Apparently we’ve reached that point in life where people are more interested in our kids than us. I guess we’ve gotten so boring that we now exist only as a function of our children. Perhaps we’ll rename the site www.benandabisparents.com.
Since I’ve been told that I need to blog about the kids more, I figured at least a brief update is in order.
Ben remains a bit behind on his speaking, but he’s really improved in the past month. He’s way more confident about trying new words, and does a pretty good job verbalizing what he wants/needs. He’ll often confuse his word order so “Ben’s blue car” becomes “Blue car Ben” but we get the idea, and we’re glad he’s using words. He usually refers to himself in the third person, but its awful cute and first person pronouns are tricky to teach.
Nic and Ben are going to a Kids Ability class on Monday mornings to give them some tips on how to help him.
His fine motor skills, and his problem solving skills, however, lack for nothing. If you don’t bring him a pickle when he asks, he’s perfectly OK with opening the fridge and getting the pickle jar out for you.
He also drove his first car this past weekend — an early, but surely not the last, flirtation with the joys of motorized speed.
Abi is fairly advanced, we think, on her talking. She’ll mimic most things that Ben says, although she probably only understands the meaning behind her own repertoire of words and phrases. Its safe to say she’s firmly ensconced in toddler territory, and definitely not a baby any more.
She’s getting a little bit better at holding her own against Ben when he steals toys away from her, and recently added “MINE!” to her vocabulary — which is fine, because until now, Ben was sure that everything in the house belonged to him. We’re working on the concept of sharing, and taking turns, but that’s slow going.
It might be wrong to think it, but we wish Abi was a little more into TV. We don’t let either of them stare at the idiot box for too long, but there are moments when its nice to have them distracted for a bit while the floor gets swept, or a meal gets made or cleaned up. Ben calls it TT, and as soon as it goes on, he becomes immobile. Abi occasionally checks it out, but fairly promptly resumes pulling kitchen utensils out of drawers faster than you can clean up behind her.
Fortunately both of them like books — reading to them is great, but its adorable when they “read” to themselves.
Unfortunately, this has been about the grayest summer I remember, so they haven’t been outside as much as we’d like. But they love their sandbox, and they love the water, so whenever we get a chance, we find ways to enjoy those things with them. They continue to be beautiful, and generally well-behaved little monsters, and we’re lucky to have them both.
Yeah, it does tend to happen that way, but kids become more externally focused after a while, and less centered on their parents, and then you get a little more of your own identity back. Funny though, you will always think of this time, when you had almost next to no time for yourself, as the best time of your life.
You probably forget that you used to say things in reverse order too. Even when you began to write, it was ‘Noj’ for the longest time. We thought it was so damn cute we were reluctant to correct it. Sorry!
You were a great kid, though: insatiably curious about the world. You also used to love to read, and it was such a joy watching you learn. Now you have taken that same joy and channeled it into parenting, and it is equally a joy to watch.
So God bless you, son, on your birthday, the last one of your twenties – isn’t that an eye opener! You have got a lot of what the world considers a great life in your lap. Enjoy it to the full.