Catchin' Up with The Southern Skyes

Happy and sad at the same time

Ben turned 3 in June! Yup, he sure did. He's three years old. That's 36 months. 1095 days and counting......

My baby is no more. And honestly, that makes me more than a little sad.

But now he's this amazing little person and he's so cool! You can have actual conversations with him, and he tells you about things, and he discusses his day at the dinner table, and he seems to understand humor so he makes little jokes (he's quite funny, really), he plays hide and seek and actually "gets" the concept, he likes to play "I Spy", and the list goes on and on. This is all really cool stuff, and I am sooooo proud of him, and my heart melts when I hear this little boy, my little baby, say "I love you mommy" for no reason followed by the biggest kiss and hug on the planet. As incredible as it all is, I want to cry knowing that those baby days I long for are so very far away now.

Another sign that we now have a big boy on our hands is that Benjamin no longer sleeps in a crib! The transition was extremely smooth and easy (thanks in part to my mom's handywork in sewing him a pillow and quilt with Bob the Builder on them, which we built up that he'd get to have when he moved into his "big boy bed", plus the fact that he helped daddy dismantle his crib, screwdriver and all), but I worried about it nonetheless. I was sooooo worried that he would fall out of bed - which he did, numerous times, and surprise - he survived; imagine that! - that I had this massive safety net of pillows and quilts surrounding him, and looking back now, it was rather silly on my part. Thanks to Greg's gentle persuasion, I finally relented to having just one blanket on the floor, temporarily of course, for the spills. Hey - stop laughing! I'm a first time mom!!

Soother - be gone!

Benjamin has given up the soo-soo! Yahoo! He only had it for nap and bed time anyway, and was never one of those kids that is always "plugged" in. And it was easier to give up than I thought it would be too. He is always surprising us. I had cut it in 1/2 several months ago to take away any sucking ability, but he still somehow sucked on it. And then I kept trimming it little by little till eventually there was just barely a nub left. On the night the lights went out for the soo-soo, he put it in his mouth, flipped it around several times with a serious frown on his face, took it out and promptly declared that it was too small and could I please make it bigger. I actually laughed out loud at this request and had to blame the cat for tickling my feet (I'm such a quick thinker!). Naturally, as any good mother would do, I took the opportunity to tie it in with the whole you're a "big boy" now, sleeping in the big boy bed, and that the soother must have become too small for you now, yadda, yadda, yadda - you get the picture. So he (yes! he!) decided to throw it in the garbage himself and we haven't looked back. Well, he actually asked for it for the first time on this past camping trip......maybe the great outdoors made him temporarily delirious or something.

Now for that darn potty training.................

We've been on a few camping trips so far this summer, but I don't want to bore anyone with the details (more importantly, I really don't feel like typing them), so here are a whole whack of pictures from those trips and other stuff too. I'm not kidding - there really is a WHACK of photos below.......*sigh* .....I really have to update this more often.

Happy Birthday Benjamin!