I'm no sure which one is cuter!

Pepe Le Cute!!!!

Ahhh so refreshing!!!

Vacation Days Whizzing By!!!

It's a wonderful thing...me and Ben are still in jammies at 11:24 in the morning! Yesterday Ben and I headed straight for the mall to spend my teacher gift bucks. To my amazement, he stayed asleep in the stroller for 45 min while I shopped! He was such a good boy that I bought him treats with my Starbucks gift certiffy! He ended up with about a pint of chocolate milk all over his pants but boy did he have fun fishing the straw out of the little hole-well worth it.

We celebrated Christmas twice this year so Adam and Stef could be with us. It was lovely-delicious ziti; so many gorgeous gifts, new cd gifts playing in background as mom sang along nostalgically. Fred enjoyed Benny, telling everyone to give the kid some space! We dressed him up in the skunk costume as an encore from Holloween-many didn't get to see the October performance. He sat at the table with us, tried egg nog and cut a banana..it was a delightful night!

Some after dinner mints and a few hershey kiss...thank you very much!

Tossing tissue paper in the air was one of the best presents of the night!

With the Youngs

As the girls take a break from their new Nintendo DS for a snapshot, Ben screams noooo!!!!.

Christmas

I can help with the wash if you give me a ride!

Week Home

Well, we are fiinally on vacation. The night before the last day of school I drove around like a maniac to get a cookie cutter so the kids could decorate sugar cookies for the holiday party. The holiday party days are always zanny with parents watching on...kids beserkus for that fact. No workside, which they need so bad. So without an activity we were, well-screwed. At last, after three stores and a vow to kill each and every Walmart employee in cold blood, Lisa came through with a cookie cutter. Boo stayed home with Daddy while I hosted the holiday party at school. What a sense of freedom being at school Ben-less! But at the same time, I felt like I was missing something all day. So many presents! How nice to be a teacher this time of year!

Home at last and finishing up Christmas errands. We visited the Farrells since they will be outta town and Sylvie loved her dollhouse. To everyone's delight she said "I love it!" once we had it all assembled. Ben got an adorable little people airplane and he will have the absolute delight of crashing through his cardboard brick wall with his set of bricks. We hung out with Kacey's second cousins, 13 and 14, who were so nice. They were very cute doing math problems on Syl's miny chalkboard and racing each other to finish. We saw a light festival and even better, went around the neighborhood criticizing the lights. The net lights and "laso effect", the blowups and the plastic figurines scored low while the icicle lights and evergreen swags scored high. So much fun and Ben danced up a storm. We were sad to leave.

Next day was spent with me stressing and taking Ben shopping-not very fun. The only part he liked was the stroller ride to and from the store with the wind blowing rain directly on us-the rain moved horizontally up noses and undershirts...nice! Can't find the car in the monsoon!!!! Argg...gotta love this part of Christmas. He managed, barely but ended last night with a complete and utter meltdown. Too much! he seemed to scream through clenched teeth, screaming, throwing, howling, and then ahhh...sleep at last!

Christmas for Ben

I have been wondering what toys would make Ben's Christmas. "Wondering" is not the word. More obsessing. He might like a play kitchen and there are countless decisions to make on that. Wooden or plastic? How big? One unit or three separate? Then there's the train table. More decisions...icurumba!

Will he even play with these things? Ben is not that into toys and never has been. Though at this moment he is playing a tamborine to the beat of Baby Mozart. Usually he likes real people stuff. So i dunno. He doesn't even get that it is Christmas so it's not like there's all this pressure. But still. Part of me wants to NOT feel like I have to get him the biggest, bestest presents. I want to walk away from my own expectations about what Christmas should be-lots of toys! I look at a a family in our school who doesn't celebrate with the copious toys and think, yes that's far better for us. Then I think ohh just spoil the kid a bit. It's Christmas!

I hope to hop the fence soon and get shopping. Afterall, I already got the greatest gift I could have gotten on May 15, 2006. It's payback time!

