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Okay...so I've been a bad blogger lately...again!! I'm trying to get back on track. Here are some fun events that have been happening over the last couple of months. These photos were taken about a month ago. One lazy Sunday afternoon while Nate and I were relaxing Benjamin was playing quietly in his room. Next thing I know he comes out yelling "Mommy! Mommy! I dressed myself all by myself!" When I turned around to look at him I almost burst out laughing! WHAT an ensemble!! The cowboy hat is obvious...but can you see the boots? They are rain boots...dinosaur rain boots! And his "cowboy gloves" are actually gloves with a snowboarding Diego on them. And don't even ask about the pants...I don't know where he left them! After he did his fashion show he began to gallop around the house with his usual "Yee Haw Cowboy!"
Okay, so I know it was awhile ago (about two weeks ago actually!) but Benjamin turned 3 years old! I just loaded the photos onto my computer today. Sorry it took so long! We all had a great time at the party! It was a dinosaur theme. There were about 40 guests that enjoyed some of the best pizza in the whole world, and a fantastically wonderful ice cream cake decorated with dinosaurs. Benjamin could hardly hold still for 5 minutes he was so excited! I think his favorite part was riding on the "motorcycle" (a ride on video game) at the pizza parlor. For days afterwards he kept asking, "Can I please go to my birthday party?"
The other evening I was laying on the bed and Benjamin climbed in beside me. He asked, "Will you play "Fastman" with me Mommy?" Fastman?? I asked him how it was played and he showed me. Basically you take a hanger in each hand and shake them back and forth...really....fast (hence the name?) Benjamin said I was really good at the game and I think I might have won! So this got me to thinking about all the other games Benjamin has invented.The first game we realized he'd made up is called "Scary Turtles." We couldn't fingure this one out for the longest time! He kept asking us to play "Scary Turtles" but when we asked how to play he couldn't explain it. Eventually we discovered the game involves these two plastic Teenaged Mutant Ninja Turtles (where did those come from?!?) I think the object of the game is to make them fly around the room.About 4 or 5 months ago Benjamin started asking us to play "Crash." Each participant has some sort of vehicle and then you push them really fast towards each other so they...crash! The only problem is that Benjamin is in charge of telling everyone which vehicle they can play with....and he always gets the biggest one!I posted previously about the giant box from Costco and how Benjamin turned it into a "spaceship." Well, that became the centerpiece for the game "Space Monsters." Benjamin and I played this game for over 1/2 hour the other day. We each don "space helmets" (his was a plastic backpack and mine was a purple t-shirt) Then you stand really tall with your arms straight at your side and prepare for "Lift Off." Benjamin counts off....5....4.....6....5.....3......Blast Off!! Then we run around the house "flying" through space. Benjamin is referred to as "Captain Benjamin" and I am (of course) "Captain Mommy." The object of the game is to avoid being caught by the "Space Monsters." (which ended up being Nate when he came home and found us!)It is just amazing to me how much creativity Benjamin has. I have recently decided to try and do some more structured education with him at home. I bought some "learning" books to help teach him to recognize the letters of the alphabet and numbers. It's a lot of fun and he's doing really well with them. But my priority right now is to help him express his creative side in whatever way he wants.
Mealtime around our house can sometimes be rather hectic. We don't always get to eat all 3 meals together. Awhile ago I decided to emphasis dinner as the "family" meal where we would all sit down at the table and eat together. I heard somewhere that it really helps to foster communication with your children, and I was feeling tired of eating dinner in front of the t.v. (yes...I'm ashamed to admit it....Nate and I used to eat dinner in front of the t.v.) I try to make it a really nice event with calming music and dim lights and I begin the meal by asking, "What was the favorite part of your day?" We usually start with Benjamin and then go around the table. I didn't really feel it was making any sort of impact with him, although it was great for Nate and I to talk about our favorite parts of our day. But tonight we went to a restaurant for dinner with my mom and step-dad (who were in town for Benjamin's birthday party!) Obviously we didn't talk about our favorite part of the day at the restaurant. So while I'm sitting here surfing the internet I can hear Benjamin in the bathtub with Nate asking "What was the favorite part of my day Dad?" I guess something is sticking!? By the way....THAT was the favorite part of my day!
Benjamin is obsessed with spaceships...it rivals his obsession with pirates, although I'm not sure anything could ever surpass his love of all things Pirate! So yesterday we went to Costco and they loaded all our groceries into two gigantic boxes (so convenient!) After we unloaded everything we put the boxes on the kitchen floor to break them down and put them in the recycling. Before we could ever get to it Benjamin had climbed inside the box and declared "I'm in my Spaceship!" And then he says "1...2...3....BLASTOFF!!!" Maybe some day he'll work for NASA!
Okay...hopefully you read the previous post about our family trip to the beach. Well, about a week later we went back...and this time I brought my camera!
The weather here has just been perfect lately...mid to upper 60's...the sun shining....so we decided to go to the beach the other day. We went to a new spot that we'd never been to before...we arrived around 5:00pm to see the sun beginning it's descent and the wide expanse of sand flat and compact making it very easy to walk. It was gorgeous! It's funny, I've lived in Oceanside for over 10 years now and I never cease to be amazed by the beauty of the ocean.I purposely didn't bring my camera on this family excursion. Sometimes I think that I'm so concentrated on getting the perfect "shot" that I'm not really seeing everything....not really participating in the experience. Of course the second I saw how beautiful it was I was wishing I'd brought the camera...to capture the moment. We walked along the beach for awhile, Benjamin running and stopping periodically to look at rocks and shells. He likes to play "monster" now so I had to periodically chase him down the beach making monster sounds. Then he would turn the tables and chase me down the beach making his monster roar. Eventually Benjamin found a good stick (he finds sticks everywhere we go!) and began to dig around in the sand. We wrote our names in the sand and dug up "treasure" (rocks) to put in our pockets. I swear, Benjamin actually found a rock that has a smiling face etched on the face. Nate and Benjamin decided to bury some "treasure" and mark it with an "X" in order to discover it later. We watched the sun drop slowly in the sky until it was pulled all the way down as if weighted on the bottom. So here are the "photos" I'm left with from this little adventure. I'm walking down the wide flat beach...the water is so blue it is almost electric. The sand is glistening...a little wet with these little gold flecks glittering up from it. In the distance I see the Oceanside Pier and a light fog is just beginning to roll onto shore. I turn around and see Benjamin laughing, running, trying to catch up with me. Nate is walking behind Benjamin, looking at me and smiling with true joy and love.On our way back to the car. Benjamin is running down the beach with a stick in his hand. He turns around to make sure I'm following him. The setting sun casts a golden glow on his face. His smile is wide and luminous and he's laughing with pure joy. His jeans are rolled up and the bottoms of his feet are black with wet sand clinging to them. I can see the images so clearly in my mind but the words seem so inadequate in their description. Even now I wish that I had brought my camera and caught the moment with a photo. I could post it here and say "look...it really happened just the way I told you!" But I do wonder...had I brought the camera would I have noticed the moments at all?
