Cuties!

Here is a cute pic of Molly and Ben from her 1st birthday!

"Lights, Camera, Action!"

Ben has been practicing for a future career lately...I think he wants to be a director! Or maybe a screen-play writer. Here's why:

When we are playing, he has become much more sophisticated in his communication and discussion. But one by-product of his new development is that he now wants to be in charge of BOTH sides of the conversation. He will bring up an interesting point, and then tell you exactly how to respond.

It goes something like this:

Ben: "Here is the fire truck. The good guys just washed it and it is ready to go to work! You say, 'Ooo, it DOES look clean and shiny!'"

Mommy: "Oooo, it DOES look clean and shiny!"

Ben: The fire fighters are on board and they are ready to go. You say, 'Hold on tight, fire fighters!'"

Mommy: "Hold on tight, fire fighters!"

Ben: "Okay, there they go! Great job fire fighters!"



I can vary from the script a little bit...add some emotion here...a little emphasis there...but generally I am expected to respond pretty quickly and accurately. It was charming at first, but I will admit that it's starting to wear on me a little bit. Sometimes, he just does it to help me play along with how he is imagining things, but other times, it seems like a ploy to keep me fully focused on him, and not talking to anyone else. He is generally very patient with me when I am on the phone, or talking to Aaron or Molly, so really I should be thankful that he has such a constructive way to ask for some of my focused attention. But I tell you, I really just want to direct my own play every once in a while! :)

Maybe he will also be a cameraman...here are a few pics that he took recently!

"Sweet Pie"

Ben has been calling Molly his "little sweet pie" lately! It is so loving and cute! We sometimes call her a sweetie pie, or a sweet pea, but he has created his own combination with "sweet pie" and he calls her that all the time. If she is crying after a nap, he will come up and hold her hand and ask, "What is the matter, little sweet pie? Did you wake up sad? It's ok, little sweet pie, brother is here!" It is the sweetest thing I have ever heard!!

As for Little Miss Sweet Pie, here are some new developments:

-She can sign these words: milk, all done, more, bye bye, pick me up.

-She can say these words: night night, woof woof, Ben (sounds like "Den!"). And she tries words all the time. She has tried probably 15 new words in the last 2 days alone, but she can't say them consistently yet, so, speech-therapist that I am, I don't give her credit for any of those. Interestingly though, you might notice that "mama" is not on the list...that's right...this little mama-addict who STILL fusses for me to hold her if just about anyone else is holding her and I walk into the room, and who sleeps curled up to me every night, won't even TRY to say "mama". She will sometimes try "dada", though she isn't consistent yet. But she won't even try "mama". Sometimes I think it is just that she feels she and I are really just extensions of each other, so she shouldn't have to name me, I know what she wants. But, as any mom knows, it is so sweet to hear your little one calling for you, (without whining) that I will admit that I am really starting to get antsy for this word to come into use!

-She can point to "nose" and "belly". It is SO cute!! She will always point to your nose when you ask her nose, and she will always point to her belly if you ask her belly.

-She pretends to talk on the phone now!! If she finds any small toy or tv remote, or anything remotely similar to a cell phone in size, she will pick it up and "talk". SO cute.

-She can blow toy whistles. This seems like a difficult thing to me for this age, but she sure can do it well.

-She likes to scribble when I give her the chance. *Mental note...give her more chances* She also likes to try to feed herself with a spoon...I also need to let her practice this more too.

-She is SO close to walking. At Granny and Grandpa's house last night, she took probably 8-10 steps in between Granny and Grandpa. But I will say that there is something about Granny and Grandpa's house in particular. She tends to be much more physically adventurous there. They have a really nice, big open space in their living room, and I wonder if she feels the feeling of free space and is more encouraged to try things. She actually finally "got" crawling there, too. So I wouldn't be surprised if it takes her a while to get up to that many steps here at home, even though she did it at Granny's pretty easily yesterday. We'll see.

-Oh, and one last thing...she's TEENY! Not really truly teeny, but teeny compared to her brother and cousin Anna. We went in for her 1 yr check-up, and the doctor thought she looked great and was developing well in every way. But we did check her height and weight, and she weighs only 19 pounds, and is just over 28 inches long. That puts her in the 25% for weight, and the 35% for height. Those numbers aren't concerning at all, but she used to be at the 50% for both, so it is a drop.
It is true, however, that growth charts are standardized to all babies; there aren't separate charts for breast-fed babies vs formula-fed babies, and our doctor said that it is typical for breast-fed babies to be lower on the scale at this age than formula-fed babies because they are still regulating their own calories more independently. Ben actually went through a similar drop, but it was more like dropping from the 90% range to the 60% range, so he was still big at this age.
Secretly though, I kind of like it. Here's why: Ben was a beautiful baby, but also always on the very top of the scale...usually in the 75% to 90% range. And for the first year of his life, I got TONS of comments about what a huge baby I had. He was out of his baby carrier car seat by 9 months, and we were really pushing in to have kept him in that long! He was also always 1 to 2 clothes sizes above his age. It wasn't a problem at all, but it was just hard to have him out of the baby carrier before he was walking, and any cute outfit he had stopped fitting him in the blink of an eye.
So I kind of longed for a baby who would be in the carrier until they were walking, so I wouldn't have to let them crawl on so many dirty floors. And I wanted a baby who generally wore a cute outfit for more than 4 weeks.
Well, I have my wish. Molly is still 2 full pounds under the weight limit for the carrier, and she will surely be walking before she puts on those pounds. And she is just now getting into her 12-mo clothes, so I have gotten to enjoy some cute outfits for a very long time now!
But, just as I type this, I am reflecting that she has (finally) really started eating well lately, and Ben also hit a huge growth spurt right after his 1st birthday, so I should probably enjoy my little 19-pounder while I still can!

