First Pigtails

Yesterday Felicity had her first Pig Tails. That is all.

Little Days (17 Months Old)

Felicity is 17 months old today.

I keep having the thought "Ben did not do this" and then wondering if maybe he did and I just don't remember well. I want to remember these days better.

I want to remember the way she sidles into my lap when I am not paying attention, so that suddenly my arms are full of her and she is doing whatever activity I am doing (this happens most frequently when I am playing something with Ben, like Lego).

I want to remember how much fun it is to have her try to say new words. She screeches as she tries to push her shopping cart over the lip of the tile, and I say "do you need help? Can you say "help please?"" and she says something that is vaguely but definitely like help please.

I want to remember how she says yes by a cacophony of laughter or a strange half nod movement of her head.

I want to remember her giggle. And what random things can make it come out.

I want to remember the sight of Benjamin leaning over to gently kiss her cheek in the bath.

I want to remember her walking around with a book pretending to read in a song of sounds.

I want to remember the feeling of her falling asleep in my arms as I rock her quietly in her room. And how she sometime hums and sings herself to sleep.

I want to remember her crazy legs, and that we call her "Crazy Legs" as a nickname because the little excited shuffle foot stomping she does.

I want to remember the curls of her hair and the softness of her cheeks and the deliciousness of her skin.

And how she tries to brush her own hair. And my hair.

And how, when she is in a clingy mood, and I try to put her down, she hangs off me like a monkey and uses her little feet to climb her legs back onto my hip.

And how she sits and waits on her little stool when she wants cheese-its.

And how she likes to look out windows.

And how she tries to crawl away from me, across the bed, when I am trying to get her dressed, and its a game to her and she giggles and laughs as I pull her back.

And how she tries to life her little foot up in the air to point at her sock or shoe.

And how she always picks the blue markers when she colors.

I will do my best to soak it all up.

Happy Birthday - Water??

Ben declared today Water's birthday. Water is a stuffed Elephant that Aunt L gave him a few holidays ago (maybe last Christmas? I am not entirely sure). She sewed a heart on the elephants chest to customize it and make it a good "patient" for a vet kit she made. Ben came up with the name Water.

Recently Ben was playing with water and pointing out the heart. I said "Do you know who put that heart on there?" Ben asked who. I said "Aunt Laurelyn, do you know why?" Ben responded, with a huge grin and hugging water tightly, "because she loves me!"

I am finding that there are a lot of little things like that that people did for Benjamin when he was smaller and did not really understand at the time that he really loves now. I look forward to pointing out more special connections in his possessions as the days pass!

Imagination

Ben... his personality. How do I describe it? The easiest way I think is - he likes the bad guy. We joke that we loved him too much as a baby because he seeks out the darkness and the baddy's like crazy. From Darth Vader to the Green Bay Packers.

He also has quiet the imagination. Anyone who has hear about his character "Good Darth Vader" knows there is an entire world of Star Wars universe in his head that did not come from the big screen. Now he is doing that to Harry Potter as well, and I want to record it.

Enter Rogue Falcon. Rogue Falcon occurs in "special" Harry Potter titles like "Harry Potter and the Greatest Dark Wizard". You can only watch these special movies if "you are very very very good that day". (Can you tell we have been using screen time as a reward/punishment?)

Rogue Falcon is the greatest dark wizard of all time.

When he was a boy, Rogue Falcon just went by Falcon. He added the Rogue part when he was an adult. Falcon was put into Slytherin because he told the sorting hat that his parents had been in Slytherin and that he wanted to follow in their footsteps. Falcon plays seeker for Slytherin. Falcon is bad all the way through. When he was little,  Falcon was already bad. When he was a student at Hogwarts he let a Basilisk loose on the school. However, the Basilisk didn't attack the castle, it turned around and started attacking Falcon, so Falcon brought in a Black Shadow to fight it.

What is a Black Shadow you ask?

A Black Shadow is from Ben's fantasy "How to Train Your Dragon" Universe. A Black Shadow is a dragon that cannot be killed. Its scales are like Dragon Hunter Arrows, and they have tiny hooks on them. Because Black Shadows cannot be killed, it is better to be friends with them. You can tame them by feeding them Tuna and playing with them. If you do these things, then the Black Shadow will not go back to the wild. A Black Shadow is a Black Dragon with red eyes and yellow markings around its eyes. It can shoot back whatever another dragon shoots at it (so if a Skrill shoots lightning at it, it can shoot back lightning, if a Gronkel shoots molten rock at it, it can shoot back molten rock). Black Shadows are very very very big. Bigger then Alpha dragons. They also have lots of babies, and the babies are very very cute.

This is my son's imagination. I am sure that I will hear MUCH more about the adventures of Rogue Falcon in the coming days and weeks. I dislike that it is a bad guy, but there is not much I can do about it. I did ask if I could create a Harry Potter character for these special movies,  and he said sure. I told him its a girl, a Keeper for Slytherin. I named her Xanthe Chaffin. I told him she is so smart and good at magic she will prevent all of Rogue Falcon's mischief. He seems to disagree....