"Laugh!"

So I recently decided to remind Ben of the one joke that he knows and have been prompting him to tell it to people every once in a while. The joke is "A 3-legged dog walks into a bar and says: I'm lookin' for the guy who shot my pa(w)" I know, horribly punny, but it's an easy one for him to remember.

It turns out that it's not always easy for others to understand, but Ben sure loves to tell it and people get a kick out of his enthusiasm. Then I tell them what the joke really was... Oh well.

The other night at the dinner table, Ben was singing a song from his Veggie Tales Christmas CD and it was just cracking us up. He took this as an opportunity to launch into his joke which cracked us up even more. But by the time he got finished telling it we had gotten control of ourselves and weren't laughing. This was confusing for Ben, so he looked at us for a couple of seconds and then said "Laugh!" Not demanding or whiny, just reminding us that we were supposed to laugh. Of course this sent us into gales of laughter again, so Ben got exactly what he wanted.

Mousetrap, I wanted to play Mousetrap

With the Christmas season in full swing, Ben has been watching the VeggieTales video "The Toy that Saved Christmas" quite frequently. This means we have new phrases Ben will just quote out of the blue.

One of my favorite comes from Bob, who was a reluctant passenger on a sled ride. After a horrendous crash, Bob is head down in the snow and he says, "Moustrap, I wanted to play Mousetrap. Roll your dice, move your mice. Nobody gets hurt."

Ben laughs quite heartily when Bob says that, but I'm pretty sure he doesn't completely get it. Especially since he has no idea what mouse trap is. I'm not sure if it's because he's heard us laugh and knows that it should be funny, or if he gets from the tone and timing that Bob is being funny. It's hard to say, but it sure is fun watching him develop in all these new ways.

Daddy, Will You Keep Me Company

The other night after he went to bed, Ben was sad for some reason. When I went to talk to him he told me that he wanted me to keep him company. We talked for a couple minutes and I told him that I couldn't right now but that God would always keep him company. I told him that God would love to talk to him.

"Why?"

"Because he loves you very much." I answered.

"Why?"

"He made you. He put you all together in mama's belly."

"Why?" (Can you tell he's almost 3?)

It was time to end the why questions, so I asked Ben a question of my own: "What do you think you could tell God about?"

"Ernie and my green blanket."

"Do you think he'd like to hear about Victoria coming to babysit you?"

"Ya!"

"Ok," I said, "I'll be back in a few minutes. While I'm gone, you can talk with God and he'll keep you company.

I came back later and heard Ben talking. I couldn't understand it, so I went in to see what he was doing. I lay down next him in his bed and asked him what he had been talking to God about.

He said, "Ernie, my green blanket, Victoria babysitting me. And the birdies!"
So Ben proceeded to tell me all about his birdhouse that is hanging from his ceiling.

"The bird in our house. The one that's downstairs... when he flies upstairs... and then flies into my room... he can fly into my birdhouse. I painted that birdhouse green... and red... and pink... and purple! I painted it at Ocean's house."

So we talked about Ben's birdhouse for awhile and then it was time for me to leave again. He started to get sad so I reminded him that God would keep him company.

He said," 'cause God made me, and Kyle and mommy and you and Kyle and me..." not knowing quite where to end the list.

"You're right Ben. And don't forget, when I'm not here to keep you company, God will always be here, so you can talk to Him."

Police Every Dud

Thursday night, I came home and I hadn't taken my earphones out before I came in the door. So of course Ben wanted to know what they were. I told him and he promptly replied, "Can I use them? I have ears!" All the while pointing at his ears and pulling on them to make sure I can see them.

So I pull one out and give it to Ben. Then I found the Veggie Tales Christmas Album on my iPod and started "Feliz Navidad", sung by Larry the Cucumber. He was very intrigued and we listened for awhile and then it was time for supper.

As we were heading to the table Ben is singing something and I asked him to repeat it so I could hear it. He turns to me and says "Police every dud! Police every dud!"

Big Family Thanksgiving

This Thanksgiving, as with most since we've moved to the Portland area, was spent with my Dad's family. It has become a tradition to do a Thanksgiving dinner followed by what we call a "Chinese Gift Exchange." You know, the kind where each person brings a small gift that is piled in the center and then you open the gifts one at a time. But instead of opening a gift, you can go steal something someone else has already opened. It's quite entertaining and always fun, but not the highlight of this year's get together.

