Buses and Smiling

Have I mentioned Ben is fascinated with buses?  He loves buses more than I ever imagined a little kid could and also really like cars, trucks and fire trucks of course.  He spends time laying on the ground or at the table moving his cars, trucks and buses around over and over again.  I have to admit, that I love when he lays on the ground and acts like a little boy pushing his car around and bumping them into each other.  This is now an everyday occurrence and he has to travel with at least one if not more of his buses when we leave the house.  Here is a pic of what our coffee table looks like everyday since he lines up and rearranges his vehicles on it.

Then onto bedtime.  He still is a really good sleeper at night, but his pre-bedtime rituals are quite amusing.  Thanks to our video monitor we get to watch it all unfold and I can't help but laugh almost every time.  He still has a pillow, two blankets, two woobies (security blankets/animals), diapers, a jayhawk and plush football that he sleeps with.  I'm sure I've mentioned this all before, but instead of him just piling everything together and pouncing on it he now gets some exercise and last minute energy out by hanging onto the side rail and jumping for a bit then falling onto his bottom.  He sometimes lets out a giggle at this as well.  I'm sure it's only a matter of time until he climbs out of his crib, but I'm really hoping that day is far, far away as I'm not sure he'll ever sleep if he has his whole room to play with and no confinement within it.  I've seen him play with books and diapers for hours so I'm afraid when he does get out of his crib, his good sleeping nights are over.  Only time will tell.

Next up is Ashley - our princess.  And yes, I'm not ashamed to call her our princess as she is way too sweet and quiet to fit in around Ben.  They truly are polar opposites and in a way I'm glad we have the two extremes.  She's still doing really well at night (majority of the nights) with sleeping after each bottle and going about 4-5 hours in between nighttime feedings.  She's also been smiling on purpose as of this last week and I have to say it's adorable.  I love talking to her and being able to see her light up with a big gummy grin - she's too cute.  I don't have great pictures of it yet, but I'm working on it so this one will have to do until I get the full out grin.

All Clean!



Peaceful

Happy Easter!

I hope everyone has a happy Easter today.  Our festivities started on Friday night with dyeing the eggs.  Ben had fun throwing them into the cups instead of gently dropping them.  Bri was not a big fan of this as he ended up getting splashed with it.  Still fun to see how excited Ben was with his accomplishment and disobeying all at once.  He really enjoyed the stickers that came with the kit though and had them all over his stomach and arms.

Going over colors with Dada

Enjoying the stickers while the eggs are in the dye

Throwing the egg into the cup of dye

Then Saturday we had an Easter egg hunt with my work at a park.  Ben loved collecting the eggs and got more than his fair share that we were supposed to keep since he kept saying 'more' as we saw them all over the ground.  I attempted to take some out of his basket, but he quickly learned this trick and kept turning around to make sure he didn't leave any behind.  He was terrified of the Easter bunny though and kept saying 'nice' and pointing to him - I think trying to convince himself that the Easter bunny really is nice and not scary.

A little scared of the Easter bunny

Already has his eyes on the next egg

Cheese!

There's more over there!

I got a sucker from this egg!

And of course today the Easter bunny came and brought Ben some candy.  He also hid eggs out in the yard and Ben even found some tough ones out there!  He can be pretty clever even if he doesn't always act it.  Ben also wanted to hold sissy and loved getting his picture taken with her.  When I tried to pick her up he said no and insisted on more pictures.  He was too cute with her.

Holding Ashley's hand

Cheese!

Love this pic...

Diapers, Diapers, Diapers!

Ben has an obsession lately with diapers and likes to stack them and move them from pile to pile.  He seems to steal all of Ashley's diapers from the pack n play so it's not easy for me to find any when I need to change her, but when I find one I find a ton!  Here's a video of him with his 'normal' diaper routine.  He likes to pick them up one at a time and hand them to Bri or I.  He even calls out who's on the diapers (sesame street characters) and indicates 'yuck' for inside the diaper where you go potty.  He's even had to go to sleep with some in his crib because he wouldn't let go of them one night.  Who knew diapers were hours of entertainment both on and off?!

He also likes to help around the house - I only wish he could maneuver the vacuum a little better and maybe I'd be off the hook for it!

And of course he likes to 'pet' and hold Ashley.  Oh and the binky in his mouth is back due to the fact that Ashley gets one.  He tends to steal them and shove them in his mouth to get attention like her.  He doesn't sleep with it or leave the house with it, it's mainly a short stint and then he leaves it somewhere that I have to eventually find.  If that's the worst of it - I'll definitely take it!