A Journey to Love

You know that beloved character from the Peanut's gang, Linus? (Hint-he's the one that drags his blanket with him wherever he goes.) Well, our little boy is starting to resemble him, in more ways then one. Take the following excert from an article I recently found on this endearing character: One of pop art’s great emblematic figures of human spirituality stands only three inches high, sucks his thumb like a lollipop, and perpetually carries a blue blanket wherever he goes, clutching it close to him for security from a hostile world. Tell me that's not Benjamin! Like Linus, he sucks his thumb constantly and has begun dragging his blanket all over the house and beyond. It's ironic that Benjamin's blankie is also blue. He has it at bedtime, naptime, some meal times, and everytime he watches a movie.  It is his comfort when he is sad or hurt and he snuggles it while we read stories. It has begun accompanying us on our way to early morning swim class and he even demand...

Now that Benjamin is over a year and a half, we figured he should start earning his keep.

Yesterday our good friends daughter came over to play for awhile. We've known Jim and Debi for five years now and Gracie was born exactly one week before Benjamin! In fact, several friends all had babies very close to the day Ben was born. Having other parents to laugh, commiserate, and celebrate with as we raise our children has been such a blessing. Here is a snapshot of a sweet moment I caught yesterday between Benjamin and Gracie. Now, if they are doing this fifteen years from now, we might have to have a talk. ;)

So I have another thing to add to my "Things I said I'd Never Do When I Had Kids" list: Freak out everytime my child hurt himself. I have determined that one reason (among many) that children need both a mother and a father is because if kids only had moms they would most likely spend their entire childhood in a protective bubble. Okay, that might be a bit of an exaggeration, but really, the mothers would spend an inordinate amount of time hovering over their children as they explored, climbed, ran, jumped, and otherwise acted, well, like children. When Benjamin is at the playground I allow him to freely play, but my hands are two inches away from his body in case he falls and needs to be caught. Nathan is constantly telling me "Let him go. He's fine." To which I respond, "But he might fall and get hurt!" To which Nathan responds, "So? He's a little boy! He is supposed to fall and get hurt!" His logic makes sense. I mean, how else...