Benjamin Goes to School

A few weeks ago Benjamin had his first day at a Mother’s Day Out program in our area. Since then, he has been going two days a week and loves it! I enrolled him for Mondays and Wednesdays, mainly so that I could teach my class on those days without making other childcare arrangements. Here’s the scoop on what he’s been up to:

The Schedule

  • I walk him in around 8:45 a.m. He is very proud of his Elmo backpack (he struts around saying “Backpack! Backpack!”) and his Cars lunchbox. From the very first day, he’s been very comfortable with me leaving him there. No freaking out, no tears – only a quick “bye, bye!” and off he goes to play with all the fun stuff.
  • In the morning they play for awhile, then have a snack (parents take turns providing these snacks for the kids – I’ll be taking fruit roll-ups in a couple of weeks), then either go to an indoor play area or the outdoor playground to run around. On Mondays they go to music class, but I don’t know yet what exactly they do in there. They also do a craft in the mornings. Benjamin’s favorite so far involved using a stamp to put hearts on a piece of paper. He’s crazy for stamping!
  • Lunch is around 11:15. I have been packing a Lunchable, milk, and various finger foods for Benjamin. It’s a challenge to come up with healthy options, but we do our best.
  • They have a rest time during the noon hour. I wasn’t too thrilled about this, since I would prefer for him to nap when he gets home in the afternoon, but it has worked well so far. Some days, he doesn’t sleep at all at school, and when he does, he wakes up after 30 or 45 minutes. He is worn out enough by all the activity that he always takes a nap after he gets home. I just have to delay it a bit if he’s already slept some there. Actually, school has had a pleasing effect on his daily nap, since he now consistently sleeps over two hours every day.
  • After rest time, the kids play some more until it’s time for parents to pick them up. I drive up in the carpool line around 2:15, and Benjamin’s teacher escorts him to the car and puts him in his car seat. He is so cute when he walks out of the building holding her hand. He smiles so big when he sees me and starts running toward the car. It’s nice that he’s excited to see me. While she puts him in his seat, the teacher tells me about his day, which is how I always know how much food he ate and how long he slept.

Odds and Ends

  • So far this setup has been fantastic. Benjamin went to school three times before my semester started, which means I had roughly 15 hours all to myself! I used some of that time to prepare for my class, but I also enjoyed napping, watching tv, drinking a second cup of tea, etc. Now that school has started for me, I have one hour before I leave for class, and two hours after I get home, to get things done or relax.
  • This week while Benjamin was in school, Brad and I went out on a lunch date to celebrate his birthday. We went to Houlihan’s, which is a great date spot – quiet, cozy, delicious. We split a seared Ahi tuna appetizer (I cheated on my pregnancy diet a little bit), and my entree consisted of grilled shrimp with a salad and French onion soup. Brad had a French dip with fries. Then we shared a banana cream pie for dessert. We look forward to more lunch dates this semester.
  • Benjamin’s preschool experience has reinforced what we already knew about him: he is comfortable with new places, as long as there’s some fun stuff to do. I am thankful that he’s never had separation anxiety. He just takes whatever we throw his way and adjusts to it. I think the backpack helped with the transition, because those first few days we talked it up a lot, and he was so focused on carrying in the backpack that he didn’t have time to worry about what else was going on.
  • The teacher fills out a daily report of sorts about Benjamin’s day. It tells us how long he slept and how well he ate (nothing, a little bit, almost everything, or everything – his always says “everything”). There are also several adjectives listed, and the teacher circles the ones that describe him for that day (“happy” and “busy” are always circled, and sometimes “good helper.” So far we’ve avoided “sad,” “teary eyed,” and “tired.”) There’s also a space on the sheet for what he had fun doing that day. So far the answers have ranged from “racing with my friends” to “stamping red hearts” to “playing with the vacuum cleaner.”
  • Another effect of his time in school, or at least something that has coincided with it, is that he’s becoming more vocal. He is constantly repeating words after us (so far this is a good thing, and very charming), and often points out objects that we didn’t know he knew the word for.
  • The only negative so far is that after this taste of freedom and excitement, Benjamin becomes bored more easily at home. As a result, we’ve been dealing with some discipline problems, but we’re working through them. I am encouraging him to be creative when he plays, to learn how to entertain himself with activities like sorting, stacking, building, etc. One of his current favorites is when I give him a stack of boxes of various sizes and tell him to put them inside each other. Last night he worked happily and quietly for several minutes figuring how to fit an empty Ziploc box and another small box inside a cereal box.

