Four Months!

Hard to believe Alexis is already four months old. She's doing great and still smiling at everyone. She certainly knows how to charm people! Alexis still is getting the hang of sleeping through the night. She'll do great a couple of nights and then another night she'll want to eat almost every hour. We don't think she has her nights mixed up, but more or less just busy growing therefore she needs more food!

Recently we just started her on some watered down rice cereal. She doesn't seem to care one way or another about it. I guess I will have to see when we start her on real solids like apples or pears to get a good reaction of her.

At Alexis' four month visit, she was 25" long (the 75th percentile), 13.9lbs (50th percentile) and her head circumference is 42 (75% percentile). She is certainly growing like a little weed!

Short Stories

Ben is quite the character in our house. He is an energetic little boy but certainly one of the sweetest little guys I've ever known. He is also doing fantastic with his sister. I have never seen a child take to another sibling like does. He loves Alexis and Alexis certainly smiles and giggles quite often when she sees her brother in her sights. This post is sporadic at best, but this blog is all about Ben, so I wanted to include a few short stories about my little guy.

• I love musicals and recently introduced Ben to the movie Annie. I was thrilled he liked it too! I was even more touched when I heard Ben go into the kitchen while his Dad was cooking and serenade his Dad by singing, "Tomorrow, tomorrow, I love ya, tomorrow...". I was shocked but extremely touched as was his Dad.

• On July 3rd Alexis had her naming at church. While Father John asked both James and I to make the sign of the cross on Alexis, Ben got into the action and also blessed his sister. We were all delighted to see that interaction between them. What a great brother!

• Ben came downstairs the other day without his underwear on. He looked at his naked butt and asked, "where did my underwear go?" I asked him if he was having a rough day and quite perplexed he said, "yeah my underwear went somewhere". Poor guy!

• Ben's usual routine during the work week is coming into his parents room and snuggling in our bed while watching cartoons as his Dad gets ready. James asked him what he wanted and he told him, "the boy with three girls". James had NO clue what this meant and asked him if remembered the show or if he remembered a part of the story so he could perhaps figure out what Ben was asking for. Ben then said, "Grandma with her boobies on fire". James got it, Mrs. Doubtfire.
  

• The day after he watched Mrs. Doubtfire, he asked my Mom (since he figured out she was a Grandma and this could only apparently happen to Grandma's) if her boobs could spontaneously bust into flames. My Mom had no clue what he was asking (although quite amused) until I elaborated on that one. Oh my!
  

• Ben was looking at his arms one day and asked me, "Mommy why am I not brown?" I was honestly not expecting that question! My son wanted to be black. I can see it as one of his best friends is black and his teacher who he adores is also black. I told him that God made us all unique in our own awesome way and thats why he is not brown. He still wanted to be brown. Sorry kid.
  

• Ben asked another question the other day on how he was made. I didn't think I'd get that question already either. I gave him the four year old appropriate response of, "You were made with Mommy and Daddy's love with God's grace." He thankfully accepted that.

Ben is FOUR

I can't believe four years have gone by since my little boy arrived after a long two hour push in the delivery room, eyes wide open and full of wonder and placed into my arms. He is beyond what I ever expected. I never felt so much love, had so much fun, been so exhausted and loved every minute of it at the same time.

Ben had a spectacular birthday week. He celebrated at school on Wednesday with his classmates by Mommy bringing in cupcakes for his afternoon snack. He LOVED all the kids singing to him and couldn't wait to eat his cupcake and started before all the other kids. They all told on him of course, but the teacher said it was his birthday cupcakes and he could do that if he pleased.

On Friday (if his official birthday), his Mom took off work. Nagymama also had the day off and offered to hang with us while we went to breakfast and then to an outing of Ben's choosing. He had a choice between the Bounce House OR Great Country Farm. It was a tough choice, but thankfully Ben choose the indoor fun at the Bounce House because man was it hot! He had a terrific time playing while his Nagymama and I followed him around. Once the open gym time was complete, we headed to a McDonald lunch, which we ate back at home. Nagymama then headed to her appointment while we all went down for a nice long nap. It was perfect timing too as a huge thunderstorm rolled in and lasted almost the entire duration of the nap.



Not too long after Ben and everyone woke up, James came home. Ben was so excited to see his Dad and we all decided to have fun at Chuck-e-Cheese. Before we left we sang Happy Birthday to Ben and gave him his gift which was a MobiGo and a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse game to go with it. He was ecstatic (as you can see from the photo above). Once we got to Chuck-e-Cheese, Ben dived right into playing with different games, riding on the rides and playing in the play tubes like they have at McDonalds play areas. Gaga also met up with us as she wanted Ben to receive his gifts on his birthday. During one point, while Ben was in the play tubes, Gaga, James and I were sitting in a booth with Alexis when we heard Ben knock on the see through tube above our heads. He had no pants on. Hmmm. We asked where his pants were, he smiled and then adorned his birthday suit in front of everyone. We all yelled at him to put his pants back on, turned our heads and just about died laughing. We were all shocked. It wasn't completely surprising Ben did that, but also something he hasn't done before. The kid has no shame.

The next day was Ben's birthday party. We headed out to Bull Run Park to Shelter 7 shortly after nine as he had a 10:30 birthday party and we needed time to set up. We planned on a little play time at the shelter, open presents, birthday cake and a small lunch as we were going swimming shortly after. I thought about having more food, but its horrible eating too much and swimming afterward. Ben had a fantastic time with his cousin, Julie, Ashleigh, Cameron and Noah. Ben absolutely loved his Mickey Mouse birthday cake made by his Nagypapa and had the cutest smirk when he was being sung Happy Birthday too. He was trying so hard not so smile for some reason. What a tough guy!
After we all had our fill of food, cake and presents we headed to the water park for some fun. Man did Ben have a blast! We spent hours at the pool going from the big kid pool area to the little kid pool area. We left after three hours of non stop play at the pool to change and then pick up Alexis who left with her Nagypapa and Nagymama when we all headed to the pool. Once we arrived at my parents, Ben then got his birthday present from Nagypapa and Nagymama which was a power wheel ATV. He was shocked and surprised! He absolutely loved it! I kind of knew he would. His cousin and Aunt came over shortly after for dinner with the family. The kids had a fun time until it was time to go home. I was very happy that Ben despite playing for hours on end, non stop with no nap, did not have a melt down. We ended the night tired, a little sun burnt and quite happy.

Happy Birthday little man! I am so happy that you have came into our lives my little fire cracker boy!