2009 Trike-a-Thon to benefit St. Jude's Children's Hospital

Ben will be riding tomorrow in the 2009 Trike-a-Thon to benefit St. Jude's Children's Hospital. While that may sound adventurous, it involves riding a tricycle for as many laps as possible within 2 minutes during his gym class. Ben hasn't really gotten the hang of the tricycle yet - his teachers say it is not one of his favorite activities - so we're hoping he can complete at least one lap. His teacher said they would help out the kids who aren't proficient on Tricycle yet. ;)

If you would like to sponsor Ben, that would be great - please let me know if you would like to sponsor a dollar amount per lap or a flat donation. His school also has receipts for tax purposes so I can get these for you if you choose to sponsor.

PLEASE don't feel obligated to sponsor him. Really. Christmas is coming up and some people feel the recession strain a bit keenly. I sent an e-mail and then thought I should post this here. I forgot to include pictures with the e-mail...

I need to get the donations to his school by December 2nd. Any checks should be made payable to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.

Thanks for taking the time to read this and I hope all of you are well. We're busy and Ben continues to grow like a weed! He's 40.25" tall and his teachers say he excels in language and vocabulary. We're working on name and letter recognition, but he can name 8/10 colors. He's happy, healthy and funny. We're so blessed to have him in our lives!

Be well and I hope to see you all soon.

Again, With The Time Flying And All....

So! Where were we?

Time is that precious commodity I am not bathing in, So I try to get here when I can. Must try to do it more often. But enough about me! You don't want to hear about my time management skills (or lack therof). Here's what's going on with Ben...
Ben turned three (!) this past April. He measured just over 39" at the beginning of the month. He is a baby no longer - a little boy to be sure. Or rather, a big boy, since we successfully completed potty training last weekend. He's doing so well and we're very proud of him. In the morning when he wakes up we take him to the potty first thing. Lately he's been telling me, "Mommy, don't be happy. Shhhh." Apparently my exuberant cries of "Whoo-hoo! You did it! What a big boy you are!" might be a little much to handle first thing in the morning when he's still sleepy. So I've adjusted my praise to be a bit more somber.
He is very chatty. I read somewhere that a child's speaking has to do with the development of their tongue and lips - the more they use them the more proficient they become at speaking. It has nothing to do with intelligence or brain developement, it's all the the muscles used for speech. Which is why he's so good - he talks a lot! His conversations are so funny and he's really picking up on the art of negotiations: "Just a few more minutes, Mama, and that's all." "Two more jelly beans in a bowl, please, and that's all, Mommy." "Daddy, Opah's going to the store and he's going to buy me a big Luke Skywalker and a blue light saber. You will be Darth Vader and I will be Obi Wan and we'll fight. Okay, Daddy? Okay!"

He's a funny, bright and adorable little boy and our lives have been enriched by his presence. We're truly blessed.
Of course, he still has his tantrums every so often. His Dad and I always stick to our guns. I understand one of a child's "jobs" is to discover his limits - Ben tests frequently to see just what he can get away with. We've always got to be alert - you can't sneak anything by that boy!

His interests are wide ranging: "I love bunnies! They're so cute! I love them all the time." He loves Star Wars, Superman, Spiderman, Batman, dinosaurs. He really enjoys his action figures and usually finds new ways for them to do battle. He loves to run and play with balls; he loves seeing his friends and playing with them, too. He likes to draw in the driveway with chalk; he often asks me to draw Spiderman and stormtroopers.
He loves water and the pool; he's getting better having his hair washed - sometimes he'll even rinse his own head. "That wasn't so bad!," he'll laugh. When we tell him it's time to get out, we get "Just a few more minutes and that's all. Okay? Okay."

I've included a few pictures but I'll try to download some more tomorrow. For now, good afternoon, good evening and good night.

What Happened Here?

That's one of Ben's favorite questions. He usually asks this with his hands up in the air, hands palm up and parallel to the floor. It always makes us smile.

