marc and michelle

Happy Birthday Bennett.

Gosh, we love our little two year old Bennett.  I don't know how the rest of you are, but I LOVE this stage.  I feel like kids hit 18 months and then they just get more and more talkative and fun.  Not that I don't love my babies, but I just really love toddlers.  I think I am a lot more relaxed the second go around too.  I think I was so worried about "Terrible Two's" that I got paranoid about everything Jackson did and thought he was going to be the worst kid ever, if, I didn't get everything straightened out and fast!   Poor kid.  Now I just realize it is a stage they don't understand everything, they are quite hilarous, they need some disapline, but they aren't the worst ever.

They are just testing us, the little sneaks.

Anyway, we celebrated Bennett's 2nd birthday this last week.  We had a Teddy Bear Picnic theme, since he is obsessed with his "beary"--it goes just about everywhere with him.  We have had a few scares of thinking the bear was lost forever and those were bad moments.   Real bad moments.

The cake was made out of homemade fondant--a first for me to work with and very interesting.  I learned my lesson of using marshmallow fluff versus actually melting marshmallows and just take it from me, don't try to cut corners.  :)  We had a good turn out at Bennett's party.

For the last few weeks when we would ask Bennett how old he was turning he would say 5.  We had to keep correcting him and telling him 2.  He had his age down by the party, but I think seeing all of Jackson's friends turn 5 in the last few weeks he just thinks that is the age you turn next (he really thinks he is as old as Jackson and friends).

By the time his birthday rolled around he was saying he was two and if anyone said "Happy Birthday", he would quickly add "Bennett!"  It was really cute.  At his party when he was opening gifts he would say, "Thank you, next. or Thank you, Bennett's present."  It was really funny.  He got so many nice things!  Thank you to everyone!

(Jackson's present to Bennett.  He was really worried he didn't have anything to give Bennett for his birthday so he hurried and made this cardboard dog the morning of)

a little bit about Bennett.

He is such a jokester.  He likes to be funny and loves getting a laugh (especially a laugh from Jackson).  In Bennett's prayers he will say funny things like, Thank you for Daddy Monster, (then peek up with a smile to see if anyone will start laughing).

He loves to swing.  Loves to swing.  He could be pushed on the swingset all day long.

He is a daredevil.  He likes to hang from the monkey bars and cross the rope bridge (I will get a picture of this, because it is nuts he does this and scares me to death).

He says sorry, please, and thank you...constantly!  He is a pleaser and likes to make sure everyone is happy and he has done all the right things.

He is very easy going.  He has a great personality, laid back, but also knows what he wants and can let us know when he needs too.

He loves to carry around socks.  Not sure what to say about this, but we find socks stuffed all around the apartment.  :)

He thinks he is as old as Jackson.  He thinks all of Jackson's friends are his friends and he can do everything they can.  The other day I went to drop Jackson off at playgroup.  Bennett ran in and up to Jacob (a little boy Jackson's age) and tried to tackle him and said, "Jacob wrestle.  Wrestle Bennett!"  It was really funny.
       or when Jackson is doing his homework after school Bennett says, "Bennett homework" and we will make him a copy and he tries to do it just like Jackson and will try to act like he is asking me questions about it, like Jackson will.

He likes to play pretend: Some of his recent favorites...
        -He crawls around the house meowing like a cat or barking like a dog.  He will only come out of character to ask me to pet him.
       -He like to walk around the house with tinker toys and "pow-pow" everything.  Like the sticks are little guns.  He got in trouble on the playground by a bunch of moms the other day from shooting their kids.  Bennett was half the age of most of the kids he was "shooting" and he was about 5-6 feet away from the kids.

He loves tinker toys.  He will carry them around the house and put them in my back pockets while I am cooking or busy cleaning (that is if he is not using them to defend himself and using them as a weapon).

He loves books.  He will gather a bunch of books and sit on the couch to "read".  Then when he is done with a stack he will gather more.  It is really cute to be to watch him do this.  On his birthday one of our friends gave him a book.  I found him reading it at one of the tables later in the evening.  He had found it on his own and was just enjoying the read.

This probably goes without saying, but Bennett LOVES Beary!  He carries him EVERYWHERE I will let him.  The first time we had to wash him I let Bennett stick him in the wash thinking it would make him feel better to know right where Beary was at and we could talk about him getting a bath...but by the time we got upstairs he was VERY upset.  I tried to lay him down for his nap, but he would not go without beary.  He cried and yelled for beary for 45 minutes.  We finally got him out and took him down to the laundry to show him beary was okay and we would put him in the dryer.  Bennett grabbed beary and did NOT let go of him and when anyone came near beary for the next 24 hours or so he would scream at them and say NO!  Then run with beary in the other direction.

He is a major snuggler.  And gives the BEST hugs on demand to almost anyone.

He will wake up in the middle of the night and yell, "Blanket's Mom blankets!" Until I go in and cover him up and he will grin and say, "Thank you mom."  and go right back to sleep.

Bennett loves George.  Or curious george as you might know him.  It is his favorite show and really the only show he will sit and watch.  He talks about george and I really think he understands george and feels like they can communicate in "eei eii ahh ahh" talk.

Some of the things he says the most often.

-I love you.
-Candy, mom, Bennett need candy.
-No, Bennett do it
-Hold on...hold on
-milk please
-hurry jackson
-Bennett help
-Thank you
-Sorry

Anyway, these are a few things about Bennett right now.  I am surprised if you made it this far and apologize for all the stories etc, but I need to remember these things, so the blog is where they are going.