Utter exhaustion
So we've basically been gone from our apartment for the last 10 days or so. It was unintentional ... we planned a trip from july 26-28, got back, died in the 100 plus heat with no a/c, went back from july 29-31, and then just me and allison came back (ben stayed with my MIL) and took care of the cat and "packed" for camping (ie: took a four hour nap and didn't grab anything that we needed at all. as in, i didn't even bring a single pair of jeans for my husband! so he had his work pants, shorts, pajama bottoms and swim trunks to choose from) then went camping from aug. 1-4.
the apartment looks and smells like a swamp died in here. the cat was unhappy. i am glad at least that it is 50+ degrees cooler than it was at this time last week.
camping was interesting. as ben noticed right away, it wasn't REALLY camping, we were staying at my MIL's sister's place. she owns a lavendar farm in northern oregon. so we did sleep outside in tents, but there was a house with a stove and oven and bathrooms with potties that flush and showers and stuff. this was good news, because it was way too hot outside for alli to nap during the day. she did well, ben did great! we went rafting on the river (very slow peaceful river) and ben was terrified but i'm proud of him. stephen and his brother aaron paddled and i held ben. we all wore life jackets "so we can be safe"
alli stayed with MIL with no bottle available (i was nervous) but slept the whole time we were gone. we played a lot of settlers of catan and blokus and dominos. LOTS of dominos. ben is quite good at dominos, he beats me about half the time. granted, we're playing by modified child-friendly rules, but still. we tried to include another boy who is 5, and he was just not able to understand the game like ben does. ben was going nuts waiting for his turn. he kept on planning his play and then trying to help the other boy see where he could go. that is very impressive to me.
i ordered some sandpaper letters online and i know they came while we were gone (they're down at the apartment office) so i could teach ben to read this summer. seems more productive than playing video games all day every day. my mom has actually been wondering why it is that he doesn't already know how to read. i was reading at age 2 or so, and ben is clearly impressively intelligent (if you've ever SEEN him play video games, you'd be all O_o about it) so I figure it's time. He has most of the building blocks already, so he'll probably be reading by the time preschool starts. he knows about 30 or so words by rote memorization, but that's not the same as READING, where you have the tools to sound out new words.
oh also on the cute scale, on our last evening of camping, another relative got there with three rowdy boys and my MIL's sister decided that the child to adult ratio was not so hot anymore, so she made a new rule that no kids were allowed inside without a grownup. we knew ben was going to have trouble with this one because the rules were being changed in the middle for no reason that he could see, so stephen really pushed him hard to obey by telling him that if he went inside by himself that he would be sent to bed early.
cut to bedtime, i go get him and tell him that we have to brush teeth and go potty and get into pjs and he whimpers "but mama, i didn't go inside at all!" it was the sweetest thing in the world. i hugged him tight and told him he was right. i said he still had to go to sleep, but that he could have an extra-long special bedtime with several stories. my boy is such a sweetheart!
the apartment looks and smells like a swamp died in here. the cat was unhappy. i am glad at least that it is 50+ degrees cooler than it was at this time last week.
camping was interesting. as ben noticed right away, it wasn't REALLY camping, we were staying at my MIL's sister's place. she owns a lavendar farm in northern oregon. so we did sleep outside in tents, but there was a house with a stove and oven and bathrooms with potties that flush and showers and stuff. this was good news, because it was way too hot outside for alli to nap during the day. she did well, ben did great! we went rafting on the river (very slow peaceful river) and ben was terrified but i'm proud of him. stephen and his brother aaron paddled and i held ben. we all wore life jackets "so we can be safe"
alli stayed with MIL with no bottle available (i was nervous) but slept the whole time we were gone. we played a lot of settlers of catan and blokus and dominos. LOTS of dominos. ben is quite good at dominos, he beats me about half the time. granted, we're playing by modified child-friendly rules, but still. we tried to include another boy who is 5, and he was just not able to understand the game like ben does. ben was going nuts waiting for his turn. he kept on planning his play and then trying to help the other boy see where he could go. that is very impressive to me.
i ordered some sandpaper letters online and i know they came while we were gone (they're down at the apartment office) so i could teach ben to read this summer. seems more productive than playing video games all day every day. my mom has actually been wondering why it is that he doesn't already know how to read. i was reading at age 2 or so, and ben is clearly impressively intelligent (if you've ever SEEN him play video games, you'd be all O_o about it) so I figure it's time. He has most of the building blocks already, so he'll probably be reading by the time preschool starts. he knows about 30 or so words by rote memorization, but that's not the same as READING, where you have the tools to sound out new words.
oh also on the cute scale, on our last evening of camping, another relative got there with three rowdy boys and my MIL's sister decided that the child to adult ratio was not so hot anymore, so she made a new rule that no kids were allowed inside without a grownup. we knew ben was going to have trouble with this one because the rules were being changed in the middle for no reason that he could see, so stephen really pushed him hard to obey by telling him that if he went inside by himself that he would be sent to bed early.
cut to bedtime, i go get him and tell him that we have to brush teeth and go potty and get into pjs and he whimpers "but mama, i didn't go inside at all!" it was the sweetest thing in the world. i hugged him tight and told him he was right. i said he still had to go to sleep, but that he could have an extra-long special bedtime with several stories. my boy is such a sweetheart!