Awwwhhh

They are so cute when they are asleep...

I wrote this a couple of weeks ago, but I am just getting around to posting it-

Ben

 

Last week Ben was student of the week in his class.  I made a poster

full of pictures of my handsome guy which was displayed in his class

all week.  On Friday he was suppose to have "somebody special" come

into class and talk about him and do something with the class (read a

book, play a game, whatever).  Originally I planned just to go in, but

he wanted me to bring Jack and Luke too.  And then he decided he

really wanted Chad to come as well. We told Ben that Chad needed to go

to work, but Chad surprised him that morning and came with us.  We

told the class a little about Ben and then we took the kids outside

and showed them the Diet Coke Mentos geyser.  It was so fun to hear

all the squeals of the little first graders, they loved it!

Another big thing that happened for Ben last week was he lost his

first front upper tooth. My aunt works at the school and sent me a

picture.  Ben was so excited to tell me the story about how and when

it happened.  They had just had a guest speaker in class, a dentist.

A few minutes after the dentist left, Ben pulled out his tooth.

Saturday Ben, Jack and Chad had a guys day out with my dad, my brother

in law, my nephew, and my cousin Zack.  They went to the Monster Truck

Jam and really enjoyed it.

Jack

 When the school year first started and Ben was gone a big chunk of the

day, Jack drove me crazy!  Now though, some days are better. 

He is mostly patient with me and all the

things I need to do to take care of Luke and the house.  He loves to

draw elaborate pictures and tell me stories about them.  He loves

books and will sometimes contently sit and look at them for quite

sometime.   He plays with Legos.  He follows me around the house and

tells me stories.

 Recently he has been very interested in helping me cook.  And for

the most part I am successfully being a lot more patient with him when

he does help me.  It usually involves a bigger mess than when I do it

myself.  One day we were making bread and when he accidentally turned

on the mixer a little too high, flour went everywhere.  He immediately

apologized because I have gotten frustrated with him before.  I told

him it was okay.  Then he pointed out that we had made pixie dust.  So

cute!

Jack loves music.  He often asks me to turn it on, and he appreciates

all kinds of music.  When we are cleaning the house we listen to disco

music.  The other day we were doing the dishes and listening to

Stayin' Alive radio on Pandora.  After we did the dishes we sat down

and ate lunch.  The music was still going and I started tapping my

shoulder to the beat and doing a little dance in my chair.  I looked

over and Jack was doing the same thing.

Jack is a witty little boy.  He remembers lines from books we read and

applies them at random, appropriate, and funny times.  He is a hoot!

Luke

This little guy is just sooooooo wonderful.  We are all completely

enamored by him.  He got his first haircut this week and looks so dang

cute.  He has become a very intense mama's boy lately.  Often even

Chad won't do.  I don't mind so much, I love how much I comfort him.

It's a tiny bit frustrating though because carrying him around so much

is giving me a very sore back.  But I love how he thinks I am pretty

much the most wonderful thing in the world.

Saturday night my sister's kids were at our house and my cousins, Jake

and Zack showed up and hung out with us too.  We had a fire a roasted

marshmallows.  It was such a fun night.  Early Sunday morning Luke and

I were sleeping on the living room couch.  While I was sound asleep,

Luke woke up and crawled off the couch.  I woke up to my niece, Madi,

asking me what Luke was eating.  Huh?  I opened my eyes and saw a

little boy with black all over his hands, face, and mouth.  And black

charcoal all over the rug.  Yep, Luke had gotten into the ashes.  What

a mess, but oh well.

Growing

This little guy is just growing too fast.

So are these boys-

(They are growing like weeds.)

Love

Last week Ben came home with a school library book about ghosts. (We had to stop watching Scooby Doo a year ago because it was making Ben have a hard time falling asleep.) I didn't think the book was a good idea, but I didn't stop him from looking at it quick enough. Needless to say, he has been a bit scared the past week.

