Summer and Early Fall Catch Up... My Favorite Ben Moments As of Late Leading Up to His Fourth Birthday

It's been too long since I've done a good Benjamin Update... we just been so busy, well, playing!

I've said it before and I'll say it again... I love each and every age and stage with my precious dear dear Benjamin! Here's what he's like at almost 4 years old!

He's very much into being sneaky, but not in a bad way... yet at least :) And hopefully we can keep it that way. But he's pretty cute tip toeing aroud like a "secret agent". It's especially cute when he tells me what he's doing so I won't look to see what he's doing.

He's a big comedian and likes to do impersonations... born out of a game of charades one day. He does a really funny one of Grandma's sweet old little poodle Teeta.

My Favorite Things He Says Lately Over and Over Again:

"Mom, I am disappointed in YOU too because...But mom... "

"Mom, I'm serious, you're not listening to me, really I want to..." 

(to which I have to remind him that just because I don't agree doesn't mean I'm not listening :))

"Dad! My mom said I could...! "

"You know what Mom, I really love you, I love you more then you even love me, and I love daddy more then he even loves me and I love Liam and I love us all."

"You're my best friend mom! You even bester then I'm you're best friend"

"Aw man!"

(Which is sooooo much better then throwing a fit when something doesn't go your way... Benjamin's never been a big fit thrower, but still, this is a good move towards accepting, getting over and letting go when things just aren't working in your favor.)

"I'm faster then you, stronger then you, bigger then you..."

(competition is still a biggie)

"He's just a stupid potty head and I will just bop him..."

(still learning to work on our anger born out of our high sense of justice and protectiveness of mommy :))

"...but I only say that about bad guys mom!"

"You're the boss mom..."
"...which means that you get to say what we're going to do."

"Mom, can I be the boss this afternoon and we'll do whatever I say?"

"I can/will/want to do it myself." (thank's Montosori-like German kindergarten)

"I need my privacy because I'm a big boy mom."

"You're being silly mom/dad. Right? You're just being silly, you're not serious, right?"

"Are you being serious?"

"I have decided ______."

(AND MY TWO PERSONAL FAVORITES)

"When I'm the daddy I'm going to let Liam do anything he wants to do."

and
"I just love Liam so much, that's why I want to hug him hard."

He also makes up really loud serious bad guy songs with unrecognizable words and likes to sing his German Kindergarten songs... what he remembers at least :)

He likes to pick out and put on all his own clothes. He's so proud of himself when he comes out dressed. He wants his shirts tucked in, even into his underware! And he likes to wear a belt, even if the pants or shorts don't have any belt loops.

He still loves to wear costumes, or rather "uniforms", and hats or helmets and needs a tool or sword for every occassion.

He's made good friends at German kindergarten and karate, but still misses his best friends from Oklahoma and talks about them often, asking when they're going to move to Germany all the time. "They should get that house by us mom."

He uses big potty seats, adult silverware, get's haircuts now like it's no big deal, etc... he's growing up so fast!

Some of his German phrases so far:

nine, nicht bitte, ich mach das nicht, das ist minen, ich bin hungrig/durstig, meir ist kalt/heiss

He has just a few leftover cute little boy things he says or ways he says things, like:

-he calls Tee Pees, N Pees... wrong letter :)

-he says "selly" and "pellow", instead of silly and pillow

He asks such great questions about God and Jesus and Heaven and Hell, etc.

When it comes to playtime (which is pretty much every time, any time and all the time :)) he's big into blocks, imaginary play with knights and princesses to rescue and role play, as in "I'm a chef/police man/fire fighter."

He still wants to play soccer all the time, and knights, and combines toys into really cool big scenarios, sort of like what you see in the opening part of the Toy Story movie.

He can ride his balance bike (with no wheels) really well and keeps asking us to take his training wheels off... almost two months later we finally did the beginning of Sep and it only took about 2 minutes! I guess we could have done it sooner :)

We held a special knighting ceremony at home with new wooden sword and a brownie in the shape of a sword. It was so much fun. "Sir Benjamin the brave" now wants to joust using a small horse ride on toy we've been holding onto for Liam. I think we're going to have to have a knight birthday party this year! Again, another update... we did have that knight party! It was so much fun and will be it's own blog post soon.

