Fun stuff lately

Tim is going to try to get me to blog every night for a few minutes. We'll see how that goes.

Fun stuff lately:

- When someone gets hurt, including himself, Ben gives a little pat and says "better" (berder). He hit me over the head with something and it really hurt. I told him he'd given me a big owie and he smiled and patted my head and said "better." I guess he got that from us when we try to minimize his hurts and say "oh, it's all better now."

- Ben loves to play with the round window upstairs. It opens and you can look out over the neighborhood and smell the alpine smells (can't wait until summer - sleeping with the window open!). I accidentally left the window open and we went downstairs and then heard a very strange distress meow. I ran upstairs and saw that Pippi and jumped/fallen out of the window!! Luckily the bay window roof is below it, so I was able to reach down and she reached up and I could grab her. I came down and told Ben and we laughed and laughed. The next day, and a few days later too, out of the blue he laughed and said "Winnow Pippi!!" I thought it was cool that he remembered a specific event.

- He hates our new commute, mostly because in the morning the sun gets in his eyes every other curve in the road and none of our window shades work very well. On the way home he is just antsy and hungry. Lately he has been making plans about what he'll do with Daddy when he gets home, which I think is so cute. Maybe it's because I have been saying "We don't have any milk in the car, we'll have to wait until we get home and Daddy can get some for you." So one day he spent the whole commute saying "Da-ee wa-er" and holding his squirter and then when he walked in the door he said it again and Tim went to fill up his squirter with some water and all was well in the world. This week he said "Da-ee neo" and I couldn't tell what he was saying until I saw he was holding up one finger that had a big hangnail on it. So he walked in the door saying "Da-ee neo" and I brought Tim the nail clippers and they took care of it.

- When I'm going through papers or sorting junk mail Ben loves to help me recycle ("yicle") and take paper over to the recycling box. I have to be careful not to let him take other stuff though!

- His favorite movie this week is Madagascar and he asks to watch it every day and refuses to watch anything else. There is a dance song in it and we've convinced Benny to dance sometimes. Sooo cute!

- His spider reactions continue and I'm ashamed to say I egg him on. If I see a spider and he doesn't, I'll point it out and watch him get all excited and call for "Da-ee pi-er!" over and over. Tim has been catching them and letting Ben look at them in his hands before putting them outside. We all say "Bye pi-er!" So I don't think he's really scared of them, maybe he just likes to watch Tim take care of them. Maybe it makes him feel safe. I was always glad that my Daddy, and then Tim, were there to take care of the spiders.

- Every night at dinner, he makes such appreciative sounds when he eats. Either "yummy" or just "umm." I guess he got it from us when we try to make things look and sound appetizing, but it seems like he's a polite little Italian boy telling his mom her cooking is great.

- We drove all the way downtown to a pediatric orthopedic specialist yesterday and Benny had three more x-rays. The Dr was nice but he spent only a few minutes with us explaining that there was nothing to be done about his overlapping toes until his teenage years when we might want to consider surgery. He says braces don't do anything and just make sure his shoes are roomy enough. Good info, but it seems like our primary pediatrician could have consulted over the phone with him. He did seem to want to make sure it wasn't a sign of cerebral palsy and maybe he did need to see Ben in person to be sure of his prognosis.

- We had a playdate at our house and I said "Ben, your friend is here!" He walked out the front door and said "Come in!" ('min) and then pointed inside and said "Home."

- Sometimes he'll walk around the house saying "O-kay. O-kay," with the emphasis on the "kay" like he's trying to settle or decide something. He says "broken" very well and turned to Tim one night to say "Copper broken" when a helicopter crashed on a movie. For some reason, open has been "ope" but lately he has been saying "open" a little more. We had burritos the other night and he kept whining, "part, part!" It took us a while to figure out he was saying "My burrito is falling apart." And he is finally getting please and thank you a little bit. He still won't say please without being prompted, but often he'll say thank you unprompted and it is so sweet! He said it to Tim a lot before he said it to me. If Tim got him a drink or a snack he'd say "tiku Da-ee." I lifted him over a little fence in our yard to help me cut the grass and he said "tiku Mama." It was unexpected and so sweet.

More later!