I took Ben to have some pictures taken on this past Saturday and I'm posting some here:
The place where the pictures were taken usually prints the pictures within a half an hour, but their printer jammed. We went home to have lunch with Ben's Pop-Pop and Uncle Dan, then played in the local park for a while. We picked the pictures up later in the day, then took a walk around the outdoor shops. There was an outdoor fountain, one of those where the water shoots out from the ground in arcs. Ben asked to go in the fountain, but I said no, since I didn't have a swim diaper or towel. I did, however have a clean change of clothes, so I said, sure - go ahead! Ben had such a great time, running and laughing as jets of water hit him in the face, arm, leg, bottom. I waited until his poor old regular diaper was so full Ben could barely walk. Holy cow! Those things are absorbant! Ben was quite unhappy that his fountain outing had come to an end, but I got him dried off and into dry clothes.

Later in the evening we were able to see the fireworks at the town park with some friends. What a beautiful display! The boys were delighted with the booms and accompanying showers of sparks. It was such a fun day, and I'm grateful I was able to share it with such a lovely, wonderful little boy: my son.

Tastes Like...

Ben is now TWO! Yes, two years old. By the time this post goes up, he will be two years, two months.

He is so much fun, with a great sense of humor and a wee powerhouse of energy. We went to the local zoo last weekend with some friends, and Ben RAN from one exhibit to another. He loves to run, and he runs fast!We all enjoyed his birthday. He had a party with all his friends for tumble time session and everyone had fun. We also had amazing chicken parmesan and cake :) The day of his birthday, I took Ben to the gym for a make-up class, and unfortunately opened the door right over his foot. Oh, that was so sad. I ripped his toenail, but he's since healed; his toenail fallen off and a new one is growing back. He's a resilient little tyke. So we're extra careful now when we open doors.

His language is progressing very nicely, and he's still working on his shapes and colors. We were out somewhere last week and upon seeing Ben sucking his thumb, someone asked him, "What does your thumb taste like?" He looked at the person, smiled a little and replied: "It tastes like chicken." That cracked me up! Where does he come up with this? What a hoot.

He's nearly three feet tall now, and weighs about 30 pounds. I've got to add some more pictures soon, hopefully next week. We are having an insane week at work now, with EVERYTHING due by Friday. I think Friday night I'll be having an orange pomegranate martini.

Happy Birthday to Ben's Dad, who turns the ripe young age of 37. Whoo hoo! We'll celebrate this weekend, once the deadlines are met. Ta for now!

Well, Gee! Time sure does fly!

Let's recap: Ben had lots of fun at Christmas, unwrapping his presents and saying "Wow!" to each one. He received many of books - which is good because he loves being read to, and toys generally take up a lot room. Our tree is still up - I love leaving it up throughout most of the dark winter months because it's cheery and beautiful. We just have to keep reminding Ben to stop touching the ornaments. Total number of ornaments broken so far: three.







Ben used the potty very successfully once, on January 4th. And not since. His modus operandi is to run and hide, usually in the dining room, then squat while... eliminating. When I see him doing this I say "Hey! Let's go to the potty!" Making it sound like a brilliant and fun idea, but he wants none of it: "No, stay here." I tell him to let me know when he's ready. One day, I guess. It's not like he'll still be wearing diapers in college.

He graduated from his gym class, so now he's in a class with older kids and he loves running, walking on the balance beam, playing with balls and bubbles.

Ben's vocabulary continues to expand and he's building more sentences. While watching Toy Story, he announced "No like Toy Story. Put Tarzan on." I was listening to The Secret in the car yesterday when Ben said "No sink (think) Opah late." The child is brilliant...but of course I'm his mom, I'd think that if he were crushing juice boxes on his head. Ben gives orders a lot: Sit down, sit back, stay, get down, carry!, get out, stay here.. and he combines a lot of those as well.

