Mr. Independent

There are some days that Nick can be super independent. He is tall enough to reach just about everything in our house and if he can’t get it from his feet he most definitely can with the help of a chair. Lately he’s taken to wanting to help pack his lunch. Sounds great right. Except I have two hours to get myself and two kids ready, pack two lunches, feed one child a bottle and another breakfast and get out the door. Thankfully Mike takes care of Nick so I have one less task on my checklist each morning. When Nick makes his lunch I still have to supervise. And he is still kind of really slow. So his “help” ends up taking me longer. I just have to remind myself that someday his help will really be a help, and then he won’t offer it up anymore. Ah, the joys of motherhood. And, yes, that is what my countertop looks like every morning. It is chaos everyday.

One food at a time

Confession time. I’ve never had a sweet potato. That means I have never cooked one either. I guess I didn’t realize I could throw it in the microwave just like I do with regular potatoes. So, I finally bought one for Ben and cooked it up. He loved it! I wasn’t surprised considering sweet potatoes were the first baby food I fed him and he liked them through all his trials and tribulations with food. Now I’m just kicking myself that I didn’t do this for the other boys. Nick was sitting next to Ben when I put this on the tray. He just crinkled his nose and moved as far away as possible. I can’t say I blame him. I tried a bite. It wasn’t awful, but nothing great. Maybe if I dressed it up a little it wouldn’t be so bad.

Trouble with a capital T

That’s what this one is. We are struggling with baby-proofing the house because we don’t want to incapacitate Nick and Zander’s ability to be independent, but we also need to keep Ben safe. It’s a delicate balancing act that we are still trying to figure out. So for right now, it is pretty much a free for all in our house. If I was a praying woman I would be doing a lot of it, hoping that Ben doesn’t find a stray Lego or marble or raisin on the floor and think he needs to see what it tastes like. For now though his favorite place to play is in the cupboard under the sink … you know, where all the completely safe toxic cleaners are. Great, huh?

The worst part is, is he knows he shouldn’t be under there. Look at that smile. He’s saying “I got you wrapped around my chubby little finger mommy. You just keep sitting there and taking pictures while I destroy everything.”

So I do. Because he’s cute. And I can’t resist his smile.

Or his dimples.

Or his eyelashes.

It’s true

A small part of my had hoped that Mike was just kidding me – that my baby wasn’t (gulp) a toddler. But, he wasn’t kidding. As soon as Ben rolled out of bed this morning I had him down on the floor and was coaxing him to walk. He wasn’t all that into it, but he took 3 steps for me too. Ack. I can’t believe it, my baby is officially gone. I am now the mother of a kindergartner, preschooler and toddler.

How can it be?

How can it be that I missed my last little baby’s first steps? I left home about 3:30 tonight for an announcement that would end up (likely) being my (and the town’s) biggest story of the year. I had only been gone about 15 minutes when Mike called. He said “I know you probably don’t want to hear this but …” Stop right there. If you know I don’t want to hear it then why did you call? Anyway, he didn’t stop. He proceeded to tell me that Ben had taken 3 steps on his own. How can that be? He isn’t even 10 months yet. This is the baby that was supposed to be a baby for a really long time. The one that I would have been happy to have wait to walk until he was at least 1 and he has to be my overachiever. And I missed it. What was worse was I knew I was going to be gone until well after his bedtime so I wouldn’t even get to see it when I got home. Ugh.

I want my baby back

Because this little guy is way too big to be my baby.

Look at that belly.

And that chin!

And that smile!

Where did my baby go?

Ready, Aim

Ben has been working hard at the whole food thing. Now that he is OK with eating puffs we are working on his accuracy. For now, the pincer grasp is still out of reach, but he is doing alright with shoving his whole hand in his mouth. I’d say we are at about 50 percent accuracy.

Really, it doesn’t matter much when you are this cute.