Em & Dave's Excellent Adventure

One month old!

2012-02-15T20:19:00.002-06:00

At one month old, Elizabeth:

Still likes to sleep most of the day but is having more awake time
Loves being cuddled (we don't mind obliging!)
Often curls herself into the most awkward-looking positions when she's being held, but squawks if you try to reposition her
Has done pretty well when carried in the two wraps (a Moby and a borrowed ring sling) at home or out on short shopping excursions
Does not think much of the vitamin drops the pediatrician recommended (they stink!)
Has outgrown most of her newborn clothes at least in length
Thinks that turning the light out at night = time to eat, even if she'd just been fed a half hour earlier
Delights her brother when she opens her eyes and looks toward him

A few more pictures

2012-02-07T22:59:00.004-06:00

I put Elizabeth on Ben's bed the other day after I changed her diaper. Ben came in and wanted her scooted up so she could share his pillow. He was so sweet and talked to her for a few minutes about his big boy bed and his construction equipment sheets.

I made Elizabeth a football onesie for our Super Bowl party using these directions I found while looking through some of the great ideas on Pinterest. She looked really cute and was very calm throughout the night and seemed to enjoy being cuddled the whole night by our friends! Ben enjoyed all of the food, playing with his friends, and the Coke polar bear commercial ("Mommy! I see polar bears! They're my favorite animals!"). He didn't seem to notice any of the football going on.

A good alert moment from this afternoon:

Two-week checkup

2012-01-31T19:56:00.001-06:00

Elizabeth had her 2-week checkup at the pediatrician's office this morning. She is growing like a weed and everything looks good! We will go back again when she is two months old.

Birth stats:
Weight: 7 lbs, 6 oz.
Length: 18.5"

Stats @ 2 1/2 weeks:
Weight: 8 lbs, 11 oz!
Length: 21" - All of a sudden it seems like she is starting to get a little tall for some of her newborn one-piece outfits, so I guess this is why!

A few favorite photos from the last two weeks, since we have been lax in sharing:

At the hospital in the ubiquitous striped baby hat that most American newborns seem to get.

Getting the kids started early on the road to geekdom - I knitted them both Jayne hats as seen on Joss Whedon's show "Firefly." Ben loves his "earflap hat." Elizabeth wasn't so sure of hers yet.

Comparison of Elizabeth (above) and Ben (below) around the same age

Elizabeth was fussing so we asked Ben to play his saxophone for her, something he'd talked about doing before she was born. She actually quieted down! He also sings to her sometimes; the other day he sang "Twinkle Twinkle" and then made up a song that consisted mainly of the word "horse" to the tune of "Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush."

Elizabeth relaxing with Georgie the dog, who belonged to Grandma and then Daddy.

Elizabeth Grace

2012-01-13T15:32:00.001-06:00

Born 2:32 p.m., January 13th, 2012. 7 lbs, 6 oz, 18.5 inches long. Emily and Elizabeth are doing great.

Today Is The Day

2012-01-13T11:42:00.002-06:00

2:00 p.m.
And, just like that, they're getting the room ready for delivery.

1:45 p.m.
All in all, this just seems like a much more laid back experience than last time, which is easy for me to say and quite likely to get me punched once Emily reads this. A pitocin drip was started soon after we arrived, and contractions have been under way for a while now. The anesthesiologist was just here to administer Em's epidural, which I gather was more than welcome. As before, she is of the opinion that the epidural is a wonderful invention.

Emily's parents arrived from Detroit on Tuesday, so Ben is having a day with the grandparents. We spoke with him briefly to say that we were at the hospital so his little sister could be born, just like we'd discussed. He replied that he got to go to Lowe's and that, after his nap, he and Grammie were going to make deviled eggs. The boy has no idea just how much his world is about to be turned upside down...

11:30 a.m.
So, Emily had a regularly scheduled appointment with the doctor this morning; one way or another, it was going to be the last. The plan was to schedule an induction for Monday if the baby hadn't appeared before the appointment. However, the doctor felt that sufficient progress had been made that Emily could deliver today, if we wanted. I don't think the word "today" had fully emerged before Em was vigorously accepting the offer. So, here we are at the hospital, eagerly anticipating our little girl's arrival. Emily immediately started remaking the room to better fit her sense of aesthetics, as shown below.

More updates to come.

Ben is 3!

