40 minutes of screaming

yup, that was our walk.  I'm like, "Dude, the dog needs a walk.  He is a member of the family too!" and dude was all like, "OME,  MAMA's OME NOW!  NOW.  BOOMER NO!  WALK OME NOW!  COME BOOMER OME BEN'S OME MAMA OME BOOMER OME NOOOOOOOWWWWWW!" 

Repeat.

Alot.

For 40 minutes interspersed with the little gasping thing he does when he is sobbing the heart breaking sob.

Unbelievable really.

This followed a napless day at the sitter where he declared "Auntie Sumi bed BAD!" rather than napping.  He further developed my sense of how Back to School is going for Ben by exclaiming all.the.way.home. that he is not sleeping in Sumi's bad bed ever again.  He is only sleeping in his own big boy bed.  Not all bad news I guess...if you are me and not Sumi.

Stopped for groceries on the way home at the local market.  The one we have been to hundreds of times.  Where every employee knows Ben's name.  Where he has laughed and giggled at the giant mouse sitting above the dairy section...over and over and over again.  

Today?  Scared spitless.  Screaming in terror.  "MOUSEY COME BEN!  SAVE ME MAMA!" while shaking and crying and clutching my shirt and burying his wet snotty face in my shirt.  But we needed milk.  It was not avoidable.

Home for dinner which he refused to eat (followed by that very special walk mentioned earlier).

But he was in bed at 8.  Asleep at 8:01.  

And tomorrow we wake up to an alarm as tomorrow's staff meeting starts at the same time his lordship woke up today...8:45.

When he hears that alarm at 7:15  or so he will not be pleased.

Then 5 days until the real fun begins...

I really really don't want to leave this little man for work every day.

But if you are a regular reader you already knew that.

special friends-by Ben

I had a really good morning with some of my most special friends.
A trip on the steam train,

some sand castle building,

water play,

and a whole bunch of laying around on the beach.

More shots to come once sweet Mary
of the big telephoto lens
sends some of her favourites to mama.

Until then?
Off to dinner with Auntie Carol.

talkin and talkin and talkin some more

"i boomboom 

ben outside

go walkin

eat bitbit 

ome boomboom

no bitbit 

all gone

doh dorry"


A typical exchange 
(well, when the conversation is with a dog
-who doesn't answer much)
said as one complete sentence 
as we arrived home from a walk 
and met the pup at the door
 *sam, not quite...but close

munny chau-kit ice-keem

ice-keem is munny munny.

yummy, Ben's way.

With just a touch of purple nail polish

to add a splash of colour.

 

Love...

Love this photo taken at the beach in Coburg.

Love this little profile.

Love sweet Ben's zest for life...and his musical approach to EVERYTHING..

Here he is "rolling down the sand hills" just like the Wiggle's Captain Feathersword.

Love this pup (not too fond of the cottage stink though).

This was taken in 2007...when I had lots and lots of time to take great photos of the pup.

Love the way my boys enjoy each others company , Ben-Ben and Boom-Boom.

Love love love my sweet boy more and more every second as he somersaults through life.

And right this second?  This very second?

I love the Big Boy bed. 

That the big boy fell asleep in all by himself.

For the 3rd night in a row.

With mama not even in the room.

And I love that it happened in less than 10 minutes.

With no trauma (night 1 and 2 had trauma...his and mine)

And there is no picture of this momentous event...for obvious reasons.

But here is one I really really really love...

Favourites...

Details of our August Fun in the (sporatic) sun coming your way soon...
Right after I spend tomorrow trying to convince Revenue Canada that I in fact have a son, that he is in fact living with me, that I am a single parent with custody, and that I do in fact need them to review the review that they reviewed while I was on holiday while giving me (and apparently my accountant???) less than 2 weeks to submit the required documents according to the dates on their first and second notices.

Because A...I spent most of the tax return already
and B...I deserved the return (and more than 2 weeks in the summer to respond thank you very much)

All aboard!

Took a trip on a Steam Train today.

Waiting in the rain to get going...

The conductor called "AllAboard!"
Ben practiced...alot...I think he wants to be a conductor when he grows up.

We waited a bit too long before the train began to move.

But then?  Thrilled.

 And from that point on?  Riveted. For 45 minutes.

 Think he liked it?

We were test driving the outing in preparation for visitors to the area August 29th. 
It was a hit.  If you know us in real life there is an open invite and more details on the VietnamAdoptionCanada yahoo group.

This and that...

Dude loves the W!ggles. 
They are a go to favourite CD in the car and he knows lots of the words.

Like
money money money money duit dalade!
(yummy yummy yummy yummy fruit salad)

And he loves Wake Up Jeff
But we sing it Wake Up Ben, obviously.
And the dude can fall alseep and expect a whole verse at any moment.
Today's most memorable moment was in the check out line at Price Chopper.
So I sang.  Entertained the masses he did with his wake up routine.

