Ben found his shadow

I guess it's officially summer because Ben found his shadow last night. He was in the middle of a meltdown because we wouldn't let him sleep with Rubber Ducky after he wasn't listening very well. We just wanted him to say "Sorry", first to mommy, but we would have settled with him apologizing to Rubber Ducky. He stood his ground and so did we. He ended up saying sorry this morning, so we're cool.

Still, it was hard to be a responsible parent when he does stuff like this:

Ben Hopping

Last night we caught Ben doing this and figured out that he was trying to jump off of both feet. We think he thinks he has to push off of the ground with his hands to do it. It's hilarious watching him try to figure it out.

I love you

Pizza, Bunny Foo Foo Cookies, and One More Time

Ben finishing his dinner tonight...


One more time...

Ben's Joke

Ben got me last night during his bath, and he found it really funny.

Talking

Ben is starting to build up his vocabulary. As of now, he can say: mama, dada, mommy, daddy, baby, uh oh, on, off, *state sucks, crash, splash, ball, more, icky, and his latest:


*He says it with his eyes.

Christmas 2010

Last night, we had Christmas with Grandpa’s side of the family.  Everyone was so generous to us and especially Ben.  He really loved his Thomas train and Batmobile.

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We got home so late that Ben couldn’t help us put out milk and cookies for Santa.  Santa appreciated the ones that mommy and daddy put out though.

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Ben had quite a sight to see when he woke up this morning.

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He went straight for the cozy coupe that mommy and daddy gave him...

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…until he found the basketball hoop that Grandpa Dean gave him the night before

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Santa gave him this nice bowling set that wasn’t the hit that he thought it would be.

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The Legos from Paige, Breckin, and Kate were a hit.

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Towel == Socks

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He loved this steering wheel mommy and daddy got him.  It makes crazy sounds, as advertised.  Some of the sounds might be old Three Stooges tracks.  It will keep him occupied on the way to Mississippi until daddy needs to have it turned off.

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Ben got a lot of “Little People” today.  He has basically the whole town: a farm, a fire house, this zoo train, an airport, a car wash, and a school bus.

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Santa got him this awesome wagon that he enjoyed riding.

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Ben got daddy this nice picture frame for his office.

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Ben got mommy a nice jewelry travel case, this bracelet, and a new keychain.

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Here’s the aftermath.

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Oh, but that’s not all.  After a nap and church, we went to grandma’s house.

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She got him this sled that they’ll enjoy this winter, though it was nap time again and didn’t go over very well today.  He did really like the Little People bus she got him though.

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Uncle Dave got him a monkey ball.

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And this cool frog that was handled mainly by the eyes because they looked like balls.

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We took a break for a nap and some turkey fun.  Apparently turkeys cook better right side up.  That was discovered after we were all called to the kitchen to see the turkey without any breast meat.

 

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We opened presents again after dinner.  The Johanns got him the airport mentioned above.  Nana got him this fun wagon full of legos.

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Ben was really grateful for all of his gifts.  He went to bed while everyone finished their desserts and presents.  Mommy and daddy woke him up from a peaceful sleep to drive home.  Daddy was soaked after scraping 8 inches of snow off the car.  Ben was none the wiser, and is undoubtedly dreaming of the fun he’ll have with all of his toys tomorrow.

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Merry Christmas everyone!

Wink

More Walking Practice

Here are two more videos of Ben walking

Bouncy Ball fun and Walking!

Ben loves this giant bouncy ball his uncle PT and aunt Sue Sue got him.


He's also getting pretty good at walking.

Ben Dancing

Here's Ben dancing:


Look familiar?

Our Athlete

Ben videos

Ben had a poop the other day that was so foul that I needed something to remind me how adorable he is. So, here are a few videos that help do that.

This one is a bit old. It's from Christmas time, and he was just falling asleep after a long day of opening presents...


This one is recent and shows his clapping and waving skills...


This one shows how he scoots around and plays with his big red ball...