Here are some pictures related to his school experience thus far:

And Baby Makes… Four!

As his shirt says, Benjamin is going to be a big brother!

We have some exciting news to share: we’re going to have another baby in early August (my official due date is August 4)! We found out at the end of November, with a positive home pregnancy test, but we wanted to wait until I was further along to share the news with everyone. I am almost 11 weeks now, nearing the end of the first trimester. I’ve been to the doctor twice already – once for routine blood work that all checked out fine, and then last week to hear the little bambino’s heartbeat! It was a speedy 175. (Benjamin’s was never that high, which makes me wonder if this is a girl, but I’m getting ahead of myself…)

I have had a very mild case of morning sickness – it seems like even less than with Benjamin. I only feel queasy if I go too long without eating, but I am exhausted just about all the time. It’s been nice that my first trimester has coincided with my long semester break. I’ve been able to go to bed early, sleep late, and take naps. This little munchkin is taking a lot out of me! (Plus, Benjamin keeps me on my toes morning, noon, and night…)

Now I have been a little (well, a lot) picky about what I eat. Not much has sounded appetizing to me. For the first several weeks all I wanted was fruit, juice, salad, and beef. Now my taste for cheese has returned, and I’m eating a little bit of most things, but not necessarily enjoying them a lot. Like last time, I gave up drinking coffee, which has made me feel better in the mornings. I drink hot tea instead. I haven’t had strong aversions to anything this time, though – last time it was the smell of bananas, cat food, and coffee.

We waited until our holiday visits (Christmas with my family, New Years with Brad’s) to share the news with our families. Benjamin was wearing his “big brother” shirt when we walked in the door, and we had fun seeing everyone’s reactions when they noticed it. Benjamin doesn’t understand at this point what’s going on. When I tell him that there’s a baby in my belly, he looks under my shirt, then looks up at me and says, “No.” He doesn’t see a baby hiding under my shirt, so he assumes I’m mistaken. :)   But, as he will soon enough discover, he is going to be a big brother – nearly 2 1/2 years older than his little brother or sister.

We have a lot to do in the next several months before this baby arrives in early August. While I don’t look forward to experiencing my third trimester during the heat of the summer, it will be nice that I’m out of school. Our plan is to convert our guest room into Benjamin’s big boy room, and leave the nursery basically as is, since we still love the Alphabet Soup decor. I also hope we can fully potty train Benjamin a couple of months before the baby is born, so that there will be less chance of him reverting to diapers during his adjustment to no longer being an only child.

As for the title of this post, in less than 8 months, the name of our blog, And Baby Makes Three, will no longer be accurate. We will be parents to two children, and so we will need to change our blog name. I am open to suggestions!

* Yesterday I posted 2009: Year in Review. I saved our baby news for this separate post, but be sure to look back at what we were up to last year, by either scrolling down, or clicking here.

2009: Year in Review

In 2009 we saw our laid back baby grow into an energetic toddler, and while he was busy growing and exploring, we managed to take a few trips but mostly stayed close to home. Here’s a look back at 2009:

  • January – At ten months old, Benjamin’s favorite book was Good Night Moon, he was a speed crawler, and he finally started climbing out of the bouncy seat that had been his chill out zone since birth. We stayed home this month, recovering from the holiday travels, and I started a new semester at Brookhaven College.

Benjamin celebrates his newfound freedom, now that he can climb out of the bouncy seat.

  • February – In February we celebrated the births of two nephews: Lisa and Jeff welcomed Corbin to the world, and Chris and Karen welcomed Jude just a few days later. We met them both in one Louisiana road trip, visiting Lake Charles and Ruston early in the month, when these baby boys were just a few days old. In looking back at my February posts, I was amused by one titled “Diary of a Mad White Momma.” Brad spent six straight days away from home, in sunny L.A. and beautiful San Diego, while I struggled to keep things going at home in his absence. In the post I contrasted his carefree, fun days with my tiring, poopy diaper filled days. :)

Corbin at one week old. Look at that double chin and pot belly!