Also, the manh is getting bossy.  Sweetly bossy (well, mostly sweet).
I'm changing a messy diaper.  I"m cleaning him up.
He is offended by the cleaning process lately.
"Pees Mama, no do dat pees"

It's bed time.  We have read about 15 books. 
He has the opportunity to choose just one more. 
He clearly understands the concept of one. 
"Dorda and Boots book mama"
He also knows we do not own a D0r@ book.
"Sorry sweetie, we have no D0r@ books.  How about Di@g0?"
His response?
"Mama, no Dorda and Boots no seep Ben.  oday?"
So not oday...but he held it against me and took 55 minutes to go to sleep.

And yesterday?  He wanted to be ome...he loves being ome.
On our way to see Uncle Matt, a favourite person in the universe
he really wanted to be ome.  But loving Matt he was confilicted
So he had a fit.  A 20 minute fit.
It went something like this...

"no Mat-chew ome.  Ben ome. pees.
ice cream mama me ice cream
cady, cady, cocolat cady pees
mama d0rda book mama pees ome now
no mat-chews ome no nana ome mines mines mines
no nap pees w!ggles on TV
no diiiiiiper mama mik baba me mama"

A long and slightly repetitive list
of all the things he loves and hates most in life
that made him angry or very happy at some point. 
Looking, searching for a reason to have a fit. 
A long fit.  So very special.

In other news...
he happily sat on the big boy potty today for 15 minutes
left the potty
peed on the hall carpet

we visited a tot gym program today
lots of positives
he wanted in on the action immediately
engaging instructors, fun, wonderfully paced
new developmentally appropriate equiptment
more than 50% of the kids were Chinese or Vietnamese (8 /14)
so I forked out the cash
we start mid september.

Found the backup camera battery charger.
(regular one is at the cottage)
Charged the batteries.
Tomorrow we are walking up town
and taking the historic steam train.
He is going to LOVE it!
Pictures to follow of course.

Parks and zoos and farms, oh my!

A very wee little picture update.
Because I have taken a very wee number of pictures.

There is a wonderful new park in my neighbourhood.
We visited on Monday.
But is was capital H hot.
Ben wasn't feeling the park love
(upside down in my lap).

Yesterday we went to the zoo.
He saw a sleeping rhino, under water.
He saw a sleeping hippo, under water.
He was unimpressed
given those 2 animals represented his entire wish list.
And it was capital H hot.

He did however LOVE collecting treasures
in a shady spot on the lunch area path.

And today?
Not so hot really.  No capitals at all.
And a lovely breeze.
And animals.

Small and very sweet little donkeys.

 A pony for riding.

And friendly (but not at all hungry) goats and sheep..

Followed by Pho with friends!
Great day!

P.S.
Day two without thickener is going smoothly!
And 2 nights in a row, 12 + hours of sleep in his Big Boy bed
(where he is NAPPING right now!)
Yay for Ben!

Newsworthy

He is asleep in his big boy bed.

He napped in that same bed for nearly 2 hours this afternoon 

in preparation for a trip to the feeding specialist.

I actually had to wake him up.

And he is now "thickener free".

He enjoyed a bottle of milk with no added rice cereal to thicken it for the first time this evening  since March 2009.

And there was joy in the land.

The joy extends to the 5 bucks a bag/3 days thickener cost

BUT

the real joy?

Saved for the canceled velopharyngeal insufficiency clinic visit.

The skipped invasive investigations of his palate.

The skipped trauma (for both of us).

Hospital trauma is real for ben.  

Very real.  

I did not want to go there again.

Are we out of the woods?

No, probably not.

There may be some residual aspiration.

Cup drinking without a spout is a long way in his future.

He is back to the bottle full time for now as he learns the no thickener routine.

But

He seems to be able to effectively clear aspirated fluid when it occurs.

He seems to effectively monitor his intake sipping and swallowing in a very careful manner.

He can never have his adenoids out as this could compromise his palate further.

His slight hyper nasal sounding on "ch" and "sh' need to be monitored.

And I have to watch for fever and coughing over the next few weeks 

as lung infection will be a sure sign of aspiration.

Overall a great day.

And we are going to the Zoo tomorrow...

OUCH.

Um , yeah.
This week is hurting a bit.
Dude is on his forth day without a nap.
Seems to me, and I'm guessing here, if nap time is in the big boy bed Ben has no intention of participating.  Don't get me wrong, he is in that flipping bed for an hour and a half whether he naps or not but he leans heavily towards the not side.


Yikes.


So, yesterday we went to visit the favourite Auntie Kristen.  Pool side fun and car travel and treats and so on but no nap.  He did eat a good protein rich dinner followed quickly by a bottle though and crashed at about 7:45.  Slept all the way home (100kms) and stayed asleep until 8:40 this morning...


Looking for a repeat my friends.
No nap in nap land today.  Gave it the allotted 90 minutes and only lost it once or twice (or 65 thousand times) firmly telling the short person to lay down and close his eyes...only to hear a variety of one liners such as "need one biiiiig kiss mama, like a daddy kiss, a mama kiss and tree baby kiss please" or another favourite "oh maaaan!  see dorda and boots t.v. please, now?"


