Big Ben

And you thought this post was going to be about my Big Ben :-)

Actually, it is about my Ben, but I couldn't resist the picture. Plus it makes me yearn for a trip to London, such fond memories.

It seemed to be a weekend of firsts for Ben. All of it just makes me realize that he's not a baby anymore. I wonder when, or rather if, I will ever stop noticing all of the "first" things the boys do. Anyway, to make a long story longer...

At the farmer's market Saturday, the apple guy gave the boys some apples to munch on. It occured to me that was the first time that Ben ate an apple straight off the core, without mommy cutting it up. He was so happy!

More importantly, Ben is out of the crib and into the bottom bunk. We decided it was time to reclaim our room and he is definitely more than ready for a real bed.

Finally, NO MORE PACIFIERS! The one and only condition for sleeping in the "big boy" bed was he had to ditch the pacifiers. Like Alex we had a little withdraw for a couple of days but he is fine without them. I am happy to be rid of the plugs.

I should note that today is Oct. 7. I started this post nearly two months ago (Aug. 16 to be exact.) For an update, the sleeping arrangement is a big success. The only drawback is that Ben is now up early, sometimes earlier than Alex. But they have gotten into a routine and things seem to be working out just fine. It is staying darker a little longer in the mornings so they tend to sleep just a few minutes later. It's also been nice and cool at night, again perfect sleeping weather. We've got our new bedtime routine worked out and Mike and I really enjoy having our room back to ourselves.

Lessons

We are at the start of birthday party season. For some reason just about every child I know out here was born between August and November. We get invited to A LOT of birthday parties, I mean tons, as in just about every weekend, sometimes multiple parties in one weekend. I think I mentioned before that these parties are NOT my favorite things to do. But, I go to some, occasionally. This past weekend was one such occasion. It was for a little girl named Neve and it was her first birthday. The party was at a place called Music Together, it's one of those places where you can take your kid for mommy & me music classes. The party was actually really well done and very nice. The kids got a nice music class where they could sing and dance and play instruments, they also got to do an art project. Of course there was cake and lots of other food. The biggest draw however was the window washing. Smartly, the owners of this particular establishment are well aware that kids can't stay away from windows. Instead of dealing with the constant fingerprints on the glass they set up a little window washing station for the kids: spray bottles of water, little squeegies, towels, and a drying rack with clothespins for the towels. The lesson here was a big one for mommy - what a smart idea! And yes, Ben & Alex have been washing windows at home all week.

The bigger lesson from the party was not for me, but rather for Alex. He didn't actually get to go to the party. Weekends seem to be his favorite time for major catclysmic meltdowns. He was warned all day Saturday that if behavior didn't change, there would be no party. It didn't change, he didn't get to go. Mike stayed home with Alex and I took Ben to the party. Alex completely understood why he stayed home. He did make the best out of it and while he said that he missed going to the party he was glad to get to stay home with daddy by himself. Of course it didn't hurt that a goody bag was sent home for him. Interestingly, Ben was ridiculously shy at the party. He wouldn't let me put him down until the very end - and that kid is HEAVY! He would close his eyes whenever anyone looked at him, thus becoming invisible. The crazy part of all this was that there wasn't a single person there that he didn't know and hadn't spent lots of time with. He really does shadow Alex.

Which brings us up to the last bit of the day. Alex will start preschool in September. Yeah I know it's kind of a big shocker to some. But, after much agonizing thought this is the decision that Mike and Alex and I all came to together, and we are all very happy about it. Alex is definitely ready and excited beyond words for school and I am hoping that he will learn some much needed skills for kindergarten. I'm not concerned about academics - he's so smart, but socialization and listening to other adults, interacting with other kids, etc. I guess that's all I have to say about that for now. I'm sure there will be more to say after he starts.

Did you know...

Did you know that you can leave comments on my blog? Here's a fun little game to play. We're all so caught up in "life" and can't seem to take more than a few minutes (at best) to check/reply to email as a way to stay in touch. In short, letter writing is a dead art, well it's rapidly dying anyway. So the game is this: you leave a comment on my blog and email me (christina@gilsbachdesigns.com) your real mailing address and I'll send you a REAL handwritten note. OK, this is not an original idea, it is in fact passed on from someone I know. It's all part of the "inky letter" movement. Want to join in, send someone you know a REAL letter, let me know how it goes.

A Sunday Summary...

Here it is Sunday again, and time for another weekly round up. Had a pretty fun week with the boys, I felt like we were out and running all day every day, so much so that I forgot most of what we actually did. I know it involved the requisite play dates with friends, rough housing, trips to the grocery store, just our everyday routine. There were a couple of things of note though, so here goes.

1. Otosclerosis. By now I think just about everyone who reads this knows what I'm talking about. But, for kicks and giggles I'll explain anyway. I finally decided to get my hearing checked by an ENT. The upshot of that was that Mike got to stay home and play with the boys for the morning while I sat in the doctors office going through LOTS of various hearing tests. The other plus is that I now know why I can't hear. Otosclerosis - the stapes bones have deteriorated and don't function properly anymore. The good news is that it is fixable and that my auditory nerves are just fine. So, when I get the problem fixed I should hear great. The down side is that it is going to require surgery to fix the problem. Two surgeries actually, one for each ear, about a year or so apart. The left side will be fixed first because it is the worst, that is scheduled for Aug. 26. When all is said and done I will have prosthetic bones in my ears - weird, but hey, hopefully I'll be able to hear (although I really don't think I'm missing much now...)

2. Peaches! We got about 8 more peaches off of our tree. There was an offshoot of the tree that had a bunch of peaches on it that never ripened. I expected them to simply wither and fall off. Apparently not. It would seem that since the peaches from the main trunk of the tree all ripened, the tree then dedicated it's resources to this little offshoot and matured the rest of the peaches. We would have had more, but I didn't realize they were growing so I didn't do anything to keep the squirrels and bunnies away. Alex & Ben were the ones who discovered the second crop of peaches. They saw a squirrel take one at breakfast one morning.

3. Farmer's Market - The Cedar Park farmer's market that opened earlier this year just changed locations, now it is just 5 minutes from our house. It's in the parking lot of the mall Saturday mornings. While this isn't the most glamorous of locations aesthetically, it has been wonderful for the market itself. There are no size constraints and there were tons of vendors. We got eggs and peaches, and a couple of other things this week. I love that it is so close to home and so nice!

4. Finally, I'll leave you with this video of my little Ben. I'd like to thank my friend Lori for lending me her daughter's ballet recital outfit: