Blessings for Benton: April 2017

Here are some fun pictures and a video of Benton and Aurelia. Honestly each day they get more excited about eachother. Aurelia is obviously obsessed with her big brother and now that Aurelia is walking (as of February 26th!!!) Benton seems more excited about her as well as she is becoming more of a playmate :)

Siblings eating together!

Enjoying our first snow day!!!

Aurelia at 10 months and hanging with her bro

Fun in the ball pit!

Benton loves giving Aurelia a ride!!!

Posing with my cuties

Fun at the local park!

Hugs can turn into tackles :) Hahah

Springtime beauty at the Arboretum

Reading together

Racecar cart riding at Lowes

Family fun on Aurelia's big day!!!

Walking with Benton and her Grandpappy on her birthday

Family portrait!!

Can't wait to play together even when out and about :)

Life during potty training!!

St. Patty's day in Irish green :)

Riding Paya

A little Luck of the Irish on St. Patricks Day

This is going to be a short post and I'm sure I have much else to catch everyone up on in the life of the Bertram Family of Four...but today Benton amazed me yet again and I felt the need to capture my feelings live in this forum.

Today I came home ready to celebrate the fact that it was Friday and that meant the start of the weekend and fun with the kiddos. As usual I started getting dinner ready for the kids and feeding them which is always a task in and of itself. Having a three year old requiring assistance to physically eat his meal while trying to also get a one year old to cooperate and eat their food is difficult if you can't imagine. While feeding Benton a lovely dinner of dumplings, meatballs, hummus and yogurt he began his usual antics of turning his head away, refusing to take another bite and generally just playing with his food and not eating anything that wasn't forced upon him. Joe comes home and Benton immediately starts chanting "Want a video"...if you can't tell Joe can be a softy when it comes to giving Benton videos at meal time to help keep his caloric intake up :) As I'm explaining that no we aren't going to be watching a video, it's time to eat dinner, Benton looks at me and says plain as day "Mommy I want to go upstairs and watch a video." I just about started crying. That was by far the longest and clearest sentence he has ever said!

Obviously my willpower to keep videos away from my son after hearing those amazing words crumbled... However I stayed strong and explained to him that he had been naughty earlier so he wouldn't be getting a video on the iPad unless he could prove himself. I told him he needed to finish the entire rest of the yogurt by himself and then help me clean up the table and then and only then could he watch a video. He readily agreed and then my big boy did something else amazing - he fed himself over 20 spoonfuls of yogurt finishing it off and then got up and cleared the table bringing all the dishes to the sink. I was pretty much in shock. Not only had he spoken such clear words but then he fed himself the most I have ever seen him do using a spoon and readily took up a chore with no fussing at all. The cherry on top was that when Joe came down later, I asked Benton what he had done to earn a video and he said "Eat the yogurt" and "Clean the table". Wow just wow.

Today I am feeling incredibly grateful and blessed with the leaps and bounds Benton continues to do each and every day. Even though some days are hard and challenging the joy of watching him succeed and progress by even the tiniest of babysteps is all so worth it!!!