September 2016

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.”