Neck, Jack, Ben

Turns out the crick in my neck (see previous post) was caused by tight muscles in my shoulder. The doctor did some chiropractic adjustments, but wasn't able to adjust the side that my neck pain was on. It was just too tight. Too bad. He said the tight muscles in my shoulder were probably caused by the occupational hazards of being a mom, mostly carrying around a little boy. Apparently I need to be in better shape for being a mom.

I haven't written much about my little guys lately, besides that they've been sick. So, here is what is going on with them lately-

Jack-
Has started to talk a lot more. His favorite word is 'bottle.' He probably shouldn't still have a bottle, but he loves it and he drinks a lot of milk. Chad, Ben, and I use to take about two weeks to go through a gallon of milk. Jack drinks more than a gallon a week by himself.

My favorite thing he now says is, "I love you," and sometimes he will just say it out of the blue. Even though he can talk, he still doesn't choose to talk much. I don't think Ben does the talking for him, infact Ben tries to get Jack to talk, but after Ben goes to bed Jack really opens up.

Although he talks, he is often very difficult to understand and he gets frustrated when I don't understand him. I'm slowly learning his language. He says, "ya" and "yep" a lot. His 'ya' sounds especially cute when he is excited about something like when I ask him if he wants to go to the park.

Jack still likes taking naps during the day, but somedays if he takes a nap during the day he won't go to sleep until late and it doesn't matter what time he took his nap or how long it was. Of course I'd like him to go to bed earlier, but some nights we end up enjoying Jack when Ben isn't around to demand the attention. Jack is a pretty funny little guy.

Jack loves his daddy. Ben has just recently warmed up to Chad and there are still many, many times when Ben just wants me. Jack is often so excited when Chad gets home from work. He likes to talk to Chad on the phone. Most nights Chad puts Jack to sleep while I put Ben to bed. It kind of makes me sad that I'm not the one who holds Jack and puts him to sleep, but I love the relationship that Jack and Chad have. Chad gives Jack a bottle and then his binki and blanket (which he is still madly in love with) and he falls asleep in Chad's arms.

Jack loves to go places. He is very aware of what's going on and if he sees anybody get their shoes or if he hears somebody say the word 'leave' or if somebody grabs their keys he runs in his room and grabs his shoes. It doesn't matter if it's me going somewhere or if it's Chad going somewhere, Jack is devastated when he gets left behind.

Jack has become extremely clingy lately. I left him with my sister while I went to the doctor. When I came back Jack was crying and had been crying for the past hour. It's hard to get work done on the house because he gets really upset when we leave him with anybody and when I take him to the house he ends up crying a lot because he just wants me to hold him.

Jack is a silly little boy. He laughs a lot and he has quite the repetoire of laughs, including an evil laugh and a courteousy laugh. He's just funny.

Ben-
Ben an I have often been at odds about the clothes and shoes he wears. Yes, he is only four, but he is very particular about what he wears. Up until recently he wouldn't wear anything but jeans and t-shirts. He hated Sundays because he had to wear nice pants (not jeans) and dress shoes. I gave up on the dress shoes a long time ago because it wasn't worth the fight. Recently Ben has decided that there are other shirts besides t-shirts and sometimes he will wear polo shirts, there are pants besides jeans and sometimes for no reason he wants to wear his Sunday shoes. It just happened one day.

About that same time Ben also decided that he likes to get dressed when he first wakes up and he does that more often than not. The drama is no longer about his clothes. Well, his pants, shirts, or shoes. It's about his socks. All of his shoes hurt when he has socks on. I know all his shoes fit. Sometimes I will get his socks and shoes on only to turn around a few seconds later to tell him we need to go and he has pulled his shoes off and is laughing. It's maddening.

Ben loves riding his bike and plasma car. He is so good about wearing his helmet and I rarely have to ask him to put it on. We spend a lot of time outside. I wish the weather would stay like it is today all summer long.

Ben loves having me read him books. What kid doesn't? Ben told me he would like to learn to read, so we are working on letters. Next week will be his last week of preschool. He's enjoyed it, but is often hesitant to go. Once he's there though he has fun and I think he's learned a lot. Last week they went to the candy factory and he keeps talking about it. This week we are going on a tour of the grocery store.

Ben has me absolutely frustrated one minute and the next minute he is super sweet to me. The past couple of days he has kissed me and hugged me a lot and told me that he is, "so sorry" my neck hurts.

Ben's a good kid. Every day I feel overwhelmed and frustrated with how difficult being a parent is. I love a quote I heard the other day, "Kids. Sometimes they just act like children." They have a lot to learn and so do I.