Benjamin Today

Finishing the series of Weardens Today, this is Benjamin Reilly--the youngest, my baby, his very first post!

Benjamin is...a stinker. Social and adorable, stubborn, and just full of goofiness. He is a big boy with an even bigger personality. Ben is a bit of a nancy-boy because Mom spoils him relentlessly, shamelessly, so that now he is devoted wholly to mom and scared of a lot of the world. He hates baths, swimming, or getting sprayed with the water hose; screams in terror at most shows; and is downright petrified of the car wash. It is just a phase that he is going through, of course, but my heart aches for him when I let him self-soothe, figuring out that he doesn't need mommy to calm himself down. Because of the vast amounts of time that he spends alone with me, he is also adamantly a Mama's boy; both my boys are, but Gabriel is beginning to move away from it. Emerald has always been Daddy's girl, the boys cling to mom; it's just the way things are. Ben is so, so funny though. Whenever we try and leave anywhere, he immediately scans the area for something to grab and take with him. Sometimes it is fine, like a car or his drink, but other times it is a bit ridiculous as he will grab the entire barnyard or the garage door and try to take those along! He worships his big brother and sister, tagging along behind them wherever they go, trying to keep up. Such a funny, goofy boy, his favorite thing to do is to make the world laugh along with him.

Benjamin is 20 months old; his nicknames are Ben, Benji, Banjo, Bingbang, Bangles, Benny, Benjermens, and Cupcake. 

Ben's Favorites: 

Games: 

There really isn't a picture for Buzz Went the Bee, so I just went with this adorable guy. Ben LOVES being tickled, which is good because he is a big pile of ticklish spots. For those of you unfamiliar, you "buzz" your finger around saying "buzz went the bee, and he went around the tree, and he found a little hole and went -buzzzzz!!!" On the buzz, you find a little spot like his collarbone or his knee and you tickle him. Benny thinks that is just the funniest thing in the world. He really is a typical baby--he likes playing games like peek-a-boo and racing cars with you; basically anything that will get you two laughing and playing, he is game for. 

Activities: I wasn't ready for Benjamin's...activeness. I mean, Gabriel has boundless energy and is constantly on the move, but Benjamin is BUSY. Apparently he is just "all boy"--full of movement, curiosity, and trouble. Right now he is going through the climbing phase where he wants to sit on top of everything, scaling desks and tables and anything he can get his hands on. He can get himself in a good amount of trouble without even trying; he doesn't know his own strength so he is known to smack people when trying to be nice, slamming toys around, and generally wreaking havoc. One "trick" we taught him was showing his temper, where he balls up his fists and goes "GRRR!!!". It is darn cute but the effect is rather lost when he can't stop grinning his toothy grin. Our cats, Remy and Oscar, and dog Pepper are his constant friends; he chatters to them, petting them so gently, so sweetly. 

TV Shows: 

None. Ben has much too much to do to stop and stare at the TV. 

The exception is that he kind of digs Mickey Mouse. 

Food: Boy, can this child put food away. He is one humungo kid,the largest of my all ready sizable vikings. Fortunately we are at the age where he more or less still eats what we eat, but he is doing that "throwing food on the floor" thing that is just so annoying. Notably for him, he is a poor boy that cannot handle some of the perennial kids' favorites: McDonald's gives him regrets and pizza upsets his tummy. In Lubbock, everything is relatively close so if everyone is insistent on something he can't handle, he and I can just go next door and get something else. (I don't much care for most fast food; I can never fault my kids for being picky eaters because they came by it naturally!!). Sweets usually go over pretty, and he just loves mac and cheese. It, along with his brother's  recent addiction to pasta, has prompted me to start experimenting with mixing vegetables, meats, and sauces to making interesting variations of traditional pasta dishes. 

