Bendate

My blog is slowly becoming a shrine to Jake. But I promise I do love the other kid too. He just doesn't smile at the camera so I don't ever get cute pictures of him. And what's a post without pictures? Every time I bust out the camera, he pulls this sweet and awkward dance move:



Only he's rarely facing or looking at the camera. But with or without his focus on the camera, this boy is pretty darn cute, if I do say so myself. He constantly keeps me entertained and on my toes.

He's recently befriended a boy named Jack. Jack's invisible. And terrific, from what I hear, at baseball. Jack and Ben spend hours a day together, usually outside playing a game of ball on the (also invisible) baseball field. I was sort of freaked out when Jack first started "showing" up, but I've since embraced the invisible friend stage (cross your fingers it's just a stage). Turns out I can get Ben to do almost anything if I tell him Jack is doing it. "Ben, Jack wants to help you clean your room..." Works every time. I have no shame in manipulating my children. It's what mothers do best.

A few weeks ago while Ben was outside playing baseball, he called me out to show me something. I went outside and he was bent over a baseball, scribbling with a marker, saying, "MOM, look! Babe Ruth signed my ball!" He was very, very excited.



He's learned from reading in his baseball stats book that baseball players paint their faces. So he now requests, multiple times a week, for me to paint his face like this:



He also spends a lot of time preparing for a game by changing into the proper outfit. This boy is obsessed with clothes. He changes outfits multiple times a day and dresses accordingly to the game he's going to play next (baseball, soccer, basketball). He's also decided Jake has cooler clothes than he does, so he'll often come walking out of his room in clothes made for a 12 month old . Because we're such sensitive and mature parents, we just laugh and call him Officer Dangle the rest of the day.



Here's another one of his sweet outfits. It had just barely started to sprinkle outside, so he ran to his room to get outfitted for the storm.



He kills me. He's also killing my wallet with the number of times I wash his clothes during the week...

When he's not playing sports, you can find him taking care of his brother or his stuffed animals. He's really into being a big kid; he loves to help feed Jake and give him blankets and hugs when he cries. I always find him swaddling his monkey to put him down for a nap, or feeding his bear a bottle:



He really is the sweetest boy. He tells me daily, "But mom, I really love you." And even him getting mad is just plain sweet. The other day he got so upset he yelled, right at my face, "You're not my best friend anymore and I'm not playing football with you!" I was pretty proud of myself for not saying "Oh, thank goodness" out loud.

But, Ben, I really love you, too.