Happy Birthday Molly!

Today is Molly's 1st Birthday!!

What a darling girl..what a wonderful year...what a blessing she is to me and to this family!

This Little Light Of Mine!

Quick Ben story...

After several long months of wonderful, easy sleeping for Ben, he suddenly began aggressively resisting bedtime. He would not want to go to bed. He would ask us to sit in the hallway until he fell asleep. He would fuss and whine for the longest time each night. One night last week, he was up fussing and calling for us to come talk to him until almost 11 p.m.! It was getting out of control, and we were exhausted and at our wits end.

So, after prayer and reflection, and just a little hand-wringing, we came to accept that we could put the child to bed, but we couldn't make the child sleep. But we couldn't just let him stay up until we went to bed every night...he needs more sleep than that, and we need adult time! So we decided that we didn't care if he was asleep or not, but we needed him to be in his bed, and quiet. And those were the only 2 things we needed.

So, in a stroke of good luck, I remembered a tiny flashlight that Nana had given him a long time ago. I dug out the flashlight, and that night, when we put him to bed, we told him that he could pick a favorite book to take to bed, and he could have his special flashlight. We said that he didn't have to sleep at all. He could play with his light and read his book all that he wanted, but that he did have to be quiet and restful. He looked at us incredulously...we were actually going to just let him have a book and play with a flashlight and we didn't care if he slept or not??!!

Well, long story short, he was asleep that night within about 7 minutes, and he even turned off the flashlight himself before he fell asleep. He has been perfect with nights and naps every day since, thanks to his trusty little flashlight!

"This little light of mine...I'm gonna let it shine..."

Benner

A couple of short stories:

1. Nap time.
I have no idea why, but most days Ben takes a nap for about 1 hour and 45 min to 2 hours. And when he takes a nap for that length, he always wakes up crying and cranky. Almost every single day, for nearly 2 years now, ever since he has only been taking the one afternoon nap, it has been like this. But, occasionally, he will nap for about 2 and a half hours. When he takes the longer nap, he wakes up fresh, happy, and ready for the rest of the day.
It is strange, because a 2-hour nap is really not that bad. And I can't ever find any pattern or explanation as to why he doesn't wake up happy after the shorter nap, or as to why he so infrequently takes the longer, happy nap.
But anyway, yesterday was one of those blessed days when he took the longer nap. And just to illustrate how perfectly happy he is after the longer naps, here is what I heard yesterday...instead of the usual crying and whining, all of the sudden out of the silence, at around the 2.5 hour mark, I heard, "I'm all done!"
I spoke into the dark room, "Did you say you were all done?" He replied, "Yep, I'm all done sleeping now. I'm ready to get up!"
So I happily got him up, and we proceeded to have a wonderful afternoon, waiting for Daddy to get home. If only it was like this every day!

2. Prayer
Sometimes when we pray, Ben will add in the most random prayers. I can never figure out what made him think of what it is that he is praying for. He almost threw me for a loop again today.
The story: A dear friend of mine was expecting triplets this month, and she had to have an early c-section that was scheduled for this morning. Well, the kids and I were out on a walk during the time that the surgery was scheduled. So at the time of the surgery, I stopped our walk and told Ben that we should take a moment to say a prayer for our friend and her babies. He gravely folded his hands and closed his eyes and listened well at first as I asked God to watch over Katie and the babies.
But several times as I was praying, he tried to interrupt me. So, at first, I thought he was just done praying and was trying to change the subject. But finally he got my full attention and said, "And thank you God for the almonds and M&M's that Katie could eat to make the babies grow!"
I was clueless at first...but then soon remembered that last time Katie had been over for a visit, she had been snacking from a bag of trail mix with a bunch of different nuts and dried fruits and some chocolate pieces. She was trying to take in more calories to "help the babies grow", and Ben had spent the entire morning eying the trail mix. Apparently it made quite an impression!

Sick Kids...

It was only a matter of time...in the past couple of weeks, it seemed like every other day I heard of some new friend or family member of ours who was sick. Fever, aches, chills, generally feeling yucky.

We seemed to dodge it for a while, but I just knew that it was headed our way eventually.

Well, it hit today. Both kiddos are running fevers and seem generally achy. Molly also has a runny nose. So we are in full sick-mode here with lots of snuggles, cuddles, lazy sitting on the couch, humidifiers running in both bedrooms, and (Ben's personal favorite!) soda-juice to stay hydrated. Molly is eying the soda-juice enviously, but as she is still nursing, she doesn't get any yet...maybe this time next year if she gets sick.

Wish us a speedy return to health...and also that Aaron and I somehow dodge the bullet. We aren't sick yet, but somehow I bet that it is also just a matter of time for us too!