Sibling rivalry already?

I hate to say that sibling rivalry has begun rather suddenly. Within the space of a few days Ben has gone from playing roughly with Oliver to being really maliciously rough with Oliver. For example, he likes to push Oliver's head to the floor when he is sitting and then sit on his head and he likes to hit and kick and jump on him. Oma Donna thought it might be because Ben knew I took Oliver to California with me and he is jealous. We'll have to figure out how to deal with it. I've yelled a couple of times when Ben appeared to be about to suffocate Oliver and he quickly picked up that habit and has yelled "No Livvy!" at the top of his lungs a few times. So I feel like that tactic has done nothing except give Ben another bad habit. We will try some time outs.

The beginning of Why?

More language updates: Ben has started asking the eternal question: "Why?"

He has also learned the word Hate. This morning he said "I hate school!" And he said it about a couple of things yesterday. It is interesting to try to trace the origins of learning new words. He is at Wee Creekers only two days a week, but he learns a lot there. I guess Tim and I use the word hate a lot in conversations between us, but I don't feel like I've tried to teach Ben the word Hate.

More things he still says cutely:
Hungry is still Horngy
Pop Tart is Partnart

I looked at the ingredients of some juice the other day while Ben and I were in the kitchen and I said, mostly to myself, "This juice is mostly sugar! Yuck!" Now Ben asks for that juice by name: "Sugar juice." :-)

Ben's language updates

Ben's speaking gets better every day. The other night Oliver was wiggling around and Ben said, "Yook, Mama! Yivvy doin' ekercises yike you!" He still has trouble with Ts and Ls and Js some other combinations at the beginning of words, but no problem with them in the middle of words. So Pretty and Pruny and Jump are Fretty and Runy and Wump. And Truck hasn't come along much, unfortunately. Today he very loudly wanted a truck at Big Lots and we had to leave the store because he kept yelling it over and over. (His fingers and toes are "Runy" when he stays too long in the bathtub.)

He keeps us apprised of his frequently-changing moods: "I'm really sad." "I'm happy!" And his health: "I'm really sick." "My foot hurts!" And his preferences: "That was really fun!" "I not yike dat!" "Tasty!" "Fancy!"

Instead of "he is" or "she is" I think he says "izzy." I don't think he is asking when he says "Izzy black" and I think he means "he is black."

Other things he still says funny: Penguin is Pengoon, Ostrich is Osterd.

And he has his own word that I think needs to be patented: Snuggy. Getting "cozy" or "snuggly" just don't convey the right meaning as getting all "snuggy" with your blankie or "snuggy" in your jammies.

More when I remember!

Visit to Oma and Opa in Alabama

Ben was so excited to go on an airplane to visit Oma and Opa in Birmingham. He went on four airplanes and was very lucky to have an airport playground in Nashville for our longest layover.

We had a really, really nice visit. Tim did a 50-mile race and instead of spectating and supporting him, we went to the McWane Science Center for a morning full of activities. There were hundreds of really neat interactive things for kids to do. It was sensory overload and Ben took a really long nap that afternoon.

Although Ben could care less about our poor cat, Flynn, at home, he was fascinated with my old kitty, Harley, who lives in Birmingham. Ben inexplicably changed her name to Marley and wanted to feed her and pet her.

I can imagine a 2.5 year old could get homesick pretty easily and Ben does seem to get a little uncomfortable pretty often, but gets over it quickly. I was worried about how he would sleep in a strange place since we haven't really been away from home much in the past year. He did pretty well and I was amused our first morning there when he got up, told me he slept a "yong time" and went bravely and comfortably into the living room and said "Hi Opa!"

If I remember what else I wanted to report about our trip to Birmingham, I'll post again.

Ben's first theater movie

Grammy Pat came for a nice weekend visit and babysat Oliver while Tim and I took Ben to his first movie. We told him we were going to see a movie on a really big TV and he seemed excited. We saw "Up" at a bargain matinee. Ben was mesmerized the whole time and didn't even want to share my popcorn, but he said he wanted to go home several times. We think he just got a little homesick during the sad and not-so-exciting parts of the movie. Afterwards he said it was "fun" but he also said he didn't want to go see a movie on a really big TV. So who knows whether he really liked it or not. During the movie he was really worried about the ostrich ("osterd") getting home. We moved when someone came to sit right in front of Ben, so I didn't get to sit next to him, and I missed out on the intense whispered conversations Tim and Ben were having (I guess about the ostrich, which wasn't an ostrich.)