Jude Larsen, five days old

  • March – We kicked off the month by celebrating Benjamin’s first birthday on his birthday (March 1), with a family gathering at home. We ate burgers, cake, and ice cream, and gave Benjamin his very own cupcake. We also showed home videos from his first year, so we could remember how much he had grown over 12 months. We had a fun time keeping things low key, and were happy to have Mama C and Grandad, and many of Benjamin’s aunts, uncles, and cousins with us. Also in March I transitioned Benjamin from breast milk to cow’s milk. It was initially difficult for me to give up nursing him, but I soon appreciated all the freedom that doing so granted me.

Benjamin overlooks what remains of his cupcake. Apparently it was finger lickin' good!

  • April - Spring was in the air, so we got out of the house more for walks and time at the park. The Texas bluebonnets were beautiful, and I captured some nice pictures with them. Benjamin took his first steps on Good Friday, but it was about a month later when he left crawling completely behind. We also dealt with what seemed like a never ending ear infection, with one round of antibiotic after another not getting rid of it. (His doctor finally declared him ear infection-free in May or June, so talk of tubes in his ears was put on the back burner.)

Sweet Benjamin in a field of blue bonnets

  • May – I wrapped up my semester of teaching early in the month, which left me time to plan a fun Spanish-themed patio party for my girlfriends, with homemade sangria, tapas, good music, and good conversation. Benjamin and I also joined Brad for a few days in Los Angeles. We stayed around the hotel during the day while he was at work (staying at Embassy Suites was fantastic with a toddler!), and enjoyed lots of delicious food and a trip to the beach. At the end of the month Brad went to Toronto for a conference, and he enjoyed experiencing Canada for the first time.

Brad shares a special moment with Benjamin, as he experiences ocean waves for the first time.

  • June – The beginning of the summer was a month for visiting family and friends. We made a trip to Ruston, and then Nana came to visit us for a few days. The highlight for me, though, was when I flew out to L.A. by myself for a long weekend with my friend Lindsay. I had a great time taking a break from my mommy duties. I was able to read two books and start another one on the flight there and back, and while in L.A. I got a pedicure, toured WB studios, hung out at the beach, spotted a celebrity (Quincy Jones), and ate lots of delicious food. Michael Jackson died the day I flew out there, so I stepped off of the plane to discover his face all over the news, and his music everywhere I went. So far, this trip marks the only time I’ve been away from Benjamin over night. Brad and I are currently plotting a weekend getaway for some time in the next few months.

Lindsay and I at Pane e Vino, where we had dessert and coffee, and spotted Quincy Jones

  • July -This hot and humid month found us doing more traveling. We spent some time with Brad’s family in Lake Charles, and kept cool in Nana’s apartment swimming pool. When we left there we drove to Leesville, LA, which was home base for a reunion of my dad’s extended family. We had a nice time catching up with some aunts, uncles, and cousins we hadn’t seen in a long time, and spent the 4th of July at my cousin Steve’s camphouse on Toledo Bend. We ate tons of delicious food and had a great time, despite the heat of the day. Later in the month, Brad went on a team-building trip to Austin with some co-workers – the highlight of their trip was going tubing on a river.

Nana was happy to have both her grandsons in one place.

Hot but happy at Toledo Bend on Independence Day

  • August – We stayed home during August, and didn’t venture outside much unless it was to let Benjamin play in his baby pool. He also started saying some more words – his favorites were “no” and “bye bye.” Mama C came to Dallas for a visit before she started back to school, and Benjamin and I hung out with friends a good bit. I also continued meeting with my book club, which we started in June. During the summer we read three great books: Same Kind of Different As Me, Water for Elephants, and Undomestic Goddess. It was nice to have this outlet of adult conversation since my days were mostly filled with toddler talk while I was on summer break from teaching.

Benjamin loves splashing around in his baby pool.

