Aaaah, preschool!

This is what Benjamin did when I wanted to take his picture before his first day of preschool.

Looking at the camera is probably one of Ben's least favorite activities. Probably compounded by the fact that he wasn't in the greatest mood this morning. Last night, for the first time in several months, he decided to wake up around midnight and keep us up until almost 2. I have no idea why. But it means that he slept in, (and would have slept later if mean mommy hadn't forced him to get up) had a rushed breakfast, and couldn't keep playing with his toys like he wanted. But then we got to school and he saw THIS:
And THIS:
Pretty exciting stuff when you're 2.

He was a little overwhelmed at first and didn't really want Joel and I to leave. But his teacher took his hand and started showing him around, we said goodbye, and that was it. Now I'm typing on my computer in my very quiet house. And you know what? It's pretty nice.

Boating, reading and nappy

This little boy LOVES being on the boat. As a matter of fact, I think his top three favorite activities are the boat, reading stories and napping. Looks like he's headed for a life of leisure!

It's been a while since I did a Benjamin update so I thought I'd get everyone up to speed.

Ben is still a pretty easy kid: good eater, good sleeper, good at sharing his toys, etc...Little boys who know how to entertain themselves sure are a blessing for pregnant mamas! It still surprises me when he does things that seem very little boy, as opposed to baby. He likes to watch tv stretched out on his stomach with he chin resting at the armrest of the couch. How does he know that's what little boys do? Now that he's 2, he's also developing a bit of a contrarian streak. Here is a recent conversation to illustrate:

(In the car and an ambulance goes driving by with the siren and lights flashing.)

Ben: HOT! HOT! ( This is what he calls fire trucks.)

Me: It sounds likes a fire truck, doesn't it? But it was an ambulance.

Ben: No. No. Hot.

Me: Um.....I'm pretty sure it was an ambulance, because it was white and didn't look like a fire truck, remember?

Ben: NO! NO! HOT!

Me: Ok. I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree.

Ben: Yes.

He's also insistent that ALL construction implements are backhoe loaders and gets very annoyed when you point out, say, a bulldozer. Or an excavator. Or a dump truck. I should just keep my mouth shut.

Other things about Benjamin:

Whenever we see a construction sight, delivery truck, airplane, helicopter or anything else transportation related, Benjamin puts his palms up in the air and asks, "guys?" That means, "where is everyone? What are they doing?"

Sometimes out of nowhere he just feels like crouching down like a sumo wrestler and stomping around the room while breathing noisily through his nose. Is he pretending to be a dinosaur? Who knows. I never get an answer for this.

Even though we read to Ben ALL THE TIME, I've never worked on letter recognition unless he asks. I feel like 2 is way too young to start that type of activity. But the other day he pointed to the logo on Joel's swim trunks and said, "S-P-E-E-D-O." I'm proud. But enough of the bragging, since I hate it when other moms do it:) But can I just mention that I don't think it's enough to just read to your children? Benjamin sees Joel and I reading on a daily basis, and I know that has to have a huge impact.

Almost every stuffed animal in our house has a band aid stuck somewhere. I must be a very bad housekeeper because Ben's animals are always getting thorns stuck in their paws that subsequently need to be removed. It's either that or another stuffed animal bites them, which also seems very negligent on my part. I'm going to have to buy an extra large supply of band-aids at Costco to keep up with these multiple injuries.

Ben's favorite game is called "nappy." This is when he drags his blanket and pillow behind him, chooses a spot (usually the couch) and commands, "mommy, daddy, nappy!" This means we're supposed to drop everything and relax while Ben tucks us in. That's it. That's the whole game. I'm not gonna lie....it's pretty awesome.

We have a big few weeks ahead of us. Starting preschool and transitioning to a big boy bed are coming up soon! Plus I'll write a post updating everyone what's new with baby #2!

What have we been doing this summer?

Thanks for hanging in there everyone. I know it's been FOREVER since my last post, but this pregnancy has really slowed me down. I'm actually on my way to take a little nap, but thought I would at least get these pics up.

These next two pictures were taken at Great-Grandma's house in VA, or "The Farm" as we like to call it. In the second photo, Ben is wearing his camo shorts, hat, and carrying his shirt in his pocket. I like to call that look, "authentic redneck."

I took this picture because Ben handed me the camera and said "cheese!" That NEVER happens, so I had to oblige his wishes.
Fun at the beach. Lots of exploring and enjoying the sunshine. It's been a little too hot for mama lately, but maybe we can make a another little morning trip soon.

Trucks

The lot across the street from us had been empty until about a month ago. Then the trucks moved in and our new neighbors started slowly building a new house. It would be quite an understatement to say watching a backhoe loader and dump truck in action was a big hit with a certain little boy.

Lists

Yesterday we did a lot of this:

This month we've also been trying our hand at this:

And enjoying this:

But sometimes we just need a little of this:

Sorry for the sporadic posts. For those of you who don't know, I'm expecting another baby in December (yay!) so my motivation the past 12 weeks has been non-existent (boo!) I'm hoping that will remedy itself soon, but until that happens I'm napping whenever Ben naps and using the remainder of my free time to eat and wander aimlessly around my house. I know. I'm a very driven person.

