Celebrations
Melt Downs
Hysterical Laughter
Random screaming
Tears of Happiness
Tears of Frustration
It is a beautiful season of life.

I have a preschooler and a toddler! WHAT?? Over the past few weeks, Fred has decided he was a walker, and Ben has decided he is a talker! This of course means exciting and fun times in our house. I am loving it.

My mother-in-law captured the boys at this stage perfectly:

With Fred’s new independence comes Fred’s LOVE of independence. No longer is my little guy content to be held when something fun is going on. He needs to be in the action and is determined to keep up with his brother. This makes our life easier and much harder at the same time.

If you would have told me that Ben could be a “chatterbox”, I would not have believed you. He’s still pretty quiet until he gets comfortable, but it is so fun to hear him talk about stories and school. Here are some gems from the last month…

Instead of saying Yes or No, Ben sweetly says, “I think so” or “I don’t think so”. Are you having a good day. “I…..think so!”

I was never a coffee drinker – but then I had Fred. So when the coffee pot was on in the next room over, Ben asks, “Is the kitchen busy?? I think it’s using some tap dance!!”

I gave Ben the job of cleaning Freddy’s smudge marks off of the window. He was very insistent on protecting his finished work. “Uh OH!! Freddy’s coming again to make a mess. No, Freddy!! The way is blocked!!”

Smile, Ben!

At preschool, the class is working on listening skills. (SHOCKING I KNOW! Hahahaha…) Ben has the routine memorized and does the actions every time.
“Eyes are watching.
Ears are listening.
Voice is quiet.
Body is calm.”

My son has become a middle schooler. He doesn’t believe a coat is ever necessary and responds to my after school interrogations by holding up a hand and calmly saying, “Don’t tell me more questions, Momma…..”

“Helping” with laundry

We are working on the forms of “did/does”, but Ben often gets excited and announces,
“What’s that doos?”
“I dood it by mineself!”

We’re holding hands!!

Usually Jesse puts the boys to bed, as he is good at being short and sweet. I put Ben in bed when Jesse was gone one night, and he must have seen my weakness. Sweetly he said, “I love you. I can scooch over and there is room!” I almost caved, but I stayed strong and left!

Fred copies everything now, including holding up the phone to babble and trying to insert keys into the door. My big guy.

While playing the IPad with his headphones on, Ben exclaimed, “JESUS!” I turned around to see what on earth he was doing. “Jesus! I love Jesus, Momma!” He was playing the Bible app. Whew!

Writing is not high on Ben’s interests, but I almost cried tears of joy when I discovered he could write his name. So exciting.

Ben still doesn’t love to draw, but one day he really got excited about drawing a cow with me. He announced, “Daddy wants a cow for his birthday!! Daddy will be so proud to see a cow! He will be so so happy!!” And you know what? Daddy was pretty amused by the cow…

We are still in the phase of life where it is awesome to color cardboard boxes and fly to the moon. “Let’s build a spaceship! It will be an outer space adventure!!”

Another game on his Ipad is based off of the show Odd Squad. It’s science and math based, and it has introduced some pretty intense and hilarious vocabulary into Ben’s conversations. When he wanted to mix something the other day, he yelled, “I NEED TO MIX THE ANTIDOTE!!!” I’m pretty sure nothing has been poisoned in our house, but at least we have a scientist around to help!

Fred is also really content to play trains and roll cars around, which makes this brotherly pair pretty darn adorable.

Other highlights from the last month include:

• Our annual trip to Krispie Kreme for free donuts. Talk Like a Pirate Day is the best!
  
• Sunday fun at Grandma & Grandpa’s house
  
• After good intentions to visit during the summer fell through, I finally made it to YCamp. It was great to catch up with some friends there and catch a quick hike with the boys. The Closest Place to Heaven on Earth.
  
• A trip to CF for the church fall festival and NinaPapa time

• We learned about the life cycle, thanks to Caterpilly the Caterpillar!
  
• The Blank Park Zoo is the best in October: cool weather, low crowds, and decorations for Halloween. I don’t think he saw any animals during this trip, as he was too busy pointing out the spooky EYES!
  
• The local fire stations did an amazing job giving tours and providing open houses for Fire Safety Week. Ben has lots of personal attention from the crew and he kept repeating, “WOW THAT’S SO CRAZY! THAT’S SO COOL!!!!!”
  
