Okay...not a whole lot happened in January. I turned the big 3-0 on January 10th, which was pretty uneventful, but I'm officially getting OLD! I did start my day off right, though. When I woke Bentley up, I told him, "Today is Mommy's birthday. Can you say Happy Birthday, Mommy?" As plain as day, he said, "Happy Day, Mommy!" It was SOOOOO sweet! I got a TON of birthday hugs from my students at school, yummy cupcakes and a card from my assistants, and flowers from my honey. Daniel also had my ring fixed that I haven't been able to wear for a while. We went to the Luke Bryan concert with friends, and that was AMAZING!!! Overall, it was a good day. There were a few really nice weather days in January, so we took full advantage and let Bentley play outside.
Bentley had his second trip to the dentist (where the camera died mid-visit). All is well...Bentley's teeth look great, he enjoyed his visit and said "Dr. Brown" 4,000 times that day!
Playtime at home is great fun these days! Running, jumping, dancing, cooking...all play...all the time!
February has been busy. We celebrated my dad's birthday on the 2nd, Valentine's Day was busy for Bentley and for me, and we took a trip to Gatlinburg with some friends. My mom's birthday is coming up this weekend, so we have more celebrating to do. I'll break all of this down a little for sake of pictures.
For my dad's birthday, Bentley helped to paint him a birthday card, and he said, "Happy Birday, Dannanny!"
Valentine's Day was really sweet for Bentley this year. He goes to daycare, otherwise known as "school" in our home, and he LOVES it! He loves his teachers and friends, and I hear ALL about them ALL the time. Most of the time I hear about who was in time-out and what teacher put them there. According to Bentley, almost everyone is in time-out almost every day. Who knows?!?!?
Back to Valentines...
Bentley and I made Valentines for his friends, teachers, and family. I saw the "mustache" theme online and decided to go with it. Here is the Valentine we decided to make for Bentley's friends at school. We used a sucker ("lollipop") because that's one of Bentley's favorite things right now.
I made the Valentine for Bentley's teachers and our family in Microsoft Word. I had in my head exactly what I wanted, but I couldn't find any templates to use, so I just decided to make it myself.
To go along with the Valentine card, we got all of Bentley's teachers and my classroom assistants a rose. I made Monkey Bread on Valentine's Day to take to his teachers, which they seemed to enjoy very much.
Bentley took fruit for his Valentine party and came home with a bag full of candy and Valentine's. Here's the funny part...I know Bentley loves me, but I was nowhere on the radar for Valentine's this year. Here's how this goes:
Mommy: "Bentley, who's your Valentine?"
Bentley: "Patty" (his teacher)
Mommy: "Who is your girlfriend?"
Bentley: "Tarrah" (his teacher)
Mommy: "Whose Buddy are you?"
Bentley: "Bar Bar (Barbara)" (his teacher)
The good news: Bentley LOVES school and LOVES his teachers.
The bad news: I have to share my loving. :(
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| Showing Mickey the fire. |
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| Happy Face |
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| Mad Face |
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| Silly Face |
We ate many delicious meals, had a great time at the Ripley's Aquarium, had a "not so great" time at Ober Gatlinburg, and enjoyed shopping in Downtown Gatlinburg and the Sevierville Outlets. The kids all played pretty well together and, believe it or not, they all took a TWO HOUR NAP at the SAME TIME while walking around on Saturday. Bentley slept pretty well to have been in his pack and play, but not near as good as he does at home. Now, we are back in the real world with a real schedule, and I need time to recuperate. Ugghhhh!
Here are some pictures from the trip...hope you enjoy!
First trip to the aquarium...so sweet! Bentley loved it! His two favorite things were the gears and steering wheel exhibits and the PEOPLE in the tanks. There were a couple of dive shows and one man cleaning the penguin exhibit. Those were his favorite things!
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| Two-year-old tantrum...ever seen one of those? |
The carousel at Ober Gatlinburg was a hit! That was about it though...for future reference, the bears at the Wildlife Exhibit are hibernating in the middle of winter...go figure!
Okay...the next three pictures are priceless. 3 (or 4) kids, all smiling, all standing/sitting appropriately, and ALL kind of looking at the camera! REALLY! Has this every happened before?
Bentley got some sunglasses while we shopped in Gatlinburg. Here's his silly iPhone shots.
Lately...
