I love Fridays. I like to do special things on Fridays to mark the beginning of the weekend: on the way home from school, Benjamin is allowed to pick out a treat to have with his lunch; we try and do something special or easy (or both) for dinner; I go easy on the housework (even easier than the other days). But I’m always happy to add something new to our repertoire.
Category Archives: Kids and Parenting
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Every evening, after bath time and before bed, we have story time. Dan & I take turns reading to the kids — Liam usually only makes it through one or two stories, but Benjamin always gets four (unless he can convince us to do a few extra). I love it when it’s my turn to do stories. I love reading to them, seeing them learn and enjoy the stories, and I really enjoy many of the stories themselves — we have some really good ones, and a lot of them are favorites of ours from when we were little.
Benjamin visits the ER
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First, let me say that everything turns out ok in this story.
Yesterday evening, just before story time, I was feeding Liam and I heard the sounds of “hide & seek” coming from the bathroom (where toothbrushing was supposed to be happening . . . and I imagine it did actually happen at some point). Benjamin isn’t 100% clear on hide & seek yet — he seems to manage to both hide and seek each time, but he really likes it. I heard both Dan and Benjamin count to 10, and then lots of giggling and “I found you!” followed by a serious “thud” and a cry. Not the I-need-to-think-about-how-bad-this-hurts cry, but the instantaneous, frightened, pained scream.
Uh-oh.
I heard Dan bustling about, lots of “It’s ok” and “Let me see” (neither of which made me feel any better) and a moment later, Dan and Benjamin showed up in the living room, with Benjamin crying and covering his face. Dan wasn’t getting much of anywhere trying to get a look at the injury, so I took a look while Dan went to get some ice. I was worried about his teeth and his lips, but once I got a look, he was already getting a bruise on the bridge of his nose, which he said hurt. Apparently, upon “finding” Dan, he turned around to run and celebrate, and didn’t quite negotiate the transition from the tile of the bathroom floor to the wood of the hallway. His feet went right out from under him and he landed flat on his face. Dan thought he’d managed to get his hands under himself in time, but apparently not — within a few minutes, the bruising was worse, his nose was swollen, and he was starting to get a black eye on the left side. He did let us put some ice on it (but not for long).
Dan called the doctor and left a message, and while we waited for an answer, B wiped his nose and came away with a very small amount of blood. So small that I almost didn’t believe it, but it was there. Time for the ER.
At this point, Liam was in bed asleep, so I stayed with him, and we bundled Benjamin up to head to the hospital with Dan. According to our pediatrician, the children’s hospital is great during the day, but not well equipped at night, so they went to the regular hospital (which, as it turns out, is the largest hospital in Europe — pretty cool to have that a 17 minute strassenbahn ride away). Once they found out exactly where to be (another one of those challenges of living in a foreign country) they only had to wait 5 minutes to be seen, and they were taken back almost immediately for an x-ray. Benjamin was a champ. He was cooperative, quiet and happy (extra impressive because they didn’t even leave the house until almost 11:00).
As it turns out, his nose is just fine — only a bruise. They got home just barely 2 hours after they left, and over half an hour of that was travel time. It’s always best to avoid the ER at the hospital, but our family’s first experience with the emergency department (actually, I think they ended up at the “accident” department, which is different) was definitely as positive as possible.
We were all exhausted today — B stayed home from school, I tried not to obsess about my poor baby who had to have an x-ray and I wasn’t even there, Dan went to work and tried to pass his final in his German class, Liam was unaffected, but happy to have B home. Everyone is ok, and other than Benjamin being wary of me washing his nose today, life is pretty much back to normal. Just how I like it.
Playing in the snow
We woke up this morning to our first snowfall in Vienna of any real significance. By the time Benjamin got up, there was more than a dusting on the rooftops, and our terrace, which is pretty sheltered, but not enclosed, almost had a covering. Our rosemary, basil and cilantro plants (or rather, the pots the plants lived in when it was summer) had about an inch in each, as did the table where they sit.
Benjamin was thrilled. He wanted to make a snowman. So, after he was dressed for school, boots and all, he and I went out onto the terrace to make a (very small) snowman on our table. He insisted we give it a “beak” (nose) and arms (we used dried basil and rosemary stalks), but he really wanted the eyes to be made of snow, so they were a bit hard to see. Given what we had to work with, it was a pretty good snowman. Liam and I cuddled up in the living room and Dan and Benjamin headed off to work and school.
The snow fell all morning, but the temperature was just at the freezing mark, where sometimes the snow accumulates on what it lands on, and sometimes it seems to turn to water and melt what’s there. When Benjamin got home, he checked on our snowman, which had fallen over (I went out and fixed it) and he told me all about the snowman he had made at school.