• Girls’ Night!!! Teacher night out to see Carrie Underwood – a great show!

• Checking out the Des Moines Marathon – an annual favorite activity. “LOOK! MORE RUNNERS!!”
  

Play dates, church fun, library events, walks outside. I love Fall so much – even if Winter is on its way. I’m looking forward to soaking up the rest of hoodie weather!

It’s hard to be one year old.

Being one year old is amazing!

Oh my goodness. I wrote 99% of this and then totally forgot to finish and publish. D’oh! I’m definitely past my self-imposed deadline. Well, better late than never?? I’ll be back here in a couple weeks with another update!

What a month! Lots of changes came at the end of summer!

The boys are now sharing a room! After Ben was born, he spent 3 nights in our room. He was a very loud sleeper, and it was in everyone’s best interest for him to move across the hall. After Fred was born, he slept 365 nights in our room. HA! Since he didn’t sleep through the night until 8-9 months, and he liked to wake up at 5 AM after “sleeping through the night”, our options were to have him stay in our room, risk waking his brother, or have us stumble down the stairs when he woke us. We chose to let him stay in our room until he became a little more predictable and then throw the boys together for a trial period. Ben was SO excited to have Fred move in with him, and so far it’s been working out okay. Fred still likes to wake up between 5:30-6:30, but we manage to get him out of there before Ben stirs too much. Going to bed has been great though, as Ben has to be quiet and stay in bed in order to keep Fred sleeping! I was shocked at how much Ben wanted to share his room!

Big brother helping move Freddy’s mattress into THEIR room.

We made a family trip to the Omaha zoo before Ben’s school year started. I was SO impressed with the Henry Doorly exhibits. It’s a huge zoo with a lot of variety. Ben loved it – there was a real steam train!! – and Fred actually got in a few naps on the go.

Ben FINALLY turned four. The countdown ended with several celebrations. Saturday was “present day”, where he got to open Shipwreck Rails Set. He spent HOURS playing with it that day. It apparently lived up to the hype of the box. He was so excited.

Sunday was “party day” with family. Nina and Papa fulfilled the request of a “chocolate cake with farm an-mals”. He got some new books and toys, including a new Lightning McQueen race track. Once again, this new track with wheels occupied him for HOURS. The kid has a great imagination and attention span for transportation vehicles!

And finally, his birthday arrived – which meant PRESCHOOL STARTED! Ben was a bit hesitant to start school. Even though he likes people and activities, he’s my homebody that is perfectly content in his comfort zone. So even though the first day was hard: “I DON’T WANT TO GO TO PRESCHOOL! I WANT TO STAY AND PLAY WITH MY TOYS!!!!”, he was smiling when I picked him up. Whew.

There have been a few other rocky days, including one with me carrying in a flailing, screaming boy, but he’s learning the routine and we’re getting there. Today he told me, “I didn’t want to go to preschool, but I had a happy heart.” Baby steps. He always tells me good things about school at the end of the day, so I’m optimistic that he’ll want to go someday instead of tolerating it. I’m also getting used to having a preschooler. It’s been fun to hear him talk about his teacher and being a “line leader” and “door holder”. My baby….

“I’m going to sing with my teacher and meet my friends and look at bugs!”

In Fred news, he has started taking steps! I think he could fully walk if he wanted to, but for now, he prefers to crawl or scale the walls. Oh, and he loves to CLIMB. Slides, stairs, cushions, whatever he can reach. He doesn’t have any fear of falling off of things, so he keeps me on my toes. He’s babbling a lot (“dugadugadugaduga”) and drools like he’s breaking in 500 teeth (still has 6). He cries and buries himself in my shoulder when he’s starving and eats more than his brother. He’s happy most of the time and doesn’t even have separation anxiety from us when we leave him with other people (so far). He’s adjusted to brother’s schedule now and takes a morning nap and an afternoon nap when Ben is in school (MOMMY HAS AT LEAST 90 MINUTES EVERY DAY! WHAT?? I’m still in so much shock about it, that I have not used this time productively so far – ha!)