I haven't posted about Bentley's progress, growing, etc. in a very long time, but I just CAN'T keep up. He's growing so fast, and he is so smart that I just can't address everything. First of all, he's still tee tiny by weight. He's not even 22 pounds when he's naked, but he is getting taller. Bentley is able to say ANYTHING you say, and he's putting more and more words together making phrases and sentences. My new favorite is when he wants to be held. For a long time he said, "up," then he said, "hold you," then he said "hold you hold you hold you hold you...," and now he says, "hold you Mommy" (or Daddy, or whoever he wants to hold him). It's just the way he says it that is so cute. Here's a list of my favorite things he says now, but this list is ever changing and I could never write everything down...
"lud you aternoon" (love you, see you this afternoon)
"BIG hug" (as he hugs anyone or anything)
"wacaroni" (macaroni, which he cooks in his kitchen ALL the time)
"tocolate milk" or "hot tocolate" (his new favorite beverage)
"want it need it" (I want it and/or need it...just give it to me!)
"boobewies" (blueberries)
"miss you ____" (to me, daddy, or sissy at the end of the day)
"Tippyton" (Karington)
"agit" (attic)
"Doto-door" (dinosaur...sounds a lot like Doctor George)
"epelant" (elephant)
"yep" (yes, I'm not a fan!)
"nope" (no, I don't like this one either!))
"es nam" (yes ma'am...we are working hard on this!)
"fisin' in" (fixin' it - as he flips everything over to work on it)
"hep me" (help me)
"Micka Mouse"
"Doopy" (Goofy)
He is so funny with things he says and does, so I'll share a few videos as proof.
Bentley is so smart. In December he could count perfectly from 1-9, but lately, he's taking the easy way out, "one, two, pour, nine, YAY Bentley!" We will keep working. He sees letters and immediately assumes they are A and B. When he sees numbers, he automatically says "99." His favorite color is green, so he says everything is green. I correct him all the time, but he still wants to say everything is green. He loves diggers (construction equipment) and lawnmowers (still a "mamowa") and talks about them ALL the time. Many nights I lay him in bed for him to start talking incessantly about "dannanny" and his "mamowa." It usually goes a little something like this...
Mommy: "Night night, baby, I love you."
Bentley: "lud you aternoon. Mamowa!"
Mommy: "What about the lawnmower?"
Bentley: "Dannanny cank it!"
Mommy: "Does Granddaddy crank the lawnmower?"
Bentley: "Mamowa hot, moking"
Mommy: "Does the lawnmower get hot and make smoke?"
Bentley: "Dannanny cank it, 'round and 'round."
Mommy: Does it go around and around?"
Bentley: "BANG! Lout!"
Mommy: "Okay, baby. The lawnmower is loud. Sweet dreams."
Bentley: "Weet deams."
Another hilarious situation is how he identifies his grandfathers who both go by Granddaddy, or according to Bentley, "Dannanny." So, when he starts talking about "Dannanny" you say, "Which one?" He will respond by saying "Dave" or "Buddy." HILARIOUS! He knows everyone's name, including his teachers, family, friends at school, Daniel and me.
While we aren't making much progress with potty training, Bentley does show some interest. He will sit on the potty for a while (to eat Nerds), and he knows he gets an M&M if he goes pee pee. For the record, he's only pee peed twice, but that's better than nothing. He's not quite ready to start training hard core, and it's hard since he goes to daycare, too. So, we will start serious potty training in the summer when I am home from school. I am just letting him sit and get used to the potty since he is interested. He will tell you when he pee pees and poo poos in his diaper most of the time, so at least we have that going for us.
Right now Bentley's favorite things are as follows:
- Bunny
- "banket" (blanket)
- Rabbit (Velveteen Rabbit from Christmas)
- "titin" (kitchen - his play one he got for Christmas)
- cookware (spoons, spatulas, tongs, etc.)
- fixing things
- playing outside
- "bathtub" (with crayons "dayon")
- "runnin" with anyone or anything
- "dacin" (dancing - especially the Hot Dog dance)
- "bumblebee" - I'm bringin' home a baby bumblebee...
- "hepin" - He wants to help do EVERYTHING!
- "baketball" - loves to play basketball with Daddy
- movies in the car - Finding Nemo, The Lion King, Mickey Mouse
I can't believe that Bentley will be two in less than two months. He is growing way too fast, and I wish I knew how to slow it down. He absolutely cracks me up! I can't begin to share all the funny things he does and says. We do have our challenges every now and then. I think the terrible two's are quickly approaching, but luckily, our moments of weakness are usually short-lived. I love spending time with him, and I am amazed at what a sweet and smart little boy my baby is developing into. I am the proudest Mommy!
Sorry this isn't an organized post...I would think of things to add as I went, but I didn't have time to go put things in any specific order!
