Happy Birthday Ben!

Yesterday Ben said to me, "Every time I have a birthday it means you're getting old!" Older yes, but hopefully not too old yet! Although I think Ben is old and he turned 11 today, so I guess age is in the eyes of the beholder.

He woke up yesterday to an early birthday present...no school! The freezing rain had turned all the beautiful puffy snow into hard, crunchy ice. A good day to stay inside and play video games! I think Brittany asked me more times than the boys, "how much longer until the party?" Five o'clock finally came and she skillfully led Ben and his friends through the Harry Potter jelly bean game while we waited for Barr to arrive with the pizza. He then took the boys to see The Spiderwick Chronicles.

Luckily Brittany had been invited to a gymnastics open gym night with a friend, and Brigham had his first successful sleepover away from home. Which meant Brooke and I had the house to ourselves. We spent it watching a home video of Ben's 2nd birthday. Quite a contrast from this year's rocking out to Guitar Hero and staying up until 3:00 in the morning! It's only 6:00 now, so we'll see how long they sleep in. I have a feeling Brittany will "accidentally" wake them up.

I haven't done a Brooke update in a while. Just a reminder that this is like my journal for our kids so I probably give more details and information than the average person is interested in. Feel free to skip down to the pictures if you want! Brooke has made some amazing strides the last few months. It seems like things we have been working on for over a year are finally clicking for her. She goes up stairs now! She still prefers to hold a hand and walk up, but if pressed, she will climb them. We're still working on going down because she doesn't like being on her knees, but it's coming. She has also mastered the little step down to the family room. For 2 years she hasn't had the freedom to go in and out of there until now. I'm still surprised every time she just shows up in the kitchen on her own!

Her communication is coming along really well too. She wants to know a sign for everyone's name. She's even started making up her own if I don't tell her one. When her babysitter came, I asked Brooke how to say "Allison" and she raised her right arm up and down. So that was Allison and she did it all week! She also made one up for her speech therapist and for one of Ben's friends. At Grandma's last month we came up with signs for a lot of her cousins and aunts and uncles. Her bus driver is always saying things like, "Brooke is really hungry today because she keeps putting her hand up to her mouth". I have to tell her she's actually saying "Baby Kate" her cousin. She'll go through a list of 8 or 9 people in a row. I feel bad when I can't remember all of them or can't tell what she's trying to tell me, because I know she knows. Luckily her verbal communication is also improving. She now says "Br" for Brooke and is starting to make a lot of new sounds. Her one for this week is "uh oh". She's starting to use that when I'm trying to get her to say a 2 syllable word, like Brigham. She can tell there's more to it than just "b", but the rest won't come out yet.

She can jump now, unzip her coat half way, take off her backpack and usually get her coat off by herself. She's understanding more simple commands like: go get your boots, let's change your diaper, and it's time to go. She surprised me one day by getting out a spoon and the peanut butter all by herself and handing them to me. She's my daughter alright!

Her sense of humor is really coming out too. She's starting to see the humor in some books and loves to laugh at anything silly...which makes dinner time more like a circus act most night. She also loves to be wrestled. The problem is whenever we're all on the bed together, she thinks it's wrestle time, and we usually have scripture reading on the bed. Those two things usually don't go together very well!

Time to go start the birthday breakfast...










Ben, Conner, Jesse, and Michael seemed to have fun together at Ben's party













Ben's Mario cake










After weeks of hanging on by a thread, Brigham's front tooth finally came out. He was pretty excited!










Brooke's elephant earphones keep her quiet during our Family Night lesson