Oh, and that reminds me. At bath time, Ben has discovered (as all men do at some point), that he has a toy to play with no matter where he goes. He'll thank me someday that I don't have a video of that.

Ben's first trip to the track

We took Ben to Arlington Park on May 1 for opening day weekend and so daddy could watch the Kentucky Derby. They had a petting farm and ponies to ride, but we just stuck with the petting farm and watching the big horses.

Unfortunately, Ben got sick and we ended up watching the derby at home. But, he picked daddy and uncle Skindzier a winner before we left.

New things for Ben

Ben is really good at sitting up now, and his favorite toys are his musical farm (not pictured), his blocks (pic taken 2/9)...

... and anything that will roll. Generally, that's a ball of some sort, but he'll roll his blocks as well. It's pretty funny to watch.

He's started eating "big boy food", and can feed himself. Here he is eating mashed potatoes, but that's a mess. We usually give him bananas, bread, blueberries, and cut up carrots or beans. Bananas are his favorite though.

When he's sitting up and needs to get something, he's able to scoot over to it. He can crawl, but hasn't yet figured out a way to go from sitting to prone, or back. So, he basically crawls if he's on his stomach and scoots if he's on his butt. Here he is right before he figured out how to crawl forward. He crawled backward for a while and it always seemed to confuse him.

Here he is a month ago at Easter time, coloring eggs with Mommy.

He has 2 teeth now, and is waving a lot. He also likes to pull himself up to stand by the couch, but he needs something to grip, like my hands, while doing so. Once he's up there, we're able to get him to stumble from side to side to chase after a ball.

He's yelling at me now because naptime is over.

I'll post more frequently, I promise.

Ben playing in his jumper

This jumper was a shower present, and we didn't set it up until a few weeks ago. Ben's feet barely touch the ground when he's in it, but as you can see he can still bounce pretty well.

Halloween

We went pumpkin picking at Didier Farms this year. They had a lot of fun activities for us. A lot of them were for older kids, but Ben had some fun with a few of them. They had several of these picture boards. I am holding ben up and Jen is taking the picture.

We walked around and saw a lot of farm animals. Ben wasn't incredibly impressed, and we think the fresh air knocked him out while we were going through the corn maze. By the time we found the exit of the maze, he was zonked, so we picked our pumpkins and went home.

Here's my costume for Halloween. Ben made a great accessory.

Here's Jen and Ben on our way out for some Trick or Treating. Ben's grandmother made him this Lion costume. It was a good thing he wore his costume and not mine, because his costume kept him much warmer. You can see our pumpkin carving skills as well. We had a daddy pumpkin, a mommy pumpkin, and a Ben pumpkin.

My first post about Ben

I've mentioned Ben briefly in other posts, mainly when talking about the nursery, but never really wrote about him. Well, here goes. I think it's fitting that my first post about him involves poop. I find that the bulk of my discussions about Ben are about how well he sleeps and the funny times that he poops or pees on me. I'm not sure it's funny or interesting to people who don't have kids. Maybe it's not even interesting to people with kids, but I don't care. I'm not emailing this to you.

I think this video is hilarious. It shows Ben's "poop face". We started noticing it a few weeks ago, and quickly realized what it meant. It's definitely saved us from some nasty messes on the changing table, and once in the car. I love how he really bears down on the last try.

Nursery

I've been quite deliquant on posting, and it's time to update the status of a few projects. Here's how we turned this room into Ben's nursery.



First, I prepped the room for paint, laying plastic tarps, and using masking tape to pull back the shag carpet for the future baseboard paint.


Next, we determined how high we wanted to put the chair rail, and marked it with a pencil line. I cut out the edging and rolled the two different colors onto the wall. Then I installed the crown moulding with a rope light, and the chair rail.


Once the painting was done, I pulled back the tarps, installed the valence, and we were ready for the furniture to arrive.



I should have done this while the tarps were still down, but we added some wall art... two shelves and a stenciled poem.


The final step was to add Ben.