Injured Party

Please don't look at this picture and pick up the phone to call Child Protective Services. No, we're not beating our child or poking him with hot coals. He's exercising a new form of self-expression: Band-Aid body art. The kid loves to put on Band-Aids, whether he needs them or not, and the bigger, the better. He specifically requests "big people Band-Aids." Points also come for Band-Aids that have a picture or pattern on them. My mom sent him some Cars bandages for Christmas as part of a doctor kit and he loves putting them on and then pulling them off so he can adhere another one.

My mother-in-law had to have a waterproof Band-Aid on her arm while we were in Florida and Ben got hooked on the fact that there are ones that don't come off when you go swimming. So he proceeded to use her entire box, plus another entire box of Sponge Bob Band-Aids that Grandpa Charlie picked up for him at the drug store. All in a span of four days.

Two nights ago I opened our downstairs bathroom door to discover the above scene. He found where I'd hidden the bandages (perhaps under the sink was too obvious) and proceeded to gleefully cover himself in a new coat of Band-Aids. If this is as far as the body art fetish goes, I'll be happy. You can see in the top picture that his arms are also a favorite place for pens, markers, and any other writing instrument. Heaven forbid we move onto temporary tatoos!

Culinary Creations

Ben is a really good eater, as you can probably guess from looking at his size. Lately he's been very interested in making his own little food concotions, as well as asserting his independence in preparing and choosing his meals. This can sometimes be frustrating when he wants his oatmeal absolutely drowning in syrup, but we've come up with a solution where I fill a little dairy creamer with milk and a cup with brown sugar or syrup and then he gets to parcel them out himself until they're gone. I wish I could claim the brainwave, but thanks to my mom for the suggestion to avoid a needless power struggle. Ben's oatmeal sandwich. Basically his rice bread sprinkled with dry oatmeal. Looks pretty bland to me, but he ate it all. Granted, he did need a big glass of milk afterward.

Leaf stew. Ben made this on his birthday and I think he might have gotten the idea from Papa Bear's woodland stew in one of his Berenstain Bears books. The ingredients are: Leaves (of course, the more variety the better), broccoli, water, salt, pepper, and a strawberry. Maybe our monster from a few months ago will eat it.

Livin' Large

Here's the six month belly picture. While picking up Ben from preschool on Tuesday I had a woman comment, "You must be due any day now!" I just smiled sweetly and said, "Actually I have three months to go." I could tell she felt really bad and kept backtracking, telling me she wasn't insinuating anything, but I assured her I wasn't offended by her miscalculation.

I'm starting to feel the lovely pregnancy pains where your stomach itches incessantly and you feel all your muscles and ligaments stretch as you heave yourself to turn over in bed. A million thanks to B for letting me use your Boppy Total Body Pillow, which makes sleeping (or lying awake at night) much more comfortable. I like to call it my own little womb that I get wrapped up in every night. If you click the link and look at the picture you'll see what I mean.

The Big 0-4

On Monday Ben celebrated his fourth birthday. We had a really fun day and it capped off a weekend of celebration with Andy's family when we were in Florida. Here's how things went:

I woke Ben up with breakfast in bed, which he's been very excited about ever since Andy talked about doing it for Mother's Day. We sat together on the top bunk while he ate.

We took the leftover Lightning McQueen birthday gear from our Disney party (see pics below) and celebrated again with Ben's playgroup. The whole cake thing doesn't really work with wheat allergies, so I made some oatmeal cookies, which I'm not sure went over very well either.

Ben's present from me and Andy: A scooter and helmet. Gotta love Play-it-Again Sports. He spent a while in the morning trying to ride the scooter and I think it will be a summer project.

In my family the tradition was that the special person got to pick dinner on their birthday. So per Ben's request we ate outside and had hot dogs, watermelon, corn, and chocolate ice cream. Yummy! Can't wait until the patio is done so we can have a real place to sit.

Now, the party with Andy's family at our condo in Florida:

Annette, a.k.a. Grandma, was kind enough to bring all the Cars birthday things. We had blowers, funny glasses, cups, plates, napkins, and a tablecloth. Ben loved it.

I brought a wheat-free cake mix with me, but it proceeded to fall apart so Andy jerryrigged pieces of it and frosted them. Not very pretty and Ben didn't really like it anyway. The rest of us didn't think it tasted too bad, but we had brownies and ice cream as a backup.

Ben and Uncle Pete.

Auntie Charlotte and her friend Jesse, who's trying to figure out how to make Ben's pirate figurines stand up.

Ben with his "Good Guy" and "Bad Guy" toys. After we went on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride, he immediately decided he needed a good guy and a bad guy.

Grandpa Charlie helping unwrap presents.

Another view of the sad little cake. From now on we're just sticking with ice cream.

Never Say Never

Some of you may remember my lament from a few months ago regarding Ben's preschool situation for next year. We wanted to get him in the excellent Hilliard City School District (HCSD) Preschool as a peer model where they have a mix of special needs and average children. Unfortunately, the waiting list was too long and I didn't send in his application early enough. After touring five other local preschool options, and weighing the different program costs and offerings, we decided to send Ben to the City of Hilliard Playschool operated by the city Parks and Rec department. It's close, in our price range, and offers an option three days a week. I felt good about the program and wished I would have known about this option this year so we could have saved some money.

Well, miracles do happen. Despite being assured twice by the HCSD Preschool secretary that the 4 day/week peer model program was full and the last peer model observation was scheduled for April, we got a phone call two weeks ago from them saying that Ben was scheduled for an observation today. I was absolutely astounded and very thankful. So for whatever reason they decided to add more kids, we're really happy about it. Ben and I went in last week for a tour of the preschool building and today he had his observation. The teacher called back this afternoon and said that he has a spot for next year. Hooray!

So if you're still in the market for a local preschool, I'd still recommend the Parks and Rec program. But for now, I need to get busy arranging Ben's carpool...

Sneak Peek

A tantalizing view of the soon-to-be-released engagement photos of the hottest couple around. That's right: My little sister, Kira, and her beau Nathan will be wed June 30. So chic.

The Big Race

Yesterday Andy completed his second half-marathon and had a fantastic experience. His first one, last September in Dayton, he made all the rookie mistakes and was pooped about 2/3 through the course. This time he kept a more consistent pace and then poured it on, running negative splits for the last few miles. He said he felt really good and the weather was absolutely perfect for running. That was a relief, considering that the past week it rained consistently and the whole afternoon and evening prior to the race we had an absolute deluge.

On Friday evening we went to a tasty pasta feed with some friends who were also running the race. Carbo-loading at its finest and Andy's favorite dessert: Chocolate eclairs.

Putting on his bib and timing chip after a breakfast of champions. Sadly, this was the only "action" shot I got.

Ben and I staked out a spot on the last corner on the straightaway right before the finish line. Ben had a little bottle of Gatorade to give to Andy and he wanted to run the last little bit with him. Although we were there when he ran past, somehow we managed to miss seeing him. So sad! It was probably while we were taking this picture and it's karma coming back to bite me for being a photoholic.

This race was so much more viewer-friendly than the one in Dayton, where they erected huge barriers at the end and supporters couldn't really get close to cheer their runners. Here we could reach out and touch them. Even though we missed Andy, there's always something inspiring and exhilirating about watching a big race. Perhaps all that pumping adrenaline just can't help spilling over from the runners to the spectators.

The lady next to me told me how her daughter and son-in-law were running the race together. I said that I would have loved to do that and maybe next year. She looked at me quizzically and asked why I didn't run this time around. Perhaps she didn't see below my face, but I just patted the big six-month belly and replied that I'm not quite in top running form right now. :)