Tuesday 10 (Or actually 7, it got too long. . .)

So I'm finding that it is difficult for me to find time to do "Sunday 10's" on Sunday, so I may just have to do them whenever I find it possible! Although Sunday would be ideal. . .

1. First of all Sunday was Benjamin's 3rd birthday! I know can you believe it? I can't. Its so weird but I really do not like his birthdays. They are hard for me and make me kind of emotional. I've actually been emotional all week so I don't know. Its also hard when birthdays are on Sundays which, I was just thinking, all of our birthday's have been on Sunday for the past year! First mine last summer, then Spencer's, Tanner's, and now Benjamin's! Isn't that strange? How can everyone in a family have their birthday's on the same day of the week? Anyway kinda random.

Check out Benja's face in these three pictures. Its the evolution of him noticing the camera and putting on his saddest face because he wants the camera - yet again.

Even sadder. . .

Until we have the saddest face yet. So frustrating to take his picture. He must be spoiled.

Opening presents from Grandma and Grandpa on Saturday.

This kid loves him some books - I think he would be happy sitting and reading books all day!

(So would mommy!:)

And his joy with the candles. I think he just really liked the fire - he is a boy!

Oh yes, he loves cake too.

It was a hard weekend for Benjamin too though because he wasn't feeling very well. He woke up from his nap on Saturday - right when some of my family arrived for some birthday celebrations - with an ear ache or something. So we decided we probably shouldn't go anywhere since he was so cranky and not his happy self. So that kind of put a damper on things. And then it just made it hard to make things fun and special for him when he still was feeling sick on his real birthday, but oh well. Hopefully he doesn't remember how lame his 3rd birthday was. He did really enjoy blowing out candles - which he did 3 times cause he loved it so much. And of course opening presents. Of course he loved that!

Big brother has a hard time not helping too much . . .

Hopefully we can get some good fine motor skill practice in with the Magna Doodle!

2. Yesterday we were able to do something fun though. We went to the zoo with "Kids Who Count" the early intervention group Benjamin has worked with - up until now. (Now that he's 3 he has to transition to preschool). It was a perfect day for the zoo - even though it was filled with field trips. It was fun to just be with my two boys and enjoy the zoo. Just kind of do our own thing - and the boys loved it. It has been about a year since we were there so they LOVED seeing all the animals again. We ended up being there for 4 hours though - which I definitely think is too long for that zoo. We were worn out! Benjamin went to bed last night at 6:30! This is the child who usually plays in his bed until 10 pm every night - or later!

My only picture of Benj. He wasn't quite himself yesterday.

Tanner so excited that he got to ride on the elephant!

Down the cool big snake slide

3. Last week was a pretty busy week. We had all of Benjamin's therapists come for the last time which was actually really sad. He has had such wonderful people to work with him and we are so thankful for that! We will actually still see Kim his PT all summer cause we're just going to keep working with her at the hospital and start charging our insurance for therapy. So that will be good - otherwise he would just kind of be dropped for the whole summer and have nothing until preschool starts in the fall!

Benny with Kim - we have to motivate him a lot using his cars.

Walking with Kim - this walker is actually kind of hard for him and he needs someone to still give him support at his chest in order to do it. It was nice on this day though to have someone else do it with him besides me! It can be a workout - as can pretty much everything with Benny be.

I love to see him upright like this and walking though! Its what he wants most - although its gonna take a lot of time and work still to get where he wants.

Hopefully we both have enough patience.

This was our last visit with Mary his Occupational Therapist - whom we love so much - and Holly the toy lady as we call her. He loves working with them and always tries so hard at everything they have him do. We're going to miss them! They are some of our favorites and its no secret that he's all of their's as well - yeah easy for me to say that - but he really is.

Ben with Mary and Holly

Benj showing me the cool new tractor they gave him

And Tanner just has to sit and wait and watch while Benjamin gets all the attention.

4. We had pediatrician appointments this week - my boys are getting bigger - especially Benjamin! I mean I knew that he was starting to get big but this was his first appointment where the doctor was like wow - he has actually jumped up in percentile for height and weight a lot!!! Usually in his life its been like, well he hasn't grown much, he's pretty little, blah blah blah, but this time he has made a huge jump in percentage which is awesome. No wonder he wears me out!!!!!!!!! And I think I can do this pregnant someday? Who knows. Tanner is officially the exact physical opposite of Benjamin in every way having to do with muscle tone, motor skills, strength etc. As we have always known.

5. Last week it started to really hit me that both of my boys are going to be in school next fall. Granted, Tanner only a half day and Benjamin only twice a week for a few hours each day but STILL! I can't believe how old they are getting! We had Benjamin's IEP last week with his preschool teacher, his old therapists and his new therapists for when he starts preschool. It was good, but stresses me out kind of. They are all going to be wonderful to work with but he's STILL MY BABY! I know he will love it and it will be so good for him but I don't know. No one knows or understands him like I do so its just a lot of responsibility for me to make sure he's always getting what he needs. It was nice to see though how really smart he is. At one point as we were going through goals with the preschool teacher she was like, "now why is he coming to preschool?" Because he already knows or can do all of the goals she had made for him without ever meeting him. And I was just like well like I said, his needs are mostly physical. Its crazy. I think its surprising to people because usually kids with his physical challenges have equal challenges mentally. But not Benj. Its nice for other people to realize this too!

6. This is totally off subject since everything has mostly been about Benjamin, but I LOVED this past season of "Project Runway." It was definitely my favorite season so far. The designers were so talented. Usually there are like 1 or 2 that are way good, but this season there were probably at least 6 who could have won! I also LOVED how Heidi Klum was huge and pregnant through the whole thing. Kind of amusing how they would show her all glamored up in her lovely prego body. I appreciated it anyway - how she didn't care to hide it - she almost flaunted it! So anyway I love that show - but sadly the season just ended. So now I'll have to find something else to do on my late Thursday nights while Spencer plays basketball. Any suggestions?

Tanner insisted I put this picture in here because he has bumblebee.

7. Oh I did also forget - Spencer and I actually went on a date on Friday night. We had planned on just going to dinner and then doing some shopping. So the babysitter was coming over at 4 pm so we could get an early start and not be home too late. The only problem was, our power was randomly out. So we had called and stuff and they said it would be on by 5. The babysitter said she was fine with it - it was a bright sunny day and not dark so we thought they'd be fine if it came on by 5. So we end up calling at like 6:30 to check and the power had still not turned on! SO annoying. So we decided to just hurry and grab food somewhere faster and head home cause she couldn't cook dinner or anything and we felt really bad. So we grabbed some "5 Guys" which we'd wanted to try anyway (not exactly romantic but super good anyway) and started heading home early which was kind of a bummer. But right before we hit Springville she called and the power finally turned on! So our date was saved and we were able to do all the things we needed to that night. Kind of annoying though to think half the night that our date was ruined! But it turned out good. I just felt bad for poor Shantel having to put up with our kids for 3 hours without any electricity! Good thing she's such a good babysitter!