In this picture Ben is grabbing a cell phone. Later on, he is appeased with a cookie instead.

hitting and throwing

Ben is 18 months. not even two. this is a truth i have been needing to remind myself time and again. lately he has been hitting. there are many kinds of hits. there is the "hey how you doing wanna say hello" swat. there is the "get away from me and leave me alone" wack. then there is the "you didn't do anything at all i just felt like smacking you" hit. well, suffice to say, it has been a little disappointing to watch. will boo ever learn the control he needs to stop these impulses? He has also experienced a bit of defiant behavior in the classroom. He had been sitting to eat, now he tours the classroom with his snack in hand and does the ironing board stiff stance when you attempt to put him in his seat. He knows to put his work away but wants to leave it out and kicks and lifts his feet when you take him through the steps of putting it back. throwing work again, bothering other kids working quietly. yeah, it has been a bit disheartening to watch this all and see it as normal and not be upset.

well, tonight was winter wonderland at ben's school. families brought many of the kids in our school and there was a magician, food and fun. ben sees ella, his girlfriend and waddles over to hug her. as the magician performs, ben quietly goes from friend to friend, tapping jj on the shouldder and pulling him into a hug, tugging on joey's shirt and bear hugging him. diving into nickie and ella's lap for a threeway hug. then walking over to one boy he didn't even know and just stroking his hair as he sat on his mom's lap. he just patted his hair and leaned on the boy's back like they had been friends from birth. he emmanated love and affection. there was a sense that he was with family and his love for all those around was apparent.

i know the hitting will stop. there will be plenty of time to see the fruits of enforcing proper work habits and responsible behavior. for now, the best i can do is let ben be ben and appreciate him for the loving little guy he really is.

The Robilotto visit

This weekend we went to visit grandpa frank and dashiel. ben was very shy at first and the only thing that lured him away from our arms was julia, the tiny dog or woof woof, as ben calls them. he loved her and the fact that she could jump into his lap was delightful. we chatted with dash for a bit in the kichen and ben, gathering confidence, went into the play room with frank. before long we heard lots of laughing followed by crash! crash! when we went into the room we found that ben and frank were playing pool, babystyle: ben was literally standing on the pool table and spiking the hard balls down into the pockets. this was magnificent. we all gathered around the table and joined in the fun. as ben got a ball in he clapped his hands and waited for our cheers-yeah! we all said in unison. he like it very much.

a bit later the boys (al and dash) decided that wrestling would be fun. apparently, this is a regular occurance at the robilotto house for a futon as already set up as a mat. ben did no like this activity one bit. if al was pinning dashiel, ben got a very worried look onis face and pet dashiel's head. if dash was grabbing al's knees, he petted daddy. i tried to distract him with tinker toys, a play toolshop, anything, but he wanted to be near the big boys even though it upset him.

next we saddled up ben in the racecar chair for his second haircut (we learned in july that we should not attempt this at home after he turned his head quickly and ended up with a nascar mullet). he did all right and fussed and grabbed for the scissors but debra was a pro. dad was cut then me. it was cute. frank let ben play with all buttons every where so he was deemed very cool right away by ben. laptops, cellpones, remotes, it was heaven for ben who held two or three gizmos at a time and even conducted a phone call "conversation" much to our amusement. the best part about the conversations is the realistic wait times where the other person is "talking". it's hilarious to watch these calls, ben waves his hand in exasperation, says "i know" and is totally engaged in the non existent caller.

by dinner he was down right giddy and it was hard to believe he was ever shy with these folks. he sprinted around the kitchen laughing and opening cabinets. as he scarfed down pizza, i think debra was worried that he would choke. but he chewed and chewed. he tried a bitter rasberry for the first time and confirmed that yes fruits are yucky. it was a nice visit and i again lamented that was no camera to capture these nice days. please santa please.

Here Ben is singing with mom during thanksgiving. I love her smile and wow doesn't he look like such a big boy!

