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...

mini-vacation

We have returned from our mini-vacation to Duluth/Superior and we had a great time! Ben travels pretty well - he gets a little tired of riding in the car, and he's going through a bit of a picky eating phase, but other than that, he's pretty willing to try whatever! We visited several waterfalls, the zoo (Ben didn't enjoy as much as we thought he would - he was scared of the petting zoo and cried!), Canal Park, and we took a small day trip down the coast of Lake Superior to Bayfield, Wisconsin. We were going to visit Madeline Island, but the weather was cold and dreary, so we figured we'd save that for next time.

Ben is totally walking 100% of the time now and he's gotten pretty fast. It is a challenge to keep him away from sharp corners, stairs, and generally anything he can injure himself on. He has little regard for safety! A surprise to those reading this, I'm sure.

I'll share a few pictures from our trip:


the falls at Pattison State Park (well, I guess not the falls, but the view over them!)


the little lake near our campsite. it had a neat swimming beach, but unfortunately it was always too cold!



blue eyed baby boy



playing in the fountains in Canal Park in Duluth - he was having a great time!



cheeser!



mom & ben at amnicon falls




amnicon...sooo beautiful!

growing and learning

Today, for some reason, Ben decided he couldn't leave his blanket behind. Usually he wakes up with a paci in his mouth and one in each hand. I am trying my best to limit paci time these days, so I usually remove them all and away we go. Today he snatched up his blanket and wouldn't let it go, so it came with him to daycare. He's slept with that blanket for most of his life, but never really showed any attachment to it until today.
He's very sensitive to feeling hungry and throws an absolute fit if he's hungry and there's no food ready. Mommy & Daddy have learned to implement immediate snacktime as soon as we get home in the afternoon. Usually, that snacktime lasts until suppertime and it's not until his little tummy is full to the brim that he's finally back to being our happy little man.
He's started sharing, he'll bring a toy over and go "AH" and hand it to you. Sometimes, it's a toy that he wants you to turn on, sometimes he's just being friendly. Sometimes, he'll greet me after I get done cleaning up from supper with a big hug and kiss and then I melt into a big puddle of goo. Literally. Have you ever gotten a toddler kiss? :)
If I had to guess, I would say that Ben is pretty close in his particular habits as his daddy was as a toddler. He loves to rearrange boxes, put blocks and things into containers, stack his cups, and generally "organize" things. He's going to have a fondness for Legos when he's older, his daddy says.
He continues to be extremely difficult to photograph, but here are a few pictures from our trip this past weekend to La Crosse, where we met up with Jim, Jennifer, and Kael for a little sightseeing.

(hard to see, but he has dirt all over his mouth from trying to eat it!! such a boy!)