Games with Ben and a visit with Grandpa

Mark is in Guatemala this week on a mission trip with the organization Living Water (perhaps he'll blog about this trip on his return)? So Grandpa Howard generously offered to come and help me out with Benjamin for a few days! The pictures below are from his visit so far --- and he's only been here a couple of days. (btw, yes I am blogging this at 6 AM --- I woke up unable to sleep any more --- I'm sure by the time everyone else wakes up, I'll be tired again) :)

GAMES

A popular game in our house is "Night, night (insert name)." What I love about this game, is that it is different for every person. These are games invented with/by Benjamin.

The first game is "Night, night little baby." I don't have pictures of this one, but it consists of tucking Benjamin under the covers in our bed, saying "night, night little baby." His response is "Goo Gaa."

The next game invented is "Night, night daddy." This game is anything but restful. It involves Mark lying on his back in the middle of our bed. Ben stands up on Mark's belly or rib cage, and then leaps off and lands on his butt on the bed besides Mark. Sometimes he leaps straight up and lands back on Mark. Ben LOVES this game, but it makes me nervous that he is going to get hurt (although, realistically, it's more often Mark that gets hurt), so I often have to leave when they play this game, or I sit there gasping. :)

Benjamin originally tried to request "Night, night Mommy" to get me to play the game above, but I've insisted that this is a Daddy-only game. So, instead, he gave a new name and a new twist to a game we already play...

Ben's always enjoyed being surprised, so one of the games we often play is where I hide, Ben tries to find me, and as he approaches, I jump out and shout "Boo." Yes, I know, not a typical game for a two-year old, but this one's a daredevil.

So Night, night mommy is this game. But now, he likes to tell me where to hide. He then leaves me in my hiding spot, goes to our room, climbs on the bed, then comes back to find me. Once I shout "boo," I ask him where I am supposed to hide next, and follow him to my next location.

The newest game is "Night, night Grandpa." This involves Grandpa pretending to take a nap on the couch, with Benjamin "sneaking up" (which in reality, is just walking up) to Grandpa and shouting "boo", to which Grandpa shrieks. We've learned that Ben does NOT like Grandpa to be the one to shout boo. This is a one-sided only game.

And finally, another popular game in our house: Baby launch (pictured below). Here, you grab Ben by his thighs, he straightens his body, and you "launch" him into the middle of the bed.

And finally, a few more recent pictures:

Grandpa doing puzzles with Ben:

Ben in his new "Blue Elephant" T-shirt from Aunt Sarah (we love it, thank you Sarah!). He's eating a prune in this picture --- he's a little backed up... :)

Up next: pictures from our trip to the pool yesterday.

Okay, time to try to catch a few more minutes of sleep before monkey-boy wakes up...

Catchin' Up with Pictures

Seems like our "real" blog entries these days are few and far between. So here are a few fun bits from the last few months with the photos we finally downloaded from our camera...

Our "sticker boy" is slowing down a bit, but only after a couple of solid months of sticker-OBSESSION. Here he is enjoying some stickers in the laundry basket. No, this is not his normal sticker location. But when the mail arrived with these stickers from Grandma Claudia, Ben was playing in the laundry basket. So I let him open the envelope with his present, and after asking for some paper, he settled right down to get to work.



For his birthday, I bought Benjamin a life-like mini vacuum. But it's still definitely not as good as the real thing.



My memory is short. I don't even remember the details regarding the illness below, which was only a couple of months ago -- it must have been short and un-impressive (good thing!). We got through it with lots of snuggle and our "Bookaneers" Sesame Street DVD (pirates who love to read). This is the ONLY DVD that Ben wanted to watch for the last couple of months. We held off from any TV until he turned two, and within a couple of weeks, we were barraged with "I want TV." But he's learning the rules of the house.

Ben: "I want TV."
Mom or Dad: "When do we watch TV, Ben?"
Ben: "After school" (or on weekends, "after nap."
Mom or Dad: "That's right."

a few minutes later...

Ben: "I want TV."
and repeat...

Just yesterday, though, he began to diversify --- and the last two days we've watched Sesame Street Dinosaurs.

