Love This!

I have a whole list of Ben-isms I'm loving right now. I managed to catch one of them on video today. As a mom, I say, "Ahhh, cute!" and as a teacher I think, "Those are such great early literacy skills." Check it out!

Also, topping the list at the moment are:

• Ben's use of the word delicious. Everything lately is delicious, according to Ben.
• His random use of the line, "I love Mommy!" and "I love Daddy!" Whether it is in the parking lot, while he is playing, or just at the supper table, he melts our hearts with these comments that seem to come out of the blue. However, for the first time tonight he started to apply it to lots of other things, saying, "I love basketball!" and "I love chocolate!" (he is a mama's boy) and "I love spiders!" (WHAT?!?).
• His absolute love of ice cream. After devouring ice cream after supper tonight, I caught him trying to stick his head in the tiny little bowl to lick up every last drop.
• The beginning of pretend play. Sometimes, Ben will get out his puppets and put them on his hand and attempt to have pretend conversations with them. Tonight, he told his frog puppet to "Have fun at the game!"

Putting the "Spring" in Spring Break

Although snow now covers the ground again, Ben and I enjoyed a pretty nice week of Spring Break. My brother and his wife were here for the first part of break. Patti hung out with Ben and I during the day and we enjoyed the company of Jeff, Patti, and often times, Nick, in the evenings.

Ben and I had several "spring-like" adventures during the week. We visited the butterfly gardens at Reiman Gardens on Monday. Ben loved watching all the butterflies flutter around the dome and looking at them land on all the flowers. He talked about the colors he saw and the butterflies landing on my finger all week. That put us in the mood for butterflies, so we picked up some roller paints, some butterfly cut-outs, and pom balls at Michael's to do a little art project decorating butterflies. Ben was very excited to see them hung in his playroom and has exclaimed on more than one occasion recently, "Look at my paintings!"

We also spent lots of time playing outside. The weather was nice enough to go to the park one day and on Thursday, the weather was so great we spent a good part of the morning and afternoon outside. Ben rode his trike, which is still way too big for him, and we searched for interesting nuts, sticks, rocks, and leaves in the yard. We did bubbles, broke out the sidewalk chalk, and went on walks down to the pond and around the water. At the end of the day on Thursday, we were walking back up the hill to our house and Ben said, "It is a busy day!" It definitely was!

I'm lamenting the end of a nice break. Of course, how could we conclude a break without taking on a new home updating project?! As I write, Brant is taking down the old crown molding in our dining and living room, only to reveal nasty 1970's wall paper. We ordered new carpet yesterday, so the fire has definitely been lit to get going on the paint! I'm sure pictures of this project will be forthcoming.

Happy Birthday, Ben!

Ben turns 2 tomorrow! We celebrated tonight with Grandma, Papa, and Uncle Alex and will look forward to seeing more family this weekend to celebrate. Ben had so much fun at his birthday party!