Sleepless Night to a Wonderful Spring Evening

Sunday nights are the nights I'm most likely to be an insomniac. Last night was no exception. Sometimes I think it is how I try to cram so much into Sunday evening to prepare for the upcoming work week, or maybe just my brain moving a mile a minute thinking about the "to do" list for the week. As I watched 2:00, and then 4:00, pass by on my clock early this a.m., I knew I'd be working on very little sleep and will admit to feeling pretty pessimistic about my Monday.

However, this evening turned out to be about the most perfect spring evening I could have asked for. Ben, Brant, and I were all home together, which often doesn't happen on Mondays. I made a new recipe for mini pita pizzas that turned out to be a hit with all three of us. Simple, I know. However, I've felt that my cooking has been in rut for some time now and finding something that all of us seemed to love is always a big success my eyes. My biggest highlight this evening, however, was going on our first canoe ride of the spring and Ben's first canoe ride ever. Brant got the canoe for his birthday in January and tonight all three of us went on a pleasant, quiet, relaxing ride around the pond. Ben showed no fear. We listened to the birds singing, heard a few fish splash, and watched a baby duck swim underwater and pop back up. I would say it was the perfect end to the evening, but Ben topped it off at bedtime by singing "Jesus Loves Me" from beginning to end all by himself. Precious, beautiful, innocent. Now that is a much better start to the week!

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!

Spend a Little Time with Ben

If you have a couple of minutes to spare, enjoy a little time in Ben's world!