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.

Daily funny

Whenever we ask Ben how his day was at Wee Creekers or what he learned at school, he always starts naming all his friends and teachers. "Gabin, MarTIN, Ewen, Tabum, Yerra, Maggots..." (Gavin, Martin, Susan, Tatum, Jerra, Mattux...)

I forgot to say that Ben called Darrell's cat Alex "Aggots!"

Hungry Mommy

I make a full sandwich for me and a half sandwich for Ben and twice in one day he ate the middle out of his half sandwich (avoiding the crusts and getting his cheeks messy like kids do), walked over to me, put his crust on my plate and said it was Mommy's, took my full sandwich and said it was Benny's. I guess he was hungry that day! Or he's moving up in the world to the full sandwich size.

Visit to Grammy's

We took a last hoorah trip to Almena to visit Grammy Pat and Grandpa Darrell and see some 4-H animals and ride some rides at the Norton home-owned carnival. I'll try to post some photos tonight. Ben really enjoyed himself - he "drove" a car and a tractor, he jumped in the jump tent for a very long time (and held his own against the bigger, concussion-causing kids!), he rode the carousel with Grammy, and decided at the last minute he did not want to ride the big ferris wheel. He really wanted to go on the roller coaster that looked scary to me, so I decided to try it. He seemed to enjoy the first two loops, but didn't like the last three. It was very jerky and I tried to hold his neck. He loved playing the games, but didn't understand that you really only got three tries to break plates with a baseball - he wanted to continue throwing forever. And there was one little kids game that just has balls rolling into slots and the number of the slot tells you which little prize you won. He didn't understand the point of it and wanted to roll the balls over and over. He played Sinko with Grandpa Darrell too. I've never seen Sinko before. He broke one plate and he got two ping pong balls in glasses too and won . He tasted his first cotton candy. We stayed at a motel and Ben was always excited to go to "Ranma's house." He really enjoyed "Dawell's" company, just like he enjoys being with Albert and Michael.