fair warning

benjamin is, for the most part, officially potty trained now.

hoo-freaking-ray!

but, there is still the occasional accident.
he had one of those recently when we waited just a little too long.

now, benny also has a certain relationship with his underwear.
i believe it is because they are all cartoon character themed.
diego, iron man, mickey mouse, etc.
it is a very important point of conversation each morning as we deliberately choose which pair gets to spend a day outside of the underwear drawer.
but, i didn't realize how deep this connection with said underwear ran until he held up his pair of "Diegos" to warn him that he had accidentally pooped on Iron Man recently.

it was really kind of him... in it's own unique way...

bound

preface: anth has a Nintendo DS that he received for Christmas.
bern and i have agreed to limit his use of this piece of equipment.
typically, it is not used on school nights, but can make an appearance, based on behavior, on weekends.
anth refers to weekends as "stay home" or "stay at home" days.

anth and i share the guilty pleasure of american idol.
i tell myself that this is okay because:
1. i DVR it and we watch it at a reasonable hour the next day, and
2. i chalk it up to exposing him to the performing arts.

just go with me on this one.

back while were were watching the city-based auditions, the little we're-about-to-go-to-a-commercial-voice-over-guy came on and said something to the effect of "there were bound to be some good auditions in Los Angeles."

anth paused the TV and asked me what "bound to" meant.
i explained it to him.
and we talked a little bit about things like "binding agreements," and the commitment to certain things definitely happening.

as usual, anth seemingly went back to what he was doing, and restarted the show.
a few minutes later, he paused it again.
"well, mom, then you should know i'm bound to play my DS a lot on my stay-home days this week."

Party of Four

i realize that there have been several days of kind-hearted, rainbows and cupcake posts regarding benny's birthday. 

and a heavy dose of photos. 

but, here is one last day of that for the fam on the west coast, and then it's back to the usual mockery and jest. 

promise. 

Grandma and Grandpa Welch and Great Grandpa and Grandpa Savarese will be coming out the weekend after next from California and Eastern Ohio, respectively. 

we will be filling a weekend with celebrations for our little guys' birthdays and bern's graduation.

(graduation!!! the light at the end of the tunnel is burning my cornea!) 

so, ben's big day was an all day celebration for just our little family unit. 

here is the pictorial review of our little Party of Four yesterday. 

we started the day with daddy's famous pancakes...with the requisite candle.

clearly, an exciting start.

then we moved on to a little balloon party.
a balloon party, you ask?
this involved bern blowing up lots of balloons while the boys both attempted to blow up one, and an extended game of keep-it-in-the-air.
and benny discovered how to pop balloons. 
this gave mom several small heart attacks. 
which, of course, made it all the more funny to benjamin.

anth was wiped out by the festival of balloons.

he took a minute to plunk down on the floor for a breather.

yes, in this exact pose. 

he also took a moment to remind us that he has NOT, in fact, had a birthday.
or presents. 
or cake.
as a result, he is still 5.

daddy caught a rare moment of mom on the other side of the camera with ben.

and anth.
and my glasses.

a little brotherly love. :) 

i adore the look of consternation on ben's face regarding the original size of the flame on his cake candle.
no worries, it finally achieved a healthy state.

benny chose to have a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting.
it seems to have been a hit.

bern asked the boys to cover their eyes while he brought the presents into the room.
not quite sure why anth had to as he was not getting gifts. 
that was probably just the law-abiding-citizen in him.
(but check out his pursed lips. he seems to be concentrating really hard on this effort.)

check out the look of surprise on bern's face when he noticed them peeking.
genius.

ben was sure to remove every piece of paper and tape from each gift.
seriously.
each of them.
fully.
some might say...painstakingly.

and, of course, it was then time to give the new toys a test drive!

anth was more than pleased that ben is finally old enough to get "cool gifts."

and, in the general spirit of the day, ben was actually willing to share. 

ben's not 2 anymore!!!

it's official!

benny is 3!

little kids' birthdays will always remind me of the day that my friend Lynn and i came home to find my sister standing in the door of our garage, waiting to proudly proclaim, "i'm not 6 anymore!"

birthdays are a big deal.

especially when they still fit within your allotment of digits that you can hold up to represent your age.

ben has been talking about his birthday all week.

he stopped on the way in to daycare this week to greet Janice at the front of the center.

he coyly shared, "i have a big day tomin' up!"

and he has been sharing with anyone else who will listen.

as his mom, i find birthdays to be a fun time to pour through old photos and look back on the last few years.

