Life Lately

I can't believe it's August already.  It's true what they say; the days are long but the years (weeks) are short.  There is definitely a lack of sleep going on overnight in this house, but at the same time, I'm not complaining and I'm not that tired.  Don't get me wrong, I would LOVE a night of waking up less than twice a night, but for some reason, I just don't mind being up with this sweetie pie.

He might not be the snuggliest baby in town (he doesn't have time to sit around and do nothing ;) ), but he is definitely the happiest and sweetest.  

We've been having a fabulous summer.  Ben lives for playing outside and it's still a tragedy every time we have to go inside at night.  We've done so many things it's hard to remember everything, but I'm going to try and share some highlights.  

Ben has been potty trained (with diapers overnight) for months now, but we just recently (finally) got rid of his nee nee!  Andy and I were both nervous and a little sad to do this (I think we both almost cried--too big, too fast), but it went a million times easier than we ever imagined!

The nee nee fairy came on July 24th and brought Ben some big boy golf clubs in exchange for all of his baby nee nees.  Of course, he woke up approximately 4 minutes after the nee nee fairy left and was looking all over for his nuks.  We had to quickly show him what the nee nee fairy brought, and he was pretty excited.

He played with his clubs for about 25 minutes (at 11:00PM) before we said it was time for bed again.  Of course, at that time, the tears started flowing and he said he didn't want the clubs any more and wanted a nee nee instead.  We held strong, and after some milk and Andy and I going up to his room about 5 times each, he finally fell asleep around 1:00AM.  Josh woke up promptly after that and I was up with him for the majority of the night/morning, but at least Ben ended up sleeping "through" the night.  He woke up as happy as can be and wanted to head straight outside to use his clubs. 

He asked for a nee nee once when he was upset the following day and he said he wanted one the other day, but that's only 2 times in the past 2+ weeks!  I even pushed the cart past the nee nee display at Target, and he didn't even ask for one!  In the past when we talked about giving his nee nees to the babies that don't have any, he quickly replied that we would just go to Target to get a new one.

I am just so so so proud of him.  He loved his nee nees so much!  He had only been getting a nee nee when he slept and sometimes in the car, but nothing would get his face to light up quite as much as a nee nee!  Now when I ask him if he misses them, he says, "no, nee nees are for babies.  I'm a big boy."  He proudly brought his golf clubs to meet my friend Christine's baby the following day.  Just what every momma wants around her brand new baby!  ;)  (Isn't she a perfect little doll?!)

I still live for the weekends, but we've been trying to make the most of our week nights too.  The zoo stays opened later a couple nights a month over the summer, so we've been taking advantage of our zoo pass.

I'm not sure what Ben likes best: the train, the goats, or ice cream. :)

Josh wanted some ice cream, too.  Not yet, buddy!

I have to take pictures off of my laptop before I can add more recent pictures.  We had a busy past weekend including buying a MINIVAN and 2 little road trips in our new ride.  Maybe when school starts again I will get better at updating this blog!