Three Years Old!

“Is today my birthday?” We have been hearing this for some time now. Finally the grand day has come! We had been asking Ben what kind of party he wanted to have. He very plainly proclaimed that he would have a Curious George party with Mickey Mouse presents. Well, then. Let the planning begin! We found that Mickey Mouse presents meant that he wanted some of his gifts to be wrapped in Mickey Mouse paper, so of course we obliged this request.

Ben was quite excited about his party. The celebration started Friday with a cupcake party at school. We got to go sing with his class to him and play for a while afterwards. It was a great time!

Saturday was the party with mostly family and a couple of special friends from church. The kids played on the swingset while the younger siblings played on a blanket nearby. Elizabeth thought that grass was her new best friend and apparently does not have the same texture/touching issues as Ben had at that age. Ben wore his party hat nearly all day and received many fun presents that he was thrilled with. He even proclaimed “this is what I told you I wanted!” Just can’t beat that reaction.

Sunday was his actual birthday and Ben chose to eat at the “hummus restaurant” for his birthday lunch. Gotta love a boy with good taste!

Ben is quite the character these days. He is learning to tell jokes (his own version) and really likes to laugh and be silly. Ben is really enjoying his music class at school and comes home singing new songs all the time. If anyone can tell us what the “mall (moth?)” song is, we would love to know. Apparently Mom should know the words and be able to help him with it at home.

Ben is learning new sports in Amazing Athletes each week at school. He was really excited during football week, but has also enjoyed hockey, tennis and a couple of other sports. Ben loves to climb his rock wall on his new playground at home. Mom gets a little nervous, but he is really pretty skilled at getting up and down by himself. He also got a scooter for his birthday and can use one foot to push himself on it “just like the boy on the box”. He continues to love to be outside and has been asking for a while if we could have a campfire. Luckily, his local grandparents live on some land and made this possible recently. We enjoyed roasted marshmallows and making the fire “grow” by watching Grandpa David add logs.

Ben looks forward to Halloween. He has decided to be the Man in the Yellow Hat from Curious George, which of course does not exist in children’s sizes. Hopefully some creativity and the help of Grandma Lyn will be able to fulfill this wish!

Hopefully posting will become more regular. We got in a post-vacation/pre-birthday blur and let the time get away.

Eight Months Old

Little Miss E is eight months old now. She went from scooting to crawling in the blink of an eye and is even pulling up on some of our lower furniture. Yikes! Elizabeth loves being mobile and exploring the world around. She loves Ben’s toys most of all and crawls as fast as she can to get to his cars. It is quite the site. Ben quickly lies down between her and the cars to “block” her from his precious toys. We had to teach him this move, because his former redirection was more of a clothesline.

Ellie is eating up a storm now as well. She liked cereal for a while and did okay with veggies. Something clicked for her and she is now really enjoying food and wanting more and more. She typically eats three times a day and still enjoys milk in between. Finger food is probably in order now. Guess we will have to stock up on “Puffs” again!

Ellie has four teeth now and is working on a couple more. Her first two were the bottom two as “normal”, but the next two to come in were not the top two but the two next to them. So she looks a little vampirish right now. It may make a good Halloween costume or will hopefully be gone soon with the addition of the top two. Time will tell.

Elizabeth is working hard on her sounds and is close to saying mama and dada probably. Baba may be first though for brother Ben. He continues to be her favorite entertainment and the two of them cannot get enough of each other (for the most part – ha ha!).

We look forward to the upcoming holiday season for Elizabeth and know that many more firsts are coming our way!

St. Louis

The kids were off from school for a week in August so we decided to take a short vacation to St. Louis for part of the week. We had been talking about it at home and discussing what we might do while there. Ben was most eager to “march on the arch”. It was going to be quite the feat, but he was sure it was possible.

We arrived late Saturday afternoon just in time for naps and unpacking. That night we ate at Imo’s Pizza and enjoyed some St. Louis style pizza. Mom and Ben ate more than their fair share while Dad enjoyed some pasta. We enjoyed the downtown Kirkwood area and then headed to the hotel to rest up for our first full day.

On Sunday we visited a church in the area where some family friends are members. Everyone was so welcoming! Ben was even comfortable going to their children’s church and had a great time learning about Moses and the burning bush. We headed downtown for lunch at Morgan Street Brewery and then walked to the arch. Ben was a little surprised at the size of the arch and decided he probably shouldn’t march on it. We told him about going up in it and he would point to a lower spot on the arch and say that he wanted to go that high, but not to the top. We tried to explain that it was to the top or not at all and then agreed that we would enjoy some ice cream in the park instead. After naps we swam at the hotel and went out for Mexican food. Everyone slept well that night. In fact, it was the first and only time that Elizabeth has slept through the night. She slept from about 9pm to about 8am. Mom and Dad were shocked but pleased! Now if she can just repeat this at home. :)

Monday was zoo day. The kids did so well. The zoo was amazing. It was well designed and had lots of shade and beautiful animal habitats. Ben was so excited to see each animal and “announced” himself at each stop. “Hello, elephants! I’m here!” Elizabeth enjoyed the shade and watching Ben race between exhibits. Ben got to pick a treat from the gift shop at the end of our day and chose marbles of all things. But he did pick out a magnet for Elizabeth with a picture of a giraffe, so she won’t need to share the marbles.

Tuesday we went to the World Bird Sanctuary. They had lots of different kinds of birds including eagles, owls and other birds of prey. Ben really liked talking to all of the birds and also enjoyed seeing some reptiles in one of the building exhibits. We spent the afternoon shopping at the outlet mall. The girls tore up Gymboree and the boys enjoyed hanging out at the indoor skate park and the mall playground.

On our final day we went to Grant’s Farm. This is such a wonderful place for kids of all ages. I was amazed at how nice everything was and free! The trip started with a scenic ride into the farm where we saw buffalo, goats, sheep, cows and more right outside of our tram. It was fun to see the animals so close! At the farm, there were shows to see, animals to feed and snow cones to eat. Ben even got his first carousel ride!

Fun times in St. Louis were had by all! We highly recommend it to any family and look forward to going back!