Happy 2nd birthday, Ben

We celebrated Ben's birthday with his cousins, Aunt Leigh, Mia and Papa. His cake was a marble-flavored, Hot Wheels theme. He had a lot of fun playing with all his new presents and sleeping in a big boy bed. He figured out how to climb out of his crib a couple of days before he turned two.  That particular morning he met me at my bedside around 6 am beaming with pride that he had managed to climb out of his crib, left his room, walked down the stairs all the way to kiss me good morning. I was not amused. Immediately after breakfast I took down his crib railing with a screwdriver (my wrists were killing me afterwards) and made it a day bed. 

About a week later we completely took down his crib and moved him into the bottom bunk with Cam and then Millie into his room. She is loving having a room of her own now. It's nice to see the boys together in their marvel avengers themed room. 

Gosh, it seems that we don't have a baby any more except he's still wearing diapers. We learned at his preschool open house last night that they will start potty training in the fall. 

I got my eye on the calendar. Looks like with a little prayer we may not have to pack diapers to disney world at Christmas!! That would be awesome! 

Ben's grown, of course:

Weight: 27.4 lbs 35%

Height: 36" 68%

Shoe size 7.5. 

Ben turns 18 months old!

Ben's Stats:
Weighs 23 lbs (14%) and is 33" tall (62%)
Sleeps from 1:30-4pm and 8pm-7am most days.
He's a happy, easy going kid who loves to eat, sleep, play and bathe. He will do that anywhere and with anyone. Sweet sweet child. I wish I could have a million babies just like him.

'Tis the season

I've been laughing at myself a lot these days. If you can't laugh at yourself, then who can you laugh at, right? I laugh because I find the things I do quite humorous, mostly when no one's watching. This is a season, I tell myself.

 A season of picking up toys or dirty laundry WITH MY TOES because my hands are full of kids or more toys. A season of severe self control. I refrain from licking the spoon of raw brownies because "it has raw eggs in it" and I want to set a good example. A season of sharing my coveted jacuzzi tub for bathtimes and enduring back pain from reaching way too far to clean a kid's back and not to mention all the random bath toys surrounding MY bathtub. A season of eating candy in a closet so I don't have to "go there" with the kids, or hiding from the kids just so I can make a private call to a utility company. God forbid the person on the other end know that my kids communicate at a high volume level, and I ask them to repeat themselves, over and over again. A season of Dora's soundtrack running constantly in my head. A season of total drain after 8:30 when I can hardly remember to do the dishes still sitting in or near the kitchen sink from dinner. And there's more...

A season of staying home while I raise some great kids. A season of saying no over and over again, so eventually I can say yes. A season of being wanted by three miracles of life. They only want my attention, my time and my touch. A season of holding hands and children and guiding them where they should go. 

So in this season, although very humorous to me, I realize it is fleeting. So in any season I will try to remember the blessing in it all. Because that's what it all is... A blessing from the good Lord. 

First Days of School

Ben's first steps!

The other day, the kids and I were at the pool and the lifeguard asked if Ben was walking yet. I said, "no, I think it will be a while." A week went by,  and we were headed up to Virginia to see my brother's family. Low and behold the next day Ben was testing the waters of independent walking. He would move one toy from say a chair and then put it just a step out of reach. In a short time, he was taking several steps at a time. Sweet baby Ben walked for the first time, in front of an aunt, an uncle, cousins and us, about a week and a half shy of his turning 13 months old. Guess he was waiting on an audience.