I brought him to the pool at the Y today and he wasn't terribly thrilled about getting in the water. He looked concerned and said "Get out!" I put him on the side so he could keep his feet in the water. When he realized he could kick and splash... well, let's just say he was delighted. I stayed next to him while he had a blast kicking, splashing and giggling. He looked more interested in getting in the water towards the end, but I thought it might be better to introduce him to the pool a little at the time. If his curiosity is aroused, he'll want to come back and splash again. One day, he might even want to get in the water!

We had to get a tent for his crib as he's already successfully escaped unscathed. We didn't want him trying to climb out in the middle of the night and accidentally hurt himself. It took him a little while to get used to it, but now he's fine.

[The above post was started on the 17th; I completed the rest on 2/27/08]

Ben's new passion is Play Doh. "Pay pay doh!!!" He likes it rolled into balls, flattened out and put on the table so he can make marks on it. Last night I made mini muffins out of play dough and he'd pick them up squash them and hand it to me while jumping up and down: "Make muffin! Make muffin!" I'm really glad he enjoys it, becuase his idea of coloring at this stage is hitting the paper with the crayon, and then throwing crayons around.

Here are some pictures of Ben eating breakfast on Thursday, February 21st. I asked him to smile and this is what he delivered:When I asked what he does when he gets excited, this is what we were treated to:
It cracks us up, every time. More to come, soon, with pictures of our first real snowfall. Ben had a blast! I promise to update soon. I can't believe Ben's going to be 23 months...

Fall Into Christmas

On Sunday, Ben will be 20 months old - hard to believe he's gotten so big, unless of course you look at him (especially with his new haircut), he looks like a little boy. Which he is, naturally - no stretch there.He loves playing with footballs, basketballs, soccer balls - he's not really choosy, although he's been known to fall asleep with a football. It figures - Ron and I are not big sports fans, at all.

He loves his visits to the L1ttle Gym, where he's made lots of friends whom he'll approach to hug, or kiss the younger babies. His Nonna is sending him to the L1ttle Gym for the next semester too, and he'll be thrilled! He really has a great time. We went to their Halloween party which was packed, and he ran around, dancing, spinning, rolling and pausing to kiss wee babies on their head while parents laughed over the cuteness. That's our boy! Here's a picture from Halloween night while trick or treating in our neighborhood:He calls Spiderman "du-bah-da." He can break it down if we help him: "Spy"="pie", "Der"="duh", "Man" = "mahn". Great! Now put it all together! "Du-bah-da!" There you go. This picture is actually from August, but I love his smile! This was right after I left him try my soy milk, banana and chocolate milkshake:His vocabulary keeps increasing. Grandma Cyna came for a visit in early November and we went to the Philadelphia Zoo. We met up with Ben's friend Nolan at the bear exhibit. He saw (and said) puma, llama, tiger and saw bears, lions, jaguars, elephants... you get the picture - it's a zoo! Then we visited his Pop-Pop and Uncle Dan and their dogs - he loves doggies but we have to remind him to be gentle. Here are some pictures from that weekend:

His two-year-old molars are coming in and it's not pleasing him at all. We can tell by the drolling, the irritiablity and the attempted craming of his entire hand into his mouth. When I've been able to peek in, I see that there is nothing notable on the horizon, so I guess this will go on for a little while. In the meantime, the frozen blueberries and cherries seem to help.

We went to his Nonna's for Thanksgiving where Ron and I cooked dinner (well, Ron did most of the work. I helped and kept Ben occupied for the most part). Ben had a blast visiting with Ilsa (ooooh! another doggie!) Aunt Vi and Uncle Frank, and of course his Nonna, who gave him an adorable little red car for Christmas. Oh, how he loves to be pushed around in it! We've got video; one of these days I'll figure out how to post it so you all can enjoy it, too. And the tantrum he threw when we had to stop for bedtime. (He usually keeps these pretty brief, so it's no big deal).
The next day we went to Fortun0ff's and enjoyed their Christmas displays. Holy Toledo! (as his Opa is teaching him to say), it was quite Christmassy. Lots of neat displays, but I think Ben liked the fake snow and the toy train set the best.Ben has discovered television, much to his Opa's delight, so occasionally he'll watch the W0nder Pets and Sesame Street. He also loves the "Llama Movie (moo-ee)" (Emp0rer's New Grove) and "Fish Movie" (Finding Nem0). But his love of books just keeps growing. His new favorites are Go, Dog. Go!, Bear at Home, Bear Around Town, Are You my Mother?, The Very Hungry Catapillar and My Dad!So that's it for now. We've got to take some pictures for Christmas cards, but I took a few of him in his salior suit our friend Kim made for him. Her boys felt very strongly that Baby Ben should have his own sailor suit...

