He's getting his 3rd two year molar. And his allergies (the same ones that caused his insanely horrible nursing strike last year) are acting up. AND he has diaper rash. I feel so sorry for this kid. In spite of all of this, he's been pretty cheerful. I pulled out his amber necklace and dosed him with Benadryl. He's talking up a storm lately. He still eats everything. This morning I made raspberry tea and throw some fresh peppermint from our garden in with it. Then I put in a but of orange juice and honey. I had to share it with him. I wasn't planning on giving him any, but maybe it'll help with his allergies and sinuses? He figured out how to climb up on Ben's lofted bed today. I'm surprised it's taken him this long. He doesn't know how to get down yet though. He's still very into dinosaurs, Cars, and trains. He's been picking out "counting" books more often lately and pointing out some of the numbers. He's also been more accurate at naming the magnetic letters on the fridge.
Ben
He's really, really growing up. For the first time today, he apologized sincerely to Marlie after they had a fight. I mean, he's apologized to me and Darrell before. But I'm not sure if it was because he was sincerely sorry or because he knew he was in trouble. Anyway, I was proud of him. His artwork and drawings are getting more and more interesting. I asked him to draw a picture of a thunderstorm the other day and was very impressed with his finished picture. He' starting to get more interested in spelling things and has recognized a few more words by sight. It's so interesting to see this. He's also MUCH more interested in chapter books than he was just a few months ago. He has discovered a series called Animal Ark at the library that he really likes. The author is Ben M. Baglio and he thinks it's "super awesome" that they have the same name. ;) He pretty much only picks the ones about dogs though. Hahha! He has also picked Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing out of my books. And right now we're in the middle of reading Charlotte's Web.
Ummm... I need to finish packing.
( Here we go: )
Sunday we dropped Cal off at Darrell's mom's house and took Ben to hear the Dayton Philharmonic. My friend Carolyn had tickets, but they weren't going to be able to go so she gave them to us. It was part of the family series they have and the theme was Pirates. When we got there, Ben got to take a picture in front of one of those board things so that it looked like he was a magician. Then he "conducted" a small orchestra. After that we stood in line so he could have a pirate mustache drawn on him. It was pretty adorable. We walked up to the top of the Shuster Center so Ben could look down on all the people. Then we walked back down and found our seats. It was a really cool concert! It had a good variety of piratey music and it was wonderful to hear a full, live orchestra play. They played a selection from Hook and I almost cried. I love soundtracks so much, guys. Ben was really well behaved and didn't get too bored until the last quarter or so. Luckily I had little chewy candies in my purse. We *were* going to walk down to Flying Pizza and have dinner there after, but they are closed on Sundays. So we drove to the one by our house and ate there. We picked up Cal and had a pretty relaxing night.
Cleaning the bathroom was the only thing I didn't get done over the weekend. Hopefully I'll get to that today. I need to go grocery shopping either today or tomorrow too.
This weekend I'm going over to Indy. I'm planning on hanging out with the Sears in the afternoon. Then hanging out with Nick and hopefully Alisa in the evening. Not really any big plans. Hopefully just a chill time.
In two weeks Ben will be four and a half. I don't even know how that happened. He'll be going to preschool in the fall. He's way more excited about it than I am. I mean, I'm glad he got into the one we wanted. I don't know. It really is just to get him used to the routine of going to school. I think he could probably enter kindergarten right now and be fine, academically. We weren't even going to send him to preschool at all until our school district switched to all day kindergarten. I think that will be rough for him. Anyway... the preschool. It's Monday through Thursday, 8:30-11:00. Which works out perfectly with our regular daily routine in our household/with the kids I babysit. I can get everyone breakfast and take him to school. Do some playing with the other kids. Then pick him up, get everyone lunch, play a little, and then it's quiet time. I'm happy about the preschool he'll be going to. It's in the elementary school he'll be going to. It's *for* kids who have learning or other issues. Ben will be enrolled as a peer. So, yeah, he won't get a lot of academic learning done, I assume. But he'll get to interact with all sorts of different kids and learn the way classrooms work. Hopefully, it'll be fun for him too.
Cal is very two. He tells me "no!" a lot. He still eats like every meal will be his last. He's trying to learn to jump, count, ABCs, and a lot of other things. He still doesn't really drink any animal milk. I haven't tried nut milks yet, but I'm thinking about it. He loves water and has juice every once in a while. He doesn't smell like "baby" any more. He definitely smells like "kid." (Darrell thinks it's weird that I notice this, but I've heard other mothers talk about it. I'm not crazy right? He also is astounded that the boys smell different from each other to me.) Cal loves coloring, dinosaurs, exploring outside, and his blankie. He is down to nursing for 5-10 minutes before bed. Sometimes he goes the entire 10 minutes. Then I say, "all done!" and unlatch him. Sometimes he stops after 4, 5, 6 minutes, unlatches and says "all done!" He's such a sweetheart and so funny! He's not nearly as sensitive as Ben is, but seems to be introspective. He likes playing with other kids, but is sometimes happier off playing by himself. Also, his hair is still mostly blonde and his eyes are still blue.
I told the kids I make pizza grilled cheese for dinner tonight. I should probably get on that. :)
(OOOOOOOOOOOOR LJ isn't going to let me post this.)
Ben at 4 years
Cal at 12 days
Cal at 2 years
Cal and Ben, 2 years and 4 years
( http://www.thetoyspy.com/2011/08/23/cou
Cal is sitting on the floor right now, completely heartbroken, because he keeps offering one of his toy dinosaurs cookies and the dinosaur is NOT opening his mouth to eat them. Cal forced the mouth open and tried to fit a cookie in there. The cookie is bigger than the dinosaur's head, so this did not work.
I told him that the cookies are *just* for Cookie Monster, but I don't think he believes me.
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