Storytelling, Smarting Off, and Split Personality Disorder

Ben LOVES when we tell him made-up stories and he loves to make them up too. Many times a day he'll come up to me or Mike and say, "Tell me a scary story." I don't know what it is about scary stories that intrigues him?! He likes to be scared! If they aren't scary enough he will let us know. We usually incorporate some scary sound effects and faces to add to the excitement (and so does he!).

Tonight Ben was going off on one of his storytelling rants and, I'm not joking, he was talking non-stop for 10 minutes or more just going on, and on (stopping only to take an occasional breath). His story was about a scary, red monster with no ears (I don't know about you, but earless monsters really FREAK me out!? :) ) Anyway, whenever he tells a story he loves to throw in the phrase..."when all of a sudden...". I think it adds a dramatic element to the story, don't you?! Part of his story tonight involved the monster getting a "sore booty" and saying, in a very stern tone, "Change my diaper!" Ooooohhhhh....nothing scares me more than a bad case of diaper rash! :) Throughout the story the freaky, red, earless monster interacted with just about every cartoon character known to man (boots, dora, diego, diego's jaguar, pooh, kanga, roo, monty and max, thomas and the list goes on!). He ended the story by saying that we got away from the monster by running "as fast as our feet would carry us." What a nut!? I just LOVE it!

On another, not so cute, note...

I raised my voice at Ben yesterday because he wasn't listening to me. This was his response (Warning: It's not pretty!)... "Mommy, don't yell at me. That's not nice. You are disrespectfuling me. You don't tell me what to do. I tell you what to do. I am in charge." My immediate thought was, "OH MY GOSH, what a little booger!" DISRESPECTFULING? I guess he couldn't decide if he wanted to tell me that I was disrespecting him or that I was being disrespectful?! Everything he said was something I've told him before and apparently he felt the time was right to throw it all back at me. It was hard not to just laugh...but, of course, I had to do the motherly thing and tell him that he can't talk to mommy like that and that he needs to obey me when I ask him to do something...etc, etc. Oh...and I apologized for raising my voice at him too...since he was right, that's not very nice! :) I have a feeling this is just the beginning of many "smarty pants" comments to come. Oh boy!

Last, but not least...

During Ben's bath last night I thought maybe he had split personality disorder. Below is the progression of moods I witnessed in about a two minute time span. At least he has rapid rebound time, right?

All smiles in the bathtub.

30 seconds later (his band aid fell off his hand exposing his very serious wound to the warm bath water).At this point he is probably thinking..."Mom, I'm serious. This really hurts. Look at it. Don't you feel my pain?" I guess it wasn't THAT bad. He's back to smiling within a minute.
P.S. As I was writing this post I heard him in the kitchen looking out the deck window talking to the flowers. He said... "I love you so much, flowers. I can hardly stand it." Where does he get this stuff!? :)

Random pics from our weekend...

We had a nice time eating lunch and celebrating Mother's Day at The Barn today with Nana and Papa. It's been windy, rainy and cold here...so we all got a little wet...but the food was good! We spent a little time at Papa and Nana's house afterwards and Ben and Papa had fun playing in the Thomas ball pit (see pics below). Ben has had an awful sounding cough all weekend long, so we didn't feel right about taking him to Sunday school this morning (even though he is acting fine). I know how I feel when other kids are coughing germs all over Ben...and I didn't want to be THAT mom! I was really bummed to miss church on Mother's Day!

Anyway, just thought I'd share a few random pictures from our weekend.

Food on his face, no pants, big mouth, skinny legs....this combo makes for a lovely picture, doesn't it? :)

I guess this is a comfy place to hang out?!

Ben in his jammies posing with the cute Mother's Day gift he made for me (Nana helped him make it).

The two moms at The Barn.

Yes, Papa is actually IN the Thomas ball pit with Ben. They had a good time, but he had to refill it with air once he got out. :)

To our moms...

We wanted to pay a little tribute to our moms in honor of Mother's Day tomorrow. I think it's safe to say that we really lucked out! Not only are they great moms to us, but Grammy and Nana are also two of the best grandmas we know. We are so blessed to have them in our lives.

So, to our moms... thank you for all the hours you've spent in prayer for us over the years and for how much you love Ben. Thank you for your encouragement and advice. Thank you for your friendship. Life wouldn't be this good if you weren't in it. We love you and appreciate you so much this Mother's Day!

We love you, Nana!

We love you, Grammy!

Friendly Monsters

I know, I know...I'm a blogging machine.....but I can't help it! :) I took this video tonight as I was getting Ben ready for bed. We were sitting in the chair in his bedroom having a funny conversation about monsters and ghosts. I know most kids his age are afraid of monsters, but my child thinks they are all friendly, so what's the harm, right?! Just thought you might enjoy a peek into his goofy imagination! (Warning: This video is 3:20 long...sorry!!)

Fun at the park!

Today Ben and I spent the afternoon at Hubbard Valley Park. It's a gorgeous day, 68 degrees and sunny, so I wanted to take advantage of it! We walked around the lake, played on the playground, and ate lunch. Anyone who knows Ben knows that he LOVES throwing rocks into any body of water...so, for a good 45 minutes or so, we did nothing but throw rocks, twigs, and snails into the lake. Woohoo! I just love how sweet and simple life is for my almost three year old!

Dandelions and Dora...

I just wanted to send a shout out to my Aunt Beth to thank her for the balloons she so kindly bought for Ben after seeing the whole balloon debacle on our blog the other night. When we arrived in Illinois, two balloons (a Dora and a Thomas) were waiting for Ben. He was very excited and has already been lugging them around the house. I don't think he'll be taking them outside anytime soon! :)

We spent an hour or so outside today eating a picnic lunch and playing in the lovely (??) field of dandelions growing in the common space just past our backyard. I realize these are nothing more than weeds, but they do make for a colorful picture.

My Illinois family!

We traveled to Illinois this weekend to visit my mom's side of the family and to attend my cousin Hayley's wedding. My mom has seven sisters and one brother so, as you can imagine, I have LOTS of aunts, uncles, and cousins to love! We had fun just hanging out for most of the weekend. The drive was a little over seven hours, but Ben was a real trooper. At any given point during the trip, he was either...(a) talking to himself in the backseat, (b) watching his Tom and Jerry DVD and eating Burger King french fries, (c) singing along to the Cat Stevens CD we had playing (I'm serious...his favorite song is "Moonshadow"...he knows a lot of the words and asked for us to put it on repeatedly) or (d) sleeping. Below are LOTS of pictures from our trip...enjoy!

Congratulations, Hayley and Sean! They were actually married a year ago, just before Sean left for Iraq. They finally had their traditional wedding ceremony for friends and family to attend this weekend. Hayley was a beautiful bride and the food at the reception was AWESOME. Do you like the cake topper? :) The pretty bridesmaids, Hayley's sisters, Molly and Leslie. Yes, for those of you who pay attention to detail, we are all three wearing the same exact outfits we wore to the last wedding we attended. Oh well, it was a different crowd and nobody knew that we only own one outfit each that is actually acceptable to wear to a wedding...until now. I never realized that having a blog would force me to reconsider my clothing choices?! :) (Ben was cold and tired in this picture...hence the blanket and the tired eyes!)