Happy Birthday TWO Ben!

Ben's birthday was Friday, and we've been partying like two-year olds for the past couple of days. On Friday both sets of grandparents drove in to SA, along with his Aunt Sandy, Aunt Kate & Uncle Eric for a family celebration (complete with Earl Abel's fried chicken and two kinds of pie). Then Saturday some of our fantastic friends joined us for Ben's wild animal-themed birthday party. The tropical bouncy castle we rented and all the fun time with friends gave Ben such a wonderful birthday!

On Friday he had his two-year check up at the doctor's office. His height is now 34.25 inches (45%) and he's weighing in at 27 lb 2 oz (40%). So he's not as tall for his age as he was a while back, but the doctor thought he is probably going through a growth spurt right now (given that he just needed bigger shoes and he's been waking up and wanting milk in the middle of the night all of a sudden). (Fun times for mama.)

Ben's also been making all sorts of mental leaps too. The doctor even called his vocabulary "amazing" (specifically all the animals he was showing her in a book and all the Star Wars characters he knows in their Star Wars-themed exam room). Of course I think he's amazing, but when the pediatrician says it, *mama glows*.

Ben is now remembering words after only hearing them once or twice, and he is also putting words together in funny new ways (like telling me how his Pappy and his grandmother Irene drive a "big ol' truck".) There is SO much going on in his little head, and it's incredible to get to share his thoughts!

Ben got (& needed) a lot of help with gifts

For example, the other day, Ben and I were pretending to play an imaginary piano, and he said "piano Grandpa" (his grandparents have a piano), then "far airplane" (we have to take an airplane ride to visit Gramma and Grandpa). I found it pretty awesome that he's understanding that concept and wanting to talk about it. (Previously I sort of worried that he thought we didn't see his family much because we (or they) just didn't want to. It's nice to know he's starting to understand that distance is the only thing keeping him getting constant cuddles from family.)

Oh, and as of yesterday, we're trying a great-and-terrifying (for me) experiment: NOT putting the baby gates back up in the kitchen and bathroom. Which means he is currently a free-range toddler, having access to the cat's food and water, the kitchen trash *gross*, the kitty litter box *yuck*, and *ick!* the toilet. Ben did great with the gates down yesterday and today, so I'm hoping hoping hoping we can keep the gates put away.  Clay and I have lived with baby gates up in our house for 8 years now (since we needed them for our dog, too). How fantastic it'll be when there won't be multiple hurdles around the house!

Aunt Sandy & Gramma

I feel like sometimes I don't even notice how so many of the not-so-pleasant habits Benito used to have, have slowly melted away. For example, we rarely have to catch mouthfuls of spit out food as he aims them at the floor anymore, his former exquisite joy in destroying everything seems to have ebbed a little, and he can even manage to sit on my lap at the computer and NOT pound every key on the keyboard. I need to stop and appreciate these things more often, I think. Especially since his "tricky two's" have already set in with yelling "no!" about things he really does want, or shoving his best friend, Auden, and then saying, "I sorry!"  Oh, and (my new favorite): needing constant verbal attention when Clay and I just want to have one short conversation over dinner.


That's okay though. Most of the time, Ben is an extreme joy to be around. I am so so so so so happy that I get to be his mom!

Okay, boys, tell us how you REALLY feel about bouncy castles!

One year ago... what a difference 12 months makes!

birthday gifts from Mama and Dad

take THAT LeBron James

figured out how to put his sandals on all by himself on Friday!

ALMOST a smile at the doctor's office

This is the worst trip I've e-ver been on (A.K.A. Beach (Hating) Boy)

Who HATES the ocean? This guy.

Nice wet squishy sand? Beautiful sloshing waves? Other little kids running and screaming for joy? Ben clings to his parents in terror and spends over an hour refusing to be set down. So much for our first beach adventure.

all dressed up and no where (safe) to go

Ben loved the mirror on the hotel elevator's ceiling

In a way, that was typical of our weekend adventure in south Texas. Last Friday Clay had some work to do for one of his cases in Brownsville, so we all drove down Thursday night.  Friday evening we had a wedding (of one of Clay's former classmates) to attend. We were pretty excited that we would be able to combine business with pleasure, and turn the weekend into a little family vacation.

However, nothing on this trip went quite the way we hoped it would. I ending up having to cut short Ben's fun at the Brownsville Children's Museum Friday morning, and then Ben's two-year-old hyper-self did not want to conform to the solemnity of a Catholic church wedding.  While he looked quite dapper in his button-up shirt and bowtie, at the start of the ceremony Ben was super wiggly and noisy and then clapped and said "yea!" loudly just when the bride finished her grand entrance. Cringe. In order to save the decorum of the ceremony, I took him outside for the rest of the wedding, where he proceeded to try to run into the street, pick up trash and generally run his mother ragged. (P.S. I hate you, high-heeled shoes!)

