A Horse of a Different Color

Ben has been a fan of fruit snacks for quite some time. Sunkist, Wal-Mart brand, Kroger Brand, Sponge Bob...you name it. If it was gummy and fruit-flavored, it was on his short list of favorite foods.

So it didn't take much convincing to get him to try one of my childhood favorites, the fruit roll-up. Occasionally he would be distracted by the Variety Pack containing Roll-Ups, Gushers, and Fruit by the Foot. He hated the gushers.

Eventually we moved on from roll-ups and the packs of Gushers that "only Daddy would eat" and stuck with fuit by the foot.

Now, I'll be the first to say that our child does not eat well. In fact, there have been many days in which he didn't eat. A thing. His pediatrician said he just proves the fact that kids can and do "grow on air."

But over the past 6-8 weeks, it was like a switch flipped. And not the "he's growing up" switch. It was more of the "Dear God, what is going on...is he severely disturbed???" switch.

Screaming. Hitting. Running from end to end of the house from sun-up to sun-down. Terrorizing the dogs. Throwing fits. It was like the time when he was a year old and had an adverse reaction to Benadryl that sent us to Children's Hospital. I seriously thought he was having seizures. And that's a lot what this is like. He hurls himself into things. Tackles the dogs and won't stop. It's been a nightmare.

And then last week, literally out of nowhere, Jenny comes across something that suggests the artificial colors in many foods (fruit snacks/roll-ups/by-the-foot, etc) are linked to behavioral disorders in children. So last Friday we thought, "What the heck?"

And we took it away.

No crystal light. No fruit snacks. No gummy bears. No anything that has artificial colors. At first it kind of scared us. Wait...his GoGurt is Pink. Oh, ok...that has fruit juice to change the color. But he loves Peppermint Patties. Oh...wait. None in those, either. So we're safe.

Saturday he was still running on all 8 cylinders.

By Sunday, we started thinking "Ok. Something's different."

By Monday, we started thinking "ok, something's going on." He would climb in our lap. He was still while he watched a video. He would play with one toy for minutes rather than seconds. He was becoming Ben again.

It's Tuesday, and I'm honestly afraid to even be talking about it because I'm not 100% sure of what is going on. But I know one thing for certain. He's been our Ben for the past few days.

And that's been a tremendous gift.

With Dirt On It.

My mother is a painter. She doesn't do it a lot any more...every now and then she'll whip something out. But for years, she painted. She painted plaques and signs. She painted sweatshirts back in the 80's when everyone was wearing painted sweatshirts. Or was that just in Texarkana? Anyway.

She can paint a pie pumpkin like you wouldn't believe. The detail is painstaking. And then she shellacs it...you know, so the paint doesn't chip off. Oh, and then she hot glues a huge bow to the stem. They're ridiculously cute. She would send them with me to school for my teachers when I was growing up.

I go into all of that to say that somewhere in our house - and maybe Mom didn't paint it but bought it at a craft fair - there hung a plaque.

"A Boy is a Noise...With Dirt on It."

A. Men.

A noise. With dirt on it. That hits. And screams. And spits. And "kicks off" its shoes.

And chunks its pee-filled pull-up into the air, rather than dropping it in the trash. I'd settle for him shooting it like a free throw.

I started reading James Dobson's "Bringing Up Boys."

I stopped a few pages in. Right after he told several stories of "nice, respectable, grown men" who terrorized their neighborhoods and communities as children.

One story was of a kid who, with a friend (of course), decided to pour gasoline down a manhole. And then drop matches in it. The resulting explosion apparently wiped out an entire subdivision's population of porcelain bowls. Blew up every toilet within a few blocks.

Another was of a blind boy - YES, BLIND - who with another blind friend (because apparently back in the day they traveled in pairs) stole his older brother's dirt bike or motor scooter or other internal-combustion propelled two wheeler. Stole it. Then they road it. BLIND. I'll save the rest of the story for you. It's classic.

All of this is to say, it's inevitable. It's unstoppable. It's a boy.

And it's the best thing that ever happened to us.

Mixed Media

Jenny has been spending a lot of time on Pinterest. And when I say spending a lot of time, I mean she's pinning while she's nursing, cooking, sewing, doing laundry and fixing her hair.

One of the cool things she discovered and pinned to her activities for the kids board is homemade bath paint.

I don't know the exact equation, but it involves corn starch, food coloring and liquid soap.

They've done it several times...it kills a half-hour or so and then she just bathes Ben when she's done, so it kills two birds with one bath.

Five Months, 52 Weeks and Eight Years.

Tuesday, Luke turned five months...

Have you ever, ever seen such a happy kid????

