Doctor for Ben and Daniel

Ben and Daniel both had doctor appointments today. Ben had his 5 year check-up and Daniel had his 2 month check-up (even though he's almost 3 months now). Both of them are healthy and growing well. Ben is now 45 pounds (75%)and 43 inches tall (50%). His eyesight is good and his blood pressure is good. He got to have another chickenpox booster, which he wasn't happy about, but it didn't really hurt him. Daniel is 13 pounds even (80%) and 23 inches tall (50%). He got 3 shots and an oral vaccine. He's not happy now though, since he's starting to not feel well from the shots. We had wondered about his soft spot on his head since it seems large, but his doctor said it looks fine. And he's like our other boys and we get to try to make him turn his head to the right more. He likes to keep it turned to the left and is making his head a little flat on that side. They're both healthy kids, though, so that's always a good thing.

How do you solve a problem like...Benjamin?

So Ben had a hard time being good this past weekend. On Friday he kind of fought with a kid on the bus on the way home from school. He was putting boogers on the kid and told the kid that he was going to cut him with his scissors. I believe he also called the kid names, but I'm not totally sure on that one. Ben wouldn't really tell us what had gone on.
On Saturday, we were over at our neighbors Brett and Alma's house having a BBQ. The kids ate and then were running around playing and Ben grabbed the top of a small baby tree they have in their backyard and looked at us all with that gleam in his eye. Brett and Bryce both repeatedly told him not to pull off the leaves, but that's exactly what Ben did. So he had to go home at that point.
Yesterday at church, Ben was actually pretty good during Sacrament Meeting, even when I had to leave him in the chapel by himself to take Alex to go to the bathroom. However, for some reason that is beyond my comprehension, Ben decided that he needed to keep pulling down his pants in Primary, getting himself kicked out for the day.
What do you do about a kid who doesn't want to be good and doesn't act like he feels any remorse for what he's done, other than the fact that he gets privileges taken away and ends up going to bed early? The only other thing I've been able to think to do is to try to have us be better at reading the Book of Mormon together as a family every day.

On a different note, Alex gets to start preschool today. He's excited to be able to go, I think because his big brother goes to school, so now this is something he gets to do.

The latest trip to the doctor (with an edit too)

Well, we just got back from taking Chris for his 2 year old check-up. He weighed 23 pounds, 4 ounces. That means that he gained more than a pound in the last 3 weeks. It also means that he's finally back on the chart. Yay for Chris! He's around the 3% for weight now. He's also about 33 inches tall, so he's still on the short side, but he is growing. He's looking pretty good in everything else. He got to have a Hep A shot, which he didn't like at all. We'll take him back when we take Daniel in for his 6 month check-up to check his weight and to check his testicles because one is bigger than the other and it could just be some fluid or it could be something like a hernia. It doesn't seem to be painful to him, so his doctor just wants to watch it for now.

We just barely made it to get Ben to school on time and had stopped at Wendy's so that he'd be able to eat lunch before he went to school. Of course, I looked in his sack when we got home and noticed that he hadn't eaten any of his chicken and not many of his fries, so hopefully he won't get too hungry at school. *Edit: When Ben came home from school today, I asked him if he had gone straight to class when he got there and he said he had, but then he went to the lunchroom. "They were having pizza. So I had some pizza and two oranges." It's just too bad that we haven't actually paid for any school lunches yet, don't you think?

Daniel and Ben both have doctor appointments in a week, so we'll get to go have more fun then.

Ben's growing up

This last week up to this point has been pretty eventful for Ben. On Saturday, he lost his first tooth, with a little help from his dad. It had been loose for a few days and was getting to the point where it was almost coming out, so Bryce pushed on it and it came out. Ben was very excited to be able to put it under his pillow and have the Tooth Fairy leave him some money. He was telling everyone in his class in church about it the next day.
Yesterday Ben had his Kindergarten orientation. He got to meet his teacher and find out where his classroom was. They had him cut out a circle and glue it to a circle on another piece of paper. They had him write his name (3 different times) and draw some shapes, draw a picture of himself, and color a picture of a bus. Ben came home pretty excited from the orientation and was immediately telling Alex what they had him do.
Today was Ben's first real day of Kindergarten. The Kindergarten busses aren't running until tomorrow, so we got to drive him and take him in his classroom. Alex was pretty excited to see where Ben would be spending part of his days. Ben was pretty funny and put his backpack in his cubby and found his desk and sat down and then basically acted like, "Go home, Mom." Ben said they took a tour of the school and saw where the lunchroom and the gym and the library and things like that were, but he can't remember what else they did today. He did mention at one point that his teacher told him he needed to be quiet. We went over to meet Ben at the bus stop after school (the normal busses were running) and I got a call on my cellphone from the school saying to come pick Ben up. Apparently they wouldn't let any of the Kindergarteners on the busses today at all, even those who had older siblings on the busses. So Ben was acting kind of sad and sober when we picked him up. He was upset that they didn't let him on the bus. So the only real reason he's excited to go back to school tomorrow is that he finally gets to ride the bus. He didn't bring home the little tag things they were giving all the students, so hopefully they'll let him on the bus without it tomorrow morning.

Here are some pictures of Ben without his tooth and him on his first day of school:

Ben's first lost tooth

Ben at his desk in school

Ben in front of his school

Ben all ready to go to school

The whole gang is ready to take Ben in to his class

Food Allergy Test Results

Dr. Lee just called with the results of the food allergy tests. She said he (Chris, in case you don't know who I'm talking about) shows a slight reaction to egg whites and an even smaller reaction to cow's milk and to wheat. She said that none of the levels are high enough that she'd change his diet or anything, but that we should kind of get the radar going and watch his reactions as he eats those things. None of the reactions are high enough to be making him be so skinny either. So basically, there's a slight reaction to it, but not enough to bother him. It could explain why Chris doesn't like eggs though. :) So from here we'll just check his weight again at his next appointment (his 2 year check-up on the 4th) and keep watching him. She said that she may eventually send us to a G.I. doctor because he does have the reactions there and is so skinny, but first we'll watch and see how he's doing and if he'll need to go to one.