He loves popcicles, homemade chocolate chip cookies, chips ahoy cookies, brownies, smarties, vanilla ice cream and sometimes hershey bars, golden oreos or regular oreos.

But he also loves avacados, spinach, brocolli, corn, green beans, tomatos, tomato sauce, tomato soup, melons, apples, pears and wheat bread.

He only drinks water and milk, but doesn't like any milk on his cereal.

He has a little bit of a ketchup addiction.

He still wants to sit in my lap and comes up behind me and surprises me with the biggest hugs!

I just love it! But he also uses hugs and "I love yous" when being disciplined now :) I honestly don't think it's manipulative most of the time. He just wants to make sure I know he still loves me and wants to make sure I'll hug and say "I love you" back.

He had his first experience with death :( when our dog Cooper passed away unexpectedly... and this has led to lots of questions, and a few concerns about Mommy's mortality... lots of great stories and memories shared. We've talked a lot about how much we miss him, and about God, Jesus and heaven.

We've also had so many new expereinces and conversations that have come with his new school experience... although it isn't always easy, I love working through it all with him... it's just so hard not to shield and protect him from everything. But he's doing great. He's totally adjusted and is having a great time. The teachers are fantastic, so sweet and loving and fun. And he has lots of dear best friends now.

Have I mentioned that he just wants us to play with him, all the time. And we do! But he will still say, "but you're not playing with me mom" any time I stop for something he doesn't think is necessary... like food prep and clean up, potty breaks, changing the baby... etc :)

Oh my goodness I love him! I can't believe how much!

I can't believe how amazing these past almost 4 years have been... we are so very very blessed to be his parents! I love love love this little man!

And now for pictures!

Just my adorable Ben, up close one morning while we were enjoying pancakes together.

Such a sweet smile. We'd been measuring everything we could, just for fun.... which is the biggest reason we do most of the things we do :)

Showing me his "angry" look :)

One of our crazy play scenarios. I think the red yarn was a crazy spider web in the jungle where animal rescuers kept getting stuck, and of course needed rescued by a really cool helicopter pilot who had giant scissors.

He is so so sweet with his brother, although their play is getting a lot rowdier! I think this is one of the last gentle play pictures I have :) Liam adores him, of course, and loves anything he comes up with to do.

Benjamin spends so much time doting on and playing with Liam, so much more then I had envisioned... I thought it would be a while before they would really play together. But they do... all the time! 

I love to see their affection for each other, love to see all the hugs and kisses and hear Benjamin telling Liam how much he loves him.

Ben is just as excited as we are for all of Liam's firsts and new developments... and, of course, he loves to be in Liam's picutres.

Liam loves being one of the guys and doing all the cool big guy things like building forts and Benjamin is so good about including him.

Here's that funny impersonation of Grandma's sweet old poodle, Teeta (who's tounge hangs out because she doesn't have any teeth left to hold it in :)).

He really loves all the German pommes frites.

One of his absolute favorite outdoor activities is building and digging in the sand. These diggers are the coolest!

At his favorite park, the Dino Park in K town.

I think this is my favorite picture of him this year. He was just exploring some castle ruins with a cute little German boy he met while we were having kaffee and kuchen.

Did I mention anything yet about Ben and french fries? 

I am so very very happy that I'm home to really enjoy this time in his, and my, life! What fun we have!

More entertaining his little brother, such a HUGE helper!

I love that he still loves to wear boots and hats! He's becoming so coordinated and athletic, such a big boy now!

Building a tent outside with Daddy!

Loves being able to do things himself and to really help out and conquer some big boy skills by himself.

I just love this one too, although I won't put it on the wall, as he would scold me when he's older :) I love the way he is so adamant about tucking in his shirt, even into his underware.

So excited to have his own knight outfit! 

Thanks to a very devoted and crafty Grandma!

Modeling the front and back of his tunic, and his knight helmet of course... the proper head gear is very important :)
And the front. He has worn this to every festival and castle since. You don't get much cooler then playing knights in real knight country!

He is soooooo blessed to be so very very loved by all his Grandparents. Here his devoted and very fun Grandpa does story time! Ben has always been very protective and attached to mommy and Grandma, but he's starting to cross over to the other side - wanting to establish boy only clubs and teams. Oh well, it was nice while it lasted :)

There's always so much more... but these are some special highlights I didn't want to forget!!!

We'll be back really soon with a birthday post!!!