Bye-bye Geekee!

Ben is a funny one. We gave him a binkie (pacifier) when he was a baby and he loved it from the get-go (he was a sucker!) but by like 8 months he wasn't really interested in it anymore, so we would just leave it in his crib. Well, he got more attached to it later (for bedtime) and went through a phase of wanting it a lot when Chris was first born, since Chris would have one. So here was are, at two years and four months old, still using that dang thing to sleep. I've tried before to get rid of it slyly, "lose" it, or talk him out of it- it hasn't worked, and I haven't pushed the issue, because he gets upset about it. Today, he had Chris' binkie in his mouth (Chris has been BAD teething and has brought his with him out of bed a few times this last week)... so Ben and I had a little talk about binkies and how they were for babies and he was a big boy. I told him he didn't really need it for night-night anymore and maybe did he think he could go to sleep without it? "Yeah!" was the answer and he seemed totally okay with the idea. So, I took the thing out of his bed so it wouldn't be there at naptime, but when the time came, it was "where's my geekee, where's my geekee?" I tried to reason with him, but he was just getting so sad about it, it was more important to get him to nap at the moment. When he got up, I brought it up again, and said - we should send your binkie to a baby that needs one, since you're a big boy and you don't really need it to go night-night, do you? ("Yeah!") Should we put your binkie in a letter and send it to a baby? He LOVES letters because of Blue's Clues and he LOVES everything about babies, he loves when Elmo "talks to a baby" on Elmo's World. ("OKAY!") So we went and got an envelope and sealed the binkie up inside and then addressed it "To: Baby ; From: Ben" and drew a little stamp. Then we took it out to the mailbox for the mailman to come pick up. Then, (after splashing in the gutter water) we said bye-bye to "geekee".

I reinforced the idea on the way home tonight. I asked if he remembered earlier when we sent the binkie to the baby because he was a big boy now, etc. Then asked if he remembered that when it was bedtime, he would just have doggie and his blankie because the mailman took binkie to the baby, and he was very positive about it. He had new jammies that we picked up yesterday, and I told him they were big boy jammies. When we go up to bed, he goes into his room and gets into bed while I put Chris in his crib, then I come back to read one last story and sing a song and tuck him in. When I got back to his room, he told me "I have doggie and gaykee (blankie), but nooooo geekee! And he was just fine with that. I told him a few times how proud I was of him and what a big boy he was. We read a Little Critter story about doing things all by yourself (because you're a BIG BOY!) and then he went to sleep just fine. This all probably seems silly and boring, but to us, it is a HUGE step for our little geekee lover. He is constantly surprising us with new "grown-up" ways.

I was pleasantly surprised (and relieved) that it all worked out at bedtime. We'll see how tomorrow goes. I hope this was it!

Drool and stuff...

This was Christopher's ensemble for the last bit of the night before jammie time....

Because THIS was the second t-shirt he SOAKED through with drooool today....


So after dinner, I just stuck a little bib on him so it would keep his skin from getting irritated- this one was absorbant... I think he's getting the molar on the opposite side now. Plus his nose is stuffed up at night and running all day. Not sure if that's from the teething or what, but he is wet and slimy today.

Isn't he just so cute?? Don't you love his little belly stickin' out? He was dancing around, with the remote in his hand, his very favorite thing...

Ben was all about games tonight. First, Daddy thought it would be fun to teach him Tic Tac Toe. I was skeptical of him being able to actually play, but right off, he would take his turn and draw his circle in a new box... it was awesome. I think maybe he's seen tic-tac-toe played on tv or something? Not sure, but it was dang cute to watch him draw his O's.

And here he is- I was just snapping pictures of them and said "How are you" to get his attention (he likes to look anywhere but the camera) and he thought I said how old, so proudly told me "TWO". This is a new thing that he does more. He's known how to respond and hold up the fingers for a while now, just didn't really do it until more recently. Love it.

And last but not least-- we were playing Blue's Clues (the board game) and you have to do what the space tells you- the first one was wink, and I said- okay Ben wink, remember winking? And he winked... like this:

It was so cute, he would wayyyy scrunch his face up and tilt his head back to see out of the "not-closed" eye... sooo funny. Who knew the kid could wink?

Happy Birthday to Gama and Gapa!

