Wow, have we really been a family of three for a year and a half now? Sometimes I think Mom and Dad have changed just as much in the last 18 months. :)
To sum it up, this has been a month of growing independence for Ben. He would much rather walk than be carried (unless a grandma is nearby!). He has been working on using utensils at meals and does pretty well with a fork depending on what we are eating. Getting dressed is a new adventure as some days Ben is not interested in wearing pants or he wants to get his own clothes out of the closet. He always wants to get a jacket or coat as that means that we will be going outside soon.
The outside is Ben's new love. He would be outside all day if we let him. He loves to look for birds and watch cars go by. We have taken our first family walk to the playground now and Ben, Mom and Dad enjoyed the tall slide many times. Ben desperately wants to go see any children that we see outside whether they are 6 months or 16 years old. He mostly calls them all babies. It is always funny to look up and see a teenager playing basketball when Ben has announced another "baby!". We all enjoy our outside time, but it gets interesting when it is time to go inside for the night or when a walk outside is really just supposed to be a walk into school. There have been many tears shed over the dreadful return inside.
March brought an early Easter and Ben got to hunt eggs for the first time. We "practiced" the week before by letting him play with plastic eggs around the house. They quickly became a new fascination and he mostly enjoyed opening them by squeezing them between his teeth. We hunted eggs the day before Easter at Grandma and Grandpa's house with our friends Lisa and Abigail. Ben and Abigail had so much fun finding and putting the eggs in their baskets that we had to re-hide the eggs so the hunting could continue for about two hours. And when they realized they contained goldfish and animal crackers, they were pretty pleased!
Mom and Ben also survived a two week stint without Dad in the middle of March. Both were very ready for Dad to be back. Ben became super clingy upon seeing Dad at the airport. For the first couple of days he would even cry when Brandon stepped out of the room to return just a minute later. We are still struggling a little with leaving Dad in the morning to go to school, but that seems to be getting better. It is pretty sweet to see how much love Ben has!
I hope everyone is doing well! Hopefully you are enjoying some warmer weather like we are. We are so thankful that Spring is here!!
