Letters on the Keyboard

Ben has been saying letters from the alphabet for several months.  He can say most of them in some form now.  He can also locate letters on the keyboard.  His toy laptop has a game where it shows a letter on the screen and he is supposed to press that letter on the keyboard.  Most of the time he gets it.  Sometimes he presses the wrong letter over and over on purpose.  This video is really dark, but I didn't want to turn on the living room light and spook him.  Getting a video of him playing this game or saying letters is like getting a photo of the Loch Ness monster.

Cabin Fever

 

Bad weather has kept us inside much of the last few weeks.  But whenever we did get out, Ben always picked up some germs.  Poor thing has been sick a lot this winter.  I think this pic was from when he got a stomach bug.

  

 Can't remember if he got this popsicle for a sore throat or because he fell and hit his head.  It looks like he's not digging the popsicle...

  

 but he totally is.

  

 This one's from today.  Just when I thought he was getting over a cold, he got a terrible cough yesterday.  He wouldn't take a nap, then had a fitful night's sleep.  Also, he has three pacifiers.

  

 Here's some proof that he has had some good times lately.  He likes pointing to things in his books, especially when Daddy's counting.

  

 I don't remember how he got into this position, but once he did, he wanted to be tickled.

When the Pacifier Was a Constant Friend

 

 Most of these are from early January, when Ben had an all-access pass to his pacifier.  For various reasons (the strongest being his colds and stomach bug this winter), he wanted it all the time.  We let him use it until after he started kindergarten.  Now it's just for sleep.

  

Two peas in a pod.

  

Checking out momma's new boots...

  

and trying to climb into the box they came in.

  

He certainly is an entertainer.  I've faced it - this is his hat now.

  

The bicycle helmet was a Christmas gift from Grandma Fran & Grampy Bill.  We haven't found a bike for him yet, but that won't keep him from wearing the helmet.

  

Hey, no pacifier in sight!

  

Of course.

  

Aww, he made himself a snuggly fort.

  

Hmmm... I promise, that is a brand new toilet brush that he's combing his hair with.

Once Ben had gotten adjusted to preschool, we took the pacifier except during naps & bedtime.  We also only allowed TV during the hour before bed.  At times it seemed like we had a tiny drug-addicted shrieker on our hands.  But he lived to tell the tale.  The pacifier was a tough one at first but he's at the point to now where he wakes up, comes downstairs, and puts the pacifier down voluntarily.  The TV has been tougher.  During the first few days of limited TV he rediscovered every toy in the house.  Then the "new" wore off and he was begging for his DVDs.  We have to be really careful about unplugging any electronics that have monitors attached.  This morning he tried to play Ice Age on this computer.  I gave in and turned on the TV.  I figure it's like Saturday morning cartoons.

Snow, Snow, Snow

 

 It's been an unusually snowy winter for Germany.  Now it's finally starting to melt, but last week we had many inches of snow and took Ben out to the backyard to play in it.

  

 He was excited just to put his snowsuit and boots on.

  

 Daddy knows how to get Ben to smile.

  

 Some snow got into his mittens.

  

 It wasn't easy for him to trek through the yard in those big boots.

  

 He managed, though.  Here he's trying to go up the steep little hill at the edge of the yard.

  

 Checking out the swing that was totally covered with snow.  He gave up on trying to get in it.

When he refused to keep his mittens on but was upset about his hands being cold, we decided to call it quits.  Ben was quite unhappy with this decision and threw one of the biggest tantrums we've seen in awhile.  But we didn't give in, and we didn't give him his pacifier or turn on the TV (those are the fastest ways to calm him down).  He eventually got over it.  I think all of us have been making a lot of progress in the past few weeks.