The Things He Says #87

As we are saying night prayers:

Me: Hail Mary, full of _______ (pause to give Benji the opportunity to continue)
Benji: Butter
Me: ................................

Motherhood super powers (or maybe the Holy Spirit) came upon me and I kept a straight face and told him to get it together.

Making the Best of It

Norm's schedule requires him to work on the weekends but at least he's off (pretty much) every Tuesday and Wednesday. Tuesdays are always hectic because I leave super early to go to Atlanta and come home right at bath time (if we are lucky, I'm home by dinner).

So we have to cram our family time in whatever tiny windows the week gives us. A consistent tiny window is Wednesday afternoons when we usually get to pick up the kids together from school and do something fun afterwards.

Yesterday we walked in Benji's classroom right as he was doing a craft! As soon as he saw both of us walk in you could see in his little face all the feelings... he wanted to jump up and come home but he also wanted to keep working on his craft. So his teacher invited Norm and I to help him. And so we did!

He was making a tiger - because the theme of the week is Jungle - so he already had the glue down on his paper plate and was working on tearing the orange paper and gluing it. So we helped him tear the paper and put the small pieces of paper on the paper plate to create the tiger! 

Another Break

The last break was 6 months, this one was 5 months. Life is busy. There has been so much happening since April 20, 2018. There have been so many moments that I've thought "Oh! I need to blog about this!" and (obviously) that didn't happen.

Could it be that Nico learned how to walk and run and hasn't stopped since?
Could it be that Norm started a new job as Executive Sous Chef (which means working nights) in May and I've been doing bedtime on my own since?
Could it be that Summer was ridiculously busy at work planning a weekly garden-wide event, 8 concerts and 500 weddings remotely?
Could it be that Nicolas was home until about mid-July before starting full time daycare?
Could it be that after bedtime is over (8:30pm) I still have to go downstairs, clean up the kitchen then come back upstairs to wrap up work and/or look at the bills/finish laundry/iron chef coats [insert house chore]?
Could it be that we went to N. Myrtle to visit family and introduce Shagging to the boys?
Could it be that our best friends came to SC from Denver and I braved to take the boys on my own overnight and Benji caught a fish and we went on a pontoon boat?
Could it be that we went to Tybee Island and had a fantastic weekend that ended up with Michelle being hit by a car (whose driver was going too fast and was distracted) as she was trying to cross the street and had to undergo emergency leg surgery? (broken leg)
Could it be that we have ended up in the walk-in clinic every time we've gone to the beach because Nico ended up with a 102 fever? (tonsillitis)
Could it be that Cali girl fell while she was boarded (while we were at the beach) and broke her leg which was a glimpse to us learning that she actually had bone cancer and shortly we had to let her go run with Pellet?
Could it be that Juan Ma was home from NYC for a few weeks and to this day Nico still calls for him just about every morning?
Could it be Hurricane Florence and Norm's parents evacuating the SC coast?
Could it be the Whole30 we started today?
OR
Could it be that our home computer is old and slow and when I finally get 10 minutes at the end of the day, the last thing I want to do is sit in front of a thinking cursor while I open the browser and try to upload pictures to the blog? (Because of Mel Robbins and the 5 Second Rule, I have no choice but to blog on the work computer.... shhh)

Who knows.

We need a new computer.

Or maybe, just maybe, life is happening so fast and just about every instant is immediately trampled by somebody getting knocked on the side of the head and therefore requires running to get "the cold" from the fridge.

I have to slow down and capture it. I think I succeeded this past Saturday:

Type A

The other day I came home from the stores and Benjamin helped me unpack the bags/boxes. I placed several items on the kitchen counter and asked him to take all the things he saw in that one particular area to the bottom of the steps (so we could later take them upstairs to store...)

Once he was done, he proudly announced it. So I went to the bottom of the steps and saw this:

I just couldn't believe how he had grouped the various items.. lined the wipes one next to the other... stacked the soap boxes...

I'm going to go ahead and put this one in the Type A box... 100% after his mother.

Drinking Cow Milk

This morning we didn't have enough formula for a bottle... so Nico immediately became weaned off the formula and bottles and started drinking cow milk. So far, so good!

And a little video:

The Things He Says #74

A couple of weeks ago, we were headed to the Five Guys Burgers and Fries to eat burgers. As we passed McDonald's, Benji tells us to pull in there, because that's the burger restaurant.

So the conversation began:
F: No, we are not going to that restaurant. We are going to THE burger restaurant, next to the pizza restaurant.
B: Next to the smokehouse restaurant?
F: .............................. what?
B: the smokehouse restaurant!

