eighteen kids and counting...

err...months, that is! I will NOT be having 18 kids, unless my next pregnancy yields 17 babies! (Which I really hope it doesn't!)

So, little man is officially 18 months now. I seriously cannot believe 18 months have passed since that day I gave birth to him! It really is a trip to go back and read those first blog posts after he was born, and see how little he was! He's come a long way!

We had his 18 month check up today and he did ... well, just okay. He screamed for all the measuring parts, and he hasn't grown since his last appointment, but he was REALLY wiggly and mad today, so I'm not sure it was accurate. They weighed him at 24 pounds. Not sure on the length, will have to take him into work and check that. From the little questionnaire that I filled out before the appointment, he is doing most things on a 21 month level (I'm not sure how they come up with that number, it seems a bit random to me!) - and the doctor is very pleased with his language development - even though he wasn't his usual chatty self in the office, he mostly just cuddled with his blankie (which, thank goodness, I had the good sense to bring with!)

He is such a polite little boy, not that I give him much of a chance to be otherwise. He still whines, of course, but usually all it takes is me asking him "Is that how nice boys ask for things?" before he grins and says "PEEEEEAAAASEEE??" We're still working on thank-you as well, but I'll take what I can get!

I have an alarming amount of photos, and I am weird about editing them first, so I only have 2 for now...because I am not in the mood to go through them ALL right now!





He loooooves to read, and often will pull out a book and look through it. Sometimes he even "reads" it, but usually he just looks through it. Especially in the car, he has an Elmo book that gets a lot of his attention!

by popular demand...

And I'm back! We're all still well and good here in Elgin...just got sidetracked again. For an entire month. Again. :)

But, I was reminded today that I need to post here, and post here I shall. Unfortunately, I didn't get a good many pics from Christmas this year. Ben was all over the place - last year he mostly stayed in place! He really enjoyed Christmas although I think he was overwhelmed (and easily distracted by cookies, he probably had about 6 cookies on Christmas eve, if not more!). We celebrated with the Laures's on the 19th, then the Stolp's on Christmas eve...then we did our little family gift opening on Christmas day. This weekend we'll visit the Espy family to celebrate with them! Ben got a lot of goodies, he is most excited about anything Elmo these days - I got him a Sesame Street music video and wow - it actually holds his attention for a few minutes at a time.

He continues to learn new words on a daily basis and is finally starting to pick up on his manners! I try to remind him constantly about asking nicely for things, and it's paying off! Now he will sometimes say please without any prompting from us. He gets so excited about things - especially his snack, and now when he gets excited he says "oh boy!" and it's the cutest thing you've ever seen. He can almost say all of the dogs names, though I haven't heard him say Gracie yet. It is pretty darn funny when he says Oliver though, it sounds like "Ah boo boo". I understand a lot of what he says, but I can see how others wouldn't...I'm just used to it!

Here are some pictures from Christmas...just a few, and then some of when I took him outside the other day - he hated it. I think I need to invest in a sled, I think he'd like being pulled around in the snow!

His Christmas outfit...that I forgot to wash so he didn't actually wear it on Christmas! Oops!


He was pretty excited to rip paper since he's normally not allowed!


The boys with Foster's fire truck. If it looks like they are getting along, don't be fooled. There was lots of fighting over this particular toy!


Opening presents at home - that's the Sesame Street video!


Pound a peg...he doesn't really get it.



engrossed in Elmo's world


We gave him a front-row seat! :)



He looked like the little boy from A Christmas Story...he could hardly move his legs!



Brrr!!

another month passed us by...

I seriously have no idea what happened to November. It seems like it was Halloween, and then I blinked and now Christmas is staring me in the face. This time of year goes way too fast.

Ben has had a verbal explosion over the last month! He chatters ALL the time now (well, he always has!), but now we can actually UNDERSTAND some of his words. Some that I can think of off the top of my head are bye, ball, quack quack, cheese/please (they sound the same), thank you, tractor, apple, tree...I am sure there are many more, but those are ones that are somewhat distinguishable. I think I know now how it feels when other parents have kids that say something, and no one can understand them except the parent! I can definitely see how other people wouldn't understand him!

He is such a fun kid, loves to giggle and be silly. But when it is time for bed, all we have to do is say the words and he runs right into his bedroom and gathers up his blankie for the nightly routine. He's just so darn SMART and we're very proud of him.

Today I shot a few pictures of him for Christmas pictures...he was definitely difficult to keep focused, but I got a few shots anyway.

Here's a few:










And just to prove that the day was not ALL smiles:


Ahhh, the mood swings of a toddler.

what's that?

I am so behind in taking pictures of our crazy little monkey - he is on the go go go these days and doesn't like to sit still for pictures. Actually, he'll sit still ENOUGH, but then he won't look at me. I have resorted to making strange sounds and banging things together to just get him to look up for half a second so I can snap a picture.