This morning I was so excited to go to South Padre beach, thinking how much fun our boy would have digging in the sand and splashing and running around, and how that would help him sleep on the 4.5 hour car ride back to SA... yeah, not so much.  (Poor, terrified little guy.) 

But we did end up having a delicious seafood lunch before we headed back, and Benito DID end up napping for almost two hours on the way back, so all-in-all I guess it was a worthwhile adventure after all.

**(below) Brownsville Children's Museum madness**

   

spent (literally) 20 minutes "driving" this car)

***... then this is what was waving good-bye to us from the side of the road on our way out of South Padre this morning??***

NOLA: Oh glorious (Ben-heartsore) liberty

Hurray for freeeeeeeedom vs. I miss Ben so much I want to go home RIGHT now: that's how I would describe my clashing mindset during our first vacation without Benito. Clay's fantastic parents watched Ben for a long weekend while Clay and I went to New Orleans for Amerivespa 2014 (a national scooter rally that takes place in a different U.S. city each year). I have never in my life felt such conflicting emotions as when we were dropped off at the San Antonio airport without a demanding toddler to carry, entertain, and worry about; feeling so ecstatic and so forlorn I had to go to the airport bathroom for a good cry. Sheesh. I think it was good for all of us, though.

I'd never been to New Orleans before, but I feel like we got a nice taste of the city riding around on Clay's scoot. You definitely see the world differently on two wheels, and New Orleans is a pretty incredible place to ride around in. We split our time between doing rally stuff (including an awesome, 500-scooter, police-escorted ride on the bridge over the Mississippi River), wandering around town by ourselves, and hanging out with one of Clay's local friends, Kevin. He introduced us to some fantastic restaurants that are way off tourists' radar. (I had one of the best meals of my entire life at Toups: buttery bone marrow with escargot and chicken liver mousse on toast.... followed by the bone marrow luge--they pour a shot of whiskey down the bone tube from your meal. YES.)

beignets & coffee @ Cafe Du Monde

rainy morning in the French Quarter

outside Faulkner's house in Pirate's Alley

a Sazerac @ the Sazerac Bar

bone marrow, escargot & liver mousse

...While back at home, Ben was living it up in the best hands ever. (Clay's parents are so wonderful!)...

Ben, King of the Desert (or perhaps a visiting earl?)

post breakfast picnic @ McKelligan Canyon

learning to climb trees

two thumbs up for Unk Greg

Sometimes Clay has to travel for work, which can make for some lonesome times for Ben and I. The good part about this not-so-great facet of his work is that when Clay is going to be out of town for several nights in a row, Ben and I can use Clay's frequent flyer miles to go visit my parents.

So... less than four days after we saw my parents in San Antonio, Ben and I flew to west Texas to stay with them for a few days this week.

Even in this short amount of a time (since last seeing his grandparents), Ben has progressed from saying "krampa" to "grampa." He has also started interjecting "gooness!" ("goodness!") and "pufict!" ("perfect!") into conversations. However, his most fabulous verbal development was when he said "I love you" to me (for the first time ever) after a nice lunch with my parents. He had said "I love" to Clay before, but never to me. 

Heart melted.

Ben says "I love you"

TRUE breakfast of champions: red cheese enchiladas with a fried egg on top

*** Below: this is what happens when Ben spends three days getting entertained by his grandparents, goes without a nap, and eats a big dinner. ***

Krrrampa & Gramma come to town

We had a fabulous long weekend with my parents coming to stay with us. We had loads of fun at Morgan's Wonderland Amusement Park, where Gramma got to ride a carousel with Ben, and Ben got to "drive" a jeep. We went on safari at the SA zoo, petting sleepy piggies and goats in the petting zoo and enjoying the hippos and elephant especially. And (of course) we had loads of delicious family meals and hanging out time at home. I even remembered to pull out the old schoolhouse Ben's great-grandpa built about 60 years ago (and managed to secure it safely to the table with a belt). It is definitely Ben's new favorite toy. Oh, how I wish we all lived closer!!!!

having a "serious" conversation with "Krampa"

playing house with Gramma

Uncle Matt drove in from Houston for some family time too (here Ben is shooting a water cannon @ Morgan's Wonderland)

story snuggles

Beep! Beep! Who's got the keys to the jeep? (@ Morgan's Wonderland)

Guess what? Hippo butt.

Ben actually helped "Unk" stack some blocks!

When playtime gets TOO exciting

my blue boy

broccoli is definitely finger food

so are lamb chops