A Hodgepodge, If You Will....

Hello everyone! Long time, no post..... I know. I can't believe it's almost August. As usual, summer is flying by. The past few weeks have basically been spent trying to find things to do that don't involve baking my 2 year old in the stifling heat. We've been going on a 3 mile walk (Ben rides in his stroller) in the early mornings before it gets too hot. Unfortunately, our definition "too hot" has been pushing some serious limits lately. When it's already 88 degrees at 8:00am, it doesn't leave a whole lot of time to do much of anything outside, so we've been spending a lot of time at the children's museum.

Ben and I have also been going to VBS at our church the past couple of nights. I'll admit I was very nervous how it would play out. The last few group activities I have tried with Ben have not gone well, but it appears we have turned a corner! I'm sure it helped that I was volunteering in his room, but Ben had a GREAT time! When we got to the toddler room, he took off and immediately started playing right along with the other kids. And it is all he has been talking about at home. I am beyond thrilled that he is finally getting comfortable in big group settings.

There was only one problem the first night with a little girl who basically "attacked" Ben. I sensed something was going on when I passed by the area where she and Ben were playing and I thought I saw her push him down and then he stood up and said "No, no!!", but I didn't say anything....just figured it was normal toddler stuff. Then a few minutes later, she was ramming his head into the wall. By the time I got over there to break it up, Ben was sobbing and just starting to get his footing when she pushed him HARD into a big pile of toys. I know kids get into little scuffles at this age...and I know it often gets physical (trust me, Ben has his done his fair share of hitting), but this was ridiculous. So, I picked him up and told her "we don't push our friends and we need to keep our hands to ourselves". She redeemed herself last night though when she walked up to Ben and gave him a big hug and a kiss. As soon as she did that, Ben looked at her with this hilarious, confused expression like "Make up your mind, girl!". Toddlers are a fickle bunch, aren't they? :-)

Ben has also been seeing a private speech pathologist lately. The last couple of SP's we consulted were through the public school system and both said they had no concerns with this speech and were sure he would be speaking in phrases "any day now". Well, after waiting several months for this to happen, we finally decided it was time to see a private SP. When she first evaluated him, she said she never had a case like Ben's before. His vocabulary is actually quite large and she was impressed by some of the words he was using. He just isn't putting them together in phrases yet. He will say a few two-word phrases, but not many. And we usually have to prompt him to do it. She said she definitely didn't see it as a long-lasting language delay, but rather a little "bump in the road" he needs help getting over. She is really good with Ben, and he just loves her. He is already making some progress, so hopefully this is what he needs to move forward.

Other than that, not much going on around here. Just trying to beat the heat like everyone else. We had that stellar week of temps right around 100 with the crazy 110-115 degree heat indexes. Now we've been back in the mid-90's (close to normal for this time of year around here) and it looks like we'll stay there for at least another week or so. You know it's been hot when the 90's feel cool. I went on a run outside a couple of nights ago for the first time in a while. It was 93 out and I couldn't believe how nice it felt. Pitiful.

Anyway, here are some pics of what Ben has been doing to keep it cool....

He's trying to drink the water from his sprinkler in the pic above :-)

And one last shot with his potty in the background :-). By the way, potty training has been going really well. We still don't have #2 down, but he goes several days in a row without having any accidents with #1. He'll have the occasional accident, but they are becoming fewer and farther between. Yay, Ben!!!

Have a great rest of the week!!

Brooke