Movie: 

Hercules was just added to instant queue so he has been getting into that lately. He will also watch the Toy Story movies and Madagascar: Escape to Africa as long as  you fast forward through the scene with Tsetse, the overly muscled lion. It frightens him unnecessarily. Mickey and the Beanstalk and other "classic" Mickey movies have been added to NIQ as well, and he will usually pay half attention to those. Like I said with the TV shows, Ben just doesn't slow down enough to focus on a show--any that I have mentioned is going to be punctuated with his running off. As I write this, he is dumping the water from my flower vase on the floor while "watching" his movie. 

Books: 

I am sad to say that Banjo is almost completely uninterested in books :( He won't sit with me to read them, and sees the cardboard books as more of a snack than entertainment material. I continue to read aloud to him and his siblings, in the hopes that one day maybe we will stumble upon the key to unlock his love of reading.

Colors: Emerald is pink; Gabriel is green; my Bennyboy is BLUE! He is my little boy blue. Most of his clothes are blue, and whenever we buy him things it is usually blue. The exception is brown, which looks nice with the blue :)

I feel bad for not having quite as much to say about Benjamin. I could go on for pages about Emerald and Gabriel, but the fact is that they are older and their personalities and preferences are becoming more pronounced by the day. Ben isn't interested in figuring out who he is yet because he is still trying to figure out the world around him. And that's normal; it is okay. He doesn't talk or communicate at all, most likely due to peer modeling from his brother. I know he has the capacity to talk and he doesn't seem hard of hearing at all, so I have faith that he will start in time, when he is ready. Even so, I have contacted ECI to get him started on Speech services; a little prompting won't hurt. We do have some struggles with him at this point, mostly that he and Gabe have a switch-off sleep schedule set up so that most nights we just put one child to sleep before the next one wakes up. Michael and I are exhausted. We thought we had moved past this point: Gabriel was starting to sleep more consistently, but like his brother before him, Benjamin is so so reluctant to sleep at night. Even though he is only 20 months old, I don't let him nap and have him on low doses of melatonin and...nothing. Might as well be doing nothing for all the good it does. 

So that completes the Weardens Today posts!! I was hoping that by spacing these out, doing one at a time in three consecutive days that I would get back into the swing of updating. I did! But we don't hardly have anything to talk about! Michael works so much that we don't get much time with him, and the kids and I are limited in what we are able to do without help. I have so many ideas in my head of things to do with the kids, places to take them--swimming, the Science Spectrum and all their exhibits, the Abilene Zoo, Library time and community center classes and playdates with school friends, church friends, and SPAN, plus picnics to watch the airplanes take off, wilderness "treks"....but I couldn't have assembled a more difficult bunch of kids for outings if I had tried. Emerald is fairly well-behaved but takes advantage of the situation if I am frazzled or  distracted; she will run off, play with other kids, and argue, argue, argue. 

Typical conversation: 

Me: Emerald, please stay close to mommy in the store. 

Emerald: I am just dancing over here with my new friend! If I stay with you, I can't see her!

Ugh. Just...stay with mommy; I don't want to look up and realize you are gone :-S

And I have to watch her for signs that her blood sugar is getting too low or too high, be available to do finger pricks and insulin shots, and closely watch the time for snack and meal breaks. 

Gabriel is difficult for obvious reasons. You have to watch closely for signs of agitation or he will have a severe meltdown, run off, start biting himself or you, pinching, screaming....plus he is probably not that interested in what is going on anyway, is being loud and disruptive, or just jumping in place. Now while trying to keep wander-off Emerald and bounding Gabriel, I have this toddler that is just big enough to walk and start participate but needs complete and undivided attention....add that to the fact that all three of them are pushing "too big for me to carry" (and by pushing, I mean I still lug their chunky butts all over the place to the detriment to myself; they are massive--54, 41, 32 lbs which really adds up!) and Emerald's diabetes bag, the boys' diaper bag, snacks, my purse...I feel like a pack mule.

Woah, really got off topic there. Ben Reilly is great. The perfect addition to our rather odd family. He is a blank template, waiting to be written on; it is an adventure to see who they will become! 

--Andie