Ben continues to make me laugh every day. He doesn’t like transitions, but I think it’s pretty cool that he gets so involved in his activities that he hates to stop them. He’s figuring out why things are funny and announcing “THAT’S A JOKE” when he knows we are teasing him. Here are a few more Ben-isms from the month.

When I dressed him for the first day of school:
“What’s that shirt??”
“It’s a new shirt!”
“BECAUSE I’M FOUR???”

What is something you liked at school?
“I did science! I looked at bugs closely in a special way!!”

He wasn’t tired…

“What is something your teacher said today?”
“She said shhhhhhhh!”
“Why did she say that?”
“I said, ‘IM BENNY I HAVE AN OUTSIDE VOICE IM LOUD!!!!’ And my teacher said shhhhh. And then I started squeaking like a mouse because a mouse is quiet.”

“I want to go outside and bonk things with my bonking toy.”
“You mean your baseball bat?”
“NO! My bonking tool!”
“Oh….your tennis racket?”
“Yes. My tennis racket.”

One barefoot. The other eating chalk. Sounds about right…

“Remember, Ben, what happens after outside time?”
“I go to preschool and Fred has nap time and you have shower time!”
Yep. You got that right, Kid…

Planting a butterfly garden

After saying I would be up shortly, Ben said, “But MOM! Remember our show Nature Cat? No one gets left hind!! You need to come now!”

Insert a million other funny things that I forget 5 seconds after they are said. Oh no!! Until next time….

Our Fred is one.

Our sweet little guy is fearless and laid-back – ready to climb things or happy to sit and flip pages of books. He’s our morning person, animal lover, and friendly buddy. He loves his brother, throwing balls, flapping his arms to dance, and eating any food that is put in front of him. He dislikes diaper changes and not being able to unlock the baby gate. He is determined to keep up with Ben, and I think we have another car & train enthusiast on our hands. Happy birthday, sweet Frederick!

We celebrated his birthday by having grandparents and Uncle Nate over for lunch and cupcakes. No one was surprised when he devoured his entire cupcake! A new ball pit, water table, bath toys, eating supplies, and books were favorite gifts.

Ben is painfully waiting for his own birthday, so it was a rough day when Freddy got to celebrate first. Slowly but surely, we are marking days off on the calendar. He will forget for a while, but then he will announce, “On my birthday, I will be four!! Is it my birthday YET!!?!??” And for the first time ever, Ben is hooked on the idea of wanting a specific toy. It’s Thomas related (shocker…), and thankfully I snagged it at half off on clearance. He talks everyday about the “Shipwreck Rails Set” and even pretended it was his birthday one day and played with an invisible version of the toy. Longest month ever. Ha!

One of our highlights this month was going camping with some friends. We left Fred at home with my parents (GOOD CHOICE), and Ben was soooooo excited to put up the tent and go camping. He was pumped that he had an actual reason to use a flashlight and he ran the paths between our campsite with his friends. Apparently the key to camping with a 3 year old boy is to make sure you have 4 & 6 year old girls to play with. They were excellent entertainment and kept him in check too… Smores, hiking, skipping rocks, staying up past 11:30 and waking up by 6. Memories!

Other highlights of the month include:

• Play time with friends and neighbors! Ben got to walk with the neighbor’s dog and even hold the leash for a bit. He was way too excited about it.
• Seeing Jim Gaffigan with both sets of our parents and my brother-in-law. It was a great show, and I’m pretty sure Ben fell in love with his first ever non-family babysitter named “Emma-wee”. It was pretty cool that Emily shared the same name as one of his trains.
• My lovely friends Sara and Kathleen came to cheer me on at the Park and Rec Trivia Contest. I lost, but it was a good effort and we used it as an excuse to go out to eat.
• Two false alarm trips to the doctor. Okay, one was rather legit, as Ben developed an infection on his outer ear. It was…..gross. The second was me convinced that Fred had an ear infection based on crazy mood swings. It turns out that he’s just a baby.
• The park closest to us got a total makeover and new playground. It rocks my world, even though my boys are WAY too brave on it.
  