  • September – I started a new semester at Brookhaven, and taught two classes instead of one for the first time since becoming a mom. Since Benjamin was still taking two naps, the paper grading and lesson planning were still very manageable. I also served as the adjunct faculty representative, which means that I attended faculty meetings a few times a month. Benjamin reached the landmark age of 18 months, and with the slightly cooler temperatures, he discovered the joy of exploring the great outdoors. He also started to feed himself, which freed us up to eat our own dinners, or get other things done in the kitchen! Benjamin and I started going to MOPS (Moms of Preschoolers) this month. He played in the nursery while I hung out with other moms. We also made a trip to Lake Charles to see Brad’s family, and to attend a family luncheon with all my dad’s siblings, and some of my cousins. It was nice to be in south Louisiana during the fall, when it wasn’t so miserably hot!

Snuggling with Nana in Lake Charles

We had a nice time catching up with all these relatives in Lake Charles.

  • October – We introduced Benjamin to the joys of the State Fair of Texas, including the dog shows, petting zoo, and lots of fried food! We wrapped up the month by dressing Benjamin up in a monkey costume and going trick-or-treating in our neighborhood. He had a great time, and we enjoyed eating his candy for the next couple of weeks. ;-)

Our first family portrait with Big Tex (and yes, he is kind of creepy).

Benjamin quickly figured out how this Halloween thing works, and he had a blast!

  • November – We made a trip to Ruston mainly to attend a Tech football game. Benjamin had fun watching the band and shouting “Go Dawgs!” Brad’s mom came to visit us the week of Thanksgiving, and we kept things simple by picking up Boston Market’s Thanksgiving feast. We had planned to go eat at Luby’s Cafeteria, but Benjamin had a virus, so we ate in instead. During Nana’s visit we enjoyed going outside in the backyard, and playing with Benjamin’s new Legos, which were a gift from her.

Mama C and Benjamin share a sweet moment at the Tech game.

Nana gave Benjamin his first set of Legos as an early Christmas gift. He loved them immediately!

  • December – As usual, this was a month of decorating the house, attending parties, and visiting family for Christmas. But Brad kicked off the month with a work trip to Las Vegas (what a rough job he has, but someone has to do it…). We simplified our Christmas decorations, opting for a smaller tree, and no lights on the front of the house. I was relieved when my fall semester ended, as I was ready for a break. As the year came to a close, we visited Ruston for Christmas, and Lake Charles for New Years. We were happy to close out another fun-filled year with our families. I’ll leave you with this image of a happy Benjamin with his Christmas gifts. If you look back at the first picture in this post, you’ll see that he grew a lot this year, and is now very much a little boy instead of a baby. I hope that 2009 treated you and your family well, and that 2010 will be even better!

We kept things simple for Benjamin this year. He received a cool sports car, a basketball, a step stool (he loves climbing up to reach up high things), some bubble bath, some new toddler utensils, some flash cards, and some snack food.


New Year’s Weekend in Lake Charles

We rang in the new year with Brad’s family in Lake Charles, enjoyed a delicious New Year’s lunch, and opened Christmas gifts. The rest of the weekend was spent hanging out and watching one year old Corbin and almost two year old Benjamin play together. See below for pictures from the trip.

Christmas 2009 in Ruston

For the first time in many years, my whole family was together on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day at my parents’ house. We had a fun time going to a Christmas Eve service together, doing our traditional Christmas Eve singalong, and then opening gifts and eating brunch on Christmas day.We had brunch because half of our group was going to leave by lunch time on Christmas to go visit other family. I think we should do brunch every year because it was delicious! Those of us who stuck around still had our traditional Christmas meal (turkey, dressing, sweet potato casserole, green bean casserole, curried fruit, etc.) the next day. Here are some pictures from our fun time together.

Christmas 2009 at Home

Since we were going to be in Ruston from December 23 until after Christmas, we decided to have our family gift opening time the night before we left, December 22, which also happened to be our eight year anniversary. We took turns opening gifts, and then discovered what was in our stockings. Benjamin had as much fun opening his presents as he did playing with them afterwards.

