food. He will go nights without eating dinner, but if you put pasta in front of him, he'll often ask for seconds.

He is into anything art project related. I think this came from being in school. He likes stickers, paint, crayons, markers, glue, etc. Many of his birthday presents (and soon-to-receive Christmas presents) are art supplies. He even made up a song about art projects. (It's basically the words "Art Project" over and over again to the tune of him strumming his guitar.) He also got a new guitar (hopefully better quality) for his birthday since he plays his one from Lincoln All The Time.

He's also getting back into books, so that's awesome. He wants to read them more often.

He's a chatter box, asking lots of questions and telling lots of stories. He also keeps track of things way better than I do. If something is lost, we often tell each other to ask Ben because he usually knows where it is. His memory and imagination continue to grow as he recounts stories from months ago and imagines things that we've never done or places we've never gone. I find it very fun to go on these "trips" with him to see where we end up. :)

Since I wrote last, Ben has been in preschool for a few months and he DOES love it. It took him about a month to leave me without a fuss in the morning and still sometimes he has some clingy days. More often than not though, he walks right into school to see what fun they are going to have that day. He ALWAYS greets me with a VERY big smile at the end of the day. Mrs. Foy (the assistant teacher) is his buddy and he LOVES her.

I didn't write about this last time, but I do want to document it. Ben can count to 10 consistently and has probably about 1/2 of the numbers to 20. He's also pretty good at actually counting things (like if there are 5 horses in a book, he can count them and tell me there are 5 of them). He knows his colors and can identify his shapes. He sings the alphabet about 90% correctly. He cannot yet identify numbers or letters..hopefully that will be next.

Ben is very sweet with Lincoln and finally Lincoln is very into Ben. It will be soooo much fun to watch this relationship grow!

As with my last update....no child is perfect. Ben's crying is driving us crazy. I'm hoping this is a stage and I CAN'T WAIT for it to go away. "Use your words" and "I can't understand you when you're crying" have become phrases I use constantly. He also seems to have selective hearing. I hope someday we can figure out what works to get him to listen to us....before he really gets hurt doing something that I am telling him to stop doing!

In reference to his sleeping....we took the gate off his door at Thanksgiving which has made the bedtime and nap time routine quite a bit better. Until the last week when all our family was here for his birthday.....going to bed had been pretty easy. I'm assuming we can get back to that after Christmas when we are home and back to normal again. Let's just hope we make it through Christmas (at Kathy and Don's and then at my Mom's house) without any major sleep issues (from Ben, anyway :)).

Ben is still not potty trained....by the next time I do an update on here, I hope I can report something different!

Can't believe Ben is 3! We had a wonderful time celebrating with our family. Ben is a lucky boy! For his birthday, my Mom and I took Ben downtown on the train (awesome!) to the Comcast Center to see the Christmas show on the huge screen in their lobby. It was really really fun and an inexpensive and really great activity for his birthday! He's already asking to go again...which we will do, but maybe not until next year. :) After 4 days of birthday celebrations between celebrating in school on Friday, birthday party on Saturday, family here on Sunday and his real birthday yesterday, hopefully he's celebrated-out. We had the last 3 cupcakes last night. Now only 5 days until the celebration begins again for Christmas!

Happy birthday Benny!!

Dr for both boys!



I believe Lincoln has now bypassed Ben at the same age weighing in at 18 pounds 15 ounces at 6 months (75%). He was 28 1/4 inches tall (95%).

Ben, at 3, was finally weighed on the big boy scale and the (much more reliable) standing height measurement. He was 32 1/2 pounds (50%) and 37 inches tall (25-50%).

We left with two happy boys (even with shots for Lincoln) and 4 prescriptions to pick up thanks to Ben's cold/ear infection and Lincoln's sensitive skin (just like his brother). In a record number of trips to the doctor this fall (I would guess maybe 10 times since the beginning of October), we will be back again after the holidays for an ear check, flu shot for Lincoln and a new booser for Ben. Welcome to the life of two kids (with one in school), right? Thank goodness, neither has a fear of the doctor....yet.

Saturday, December 17, 2011

Family Birthday Dinner

We had a special dinner with the family tonight for Ben's birthday. We had Ben's favorite food (pasta) in the form of a baked rigatoni followed by birthday cake. He opened his presents and loved everything. Ben is a very lucky boy to have so many people who love him! (Click below to see all the pictures)

Happy (almost) birthday Ben!!

Ben's Birthday Party

Ben's 3rd birthday party was at a firehouse today. The kids watched a fire safety video, saw the fireman dress in all of his gear, visited the fire trucks and even took a ride! It was a fun party. :)

(Click below to see all the pictures)


Ben's 3rd Birthday Party

Ben's 3rd Birthday Celebration

First a quick, cute picture of Lincoln. :)


Ben celebrated his birthday in preschool yesterday with cupcakes and a special crown. At the end of preschool, a special visitor came with Mommy to pick him up. He was so excited to show Nana his classroom.



Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Visiting Santa

Today, I took the boys to see Santa. We had "visited" him a few times over the last few weeks - waved to him in the mall - so Ben wouldn't be so overwhelmed seeing him for the first time. It worked well except that I couldn't get both boys to smile. Oh well...neither are crying or trying to jump off his lap, so I guess it was successful.

Ben told Santa what he's been telling us for 2 weeks now...that he wants "fans, and light switches and light bulbs" for Christmas. I have no idea what he means or where that came from. However, this evening, he added "stars" to his wish list. Is he trying to confuse me? I'm open to any ideas as to how to satisfy those requests realistically for a 3 year old.




I didn't splurge for the digital and Nick's too busy for me to ask him to scan it, so a picture of the picture is the next best thing. I'm not sure what worked better - with or without the flash.

Gingerbread House




Sunday, December 11, 2011

Getting our Christmas tree



The best thing about the place we get our tree is the name.


The only bad part of our trip was that we discovered Ben has a new FEAR of fire trucks. This may possibly cause a problem next weekend when his birthday party is at a FIREHOUSE. Here he's telling Nick he wants to see the fire trucks from across the street rather than so close. What are we going to do next week if he won't go into his own party?


Ben was very into decorating the tree. In fact, we had a hard time convincing him to stop putting ornaments on until we were finished with the lights. Then he proceeded to put every ornament in a very small section of the tree...but he loved every minute of it. I had to redo the tree during his nap, but it turned out really pretty.




4 stockings!


Santa's helper



Catching up...

Just a little catch up.

Lincoln in his new seat!



My sweet Ben. He loves his hoods.



Baby lounge chair.


Lincoln loving squash....or sweet potatoes....second baby....I'm already lacking on the "first food pictures." Haha


We got out all the Christmas decorations yesterday. Ben loves the advent calendar that his Godfather sent him last year. Wish he knew to stop on today's date!


A happy sitter.