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!!

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. :-(

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!

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!!

I DO IT!

Along with the quintessential "Why" (which Ben often says like Chandler on Friends: "Why? Wh-why? Why? Why?"), Ben has been saying "I do it!" Two of the most toddler/preschool sayings of all.

I think things are going better in terms of Ben beating up on Oliver. We did a lot of time outs each time Ben hurt Livvy and then made him apologize to him. Tim said Ben accidentally hurt Oliver this week and immediately apologized to him. That's sweet!

Ben does not want to wait until Christmas to open presents, but he is restraining himself. Tim and I are both so excited for Christmas this year. Two little boys and the family and I have 10 days off!! Yippee!

I forget what else...

Christmas shopping

I feel like I remember reporting each year how Christmas shopping goes with kids. This year I've managed to do a little bit either with only Oliver or completely alone, but I did have to take both of them a couple of days. I guess overall it wasn't that bad - after a magnificent meltdown in one store, they were pretty good the rest of the day. I had to drag Ben away from the toy section, which set him off, but Oliver chose the same time to get really upset. Oliver has a new special cry that is like SHRIEK breathe SHRIEK breathe. And the SHRIEKs are ear-splitting and sound really serious. So Ben is having a tantrum and wants me to hold him and Oliver starts crying (shrieking) to be held. I need to get one more thing before we leave the store so I hold both of them and do some pacing and shushing. One sympathetic lady tells me I'm doing fine. I see another lady plug her ear. Lovely. I guess I don't blame her. :-)

Holiday Gala

We attended the Wee Creekers Holiday Gala last night and were overwhelmed with the chaos. Believe it or not, about 75 families attend Wee Creekers and the place was packed and chaotic! The kids all did a little performance. Oliver (and I) sang Jingle Bells and kicked his jingle bell anklet. Then Ben got up with his class to sing the two songs they have been rehearsing. Ben did everything except sing. We were afraid he would be too scared to go on stage, but we needn't have worried. He had a blast up there, teasing a girl, playing with equipment, dancing by himself, yelling (over the singing) "Hi Miss Susan!" "Hi Jerra!" "Hi Mama!" I laughed so hard. Tim says he is creative and independent. I'll try to go with that instead of thinking of the negative explanations of his behavior. In his defense, he is still the youngest in his class, I think, and since he is there only two days a week, he didn't get as much practice as the others. We got it on video, so we'll try to post it soon for all to laugh at.