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!