Norene, this one is for you ;)
I can't believe my last post was almost 3 months ago!! Where did the summer go?!
We packed a lot into the last half of the summer. Dave went on two weekend backpacking trips. We took the boys up to Edwards for a couple nights-- near Vail. Dave and I got to go to Crested Butte for his birthday while Auntie and Grandma kindly watched Luke and Ben. We went camping with the Quinlans at Steamboat Lake. And most recently, we went back to my parents' house for a week in CT. Dave and I were spoiled again with two nights away in Boston while Nannie and Papa watched the boys.
Both boys were amazing little travelers. They're at the point now where they can handle 4-5 hours straight in the car (not without a few meltdowns of course, but it's survivable). They both seem to thrive on new adventures and experiences. Initially they are shy with new people but warm up very quickly. Camping was a major hit. Ben still asks almost daily, "where is my tent?" (He thinks that the pop-up camper we rented was a tent. Someday he will be sorely disappointed when he has to sleep in an actual tent.) He is also asking constantly if he can go back to "Nannie Papa's house" on an airplane. As a matter of fact, yesterday's pre-nap meltdown resulted in full-on sobs and elephant tears. In between his hyperventilating, he was asking to go back to Nannie's house. "I don't like my house," he said emphatically. Nothing like making a mama feel good about all her efforts to provide a nice home for her family! (Don't worry... I didn't take it too personally.)
Summer is so great for kids. Luke and Ben have spent countless hours riding their bikes/cars in our cul-de-sac and swimming in the neighborhood pool. We still have SO MANY meltdowns everyday, but overall I'm starting to see things get a little bit easier. We're on our way to 3 and 4 years old which I think will be easier than 2 and 3. I'm looking forward to less temper tantrums but I don't want to rush these days either... they are precious. I'm no longer rocking Ben to sleep in the rocking chair for naps. I definitely miss that one! But we still get lots of snuggles with both boys in their beds.
Ever since we got home from CT, they're back to their old ways of getting up early which wouldn't be all bad except that they don't go to sleep earlier at night AND they're grumpier during the day (especially Ben) AND their mom feels like a zombie for the first couple hours of the day. I don't know how my sweet husband gets up most days between 5 and 5:30 and hits the ground running for 14 hours straight. I usually wake up when he gets up and then just as I'm falling back asleep around 6:00, the boys wake up. I then go in and out of the boys' room for about an hour trying to get them to go back to sleep even though I know my efforts will be futile. But I always think maybe, just maybe, I'll be able to go back to bed for a little bit. Eventually I give up and we make our way downstairs and have almost the exact same exchange every morning...
Me: Ben, let's get you a clean diaper. Dewey, please throw away your pull-up and put on your underwear.
Ben: Nooooo, I want to watch something. No change diaper.
Me: Ben, you know we don't watch anything on TV until we've had breakfast. Dewey, PLEASE put your underwear on.
Ben: (now melting down and yelling) I WANT FOOD!!! I WANT CEREAL!!! I WANT TO WATCH SOMETHING!!!
Meanwhile, Luke's sleepy self is stumbling around and ever so slowly getting his underwear on while sucking his fingers and twirling his hair (what he does when he's tired).
Seriously, every morning. It's kind of like groundhog day...
Finally with fresh diaper and clean underwear we head to the high chairs for breakfast followed by 30 minutes of TV so mom can read her Bible and ask the Lord for enough help for today. :)
It's a good life. A tiring one but oh-so-good. God has been reminding me lately that I'm living my dream. It's true. This was what I wanted to do my whole life. It was what I was meant to do. The daily grind doesn't feel glorious at all. So much poop and bad manners and loudness and asking for forgiveness and redundancy. But I'm SO VERY thankful that this is my life. Our life. These three boys (meaning the husband + little boys) mean the world to me. I am forever grateful.
Per usual, my phone has a large list of funny things they've said and done over the past few months...
Some of the things you hear most frequently:
Luke: "Let's fight!" Ben: "Chew on my fist!" (quoted from the movie Kung Fu Panda)
Luke: "I need hungry."
Ben answers "betuz" to all "why" questions. He doesn't actually answer the question. He thinks that "because" is a complete answer.
They call hand sanitizer "Hanitizer."