I have to admit the 45 minutes of quiet that ensues from allowing him to watch TV has been WONDERFUL...particularly if he's had too short of a nap on the weekend. And it's what is allowing me to type this blog!



Ben is so sweet when he's sick!



Summer is definitely in full swing! Ben's school has a special summer program that they call "splash days." After a short work time inside and snack, they spend most of the morning outside with sprinklers and water play materials. This means that our daily morning routine requires slathering on sunscreen. None of us are particularly fond of this routine. Particularly Ben, who you can see objecting to the application in the picture below.

This picture is actually from a weekend, as we prepared to play outside / clean out our garage and shed a few weeks ago. I thought Ben and Mark looked especially cute in their baseball hats!



MUFFINS! I have found something nutritious that I can make that Ben actually asks for (versus his usual request for animal crackers, mac&cheese or ice cream). So far we've made blueberry and zucchini which he devours. Next up: Pumpkin.

(and another thing I recently tried that he liked: Baked Oatmeal! Thanks Lara, for this winner!)



Our new evening routine (which replaces naked rolling time). Right after bath, we bundle Ben up in his towel (per his request: "Towel snuggles") and then proceed to the kitchen where we slather on the lotion (you can see the white on his arms below). Ben recently had a rough bout of Eczema, so we had to lotion, lotion, lotion him up for a while. Following lotion, Ben enjoys his ice cream wrapped in his towel. His favorite is mint ice cream.



Here is a non-sick Ben enjoying TV. He typically asks for it on his way home from school (if not immediately when woken up to go home at school). Snack on the couch while watching the Bookaneers. Not a bad life, eh?



Ben's favorite outside activity: spraying water from his spray bottle.



Making popsicles with mom. He liked these, but the size/shape of the popsicles made with dixie cups proved a bit hard for him to eat. We got new small-sized popsicle molds - and he had his first one from it this morning: a chocolate milk popsicle, which he LOVED.



Somewhere around his second birthday, we removed Ben's booster seat and began letting him eat (knees or bottom) from a regular chair. Like the big boy bed, it wasn't a conscious decision. He started asking to sit in mommy or daddy's chair, and fussed about getting into his booster seat, so now it's gone. Makes clean-up at least a bit easier.



That's it for this photo essay. More to come!

Gotta love this state

Only in Texas...



My talented wife Katherine took this picture with a camera phone, from a moving car. Nice work honey!

Not taking chances...

Hey everyone,

I hope to blog soon about last weekend (more boxes unpacked, and another trip with a carload of "stuff" to Goodwill), but I wanted to let you all know that I'm going to be moving my blog to "Private" mode.

I don't understand enough about how one can search for and find a blog out here in Cyberspace, and since I'm going to be interacting soon with a bunch of technical-savvy college kids, I don't want to risk the personal information I share on my blog becoming public.

So in the next couple of weeks, I plan to privatize the blog --- I believe I know who most of you out there are, and I'll send you an invitation to this blog (although, to read it, you'll have to have a google ID - sorry about that, but it is easy to create). If you are not a regular commenter on my blog, feel free to post to this entry or send me an email to make sure you make the list.

Sorry for the annoyance, and I'll try to update my blog more often, to make it worth the log in! Thanks!

Movin' In (still)

It's been almost six months since we moved back into our house. We're pretty settled in, and in a comfortable routine. However, we started to notice that we were getting a little too comfortable, and not spending time continuing to unpack the boxes that filled our garage, our shed, and one fairly expensive storage locker. So we've re-committed to getting our stuff unpacked --- and we've given ourselves a deadline: September 11. I return to work full time on September 1, so it made sense to try to wrap this up before our lives got re-complicated by another change. However, we settled on September 11 as our deadline, as (1), we still have a TON of stuff to deal with and (2), September 11 will mark the one-year anniversary on which we evacuated our house due to Hurricane Ike.

We are making progress. In May, Mark and his Dad (thanks Paul!) moved our stuff from the biggest storage locker you can get, to the smallest one. They also inventoried all of our stuff, labelled the boxes, and drew a map showing where all the boxes are, so when we go back for another batch, we can decide specifically what we want to bring home (Paul's system - and we love it!).