Half the Class

Winter is definately here since literally half of Benny's school mates have been out for a better part of the week due to various illnesses. Ben has taken to redirecting his class mates (imitating me I guess). So he will go "stop it nick" or "no ella". He says it with such vehemence that it's hard to correct him, though I do while stifling my laughter. Another cute thing is that every fruit and vegetable is an apple and every cartoon character is Elmo. Big bird, Dora, and Lighning Mcqueen-all Elmo. This morning Ella ran around trying to put a barette in ben's hair. No luck. He peeled and enjoyed a clementine. During work he is regressing in some ways. Past few days have been all about not putting away work and dumping-everything. Including a fish bowl of wooden beads all over the floor. It's times like this when I am glad I have to be professional and not bite his little head off. All the toddlers rush in to help us clean it up and it really isn't that big of a deal but I have been frustrated with it past few days. He seems to say two things all day: mine and stop it. I hope the phase will pass quickly. He also says please and thank you regulary which is interesting-we have a complete beast who is also a gentleman. He is very proud of himself for pulling off Alex's socks. And he is terrorizing little Diamond Woo. How much longer till bedtime? Sweet dreams my little prince!

Seeing Amma

It is hard to believe that one year ago Ben sat with Amma for his first real food eating. What an incredible year it has been! The road trip to see Amma was miraculous in and of itself. We left in the still of night so Ben could sleep as much of the 10 hour drive as possible. Though we left an hour later than planned (sorry lisa who was waiting oh so patiently for us to pack the toys, 17 outfits and countless books needed to entertain a near 2 year old!) we nevertheless sailed across rt. 80-through sticks, stones and the toothless truckers with no hitches at all. Alex did almost all of the driving and while I straddled much stuff in the backseat, we arrived with no incidents.

We pulled up at the hotel, checked in and flopped into the double bed and were able to enjoy some restful hours before the program began. ben was taken with the hotel lobby waterfall. He was amazed at the grandeur of the patterned carpet and the shiny elevator buttons. The washer and dryer coin slots and trash cans were also very attractive-it never occurred to him that we were there for anything else since the hotel held such treasures.

The first night of programs we arrived to the hall with all of our stuff. Through the satsang talk we thankfully sat in the back with buddy Claire and some other wiley toddlers. The stackable rings provided an excellent lesson on sharing. By far ben's favorite word is mine! mine! but he also enjoyed passing the rings to Claire. After every mine! outburst I saw that he shared his toy with her and he complied. They played along while munching on dried mangoes. The three of us got a long awaited hug that as so very special. Ben had fallen asleep so he cried but I thought to myself that it really did not matter. We left the program at 2ish and squished into the bed all 3 of us. Alex would snore big zzz than ben would snore small zzz for an amusing little duet the whole night through.

The next few days are now a blur of quiet special times and just chilling out in the amma vibe. Ben slept in with dad and I got some needed quiet meditation time at the program in the morning. Ben was enjoyed by many admirers. He danced to the bhajans, did seva (walked trash from the snack tables over to the can and slammed dunked while waiting for a cheer of praise. then dusted his hands off.). He chased his ball and interrupted big boys playing with cars (who eventually shared after their moms insisted). He made friends with lots of small kids and bonded with Seesa, Lisa. He walked around saying Amma! Amma! and even though he screamed each time we went up for darshan, I have no doubt that he too enjoyed the beautiful atmosphere of her presence. We took him to have dinner at her table. He got a blessed popadam and dipped it in his icecream. I look forward to a darshan that will come when he plays with her and makes her laugh. Thank you for a wonderful trip!!

Ben sleeps!

Well, the sleep gods have been very generous and Benjamin sleeps! Tonight Ben snuggled with Daddy like every night before bed, read some books and went into his crib absolutely peepless! Apparently he has developed a fond liking for a certain blankey. He likes to ball it up and shove it under his chest as sleeps on his belly (according to dad who does the nightly sleep ritual).