Ben is constantly calling out "Where are you?" but you would think he's from Boston because he leaves out all the "R's." It sounds more like "Weh-YAH-you?"
If you ask Luke how he's doing he says, "good good." (He got that one from his daddy.)
"I baaaad boy. HAHAHAHA!" Once again, another movie quote. I never should have let them watch Despicable Me 3.
"Don't leave me." They usually say this one with a very dramatic tone. The first time I heard this phrase from them was when Papa was leaving Colorado and we were dropping him off at the airport. Ben said, "Don't leave me papa." Just about broke poor Papa's heart.
One night the boys were roughhousing with daddy before bed (because you know, dads can't help themselves... they have to rile them up before sleeping). Dave was lying in Ben's bed playing dead. Ben had been pretending to "smush" dad. Ben got genuinely concerned at his dad's unresponsiveness and he looked at me with sad eyes and said, "He's over." Pretty good description from someone who doesn't yet understand the concept of death.
On Luke's Gotcha Day, I was trying to coax them out the door to go to Barnes & Noble to pick out some new books. I said, "Come on Ben, we are going to buy books." He thought I was asking him to say goodbye to his books so he walked back inside and waved to his books, "Bye books!"
Ben had a toy plane in his hands and asked me what it was. I said "silver plane." He repeated, "S'il vous plait?" (I've been trying to teach them some French...apparently they're listening!)
Ben spotted a microwave at Costco and said, "Open door, make food."
We were at the pool with our friends the Andersons who have a baby girl named Lydia. Ben saw Lydia Anderson and he said, "Jachin have a Lydia too." His cousin Jachin has a baby sister named Lydia... I just couldn't believe he could connect that so quickly.
One day on our way to Soccer Buddies, I asked the boys what some of the rules are for soccer. I was expecting them to say, "no hands." But instead Luke rattled off the following without hesitation: "Share friends. Don't hit people. Don't kick people." I laughed so hard... you can't make this stuff up! I didn't even know they knew what the word "rules" meant.
When you're getting Ben dressed and his head pops through the shirt, he says "There is me."
I totally hear myself in Ben's tone sometimes... things like "AWWWww" when he sees a baby or something cute. Or "So fun!" in a high pitched, enthusiastic voice.
One day at soccer, Luke was running down the field with the ball and Ben says, "Dewey, kick it in the goal." Luke yells, "Yes I know! I'm trying!!"
I asked Ben to snuggle. He hugged me for half a second and said, "All done." I asked "Why can't you snuggle with mommy??" He said "Betuz I need to play with my dump truck."
Luke his hilarious when he's trying to be the boss. He'll say "Ben, how do you ask?" or my favorite, "Say Yes Dewey"
One night they were supposed to be going to sleep but I heard them at the top of the stairs. They were sitting together and I asked why they were out of their beds. Ben says, "Dewey need food." Ben will think of ANYTHING to get out of going to sleep. He needs a bandaid or water or food or a different blankie or the music louder or the fan on or off, etc, etc...
When we were driving into NYC last week to La Guardia, Luke said "I smell Ben poop." HAhahaha! New York is definitely smelly!
Recently I gave them each a bowl of mandarin oranges and within 5 seconds Ben had dumped the entire bowl, sticky juice and all, on his head. I was so annoyed and was like, "Benaiah, WHY did you DO that?!?!" To which he matter of factly replied, "It's a hat." Dave and I started cracking up when we realized I had given him the oranges in one of those bowls shaped like a baseball hat from a Rockies game. He was looking at me like I was the crazy one! Duh, mom... hats belong on your head.
Dave was rushing out the door to go to work one morning and Ben said, "I need a tiss (kiss) and a high five." So cute!
Luke continues his 3-going-on-13 attitude. It's unreal. I think I've mentioned how he'll say "OK Mom. OOOKAAY MOM." Some other things he says frequently when I'm correcting him or giving him instruction: "Yes, I KNOW." "Come OOON." (which sounds more like Come-OM.) Or when he's really mad at me: "No love mommy. I love daddy." Little stinker.
Dave bought Ben a very advanced remote control excavator for Ben just like his Uncle Jonny. It is his pride and joy. He said this morning as he was playing with it, "This is so happy I have this. Daddy buy for me."