He doesn't like to be alone at all. He has convinced Jack to join him in the bathroom for any and all business he takes care of in there, because I won't let him take care of business with the door open. Jack is a nice brother. Silly boys.

Adjusting

Jack has been complaining a lot lately that he has no friends. When we have friends over to play he complains that they only played with Ben. When we were in Texas I asked Jack who he wanted to have a playdate with when we got home. He answered, "I want a playdate with Ben." After spending a week and a half with my sister's kids I guess he didn't feel like he got enough alone time with Ben.

This morning I was telling Jack that we were going to the Park and meeting some of his friends, Addie and Daniel. He told me that they aren't his friends, they are Ben's friends. I asked Jack, "Who are your friends." And he answered, "You!"

Awwhhhhhh, sweet.

Ben had his first day of first grade yesterday. It's a big change in his life, and it's amazing the ripple effect it has on the family. Jack feels lost without Ben. His playmate is now gone most of the day. I feel lost without Ben because Jack wishes that I would play with him all day and I just don't want to. Let alone I have work to do. I try to involve him in helping me, but he doesn't last long. I need to play with Jack more and plan more playdates for him.

I remember not long after Ben was born I thought to myself, "I can't want until he goes to school." I felt that way because I was overwhelmed with what a change becoming a mother was. It was so hard to go from working away from home to being home all. the. time. Now I can't believe that Ben is in school most of the day. Well, a big chunk of the day. And it's going to take a while to adjust to him not being with me most of the time.

Changes

In eight short days my sweet Ben will be starting 1st grade. Just thinking about it makes me want to cry. When he started Kindergarten it wasn't nearly this hard for me. The time went buy fast when he was at school, but he was only there for two and a half hours. Now he will be gone six and a half hours. :(

Ben is an amazing little boy with a big heart. He is becoming more and more mature lately. A couple of weeks ago I was telling Ben that one of his friend's dad has cancer, and I was explaining to Ben what that meant and how hard it would be for her and her family. Ben listened intently to me and then said, "you know that thing you do where you don't eat for the whole day and you pray for people that need help? We should do that for him". Ben also thought of ideas of things he could do for his friend. What a sweetheart!

Having Ben in school will not only be a big change because he will be in school all day, but it will be a change because this is the first time I will have to consistently get up and get him going Monday thru Friday. It has seemed this summer that both Ben and I have been waking up earlier consistently, but we have definateky still had some lazy, sleep in late days.

Jack will also have a rough time with Ben in school all day. Last week Ben and Jack were away from each other for three days and they missed each other a lot. Ben was with Chad and Jack was with me. I often feel like Ben isn't being very patient with Jack, but being alone with Jack made me very aware that Ben is very patient with Jack. Jack is in a phase right now where he is defiant, incessant, and whiney more often than I have developed patience for. It will be good for Jack to have one on one time with me, but it will be an adjustment keeping Jack busy so he doesn't drive me crazy. I really need to plan playdates to allow Jack opportunities to develop friendships.

I am crossing my fingers that we will all adjust to the big change in our life. Often for me the anticipation is more intense than the actual experience. Hopefully we will quickly develop a routine and we won't have too many bad days.

Ben's birthday cake

A friend of mine, Diana, made this awesome birthday cake for Ben. She started making cakes just a little while ago as a hobby. I think she should open a business. This cake was probably pretty simple for her to do. She told me she makes cakes, but when she showed me pictures I was speechless.

Thanks to Diana for saving the day as I couldn't have even attempted to do something like this right now. Why Sonic the Hedgehog? Once a week Ben gets to play video games with Chad, his favorite game is Sonic.

Birthday

Today is my sweet Ben's birthday. Six years old. He woke me up early this morning because he was so excited. We had plans for his birthday, but had to change them because of Luke's unexpected early arrival. Ben has handled the change in plans well. Thank goodness my sister and niece took him out to lunch.

