These days all of Ben's "yeahs" have become "yeses."
Last night he said, "This carrot is SO crispy and spicy!"
A few nights ago he and I were sharing ice cream and he told Daddy excitedly, "Daddy, I share ice cream Mommy!" (He doesn't do prepositions well yet.) Tim said, "Really? Can I come share too?" and Ben said, "Yes! That be 'tastic!" We don't know where he learned the word Fantastic, but it sure was cute.
He still calls Joseph, "Jofuff" and skeleton is now "sketlon" (it was skelton). Footprints are something like "fwoofwints."
Did I already say that he talks about "grandfather" a lot? I'm sorry if I am repeating. He says he wants me to meet his grandfather. He says he is afraid of his grandfather. He talks about buying presents for his grandfather when we are in a store. We don't know what he means because Albert is Opa and Darrell is Grandpa Darrell. Tim wonders if we called my grandfather R.E "grandfather," but I didn't think so.
Speaking of Opa, we found a treat for Oma in the store and I exclaimed to Ben how excited I was to find it and that we'd get it for her for when she comes to visit. He went back to the shelf and got something else and brought it to the basket and said it was for Opa. How thoughtful and sweet!
Friday, March 26, 2010
Monday, March 22, 2010
March Oliver updates
Oliver sure is neglected on this poor neglected blog, isn't he?
When I nurse Oliver before his nap and we're upstairs alone, he seems to like to take advantage of having my undivided attention and have "serious" conversations with me. He'll pop off the breast with a "smack," look at me real serious, and say "hedededig!" Then he'll nurse some more, pop off again and say "Gamgoog!" This continues for a while and I listen attentively to his earnest ramblings.
Sometimes during the day he'll pop off the breast and smack, smack, smack his lips and then smile at his cleverness.
He has two top teeth coming in, and he is busy, busy, busy. He'll shake or nod his head in response to someone shaking or nodding, and he'll move his fingers to mimic someone waving. Some days he seems so unhappy and cries and cries when you aren't holding him, and then he has good days when he'll keep you company and entertain himself on the floor near you. He likes putting things in something and taking them out and opening and closing things. Sometimes he holds something and waves it around and yells like Tarzan. I don't know if whatever he is holding causes him to yell or if he is just struck with the need to yell like Tarzan.
Some days he'll eat anything in his path and dives onto your plate. Then some days he doesn't seem too hungry.
He's awfully sweet!
When I nurse Oliver before his nap and we're upstairs alone, he seems to like to take advantage of having my undivided attention and have "serious" conversations with me. He'll pop off the breast with a "smack," look at me real serious, and say "hedededig!" Then he'll nurse some more, pop off again and say "Gamgoog!" This continues for a while and I listen attentively to his earnest ramblings.
Sometimes during the day he'll pop off the breast and smack, smack, smack his lips and then smile at his cleverness.
He has two top teeth coming in, and he is busy, busy, busy. He'll shake or nod his head in response to someone shaking or nodding, and he'll move his fingers to mimic someone waving. Some days he seems so unhappy and cries and cries when you aren't holding him, and then he has good days when he'll keep you company and entertain himself on the floor near you. He likes putting things in something and taking them out and opening and closing things. Sometimes he holds something and waves it around and yells like Tarzan. I don't know if whatever he is holding causes him to yell or if he is just struck with the need to yell like Tarzan.
Some days he'll eat anything in his path and dives onto your plate. Then some days he doesn't seem too hungry.
He's awfully sweet!
Saturday, March 6, 2010
Ben's sayings
Just some random quirks of Ben's language:
- his pronunciation is improved on most things. and I'm going to miss his cute way of saying things. He still says a couple of cute things though. Yogurt is "yogrut" and this week chocolate was "shalaka" instead of "socket." Harmonica is either "music" or "munka" or "munkla." He called Oliver "Ovler." Lightning McQueen has become "Lightin' Aqueen."
- he almost always says "her" instead of "his" when he is using the possessive. And since he is almost always talking about Tim or Oliver in our house, he should be using "his." "Liv eat her food?" "Daddy brush her teeth?"
- milk that has been sitting out for a while is "dirty," and fresh milk from the fridge is "clean."
- He is doing that thing I've heard other kids do: saying "Remember this or that, Mommy?" The other night he said "'Member my tiger skeleton?" I said I didn't remember it and asked him to tell me more and he said "My tiger 'skelton' is big, giant and hides in the bushes." Interesting. He asked Tim if he "'membered his black outfit?"
