Benny Boo Boo turns four years old

Benjamin Andrew turned 4 on April 6, 2013.  I started this blog right after I found out I was pregnant with him.  It is amazing the journey he has brought me on.

It took 4 years, but Ben's height finally caught up to Liam's height at the same age.  Ben is 41 inches tall and 36 pounds (by contrast, Liam was the same height but 39 pounds).

Interview with my big 4 year old Ben:

Favorite color: pink and orange and blue
Favorite food: broccoli, cauliflower, pizza, and Poptarts
Favorite thing to play: star war guys and my baby and Hello Kitty play set
Favorite thing to watch on TV: Star Wars movies
Favorite book: "Mouse About the House" and "That's Not my Princess"
Favorite friend: Mackenzie (who moved in November), Collin, Luke, and Gibson
Favorite animal: big cats and crocodiles and bears
Favorite stuffed animal: giraffe and little penguin

We had a busy weekend so Ben's birthday celebration was small.  His party is a joint party with friends on the 21st.  Here are photos from his big day.

Ben is now a preschooler

Ben started preschool yesterday; he is axcited to be at school, just like Liam.

He ran into the room and the only tears were from me.  We are lucky to have him at the same school and the same teacher that Liam had at age 2.

This is a huge milestone for me.....I have free time for the first time since Liam was born!!!!!!!!!

Big boy bed, take 2....and car seat news

With all of our sleep problems, I let my boys stay in cribs as long as possible.  Liam slept in a crib until right before he turned 3, and then spent a month plus sleeping in a pack-n-play as we moved from Alabama to Alaska.  He moved into a big boy bed at 37 months and the transition was so smooth.  He even stayed in his bed every morning until I got him for about 8 months.  We don't have that issue any longer. ;-)

We had movers this week as it takes so long for stuff to move between Alaska and Alabama.  Then we got loaner furniture from base (something that is available at OCONUS bases).  I suggested we leave Ben's crib here in Alaska as it now has duct tape on one leg and needs to be thrown out.  We got Ben a single bed and put Liam's old rails up. 

When asked which bed, he wanted to sleep in, he pointed to the bed and said "that one."  At 38 months, he had no problems with this transition:

I think Ben looks so much like Liam here.  Ben is 38 months now, and here was Liam in his bed at 37 months:

Liam saw Ben's photo and even thought it was him......LOL!

In other news, I turned Ben forward facing at 37 months as he is now 34 pounds, and I didn't want to be stuck with the wrong carseat during the move if he went over to 35 pounds.  I am proud that Liam was rear-facing for 34 months and Ben was rear-facing for 37, nearly 38 months.  Liam meets the minimum criteria for a booster seat, but he will be 5 point harnessed for awhile yet.  I don't expect removing his 5 point harness (both seats we have convert from 5 point narnesses to high back booster) until he is 6 years old.

I am hoping we can trash the crib this weekend.  I have ZERO angst about leaving the baby stage behind.  I am loving the boys being able to talk and follow directions.  The baby stage with both boys was full of so many challenges and so little sleep that I don't miss those days at all.

Did I just say I am happy in THIS moment?  I did, and it feels good to be here.



Conversation with Ben

This video shows Ben's articulation, his receptive language, his distraction, and his pragmatic language.

How normal is his language for a 38 month old?  His school district evaluation showed 20% delay, but I wonder if it is more.  I know he is talking more than Liam at this age and answering questions better, but his articulation and grammar seem delayed to me.

Toothless wonder

Most kids lose their first teeth somewhere around age 5-6, so I was shocked when Liam told me that he had a loose tooth on Wednesday.  I checked in his mouth and found one tooth that was loose and another that was incredibly loose.  I checked with friends with older kids and they assured me that teeth could be loose for weeks or months before falling out.  I ordered a book about the tooth fairy and a tooth holder from Amazon, and figured it would get here in plenty of time.

Except it didn't.....48 or so hours later and we had this:

We were at dinner and Liam was struggling to eat his hamburger, so I cut it up for him and Dave was feeding it for him.....when Dave watched Liam's tooth literally roll out of the spot toward his tongue.  Our waitress fetched us a magic tooth fairy container (i.e. lidded solo cup):

First tooth gone at 4 years and 9 months old and proving yet again that Liam will follow no one pre-determined developmental chart.

And this was some time ago....and now one of those two little teeth are gone:

Liam is all done with preschool

Today is Liam's last day of preschool ever.  I try not to focus on that too much because I get all emotional just thinking about it.  This year Liam attended two preschools: Ravenwood (where he received special education services) and Lions & Lambs, which was a typical, private preschool taught Montesorri style.  Liam graduated Lions and Lambs last Thursday:

Yesterday was his end of year party for Ravenwood and his last afternoon is today.  We get one more special bit of time with Miss Jerri tomorrow and I hope to grab a picture of him with her as I forgot to do that yesterday.

So how much has Liam changed over his time in preschool?

