Ben's milestones (January 2007

Today is January 8, 2007. I have been so bad at journaling for you. Today has been kind of a tough day for you. We had to take you to the ER this morning b/c you have had a high fever since yesterday morning. Your temperature was 104.4. They tested you for strep and the flu and both were negative. They say it’s a virus and will go away. It had gone down by the time we got to the ER (99.5). But, after the Tylenol wore off – it was back up to 102. I’m so worried about you. You are such a trooper though. You know you are sick and you are taking it easy and resting.

You are doing so much at this stage and age. You are like a miniature man. You talk so perfectly, and you ask lots of questions. You are curious and want to know how everything works.

Some of your characteristics are:

· You are so very empathetic. If someone around you is upset, you get upset and want to fix it. You want to make sure everyone gets something, that no one is left out.
· Although William can bug you in the greatest way – you love him dearly. You take such good care of him. You give him lots of hugs and kisses. You told me today that he was talking so well, and that he said to you “Yea, Benjamin is home.” You absolutely love it when he calls you Ben or Benjamin. It makes you so excited that he can talk so well and can communicate w/you.
· You are a care-taker. Anytime we are around someone who has younger siblings, you hold their hand, you walk w/them. You are always so concerned about them.
· You go to Preschool at “The Ark Preschool” Monday-Thursday from 9-2. You love it there and you love your friends. Well … most of them. You say one girl – Audrey is mean and is a bully. It upsets me that she gets to you so much, but hopefully you can tell her to stop being a bully and start defending yourself.
· You are so emotional – that you get your feelings hurt easy. You try to be nice and make everyone feel good, that sometimes you don’t speak up or defend yourself the way you should.
· You are wearing a 5T or 6 in clothes.
· You finally stopped wearing pull-ups at night (December , 2006). Your pull-ups were always dry, you just liked wearing them. Maybe to be like William – not sure. But we finally were able to convince you to wear underwear to bed.
· Mommy & daddy still have to wipe your butt. You tell us you’ll do it when you are 10.
· You love to pretend and use your imagination to play. You got an Imaginex Castle for Christmas, which you love to play w/daddy and pretend to fight.
· Your favorite shows on TV are; Jimmy Neutron, Scooby Doo, Spongebob Squarepants, Tom & Jerry. You will watch JoJo’s Circus and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse b/c they are William’s favorites.
· You can write your name; you are learning to write all of your letters; you are sounding out words, and trying to figure out what letter they start with; you know your 1st, middle and last name as well as William’s (3) names; you know tons of words in Spanish and love to speak it; you can count to 50.
· You are starting to love to draw. You never were real interested as you were younger – but now, you enjoy sitting at the table and drawing w/daddy.
Mommy called today to check on Kindergarten and how we start to prepare to enroll. I can’t believe that this year, you will go to Kindergarten.