updates

We've never tried hard enough to teach Ben sign language, but now that he is increasingly frustrated with not being able to communicate, I think we're more motivated to teach him. We managed to teach him the sign for "more" in a very short time, so we'll work on teaching him more. It's so neat to see how he learned it. We used it first with food, so I thought it was possible that he thought it just meant "give me more food" but then we taught him to use it when he wanted us to throw the ball with him more, and he used it then, so it seems he understands what it means. How cool!

We spent a wonderful weekend last weekend in Almena at a family gathering welcoming Michael home from Afghanistan. Ben had a wonderful time playing with everyone in the family. Grammy Pat made two huge dishes of fruit and Ben of course ate most of it. Due to his consumption of unbelievable amounts of watermelon, he overflowed his diapers several times. After about 4 hours of our 5-hour drive home, I discovered that he was very wet and wondered how he'd spilled water on himself and realized that his diaper had leaked. He was wet from his chest to his knees and the car seat was soaked! Watermelon boy! Hydrated boy!

Ben loves to help me water the garden with the hose - have I reported that already? He drowns a couple of potted plants, but does a great job with the rest of the garden. He concentrates and listens to what I ask him to do and is the best little helper.

I think there was another bit of news I wanted to tell, but I can't remember it right now. I'll post again when I remember it.