This morning I woke up as Chad was getting ready to leave for work. Of course I started crying like a baby. Ben asked me why I was sad and when I explained he started crying too. He is like his daddy, a tough guy with a very soft side. I've cried a couple of times now this morning and every time Ben gives me a hug and says, "I know you miss daddy. I do too."

I was able to go to Ben's school and tell all the kids about him. I put together a poster of pictures of him doing all the things he loves to do. I was a little bit worried about going to the school because I am a very emotional mom of a newborn. I thought I might start crying when I talked about Ben, but I kept my composure and didn't start bawling in front of his class. I am sure he appreciates that.

Last week when Ben came to meet Luke at the hospital he sweetly kissed his new brother and then came and sat by me on the bed. He put his arm around me and played with my hair. The day we brought Luke home from the hospital Ben came and sat by me in the La-z-boy and started playing with my hair again. His fingers got caught in a snarl so he asked me if he could brush my hair. He ran to the bathroom, got a brush and very gentle brushed my hair.

Ben is a busy, crazy, rambunctious normal six year old. He loves super heros, sports, riding his bike, driving his brother crazy, video games, board games, wrestling with his daddy, camping, playing in water, and I could go on and on. He has a lot of energy, but he has moments of being very calm, very helpful, and very sweet. I especially love those moments, but I love everything about him.

Miracle

In November 2006 Ben slept through the night four or five nights in a row and since then he hasn't slept through the night once. (At least not at our house, he has slept over at my sister's house a couple of times and a has probably slept through the night there twice.)

Ben has always been a horrible sleeper. We've dealt with night terrors and sleep walking. He often takes an hour to fall asleep and then he is a restless sleeper. I have my own troubles and issues with sleeping, so I am probably too sympathetic towards Ben. But he really does struggle despite our efforts to help him. He truly has sleeping issues that we didn't create. He ends up in our bed every single night, despite everything we have tried, short of locking him out of our room or in his. (I just couldn't bring myself to do that.)

Why am I writing about all of this now? Because the first night we have a brand new baby in our house-

BEN SLEPT COMPLETELY THROUGH THE NIGHT.

He didn't come into our room until 8am. I am still in shock. And it may not happen again, but it happened. It was a miracle!

From little sickies

I hesitate writing this because I might jinx myself, but we have been super lucky when it comes to sicknesses this year. I thought with Ben in school it would just introduce us to a myriad of new germs, but this year has been has a pleasant surprise. It's not like we haven't been sick, it's that we haven't been sick as much as in years past.

This past weekend Ben was sick, it only lasted two days and Jack was sick yesterday, but seems a lot better today. They both ran high fevers and we are lucky this time around that Jack didn't have a febrile seizure. We just don't like those.

Ben and Jack are very different when they are sick. Ben loves to be held and he loves me to lay with him so he can play with my hair. Ben is an extra horrible sleeper when he is sick. The days he was sick I felt like I was sick because I spent so much time laying around with him. Jack doesn't care so much to be held and often he won't let me hold him. And when he is sick, he sleeps pretty good. Sometimes better than he normally does.

Brothers

In just a few months Jack and Ben will have a new sibling. While this is a wonderful thing, it's a change and change isn't always easy. Lately I have been especially mindful of the relationship that Jack and Ben have. I remember before I had Jack I was worried about how having a sibling was going to change Ben's world. So of course I wonder how a new sibling will change their relationship. It probably won't change it much and I think Jack and Ben are going to be awesome older brothers.

I love watching the relationship between Ben and Jack. I am so happy they have each other. Ben is an amazing older brother. He is so gentle and sweet and kind to Jack. Sometimes he is mean and rough. But the mean isn't often and the rough is mostly just when the brotherly wrestling gets out of control.

Jack just adores Ben. Yes they fight, but more and more lately they play, and play, and play happily together.

Today when we came home from church Ben helped Jack change out of his sunday clothes and into play clothes. And the past couple of days Ben has started to wipe Jack's bum for him after Jack takes care of business. (We didn't ask Ben to do it, in fact I feel kind of bad that he does it.)

If that isn't love, then I don't know what is.