This morning we had a little photo session because I was so behind, so I will share some of those, along with a couple cute ones from last night. I have some of Ben with his costume, but I will wait and just do a whole Halloween post. I can't believe it's going to be NOVEMBER! It feels like Ben just had his first Halloween, and now we're already doing his second. It's sad how time flies.

The other big news for Ben right now is that he is saying "What's that?" It's pretty clear, I think. I mean, it doesn't come out the way a normal adult would speak it, but you can clearly hear that's what he's saying. His new game is to point at everything (or sometimes, just one thing over and over again) and say "what's that?" It's really too cute!

Anyway, here are some new Ben pics to tide you over!

My aunt (and Ben's great-aunt) reupholstered (is that the right word?) this chair for Ben and gave it to me for a baby shower. He now LOVES to climb on it and rock away. I know it's a family chair, but I can't remember at this moment who it belonged to originally. Maybe someone will see this who can help me out here!



Being silly with his PJ pants on his head!



My booger boy listening to all of the sounds of the great outdoors today!



Being a boy - he picked up a worm. Ewww!



Back inside we came for a little bit of toy fun!


And then the toy bin became the toy!




Mister serious pants.


That's about it for now! Happy Halloween!!

pumpkin patch

This past weekend, we had a nice visit with Uncle Ryan and his new fiance, Jessica! They spent Friday and Saturday with us, and we ventured out in the cold to the pumpkin patch. We made the mistake of sampling the apples at the orchard first, so Ben was far more interested in eating apples than shopping for a pumpkin, but he did enjoy chasing Ryan and Jessica through the "hay maze" there.

Some pictures:


Oh yeah, we also dogsat Stanley...Ben loved it, and especially Stanley's kennel!



See? He did that himself. He dragged a whole bunch of toys in there, too.



Jessica graciously sharing her apple with little man.



Running to the apple house!



I like this one!



He wasn't so sure about this...but we took a few more for good measure.







the lovebirds. :)



Uncle Ryan picking up an angry little Ben man.


That's all I have for now. I took a ton of pictures at the pumpkin patch, but since Ben never sits still, not a huge amount of them turned out.

I have more pictures, but not more time, so I will have to post them later!

baby in a basket

We have the goofiest kid. He loves to run back and forth across rooms "yelling", spin in circles, and offer Remi all of his (Remi's) toys...laughing hysterically when he grabs them. Well, tonight he was offering Remi his toys and eventually Remi's toy basket was empty. So Ben decided it would make a nice place to sit.

Jon would like me to clarify that we did NOT coerce him to sit in the basket, he did it all on his own!!


Stepping into the basket...


Hmm...this isn't so comfortable.



Getting better...and a bonus piece of wicker to chew on!



THERE! That's perfect!

What a silly little man!

PS - redesigned the blog! Am totally in love with it!

well alright then!

I guess little Ben has a few fans out there still...so I will continue to post for you all!

Ben is growing like a weed. He would munch all day, I think, if I let him. As it is, he needs something to eat immediately in the morning or he is a total grump. and then he needs something to eat right when we get home or else there is no chance we'd ever prepare a nutritious meal because he would be screaming and tugging on our legs all night. I am running out of snack ideas!

I am hoping for some cooler weather before too long (cooler, not COLD!), so we can use some of these cute fall outfits we have. He's still pretty comfortably in 12 month sized thing, but they're starting to get short. Things are still loose in the waist, he's a big boy, but he has a small waist! Until he runs around naked...then he has a little buddha belly.

He LOVES his "cool dudes" (Ben language for sunglasses), and he is starting to understand a lot of words, though he isn't actually talking yet. He knows his ABC toy, his train, his vacuum cleaner, and books. He is getting sooo close to talking though, you can hear the changes in his babbles. He also loves climbing on our ottomans, and tonight he actually figured out how to get down without falling! I still don't trust him with stairs though.

We picked up a toy kitchen at a garage sale for $20 and he absolutely loves it. We put his snack on the stove, and his water sippy in the fridge, and he just thinks it's great. He's such a fun, silly little guy.


Playin' with the kitchen



Trying to climb the kitchen...tsk tsk!



Buckethead baby! (He thinks this is the best game ever!)



Cool dudes!


Tonight we played outside in our "little redneck" outfit (according to daddy...I thought it was cute! :))


Daddy's home, he gets big smiles!


Mommy doesn't get these smiles. In fact, Ben went to Kia at daycare today instead of mommy!






Daddy pulled out his bucket of golf balls.



And then Daddy filled his pockets with golf balls. Silly daddy!

That's all for now, it's my bedtime!

testing, testing...

Okay, now that I am almost a month behind, I don't want to spend an hour getting pictures posted here (Blogger is so not friendly in that regard) and then have it sit here unnoticed.
So...does anyone still check this thing? If so, I will get a new post done soon...and this time really really try to be better about it. If not, I'll just let it fade into oblivion!

A treat for anyone who DOES read...