Benny Boo

Oh, Bennett.  Be still my heart.  My precious, impulsive, loving, explosive, cuddly, tempermental, extra sweet son, what will I do with you!  I love this child with every ounce of my being, and he tests my patience with every once of his!  I hate that I missed out on writing a birthday post on him last year as I took a hiatus from blogging, so I'll write his update now...only about eight months late!  Bennett at two is my twoest two year old to date.  The other kids were difficult at age three.  I'm PRAYING that Bennett gets all his shenanigans out of the way now.  He is love in bodily form, always ready for a kiss, a hug or a cuddle.  I'm soaking up all that sweet loving little boyness right now because I'm positive that it won't last forever.  He frequently comes to me and tells me he wants to "nuggle."  We do lots and lots of "nuggling" even at night when I know I should put him right back to bed when he wonders in in the middle of the night.  Instead, I let him "nuggle" up with me until that little body relaxes and that breathing gets heavy.  Eventually I take him back to bed, but not before I smell his little boy hair and kiss his soft skin.  I think he benefits from being the last because I'm much more willing to allow him to climb into bed with us!

 Bennett has a lot of words and uses a wide variety, but we can't always understand him!  He can't say his r's, or his s's, or his f's for that matter!  We often look at him as he's repeating the same unintelligible phrase over and over and quote the line from Finding Nemo, "Look, you're really cute kid, but I don't know what you're saying!"  or "He's trying to speak to me, I know it!" Some funny Bennettisms are "phone call(cell phone)"  "Taggie mankie(blanket)".  He calls his siblings Mawa and Tistan.  He's cutest when he attempts to sing his ABC's or the Timeline song. I'm almost ready to get him started in speech therapy, but I figure I'll give it until his third birthday to see if he can sort this out on his own. 

 Bennett can be sweet as can be.  He truly looks up to his older siblings and want so badly to be a part of their games, but he's a classic younger brother, always stealing away vital pieces of their game or knocking something over.  He adds a lot of friction to every single interchange he has with his siblings and there's a lot of crying.  A LOT of crying.  I've talked with the other kids about distraction techniques and how sometimes it's just easier to let him have the item in dispute and reclaim it when he loses interest in .3 seconds, but they're mostly too young to really get that.  We're working on self control and people skills, but it's a work in progress.

 Bennett loves balls. He's loved them from the time he was old enough to grasp one.  He will shoot hoops at the mini goal in our foyer for a half hour at a time.  Often, while we're schooling, I can hear him out there, bounce, bounce, swish.  We have a whole toy chest filled with nothing but balls and that's pretty much all he plays with from morning to night.  That, and a pirate sword.  He also packs heat wherever he goes.  I frequently find a sword shoved down the back of his sleeper, down his pants, or through a belt loop.  The kid just loves weapons! He also loves to play rough.  If I'm not really careful with him, he can really hurt me.  He loves to hurdle toward me at breakneck speed and slam into me.  He loves to be tossed around and wrestled with too. He frequently throws balls at me without my being aware that a ball is coming my way, and he can really pitch balls!  I am very lucky to have escaped serious injury thus far!

 Bennett can, and will, get into everything.  If there is something I don't want him to touch, I have to put it at least two feet higher than I think I should.  He knows how to get a chair and reach almost everything.  He gets into something every single time he visits Grammy's house.  Last time he got all her scissors and cut the serger strings.  This time he explored the bathroom, turned on the hairdryer and rummaged through the medicine drawer.  He must be supervised constantly or he really gets into trouble.  I found him the other day with lipstick all over his cheeks and hands.  He was pretending to be an Indian.  Sigh..  He's also extremely strong willed, and once he gets an idea, he's not going to bend from this idea.  This has lead to some major tantrums.  We start almost every meal with tears and tantrums because we can't possibly give in to all his demands about where he's seated, which cup he has, which place mat, which plate.  He's very indecisive and you can think you're doing right by having him choose these things himself, but he'll often change his mind just after you pour the milk or fill the plate and a tantrum ensues.  I can only hope that this is one stage we can parent him out of!

We are so richly blessed to have this bundle of joy and energy in our lives.  He makes me laugh every single day and his antics and expressions are just precious.  I can't help but soak up every bit of his little boyness because I know he'll grow up too quickly, on to bigger boy things and the inevitable ball games that he's already prepping for.  I love you Benny BooBoo(as he referred to himself the other day).  You truly have my heart little man!