Life Lately

Life has been flying by lately. During the weekdays, we get into our routine. We all meet at home around 4:45, Bennett greets me at the door with a hug, and then we go for a walk with the girls (if the weather is nice). Bennett loves walks and being outside. He is truly his father's son. Walks were the way we were able to wean him off of the after work nursing. Even if he is hungry, we can usually push him off a bit by taking a walk. The only problem is he often gets tired of the stroller halfway through, and insists on walking or being carried. He is one headstrong toddler. Then we make dinner, eat, play a bit, get ready for bed and read some books. Bennett is usually in bed around 7:30 or 8. It's been great having him up a bit later, even if is usually a little tired and cranky after daycare. At least we get to spend some time with him.

Bennett has been going through a lot of transition lately. About a month ago we cut out one of his two bottles at daycare. The goal would be to get him to drink milk with meals and nothing in between. It seems to be okay... we're going to attempt to cut out his first bottle, which I think will be difficulty mostly because he'll be transitioning rooms next week. Monday he spent an hour in his new room and had a hard time, crying most of the time. Poor guy. He's also down to one nap now, which is necessary for this new room, but if he had his way, he'd still be sleeping twice a day. So only one nap, only one bottle (for now), a new room without the teachers he loves... this poor guy is going through a lot. We're just glad we love this daycare. Even though kids in the next room don't take bottles, they said they're not opposed to keeping him on his bottle for a little longer if it's easier on him. It's great that they're willing to work with us, to make the transition smoother. Plus, he is moving with two of his friends, so hopefully each day will become easier and easier.

Bennett's favorite things now are looking/being outside and reading 'first word' books (books with pictures of random items). He loves to look at the animals outside and point to thing when he wants to know what they are. If he hears an airplane he whips his head back to look for it and point at the sky.  Bennett starts and ends his day by whipping out a first word book and flipping through the pages. In one book, there are pages with a boy, a truck and a train. These are his favorite pages to flip to in the book, like over and over and there's really only so much to say about a boy, truck and train so it gets really old fast, but he loves it! He points to things and says 'da?'  Everything is 'da' so I'm not sure if he thinks things are actually called that or what. He knows what a ball is though, yet he still calls it 'da'. Maybe he's just trying to be difficult or he can't figure out how to say ball, but there is a lot of pointing and jabbering from him.

Bennett is definitely a curious kid. The other night, as we were reading books before bed, he saw his nail clipper on the stand next to his bed and started pointing for it. So I got it and asked if I could cut the nails on his left hand, since we had cut the nails on his right the night before. He let me cut one finger, then shoved the clipper towards my hand, so I cut the nail on one of my fingers, so that he could see what I was doing. Then he shoved the clipper away from my finger and stuck out his hand again so I cut the nail on his next finger. After, he shoved the clipper towards me, so I cut another one of my nails, doing it very slowly and deliberately as he leaned in to get a good look. Then he stuck his hand out towards me, fingers splayed, ready to get the rest of his nails cut. When I finished and put the clipper away, he insisted on having it back and would try to put the clipper on his nail to cut it. Then he shoved the clipper at me so that I could cut more of his nails. It is funny how curious and persistent he can be!

Admiring the Snow

Went to a wedding. 

From daycare: 

Bennett was having an epic meltdown for 20-30 mins. Just fell asleep.. And we need to leave home in 20 mins. Great timing! 

Awake

He finally woke up at 6:20, on a wonderful mood. I guess that's what a nearly 3 hour nap will do for you. 

Uh Oh...

It's 6pm and someone is still napping. NAPPING. It's been 2.5 hours and he actually napped for over 1.5 hours this morning too! Can't wait to see what time he goes to bed tonight... If ever...

Easter Bunny

Bennett visited the Easter Bunny today. He wasn't too sure about the creepy bunny. 

What the heck?

Umm, Daddy?

I don't like this...

He's super creepy!!

Why aren't you rescuing me??

Then we went grocery shopping and Bennett rode in one of these, which made everything better. 

Haircut

Bennett got a much needed haircut. 

Before:

After:

 

Bye bye combover. 

Lake Calhoun

Last night we had out first picnic at Lake Calhoun  for dinner. Bennett loved being there. 

Another sick day for Bennett but he's feeling much better so we went to the mall. He loved running around and managed to climb up to slide!

Bennett still has a fever but ate a little bit for dinner. He is still super clingy but played and read books for a bit. I've been singing "if you're happy and you know it clap your hands" a lot lately and today he clapped twice at the appropriate times! This was pretty exciting for me! Musical genius!

This lasted only 45 mins, then Isla barked and woke him up.

 

Sick Day

Bennett is sick again. He's had a low grade fever the past few days. Yesterday after daycare he was incredibly fussy so we took his temp and it was 102.4. He didn't want to eat so we tried to give him a bath. It went horribly and he kept screaming. We discovered he had a sore on his penis so we called the doctor and took him in.

He wasn't too thrilled about visiting the doctor. In the end we found out he has an ear infection and cold, and that the sore on his penis was partially due to his circumcision still healing (which is normal) and someone, probably at daycare, who was trying to clean him too well and pulled some skin away, exposing the raw skin (which we thought was a sore). During his exam he had a lot of earwax build up so the doctor needed to fish it out. Bennett wasn't too happy about it at first, since he had been poked and prodded a lot the whole appointment, but once the doctor started scratching in his ear, he completely relaxed. I remember having this done a lot and loving it, so it was quite amusing to see him enjoying it so much. His eyes would flutter shut and he laid completely relaxed. Definitely my kid!

So he's on antibiotics again and home from daycare today. Joel was gone with him all morning and I'm home with him the rest of the night since Joel has a late meeting. He slept 3 hours this morning and has been clingy all day. After Joel went to work we read a few books until Bennett got tired.

I'm tired too (since I was up with him from 3-4 this morning and got to work at 6:15) so we laid down in bed. He tossed and turned for a while.

Then found the most comfortable position ever... on me... And fell asleep. 

I had my back to him for 3 minutes as I was making dinner. Then I heard a bunch of giggling. When I turned around he had dumped out a bunch of water and was sloshing it with his hands. 

Banana

Can't just eat one piece at a time... 

Sunday

Started out naked. Bennett insisted on a walk. The stroller was in the house and he insisted he sit in it. Then when we'd try to take him out, he'd scream... So we went for a walk. Them we snuggled.