- He says his favorite color is black.
- He worries that Liv will "broke" things. I told him (as the books instructed me) that most toys are to be shared but if he has a toy that is extra special he is allowed to keep it out of Oliver's reach. At my birthday dinner at a restaurant, he took a bowl away from Oliver, saying he might broke it and that it was special.
- In a store, I told Ben I needed to look at bras. I pointed one out to Ben and asked him if I should get it. He asked, "for your big, giant boobies?"
- He seems to use "our" for we. Or maybe he is just using "are" and skipping we. Anyway, he'll say "where our/are going?" to mean "where are we going?" and "our/are going shopping."
- his pronunciation is improved on most things. and I'm going to miss his cute way of saying things. He still says a couple of cute things though. Yogurt is "yogrut" and this week chocolate was "shalaka" instead of "socket." Harmonica is either "music" or "munka" or "munkla." He called Oliver "Ovler." Lightning McQueen has become "Lightin' Aqueen."
- he almost always says "her" instead of "his" when he is using the possessive. And since he is almost always talking about Tim or Oliver in our house, he should be using "his." "Liv eat her food?" "Daddy brush her teeth?"
- milk that has been sitting out for a while is "dirty," and fresh milk from the fridge is "clean."
- He is doing that thing I've heard other kids do: saying "Remember this or that, Mommy?" The other night he said "'Member my tiger skeleton?" I said I didn't remember it and asked him to tell me more and he said "My tiger 'skelton' is big, giant and hides in the bushes." Interesting. He asked Tim if he "'membered his black outfit?"
- He says his favorite color is black.
- He worries that Liv will "broke" things. I told him (as the books instructed me) that most toys are to be shared but if he has a toy that is extra special he is allowed to keep it out of Oliver's reach. At my birthday dinner at a restaurant, he took a bowl away from Oliver, saying he might broke it and that it was special.
- In a store, I told Ben I needed to look at bras. I pointed one out to Ben and asked him if I should get it. He asked, "for your big, giant boobies?"
- He seems to use "our" for we. Or maybe he is just using "are" and skipping we. Anyway, he'll say "where our/are going?" to mean "where are we going?" and "our/are going shopping."
Friday, February 19, 2010
February updates
- Oliver is crawling everywhere and into everything. If something is in his path while he is crawling, he picks it up and throws it behind him. If you sit him in front of a box of something, he'll take all the contents out and throw them behind him. He's also obsessed with Daddy's laptop, just like we remember Ben being (we bought Ben his own keyboard to try to help with that). I guess they sense that the computer gets a lot of attention, so it must be special. Ben was super sweet and let Oliver play with his Lightning McQueen laptop that Oma and Opa gave him.
- Oliver is also making a funny hand sign, basically holding up his index finger as if to say "Number 1" or letter L, and he does it while making a funny sound with a closed mouth. It sure seems like it means something, but we have no idea!
- I really need to make sure I write down things Ben says every day because there are so many cute things. One day last week he asked me if I was glad he was here and I teared up. Yesterday he asked if my banana had black paint on it (it was a very bruised). And now my mind goes blank because I haven't written anything down. I will start now!!
- Oliver is also making a funny hand sign, basically holding up his index finger as if to say "Number 1" or letter L, and he does it while making a funny sound with a closed mouth. It sure seems like it means something, but we have no idea!
- I really need to make sure I write down things Ben says every day because there are so many cute things. One day last week he asked me if I was glad he was here and I teared up. Yesterday he asked if my banana had black paint on it (it was a very bruised). And now my mind goes blank because I haven't written anything down. I will start now!!
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Ben's birthday
On Ben's actual birthday, we went to a friend's birthday party. Charlie was born on January 5, 2007, so his mom planned his party for January 8 a long time ago. We wanted to go to that party so I didn't plan Ben's party on the 8th. Then, I had to work the weekend of January 9-10, so we had to delay Ben's party until January 16. Before the party, we were shopping for a present for Charlie and I thought I would have a hard time explaining to Ben that even though it was his birthday today, we had to buy a present for someone else. But he was super sweet about it. We went to the toy section of a store and he kept picking things up saying "Charlie like this?" I told him we would have a birthday lunch and asked him what he would like to eat. He said he wasn't hungry so I decided on a little bagel shop and I tried to make a big deal out of going out for lunch.
So then Ben's party was on the 16th. We hosted it at the farm in Lafayette, where we lived while we were selling our condo last fall. We thought the kids would enjoy petting the goats, feeding a bottle to the baby goat and lamb, looking at the ostrich, playing with the chickens, and Kim offered to do pony rides too.
