This was a big surprise - a beautiful orchid from our dentist! She's an American as well and sent these for little Alex. The funny part was that they are as tall as Ben already. I love living somewhere so tropical that the most abundant and affordable flowers are orchids. I had no idea how much I loved them until we started having them around the house all the time.
Well, Ben has found a fun new toy in his bedroom. First, he climbs up on the forbidden steps (which I didn't consider when we bought these drawers).
Then he plays with the light switch...over...and over....and over....
2 months old already! Alex had his checkup last Friday and he has already crossed the 12 lb mark, so he has nearly doubled his birth weight already. I can't express how exciting it is for us to have a baby that is healthy and gains weight so easily! I went back to Ben's baby book and he didn't reach 12 lbs until he was 6 months corrected, so really about 9 1/2 months old. Another good thing about the weight gain is that Alex is a great sleeper so far, lately usually waking up once overnight and taking a really nice afternoon nap each day. The little guy did not like all of his shots, though, and felt pretty crummy this weekend with a fever. I told him that his big brother could handle 6 shots in one visit but Alex wasn't impressed.
The boys all spent their first afternoon together on Saturday so I would have the chance to do a little shopping by myself, which was such a treat! What I didn't expect was that I found myself getting lonely after an hour or two because I'm so used to having at least one other little body with me at all times.
Ben still loves to color on himself more than anything else around here, except maybe the walls. We dotted his face one afternoon and he thought it was just hilarious. I'm not sure the people at the mall later thought it was quite as funny when I didn't quite wash it all off and my child looked like he had some ugly contagious disease!
Ben and his #1 blankie. We used to rotate between this one and his blue and purple blankie, so I had a backup in case of an emergency laundry event, but now it's all about this particular blankie. I don't know what I'll do if something happens to either one because they were both handmade gifts that won't be replaceable!
Cute boy playing on his piano.
Ben has become quite adept at begging for videos and knows how to change the DVD so I don't have to do it! He'll turn on the receiver and hand me the TV remote because that's the one button he can't reach. He completely surprised me yesterday because he handed me a DVD he watched once (and didn't even like...he only sat for about 30 seconds of it) and called it by name. He's just a little sponge right now soaking up so much information every day!
Sweet little guy! I just love his long eyelashes and precious smile.
After hearing so much about the terrible twos I was pretty scared to approach this age but (like every other age so far) I think it has been my favorite! Every day we see more and more personality in Ben and now we can see his imagination growing and his memory getting better. That's good sometimes, like when we're looking for something around the house and he finds it first, and bad sometimes, like when I tell him we can watch Thomas the Train after dinner and he remembers!
Now that we have a true newborn at home, I'm reminded every day of how different Ben was from an average baby. He didn't sleep much during the day and ate on a fixed schedule, hardly ever acting hungry at other times. He was really alert and expected more entertainment from day one, so I've been really surprised to live with Alex and realize that real newborns pretty much eat and sleep all day. And go through lots of diapers. Even now, Alex still sleeps a lot and isn't even interested in playing on the floor much yet because he'd rather eat or take a nap. I guess that would explain his weight!
Ben's true due date passed again last week, so he would have actually just turned two. This is the age when most doctors officially quit correcting for his prematurity so I'll finally do the same. There is some freedom in finally just saying "he's two" instead of explaining to people why a 9-month old baby can't sit up or a 1-year old isn't crawling, then having to go into the details of his birth and hospitalization. People that have no experience with preemies just can't understand the struggles they face or how exceptionally well Ben has done by starting life nearly 15 weeks earlier than most kids. It's not that Ben has finally "caught up" with other kids his true age, it's just that there is a wider range of abilities at two years old so now he blends in with the crowd. Unless, of course, there is music playing and then it's easy to pick out the little boy dancing circles around the other kids :)
In other good news, we just booked our tickets to come back to Texas for Christmas! I'll come back by myself with the boys for Thanksgiving, which either makes me glutton for punishment or just plain crazy to tackle a 24-hour trip with baby and toddler, but that will give us several weeks to get adjusted and visit people before Matt comes in mid-December. We are SO excited!! Mexican food and Blue Bell ice cream, here we come!
I can't wait until you guys come home! I know everyone here is anticipating your arrival!
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