An Illness in Six Parts

Part 1: Feel guilty for being so homebody-ish, take adorable child to Galleria play area. Watch him climb zebras and gently play with wall-mounted activity cards.

Part 2: Strike up conversation with mom whose child walked up and very cutely tickled your child's feet.

Part 3: Awkwardly try to get your child's sippy cup (which was empty and sticking out of your diaper bag) away from other mom's child, who is now sucking on it.

Part 4: Notice that other child has a runny nose.

Part 5: Respond reassuringly and nonchalantly when other mom assures you that her son is healthy. Wipe down sippy cup when she's not looking.

Part 6: Wake up three days later to a miserable, sneezing, congested child.

Ben at 23 months

(as posted in my other journal this morning)


Ben enjoyed his first trip to Boomerang's this morning, where we had plans to meet a friend. I guess we were celebrating 23 months, although I didn't realize it at the time!

A LONG list of what Ben is doing now:

• Ben still loves books, reading, and being read to, but he is really starting to enjoy "private" time with his books more than he used to. He carries his red Ikea chair into the kitchen with a pile of books and reads to himself for long stretches of time. He will mostly say "hop-eee, hop-eee" (I think he's just pretending to read the words) as he flips the pages, but will sometimes interject words of things he recognizes on the page, or will sometimes call out letters or numbers he knows. I have yet to get video of this, sadly, and it is so adorable!
• Ben knows all of his alphabet and numbers now (I have not tried to teach him past 10; maybe I should?), and all of his colors. He loves loves loves to play with his magnetic letters on the fridge and his big foam letters and numbers, and to try to draw letters and numbers on his easel chalkboard. I do not really sing him the alphabet song; I guess it didn't seem to be a big deal to me to know what order the letters go in right now. But he does love for me to sing it to him and tries to sing along, so I guess I need to try harder in this area! I also fell behind as a parent in the "animal noises" category. Ben has long known all the animals and what noises they make despite my embarrassment, though.
• He loves arts and crafts, pens, pencils, crayons, paints, chalk, etc. and is really good at handling all of these tools. I'm hoping he inherited his father's artistic abilities. He loves to draw at restaurants and people always comment at how neatly and carefully he handles a pen.
• He knows so many words now; it is such a joy to have "conversations" with him. It is so nice to be able to get a better glimpse of what he is thinking. Just today, he surprised me by saying "yucky" when he bumped his mouth on the kangaroo ride at Boomerang's. Usually he will say "ouch" when he hurts himself, and when I asked him why he said "yucky," he said "yucky mouth," so I'm guessing it's because he tasted the kangaroo when it bumped him.
• Some important first steps of potty training have taken place. I commented more fully on this very private topic on my other journal!
  
• Though he's now almost two, Ben still has the sweetest, most generous personality that I could not have hand-crafted myself out of the finest materials. Wherever we go, I am so proud of his kindness and good nature. Just today a girl half his size shoved him away from a toy he wanted and he just came over to me smiling, with a knowing look in his eyes, as if to say, "These bratty kids, huh?" That said, though, he has his moments of impatience, for sure. I'm sure I don't always handle everything the best possible way, but I'm learning. I know he's two and that this is probably just the beginning!

Other stuff that happened in December

Yep, we did lots of other stuff besides going on a cruise. Like:

Getting an easel (which we love) from Ben's friends, Connor and Owen:


Decorating the tree (we're tree minimalists):


Decorating cookies:


Visiting the NorthPark train exhibit (Ben found it fascinating, as you can see):



Going to Santa's Village:



Getting to see Linda and Gale at Great-Gram's:


Playing with Sam:



Just for reference, this is what it was like the last time we played with Sam:


Having Christmas brunch with Grandparents:



We had a lovely and busy December, and we hope you did, too! I think we're still in denial that 2009 has begun!

Not exactly in season, but ...

It may not look Christmassy, but our cruise with "Pa" (Grandma and Grandpa) was really fun and got us in the holiday spirit. Here are some highlights:

Fun with lifejackets:



Grandparents next door = 100% undivided loving attention:



Swimming in the "moat" at the kids' swimming pool:




The "tickle carrot" (a nose-tickling concept introduced by Grandpa):



What is this place?



Ben's obsession with letters and numbers continues:



Hamming it up for Pa:

Courtesy of my stomach virus: a recipe for homemade ginger ale

1 1/2 c. sliced fresh ginger
1 1/2 c. sugar
1/2 c. fresh lemon juice
1 1/2 (1-liter) bottles club soda or plain seltzer, chilled

Combine ginger (don’t bother to peel it), sugar, and 1 1/2 c. water in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil, stirring to dissolve sugar. Lower heat and simmer mixture about 15 minutes, or until it reaches the consistency of pancake syrup (you should have about 1 c. syrup). Strain syrup and cool to room temperature. Stir in lemon juice. Place 2 T. syrup in 8-oz. glasses and fill 3/4 full with club soda. Gently stir to blend. Add ice and more club soda or syrup if necessary.

We just returned from a cruise yesterday that we went on with Grandma and Grandpa, or as Ben calls them, "Pa." (Michael and I call them Pa: the Collective.) More soon on the trip when I'm feeling better. Christmas preparations are getting away from me!

Dum-ba, and other fun facts

So, I've been really bad about updating. It's not because nothing new has been happening. In fact, something really exciting is happening! Ben is really starting to recognize letters and numbers! For some reason, fellow parents hadn't warned me about how exciting this milestone would be.

It started with the letters I and J, and then moved on to the number 6, and it's just exploded from there. And then ... and then ... we moved to the magical letter Dum-ba. What is Dum-ba, you ask? That's just what we asked ourselves as we failed to notice that Ben was usually pointing to a letter when he said it. Finally, after weeks of frustration for Ben (we guess), I realized once that he was pointing at a "W" on my shirt at the same time that he said it. W! Dum-ba! For some reason, I just can't recover from how cute his pronunciation is!

I hope everyone had a lovely Thanksgiving. We had it at my house this year, and my parents, grandmother, mother-in-law, brother, sister-in-law, two nieces and nephew came. Who knew that Ben would laugh hysterically when his cousin taught him how to spike a football? Not me. I probably wouldn't even have known how to show him! He had a great time hanging out with everyone and feeling thankful, and so did we.

I'll leave you with a photo of my sister-in-law futilely trying to teach Ben how to blow bubbles (she said he usually just ended up putting the wand in his mouth):

Nicknames

I realized when I started calling Ben "Ponzu Sauce" this morning that yet another nickname for him had been created. There's really no way to trace the mysterious evolution of Ben's nicknames, but I have tried to keep a somewhat accurate record of them. Here are some he's had over the months:

Benyard (kind of pronounced like "Leonard")
Professor Chaos
Wombat
Smenjamin
Been Jammin'
Sweet Pea (what my parents called me)
Boo Bear Bear/Boo Boo Face/Boo Boo/Boo Boo Buddy (Michael would sometimes say, "I think I hear the call of the North American Boo Boo Bear" when he heard Ben fussing)
Cuckoo/Cuckoo Clock/Cuckoo Buddy/Cuckoo Head
PuPu Platter (like the Chinese appetizer)
Pistachio Pudding Cup
Susan Sauce (no idea on this one)
Cinnamon Applesauce
Pekinese/Pekinese from the Pokonos (he's only referred to this way when he wakes up crying in the middle of the night, which is rare)
Petunia Patch
Pumpkin Pie

I know there must be tons more, but I stopped keeping track at a year. Only a very special baby could inspire this many crazy nicknames!

P.S. Despite all the food-inspired nicknames, I've never actually considered nibbling on Ben (though he IS a very delicious baby).