We learned an important rule of parenting during this process, too: always remove toys from the packaging before wrapping them. We left Benjamin’s toy sports car in the box when we wrapped it, and unfortunately it was screwed in with several screws (apparently twist ties aren’t enough any more). Brad had to go to the garage and find his electric drill to get the treasured car out of the packaging! Poor Benjamin was jumping up and down in anticipation of playing with it. So anyway, lesson learned.

One Christmas tradition that Brad and I started the year we got married is to take a picture of each other holding our gifts. It was fun to see Benjamin play along for this super posed picture this year. Santa didn’t make a very big deal about bringing his gifts this year, since Benjamin wasn’t quite old enough to appreciate a fat man in a red suit coming into our house through the chimney. However, I’m sure that next year we’ll talk up Santa’s visit, leave milk and cookies for him, etc. :)

Here are some pictures from our Christmas gift time:

Benjamin at 21 Months

Benjamin has enjoyed his kid-sized bean bag that I purchased on Woot.com

We’ve been so caught up in the Christmas season that I haven’t done a single post this month! I’m here to remedy that now, as I take some time to describe Benjamin at his current age, ~21 months.

Playing

  • I’m thrilled that we seem to be moving into a phase where he’s content to play by himself for up to 30 minutes at a time. For the past few months, he had been spending less and less time in his playroom, because he didn’t want to let us out of his sight. Lately, though, if I tell him I need to get some things done and ask him to play by himself for awhile, he wanders off and does just that! I’ve been amazed at this turn of events.
  • One reason he is happy to play alone is that he’s becoming more imaginative. He comes up with all sorts of games and activities. In addition to the usual things, like reading books and working puzzles, some of his favorite activities include:
    • Playing with Legos – Brad’s mom gave him these when she visited at Thanksgiving, and he loves to put them together and take them apart again.
    • Lining up all his talking/singing toys – He has a saxophone playing Santa, a singing Santa, and an Elmo doll, and he now likes to put them together, either standing side by side, or all stashed away in the cabinet under the tv. Once he has them in place, he turns them all on, and we’re so amused by this ritual that we don’t even mind the cacophony of noise.
    • Standing on a box to reach the light switch – I wasn’t very happy when Brad taught him how to do this, but now we are used to him entertaining himself a few minutes at a time by carrying his plastic box around, placing it beneath a light switch, and climbing up to turn it on and off. Thankfully he hasn’t yet figured out that he could climb over safety gates using the box. Certain light switches are off limits, so when he ventures to those we take the box away. We’re giving him a step stool for Christmas, which we hope he’ll use more for hand washing and stepping up to the toilet than for turning on lights.

    Riding in the car – Lately he has wanted to take one of his toys in the car when we “go for a ride.” The past few days it had been his tool truck, and today it was Elmo. Once he’s strapped into his seat, he holds the toy on his lap and happily looks out the window. He likes to take a little piece of home with him when we run errands, I guess.

Eating

  • His breakfast options have expanded a bit. These days he either eats Cream of Wheat, oatmeal (with banana and maple syrup!), or waffles. He’s also had eggs a few times.
  • We’re relying less on the Graduates prepackaged entrees, and offering him a variety of foods everyday. When I have the time, I put up to five different things in the compartments of his cute plastic tray (for example, rice, chicken, peas, cheese, and bread). Other days we keep things simple, and make him a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Today he had tuna salad for the first time. We usually round out the meal with some sort of fruit.
  • He eats an afternoon snack after he wakes up from his nap, usually juice and some goldfish.
  • At dinner, he usually eats what we eat, which is so much cheaper than opening up various cans of baby food. For a long time, I missed the convenience of baby food, and had a hard time figuring out what to feed him. But it gets a little easier everyday, and so far he’ll eat just about anything.

