Not to Be Forgotten: A Very Strong Big Boy

When I came home from the hospital after having Lilah, Ben appeared to have quadrupled in size while I was gone. It was amazing how the presence of a newborn made him look so much bigger and older. And he is older. He's a big brother now, with big brother responsibilities. (More on that later.)

Ben is quite taken now with the notion of "big boys." While he considers himself a big boy, he has not yet reached the highest category of what Ben calls the Very Strong Big Boy. We have no real definition for the Very Strong Big Boy, but some of our recent conversations have given us some hints:

"When I grow up to be like a Very Strong Big Boy, I will fly like SUPERmannn!" (I think he actually believes this is true and I am currently pondering how best to break the news to him for fear he might actually try to fly like Superman by jumping off an object of great height.)

"When I grow up to be like a Very Strong Big Boy, I can have a toy like that. Right, Mom?" This is typically said when we are at some place like Target and he sees a toy that he wants. This has actually worked out pretty well because I am not the one who has to tell him he's not getting the toy, as he has already decided he should have it when he's older. I usually agree that it would make a great toy for him at some future point in time and we move on, any possible tantrums averted.

"When I grow up to be like a Very Strong Big Boy, I can do dishes/take a bath/etc. all by myself." I am in full support of this.

"When I grow up to be like a Very Strong Big Boy I can do that." This applies to whatever we are seeing at the time, whether it's watching basketball on TV or if we see an older kid at the park performing some sort of advanced maneuver on the jungle gym.

Ben is also very much into telling us that he has "an idea." In a statement tying together nearly all of the themes above, this past Saturday morning he said "Hey Mom, I have an idea. When I grow up to be a really strong Ben, I can fly to Beckett's house and then I can fly to the Little Gym all by myself." (We had plans to go to both places that morning, so I guess he thought it was a drag that Mom and Dad had to come along too. Or only Dad, as it turned out in this case.)Or on other occasions he frequently says things like "Maybe we should go to the park. I think that's a great idea!" He usually says something like this while smiling at us and nodding his head the whole time. It's possible that he may have a future career in sales.

Although Ben is not yet a Very Strong Big Boy, he has definitely grown up quite a bit in the past few months. It is now possible for us to play the board games we gave him for Christmas without (for the most part) throwing the pieces or stomping on the board. Our current favorites are the Toy Story version of Chutes & Ladders and Candyland, though Ben refers to Candyland as the "Handy Manny" game.

We've also been playing Toy Story Uno for a few months now and that has gone surprisingly well. When we first started playing he cried every time he lost, but he is slowly learning how to be a gracious loser (this might be a 4-year-old accomplishment, although it's something that I'm personally still working on as well). And now that he has the hang of it he can beat both Harold and me fair and square, without any parental assistance.

Here are some photos from this past spring showing just how much our Very Strong Big Boy is growing up.

Post-nap silly hair, after sleeping face first on the pillow with the covers pulled over his head.
Post-nap silly face.

Ben with his first fish, caught on a fishing expedition with Papa.

Easter Egg hunt at Thomsen and Beckett's house. Note the Spiderman Easter basket. Spiderman is his current favorite superhero. Webs!

Soccer with his favorite preschool friend.

April trip to Atlantic Beach. Harold is very impressed with Ben's frisbee throwing/catching skills.

Mom and Ben

While he may be growing up into a Very Strong Boy, he still loves his old standby comfort mechanisms of sucking his thumb and pulling my hair. And I am perfectly okay with that because right now (and always) he is still my little boy.