My Aben

Aben is such a crack up. He is so silly and makes us laugh constantly. He has grown up and changed so much since we've been here in Missouri.  He loves robots, cars, his new grocery cart/kitchen set, and playing with Noah. He absolutely loves hot cocoa and strawberry milk. I've had to explain many times that those are special drinks and can't be consumed at all times. He loves loves loves peanut butter sandwiches and mac and cheese, but overall is a good eater and will eat just about anything. He is constantly talking and singing songs.
Some of my favorite sayings of his are:

• "Perfect!" (perfit) :)
• Has picked up some sayings from us:). Sean always calls Noah "number two" and Aben "number one". Aben the other day in the car turned to Noah and said, "Number two, what are you doing? What are you doing, Number two?" I think Sean and I laughed for a good 10 minutes. 
• The other phrase, I'm embarrassed to admit he picked up from me. The kids were really obnoxious one evening out at Costco. After I got Aben in the car, I said as I was getting in, "You are driving me nuts!" not thinking Aben could hear me. But of course he did and now says "You're driving me nuts!!!" Really funny though.
• "That sounds awesome!"
•  "Are you happy mommy?" He is so intuitive and can tell when I'm frustrated or sad or mad...etc. especially after he does something super naughty. So he will look at me and ask, "Are you happy?" He then usually proceeds by saying "Sorry, mommy". So sweet. It's hard to stay mad at him after that.
• This may be too much information, but he has been potty training...which is rough. Especially going poop in the toilet. One day after he was in the bathroom and I was in the living room...trying to get him to go potty on his own, and he calls out with excitement, "Mommy, I pooped a banana!" He thought it really was a banana because of how big it was. This was another time I laughed a good 5 or 10 minutes! The things kids say!
• "It's lost forever! It went to China!". When Aben would go to bed and didn't have one of the dozen of stuffed animals he wanted, and Sean and I were not wanting to hunt for yet another animal, we would just tell him..."He went to China. He'll come back tomorrow." Well, now anything that is lost...is in China.
• I've been telling Aben that we are going to go on an airplane in May to see Grandma and Grandpa. He then proceeded to tell me after much thought. "To go on the airplane, we need a ladder. " (Of course, since airplanes are too big to just step up in) and then thought for another second how we could get a ladder and then yelled..."Oh Toodles!" For those of you who don't know Micky Mouse Clubhouse....Toodles is the toy that brings all the tools that help Mickey and his friends with their adventures and tasks. So of course Toodles could bring us a ladder for the airplane! How smart can you get!
• "I have a nice idea"....he always has a nice a idea of what we should be doing.
• "Hmmm...let's think here." And what makes this even cuter is how he holds his index finger up to his mouth like he is really thinking as hard as he can.

 Aben thought he should wear his dad's basketball shorts instead of his own

 Our new favorite thing to do now that it's warm...eat lunch outside! Of course, he has to have his sunglasses.

 He loved playing with our homemade jello play dough. The random blobs in the sky are birds and that weird shape by the tree is a dog. He was really proud of his creations!

 He loves making his brother laugh!

 Fun at story time at the Library. His favorite part are the bubbles...as you can still see in his hair from him running around under the bubbles like a mad man.

 My silly boys!

 Our fun lunch date at Wendy's. He was one happy boy!