Last weekend, Mark and I finished unpacking the stuff in the garage. Then this morning, we got through about half of the stuff in the shed, followed by our 3rd trip with a full carload to Goodwill. Our goal has been to get rid of at least 25% of our stuff as we unpack it. I think we're actually doing pretty well in that department!

We made another trip to the storage locker today (see picture above), and I'm hoping to get through a few boxes while Ben naps, before Ben and I commence our weekend errands routine: dry cleaner, library, grocery store.

Wish us luck --- and I hope to post a picture of our last empty box on September 11.

That's it for this little weekend update...

Big Boy Bed!

Earlier this week we moved Benjamin to his Big Boy Bed! We really had no intentions of doing so this soon, but it just felt right, and it appears to be working out!! Last week (maybe, my memory of the timing of all of this is a bit foggy --- in part due to some relatively sleepless nights...hence the change), Benjamin started waking up a lot during the night. We have a toddler-like sleeping bag in his closet (which he can see), and from time-to-time he would ask to lay on it at night (we would put it on the floor next to his crib). He usually couldn't settle into sleep, and so we would remove it, and he'd go back to sleeping in his crib just fine. But for a few nights in a row, he really wanted to sleep on his sleeping bag on the floor - but then would wake up and want to move to his crib --- but then would want to move back to the floor. It was exhausting! So we figured we needed to take away one of the choices. At first, we were going to remove the sleeping bag, and simply make him sleep in his crib. But then we figured, heck, he's two --- lots of kids move to big

beds when they are two (usually to make way for a sibling, but still, they do it). And he's having sleeping issues, anyway, so maybe why not just tackle this now as well?

So on Monday (I believe), we moved him to his big boy bed (which is his crib mattress on the floor). And put a baby gate up on his room, essentially making his room the crib. For the next few nights, he continued to struggle to sleep still (but he already was doing this), and we learned some odd desires of his when he has more choices in the sleep matter... particularly, he has always slept with just a tiny bit of light coming in from a closet in the hallways --- but for his second or third night in his crib, he wanted to sleep with his bedroom light on! --- and I tried alternatives - how about just the lamp? Just his closet light? Nope. He wanted the bedroom light on). And while we've always cracked his door just a bit open, he wants it WIDE open now. So it's a bit strange to go by his wide open door with the light on at night! (btw, I've switched to just leaving his closet light on, and he hasn't said anything --- it's still pretty bright in there!)

Anyways, it has gotten much better! Last night he slept through the night again (finally)! And tonight, he did not get out of bed and call to me from his room. He simply went to sleep.

I'm so proud, yet also a little in awe that this little boy of mine is daily morphing from my baby into a child.

Here's a couple of picture of our big boy asleep in his bed (taken different nights):





Next up: STICKERS! Our son has found his first passion in life (other than his beloved Biddy)!

Reflections on 2

Hi friends! This is Mark writing. On June 8th, we celebrated Benjamin’s second birthday. Wow, what an amazing two years. My first thought is how remarkably different the second year was from the first. Ben’s first year seemed like an eternity to me. Yes, there was some of the “it seems like just yesterday he was in the newborn diapers.” But for the most part that first year was long and challenging. This second year has been marked by milestones I have found more meaningful, and changes have come quickly. Now it really does seem like just yesterday that he was in newborn diapers. Here’s my chapter breakdown of his second year. (I realize many reading this blog will find this to be old hat as they’ve already been through this. We write these entries for the safekeeping of our own memories as well as for sharing with others. Maybe even you oldtimers will enjoy a different family’s experience.)

13-16 months. Walking! Ben actually took his first steps on his first birthday. They were small steps, but it was off to the races from then on. His crawl was awkward – we called it the cripple crawl – so I think he was happy to become a biped. I remember fondly going to Hermann Park, which is a very large park in Houston, soon after he learned to walk. We’d gone to feed the ducks, which we did for a while, but then spent an hour just walking around the outdoor amphitheatre. He enjoyed walking up and down the inclines in the seating area, holding on to the seats at times, and carefully navigating a few steps. It was a wonderful sight. They say you get a big wake up call when you have a baby, which I did. But I also had another one that August. The orchestra takes a break for a few weeks in August, and I had a healthy sized list of things I’d hoped to get accomplished during the break. You’d think I would have learned by then, but you just aren’t able to get as much done with a child than before. Those were a frustrating few weeks, but now that expectations are more reasonable I expect this August to be much more enjoyable.