Instituted a new rule...big boys who don't sleep don't get T.V. and they must play quietly while mama does her nap time cleaning.  He rocked actually.  I cleaned out and organized 2 kitchen cupboards and did 2 loads of laundry while his farm and zoo animals built nuclear families in the livingroom.


So dinner was early, protein rich and followed by a nice big bottle (hoping to forever avoid a repeat of the crash and burn rice incident of 2010).  A bit of evening visiting with friends and then the man went down in his big boy bed shortly after 8.


Here's hoping for a nice late wake up....

The post where I brag...

You know those bloggers that brag on their kids?

How they read at 18 months 

and program computers by the age of 5?

My turn.

Dude has a wicked arm.

He can throw with purpose, directionality and distance.

Over and over again.

Never missing the intended target.

Dude can also count to 12.

Clearly, correctly and with purposeful one to one matching.

All of the numbers, except 1, start with a "d", but whatever.

And his vocabulary is exploding.

How do I know all of this?  Can I prove it?

Just take in this one short 12 second example of my son's special gifts.

It was dinner time.

I strapped my tired 

"I'm not napping in that flipping big boy bed 

and you can't make me so there" 

son into his highchair.

Gave him the coveted bowl of (brown) rice 

and chicken 

with a side of steamed yellow beans.

Took a second to visit the bathroom in peace.  Alone.

Well, 12 seconds apparently.

This is what I heard as I perched there in solitude...

one fro da rice

do fro da rice

dree fro da rice

door fro da rice

dive fro da rice

and so on

dix, deven, date, dine, den, deleben, delve

And 12 seconds later, dinner was over.

All over.

My house.

For about 3 1/2  meters.

On couches, and chairs 

in toy bins, in hair

and on the carpet

every flipping square inch of the entire carpet

in every direction.

I really should have taken a picture.

But I was pissed.

Really really pissed.

I cooked that flipping rice for 50 minutes.

Actually roasted the bloody bird.

Steamed the beans.

And if you know me this is all VERY unusual...

(here is a remnant that was overlooked)

So I took weapons 13 through 20 away

left him in the highchair

and cleaned my house.

Starting with the vacuum.

He is terrified of the vacuum,

really scared.

Except today

within 30 seconds he looked like this

 at 6:15

with an empty stomach.

This could end badly

but right now he slumbers,

peacefully,

in his big boy bed

with rice down the front of his diaper

and in his hair.

And maybe I'll use my time to read a magazine

alone...

ch-ch-ch-changes

Dude is exclaiming, often, that his baba is too thick.  This must be good swallowing news.  In celebration we headed out and found a set of 3 big boy baba's (sippy cups) without valves.  With Diago.  Dude is thrilled if a bit messy.

Also bought some big boy underwear.  Not getting the same level of excited response in this department...cries and carries on every time he is trying out the big boy bathroom thing...until yesterday.  

Yesterday he figured out a very important mama rule.  It goes something like this- If I'm in the dreaded Big Boy Bed and I scream "go potty mama" she races over and saves me from that terrible isolation.  If it is bedtime and the big boy bed looms in the future then the potty is LOADS of fun.  For long long periods of time.  With no action but a very positive attitude.

Skipped nap entirely yesterday and spent the whole 90 minutes developing complex language structures.

baby

me baby

no 

no bed

no beeboy 

no beeboy bed

me baby no beeboy bed

kiss mama now pees

mama me baby no beeboy bed mama bed

pees mama? kiss mama. mama bed me baby no beeboy

mama mama mama no no no mama mama mama no no no

And so it went for 90 minutes as I lay 18 inches away on mama's bed.

A bed devoid of all of the comforts he enjoys...

like blankie, quilt and meowmeow and moosie and steamroller

And he lay on a brand new single mattress on my floor 

with all his comfort items and more.

But my bed had mama

Last night and today for nap he was asleep before I put him down.

A cop out for sure.

But he is rested and we are both happier for it.

And for the picture seekers?

In an effort to stay active we dropped in with friends (and no preparation) to the splash pad last evening.

It was a hit.

Last year, for comparisons sake.

Wow, what a whirlwind!

Hard to believe July is over.
We had a GREAT time.

A bit of cottage fun.

New favourite toys

Life changing events

And new  favourite people.

Then a road trip to Ottawa for a weekend of parties and friends and fun.

Before long we were back to the cottage for special time with family.

Fast and furious for the most part

With a side order of frog hunting at Popsicle bridge (the bridge to the marina store)

Relaxing by nana's garden

Paddle boating with his favourite girl

Eating ice cream in the sun and collecting rocks

And swimming.  
Lots and lots of swimming.  
Fast walking towards deep water with mama 1 cm from the wee one.  
Not camera compatible obviously as there are NO pictures.  

Here is one from last year when the water was low and the beach was big and the baby moved slowly...

Slowing things down a bit in August with some home time.
A few errands.
A few newborn babies to visit.

A short cottage visit (well, a week, so not toooo short, hopefully with lower water levels)

And then the back to school rush will start.