With the birth of Kyle and then the birth of his second cousin Hope about 2 weeks ago, we are up to 8 great-grandchildren in the family now. Six of them were at the party. Of course Kyle and Hope didn't participate much besides to be passed around every once in awhile, but the other four did a bang up job of keeping the party full of energy. There was a 5 year old, a 3 year old, an almost 3 year old (Ben) and a 17-month old. All very fond of running. And chasing.

So there were 36 of us in all, ranging from 2 weeks to 82 years and I just love that kind of party. It's so great to see the generations and how the interact; how they differ; what they talk about amongst each other. For a people watcher like me it's so much fun.

But much more than that it's so special to see the impact two people can have on the world. All of those children and grandchildren my grandparents have and all the different ways they've chosen to serve the Lord. What a legacy of faith that is. I just hope that Mindy and I can leave a similar legacy with our family.

Finding Nemo

Watching movies with kids can be a lot of work. This last Saturday we watched Finding Nemo with Ben. I think it's only the second movie he's seen and it's the first one I've seen with him. It was so much fun and I think Ben really enjoyed it, but there is so much that happens in movies and the 2-year old brain doesn't quite comprehend it all.

Every once in a while Mindy or I would laugh or exclaim about something and Ben would look at me and say "What dad?" He was just entranced by the movie, but wanted to know why we reacted the way we did. It was really sweet. Of course he didn't get some of the jokes etc, but he always wanted to know what was going on.

Of course sometimes it's hard to explain what happened in terms a 2-year old will understand. Also sometimes you just don't want to explain all the details, like at the beginning when Nemo's mom is eaten by the shark or whatever. So you get to try to boil the whole thing down into a couple sentences that a 2-year old will understand.

It's so much fun to see him grasp what's happening and ask questions about it. Last night he was watching it again when I got home from work and so I sat down with him for a while and he says, "Where are Nemo's dad and Dory?"

"They're in the whale."

"Where are they going?"

"The whale is helping them find Nemo."

"Oh," he says as if it's not odd at all that a whale has swallowed two fish to help them out...

TV and Imagination

Last Saturday we were watching a medical drama on TV while Ben was napping. It wasn't finished when he got up, but we decided to finish it. At a very intense scene with the patient writhing in pain while the doctor was trying to diagnose him, we looked over and Ben was just entranced. Mindy told him that the man had a really bad tummy ache.

Well, that night at bedtime, Ben got all teary and weird, and said that there was a guy in his bed. Mindy asked him what guy, and he said that it was the guy with the tummy ache. So they prayed about it and she reminded him that "God is bigger than the bogey man" (thank heavens for Veggie Tales)...and it was okay. But he's mentioned it several times since

The other night Ben was asking for special loveys (his "geen bwanket" and his Ernie) and after a short search I found them hidden in the closet.

I said "You put them in the closet silly boy. Why did you do that?"

"To keep the girl from getting them," Ben replied.

"What girl?"

"The girl who was helping the guy," he said very seriously.

"What did she look like?" I asked, wanting to see how detailed this little fantasy world was and confirm if this was more backlash from the TV show.

"A doctor."

It was all very matter of fact and he didn't seem scared or worried. It's quite amazing the effect that scene had on him and how he was actually interacting with the imaginary characters in his play.

Musically Inclined?

I noticed today that my last two entries were a little on the heavy side, but I guess I've been kind of overwhelmed lately by the stress and responsibility of being a parent. But back to more exciting things...

Mindy and I got the chance to go on a date last Saturday night. My parents are so awesome to come and watch our two boys for us even though it's almost an hour drive one way. They came over about 3 and we had a little time to visit with them ourselves before Mindy fed Kyle and we sped away to try and see a movie and have dinner before Kyle's bedtime and the last feeding of the night.

Twice during that time of visiting, Ben gave us spontaneous musical performances. The first was a rousing rendition of the ABCs accompanied by the triangle. A little later he had dragged Grandma over to the piano and was playing the same two or three notes over and over, singularly and together, as he sang various Veggie Tales' songs and Rich Mullins' songs. It was so cute to watch and he was just swaying and boogying down sitting there on the piano bench, so into his singing.

Ben also loves to have music playing. Especially at dinner time. He'll even ask for specific CDs to be played. I wonder what his interest will be later on. It'd be so fun to take him to piano lessons and go to recitals.

