What a Day!

What a day it was! This past Saturday December 4th was a wonderful and full day! We started the morning bright and early with Benjamin's first tennis lesson! He was not very happy about getting out of bed so early but once we got there he had a fantastic time. He was fortunate enough to have two great coaches--you can't beat that student/teacher ratio! There is usually a little girl in the class but she didn't make it that day so it was just Benjamin. We wondered going in how they would teach 2-year olds the basics of tennis but the coaches had fun and effective activities that Benjamin really liked doing.

After his lesson we ran to get breakfast and change into our wedding clothes. Our friends John and Christy's wedding was at 10 a.m. so we had just enough time to get there. We realized that we left Benjamin's nice sweater at home so I had to pop into Kohl's to pick up a nice shirt. He looked super cute!

He did great during the wedding itself and had a good time during the reception with Brennan and Fiona and making new friends. I watched him walk up to an older lady he didn't know and start chatting her up, even pulling a chair closer to her and sitting with her for awhile. I love that he is so social and has never met a stranger. Sweet baby. During the reception it began to snow, the first snow of the year.

After the reception he feel asleep in the car and Henry and I drove around for awhile to let him sleep. We even got take out and ate in the car while he slept. It was beautiful to see the snow fall.

When we got home Benjamin woke up and got bundled up to go outside to play in the snow. We all had such a great time! And when we got too cold we came in and Benjamin had his first hot chocolate, homemade by him and Daddy. He took a sip or two but then decided to make his own concoction, his new favorite drink, water, a squeeze of lemon, and marshmallows. Doesn't that sound delicious? He guzzled it right down. It was a jam-packed day of great memories. A full day, indeed!

A Little Privacy, Please!

While taking a shower today Benjamin gestured towards the shower curtain. "You can close that. I can do it by myself." Well, really he said "by myseh-eff." So I closed the curtain most of the way but still had it open enough to grab him in case he slipped. "No, I'm good. Close it." Dude, you are only two!

Last Two

We woke up today knowing that this is the last month Benjamin will be two years old. How is that possible? Today is his 35-month birthday. Thirty-five wonderous months during which he has changed from a little preemie to a chubby infant, then a sprouting toddler and now a tall and lanky little boy.

This has been a hard year for Benjamin in so many ways. Seeing his Halmuni so ill and then being away from home for such an extended time while she was in the hospital, being away from me (Mommy) for long periods of time for the first time in his life while I was with Halmuni in the hospital, and then finally losing his beloved Halmuni and best friend. And he has been a trooper through it all. The other day he and I were in Halmuni's room watching t.v. and laying on her bed, something he did daily with her and something that comforts both of us now and makes us feel closer to her. We were eating dry cereal in the bed and made a bit of a mess and he said, "Let's clean it up before Halmuni gets back." It broke my heart. Too much for a two year old to understand. Too hard for a thirty-five year old to understand.





Tonight during his shower Benjamin had a new first. He gargled for the first time! He has been mimicking Henry for months now but never quite getting it exactly right, not as far back in the throat to be a true gargle. But tonight, he did it! Each day is a new skill. We eagerly look forward to each small and large discovery Benjamin makes during his last two-year month and look ahead to the three-year old discoveries that he will unveil. Happy birthday to you, our sweet baby!

Just a Swangin'

On Wednesday Benjamin and I were feeling well enough to run some errands in the car and really needed to get out of the house since we've been homebound since we got sick at Halloween. It was making us both grumpy. On the way home I decided to make a detour to Bur-Mil Park to get some fresh air and sunshine as it was a beautiful, warm Fall day.

We met too little girls there, sisters named Wendy and Vera and their dad and Yeah-Yeah. Up until then Benjamin would feel most comfortable with his belly down on the swings rather than bottom down. Vera asked her daddy to push her swing to the Moon. Bug liked that idea and asked me to do the same. So we swung like that for awhile but then he told me he wanted to sit in the swing the other way. So he sat with his bottom down on the swing and asked me to push him to Saturn. I happily obliged while holding on to him because he has never been stable swinging this way. But he said he wanted to do it himself so I let go and pushed him softly. I guess my speed was too slow to get to Saturn in a timely fashion. "More, Mommy!"

While reminding him to hold on every two seconds I pushed harder and up he went, a little higher each time, not as high as the big girls but for his first time on a swing by himself he did awesome!

And then, without warning, he just jumped off. Good thing the playground is super padded with wood chips! "I'm okay, Momma!" I thought this ending to his swinging would deter him from getting on them again but before we left he ran back over to the swings and did it again. Again, he jumped off at the end but we talked about how next time he should let me know when he was done and we could slow things down before he jumped off.

Our little boy is growing up!

New Tonight

Benjamin watched his first game show tonight. I mean really watched it. There have been game shows on in the background before that I'm sure he absorbed but didn't really acknowledge. But tonight he was into it. It was called "Family Game Night" and involved kids and parents on teams playing games like Connect Four, Bop It, and Cranium in order to win prizes. He was all into it. He watched quietly for a long time and then asked some questions and at the end he gave commentary on his favorite parts. I think the Bop It section was the most exciting to him. And us, too.

His other new thing tonight is he threw up a little in his mouth. Not as a result of the show. But maybe because of all the orange juice he's been downing since he has been sick with a cold this past week. But he was confused when it happened. "What is that?" Henry asked if it was sour and he nodded. Yeah, not the most exciting news but still notable. Well, to me anyway. Nice that he's gone this long without ever experiencing this particularly yucky bodily function. But cute that we will always be able to reflect back on when he first threw up a little in his mouth.

"I remember the night you first threw up a little in your mouth. It was a cold and windy night...."

Roots

Benjamin said new things today.

Korean
Spock
Kirk

He made both his Mommy and Daddy very proud!

Halmuni

Benjamin's Halmuni and best friend flew away on Friday August 27th, 2010 after an almost 2 year fight with neuroendocrine carcinoma. They are so close it is painful to think that they are separated but really they aren't because she is around us all the time. We visited her today, the day after her funeral service, and he asked where she was and we told her that she was here, under the flowers. He looked again, under the flowers, and asked where. And we explained that she was asleep under the flowers, under the dirt. He asked why and we said that we come from dirt (the earth) and we go back to it one day. That she was asleep in her dirt bed. He said, "Wake up, Halmuni. It's a really nice time outside--the sun is shining. Let's play." And then he took flowers from her grave and used them to clean off her bed, like dusters, saying, "Oh, Halmuni."



This morning she visited us via praying mantis, right outside our doorstep. And has visited us and several people via butterfly over the last few days. And most spectacularly, she visited Henry while he was driving via a white dove that flew parallel to his car for some time, keeping up with him as he traveled down the highway. We can't wait for her to visit again. We love you, Halmuni and Benjamin is the luckiest little boy to have the best Halmuni in the world. We love you.