I'm Still Here

I have been very negligent of my blog lately I know. In all my spare time (i.e. time when Ben is asleep), I have been working on a gift for my little sister-in-law for her high school graduation, and also working on projects for Ben's upcoming birthday party. I have been planning it for so long now, that I really can't believe it is now just three weeks from today. I still have plenty to do, but I enjoy doing it so much. I'm not all that crafty outside of planning parties, so it feels good to be creative. It also just makes me feel really good to make a big deal out of the day for my son, and lets face it for me. It was after all a life changing day for me too. : ) I opted for one simple thing this year, and that was evites. I found a great website that I actually way prefer over the traditional evites website, called punchbowl. It gives so many more options, such as setting up gift registries and organizing food assignments if the event happened to be a potluck. I also love that people actually RSVP this way too. Almost half my guests have already RSVP'd since sending it last night. You can check it out here.

I'll probably be not so good again about posting until this party is done. Perhaps a few sneak peeks though before. Stay tuned. And just because blog posts are boring without a pic, here you go.

What Did You Say?!

Ben shocks me everyday with what he can say and what he is absorbing. Kids are sponges after all, and my child is VERY porous.

On Wednesday we met some friends at a park within about a seven minutes walk from the house. When we got home I realized that the keys were not in the stroller and must have fallen out when I folded up the stroller. I told Ben the news and that we would have to walk back to the park to hunt for the keys. His response? "You gotta be kidding me."

Whenever my voice starts to raise at him insisting that he do whatever it is I am asking him to do (i.e. "Bentley get over here NOW and get your jammies on.") I have to turn my head so he doesn't see me laugh as he responds with either "calm down, mommy," or "geez, cool it, cool it."

I am constantly telling Ben that I love him, which he always responds with an "I love you too, mommy." Recently he has been initiating the I love you's, but of course says "I love you too!"

On Mother's Day my son told me one of the most heart wrenching phrases (other than his I love you too's): "I so proud of you mommy!" I'll tell you what he is so proud of me for soon. Stay tuned . . .

I love this kid so much. And he loves him some corn on the cob!

Easter Sunday

The decor . . .

The food . . .

The guests . . .

The reason . . .

Rainbow Cupcakes

I have seen these rainbow cupcakes on the web for sometime now and have been wanting to try them. So what better time than Spring to enjoy a colorful treat. Ben was a big help. First I mixed a box of white cake mix together and then divided the batter into five small bowls. Next I added a few drops of neon food coloring to each bowl and stirred (this is where Ben came in). Then you simply scoop the batter into the cupcake liners one color at a time layering them (I guess you could take a toothpick to swirl the colors together to create a tie dyed effect).

We were excited at our first glance at the cupcakes in the oven.

I piped on green icing with a leaf tip and then plopped some blue peeps on top to make them especially festive.

And here is a look at the inside. Super fun and easy!

Say Aaaahhhh!

Ben went to the dentist today. Really for the first time. He went when he turned one and sat on my lap while the doc took a brief glance at his few teeth he had then. So really this was his first time. And he was a champ! The dentist and dental assistant kept going on and on about how good he was. My child loves doctors and dentists. It's strange but boy am I thankful. Makes it so much easier. He climbed right up into the chair eagerly waiting for his dentist to arrive. While he got pretty quiet and hesitated opening his mouth real wide for her, he let her look at all of his teeth and even clean some plaque off with the scrapper. He however, was not a fan of the polisher and only let her do a few teeth before he was done. She said she just wanted to get him acquainted with it and it wasn't necessary to do till his next checkup in six months.

I really like the dentist we found. Not only is it in walking distance to our home, and the appointment was 100% covered by our awesome insurance, she was really great with him. She began the appointment by having Ben practice brushing the teeth of a stuffed dragon, and then the dragon squirted water at him, which Ben thought was pretty cool. She showed him all of her tools and what she would be doing with them, usually practicing on his hand first, so that he felt more comfortable.

I was told that I was doing a good job brushing, but that I need to start flossing his teeth. Usually baby teeth have spaces between them so this is not necessary, but Ben's teeth are right up against each other like adult teeth (which is why in my opinion his teeth are so pretty), so I have to floss them like adult teeth. I would just like to know one thing: how on EARTH am I supposed to do that. We gave it two tries today and I could barely get my fingers with the floss inside his tiny mouth. And after getting in between two teeth one time, Ben was through. I guess we will both just try our best. But overall it was a great checkup and it made me so proud of my big boy!

Family of Four

No this is not an announcement, but we are working on that . . . No, this Monday and Tuesday I got to sit for my friend's cute as a button 5-month-old baby girl, Adelyn. She is such a doll I tell you. On Monday Ben was napping in my bed, and then James came home and joined him, and then Addy fell asleep in my arms in the living room so we made our way into the room to join them. I sorta dozed off with her in my arms and when I awoke I looked over and couldn't help but feel like I was glancing into my future as a family of four. And I liked what I saw. Except hopefully all four of us in my bed will be a rare moment and not an everyday occurrence. Yikes!

I also got to see my little boy as he may be as a big brother. He really does love babies, and while I don't know how he will be with a baby in our home everyday, I think it is a rare and special thing how much love he has for babies. He was extremely helpful and was actually listening to my every request, so long as it related to helping with the baby. He kept giving her back her paci when she would spit it out, every time saying "here you go girl." And while eating his lunch, she began to fuss a little bit in my arm and Ben said "Oh, she needs me mom." And then looking right at Addy asked in a softer tone, "you need me girl?" I be right there. I almost done." I'm not delusional enough to believe that things are going to be perfect when baby #2 does come, but spending time with Addy made me really excited to see my baby become a big brother one day!

Easter Eggs- Both Real and Pretend

We had a lot of fun prepping for Easter this year. Ben was fully aware of the approaching holiday and was very curious about the Easter Bunny coming to his house. We also have been "playing Easter" for over a month now- aka hiding eggs around the house and hunting them out. So while playing playdough, I asked Ben what I should make and of course he asked for Easter eggs and the Easter Bunny. So I delivered.

Then for Family Night last Monday we decorated real eggs. As the eggs were cooling in the sink in a pot I saw Ben playing in the water a bit and didn't think much of it. Luckily James took a closer look at what he was doing and realized that he was crushing the eggs. We only lost about five of the eighteen, so it wasn't a total disaster. I knew I wanted to find a no mess egg dye kit and happened across a super easy kit. We simply placed the eggs in the included plastic baggies, dropped a couple dots of dye onto the eggs, and then swirled the eggs around in our hands until completely covered. Then we covered those babies in glitter and we were done. Ben even enjoyed eating the eggs afterward, although not as much as me. I had forgotten how much I loved hard boiled eggs and enjoyed a couple myself that very day (the ones that Ben had crushed in his apparently very strong hands).

More Easter pics to come from my first ever holiday hosting!