While starting this entry, I announced to Jesse that I felt I had so much to write about this month! Jesse just replies, “The month of poop.”
What do you mean?? Ben or Fred?
“Yes. Either one. Too much. Too little. On schedule. Off schedule. Poop!” Apparently I need to jazz up our nightly conversations about the day when he comes home from work… But yes, we’ve been sick and then healthy and then sick and then healthy again. Potty training is still something that is happening. And Fred is 8 months old tomorrow and taking in more and more solid food. So yeah….poop is a big part of my life.

I am almost afraid to hit “publish” on this entry. For the second after I published the last entry, Fred immediately pushed up on his little arms and started scooting backwards. What is he going to do next!? We have had so many milestones in the last 30 days. It has made me a big pile of mush to watch my squishy infant turn into a mobile giant baby. I am in a crazy state of sad-excited-nostalgic-proud all the time. Being a mom is weird.

So setting aside the fear that Fred will immediately start crawling when I click publish, here are the month’s highlights and some random things that made me chuckle:

• We survived 8 days of congested, drooling, teething, ear-infected snotty boys….However, thanks to Daniel Tiger, Ben would announce, “When you’re sick – rest is best!” So that was entertaining. But he also picked up the bad habit of saying he was “too sick” to do things. You’re not a teenager yet, buddy. Suck it up.
  
  

  I know it was because he was sick and exhausted, but I soaked this in as long as I could…

• In between bouts of sickness, we managed fun social time with dinners and play dates with friends, neighbors, & cousins.
• We had the brother over to play Caverna for the first time in a year, where I created the 6th dwarf, and beat the Gruca brothers using a balanced farming/mining strategy! (Just trust me that it was fun…)
• A toothache sent me to the dentist multiple times.
• Ben continued to grab our ear lobes for no apparent reason, other than needing to yell, “YOU HAVE WIGGLY EARS!!!”
• We celebrated Easter with family and watched Ben complete his first scavenger hunt created by Grandpa.
  
• While holding Ben in church, I threw out my neck. After reuniting with my chiropractor, things slowly got better. I need to stretch before lifting my 40 and 20 pound weights!
• We continued to watch Ben and Fred’s brotherly relationship develop. Now that Fred is mobile-ish and showing more personality, Ben is having to adjust how he interacts with his brother.
  

  I insisted that Fred was allowed to at least touch ONE toy in Ben’s room. Ben got out the only doll we have in the house. At least Fred seems happy that we kept my old Cabbage Patch Kid! And when he was done with that, he was allowed a plastic clothes hanger.

  

  Ben loves his trains. Fred loves to bounce. I love keeping Fred away from Ben’s trains. Win. Win. Win.

  

  It only took 7 months to get a good shot of the boys together. Success!

  

  This was one of the first times that Ben really wanted Fred to sit by him! I was shocked that Fred was old enough to sit up in the cart for the entire trip around the store!

  

• I turned 34! I’m so wise now – for real. We spent the evening out, eating pizza and watching Zootopia. Because that is how I party.
• Ben’s love of stories continued. We play pirates and enjoy Ben’s interest in Peter Pan. He exclaimed how the neighbor’s wind chimes are Tinkerbell. I often have to play the role of Captain Hook. His story telling is becoming much better, and I love his imagination. Here he’s telling me about how the saw dust from the recently cut tree is “ixie dust” and how the Lorax is going to come out of the stump.  
• One day, I was dancing with Fred, only to have Ben yell, “BABIES DON’T DANCE! THEY JUST SPIT MILK EVERYWHERE!!!” That is the only thing babies do. And there is nothing worse than baby spit.
• Spring came!! I am on a mission to kill all the dandelions, but I think I just made them angry. Let the battle rage on!
  
• We are playing a lot in the yard too, and I LOVE it. One of our favorite games is Hoeball. The rules to Hoeball are simple: randomly kick the ball on a slanted yard or whack it with any plastic gardening tool. If you do anything at all, you are allowed to yell the number of points you just earned and declare victory at any time. Pretending to blow a whistle and yelling, “LET’S PLAY MORE HOEBALL!!!” is strongly encouraged.
  
• Ben is getting more and more coordinated and brave!
  
• The old sandbox and swing are still a hit. Did I mention that I LOVE SPRING!?
  
• Fred has just discovered his love of swings as well. He giggles, and it is the best.
  

Other Ben sayings of the month:

“Costco! I like the sound of that! Tell me more!” – Can you tell that he has a teacher that has been encouraging him to talk for the last several months?

“Wait a minute! I have an idea!!”

“10 HOURS LATER!!!” Inspired by The Pigeon Needs a Bath by Mo Willems, Ben picked up this phrase and uses it for everything. I’m not sure he really knows what it means, but it cracks me up every time. Fake phone conversations, waiting for something, playing with cars….TEN HOURS LATER!?!?

“I’m going to win!” Said in the sneakiest of voices, this is used when we are racing. I will be so sad when the threat of a race doesn’t get him out the door faster.

“I’m an INJA!” I don’t know where he picked up the concept of a ninja, but it usually involves tickling attacks. You know, like real ninjas.

And on his 8 month birthday, I’ll give a quick little Fred update:

Fred has grown leaps and bounds this month. After pulling a cranky all-nighter, his two bottom teeth popped in! He is still up 1-2 times a night, but I am still optimistic that I will sleep uninterrupted again sometime in my life. Maybe tonight!? But he does go to sleep easily at 7:30 and naps 2-3 times in the day. I would say he is happy 95% of the time (unless he’s sick) and is an all-star baby. He loves to watch the cat and his brother. There is nothing more he loves than drooling on his brother’s blanket and train track. This drives his brother insane. Fred LOVES food and is willing to try anything we allow. He can gnaw up a graham cracker with ease and still nurses 4-5 times a day (I never thought we would make it this long!). All of the sudden, Fred thinks he is big enough to sit in high chairs and scoot around the room on his belly. Everything goes into his mouth. His arms and legs wiggle like crazy when he gets excited. Yeah, I like this kid.