Yellow Belted

Jack earned his yellow belt in May, after months of practicing his patterns. He's still deciding if he's ready to work on his orange belt -- we asked him to decide between fall soccer and taekwondo, and he's still tinkering on it. 

I'm a big advocate of taekwondo, especially for small-for-their-age children. The art gave Jack confidence and is designed to help him learn how to defend himself. His teacher also talks to the boys a lot about bullies and how to handle tough situations with peers.

I took a video of Jack testing. He had to test in front all those who were testing at the school that day -- and did his patterns with a 2nd degree black belt whiz kid. Talk about ninja. The videos below are of Jack testing and then of him receiving his yellow belt. Such a stage mom.

  

 This is my favorite pic from the day. That look on Jack's face tells me he's pleased and proud of himself. What a boy . 

                           

Ben, a 3-year-old wildman

I haven't taken time to sit down and blog about Ben at age 3 yet. He's been 3 for almost a month now, but that's sort of par for the course with him. I overdo all the "firsts" with Jack and then practically ignore those same milestones when Ben hits them.

While obsess on how these tendencies will surely scar him for life, he's shown me time again that he adapts well and will be just fine. Some things I want to remember about him:

He is independent, stubborn and smart. But also affectionate. While he is famous for telling me "I can do it myself" he also likes to stop me a few times a day, grab my face in his hands and rub noses with me. Then, he plants a sloppy wet kiss on my cheek and tell me he "loves me so much."

He thinks his ears are green. In fact, he's adamant about it. His eyes are blue, piercingly so -- but for now he gets his eyes and ears mixed up. Those blue eyes are matched with a wild mane of curly blond hair that reminds me that a lot of girls will call my house in coming years. Women actually stop me in stores sometimes, take one look at him and say "What a beautiful child." Not that I'm bragging or anything.

He's a morning person, much like me. That's by far my favorite time to spend with him. Jack and John like to sleep in, but Ben will come get me each morning between 6-6:30 a.m., and we'll start coffee and grab a snack together. On mornings when I need to go to work, Ben will watch TV and eat a snack while I get ready. On mornings when I'm there to stay, we'll make breakfast and talk about the day. 

On those mornings when we watches TV, he'll pick Scooby Doo, Transformers or Ninjago. He's pretty much up for whatever his brother chooses, and I am thankful for how easy going he is about some things that Jack can be so picky about.

Much like his brother, we never experienced the terrible 2s. I am starting to feel the terrible 3s. His tantrums are pretty loud and tearful, and I've found the only thing that calms him down is a trip to his room where he can sit. I have resorted to buckling him into his car seat when the tantrum is particularly terrible -- a measure that forces him to be still, despite his wizardry of escaping time out.

Speaking of wizardry, John and I think he's pretty smart. I know a lot of it is watching Jack and picking up on things quickly, but it still makes me worry less about him. At 3, he can identify shapes and colors and count to 15 or so. We potty trained him in three weeks or so -- minus the reluctance to poop in the potty, not in his pants on on the porch. Yes, I said porch.

My big goals for the summer are to get him to dress himself, something I think he could do if he was willing. He loves pajamas and tries to stay in them all day on Saturday. Most of the time, I relent and shop for groceries with him in his PJs.

And finally, his best friend is Jack. I hope he will always be. And while he still looks up to his big brother, we're starting to feel Ben assert his independence in a lot of situations. How many times can one woman ask two boys to stop fighting, stop arguing and stop yelling at each other? I'm sure that part will continue.

Beach or Go Karts

 These are the last of my beach pics -- a hodgepodge of sand and go-karts (prevalent themes for our trip). Note the life jacket on Jack. He was big on safety this trip.

Gone Fishing

 John and Don took Jack on a kids' fishing trip one morning while we were in Destin. Jack charmed the captain and got to drive the boat for a while -- and caught a fish or two.

The boys (plus Mary) also tried to fish one night, though they didn't catch anything. Jack brought his special Spider Man fishing rod on the trip, so he was anxious to catch something.

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Beach Party

We celebrated Ben's 3rd birthday at the beach a few weeks ago -- when I get two seconds, I will blog about my crazy man. He called our trip to Destin his Beach Party and was convinced we went to the beach just to celebrate his birthday. 

Cupcakes from the Publix bakery at the beach.

We also celebrated Mother's Day and Jack's birthday (for Mom and Don) while we were there.

Destin Beach

We hit the beach early this year, and I'm already thinking about fitting in a long weekend sometime this summer. We returned to Silver Shells in Destin a couple of weeks ago and had a great time. Jack spent a ton of time in the ocean while Ben hung back and played in the sand. John and I are both huge beach bums, so we spent minimal time at the pool. And for the first year since we started having babies, we sat and relaxed -- and let Jack and Ben play.