I didn't get many pictures and forgot my camera for the first party altogether, but we celebrated Dave's parents birthdays this past week. PLUS Jenny's, so we are about partied out. Not sure what Ben likes more, the singing part or the cake and ice cream! Okay, I know which one, but he realllly likes singing Happy Birthday. He gets a big ol' smile and he sings right out with everyone else, it's so cute.

Wiggles Stamps!

Ben LOVES "The Wiggles". It's on at some insane early time of the morning now, so we never actually see the show anymore, but every time we go to the library, we come home with a different Wiggles DVD that Ben could seriously watch all day long if I let him. Plus, we have several CD's of the music that they listen to on the playroom stereo-- again, all day long if I let him. They used to bug me, before I had a baby who adored them. Now I know all their songs.

I think these are our best find in a long time. Ben cannot get enough of his Wiggles Stamps that we just happened to find at this weird store today. They came in packs of one Wiggle and one friend of the Wiggles (with a little coloring book and 4 Wiggles crayons- cool fat ones with like 6 six sides that won't roll of the table!)- I almost just bought him one pack, but I'm so glad I got them all, he loooves them. He sits and names which character he's stamping with and what color it is, he just has so much fun. He's got inky hands now and we're trying to learn to keep the caps on when you're not stamping that one....


Ben's stamping pictures.... he likes to stamp and then leave the people all over the page like this:

Mommy's picture (I was just stamping them and coloring them in like the picture on the little coloring book) .. he loved it.

New 'do

Ben keeps getting bad haircuts so I just buzzed it all off. I wish we had one of those cool kid haircutting places. But he looks so cute and OLDER all of a sudden!! He seems to like it so far. Considering it has been over 100 degrees every day lately, I'm sure he'll appreciate it! He reminds me of (my little brother) Jakey now. When he was little he always had buzzed hair in the summer and our dog liked to lick his head. :) I told Ben about that and he thought that was "seedy" (silly).

Mmmm... postickers

I can't remember why, but I was tooootally craving potstickers. I haven't made them in forever. Back in my single days I would make them all the time. I got the stuff, but then found out Dave isn't really a fan (guess that's why I haven't made them in a while!) so I made them for lunch and I was shocked because the boys loved them! Especially Ben. Still not fans of rice, but they liked these "noodle" things.... I told Ben they were noodles (how to explain them?) because as I was making them, he kept telling me the wrappers were cheese.

Teething mystery solved...

As you can see, Chris has just three teeth on the bottom- which he has had for quite a while. That pesky right tooth isn't ever going to come in and balance things. For WEEKS now, Chris has been having an extra hard time sleeping and wakes up in pain at night (sometimes over and over, despite all the remedies). I kept looking and feeling around and putting orajel on some unknown tooth that was keeping his little chubby fingers in his drooling mouth half the day, but not finding anything. I finally did a full sweep in there and found a big ol' molar pushing through. Poor little guy, he has such a hard time. It's weird that he doesn't even have all of the front ones and is getting the ones further back.

Little Princes

Our neice Jenny had her 3rd birthday today. She had a *princess party* this afternoon. The boys are the only boys they know really- that's always how it is when we go to playgroup, a bunch of girls! All the girls were coming dressed as princesses. So here are my princes:


I just love this picture, even though Ben is doing his "look anywhere but at mom" thing... I think because they are just standing there together like two little (sniff) BOYS! Chris is all big and walking and they are just growing up. It's so cute. I used a Chuck E Cheese crown for a template with some posterboard, fur, and pompoms from the dollar store along with some good ol' tinfoil! They actually liked wearing them!

When we got there, Ben saw all the girls and was saying "she a princess, she a princess and she a princess too!" He loved all of it- hey, (pink) cake is cake.

(Where's the) Watermelon Festival

We looove festivals.... we used to love that show (not sure if it's still on?) on the Food Channel I think- Great American Festivals. We have yet to find any that are that cool, but we've been to a handful and some have been pretty cool. Well, yesterday we ventured out to "the country" for a "Watermelon Festival" where there was not a watermelon in sight! There was not much of anything- it was pretty trashy, really. Not to mention it was about a million and five degrees outside, I thought I was going to die. You can see in the pics how flushed the boys are- that was after like two minutes out of the car. The whole thing was down the main street so it was heat coming off of the asphalt. I gave Chris his big water sippy a few minutes after we got there, and he just sat there in his stroller drinking in non-stop. We didn't stay long, but we did try the big slide (which was almost too hot to go on!) ... Ben liked that. They got a waterballoon yoyo and this very cool wooden frog that sounds like it's croaking when you run the little stick across its back.





