Swing set

Jon got the swing set put together today and Benjamin LOVES IT! We played for an hour before bed time and once again, Ben cried when it was time to go inside. I hope he gets over that soon.

Benjamin came up with a little tune while he was playing..

And figured out a way to keep us on our toes...

"but I dont want to go home yet..."

It was too nice outside yesterday to be inside at a play room, so Ben and I walked to the park. He loves the swings and the slide. If he could spend all day there, he would. After he wore me out we left the play area and hung out by the bird house in the field. Ben couldn't keep up with all the birds going in and out. When it was time to go home, Ben was very upset. He's definitely become an outdoors man over the last week and wants to be outside every chance he gets. On our walk home we decided to go to Einsteins for lunch. Ben now has to have his own seat (not a highchair) when we go out. He felt very important sitting on his own eating lunch.

This morning, I put him in his car and walked him up and down our street. When we got tired of that, we headed to my moms office. All he wanted to do was ride the elevator and, of course, grandma let him.

We found a great deal on a swing set so Jon is going to check it out after work. I hope it works out. I cant wait to see the look on Ben's face when we finally have something set up for him. And its big enough that he'll be able to have some friends over to play.

Happy Birthday

Today is aunt Prasti and Todd's birthday. We all had dinner at Aaron and Prasti's tonight to celebrate.

Benjamin had a busy weekend. He spent most of the day outside with gram on Friday and loved every minute. He screamed when it was time to come inside. Jon and Ben went for a bike ride Saturday morning and stopped to watch Tyler's soccer game. Ben loves relaxing in the bike trailer. Saturday night we started our search for a swing set and Ben tried out his first bike while we were at the store. He didn't quite master the pedals, but liked being pushed around on it.

The new chicken pox

We found out today that Benjamin has chicken pox. He got a rash on his stomach Sunday night. It didn't look like anything out of the ordinary, but then he started getting another rash on his arms and legs. They are little red spots that look like bug bites or zits. Only a couple of them looked like they could have fluid in them so we had basically ruled out chicken pox. The doctor said the vaccine has changed the look of the virus over the years, but he definitely has them. We didn't get a lot of answers like how did he get them even though he's been vaccinated and could he get them again? This seems to be a mild case so we don't know if enough immunity has been built up. Obviously, Ben couldn't go to story time tonight and will miss the play room tomorrow. He cant be around kids or ill people especially those with cancer so the doctor is advising we pretty much keep him at home until everything has crusted over. It seems to be moving quickly so as long as he doesn't get any new spots, he could be over this by Friday. Even though the weather is beautiful, Ben is making the best of staying home.

Water Bill

Well, I think our water bill is about to go through the roof. Last night, Ben discovered he can flush the toilet. After he did it, he said "yeah" and clapped and had a big smile on his face. It was hard not to laugh so now it's going to be difficult to get him to stop. Maybe the promise of getting to flush will be good incentive for potty training!

Animal fun

One of Ben's favorite things is to climb up on "his" chair in the living room and go through a book. He has a few of them with animals in them and is slowly learning what each says. He can do a pig (although its more throaty than nasal), dog, tiger and monkey. Here he is showing off some noises:

Ben has been great the past few days. He's been talking up a storm. He has to eat everything that dad eats from bagels to Chipotle, he used sign language this morning when he wanted more of a snack--I'm guessing he picked it up from his cousin, Emma. He went from several time outs in a day to 2 time outs in the past week. I'm not sure what changed, but I hope it sticks!

We had our visit from the Help Me Grow people yesterday. I'm actually kind of disappointed with them. They advised me that they would evaluate every aspect, not just his speech. However, they seemed to evaluate everything, but his speech. They were here for about 1.5 hours and spent less than 5 minutes on speech issues. She said in every other way he is an average 18-24 mo old kid. It was nice to get that reassurance. The counselor will write a report and our case worker will come out and go over it in detail with us. They are recommending speech therapy, but only because I'm concerned. If we choose to go ahead with it, yet another person will come out to evaluate him and get him going on a plan. He's been doing so well with picking up new words, I don't know if we'll go through with speech therapy. I think he's just going at his own pace. I guess we'll wait and see exactly what the report says.

On a happier note, Ben has been much less cranky that he was last week. He seems to be getting back to himself.

More bubble fun...

Its been a while

I know, its been almost a week. I'll try to do better this week! Benjamin had a rough couple days. I don't know if he still hasn't adjusted to being back in Ohio or if something else is up with him, but he's been extra cranky recently. Between crying spells, we managed to go to the park on Thursday. It was still a little cold, but Ben had fun with it.

We went out for bagels Saturday morning. Ben ended up eating most of Jon's bagel. He definitely has an appetite--when he's in a good mood.

We had dinner at Aaron's house with some family and friends. Ben ate several bites of Jon's fajita then scammed ice cream from me and aunt Corrie!