• We threw our first ever garage sale and made enough money to make it worth it. However, I confirmed that I’m an awful negotiator and pretty much paid people to take things off of my lawn.
• We made a triumphant return to story time at the library and Ben participated and loved it!
• I made a day trip with the boys to see my friend, Dana, and meet her new baby, Wally. Few things are better in life than seeing my babies play with my friends’ babies.
• We also returned to zoo trips, although I remembered that it is much harder with heat and crowds. Ben loved seeing Curious George and has decided that giraffes are his favorite animal. I totally had a splurge day to indulge this with a giraffe feeding and face paint. Ben loved it.
       

The absolute best highlight of the month was seeing the brotherly relationship between Fred and Ben develop. Ben has always loved his brother, but he’s really starting to like him! He takes care of him now and gives so many kisses. He comforts him when he’s sad and shares with him. Don’t get me wrong, he still gets annoyed and wants his space and own attention, but things have dramatically improved. Here are some pictures showing that relationship, along with cute Daddy pictures and some things Ben says. Because he is just plain funny right now.

Ben hasn’t taken a nap all week and we no longer gate him in his room for rest time. Today, he tiptoed down the stairs and in the loudest whisper ever…
“MOM!! I’M BEING QUIET!!! REST TIME IS OVER?! MOM! I’M BEING QUIET!”
“Oh, Ben, if you go potty you can join me down here…”
“MOM! I NEED TO ASK YOU A QUESTION!”
“Okay…”
“IN YO GABBA GABBA THEY HAVE A SONG ABOUT HOW YOU HAVE TO LISTEN.”
“Okay…”
“I HAVE ANOTHER QUESTION.”
“Okay…”
“WE HAVE TO PROTECT OURSELVES FROM BEARS.”
“Let’s get you to the potty there, Champ.”

He often calls me over to “take a closer look” at something.

After running outside for a while, we came in all sweaty. This was his observation about the carpet: “The rug is so warm that I have to take my socks off. Take your socks off, Mom! Get your toesies out!!”

While playing with his Thomas characters and discussing the “Scottish Castle”:
Is the king at the castle, Ben?
No. It’s closed. We take over things.

He has three identical mini-trains. He renamed one, so now they are: Bert, Bert, and Juicysnacky. This name change is HILARIOUS to him.

That’s a little insight into the last month. Big changes are ahead, as Ben’s preschool orientation is next week! WOAH.

Things that I don’t want to forget, because he’s just so fun right now…

As I’m typing this, Ben is explaining to Jesse in the other room that it is almost Halloween.

In response to Jesse saying “three strikes!”, Ben replies, “It’s the old ball game!”

When something is fun: “I want to do it million times!!!”

If something upsets him, he crosses his arms completely around his body and furrows his brow.

After I got scared that he was playing a monster: “It’s only me, Momma. It’s only me…”

We were upstairs playing Three Little Pigs. I was the Big Bad Wolf (of course). Suddenly, Ben stopped and ran to his bookshelf to get Knock it Down, his book about construction & demolition. He opened it to the correct page and explains, “Look Big Bad Wolf! You need a wrecking ball to knock down the brick houses!!”

Standing over a (disgusting) puddle of water at the park: “Look, Mom! It’s like a mirror! I see my ‘flection!”

If we ask him, “Why?”, he responds, “Caaaaaaws ______________”

While pushing him in the swing, Ben suddenly announced, “I love you, Momma!”

He’s starting to “add” things together. On the counter, he was grouping the glue sticks together and announced that two sticks and two sticks made four sticks!

He has been interested in typing for a long time, but now he is interested in typing question marks – and knows they follow questions. He pounds out a question in gibberish and then puts a question mark – using the shift key and everything.

We are struggling with independence sometimes. Here are the steps of things that happened after I asked him to go upstairs and pick out an outfit for the day:

1. Ran around the chair and came back to me.
2. Climbed halfway up the stairs and dramatically announced that he wasn’t strong enough.
3. Ran all the way upstairs and then back to me to tell me he that he ran so fast he needed a drink.
4. Ran up the stairs and played in our room.
5. Came back down and tried to play with Fred.

Finally I set a timer and he did it. He picked out clothes by himself. WOO!

Teamwork

He likes to “tend” things (pretend). As in, “Is that a cow in the back seat?” “No, I’m just tending, Momma!”

He is experimenting with spelling words, and he pointed at each animal and read me what he wrote.

“These are my animal words. They are very handsome.”

We got our forms for preschool last week. Oh my. How time is flying.