Waiting for Baby Sister

We wanted to update post holidays and before Elizabeth joins our family next week. Ben had a wonderful Christmas shared with lots of friends and family. We made a special trip to the Christmas Train, which he loved. Ben also got to visit Santa, which I am not sure he loved quite as much, but didn’t cry. One of our favorite things this season was looking at the Christmas lights around town, which we are still discussing. Ben took right to presents and began to greet family with, “Presents?” after a couple of days of celebrating. Nice. He was thoroughly spoiled from all directions and is enjoying being in his playroom any time we are at home. Choo choos, horses, coloring and puzzles remain some of Ben’s favorites. He has also been very interested in letters and “reading” lately. This includes reading to the baby. We encouraged him to tell her about the pictures in the books since she couldn’t see them yet. He then proceeded to take the book and turn it to my belly so she could “see” what he was looking at. He was trying! After the holiday frenzy settled down, we began to have showers and get out all the baby gear in preparation for Sister. Ben was very interested in things that he recognized as “his”, but claims that he will share with Sister and will teach her how to use everything. He will call her “Lithbeth” when asked, but mostly refers to her as Ben’s Baby Sister. He is most excited about the car seat that appeared next to his recently. Since it was installed, he has asked to see Baby Sister and sit by her in the car every day. Not much longer, Ben! Then we will see what you really think. J For the next week we will have fun washing her tiny clothes and talking about where she will sleep and what toys will be her favorites. Every few months it seems that there is a physical or language explosion in Ben’s life. Ben is definitely much more agile than he used to be, but we have really noticed language taking off and it is so fun to hear grown up sounding phrases coming out of a toddler’s mouth. Some of the connections he makes continue to amaze us (correct or incorrect). It is enjoyable when inanimate objects take on feelings or Ben thinks he has made a joke. He will tell the highway, “bye, bye, see you later!” when we exit and then follow up that the highway is “sad” that we aren’t on it any more. His jokes include switching words that he knows aren’t correct and then waiting for you to challenge him. “The pig says quack, quack! (followed by giggles) – Are you sure? – No! The pig says oink, oink!” And he is still the mimic, but his role models are expanding which we are becoming more and more mindful of. He loves to say “Oh, man!!” like Swiper on Dora (a popular cartoon in our house for those of you without kids this age). We hope all is well with your family! We will update via email when Ben is officially a big brother and Elizabeth joins our family. We hope to have pictures and longer updates shortly after, but that is an ambitious mommy making promises prior to having to care for a newborn and an adjusting toddler. So we will do the best we can!