We have a lot to learn about kids' parties!
- the first lesson we didn't really learn was how to politely invite only selected members of a kid's class. We invited all of Ben's class at Wee Creekers, and then all of his non-school friends too. If everyone had come, we would have had over 40 people there. As it was, with lots of no shows, there were still 15 kids, which was WAY TOO MANY.
- The day was pretty warm, but lots of people got cold and wanted to go back inside. I didn't bring any inside toys or plan any inside games, so the kids got a little too rambunctious out of boredom and sugar-loading and I was really afraid someone was going to get hurt. The second lesson we learned was: have activities planned!!
- The third lesson we learned is that a kid's party should have a definite end time, and 2 hours is plenty of time. I had set an end time, but I went with 3 hours and the last hour was chaos.
- The fourth lesson we learned was that you need a non-kid adult there to help out. We needed someone to help with food, to help with our kids, to help TAKE PHOTOS or VIDEO (we got a couple of photos but that's all. Boo hoo.) Poor Grammy Pat was heartbroken that her schedule ended up not allowing her to come. We were heartbroken too.
Tim worked really hard on Ben's cake and it was a resounding success. While Tim was doing the cake, I was busy making other food and making the "adult" cake and Ben sat pretty much by himself the whole day before his party, ignored by his parents who were desperately trying to plan a fun birthday party for him. I don't think he felt really good the day of his party because he was pretty whiny and did more sitting than socializing. He was really excited about the cake and everyone singing Happy Birthday and blowing out the candles. But then, after the party, we asked him if he had fun and he said no. How sad we felt. :-(
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
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!
- 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!
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Catching up!
I'm sorry it has been so long. Sometimes when I let it go too long I don't post because I don't even know where to start. So I'm starting very randomly.
Oliver updates:
- Oliver went from lying down to sitting by himself the other night.
- He can also pull himself up to standing now
- He can say ma ma, da da, ba ba, fa fa (just babbling)
- Both of the boys have been sick almost all winter, it seems. They catch one cold each week at Wee Creekers, I think. The last couple of weeks Oliver has been in a phase where he cries a lot. Not as easy-going as he has been in past months - he wants to be held a lot. But it could be because he is sick.
Ben updates:
- When Ben has a "sweet" day, he couldn't be sweeter. Some evenings are just heaven, with him being agreeable to everything, generous and thoughtful with Oliver and us, and so fun to be with. Then sometimes he is the exact opposite! I guess that is normal.
Cute Ben sayings:
- Tim and Ben were playing with Ben's piggy bank and Tim was lecturing about saving money and using credit cards wisely. Ben said, "OK! I be careful Dad!"
- I guess Ben still thinks there's nothing but blood in his torso because we were asking him where his owie was when he said he was sick. He pointed to his chest and said, "In my blood."
- Ben has started saying "Sorry" quite often. I wonder where he got that?
- When Oliver is crying really hard and none of us can hold him at the moment, Ben tells him, "I'm here, Yiv."
- Ben asked me yesterday, "You mad at Flynn, Mom?"
More later!!
Oliver updates:
- Oliver went from lying down to sitting by himself the other night.
- He can also pull himself up to standing now
- He can say ma ma, da da, ba ba, fa fa (just babbling)
- Both of the boys have been sick almost all winter, it seems. They catch one cold each week at Wee Creekers, I think. The last couple of weeks Oliver has been in a phase where he cries a lot. Not as easy-going as he has been in past months - he wants to be held a lot. But it could be because he is sick.
Ben updates:
- When Ben has a "sweet" day, he couldn't be sweeter. Some evenings are just heaven, with him being agreeable to everything, generous and thoughtful with Oliver and us, and so fun to be with. Then sometimes he is the exact opposite! I guess that is normal.
Cute Ben sayings:
- Tim and Ben were playing with Ben's piggy bank and Tim was lecturing about saving money and using credit cards wisely. Ben said, "OK! I be careful Dad!"
- I guess Ben still thinks there's nothing but blood in his torso because we were asking him where his owie was when he said he was sick. He pointed to his chest and said, "In my blood."
- Ben has started saying "Sorry" quite often. I wonder where he got that?
- When Oliver is crying really hard and none of us can hold him at the moment, Ben tells him, "I'm here, Yiv."
- Ben asked me yesterday, "You mad at Flynn, Mom?"
More later!!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)