Happy Birthday, Sweet Benjamin!

Our sweet baby boy turned THREE yesterday.  It’s mind-blowing how fast the past three years have gone by.  I can still remember how incredibly uncomfortable I was those last few weeks of pregnancy, and how it seemed like I would never get to meet our son.  Now here we are three years later with this awesome little boy who never fails to bring smiles to our faces every minute of every day. 

On his birthday, Ben woke up to a  room filled with balloons.  So, at 6 am (a little too early for this mom who really enjoys  her sleep) the entire house woke up to Ben shouting “BA-WOONS!!!!”  He was SO EXCITED!  The fuzzy picture was the best I could get because he didn’t want to sit still (and I was still 1/2 asleep).

 

The first thing he saw when he walked down the hall was his pile of birthday presents waiting for him in the living room. He started tearing into them before any of the rest of us were ready.  He and his brother had a nice time playing with some new toys bright and early!  * If you notice in the picture below, Jack is squeezing Ben’s hand.  This is something that Jack has done to Ben ever since he was a newborn.  He just loves the feel of Ben’s hands and the warmth of them, especially the backs of his hands.  It is the most annoying thing in the world (although it looks very sweet in this photo) and Ben doesn’t seem to mind it at all – MOST of the time.

We started the day by taking Jack to school and  playing on the kindergarten playground after the big kids had to go inside to learn.  Then I took Ben to the Wilbur May Museum to see the Dinos & Dragons display.  We had been there once before, and that was something special that Ben wanted to do for his birthday.  It was a bit overwhelming this time because there were a few different schools there on field trips (lots of loud, big kids).  But we made our way through and had a very good time.  We saw all of the dinosaurs and dragons, but wouldn’t get close enough to take a picture.  Not only were they big and scary, but they made loud and scary noises when they moved.  It seemed that his favorite part was making wishes and  throwing coins in the pond.  We did some coloring and played with puppets.  The weather was just perfect, so when we were done at the museum, we took a little nature walk. 

Then we came home and had lunch with Daddy and cruised around town before it was time to pick up Jack from school.  After that, we went to the ‘down park’.  That is the park which sits just below the elementary school.  Then, we had to run home and get ready for Jack’s very first tee ball game. (more on that later)

Ben played a game of slide down the pitchers mound in the bullpen during the game.  That was entertaining and very dirty.  After the game, we came home and ate dinner while  Mommy frantically tried to find some frosting to frost the cupcakes that she made just before we had to leave to go to the baseball game.  YIKES!  It was a busy day, and wouldn’t you know…….there wasn’t any frosting, and with it being so close to bedtime, Mommy made the judgment call to forego the frosting..  BAD, BAD Mommy!  So here is Ben, blowing out the candles on his frosting-free cupcakes.  It didn’t seem to phase him at all.

  In fact, he liked us singing to him SO much that we ended up singing ‘Happy Birthday’ to him 3 times!

This was the most fun birthday so far!  He had more of an understanding that this day was about him and I think he felt pretty special.  He was so cute, throughout the day we would tell him Happy Birthday and he would reply “Happy Birthday, Mommy” or “Happy Birthday, Daddy”.  At one point during the day he told me “This is the best Christmas ever!”

At three years old, these are some of my favorite things about Ben:

• He will randomly tell me “I love you, too.”
• He is such a Mommas boy, but he loves to wrestle and play with his Daddy too.
• The way that he folds his ear into itself and then it ‘pops out’
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• His deep, belly laugh.  It is SO contagious.
• He will say something that he thinks is funny.  Then say “Mommy, did you hear that?  That’s funny, let’s laugh. hahahahaha”
• Whenever he sees his Daddy hugging his Mommy, he yells “No, Daddy.  Mommy’s my girl!”  Then he comes over to me and demands to be held.  Then he asks for a Ben sandwich. (Where we hug and he’s in the middle between us)
• His knock-knock jokes at the dinner table almost every night.  The punch line is not normally funny, just a random word that he thinks of. But we all laugh.   He has learned this trick from his brother, who also likes to tell bad knock-knock jokes at the dinner table.  Jack’s knock-knock jokes normally consist of  a long, made up story that doesn’t make much sense.
• Bedtime stories in the rocking chair
• He loves to take of his shoes and socks the instant that we come home.  AND then pick out all the fuzz between his toes.  Sometimes we are in public and he feels the sudden urge to clean between his toes.  Thankfully he hasn’t succeeded in doing it in public.
• Playing hide and seek with him and he is cracking up in his hiding spot, or else he will come out and say “Here I am”
• He is such a little repeater.  One of my favorite things he repeats is “Are you serious?”  It cracks me up every time
• His stubbornness.  It is so incredibly frustrating, but it makes me smile.  Especially when I look into
• Those GORGEOUS BIG BROWN EYES!