I can't even talk about that face...

Also Tuesday...I celebrated my first anniversary at Second Baptist, Conway. The year has been really challenging but full of growth, and it's gone by really, really fast. I'm looking forward to where things will go next...

And ALSO on Tuesday, Jenny and I celebrated eight years since...

I wanted to involve the boys (especially Ben since he now "gets" that certain days are special...) so we started the day with Ben, Luke, Mommy, Daddy, Bailey, Annabelle, Shipley Donuts and Scooby Doo cartoons in the master bed.

Later we had a family lunch at Chick Fil A. I think it's only right to involve the kids in some of the day...they're a part of our marriage as well!

But - because we've not had one second to ourselves in five months, we celebrated with dinner WITHOUT the boys. Jenny's parents came to keep the kids and we headed to Little Rock to eat at Bonefish Grill. We wanted something reasonably fast and near the interstate in case we got a text that we had to book it home. Thankfully that never happened.

My parents had sent us a little money to go eat on, so thank you Mom & Dad and Lary & Debbie. The evening wouldn't have happened without your collaborative efforts!

Weekend Recap.

Last week we ran to Jonesboro for a short trip to visit my parents. We arrived late Wednesday and left about 11 on Friday, so it was basically just an all-day Thursday visit. Ben went swimming and played with his cousin, and we just hung out.

One of my favorite places to be is on my parents' back porch. My mother can't decide what to call it. Is it a porch? Is it a Veranda? I don't know - I just know it's heavenly. It stretches the entire length of the back of the house. It was really cool on Friday morning, so I grabbed my coffee, laptop, Luke and his Exersaucer and we went out to watch the golfers. The pic is from iSight so it's sort of weird and it's a mirror image.

Saturday morning Jenny had to go to a baby shower in Maumelle, so Benjamin and I decided to let Luke go with mommy and we would go to JumpZone. Jenny had a free pass - so, yay! No-charge entertainment is the best kind.

Six months ago Ben was TERRIFIED of all inflatables. Now he can't get enough of them. I'm really glad - since a good many of my Children's events involve the presence of multiple inflatables.

After we picked up Jenny and Luke, we headed to the McDonald's on Markham - not the classiest of eateries, but it has an indoor playground, and Ben was still needing to burn some energy. Have you noticed that hardly any McDonald's have playgrounds anymore? I think it's kind of sad.

Following lunch, we wanted to stay in town for a bit, so we decided to join all the other tax-free crazies at the mall. We typically park in the garage and enter the men's Dillards. We hadn't been inside the store more than a few seconds when we heard the sound of a drumline. We followed the music upstairs where there was popcorn, cotton candy, and a drumline from Central High.

Ben thought they were great. Luke's eyes were HUGE as he watched them.

We found the balloon artist that hangs out at Dillard's on busy days...Be knew exactly which one he wanted.

Clapping while the balloons are twisted and tied.

Ah...the finished product! A blue and "lellow" Viking hat!

We left the mall having only spent $2 - a donation for the balloon artist. We tried to get some Jeans for Ben but they were completely out of his size.

After the mall we headed over to Cupcakes on Kavanaugh...one of the many places we miss since we left the Heights. (Oh, and the balloon on his arm - one of the benefits of a daddy who is 6'6". It was hanging out on the ceiling of a store in the mall - no one was trying to get it or crying over having lost it, so I took it for him.

Nothing better than a classic vanilla.

After Cupcakes, we stopped in at Jenny's parents' for a few minutes, then headed back to Conway.

This little guy was worn out. Look at those little fat creases on his legs...

Look at that precious boy. Balloon in hand.

You know it was a full day when Ben sleeps in the car.

Notice what he is sitting in. I know, I know...he's not four yet. But LOOK AT HIM. He is just huge. The car seat laws are so crazy. They are now recommending infants stay rear-facing until two years. TWO YEARS! Ben had to be turned at 10 months because his knees were crammed up to his ears.

He's been in a really heavy (thus really safe and really, really expensive) front-facing carseat since that point, and he's just dwarfing the thing. I found this model which is safe for 3 years and up and 30 pounds and up. And it was affordable! (We probably paid a little too much because we could only find it at Babies R Us...Every target in the state was out of stock on this model.

He's only 3 1/2 but he's at the 98% on his height...he looks like a kindergartener.

He didn't like it at first...stating repeatedly that "he was too low to watch his movies..."

Thankfully now he loves it. He HAS to be more comfortable than he was in the other seat.

So as I told Jenny today, now that he's in a booster and can sit in the 3rd row if we need to, we should go on and have baby number 3.

I don't think she heard me.

Funny how that works.