Benner

A couple of cute stories:

1. He is getting so much more grown up these days. And mostly, it is wonderful and amazing to watch, but it also brings challenges with it! Lately, we have been having a bit of an issue with following the rules that Mom and Dad set, and not "back-talking" when we don't follow the rules. Sometimes it is deliberate, and sometimes it is just cute!

Like today, we were playing the the sandbox outside, and I asked him to keep the sand in the box after I noticed him flipping some of it out of the box. He had been having trouble with this all morning, so I hoped that he would be better with it in the afternoon. But, sadly, it wasn't to be.

After about 2 min, I saw him flipping sand out again, so I sternly said, "Benjamin! If I see you flip sand out of the box again, you are done with the sand box!"

He looked up at me with the most sincere expression and said, "Ugh! Just don't look over here then!!"

Such true words! If I didn't look at him, in his mind, then we would both be happy! He could flip sand, and I wouldn't be frustrated by seeing it flipped out:)

2. Even though he is getting to be such a big boy, he is still so little sometimes. I don't know why, but several times today he has asked me to snuggle him. Because I know how precious these moments are, I have been trying to be good about, when he asks this, to drop whatever chore I am doing, and just wrap him up in a huge hug, and snuggle him with all my attention, love and focus. His sweet, soft, little arms wrap around me, and we just enjoy snuggling!

3. His language and description skills continue to develop at a lightning pace. He tells such grown up stories now. And he is comfortable talking to adults as well as kids, most of the time. He is really starting to have some good form to his stories, and is getting better and better at including all the right details.

Our parents-as-teachers person came over today, and she was chatting with Ben, and he started talking about trains (still his FAVORITE subject in the whole world), and he started to tell her the story of when Aunt Gigi and Uncle Martin took the train recently, and how it was running late. He went into all kinds of detail about what might make the train late. He finally decided that it was late because of grass on the tracks (not true at all), and it was just so amazing to hear him think through so many details. He also told her about riding the zoo train with his Aunt RiRi and cousin Anna recently too. Such a strong memory for trains!!

4. Speaking of his love for trains, he loves telling people that he is a "fan of trains" and how Molly is a "fan of dogs". When we see a dog go by, he will yell, "Look Molly, a dog-dog, your favorite!"