Napping

  • We went through a shift in Benjamin’s sleep schedule around the time of the time change. The week before we changed our clocks, he had started waking up at 7 instead of 8. So, much to my dismay, when we changed the clocks, he woke up at 6 for a few days in a row. Yikes! But, then we went out of town, and by the time we returned he was so worn out that he started sleeping until after 8 again (hooray!).
  • During all this sleep shifting, Benjamin finally gave up his morning nap. With his confusion over the time change, he was taking a later morning nap, but wouldn’t even go to sleep in the afternoon. So, I just started running errands with him in the morning, and stretching his awake time until after he ate lunch. The one nap a day has since worked pretty well. It ranges from one hour (that’s a bad day) to three hours (that’s a rare day). Usually he sleeps about an hour and 45 minutes.
  • It’s still generally easy to put him down for naps. We sing him his “I Love You” song, and then cover him up with his blanket, once he has positioned his monkey and pillow where he wants them. He sometimes talks to himself for a few minutes, but he likes his crib, and is happy to drift off the sleep.
  • Waking up is another story. Most days he wakes up very groggy and crying. It takes him at least 15 minutes to return to his normal high spirits. Drinking juice and snuggling with Mommy help ease him back into awake time.

Watching TV

  • It used to be that the only tv he watched was one half hour video (Baby Einstein or Baby Songs) a few times a week. He is starting to outgrow his Baby Einstein videos, but still watches Baby Songs pretty regularly. It is a compilation of music videos for Hap Palmer songs, and while it’s very dated (from the looks of the kids and parents I’d say it was made in the mid ’80s!), the songs are cute and he loves them.
  • In addition to this video, his attention span for tv shows has gotten longer. He’ll sit and watch a 30 minute show without losing interest. Some of his favorites at this point include The Wonder Pets, Caillou, Dragon Tales, Clifford the Big Red Dog, and Max & Ruby. These are all very sweet shows, and I think he is learning more words by watching them. Just in the past few days he has started pointing at and saying the name of different objects, such as car, bath, ball. He also likes to point at different parts of the body (nose, eye, belly, back) and call them by name. I would like to get him some flashcards to help him learn to recognize and say more words.

Bedtime

  • Since he only takes one nap now, he’s always ready for bed when the time comes. Most nights we get him to bed between 8:15 and 8:30, and he sleeps until between 8 and 8:45 the next morning.
  • He gives us sweet kisses and hugs when we put him to bed, and sometimes after he is lying down covered by his blanket, he’ll reach his little hand out and wave, and sweetly say “bye bye.” :)
  • Once every couple of weeks he wakes up during the night crying. We figure this is either teething or bad dream related. After a few minutes of snuggling, he’s ready to get back in bed. This boy loves his sleep.

Those are all the little details I can think of at the moment. I’m planning to come back and add some pictures to this post in the next day or so.

Thanksgiving 2009

We enjoyed a relaxing Thanksgiving holiday at home. Brad’s mom came to stay with us, and we had a nice visit with her. The only bad part of our Thanksgiving is that Benjamin was sick. :(    He had fever, restless nights, and lethargic days for about three days. We’re not sure what he had, but are thankful that it is gone now! Our original plan for Thanksgiving lunch was to go to Luby’s Cafeteria, but since Benjamin was sick, we picked up a Thanksgiving feast from Boston Market instead. We enjoyed tasty turkey and dressing (with gravy), mashed potatoes, corn bread, and pumpkin pie. It was nice to not slave away in the kitchen, and to not have any dishes to wash afterwards! Plus, we didn’t have many leftovers to pig out on the rest of the weekend.

The weather was beautiful just about all week. We enjoyed bike rides, walks, and time in the back yard. We also found time to start and finish our Christmas decorating. With a toddler in the house, we’re keeping things simple this year. We bought a smaller tree and put it up in the living room, next to our decorated mantle. So, we have understated, but festive Christmas decor in the house. Outside, we opted to skip the lights and just go with a wreath on the door and garland framing the door. I’m a fan of it only taking two hours to finish decorating!

Now I’m busy finishing up my semester and getting started on my Christmas shopping. Here are some pictures from our Thanksgiving weekend:

Go Dawgs!

Benjamin made us proud last week when he started proudly shouting “Go Dawgs!” He was wearing a Tech t-shirt that day, which I guess was the source of his inspiration. Of course, he had also been to a Tech football game two days earlier. Whatever the motivation, it sure is cute when he says it!

Go Dawgs!

Go Dawgs!

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Benjamin Steals the Show

Here’s a video that captured an impromptu moment of comedy on our last visit to Lake Charles.

Benjamin Steals the Show

Benjamin Steals the Show

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