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| Benson at two days old |
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| Benson at three years old |
We've had fun celebrating our little man the past two days! Yesterday, we were blessed to be able to go to Lake Tobias, a really fun safari park in our area. He loved riding the safari bus, seeing the animals, and bossing them around. He told a llama to go back to sleep, a deer to drink water NOW!, and was generally making people sitting near us laugh pretty hard. He was friendly and would yell "bye" to animals, people, whoever would listen. He waved hi to almost everyone for a little while, too.
He touched a snake and an alligator, fed a HUGE African cow, and a large bull elk. He had fun, but was a little cautious with some of the animals, but loved the "HUGE animals" and was very excited about his special day.
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| You know, a cross between a donkey and zebra, a Zedonk. Kinda like a mule. Can't procreate. You can't see it on this picture, but the legs are striped, and the back has the zebra stripe down the spine, but otherwise, they look pretty much like a donkey. |
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| This was at the end of the day, we were all getting a little over it. Benson was at this point only interested in the map. |
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| It was fun that Benson could see animals I've seen in Africa or ones that I grew up with, that aren't common around here. |
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| Like Elk, let's pretend this guys is right side up. Because, if I have to try one more time to rotate a pic so blogger is happy, I might cry. |
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| And BISON! |
Benson got to open his presents from extended family, some were from Belgium, Italy, and Arizona - ha. He is having lots of fun.
I teared up last night as I was putting him to bed, just so incredibly grateful and a little, dare I say, sad, that my little guy is THREE. What a gift his life has been to us, and to so many others. We've had a rough couple of weeks - he hasn't been sleeping well, fearing storms and such, which makes him SUPER CRANKY. You know those days you wonder as a parent if you will in fact survive this intensity. You know you will, but you cry out and pray a little differently when you're DESPERATE, don't you????
The last two nights Benson's slept great, and his attitude yesterday and today were SO MUCH FUN! As I look back on the past three years, I see nothing but the faithfulness of God. What an amazing journey we've been on - some hard, most good, and boy, have we all grown. Us probably more than him. But that's what they say, right? Being a parent is one of the quickest ways to refinement!
Some facts about our little guy at three years old:
He loves his sister, except when he doesn't. Then it's not pretty.
He loves cars, trains, animals, being outside.
He suddenly hates all manner of vegetables, unless it is in soup, spaghetti, or chili. Thank heavens for places we can hide good food. Oh, and muffins. I can hide all manner of goodness in muffins. (his sister won't eat any of those things except muffins, so she's more at a loss for health!)
He says a lot, and sometimes I think, "were we ever worried he wouldn't talk???" Goodness. Some favorite ways he says things right now: Lissoseen (Limousine), Tratter (tractor), and he's recently started saying "awhile". Like this, for those of you not from around here: "Daddy, daddy, do you want to play trains awhile?" This is normal around here, but not normal for me. Otherwise, he's doing great with his verbal skills and even knows his colors, letters, numbers, and shapes pretty well. He makes us laugh often, this one. So full of LIFE.
He is busy. He likes to run and play and run some more.
His best buddies right now are cousin Gabe, friends Lukie, Caleb, Zeke, Emma, Colson, and Tobias. He asks to see them FREQUENTLY. Though with the little lady friend, I'm thinking he likes the idea of playing with her more than actually playing with her. Those two are REFINERS of one another, let me just tell you.
He loves to read.
He loves to watch movies.
Recently he's started mimicking our prayers, so I hope he LOVES to talk to Jesus! He likes to carry around his little green Bible.
He likes to do things side by side right now.
When we Skype my sister in France, for some reason, he gets as close as he can to the screen and yells at her. Ha. He only does this with her, though.
When he sings, he sings the last word of a line REALLY loudly, and a little after you do. It is pretty funny. Like this: Jesus loves me this I... KNOW for the Bible tells me...SO
He unfortunately still yells and hits when he's mad. We're working on this. Oh, boy, are we working on this.
He has big feet. Like, size 9-11 feet.
Most people guess his age is four.
He has a STRONG, INTENSE personality, which will hopefully be a blessing. I think we have a lot of work to do as his parents, but that's not all bad. Just something we'll have to process with him. I pray we can help him well.
He's usually VERY polite. He says, "No thank you" or "Yes, thank you" quite often. "Pweeease", too.
He gives AMAZING zerberts. Seriously, if there was a sport of Zerbert, he would be the champ.
He is helpful, serving and generally very loving. He likes to push the TINY cart at the store for me and says, "Thank you mommy" everytime I add something to it.
He likes to categorize size like this: tiny, big, and HUGE. There's no small or medium to him. And you better believe the size of the object/word he uses is matched with his voice.
He's not potty trained yet, but we're hopeful it comes soon. He likes to hang out on the toilet, though, so he's got that going for himself. Oh, and ON HIS TERMS ONLY.
Somehow I almost forgot this, but WATER. Oh, the man loves water. Splashing stones is still his favorite pasttime - hands down.
Oh, Benson, what a GIFT YOU ARE. So strong, so sweet, so intense, and kind. You live life LARGE, buddy. We love you, we like you, we're proud of you. And if we could pick any little boy in the whole world to be parents to, we'd still pick you.
Can't wait to see all that THREE brings. Please, three, be easier than two. Or one. Or pre-one. Amen. :)
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