17-20 months. Flood. Okay, that’s not really a child development stage, but there’s no other way to think of those four months. They were marked by stress, extreme business (at least the first couple months), and worry. But there were also some really cool things – living right in the middle of town, Ben’s first time going to school/daycare, seeing the house being remodeled and getting to choose exactly how we wanted many things. We also got to know extremely well our housemates – this wonderful couple in their fifties from our church. I think it would be a monumental act of generosity to share your house for four months, but I believe these folks saw this as simply following the biblical imperative to help other believers in times of need. They made us feel comfortable, doted on Ben endlessly – even taking him for a weekend while we left town, and offered free medical advice. (She’s a pediatric nurse practitioner.) We’re still close friends, in fact, closer than before. They’re leaving Houston soon to live in Colorado, and we’re going to miss them.

21-24 months. Talking and testing and interests. The testing part has not been that great, although even that has its rewards. But the talking has more than made up for it. In fact, this has definitely been the most fun I’ve had with Benjamin. I’ve mentioned before on this blog how rewarding it’s been to see the blossoming of our relatioship, especially with speech, and it just keeps getting better. “A loo daddy.” Can you figure out what that is? Probably the most wonderful things that could come out of a son’s mouth. He continues to learn new words and is now putting together simple sentences. I know my opinion on this will probably change, but one of the things I find hilarious now is this kid’s ability to negotiate. We try to give him choices about many things, and one of the most common is something like, “Do you want to leave the park now or in two minutes?” Of course, he almost always chooses two minutes but at least then he feels like he has a say in the matter. However, when we don’t offer a choice, he will still try to get the two minutes. “Ben, it’s time for your bath.” “Two minutes!” “Sorry son, time for your bath now.” “Two minutes!” Hilarious. He has interests in things now. The first distinct one I remember was trucks. He loved his books about diggers and dumpers, and when some friends gave us their outgrown toy trucks he went nuts. Then it was animals – elephants, rhinos, giraffes, hippos, zebras, etc. One of his true loves is busses. Particularly the yellow school bus. “Wello Bus!” He’ll eagerly point out every single bus we see on the roads, even ones an adult eye would never see. For example, waiting at a stoplight by a freeway overpass. I never see what’s going by on the freeway above, but now I know for sure when a bus goes by. Or the occasional concrete mixer.

Parenting brings joys that are amazingly powerful; joys I would not have understood in a tangible way two years ago. Two moments come to mind. The first was maybe six months ago when Ben and I were at the Woodlands Children’s Museum. They have this area somewhat like a sandbox, except instead of sand it’s filled with tires that have been cleaned and chopped into tiny pieces. Ben was in this area working with a dumptruck, repeatedly filling it with a small shovel, pushing the full truck over to this rock, and dumping it out. It may not sound like a big deal, but he was amazingly focused! I had such a wonderful time watching him stay completely focused on this task for a good while. Why does this bring joy to a new father? It’s a little tough to say, but I wonder if it has to do with seeing your son caring about something, being passionate about it, as much as an 18-month old can. I’m not sure if that’s it, but I still love to sit and watch him when he’s enveloped by something he’s working on.

The other moment was actually just yesterday, although there have been a number like this. Katherine’s parents are visiting, and they had set up a little water park for him. We all watched him as he entered the plastic kiddie pool, then climbed some steps, then went down the slide into this other water toy that squirts some water in little jets. He did this repeatedly for a long time, laughing the whole time with this huge smile on his face. I found myself rather overcome just watching him. There’s something very, very special about that unadulterated happiness. No worries about worldly things, relationships, yesterday, or tomorrow. Just enjoying everything that moment had to offer. Maybe dad could learn something from this two year old.