Snapshots from preschool

Last Tuesday was Benjamin's turn to bring snacks for preschool. This also meant he got to be the "leader" for the day and sit in a special purple chair during circle time. Joel packed a camera in the snack bag and asked the teachers to take a few pictures throughout the day. It's fun to have a little snapshot of what Ben is like without us around.

Working on his art project. Immediately after bringing this particular project home he sat on the floor and painstakingly tore the shapes off. You could tell he'd been wanting to do that for a while. This particular 2 yr. old does not understand the concept of glue.

Enjoying circle time.

Waiting for his "bunny 'nacks."

"Ok, for real. Stop taking my picture now. This is getting weird." *On a side note: who picked out those yummy Annie's Honey Bunny Snacks, cheddar cheese sticks and grapes? That mom must be awesome.

'tories

Reading to my little guy is one of my favorite activities in the world. We love books in our house and Ben is no exception. Monday mornings have turned into library time for us, and Benjamin gets so excited. He bounds up the stairs to the children's department saying, " 'tories, 'tories!" I know buddy, I know. I get butterflies when I walk into the library too. So many books!

The other day I was thinking about the moment that reading finally clicked for me, and how that was the beginning of truly forming my independence away from my family and friends. I have no doubt that Ben will be an avid reader, but I have to admit some sadness about the prospect of him shutting himself away with a book like his mama. As long as he can't read by himself I still get plenty of snuggle time!

*Also, I've discovered that a baby bump is the perfect accessory for propping up my books. What a nice surprise!

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:)