One little update

Ben came home from Wee Creekers one day with a new word: in response to almost every question you ask him, he says "um."

Second child syndrome

They say the first child has a perfect baby book and beautiful scrapbooks and so many photographs and the second child gets neglected in that area. Poor Oliver - I forgot to take his 3 month picture, so I'm already falling into the stereotype. I'll use one that was taken near the 3-month date. I did remember his 4 month. So here are his 3 and 4 month photos.

Telephone - More sweetness

Benny, Livvy and I were out and about and Tim called the cell phone to give us a message. After I was finished talking to Tim, I gave the phone to Ben to chat and I heard him say a few things and in a few minutes he started bawling. I thought something hurt him and got all worried and I should have stopped the car. I asked him what was wrong and he was crying so hard he couldn't talk. I called Tim back to ask him what happened and he said he told Ben he had to hang up and said good-bye. After Ben calmed down a little bit and could talk, he said "miss Daddy!" over and over and cried for a long time. Isn't that the sweetest, and saddest?

Soon after the reunion, Tim and I said something about calling someone and Ben heard "call" and he ran to the phone and said "Call Aunt Winnie." Of course we couldn't say no to that, so Ben called Aunt Wende to say good night to her.

Other tidbits:

Ben calls Oliver "Yivvy" (Livvy) and "Ovvy."

Oliver weighed 17 lbs, 6 oz at his 4-month check up. His weight is in the 90th percentile and his height is in the 84th percentile.

Couple more random updates

Ben seems to be having a terrible time with my going back to work. Extra tantrums, extra clingy, extra whiny. I try to give him as much attention as I can when I get home from work, but we know that low blood sugar makes him cranky too, so I need to get dinner fixed as quickly as possible. And poor Oliver doesn't end up getting much attention before he goes to bed at 7:00. Sweet, easy-going Oliver.

Thank goodness we've still seen no outward signs of jealousy with Ben. He still acts like he loves Oliver and is proud to have a little brother. When we go places, Ben proudly says "Ovver!" like he is introducing him. He also chants "Mine Ovver!" over and over when he wants to play with him and cries when I won't let him. He's doing a pretty good job of being gentle with him, though if we leave them alone for a few minutes, we often come back to find Ben sitting on Oliver somehow or giving him one of his full body hugs, and Oliver doesn't even cry. Oliver does get a hilariously frightful look on his face when he sees Ben coming, and he winces in preparation for whatever is coming.

Ben's new word this week is "yeah" and I wish I could describe how he says it.
Ben: "Yitin real race car!"
Me: "Lightning is a real race car?"
Ben: "Yeah."

Ben really loves garbage trucks, bull dozers, diggers, and other big trucks and tractors these days. We found a really cool digger at a thrift store (and we need more toys like we need a hole in the head), and we had a great time driving through three lovely road construction zones yesterday and looking at all the tractors and diggers and front end loaders.

For all his extra tantrums and toddler behavior, we still have so many wonderful times with Ben. It seems completely daunting to go somewhere alone with a newborn and a toddler - how do you hold the baby and be able to catch the toddler before he runs out into traffic, etc.? But Ben is such a good boy every outing we've taken. I tell him I'm so proud of him, and I tell him to tell Daddy he was a "good boy" when we get home. He stays in the grocery cart for a while and when he gets out he stays near me, he holds my hand in the parking lot like he's supposed to. He doesn't really throw tantrums when it is time to leave a playground or time to stop doing something fun.

He enjoys going to the "go see door" (grocery store) with me and he LOVES the library. He asks to go to the library almost every day, and when we are here, he says "Benny stay yibary." We did the summer reading club this summer and he got his free book because he read 8 hours. He asks to read all the time, which I think is wonderful. It is surprising which books he ends up liking. This week he likes a book called the Principal from the Black Lagoon, and a Visitor for Bear. He says "buhlack yagoon" and "begone" (the bear doesn't like his visitor, so he yells "begone!")

Ben's favorite food this month is blueberries (buhlooberries) and he asks for more and more and ends up eating large quantities. Diaper changes have been colorful. :-)

Ben can count to ten and knows that green lights mean go and red lights mean stop.

Hmm, the world still revolves around Benny even though he has a little brother now...

Gotta go work!

Two brothers

The difference between Oliver and Ben is amazing. The "how to welcome a second baby" books warn you about saying anything negative about the older sibling in front of them, but hopefully Ben won't care by the time he can read this. You can see there's nature and nurture both at work here. Oliver and Ben have different personalities, but there's probably a lot that I am doing differently too and that has to affect them.

I know it isn't completely accurate, but my memories are that Ben NEVER ONCE went to sleep on his own. He was completely dependent on nursing to sleep until well past a year. When we tried to let him cry it out (and learn to go to sleep on his own), he cried for HOURS. And, it seems like he NEVER took a single daytime nap (even nursing with me) until he was two years old. Ben was also a very unhappy newborn, and cried/fussed almost constantly for his first three months. He would almost never sit content by himself. We kinda understood that he was hungry (starving?), but if half the crying was from being tired, we just didn't understand why he wouldn't go to sleep. After three months, he turned into such a sweet, happy guy (who still didn't sleep very well, but didn't seem to be affected by that), and the rest is history. :-)

Oliver, on the other hand, can sit content by himself for a good long while, amused by what's going on around him. And it seems like the only time he cries is when he is tired. And guess what???!! When he is tired, you can lay him down and guess what he does??!! He goes to sleep!!! Every once in a while he'll fuss a bit, but never more than five minutes. That just seems absolutely amazing to me after our experience with Ben. I know things can change at any minute, but it certainly seems like we're off to a better start with Oliver in terms of sleeping. Yay!!

No playground!

This morning Ben said, "No playground! Stay home, Mama!" So perhaps I shouldn't feel so guilty about going to work and taking him to daycare. Home is apparently more appealing than a playground! Oh, the changing moods of toddlers...

Feeling guilty

Yesterday morning and this morning Ben said "No school. Stay home Mommy." That breaks my heart and makes me feel really guilty. Of course once he gets to school, he runs and joins in and seems happy.

Oliver started "school" today too, and he just smiled at his "teachers."

Ben is trying to learn dinosaur names and the "saurus" part always comes out "sources." When he tried to say brachiosaurus it sounds like broccoli's horses.