Grandma Zannah came to visit this week and was a HUGE help. "Grandma go home, make dinner" you'd say - when she left the park early. When she first arrived Grandma told you that there were some presents for you in her backpack, and that you could open the backpack and look. You proceeded to pull everything out of the backpack, including some stuffed animals and books - before I realized that you were looking for something wrapped "a present!" - so Grandma took it all back to her hotel and the next day they were wrapped up.

You also helped Grandma plan a birthday party for mommy, which was a big hit - complete with 2 guests (CJ and Rose) and hamburgers, ice cream pie, and cupcakes that you made with mommy. You are an expert baker (pouring flour into canisters and spreading it around the counter is a current favorite) and we've been making muffins almost once a week.

You also noticed how much attention Alex has been getting from diaper changes, so you're out of Elmo underwear for now, but we'll try again in a few months.

There have been lots of changes in Ben's world this month! First, Ben has been greatly anticipating the arrival of his new baby, primarily because he knew that he would go to one of his favorite places ever (Lexie and Tyler's house).

Little brother Alexander arrived on May 12th, and Ben has been a pretty awesome big brother so far - wanting to hold baby Alex, give him kisses and hugs, and bring him toys to play with. Yesterday he brought Alex Daddy's cell phone and put it up to Alex's ear while he was sleeping so that Alex could talk to Grandpa. All day Ben has been repeating a phrase that Daddy and I couldn't interpret until I finally figured it out - "New Baby, Hospital" - and I asked Ben if he wanted to go back to the hospital where Mommy was when the baby was born. He of course wanted to go back to the playroom and get more graham crackers from all the nurses - plus eat pizza in the cafe. Pretty fun stuff.

A cookie bouquet arrived at the house and Ben got to pick a bear cookie that he's been allowed to nibble at for the past few days. When I asked Ben where the bear's ears went he said "Down the drain!" which really meant down his throat, and into his belly :).

Ben also loves counting and chasing. We love the fact that he misses number 5 consistently, and we hope that he doesn't learn to include 5 too soon. Yesterday he went up to our neighbor Gia on the patio and shouted "1,2,3,4,6,7!!!" at which point he turned around and kept looking back to see what she would do. "Do you want Gia to chase you, Ben?" I asked "Chaseyou!" he shouted, and eventually got his game going.

Ben is talking more and more, and putting pretty complex sentences together. "Mommy go hospital, new baby" "Ben go potty upstairs Mommy go potty downstairs" (I still don't know if he actually went upstairs by himself!). Speaking of potty, we started potty training after Ben's insistence after a night staying with Tyler and Lexie and getting inspired. Ben does great going in the potty, but still needs reminders to go, and has some accidents while out and about. Much earlier than we were thinking about starting, but our little Taurus boy always has big plans.

Ben's favorite things:
1) Counting (and chasing)
2) His new Garbage Truck (present from baby Alex) - plus the "garbage" Daddy made from cereal boxes
3) Tyler and Lexie, and playing at their house
4) His neighbor Miles
5) Elmo videos (Sesame street - a short treat each day for 20 minutes)
6) Trains, the eternal favorite