Conversations with the Boys Part I

This afternoon while Benjamin was helping me make pizza and Mississippi Mud Cake in the kitchen:

Jessica: sees digging motion out of corner of eye.
JK: Are you picking your nose? If you are, you need to get down and go find a piece of kleenex to help.
Benjamin: gets down, leaves to take care of business, washes hands, comes back and stands on stool.
  JK: sees more digging motion out of corner of eye.
JK: Are you picking your nose again?!
B: No, I'm just getting my earwax out.
JK: is left speechless.

We moved on to practicing the art of cracking eggs, since egg cracking and dessert making are both essential survival skills.

 

Sneak Peek

Sleep, Baby, Sleep

What is it about sleeping babies that is so appealing??

The peacefulness?

The innocent faces?

And how on earth can my three and a half year old be bouncing around on my bed during rest time, singing loudly about Old MacDonald's farm one minute and then be passed out cold the next minute? With a lego box on his chest!

And a lego man wedged under his ear?

Actually, now that I think about it, the real question is who on earth said it was ok for babies to grow up so quickly?

Banana Boat

Among the treasure trove that Jason and Uncle Jonathan won at Busch Gardens when we went this summer was a rather large stuffed banana. The boys have turned it into a banana boat.

Bathing Beauties

I just snagged this photo off Jason's cell phone. It was taken the evening of our pumpkin patch visit.

Benjamin Bunny

With the large bandage covering Benjamin's bellybutton, he looks like he's got a cotton-ball tail...except that is on his front side instead of his backside. I told him that he looks like Peter Cottontail's cousin, Benjamin Bunny. We are thankful to report that Benjamin is in full recovery mode. He is chipper and running around. In fact, the only thing that gives away he just had surgery is that he isn't jumping off the kitchen stool. Yet.

Beebo Fix

Remember this little guy?

And this little guy?

Well, along with his cute button nose, Benjamin was born with an umbilical hernia. Our pediatrician wasn't concerned at all and informed us that years ago, doctors would perform surgery on little babies born with umbilical hernias but then they realized that most of them heal all by themselves, usually by the time a child is 3. So Benjamin spent the first 24 months of his life with a cute little "outie." By the time he was three, it had mostly disappeared but then, he started randomly complaining that his stomach hurt. It took us a while to finally figure out that what he meant was his Beebo (our family's name for bellybutton, thanks to Sandra Boynton's The BellyButton Book) was hurting. It seems as though whenever Benjamin was playing really hard or running around, blood from his intestines would squeeze through a tiny hole into his Beebo and make it a rather painful outie. Basically, Benjamin's bellybutton was one of the minority that didn't heal on its own and required a simple surgery to fix.

Yesterday Benjamin had surgery to fix his umbilical hernia. We had it done by a pediatric surgeon at the Children's Hospital of the King's Daughters in Norfolk. It is such a phenomenal hospital that serves only children and has a fantastic reputation on the East Coast and we are now fortunate enough to live 15 minutes away! I can't say enough great things about the facility and the staff. We had to be at the hospital by 5:30 in the morning. Ridiculously early, but since Benjamin couldn't eat or drink anything after midnight, it was nice to have everything over super early. The waiting room was full of toys, coloring books, tvs, riding cars; anything imaginable to help distract children.

Here is Benjamin in his mini hospital pjs (excuse the cheese face, it was 6:39am): He did such a WONDERFUL job. He was fully distracted by all the toys and movies during the long waiting time. The only tough part was when they took him away from us to go back for surgery. From a mother's perspective, it was pretty heart wrenching to watch him being carried away, screaming and crying. At the same time, I knew that he would be asleep pretty soon and wouldn't remember anything of the surgery.

Jason and I went into the waiting room at 7:30am, grabbed a quick breakfast, and were back by Benjamin's side in the post-operating room by 8:30am. Both of our cell phone batteries were dead by this point so we didn't get a picture of Benjamin in the recovery room but I was touched to note that Benjamin's hair on his forehead was smoothed to the side; obviously a nurse did it to help calm or comfort him. He was all wrapped up with his blanket (made by Aunt Barb when he was a baby!) and his lovie carefully tucked under his arm so that he would be surrounded with something familiar while waking up. We had been warned that most kids wake up really agitated and crying and upset. We were so thankful and relieved that Benjamin was super calm as he woke up. He was definitely a "groggy Rogge" for a while but so chil while he was in the tiny hospital bed. They had Disney's Alice in Wonderland playing on a large screen TV that he watched, which I thought was rather ironic. That is such a whack movie and I can only imagine trying to make sense of it as a 3 year old while trying to wake up from general anesthesia!!

We were home by 10am. Here is B, happy with his balloon and happy with his painkillers: While I drove Benjamin home, Jason picked up Samuel from my parents' home (we'd all spent the night there to be closer to the hospital). This picture makes me laugh. Benjamin is zoned out watching Thomas the Train movies and Samuel is keeping him company by trying to sneak B's fuzzy blanket and sucking his thumb:

(mini) Lego Land

Benjamin has dropped his afternoon naps (much to my dismay!) He has always been a champion sleeper and napper and I was rather bummed to lose the 3.5+ hours an afternoon of time all to myself. He still has a rest time after lunch for two hours but the house is no longer peaceful and quiet; somehow our quiet baby Benjamin has turned into quite the noisemaker. On the rare days that he is tired he falls asleep amazingly fast. I'll hear him singing or talking and then, poof, all is quiet and he's out!

Usually Benjamin requests a stack of about 30 books to look at during his rest time but today he only wanted to play with his Legos. When I went upstairs to get him, I discovered this on my window ledge: And also this:

Would You Like A Straw With That?

Benjamin has the dexterity to pick up his cereal bowl and drink the leftover milk out of it. Every time Samuel copies Benjamin, milk ends up everywhere. One morning last week, I finally thought to give him a straw and now he asks for "Straw! Straw!" as soon as I put his cereal bowl in front of him.

On a side note, I think Samuel is turning into a mini-hippie. Not only did I witness him run over to a tree the other day and give it a hug but he voluntarily asks for "nola" (granola) instead of the Honey Nut Chex that Benjamin loves to eat for breakfast.

Beans, Beans the Musical Fruit

Yes, I am actually teaching the boys the "Bean, Beans, the Musical Fruit" song but all potty-humor aside, Benjamin and Samuel both love beans. They have inherited Jason's love for baked beans and will gobble them up every time we have them for dinner. And, thanks to Grandpa in Michigan, our family has dubbed baked beans "cowboy beans" (after poor Grandpa had to listen to the Wee Sing America CD ad nauseam in our car while we were visiting grandparents this summer!)

Here is the newest way that Benjamin and Samuel love to experience beans:

I first saw the idea of using dry beans online last week and then noticed a friend using them for her son's play construction site and so made sure to add dry beans to my grocery list. We were trying to get dinner ready on Saturday and both boys were falling apart but when I brought out two trays full of dry pinto beans and stuck some trucks in them, Benjamin and Samuel were thrilled! It was like magic. Dried beans=zero whiny children.