September 2009, age 2, first day at Gracepointe:

I remember shaking and crying because as I told Liam that I would be leaving at school, I could see the blank look on his face and I knew he had no clue what I was telling him.  I felt sick walking out of the room and not knowing whether he'd be scared or confused.  That first year, I feel my heart racing while he was at schol and would count down the minutes until he was back safe in my arms.  Thankfully, he had two amazing and wonderful teachers, and it looks like one of the teachers will be Ben's teacher next year.

September 2010, age 3, first day taking the bus to Ravenwood:

He started at Ravenwood within days of arriving in Alaska.  He was the youngest in his class and all the other kids seemed to talk so much and be so confident.  When I asked him if he wanted to take the bus, he just echoed "bus" and I didn't know if that meant yes or no.  He loved Ravenwood and we saw amazing progress over that year.

August 2011, age 4, first day at Ravenwood:

I was shocked when he returned to Ravenwood as he suddenly was one of the class leaders.  It was such a change from last year.  In addition, I worried about sending him to Lions and Lambs, but he fit in and made friends.  We even cut back on ABA hours as his simply didn't need his tutor there the whole time.

May 2012:

Three Years of Rocking my World

Three years ago I went in for a scheduled c-section, but the operating rooms were full and I was told I'd have to wait a bit past my scheduled time.  During a contraction, my baby's heartrate dropped and given my history of a baby not tolerating labor, they stopped my contractions and rushed me in to get the baby out.  I was warned he wouldn't cry until their cleared his mouth, but he started screaming while still in my uterus (only his head and one shouldr was out).  Hearing those cries, I knew everything was fine.....only to find out that he was going to have to go to the NICU due to a birth defect.  Three days later, after an x-ray and CT scan, we went home.  Ben's early start was my clue that life with him would never be boring.

At 7:56am on April 6, 2009, Benjamin Andrew Routhier was born, weighing 7 pounds 5 ounces and measuring 20.5 inches long.

You can see the open wound at the top of his head that he was born with.  Here is some information about it: http://rarediseases.info.nih.gov/GARD/Condition/5835/Aplasia_cutis_congenita.aspx

First day home from the hospital:



I had visions of an easy baby who would be chubby and catch up in size to big borhter, who is only 19 months older.  I felt I derserved a good sleeper after having Liam would woke every 30 minutes for a 3 month stretch and who was still waking at night when we brought Ben home.

He was very determined from birth.  He was born able to hold his head up and was pushing himself up like this at 2 weeks old:

But he screamed hours a day, actually 6 or 7 hours a day for months.  I got through by promising myself I just needed to survive this hour or this 5 minute span or sometimes this minute.  His first 7 months crawled by.  I don't remember much, other than the screaming that never seemed to stop.  I am thankful I had my blog then and that I took photos.  The photos especially captured what was precious and happy during those hard days.

That is spit up....it happened alot.  We were bound to get an action shot.

Then Dave deployed....

Daddy saying good-bye to Ben.

And what I thought was harder became my job alone.  We survived.  It wasn't pretty, but we all survived.

Dave came home to a Ben that looked like this:

(Ben was crying in this photo)

He missed this (Ben's 1st birthday) by 2 months:

Somewhere in that 1st year, he reduced his crying from 6-7 hours down to "only" 2 or 3 hours a day.  He cried 2 or 3 hours a day until he was about 26 months.  By that time, I was used to it and it rarely bothered me much.....though I had my days where I wondered how long I could take it.

He had surgery for ear tubes and adenoid reduction:

He moved 3500 miles away.....and never slept on the plane

He started Early Intervention for sensory issues, toe walking, and extreme tantrums.

He always made his opinions on things crystal clear:

He had his 2nd surgery....endoscopy:

He showed himself to be a climber....onto tables, out and into his crib, into his car seat, bookcases, furniture:

He turned 2 and was less than enthusiastic:

Then one day the crying nearly stopped and we started seeing his sweet smile more often:

He became delayed in speech and was evaluated for autism.  He was found to be at risk for autism and speech therapy, OT, PT, and special education were recommended.

When he wants to, he can charm anyone he meets, but only when he wants to.

Or you can meet this Ben....you never know:

I have had people say he is severely delayed and people say he has a slight delay.  The people that know him best know his language skills and sensory tolerance vary day by day or even minute by minute.



He got his first set of staples on his 3rd trip to the hospital for falling head first (head first from his crib in July 2010, black eye and suspected broken nose in January 2011, and staple in March 2012).

And now I have a 3 year old.  My last baby is 3 years old and is technically a preschooler.  A preschooler that does speech therapy twice a week, OT once a week, PT once a week, social skills groups 3 times a week (twice a week with a special ed teacher and once a week with early intervention).  A preschooler who speaks 2 word sentences and is largely unintelligible to anyone other than me. A preschooler that FINALLY sleeps through the night though he doesn't nap.  A preschooler who cries less often and smiles more often.

For three years, Benjamin Andrew Routhier has rocked my world and turned it upside down.  He has taught me levels of patience that I didn't know I had and has made me a better person. He makes me laugh easier than any other person in the world and makes me feel like a rock star with how happy he is to be in my arms.

Happy 3rd birthday to my little guy with the big personality.