How I Love These Boys!

Wow-almost five year olds are a handful! Ben is so silly, particular, creative, thoughtful, and empathic. He pushes, screams at, and sticks up for his brother and asks if he can kiss Eli about a billion times a day. (Most of the time the answer is "no.") He hardly plays with toys; instead he builds things out of tape and cardboard, sings made up songs, and runs around the house. He has lost all his baby chub and looks much more like a 'boy." He and Eli have been taking swim lessons this summer and now when he jumps in the pool he wants to touch the bottom. This is so different from the boy who shrieked when we washed his hair! I taught him to play Uno and Josh and Ben have been playing chess quite a bit. We also have been reading tons of books--Alice Through the Looking Glass, Mary Poppins, The Little House series, Magic Treehouse, and numerous picture books. We are new and BIG Mo Willems fans. Ben's new favorite song to sing is William's Doll and he has just watched Mary Poppins and The (original) Parent Trap. His eating habits keep us on our toes--he still loves strawberries, jam sandwiches (which we decorate with edible markers--Josh draws molecules), lamb, millet, smoothies, pizza, and he is also eating cheese again as well as red pasta sauce. He is nervous about starting Kindergarten, but we think that we have found a school that is a good match. It has small classes and is fairly alternative, slightly chaotic, very inclusive, and seems like a nice community of people. Here are a few Ben stories--
Ben was looking at our wedding picture the other day and said that Josh and I looked fancy. I told him that Josh was not so interested in wearing the tuxedo and Ben replied, "He may not like to wear those clothes, but he looks like he sure liked hanging out with you!" How sweet! Ben wants gold colored foil for his birthday (that is gold colored on both sides--to make gold coins). He and I were looking at some foil online and I told him that I didn't think they made it on both sides. He looked at me and said,"Mom, I will be OK with anything you get me because it is a birthday present from you!" Oh my god--I love him!


Eli. When Eli cups my cheek in his hands or kisses me lightly on the nose or puts his hand on my arm while I am reading to him or grabs Josh and I for a three way hug and cuddles into Josh's shoulder it melts my heart. He LOVES everything, is excited about everything, and everyone wants to hug him. He naps in his bed, goes to sleep easily, and started wearing underwear (even during nap) the moment that I told him that one of his friends started wearing underwear. He twirls his hair like my mom. He is so appreciative when we buy him fake cheese or restock his favorite salad dressing. He loves BBQ sauce and Penzy's BBQ 3000 spice. Really, he dips his carrots in it and drank it in his water during dinner last night. He wants to put his pj's on himself and is glad that we took the child safety lock off of the back door so that he can help let Molly out. He frequently hits and scratches, but quickly gets over any anger or sadness by cuddling into my neck for a few quiet moments. He tells funny and nonsensical stories and is quite focused on things dying and coming back to life. He likes watching our fish when he wakes up and before he goes to sleep and sometimes still sleeps with his dolls or sea otter. He sleeps with cards that I made him under his pillow. He just picked out new shoes (to match Ben's) and still likes to wear red shirts and shorts. His laugh is contagious and full. He talks in his sleep or cries out and remembers his dreams (he used to just tell us that he dreams about boats and water). He likes to show strangers anything that interests him--today he showed his blisters to a mom at swimming by repeating, "Look! Look!" loudly. And when we leave swimming he LOUDLY screams "Goodbye, Adrienne" to his teacher who, by then, is across the pool. Eli also frequently and randomly reminds us, "Remember...don't let the pigeon drive the bus!"