More catching up

I am having trouble finding time to post! A couple of updates:

- Oliver is crawling pretty good now. His new thing: he grabs food out of your hands and stuffs it in his mouth, or DIVES onto your plate to grab food. We sat down at our favorite salad bar this weekend and Oliver reached onto the table and grabbed a handful of spinach from Tim's plate and stuffed it in his mouth. We've heard some good belly laughs from him lately. One night Ben was throwing a shampoo bottle in the tub and it splashed Liv a little and he laughed so hard. Ben continued throwing it and Liv continued to laugh and it was a delightful evening.

- Again, some days with Ben are utter sweetness. Some days there's not even a hint of a tantrum or disagreement, and he's so easy-going it is amazing. He'll tell all of us he loves us and misses us. He'll bring toys to Oliver and cheer Oliver on when he is crawling. He'll say please and thank you every time. This weekend we decided on a day of thrift shopping for fun and I asked Ben if there was anything he wanted to look for. He said a little red wagon and I said that was a good idea. We found one at one store and Ben pulled it around the store while we were shopping, saying "Scooz me" when he got in someone's way. The wagon was really old and falling apart, so we didn't want to get it. We prepared ourselves for a tantrum when it was time to leave, but Ben agreed with Tim when he said we should wait until we find one that is in better shape. Then he pulled it back to where we found it. And later that day, I accelerated at a green light to suddenly find a boy on a bike ON A CELL PHONE nearly on the hood of my car. He called me a *itch and we got all riled up and upset in the car (I was so afraid I'd hurt him, but he biked away fine). Tim said it was not my fault and Ben repeated over and over in a sweet voice, "It not your fault, Mama. It not your fault!"

More later I promise!