I wish I had stuck with piano lessons longer or stuck with it longer than 3 weeks when trying to learn guitar. Maybe it will be something we can do together. Could be fun!

Leaving an Impression

Yesterday we had our monthly men's breakfast at the church and the speaker talked to us about leaving a legacy. That's something that I've been thinking about a lot this week in regards to Benjamin and Kyle. What am I teaching them? What will they remember about their childhood or their father?

I have lots of good memories of my dad, but I know that he wasn't perfect. There are things in my life that I can attribute almost directly to my dad. I'm not blaming or giving credit. I just really recognize what an influence my dad had on my life, both good and bad. I have a pretty strong desire to volunteer and help when I see a need and I know I got that from my dad's example. He was always helping out at our church or other places that needed extra help. My dad also didn't know how to say no very well when people asked him to help; I got that too.

I'm getting better at that and so is my dad, but you can see the kind of things I've been thinking about.

What does Ben think when I leave for yet another meeting at the church after dinner is over? Am I setting a good example or bad?

Do I say "Please" as often as I expect him to?

And of course I'd like him to learn to close his eyes when we pray. But it's not like I can look up to see if Ben's got his eyes open to gently remind him to close them. If he doesn't, he's just seen me looking and not practicing what I preach.

These are fairly minor things right now, but they will get much more important soon. It's an awesome responsibility being a father and I'm proud of the way my dad raised me, regardless of his failures; I can only hope Ben and Kyle will feel the same way.

Parenting is Hard

Those of you who are parents are saying: "DUH!!!" Maybe even some of you who aren't parents are saying that too, but I am just feeling it especially the last few weeks. It's not just with the addition of an infant to the mix. The toddler stage is so stinking cute and so stinking frustrating all at the same time.

I'm sure that all kids go through this stage to some degree or another. There are so many different philosophies about how to raise your children and the most avid proponents of each philosophy seem to think you're damaging your children if you don't do it their way. Isn't there enough guilt and anxiety in parenting already.

Sometimes it's so hard to not be paralyzed by fear that the next interaction with your child is going to scar them somehow. That someday you'll see them on Oprah, telling the world how their dad is the reason they're in therapy.

OK! OK! I know that last paragraph bordered on the hysterical and was highly exaggerated, but it just helps to put these thoughts down so you can see how silly they really are. I'm not saying parenting isn't difficult. It is. But it's so worth it.

God has given us an awesome responsibility as parents. These helpless little people come into the world totally dependent on us. We just have to do our best to provide for their needs and guide them as they grow. WOW!! Talk about an adventure.

Sibling Rivalry?

One of the things we thought about a lot in preparing for Kyle's arrival was how Ben would handle it. We tried to prepare him as best we could without making him sick of hearing about the baby.

I guess we needn't have worried too much because Ben just seems truly in love with his younger brother. This morning as Mindy and I were getting dressed and ready for church, Kyle was laying in the middle of our bed. Ben came in with his stool and was leaning over the bed sharing his green car with Kyle and "playing" with him. He asked him questions, never expecting an answer and was very concerned that he couldn't get the car to stay on Kyle because it fell off every time Kyle squirmed.

Ben is also very concerned when Kyle gets fussy and has been heard to say "What is it, Kyle? What is it?" in tones very similar to the ones we use. Ben also likes to sing songs to Kyle in the car or when he's on the changing table to help him calm down. At first he sang the old stand-bys, The ABCs and Jesus Loves Me, but lately he has figured out the words to the lullaby that we sing to Kyle and sang to Benjamin when he was little and still sometimes do. It is so sweet to hear Ben's two and a half year-old voice chime in with us as we try to calm Kyle in the car on a long trip, or help him relax when we're changing his diaper. I can't wait to see how this relationship will blossom as time goes by. I'm sure it will not all be this smooth, but it's an awful wonderful way to start.

Grandpa, you need to get into Grandma's Van and go home.

Ben is not a big fan of sleeping and so nap time has been reduced to quiet time. Which translates to quiet time for Mom and play time for Ben in his room most of the time.

Sometimes when my parents are over they like to lay down with him and try to get him to fall asleep at nap time or help him fall asleep faster at bed time.

Ben understands that what this really means is they are going to keep him in bed for naptime or bedtime and he can't play until they leave the room. So this all leads up to the other night when my parents watched Ben and Kyle while Mindy and I went out for dinner.