We were glad to be back in the A/C in the car!!!

Bye!

Chris has been waving more lately, especially when it's time to go to bed, he *waves* night-night to Ben and Daddy. Well, tonight out of the blue, he just started going "Bah" (bye) and waving. So cute. I would say it back and he would do it again and again. (Luckily, since I had to run for my camera :P)

And then all my boys were so cute at the table, playing with the new Jojo's circus colorforms...

Silly boys...

So Ben has started to speak for both of them.... he'll say "we want to" do something instead of just "I want to". Today, he was saying he was still hungry after eating his lunch and I looked at Chris who was whining and banging his cup and said "are you hungry too?" and Ben said, "yeah we're still hungry, Chris is still hungry". Ha!

One thing that they have been driving me NUTS with is their (mostly Chris' but then Ben joins in) obsession with pulling wipes and tissues out of the box. If they ever get a hold of a box, that's the end of it. Chris likes to stick the wipes in his mouth. He pulls one after another out until I stop him. On his own, Ben usually will just pull out a few tissues and mess around with them. Well, Ben's NEW thing is to pull the tissue out of the box, then wipe his nose with it (because THAT makes it okay that he pulled it out right?) Then he comes to me exitedly and tells me, "I wiped my boogers on the tissue!" LOL.

They've started mimicking each other more, as a game. Yesterday in the store, Ben was making the same sounds as Chris (bababababa) really loud as he "helped" push the cart and they were "talking" back and forth like this, getting progressively louder. In the bath this morning, Ben was saying no, no, no to getting his hair washed or something and Chris started going "do, do, do" and they went back and forth laughing like it was the funniest joke. So cute!

Well, as I was typing this, they were, guess what? Yep, pulling wipes out a few feet behind me (I'm too oblivous!) I told them no, and told Ben he knows better and he told me in his best apologetic voice (another new thing) "Oh, I sorry Mommy, I no mean to!" Oye.

Off to the store.

Awww, cuties!

I thought I'd give it a shot and do some portrait type photos- something I rarely attempt with these guys because they are just NOT cooperative when it comes to actually sitting for me. Ben is okay for about a minute, but Chris thinks it's a big fun game to get up and come towards me to grab my camera. And if we're outside trying to take one, fuggedaboudit! He's off like a racecar. Anyway, the last ones I took were at Valentine's, so I needed something new. I thought these turned out pretty darn cute! Just in time for fall, they kind of look like school pictures with the tan background, ha! (That's just my living room wall a few feet behind them)

And because I have three big frames over my mantle where I keep a photo of each of them with one of both in the middle frame... I had to attempt an updated group shot. This is the best I could get. I think it's the only one where they are both even looking.

Sure! I'd love to!

This is what Ben says now when I ask him if he wants to do something.... so cute!

Dat me!

Grandma and Grandpa brought the boys some cool lift-the-flap scripture books from their trip to Utah. Ben LOVES them. One is Book of Mormon stories and the other one is Bible Stories.



Tonight we were reading this one and we got to the story about King Benjamin and Ben says "Dat me! Dat meee Mommy!" Oh, and have I mentioned I love how Ben says his name "Be-ben" (Benjamin) For a long time he really didn't ever say his name, then when he did- it was "Beh" (I guess it still is) but when you ask him what his name is, he usually says "Be-ben"

"Cheeeeeese!"

So I posted a while back about Ben and this old 35mm camera. He likes to take our picture with it. Now Chris just started holding it up and saying "Teeeeee" (cheese). SOOOOO cute, I was cracking up!

Fingerpainting!

We haven't pulled out the fingerpaints in a while, because when we first tried, Ben wasn't really interested- too messy! Since then, he has enjoyed painting with brushes. Today, we tried fingerpainting again and he loved it! Except for when I wouldn't let him squeeze the paint out with his messy hands... he covered his face at first and got paint on it, which made him even sadder....


But, not to fret- he was fine about a minute later! We looove fingerpainting!

Did I mention...

we have another WALKER? He is so cute, toddling around the house. Once he got the confidence to go, he was all over this walking thing! He went from taking just a few steps for a week or two to really going: