Benji and his new life

Benji has shown remarkable connection with Zachary. He's always showing concern when Zachary cries, loves to get close beside him to hug and plant kisses on him. In fact, his goodbyes now are mainly for Zachary. As Laurel herself puts it humorously, "my importance has been displaced by the baby". No, mommy still has a place in Banji's heart. We think he's just excited about the new baby. There's been a situation last night where we had to hold him back from waking up a sleeping Zachary, and Benji cried pretty hard. From our point of view, we felt like he cried because he felt he's been chastised just for being excited about baby. We had to take some time to explain to him the real reason. Not sure if he understood it all, but we hope our affirmation of love to him in the end is a clear summation of what we wanted to let him know.

We've been trying to keep as nomal of a life for Benji as we possibly could. I took him to Gulley Park yesterday morning for some father-son time and we had a blast. There was some sort of event going on there, so he got to see and touch a real fire truck, and saw an ambulance. He braved the highest spiral slide there for the first time and did that a few times. We people-watched some. Then we went shopping at Wal-Mart. What an exciting day!

Of course, I've also been doing other things with/for Benji that Laurel would normally take care of during the day, so these past couple of days had been particularly bonding for us. However I think he was starting to feel a disconnect with mommy. She's at home but not doing anything with/for him. So we were real glad that Laurel was well enough since Saturday to do a few simple but necessary things with Benji like storybook time, walking with him around the house when he needs to show her something and has some personal time to play and talk with him. Hopefully this will turn back the tide for Benji somewhat.

Here's a recent photo of Benji at his best again. This was not a posed photograph. He was sound asleep when I took it. Lately he's been covering his eyes just like it is in the photo when we (he does this especially to me) discipline him, because we make him look at us when we talk to him. So our theory is that he's dreaming he's been disciplined? Maybe.... Regardless, it was a cute bellybutton.