We got home right around bed time and Mindy went in to nurse Kyle while my parents finished Ben's bedtime story and prayer. Soon my mom came out and told us that my dad was laying down with him for a while. We heard some talking come from Ben's room every once in a while and eventually my dad came out a little red-faced from trying not to laugh.

"I just got told where to go," he said. Apparently after they had been laying there for a couple of minutes, Ben told him "you need to get into grandma's van and go home and sleep in your bed." So much for bed-time cuddling with grandpa.

My dad said he was reminded of the time when he was little and asked his grandma who'd just walked in the door for a visit if she was going to "stay a whole bunch of days." Apparently he was hoping not, because when grandma was there, he wasn't allowed to swim in the wading pool in the back yard and he was hoping she'd leave sooner rather than later.

I guess it's true that what goes around comes around.

Blocks and the Bible

This morning after Ben and I had spent some time playing with the standard bridge that he likes to build with his blocks, I suggessted that we could build a house.

He liked the idea and so we started to build a house. Once we had walls up and had decided where the door would be, we built a bed and a chair. Then Ben went and got his little Spider-Man action figure and he put him on the bed. That lasted for a few seconds and then Spider-Man got up and sat in the chair.

Ben said, "He's going to read for awhile. "

When I asked him what he was going to read, he said "The Bible."

How cute is that?!

Taking Deep Breaths

Before Benjamin was born, we attended a parenting seminar at our church called Parenting with Love and Logic. One of the key things that we learned from that was for dealing with whining voices. Basically you respond to a whining voice by saying "It's hard for me to understand what you're saying when you use that voice. Can you try to ask me again in a normal voice?"

As we started to use this technique with Benjamin, I found that the hardest part was to get him to stop crying when he was upset or overwraught about something he needed help with. So I decided to teach him how to take deep breaths. It started with me modeling it for him and asking him to repeat it after me. He did well and it wasn't too long before he would do it himself when I told him I couldn't understand his whining voice.

Now he uses them himself without us even having to say anything most of the time. I even see him do it sometimes when he's starting to get frustrated about doing something. He'll stop, take a couple deep breaths very dramatically, and then come ask Mindy or I for help. It's so exciting to watch him apply things he's learned in new ways and really start thinking for himself.

When will it come out mommy?

Sometimes we just don't think about the literal meaning of things we say, but leave it to a toddler to bring us back to reality. Case in point happened at lunch a few weeks ago when Mindy had a song stuck in her head. She mentioned this to Ben and he sat for a few minutes and then looked at her very concerned and asked, "When's the song going to come out of your head, mommy?"

Ain't Bein' a Dad Great

I mentioned a while ago that we were expecting our second child soon and it has finally happened. Here is what it's all about. Aren't kids great. I love being a dad!



Our estimated due date was on September 21st and we were bracing ourselves to go long since Ben had been born 11 days past his estimated due date. Mindy had been having Braxton-Hicks contractions off and on for two weeks or more before the due date, so I foolishly got my hopes up. The due date came and went with no change in the contractions, but I kept thinking today's the day...

Finally on Sunday afternoon they started to get different. Not very regular yet, but stronger. We tried not to get to excited, but we did finally call our midwife and let her know what was happening. Joy, one of the apprentices, came over around 7 and checked the baby's heartbeat and talked with Mindy about how things were feeling. We still weren't certain, but we called our parents as well, to give them the heads up that it might be happening.

After Joy left, we took a walk and then put Ben to bed. We got ready for bed ourselves and then hung out for a while watching some TV and reading. The contractions seemed to be getting more regular and Mindy was pretty sure she couldn't sleep through them anymore, so we called the midwife again. This was about 10:00 Sunday night the 25th. After we called the midwife I started filling the birthing tub and making calls to our parents letting them know that it was happening. My parents are across town and were coming to help during the labor and Mindy's parents were coming from Idaho so we wanted to give them plenty of time to leave as soon as they could.

About 10:45 the midwife and the apprentices started showing up and by 11:45 my parents had shown up as well. Mindy's contractions were getting harder and she was looking forward to getting in the tub. The tub was ready about 12:30 and Mindy got in it and her contraction pain was eased greatly. She says it's so freeing to be able to just float through the contractions. About 1:30 or so I joined her in the tub and we got down to business. Esme, our midwife had checked her just before we got into the tub and she was 5cm dilated and 100% effaced, so she was just getting down to the hard work. Mindy labored on through the night with the midwife or one of the apprentices coming in every once in a while to check on us and check the baby's heart tones etc.

