Ben's Cats

Ben loves both Cat (stuffed lion) and Hal (real cat). Ben sleeps with Cat and carries him around sometimes during the day. If Ben has Cat, he's probably chewing on him. Sometimes Ben just carries him around in his mouth like in this picture. Cat has a terrible funky smell even though he gets a bath (thrown in the washing machine) at least once a week.

Hal usually avoids Ben, but not for lack of Ben trying. I'm not sure what was going on with Hal yesterday when he decided to sit down right beside Ben on Ben's coloring book. Ben has a very specific giggle for when he succeeds in touching Hal. Hal's tail can just brush over Ben and he will giggle and giggle. Ben will stand by Hal (or run after him) saying, "Hal, meow, meow. Hal, meow, meow, meow." Hal (who really doesn't know he's a cat) doesn't actually meow very much, but Ben tries to speak his language anyway.

1-2-3, H-Q-Z

John pointed out that we hadn't videoed Ben lately and that we would want to remember all the funny things he's doing and saying now so we got out the video camera this weekend while we were playing outside. Here's a short clip. Ben loves letters and numbers and is completely fascinated by license plates.

Going to Church

Here's a quick Ben story:

Sunday morning while I was sitting in Sunday School, I saw Ben and Mrs. Janice pass outside our Sunday School room. She told us after class that Ben picked up her church bulletin, said "church," walked out of the nursery (the door was open), went into the sanctuary to the pew we normally sit on, took out the hymnal and said, "sing." We take him in the sanctuary for the first half of the service, but then carry him back to the nursery during the sermon. He loves the singing, but doesn't have much patience with being quiet during the prayers. Yesterday, during the Prayer of Intercession (which was very long), he burped, then announced it "burp", yelled out "God" (copying the preacher), then started chanting, "sing, sing, sing." Of course, all this time I'm trying to get him to be quiet. I finally gave up and took him to the nursery. Even after all of that, the prayer was still going when I came back in from the nursery.

Busy Weekend

This weekend we (mostly John) did a lot of work to get our house ready to sell. He did yardwork, cleaned out the fireplace, washed down the shed, and I can't remember what else. I touched up the trim around the house during Ben's nap. We went to the local hardware store for new bathroom fixtures. We're replacing all of those along with the sinks and countertops, which are in terrible condition. That's a project we've been talking about for three years and never accomplished. The fixtures were very expensive locally so Ben and I drove 35 miles up the interstate this morning to the closest Lowes, where each fixture was $30 less. It was worth the trip.

The weather was beautiful this weekend. It felt like fall. We definitely took some time to play, too.

Ben loves to swing and slide. We play on the swingset at our church, which is walking distance from our house. When we're walking towards it, he starts repeating, "swing" "slide" "swing" "slide" before the church even comes into view. Interestingly, he only does this when we're walking. If we arrive at church in the car, he never even mentions the swing and slide.

Ben thought I was very funny flipping over the monkey bars.

He only wore his shades for a minute here, but on Saturday he wore them all the way to the hardware store. I guess he wanted to look like Mama and Daddy who were both wearing shades.

Playing peek-a-boo around a tiny tree with Daddy.

Talking to Ben

Ben is beginning to put words together. We had the following conversation Sunday afternoon. We were looking at a picture of a baby on a diaper box.

Me: Look Ben, there's a baby.

Ben: Noisy.

Me: Was Aubrey noisy?

Ben: Cara.

Me: We did visit Aubrey and Cara.

Ben: Aubrey baby.

Ben has a super memory. He has favorite words from most of his books. From Brown Bear, he can name most of the animals. In the Poky Little Puppy Counting Book, he points out many of the things Poky counts, including 'shrooms (mushrooms), apples, and ants. His favorite part, though, is when Poky "dig, dig, digs" under the fence.

He says, "Baa, baa black sheep." Then I follow "Have you any wool?" He answers, "Yes sir, full."

He can identify a handful of letters and repeats parts of the alphabet in the correct order.

BUT, he REFUSES to acknowledge that a dog says, "woof, woof" or any other doglike sounds. If I say, a dog says "woof, woof" he'll look at me and say, "Dog says meow, meow" everytime.

Super Cleaning Powers

Nana and Grandaddy came to visit today in their cleaning clothes. During Ben's naps, they helped me do some major deep cleaning to get ready to sell our house. (If you haven't heard, we're moving to Hattiesburg.) While I cleaned the floors and base boards in the living room, dining room, kitchen and laundry room, they used their Super Cleaning Powers (seriously, they got so much done) to clean all the windows, blinds, light fixtures, and ceiling fans.

I about scared them to death when I took the first picture (this is the second take). Nana thought the electricity had gotten her. I snuck up on them going for a natural pose.

Thank you so much for your help today.

We're Back

I know this is hard to believe but I only got my camera out twice the entire time we were in Jena. I wanted to take pictures of Ben with MawMaw Wilma and PawPaw Sherman, but realized that I had left my camera at Mama and Daddy's house. MawMaw Wilma had a child-sized broom and Ben swept and swept and swept.

We also spent a morning with Cara and Aubrey where I took no pictures. Cara took a few though so here is one of Ben reading to Aubrey and me. (If you read Cara's blog, you've already seen it.)

Don't we look angelic with the halo of light above our heads?
Here are the two pictures that I took.

Ben after MawMaw fed him Oreo "cooksies."

PawPaw reading Ben his favorite Elmo book.

Saturday Afternoon Fun

We had a lot of fun today. This morning we went to a swimming party from 10 to 12. Ben loved being in the water, but he wasn't content in his ring. He wanted out so that he could splash. After his nap, it was really too hot to go outside where Daddy was so we built this cool tent and played inside.


When it cooled off, we went outside and played in the yard. He played in his Elmo sprinkler. When the water hit him, he would say, "wash, wash." Since we were all good and wet, John decided to wash the car. Ben couldn't quite figure out what to do with the brush. He kept rubbing it on the ground "sweeping."


We took our usual wagon ride after John finished washing the car. Ben is intently checking something out as we pass.


I'm not sure what he thought was so funny.

Quidditch Player Perhaps

(Okay, so the title was just for Rachel. Everyone else: It's a Harry Potter reference.)

I was dusting this afternoon and Ben cried when I put away the fox tail. He wanted to "sweep." So I got the regular broom and the fireplace broom and we went out and swept the front porch, which needed sweeping anyway.

I had a hard time convincing him that he wanted to sweep with the fireplace broom while I used the big broom.

One I finished sweeping, I put the broom down and started weeding the flower beds. Ben immediately traded up for the bigger broom.

MVP

Ben learned how to kick the ball. Every time he kicks, he says, "kick." It's hard to take a good picture when he's chasing a ball.

"Kick"

He really likes to watch it roll under the truck and out the other side.

Taking a break after kicking the ball around.