:)

here is a year-by-year snapshot of benny's birthdays...

proud big brother anth on benny's literal birth day.

benny as a one-day-old. 
peanut. 

this was benny's birth announcement photo.

(tee provided by danielle barone & phil badaszewski!)

i love it and i'm shamelessly repeating it.

and then there was his first birthday...

in my office, we all serve on a variety of committees.

right now i serve on the RA Recruitment team, but back then i was serving on the team that worked to recruit our full-time Hall Director staff.

we do this by traveling to a national conference where tons of schools and oodles of graduate students meet in one location for mass interviews.
(good luck to those who are finishing OPEing and to those headed to TPE soon!)

that year, TPE, or The Placement Exchange happened to be at the same time as ben's first birthday.

major mommy fail.

but, in classic ignatoski-style, my friend kelly covered our hotel room in photos of benny and cards from our fabulous committee and other special folks. 

(anth's classroom was doing the Flat Stanley project at the time, so "Flat Anthony" was there with us in Seattle to celebrate benny's birthday with mommy.)

(note: as evidenced by the reflection in the TV, neither of us opted to make our beds in an effort to celebrate his big day...)

meanwhile, bern was at home with the boys making some birthday magic happen as our sweet little 1-year-old was working on growing some teeth.

mommy came home and joined for the proper party and fanfare a few days later. 

flash forward a year and here is the photo that i took with the boys on ben's "last day of 1."

(i clearly get sentimental about the 364th day...)

why not a photo from his birthday?

because i went through all of them and they include either the top of his head, his rump, or a small blur that i suppose is ben in front of some presents.

now for...now!
while he seems to keep getting bigger by the minute, it makes my heart happy to know that a his idea of a good "Last Day of 2" Day still entails watching a little Winnie the Pooh in his underwear and "spidey" hat. 

  and while were were feeling pretty good about our days as a 2-year-old...

i think it's safe to say that the kid is more than excited about his journey into the big-wide-world of 3. 

HAPPY BENNY DAY!!!!!!!

the last day of "the 2's"

as benny's third birthday quickly approaches (tomorrow!), mom and dad have been busy discussing potential gifts, hitting stores, and doing a little shopping online. 

but my brain just keeps coming back to this, which causes me to question the need for presents...

*note: for those of you who believe for .83 seconds we would pass on giving benny birthday gifts, you are just plain silly.

or mean.

i'll let you categorize yourself on this one.

his "flagship" gift this year will be Magnatiles.

he has fallen in love with these at daycare.

and i have to admit, they are pretty fabulous.

for our tiny-yet-determined architect, they stick together better than blocks.

but, they also provide a higher level of satisfaction than Legos for the kid who likes to be able to quickly destroy what he just built.

and, yes, both the architect and demolition crew are benny.

the world is my sippy cup

i have been a festival of various cooties for the last few days. 
so tonight you get a post that i tucked away a few weeks ago...


as many of our stories do, this one involves bathtime.

it was a night when i decided to bathe the boys at different times, and it was benny's turn.
i was done washing ben, and he was just playing in the tub at this point.
anth had come into the bathroom to ask me a question.
i was trying to focus on anthony.
but, out of the corner of my eye, i noticed that the shower curtain was slowly moving.

i stopped to look at benny.
he was impishly smiling at me while slowly trying to pull the shower curtain closed.
i asked him what he was doing.
"i need some pwivacy."

i then inquired as to what, exactly, a 2-year-old needed privacy for in the tub.
"so i can dwink my diwty baf water and you don't tell me to stop it!"

that, friends, is my boy.
making momma proud.

krystyne's definition of "wholesome"

i use the word "wholesome" all the time.
sometimes in reference to things that are, in fact, wholesome.
aka, in my mind they are good for the heart and soul, touching, endearing, etc...
and sometimes i use it in reference to things that are nowhere near that definition.
sarcasm is a tool i employ with some regularity.

tonight i am using it in the more sincere, heartwarming, sense.

in the last few months, benny has started asking us to "lay down with him" at night after we tuck him in.
so much so that i actually have placed a pillow on the floor next to his bed.
(judge all you want. i think it's sweet. for now.)

sometimes, anth comes in and joins us for the 3-5 minutes i spend on the floor.
on a few occasions when i was exceptionally tired, i may or may not have accidentally fallen asleep in this spot until bernie came to retrieve me.
oops.

but, in this case, i caught someone else in the act.

and this, my friends, is what "wholesome" looks like in person.