About 4:45 or so, Mindy all of the sudden said that she felt the urge to push, so we called the midwife and everyone came scurrying in for the final stage. Mindy got onto her hands and knees in the tub to push. Esme and Joy stayed close to check heartbeat and progress, while Ondra was documenting the process. My parents were woken up and my mom came down and held the video camera for a while.

It was all progressing quite well, and we didn't really have a concept of time, but I suddenly realized that we were feeling the top of the head and it was going to happen really soon.

Then at 5:15 am on September 26, 2005, with one push, his head came out and one push later his body came out.

We spent some time in the tub just bonding a little and then my mom and dad brought Ben in and we introduced him to his little brother: Kyle Warren Isom. He was 8lb 2oz and 21 inches long.

After we got out of the tub and cleaned up we went up to our bedroom to rest and have Kyle checked out. My dad fixed us breakfast and then Esme, Joy and Ondra left and we tried to get some rest. Ben got to spend the day with his grandparents and we mostly recovered. Mindy's parents arrived about 3 o'clock that afternoon and we all had dinner together. It was such a great experience.

I am so amazed at the whole process. My wife is simply amazing. The midwives kepts saying that she looked so mellow; they couldn't believe that she was having hard contractions because she just relaxed right through them and let her body do what needed to be done.

Becoming a father again has made me realize what an awesome gift from God children really are and what an amazing miracle the process of birth is. Not just the physical birth of this new child in our family, but the birth of new relationships. My relationship with Mindy is so much richer for going through this birth together and embarking on raising a new child. My relationship with Ben is better because it's now at a different level. I knew that I wouldn't love him less because I had another child to love, but what I didn't know was that when Kyle was born, I'd love him more. Praise the Lord for blessing me with fatherhood!!

Mamma's a Wooman

When you explain things to your children it seems that you always wonder how much actually sinks in. Either because of how little attention they seem to paying to your explanation or because you're not sure your explanation was at the appropriate level.

Over the past few months we have been telling Ben about the upcoming birth of his first sibling. We try to explain it pretty thouroughly without overwhelming him and we often wonder how much has gotten through. A couple days ago I was standing behind Ben as he stood on his stool to wash his hands. This means his head is right in my belly. He turns and looks at my belly and says: "Mamma has a baby in her belly because she's a wooman. You don't have a baby in your belly cause you're a guy. I'm a guy too."

Apparently some things sunk in.

Jumping Ben

I've heard it said that toddlers, especially boys, seem to have a physiological need to run. Just to exercise their legs and get all their pent up energy out. I understand that jumping is a big part of that as well and Ben has definitely entered the jumping stage.

Somewhere along the line Ben has picked up the phrase "jumping for joy" and he loves to use it when he's excited. Accompanied, of course, by much jumping. It's so cute how literal toddlers can be.

We are due today with our second son and so we've been going to the birthing center quite a bit lately. Ben really likes going there and seeing our midwives. Maybe almost as much as we do. One of the apprentice's names is Joy and the other day, Ben asked if we were going to see Joy when we went to the birthing center. When Mindy said that we would he proceeded to say "I'm excited. I'm jumping for seeing Joy."

Lately Ben has also added jumping as part of his normal mode of getting from one place to another. Two nights ago as he was getting ready for bed, I had asked him to come to the sink to brush his teeth, and to come into the hall for this or that; just normal getting ready for bed stuff, but not for Ben. Everytime he came or went someplace he would run a few steps, then jump to the spot he was headed for and say "Daddy, I jumped here!" What I wouldn't give to have that much energy!

"Be"ing Ben

Don't you just love the fun ways kids say things when they're puzzling out how to form the correct sounds. I have to be on constant guard not to repeat Ben's cute pronunciations because I don't want to re-inforce them. I also inevitably laugh when I do repeat one and I don't want him to feel bad that he can't say it right.

His current pronunciation quirk involves lots of the syllable "be." Sometimes it's in place of a syllable that is difficult, as in the case of "begot" for "forgot." Other times it's in place of a similar sounding syllable, as in "bevotions" for "devotions." The funniest one by far is his recent declarations about what he's doing when he is repeating lines from Dr. Seuss or VeggieTales. When we notice what he's doing and chuckle at him, he grins and says "I'm bequoting VeggieTales!"