Remembering that they did open a Shane's Rib Shack next to the Five Guys, I look at Norm and ask him if he's taken Benji to Shane's. He says no, and quickly reminds me that he doesn't even like Shane's.

We were confused... so how did Benji even know that Shane's was there and that it was a smokehouse.... So I asked him.

F: How do you know that's a smokehouse restaurant?
N: it has little house and smoke comes out of it

Well yes, yes it does son. You are too intelligent to be 3 years old.

This is all he saw, and he figured it out:

Dear Benjamin the Three Year Old

Dear Benjamin,

Today you are turning three years old and according to everything I am finding on the internet, you are no longer a toddler and you are now a pre-schooler. Seems like you already know this, because when I refer to you as “baby”, you quickly correct me by saying “I no a baby! Nico a baby! I a child!” And according to you, now that you are 3, you are a “growm up”

Oh Benjamin. Our family consisted of just your dad and I (and Pellet and Cali) for so long and then you surprised us. It still seems so surreal that we now have this new life that is full of laughter, cries, squeezes, poop, trucks, rocks, cars, emergency vehicles, car seats, character cups, emergency bathroom runs, bruises, stickers, whistles, cuddles, story times, etc. These last three years have been so much more intense and in a way more fulfilling than all those eleven prior.

You teach your dad and me so much about ourselves and provide plenty of opportunities for us to grow as parents and as individuals. You are one determined, independent, strong-willed child, which makes everything so intense. But you also have a sweet and shy heart. By now, I am pretty much able to figure out when you are crying for attention and when you are legitimately crying because you are hurt or scared. I can tell the level of happiness that you are feeling just by looking at your eyes. Seeing you cry breaks my heart, especially when you are crying because you are being a 3-year old and we are being the parents. You always get me good when you stop crying and say “my tears went away. I make you happy now?”

You are smart. Boy are you so smart. You are intelligent. You have a fantastic memory and are able to tell us pretty much the location of each of your toys at the drop of a hat. You grasp even the tiniest details. The way your brain functions blows my mind. For example, you specifically asked us to invite a little boy from your class to your birthday party here at the house. Once I agreed to invite him, you said “his mommy too”, of course I said his mom would come too. And then you said “his mommy handsome, she come to party too”.

You surely inherited both your dad’s and my recessive genes when it comes to negotiating. When we say “pick 2 cars to bring along” you quickly, and by quickly I mean within one second of us finishing the word “along”, you reply “no, 5” so then it starts “pick 2” “I piiiiiiiiiick 3” and of course you end up picking 2 and we move on. You are willing to negotiate everything, from the number of books at bedtime, to the number of bites of whatever you are eating that may not be your favorite, to how long you get to stay outside.

You’ve learned to ask for permission to watch videos on the phone. For the longest time, you’d ask for the phone to look at pictures. Which you would. For a bit. And then you’d quickly find that YouTube Kids app and launch whatever PAW Patrol or PJ Mask video you first saw. Now, you still ask for the phone to watch pictures – because you love watching pictures and you know how to make the iPhone do those stories, which I still can’t figure out. But after a little while, you come and find us and say “I watch bideo please?” So then we talk about how long you will watch “you can watch videos until it’s time for breakfast (or time to get in the car, or go downstairs, etc.)”. And once you agree, then we turn it on.

Music is your favorite. You love your Monday music class at school and have learned all sorts of fun stuff like playing the drums, the tambourine, the music spoons and the triangle. You can’t be in the car without listening to Nico’s Kindermusik. You ask for specific songs that you like, and you know those by heart. It only takes playing the song one or two times for you to learn the words. You sing throughout the day and you make up words to familiar tunes. Sometimes you even make up tunes. When "Plablo" comes and plays the piano, you sit right there with him and play along. We have all sorts of music shakers all over the house, seems like you always need to have one nearby to make music. The moment your dad's Spotify playlist comes on with his beach music and jazzy tunes, you start dancing!

You are turning out to be an awesome big brother. I could sit and watch for hours the way you and Nico make each other laugh, or the way you play in the tunnel or in your tent. When he is getting into something he’s not supposed to, you quickly yell “no ma’am Nico! No ma’am” (I’m convinced that there must be a little girl at your school that’s constantly being told “no ma’am” by your teachers). Of course more often than not, you decide to hog all the toys, but you are slowly learning to share with him, or like you say “share to him”.

Happy Birthday, Monkey Monks. I can’t believe you have been part of our family for only three years and already three years, both at once. I love you so much more than whatever I can capture on this post.

I love you always,

Mami