Update on new words:

hug (as he is hugging you)
fan
book
elmo (which he says to refer to big bird, ernie or any of the gang)
baby (as he demands to know the whereabouts of baby Carter in the office at school)
leaf
itty itty itty! or kitty
meow
doggie
high five! (as he gives you one)

little mother teresa

Yesterday at school Ben showed a different side than I have ever seen. One moment Justin, 5, is playing calmly with the stacking blocks. In walks dad and he turns into a screaming hysterical mess. I scowl in the recesses as Ms. Soltice moves in to handle the outburst. As the obviously embarassed dad tries unsucessfully to apease his demonic child, I arrogantly think of my "superior" parenting skills. Amid the cyclone of flying styrofoam blocks Ben waddles over to Justin and starts stoking his back saying "ok?" "ok?" Justin smiles and stops crying for a minute, we all laugh.

I am so much older than my little guy but yesterday he showed me that I can learn a thing or two from him too.

Back at School!

After a refreshing break, today we made it back to school. Last night Daddy and I were convinced that Ben was sick. We had spent the day at the fun junction and for all the ball pit diving and sliding fun it seemed to be a bit of a germy place. (atleast boo had fun and dad won me a coupla bouncing balls playing skiball). I sent Dad out into the dark of night to get a new thermometer since ours was broken (there he came across a loose boxer that he had dreamed about the night before, but I digress). After we took his temp eight times and saw no fever and took his pulse 27 times to determine that there would be no cardiac arrest, he fell asleep. I thought how happy I was to be scared with alex instead of alone and how nice it is to share the scaries of being a parent with him. Suffice to say, after our antics, he slept more or less soundly and today we had a great day back at school.

We learned leche, "milk" and pan, "bread". Mrs. Hurtado was thrilled to hear Ben say "salte" before jumping into the circle. He impressed me with how well he worked with the thread cylinder since I thought it would be way too hard for him. he squeezed orange juice with the hand juicer saying "ahhh" after each sip. he was covered in ink by 11:30 AM which is always a great sign that fun was had. We ended our fun tonight with dragon tails "let's start a band" some free form dancing and several nice stories read by dad. he is having a hard time sleeping at night which is very hard on us..too much cuddling past few nights? Ahh may the sweet god of rest be generous and let our hard working boo get some rest...

Thanksgiving wake

Today I was inspired by sylvie's blog (ben's bff) and decided that it's far time to start documenting some of ben's milestones, the countless moments of greatness that occur in the most unlikelyest of times when i am preoccupied with my own ridiculously unimportant life.

This morning we watched elmo ad zoe's dancing video and it is a treasure. ben is an avid dancer so he enjoyed dancing along with zoe and paula abdul-spinning african inspired circles and asian welcoming dances. right now he is mad because dad is sleeping and he has already charged the door three times and succesfully raided the bed-so after some nice hugs the door has been closed.

We have been working hard at school and this break we are determined to take it easy and loaf around. It is a good time to make a list of benisms . His favorite activity is crawling into our lap with a book and saying "ok...okaaayyy" and then taking our hands to open the book for him. He isn't asking so much to be read to as telling, "now you will read me a story". green eggs and ham is his favorite. hold on, he wants to see the laughing baby on you tube. ok we are back.

he says:

juice please
cheese please
thank you, thanks
welcome
cracker
baby
when he sees a picture of himself "oh so cute!"
shoes and ocks
syyyvie (sly-bff)
doggie
meow
cow
apple
banana
ella
stop
don't touch!
hot!
down!
mine!
mamma, mommy, susie, bhak
dada, daddy
1,2,3
meg an
tadie (katie)
picking up the cell phone, saying "hello" then having a whole conversation in benspeak with the "caller"
hola!
salta!
uno
bye!
all done

things i am particulary proud of:

every last thing he has accomplished
eating with a spoon and insisting to do so
putting his work away and returning it to the shelf in the correct spot
ben has many friends and hugs readily and affectionately
ben defends himself very well (too well at times) when the bigger kids at school smother him
allowing me to pry him from bed at 6:45 every morning and drag him to school (a place he really does love)

we need to get a new camera so i don't have any pictures yet but will add some soon! ttfn