It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like.....

He's a Boy! A Real Boy!

I always think about that line from Pinocchio when I think about how much Bennett is growing and learning. He's becoming less helpless newborn and more capable boy (albeit a small one)!

Here are some things he's doing right now:

• Trying to get through the long list of vegetables before we move on to fruits
• Reaching for the dog every chance he gets. Ollie is both interested and unnerved by this, so I keep a close eye on their interactions.
• Sitting at the table in his high chair. This is still new and exciting. The problem is that he just gets to sit there and watch us eat food he can't have. :-) Sometimes he expresses his displeasure over this!
• Playing in the Johnny Jump-Up. HE LOVES IT!
• Starting to play the "drop things on purpose" game. This I could do without. :-)
• Saying a few consonant/vowel sounds. It's not quite "da da", but we'll call it "ta da" (which Jason claims) and something that sounds very esssssy but I can't quite describe it.
• Continuing to soak all his clothing and anything he gets his hands on in spit. Uggh.
• Sitting unassisted for long periods of time. It's hard, though, because we get used to him doing this well but then sometimes look over to find him toppled over on his face. 
• Manipulating my hands to play peek-a-boo or pat-a-cake. This is always so fascinating to me. At this stage, babies can't bring their own hands together to clap, but they know enough about the movement to do it with the aid of mom or dad's hands.

And here are some recent pics.

A Hodgepodge Picture Post

The blog has been a little Bennett-centric lately, so I thought I'd catch you up on a few things related to Bailey and Nolan. Don't worry, there's a few pics of Bennett in here, too. :-)

These cuties recently put on their best "restaurant" clothes - Nolan was the waiter and Bailey was the chef - and served us dinner, complete with handmade menus, table decorations, and music. Of course, they had to draw the line somewhere so I actually made the meal, but I didn't complain. The funny part is that I happened to make Cornish game hens that night, but the menu listed "hen meat" as the main dish. Somehow, that didn't sound quite as appetizing....

We FINALLY received the results of Bailey's 3rd grade statewide testing. You may remember this test was administered the week before Bennett was born. However, that was the week of his due date so Bailey was incredibly anxious about the possibility of having to miss either her tests or her brother's birth! :-) Fortunately, brother was 6 days late, so her concern was moot. Anyway, I'm so proud of her. In math, she missed only 2 questions on the entire test, putting her in the 95th percentile nationally. I told her that she needs to realize that I will no longer be able to help her in math after this year as I unfortunately was not blessed with the math gene. She also performed extremely well in Reading/Language and is reading on a 6.8 reading level.

Halloween was fun. Bailey wanted to be something SCARY this year. I suggested several options, and this is the final product. A head on a platter. Yeah.......

Bennett was a mouse in a mousetrap. How cute is this? Between Bailey's and Bennett's costumes, we were quite the spectacle walking around the neighborhood trick-or-treating.

Nolan wasn't interested in a homemade costume and was happy to be an "Army" as he told everyone. Not a soldier or Army man.....just Army.

Both the kids' parent-teacher conferences went well. I was a bit worried about Nolan's, as I'd been contacted by the teacher earlier in the year due to the fact that he'd been crying in school. He apparently had a hard time transitioning from his homeroom to another teacher's room for flex groups. Almost every day, he'd start crying for either me or Jason. We both think he was having trouble with his work in his flex group, but didn't know how to express that or ask for help. Anyway, we think we're over that hurdle, but I went into his conference not knowing if he was struggling in other areas of school. I was so pleased to hear wonderful things about our little guy. I think he'll have more school-related challenges than Bailey ever has, but it sounds like he's on the right track. Love him.

Bailey's teacher was also highly complimentary of her on both an academic and social level. She said she was excited to watch Bailey achieve great things in school and in life. Again, my kids are far from perfect, but it's nice to know that they know how to work hard and behave when they are in school. At home is sometimes a different story! :-) I don't have a pic of anything related to Bailey's conference, so I'll post her school pic instead.

That's it for now!