6 yr old Benny Boy

Benny turned 6 this month. I can hardly believe it. He is the baby that marks our move to Illinois. He came house hunting with us when he was just 4 months old and moved when he was 6 months. 

He has turned into such a funny kid. He is constantly surprising us with his older kid lingo. Some of his favorite phrases lately are "Oh biscuits," "You've got to be kidding me," and "oh fine." He often sounds like a teenager.

He is still working on saying his "R's" correctly but has recently noticed it and started correcting himself. He then accentuates the R in his own correction and it's really cute.

He has loved Kindergarten, despite only having a half-day for the first half of the year. We worked really hard together reading and he is getting really good! We are in lesson 70 of 100 of our reading book. He loves books and is really proud when he can read some of the words.

He is a great friend at school. I recently got a postcard from his teacher thanking him for being such a great friend to the new kid in class. He also loves playing with his siblings and making up games.

I'm convinced that he will be an excellent beatboxer when he grows up. He makes noises with his mouth that I can't even figure out how to do.

He still loves being tucked in every night and cuddling. His favorite song right now is either "I am a child of God" or "Nephi's courage." 

He is quite a tease to his little brothers. If one of them is screaming it is usually because Benny took something away from them. Sometimes it is because he's worried they have something they shouldn't. He tries to keep them out of trouble.

He is very compassionate and gets worried about others. His prayers are very sincere and always include many mentions of Jesus. Ex: "help us to have a good day with Jesus, " and "Help us to be more like Jesus." 

When I was putting him to bed last night he was worried about Jack whose blood sugars had been high. We talked about what diabetes is and what happens if Jack doesn't get insulin. He was very concerned and said he didn't want anyone in our family to die..."except Haken." Haken and I both had a good laugh about that. I think deep down he actually loves Haken.

He is an excellent artist and loves drawing animals. He got a sketch pad for Christmas and numbered every page. He has already filled it up halfway with drawings.

When he grows up he wants to be a zookeeper because he loves animals. He loves anything that is on a screen, but he especially likes watching wild Kratts and playing the wild Kratts game online.

On his birthday date, we were asking him questions on the drive to the restaurant. He said "we have too many kids in our family. We should only have 3 ("free") kids." After asking him which ones he would want to keep he said "Gracie and Ruby." Then we pointed out that he would be the only boy and he said "ok then, get rid of Ruby and keep Jack." Apparently, he is ok with everyone but the twins and Haken. We had a good laugh about that.

This boy is constantly surprising us. He is whitty, smart, and determined. But he is also humble, forgiving and sweet. We often joke that he is the forgotten middle child but we really couldn't live without our Benny Boy!

We celebrated by opening presents and eating cupcakes (which Jack made all by himself and then Benny said "I don't like cupcakes." He got a new wiggle car and the "butt books" he likes from mom and dad. From Grandma he got snow boots (used a week before), a remote control car, and a 6 yr old joke book. He said it was "the best day of his life" so I guess that's a win!

Benny is 4!

Benny turned 4 this month and got his dream of having a "Cheetat" cake. "Cheetat's" are his favorite. I am not really a cake maker. It always takes me way too long and I usually give up towards the end. I asked my friend Sarah who is a fantastic baker if she could make me one and she did an amazing job. It looked so real and Benny was thrilled. It was also really tasty too, so that was win. 

We love this sweet boy so much! He has been such a blessing to our family. Some things I want to remember about Benny at this age:

- He's obsessed with animals. His favorites are cheetah's, tigers, sharks, wolves, red pandas and monkeys. He is always sleeping with a stuffed animal.
- He loves to read books, especially books about animals and his favorite show is Wild Kratts.
- In the last year he has become so much more independent. He was finally potty trained in the fall and can now do it all himself. He shares a room in the basement with Jack and gets up and dressed on his own for school every morning.
- He loves to patronize his sisters, especially Ruby. He loves the screams that he gets and then acts all innocent when we ask what he did.
- We are still working with him on speaking. He can't say his R's, Th, among a few other sounds. However, he is much easier to understand now and even strangers understand now.
- He loves school and rides the bus every day back and forth. It picks him up at 7:15 am every morning. He can now step up onto the bus without too much effort. He loves his teachers Miss Emily and Mrs. Claus.
- He still takes naps every day. (Hooray!) which he really needs after getting up so early for school.
- He's a little stinker some days, but gets away with a lot when he flashes his cute little smile at us.
- He is such a good brother to his little brothers and is going to be a great example to them one day.

Pee Pee in the Potty!!!

Over the summer I tried potty training Benny twice.

The first time I tried for a day and then after cleaning up multiple accidents on the floor and not having a single success with him going in the potty even though I knew that he had to go, I decided it wasn't worth it.

The second time he again didn't have a single success and I had lots of resistance. Every time I would ask him to sit on the potty he would say "not again" and I would physically have to put him on the potty with him screaming. After a day of that, I decided it wasn't worth it.

I had come to the realization that he might actually be in diapers when the babies got here and I would have four in diapers.

Whatever.

However, one day when I was praying I just got this feeling that I should try again and this time be the mean mom and not give up. I realized that with Benny everything has had lots of resistance. He doesn't do things unless he wants to. He doesn't like doing hard things that will interfere with his day and potty training is one of those.

It was easier for him to crawl instead of walk, so he didn't walk until he was 18 months old. It was easier to grunt and scream for things that he wanted, so he decided not to talk. It was easier to keep the binky, so he three when we made him give that up.

He is the type of kid that has to be pushed into doing things and once he realizes that it is actually a good thing, then he gets on board, but there is always a lot of resistance.

Potty training was the same.

This time Shad and I both buckled down. We took him to school late for a few days because he wouldn't go pee before the bus came. We dealt with him screaming on the potty as we forced him to sit there until he went because it had been 4 hours. He has the most amazing bladder control, which is great, but also a struggle because he would not let the pee go. I think a lot of it was due to his stubbornness. If he went pee then we had won and he lost.

However, after a week of this and only 2 accidents, he is dry and going on his own and even waking up dry in the morning in regular underwear. Once we got through that week it was a breeze.

We also found he was really motivated by these growing capsules. We went through three packages during a week and a half of potty training. Every time he went potty he got to pick one and put it in a cup of water and watch it grow into something. They really were "magic"!

Now he goes without them but he does sometimes say to me "I want a dino" or "I want a dolphin." I told him they were all gone and isn't it nice to be dry?! I think he really likes being a big boy and he makes sure to tell everyone when "the pee pee is coming" as he releases it on the toilet. It really was a huge deal to him once he figured that out.

Now if he can motivate Ruby to be potty trained by the end of the year maybe we will actually only have 2 in diapers!!