Other random updates

So much to catch up on!

Oma and Opa sent a Halloween box with some chocolate marshmallows in it. I think I already said that Ben can make one marshmallow last all day. He licks the top over and over until it gets shorter and shorter. He puts it on his dresser at night and picks it up in the morning. He called the chocolate ones "socket smushmallows."

Every evening when Ben has been at Wee Creekers, his language has improved. On Wed and Thur nights, he speaks in sentences! We probably undo all the progress they make with him on Wed/Thur during the rest of the week. Words he still says funny:
Penguin = pengoon
favorite = fwavite
broke = bloke
I know there is more, but can't remember them...

This morning Ben didn't want to go to Wee Creekers because he had an owie on his thumb. I put a bandaid on his (invisible) owie and by the time we got there his "owie was all better" and the bandaid had to come off.

Ben's favorite thing to say this past week is "I'm sick!" and "I'm hurt!" I guess because we say it to him when he has a cold. If we ask him where he is hurt, he'll say his leg (or something else) is "bloken." Anytime he hurts himself falling or bumping, etc. he wants the ice pack. He holds it on for a few seconds and then declares everything better.

Oliver is 6 months old! And he has two little bottom teeth! And he weighs 19 lbs 10 oz! (down to the 83 percentile now) And he has started solids, though he doesn't seem to like them much. He definitely looks at our food longingly, so perhaps he is disappointed that he gets mush while we get pizza, etc. We made some delightful pureed sweet potatoes with the lovely baby food maker Aunt Wende gave to Oliver.

Oliver got FOUR shots at his 6-month doctor appointment this week. And he cried for less than 10 seconds! I'm sure he has been toughened by Ben. Ben is still always very sweet to his "Yiv" but he "plays" a little rough. We try not to leave them alone together. I did for a few minutes the other morning and when I came back in the room Ben was straddled on top of Oliver, sitting on his stomach with all his weight and yelling and what was Oliver doing? Smiling up at him! Ben can make Oliver laugh just by laughing.

Oliver went with me to a library conference in California and was great company. In the rental car I heard a new catchy popular song enough times to really start to like it (a few more times and I would be tired of it). Oliver had no opinion of it, but Tim didn't like it when I played it for him back at home. Then it came on the radio with Ben in the car and I turned it up loud. Ben yelled "Bee not yike this song!" I guess I am alone in my musical tastes. :-(

Ben has his own version of the first four letters of the alphabet. When I try to tell him it is A B C D, he says "No, ACDB!" But he says it really fast so it sounds like "Aysidibee."

We finally talked Ben into sledding after last week's snowstorm. He laughed and laughed and said things like "That went fun!" "That was fwazy!" (crazy) "That was funner!" When Tim and Ben came in from the snow, Tim made some "all natural" hot chocolate that just did not taste good. Ben took one sip and said "Good!" and then didn't drink any more. After a while, he said "All done." Tim thought he was being very polite.

I'll try to post more often!

Halloween 2009

We had our first taste of "mountain trick or treating" - only one neighborhood in the canyon does trick or treating and they get all organized and advertise. The advertising said "costumes = candy" so we all dressed up. Oliver was an ice cream cone (a hand-me-down from Samantha), Ben was his glorious dinosaur/dragon (from Aunt Marilyn and Aunt Karen), Tim was Van Gogh and I was Starry Night. Tim and I didn't take bags though - it didn't seem right, as much as I wanted candy! Ben is still having trouble with "tr" so he said "Frick or Freat!"
The houses in that neighborhood are still too far apart to walk between, so it was a bit of a traffic jam with families getting in and out of cars and slipping on the ice in driveways (we had a big snowstorm on Wed/Thur) and . Oliver got fed up after the first house (the wind was taking his breath away constantly) and then Ben got fed up after about 5 houses and begged to go home. So we went home with a pathetically small amount of candy, in my opinion. Ben was quite happy with his loot, however. He took one tiny bite of a couple of the chocolates and gave them to us. He loved the lollipop, a hard candy, and the Smarties. I told him Smarties were my favorite and he kept giving them to me, saying "Your fwavite!" What a sweet sharer.