At first, I thought he and Dan had made a snowman on the way home from school. But, no, he and his classmates made the snowman while they played outside in the garden. It was surprising to me that the kids went outside to play in the wet, cold, slippery snow — I don’t know whether that’s typical at home. I’m very glad I bundled him up in his big coat, warmest hat and snow boots this morning, but I’m even more glad that they did go outside to play in the snow. What a great, fun opportunity to take — to go out and frolic in the snow when you’re 3 years old, with your 3 and 4 year old friends, and to build a big snowman, all together.
I was a little sad, this morning, that I didn’t get to keep B home today to have a snow day. I was really hoping that his friends at school, and his teachers, would be as excited that it was snowing as he was. It sounds like they were. And I’m so glad I didn’t keep him home with Liam and I today (we didn’t do anything exciting) — I wouldn’t have wanted him to miss his chance to play in the snow with his friends, and build a big snowman, with a carrot for a nose and everything.
Benjamin and the planets
I try not to brag excessively about my kids. Of course I think they’re beautiful, brilliant, sweet, loving, strong, fast, kind and generally amazing and wonderful — I’m their mom, I can’t help it. But I do try to keep most of it to myself, because otherwise it would be all I would talk or write about, because they’re my most favorite people in the whole world.
But every so often they do or say something so cute that I just can’t keep it to myself. At only 3 years old, Benjamin knows all of the planets. I don’t know if that’s typical, but it’s pretty impressive to me. He can recite the names of all 9 of them (including Pluto — I grew up in a world where Pluto was a planet) in order, and tell you a little bit about all of them. He tells me that Jupiter is made of gas (which he says is funny), that Mars has lots of dust and that Neptune is very cold. Earth is his favorite, but he might like to try to live on Jupiter. He asks really good questions, like “Whats’ the difference between a planet and a moon?” and “What do the planets have inside of them?” and “Is the Earth spinning very, very fast?”
I can take almost no credit for this. Like many other things he’s learned in his 3 years, this came almost entirely from tv (in this case, I think we have Olivia and Bubble Guppies to thank) with some supplemental material from books. It’s so cute to hear him, and so impressive to see how his mind works. He told us, the other evening, that he wants to be an astronomer when he grows up — he has previously alsoexpressed a wish to be a fire fighter and a chef. I love watching him grow and learn and be excited about things. Being a mom is the best thing ever.
Ben ist da!
I’m still of a split mind about B going to school. On the one hand, I think the socialization he’s getting is positive, and I know he’s learning German in a way that’s more accessible to him than it will ever be again in his life. On the other hand, he wants to be at home, and I want him to be here.
I can’t believe how I can!
We’re trying something new with Benjamin: an “accomplishment chart”. We’ve made a list of the things that he’s working on accomplishing, like dressing himself, drinking milk from a cup, and using the potty. Every time he does one of those things, he gets a sticker (which he gets to choose and apply to the chart himself, which he loves) and after every 10 stickers he adds, he gets a present. The presents started out as little things I’d had around the house that I’d been meaning to give him — new sheets for his bed, new pajamas, a truck — and I’ve progressed to toys and books he’s been asking for that didn’t quite make the Christmas cut.
Running with kids
We started running about a month agowith the “Couch to 5k” plan. We haven’t been perfect about it, but we’ve kept with it and now we’re on our fourth week of the plan. (And, to go along with my general directive to myself to not agonize about perfecting the details in favor of seeing the bigger picture, I am trying not to torment myself about having missed a few days.) I don’t love to run, but I don’t hate it. I do love the way that I feel when I have been running.
Vacation is over
Well, our Christmas vacation is officially over: Benjamin went back to school today. Leading up to today, he was really looking forward to going back — he wanted to see his teachers and his friends, he wanted to ride tricycles in the garden, and play with the train set at school (which, I think, is pretty much like ours but without a Liam around to destroy his progress). He was really excited to tell everyone, “Happy holidays and happy new year!”
Mine, mine, mine!
In true “little brother” fashion, Liam likes everything Benjamin likes. Whatever Benjamin is eating, watching or playing with, Liam wants it too. Whatever Liam sees Benjamin doing, he is going to try. It’s resulted in some really cute behavior, like Liam already climbing up onto B’s tricycle (although he can’t yet reach the pedals), and Liam already attempting to figure out how to ride B’s bike (although he’ll need to gain a few inches before that’s possible). Generally, it’s cute to see Liam trying to be like his big brother.