Expanding Vocabulary

They say that the language explosion for children happens between 18 months and 2 years old. This was pretty much on target for Ben, and I remember being amazed at all the new words he was picking up. That was a stage when you had to be especially careful of what you said, because you might hear it come out of your toddlers mouth the next instant.

Now we are reaching that stage where I'm continually shocked by hearing Ben use words that we don't use very often and aren't really what you might consider part of toddler vocabulary. The other night when we were getting ready for Ben's bath, he was getting his clothes off in the bathroom while I was doing something else to get ready for bed. When I came back in he was diligently working on getting his shirt off and he JUMPED. He looked at me very seriously and said "Daddy, you startled me." It's so exciting to see him growing in so many ways.

Quoting Dr. Seuss and Veggie Tales

It all started last December when Ben couldn't get enough of us reading "The Night Before Christmas." He really seemed to enjoy the rhythm and the pictures in our edition gave his nearly two year old mind, lots of things to point at and name. Not long after this started, we began to hear phrases coming out of Ben's mouth at random times that he was quite sure of, but we didn't really understand them. And they weren't just random, because he would repeat them verbatim when asked what he said. A couple days after this started, we finally got one of the phrases nailed down. It was "And to all a Good Night!" Soon we understood "Eight tiny reindeer" and many other phrases out of that poem.

For Christmas or his birthday that year, Ben got a stack of Dr. Seuss books from his Uncle Jamie and Aunt Trish. Little did we know... Soon he was asking for The Cat in the Hat and Fox in Socks for nearly every story time. Soon we were hearing random phrases out of Dr. Seuss books just pulled out of mid-air and quoted verbatim. We recently checked out Horton Hatches and Egg from the library and that is his current favorite, so we have been hearing about Mayzie the lazy bird and all about how she talks Horton into sitting on her nest. If you let him go, Ben can quote nearly the first two pages of the book before he starts skipping to various memorable moments in the book.

Ben is also a big fan of listening to his VeggieTales CD in the van when we go somewhere, so he's got a good share of that memorized also. And not just the songs, but the talking between the songs as well. There is an exchange before one of the songs between some French peas and the Veggie Isrealites who were marching around Jericho to knock the wall down. The French pea says "You just go ahead and keep walking" and then the music plays a three beat intro before they start in with the song. So when Ben is quoting this particular section, not only does he do a fair imitation of a French accent (for a 2 1/2 year old), but after he says "You just go ahead and keep walking," he goes "Bump, bump, bump, Keep walking, cause you won't knock down our wall, keep walking..." I just can't keep from grinning every time he does it.

Ben likes to plug things in

Ben, like most toddlers, is naturally curious. Over the past several months his naptime has turned into quiet time or room time which means it's more common for him to spend the time playing in his room than actually getting any rest. One result of this is that he now has more unsupervised time in his room.

For a while a favorite hobby of his was unplugging his fan and finding other things to plug in to that outlet. These things were appropriate things, like a heating pad or a lamp, so at least he wasn't trying to stick a fork in them or something, but it still made us very nervous. Unplugging the fan and replacing it with an outlet cover only had limited success in preventing this.

His adeptness at plugging things in was demonstrated very clearly one morning at playgroup. Mindy told me that the mom whose house they were at had unplugged the battery from the little electric jeep that the kids were driving around. This was to prevent anymore inadvertant backing over other playmates, but was very sad for all the kids there. A little while later they saw Ben with his head under the hood of the jeep and when Mindy commented on this to the other mom, she reassured her by saying "That's really hard, I doubt he'll be able to get it plugged in." She hadn't even finished the sentence when they were brought up short by the sound of the jeep motoring across the yard with Ben behind the wheel...

That's my boy!

My First Post

Someone told me a few weeks ago that I should keep a journal of memorable things that my kids do, so I thought I'd try a blog and see how it worked. The first few posts I may try and tell stories from the past 2 and a half years with Benjamin, and after that I hope this can become a place to journal about funny stories and sweet memories of my children and my family.

So now for the first sweet/funny Ben moment of this blog. I was talking on the phone this morning with Mindy and Ben while they were having breakfast and as we were saying goodbye, I said, "I love you lots." Ben's response was: "My name's not lots, it's Benjamin."