Holiday Season

Our holiday season started with carving pumpkins at Grandma and Grandpa’s house in Coweta. We were joined by our friends Lisa, Abigail and Claire. The kids had fun “planting” new pumpkins in the dirt, exploring the land and showing off their costumes. The grownups carved pumpkins for them and enjoyed watching the kids run around. Ben was a horse and loved wearing his costume. He got to wear it several times that week at school and church and enjoyed galloping around. We also went to the circus in October with our friend Ella. The kids really loved the animals and performances. Ben was pretty mesmerized and sat in his seat with wide eyes most of the time. He really loved the elephants and tigers. His favorite act by far was the cage with several motorcycles inside. He talked about the circus for weeks. He even ran up to our preacher and told him, “tigers and elephants!” when normally it is hard to get Ben to say “hi”. He was pretty excited. Ben graduated to a toddler bed and a new room before Thanksgiving. The bed was quite the novelty at first and he would get out of it and run out of his room thinking he was pretty hysterical. That novelty has pretty much worn off since, but he does enjoy the freedom of getting up on his own in the morning and coming to find us. The new room has gone pretty well. We are calling his old room “sister’s room” now and he doesn’t seem to care as he is excited about the cars and trucks on the walls of his new big boy room. Just wait till sister moves into that room. Then we’ll see! We spent Thanksgiving at “the farm” in Kansas with Dad’s family. It was a short but sweet visit, but Ben had time to visit the tractor, race through great-grandpa’s house and play in the leaves. He also had time to really warm up to family that we don’t see quite as much, so that was nice. Since Thanksgiving, it seems we have started the whirlwind of holiday parties and events. Ben has gotten some special time with Grandma and Grandpa that live in town so Mom and Dad can Christmas shop and attend work parties. Last Sunday was the Children’s Program at church. Ben’s age group gets to be the stable animals in the telling of the Christmas story. Ben chose a sheep costume and was pretty pleased with it. When it came time to “perform” he made it on stage, but pretty much stopped in his tracks with large eyes on the audience. Maybe next year he will consider singing and dancing. We have been trying out some new Christmas traditions with Ben this season. He is really starting to understand a little bit of what is going on with the meaning of the holiday as well as the added traditions. We talk a lot about the Baby Jesus. Any young looking angel is the Baby Jesus along with all of the traditional depictions of Baby Jesus. It is quite sweet. We are also learning about Santa, snowmen and reindeer. It is a very special treat at our house right now to watch one of the recorded Christmas movies shown on TV. Ben especially loves the older classics like Rudolf. We are doing an advent countdown calendar where Ben gets a little treat every night and we talk about the number of days left till Christmas. He has gotten small candies, plastic dinosaurs and Sesame Street ornaments. It is definitely a hit and something we will continue next year. Our Christmas plans continue with more holiday parties this weekend. Next week Ben will have his class party and Christmas Program at school. His class will be singing Jingle Bells and I’ve heard their favorite part is shouting “Hey!” at the end. We look forward to celebrating with all branches of our family during the week of Christmas. We will start out with Mom’s family on Christmas Eve and Day and then on the 26th Dad’s family will come in town for the weekend.

Ben: Two Years

Ben is officially a two year old as of last Saturday (September 27^th). We celebrated in Elmo style with goldfish, coloring and pizza! Ben had a blast playing and opening presents with lots of family and a few friends. He had Grandma Elaine, Grandpa Larry and Aunt Sarah in town for the weekend and soaked up some fun time with them. We also got a special visit from Cousin Erin and enjoyed getting to celebrate with her all the way from Seattle! It is definitely going to be a fun Christmas with as much as Ben enjoyed his birthday!

Ben also had a great check up at the doctor’s office this week. He is 37 inches tall (99%) and a couple ounces shy of 30 pounds (70%). He is allowed to try peanuts now and switch to 2% milk. That was really the eventful portion of the visit. Everything else is on track and healthy.

Ben is now in ICD class at school. This is the last “infant” class before he moves upstairs to be with the big kids. Ben really loves his new class and has several of his same friends from his old class with him. He is very interested in letters and numbers right now and will “count” to ten any time he sees a group of items. Ben gets most of the numbers in the right order, but usually misses “three” and will occasionally repeat a number or two. It is very cute!

Ben’s favorite activities include coloring, riding his new tricycle, going for walks, racing his cars, reading and bossing Mommy around. He is becoming quite the back seat driver, constantly ordering the driver to go “This way!” Ben is showing the independence of a true two year old and likes to do everything for himself and will start over if you try to help him.

Ben’s big family news over the last couple of months was finding out that he is getting a sister. We asked him if he would like a sister and he replied, “Sure,” like he was choosing a snack or a toy. He is still interested in Mommy’s belly growth and will talk to his sister some. He thinks that Mommy’s belly must hurt though like it is a continual tummy ache. J Less than four months until we get to meet the newest McCullough!

We are looking forward to a fun holiday season ahead. Ben has decided to be a horse for Halloween and will be decorating pumpkins at Grandma and Grandpa’s house. We are also going to the circus this month with our friend, Ella. After that the true holiday festivities will begin and we will try to work in a room move for Ben and transition to a toddler bed. Should be a busy season ahead!

We hope all is well with your families. We would love to hear your updates as you have time!