Ben's Bath Collage

I have been taking part in a creative boot camp this week at http://creativebootcamp.blogspot.com/. Yesterday, it was late in the day, and I was trying to come up with a picture for the daily assignment with the theme multi layered. The only thing I could think to do was to take some pictures of Ben in his bath and try to layer him with bubbles. I learned a couple things from this exercise. 1. Toddlers are stubborn. 2. They are slippery when wet. 3. When you have a camera, and really want to get a specific shot, they know not to look at you, or near you, and mostly they just turn their back to you. 4. I already knew these things, but somehow thought he might cooperate. The results included some cute pictures but none that showed multi layers. My favorite is the one in the bottom middle. I finally got him to look at me when I said "Ben do you want to eat?" That is him signing eat. He never misses a meal.  

Summer is finally here.

Sorry for such a long delay since the last post.  We have been so busy with baseball and I was working on my 25th class reunion and the Elmwood High School Alumni Banquet.  The banquet and reunion were both held this past Saturday, so I spent much of yesterday just vegging and trying to recuperate.  It was a bit of a stressful weekend. 

John has had a few baseball games so far this year.  His team moved up from the Wee Wee league to the  Pee Wee league.  (it had to be a man that thought up those names)  They are learning, but it might be a few more games before they get the hang of all the new rules.   So far this year he has pitched, played first base, and center field.  Here are some pictures.

Noah is in Squirts baseball (coach pitched) this year. It  is their second year in this league and are doing pretty good.  They rotate positions so Noah has gotten to play many different spots.  I think his favorite is pitcher.  He has been practicing in hopes that he will be able to pitch next year when they move up to the next league.  Here are some pictures of Noah playing.

Ben has been enjoying his brothers games to a point.  Sooner or later he gets bored and wants to run out in the street.  The boy is fearless, and he has an odd fascination with license plates.  He is always wanting to go up to cars and touch the numbers and letters.  He also likes to play in the sand.  Unfortunately not all ball fields have a play area close to the field so I can watch Ben and the game at the same time. 

Ben has also gotten worse about climbing up on the sofa and wanting to stand and walk instead of sitting.  This morning he went over the edge of the sofa, just as I was grabbing for him,  and landed on his head.  Luckily he was just scared and not hurt.  It must not have made that much of an impression, thought, since he was back at it again in a matter of minutes.  I tried putting him in time out when he would do it, but that did not seem to help either.  Hopefully this is just a phase that he will pass through quickly. 

Friday was the last day of school for the big boys.  Randy has taken the boys golfing twice this weekend.  I am really enjoying that membership I got for them for Christmas to the local golf course.  It is a great way to get some time to myself. 

Here is a picture from my class reunion.  Thanks to everyone who took the time to get together and spend some time with old friends. 

We're More Alike Than Different

A while back, I noticed on another blog Monkey Musings a post about the the National Down Syndrome Congress campaign titled We're More Alike Than Different. In this campaign, they create posters meant to show everyone how children with Down syndrome are more like typical children than they are different. All you have to do to make a poster is fill out an online form and send in a picture, and the NDSC does the rest. In about a week they email a PDF poster of your child that you can take to any printer to be printed. To find out more about making a poster of your own, click here.

I thought about it for quite some time, wondering which thing Ben does that reminds me of when his older brothers were his age. He likes music, dancing, throwing balls, playing with toys, reading books, and clearing out the cupboards. But one of his favorite things to do, especially when we are not looking, is playing in the toilet and getting into the toilet paper. While his two older brothers are pretty good at attempting to get the door shut, they do not always get it latched, so Ben takes it upon himself to systematically check the doors and drawers around the house to see if anyone might have accidentally left something open that just might have something fun in it. The bathroom is no exception.

One afternoon recently, it was just a little too quiet for a minute, and when I saw the bathroom door cracked, I knew who was in there. Luckily the toilet seat was down, so the next best thing to for Ben to play with was the toilet paper. I quickly grabbed my camera and took a couple of shots.

Yes, I could have chosen a topic that was not quite so silly for Ben's poster. However, I truly think all kids know, if they want to play with something that someone's told them not to play with, they need to be really quiet - aka sneaky. Ben may have some delays in some areas, but at 23 months, I think he has getting into trouble down pretty good. He is ready to jump into his terrible two's with both feet. Are the rest of use ready? I hope so.

Sorry the poster picture is so small. The text reads: What toddler does not like to play with toilet paper? It rips easily, and comes on a handy little roll so it is easy to get more. Go ahead, leave the bathroom door cracked. I dare you!