Tuesday, February 21, 2012

I Wanna Build a Fort

In an effort to get a little work done to prepare for my upcoming trip to the West Coast, I left the house for a couple of hours on Sunday morning. This gave Bennett and Brian ample daddy-son bonding time. When I came home, I found out that the two had built quite the fort while I was away. They even took some photos!

Crawling in Door #2

Peek-a-boo!

Coming out Door #3

Inside by Door #1

Lounge boy - INSIDE!!!
Now - whenever Bennett doesn't like what we're currently doing, he pipes up with, "I wanna build a fort wiff you, mama!" I'm not as good at the fort building as Brian, but I try.

Friday, February 17, 2012

Ready to go . . .

This morning, Bennett knew that we were going to a playgroup and he was very excited. Still dressed in his pajamas, he turned to me and said, "Mama! I ready to hit on the road. Let's go!"

He must have heard me say, "Let's hit the road!" and/or "Get on the road" at some point. I turned to Brian and said, "Oh how I wish he would continue to say these sorts of things even when he's fifteen." He's so cute and I love his little expressions.

Sunday, February 12, 2012

Sneezes

Last night, around 1:30am, Bennett got sick. I heard him cry out and saw him walk around his room for a minute before climbing back in his bed and eventually going to sleep. I didn't think anything of it at the time because he's done that before, although usually it's around midnight.

This morning, Brian went in to get him as usual and Bennett said, "Daddy, I have big sneezes." Turns out - he'd vomited all over his bed and bubby and on the floor too! My sweet poor baby. So, for the entire day, we were on the lookout for more "big sneezes".

Saturday, February 11, 2012

"Opposites"

Lately, we've been hearing Bennett use opposites a little more frequently. He understands up v. down, wet v. dry, etc. The other day he asked me to "plug it out". I was not near him, so I couldn't see what he was talking about . . . When I came into the same room as him, he was pointing to the outlet where the vacuum cleaner was plugged in. Clearly, he wanted me to "plug it out." Well, duh.

Sleeping

I'm REALLY afraid to jinx this, but it's 9am and Bennett is still asleep. He went to bed last night at 9:30pm and we haven't heard a peep out of him. I see him move every now and then, so I know he's alive . . .

I hope this doesn't mean that he's not going to take a nap today.

ETA: It appears we had a monitor malfunction . . . he was awake. I don't know for how long because he was quietly reading on his bean bag when we went in. Clearly, there's a life-span for electronic devices.

Friday, February 10, 2012

Team Studer: 25 Rules for Mothers of Sons

Team Studer: 25 Rules for Mothers of Sons: Inspired by a Pin I've recently seen about "rules for dads with daughters," I went searching for a similar list for moms with sons. This se...

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Clifford the Big Red Fail

This morning, Bennett went to school as usual. I went to a work meeting downtown and hoped that I'd be done in time to join Bennett at school a little earlier than I would normally pick him up. It was a big day at ECRC - the WHOLE SCHOOL was going to go to the UB Center for the Arts to see a Clifford The Big Red Dog performance.

I hadn't told Bennett about this adventure because I didn't want to get his hopes up only to have them dashed if I couldn't make it to go with him. I made it! His face absolutely lit up when he saw me walk into the room - which was really sweet to see. As we waited for his friends to finish their lunch he showed me around his classroom and told me what they had done that day. One of the neatest things was the light table area. His teachers had filled gallon sized zipper bags with finger paint, sealed them and then taped them to the light table. The kids were then able to "paint" with their fingers on the bags to move the paint around and let the light shine through. It was very cool. Bennett named the colors, "blue, green, yellow" and called purple "pink". He got it right when I asked him to try again.

Anyway - we walked with his class to the theater and he was so well behaved! Unfortunately, when we got into the theatre and I lifted him up to see, he got a little scared. He started to cry and didn't want to sit in his own seat, so I decided to hold him and pull him to the end of a row in case we needed to leave during the show. He huddled in to my chest until the show started. I turned so that he could see the stage and he got a little interested. Enough so that I turned him all the way around so he could sit with his back to my chest, affording him a full view of the stage. He even laughed at one point, but then Clifford sneezed, which made one of the characters fall backward and do a full backward roll and that sent Bennett over the edge. We had to leave.

I was not so sad to leave because the show wasn't all that great. We heard from a friend who has a child in the four year old class that we didn't miss anything. Her daughter wanted to leave as well, not because she was scared, but because she was bored. Guess I should trust Bennett's instincts more often, eh?

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Dinner Conversation

Tonight, I made yummy tilapia and salad for dinner. Bennett had previously told me that he didn't like fish: "I no like that, mama. It yucky." Okay, then. He had mac and cheese, strawberries and some plain hummus. When he was little, he used to eat hummus by the spoon full. I hadn't offered it in a while, so I thought I'd try again to see if he still liked it.

After he finished one serving of hummus and asked for a second, which he promptly polished off, I said to him, "I'm so glad you still like it, Bennett. It's an excellent source of protein!" He cocked his head at me (note that his face was smeared with the hummus, so it's very hard to take him seriously), grinned and said, "Silly mama, that no protein! Protein for shake!"

Monday, February 6, 2012

Our Little Helper

This morning, I picked Bennett up from school as usual, but I got there a little earlier than normal. I was able to watch him play with his classmates through the two-way mirror that is installed along one wall in the classroom. I really love this feature, as it gives me a window into his relationships that I don't always get to see.

Anyway - when I finally spotted him, I noticed that he was seated in the "house" area with a teacher and one other student - we'll call her Sally. Both Bennett and Sally were wearing very fancy silk Asian jackets and were very involved in their meal. As I watched the rest of the "end of day" routine, I was fascinated by the smile on his face and his ability to follow the directions of his teachers. (For the record, there are a couple of real terrors in his class - not very good at listening!)

When I made it into the classroom to pick him up, he had removed his fancy jacket but showed me where it is stored and talked with me about his day. Ms. Stephanie, one of his teachers found us by Bennett's cubby and relayed the following conversation to me . . .

Sally: (looking for something among the kitchen supplies)
Bennett: What you looking for, Sally?
Sally: A princess dress.
Bennett: Oh! I help you find it.
(They both look around, Bennett goes to the cabinet where they are stored and pulls one out for her.)
Bennett: What color you want?
Sally: Pink.
Benentt: Okay. I have purple. (He gave her the pink one and put on the purple one for himself.)

My heart was seriously bursting with pride as she told me this story. He really is such a good friend. I see it with nearly everyone he interacts. I think that being in preschool has helped develop that skill and I love it!
In his purple "princess dress"

Saturday, February 4, 2012

battah battah . . . SUHWING!

Tonight, we were invited to our friend's home for an informal pizza dinner party. There were four families, two others have boys about Bennett's age. Our hosts were the Gerace Family - they are part of our playgroup and Bennett and CJ always play nicely together. I've loved watching them grow up this last year.

Anyway - we started the evening upstairs with all the kids and adults gathered in the kitchen snacking on chips and guac and salsa (that I made this afternoon - yum!). Bennett and CJ were sitting next to each other on bar stools just chowing down. After the pizza arrived and we all ate, the boys went downstairs to the new playroom for some rough and tumble time. I joined the kids and CJ's dad, Chris for a little while.

One of the toys was a Little Tikes t-ball set. Bennett knocked it out of the park on his first attempt, y'all. I don't know what we're going to do! Brian hates baseball.