This weekend was great. Ben and I enjoyed having daddy home an extra day and lots of family time. Yesterday we went to Lowes and bought an outdoor fan for our gazebo/pergola area in the backyard, ate Mexican food for lunch, installed the fan, grilled chicken and let a certain happy little boy play with the water hose to his hearts content. We also hung a flag outside the house for the first time and I enjoyed having such a powerful reminder of what Memorial Day is really about.

We've been having fun observing Ben and picking up clues about his constantly developing personality. Yesterday morning Joel made a list of items to pickup at Lowes and things to do around the house. After Joel patiently explained to him the concept of a list and what it's for, Ben decided he wanted to try his hand at list making. He walked in the bedroom clenching a pencil in his mouth and waving a sheet of paper in his chubby little hand. After positioning his pencil and paper just right, Benjamin would stick his tongue out, furrow his brow, say out loud what he wanted to do that day and then painstakingly scribble a little pencil mark on his paper to show it had been recorded. This was Ben's list:

tory (story)

B (This means Ladybird, and I'm pretty sure he meant he wanted to play with Ladybird.)

baf (bath)

nap

eat

eat

eat (Yes, he said this 3 times. )

Rrrrraaaawww! (Ok, in the grand tradition of mothers of toddlers, I completely understand this nonsense. It means tiger, and Ben has watched the Wonder Pets Save the Bengal Tiger every. single. day. for THREE WEEKS. Obviously he couldn't miss a day and needed to make sure it was on the list.)

You'll be happy to know he got everything done and was even able to add more tasks! Quite an achievement in time management for a two year old:)

File These Pics Under "Ways to Embarrass My Son In Front of Future Girlfriends"

Now that Bejamin is 2 he's FINALLY getting pretty good at walking in heels. I think that's one of the 2 year old milestones, right? A couple weeks ago he literally ran the length of the hallway in these shoes. I was suitably impressed. Unfortunately, they're my shoes and I like to wear them every so often, which doesn't sit too well with Master B. I guess not being allowed to wear mom's heels all the time is just one of those hard life lessons.

Finally....

...a rundown about Benjamin's two year old birthday celebration! I would have posted this much earlier but our seemingly indestructible Mac has decided to quit working for the time being. We've had an Apple tech here to work on it, but no dice. Today was the first day (after about 3 weeks) that I was almost driven to throw it across the room. It also didn't help that our camera joined in the shenanigans and decided not to load half of our pictures. Ok, enough complaining. On to the celebration of Benjamin!

The day started off with presents. A rake and hoe to help daddy in the yard, a preschool backpack, and lots of books!

Plus a card from grandma and granddad with a sticker that said, "I'M TWO!"

Donuts from Ollies! MMMMM!

Then we got Chick fil A and visited daddy downtown to see the tall ship that was temporarily docked in Wilmington.

And finished off the day having dinner with friends, and the yummiest, most delectable cake I've ever made. Every single person ate two pieces...and we're talking about adults AND kids! I've included the recipe just in case any of you have a special occasion coming up and need an amazing cake.

White Chocolate Raspberry Cake

2 nine inch cake pans lined with parchment paper and sprayed with bakers joy or a non-stick spray with flour. (must use parchment paper or you will not be able to get cake out of the pan. The chocolate in the batter sticks to the pan.)

3 squares of Fisher vanilla flavored Almond Bark

½ cup of water

2 ¼ cups of sifted cake flour

2 tsp. Baking powder

¼ tsp. Baking soda

1 cup butter

1 ½ cups sugar

4 eggs separated

1 cup buttermilk

¼ cup sugar

1 jar seedless raspberry jam

1 pint whipping cream

1 tsp. – 2 tsp Vanilla

½ - 1 cup powder sugar

Melt the 3 squares of almond bark and the ½ cup of water in microwave or on stove over low heat. Let cool (if it is not cooled the warm water will cook the eggs in the batter.)

Beat the butter until smooth, add the 1 ½ cups of sugar and beat, add the egg yolks one at a time and beat after each addition. Add the melted white chocolate mixture and stir on low. Add the dry ingredients (flour, baking soda and baking powder) alternating with the buttermilk ending with flour.

In a separate bowl beat the egg whites and add the ¼ cup sugar beat until peaks are formed. Fold this mixture into the cake batter and pour into prepared cake pans.

Bake at 350 for 30-35 minutes test with toothpick or knife inserted in center comes out clean.

Let the cakes cool. (I usually wrap the cakes and freeze, the cakes are easier to ice that way)

Make the icing. Add whip cream vanilla and powder sugar beat on high until peaks are formed. Place one cake on serving plate, stir the raspberry jam and smear onto cake( I do not use the entire jar) Ice the cake with the whip cream and decorate with fresh raspberries and mint leaves is desired.