Fall All Around

We are in full Fall mode here in Pennsylvania... Just last weekend it was in the 80's; add a bit of rain and see the temperatures drop into the 50's and 60's! Being fair skinned and all, I was really kinda tired of the heat. Ben doesn't really mind, as long as he gets to run around outside.

So! I know it's been quite a while since my last post - hey, we're busy and it's hard to find the time. I'm sure you will all understand. Ben saw his pediatrician, Dr. B, last week and all went well. He's 33" tall, 24.5 pounds: above average for height and below average for weight (that's my lean boy). He's gotten 16 teeth, had two immunizations and cried most of the time during the appointment. Everything else looks just great.

Dr. B asked how many words he's saying, and I know it's terrible, but we haven't kept track. He hasn't begun phrases or sentences yet, but he can say a number of words. I'll try to include them all here, by category...

Body parts: Eye, nose, teeth, ear, chin, neck, toes, ankle, knee, hand, elbow. Knows but doesn't say: belly button, belly, chest, leg, foot, forehead, nail, fingers, foot.
Food: Apple, peach, milk, water (wat), waffle (waff), cheese, toast, cookie (cook), cracker (cack), juice, cake, pea, garlic, beans, eggs. Knows but doesn't say: cherries, blueberries, rice, chicken, banana, plums, pastina.

Animal sounds: Oooh -Oooh (owl), Moo Moo (cow), Arp arp (seal), Meow (cat), wrinkles his nose and sniffs for dogs, Oooow Oooww for coyotes and wolves.
Other: Car, truck (tuck), bike (dik), helmet (hemma), tire (tiwre), moon, star (tar), animal (anmal), owl, bee, turtle, cat (meow), bear, carry (cawwy), bath, bubbles, balloon, baboon, ball, hug, hi, bye, g'bye, Mama, Dada, Opa (pa), Oma (uh ma), pop, baby, pool, bowl, hat, hot, knock (while knocking), no, yes, yeah, dirt, book, box (bocks), clock (cock), ghost & goat (which both kinda sound the same), pumpkin (punk), bottle, pick, up, park (pak), pee, poo, pooh, poop. That's all I can think of for the moment. I'll add more as he says them or as I remember.

One of the latest things is when I'm scolding him, he'll smile, wave at me and say "Hi!" He'll often cry and scream over minor things, like going inside and saying goodbye to the tomato garden when he wants to stay and see them. He's got his own special noise just for tomatoes - a deep guttural "Ooooooooh!" It's a riot! He just started pretneding to give Spiderman milk, while making sucking noises (too funny)! He LOVES bicycles, motorcycles, anything with two or three wheels. He chases after the big boys in the park on their bikes, and desperately wants to touch them. He loves footballs, soccer balls, basketballs... will give them hugs. Really loves playing with balls. Oooh, that sounds a bit funny. But I'm sure you know what I mean. He loves going outside, loves going to the farm to see the animals and pumpkins, loves roughhousing with his dad. He loves going to the Little Gym and playgroup with his friends.
He's so much fun to be around and spend time with. He's a funny little person and we love him intensely. I never imagined that his laughter would become the most cherished sound I could ever hear, or the sight of Ben laughing would raise my spirits to new heights. Happy 18 Months, Benjamin.
love, Mama and Daddy