2011-12-26T20:47:00.001-06:00

December 26, 2008

December 26, 2009

December 26, 2010

December 26, 2011

Enjoying the golf set that Papa & Grammie sent him while modeling the Cat in the Hat t-shirt from Uncle Tony, Aunt Jen, and new cousin Gwen.

He needed a little help blowing out the candles and, despite his love of music, did not want us to sing "Happy Birthday" to him.

He approved of both the color (orange, his favorite) and taste of cupcakes and frosting he helped make.

Fun with Ben

2011-12-22T23:00:00.000-06:00

Just a little silliness from the other night. We love hearing Ben giggle!

Visiting Santa

2011-12-09T17:55:00.001-06:00

We took Ben to see Santa at Bass Pro Shops this morning. He was a little nervous in line, but did really well once it was his turn. The camera elf caught him in a slightly confused, "Why is that lady shaking jingle bells at me?" look.

When Santa asked him what he wanted for Christmas, Ben cheerfully replied, "A candy cane," which was what we told him he'd get after he got his picture taken with Santa. When Santa assured him that he was going to get a candy cane today and asked if there was something Ben wanted for under the tree on Christmas, Ben just looked baffled. I suggested a Matchbox car and Ben thought that was a good idea. It's nice to have one more year where Ben hasn't yet been heavily influenced by the incredible toy marketing on TV. They don't really show toy commercials on Food Network or the free on-demand cartoons that make up the bulk of TV he actually requests to watch. Thankfully he didn't ask Santa for a set of Rachael Ray cookware (it is orange, his favorite color) or Guy Fieri Knuckle Sandwich knives!

Ben has also been enjoying our Advent calendar. He remembers (better than I do!) what day it is and asks to open that drawer. A few drawers have things like stickers, but most are family things like decorating the Christmas tree, doing a holiday craft, reading a Christmas book, or going out to see the Christmas lights. You can also see his favorite Christmas ornament, George Brett, on the tree behind the calendar. Dave is very proud!

Happy Thanksgiving!

2011-11-24T19:55:00.001-06:00

Happy Thanksgiving to our family & friends!

Ben was shy on arrival to Thanksgiving dinner but warmed up and got chatty after a while. Here he is with his turkey hat on, chewing on Duck while he surveys all the people:

The five boy cousins under six years old (!!) had fun eating at the kids' table, playing with building toys, running around outside, and climbing a big gravel hill. Ben also loved trying to get close enough to Kenny & Lynn's cat to pet her. I think he got two pats in total before she scurried off to quieter places.

Finally, Ben shares a holiday song he learned at school. Unfortunately, he turned away at the "crunch" part so you miss his enthusiastic reenactment of that:

Quick updates

2011-10-27T21:05:00.000-05:00

A few updates from our house:

• A few weeks ago, we bought a tricycle from friends whose daughter has moved up to a bike. He's been having a great time with it, though it's challenging since we live at the top of a hill and have very little flat space to ride. I have no explanation for the expressions in the second and third pictures!

•We've been working on potty training & Ben is doing pretty well with it. He earned enough stickers on his sticker chart to choose a prize. He asked for a number puzzle and has enjoyed the nice Melissa & Doug one we found. We made the executive decision not to put in any batteries before we gave it to him- why does a puzzle need sound?! He certainly doesn't notice anything missing!

•A few weekends ago, Ben decided that the salad spinner was the Best Toy Ever. He spent the whole weekend playing with it, sometimes with magnets/other detritus in it, sometimes just making imaginary food for us.

• Inspired by his golf lessons with Papa, Ben has been practicing his swing. Golf clubs are usually whatever drum mallet he can find.

•We've decided not to take Ben trick or treating this year. He doesn't really grasp the concept of Halloween and he's in a phase where he's been getting anxious and taking time to warm up in new situations, even if he knows the people we're meeting. We felt that going up to strange houses would be more stress than it's worth. He & I are going to his Halloween party at school tomorrow and he can wear his cute Halloween shirt when we hand out candy to the trick-or-treaters on Monday. He's had fun with the pumpkin crafts we've been doing and the pumpkin he got to pick out yesterday as a reward for being a good helper at Target :)

•Tonight for his extensive crib concert Ben is rewriting "Baa, Baa Black Sheep" to span the rainbow. We've heard baa, baa white sheep, yellow sheep, and orange sheep so far. Also on the program are perennial favorites "Let's go, Royals," "76 Trombones," a rubato mashup of the ABCs with counting, and a Shatner-esque spoken word version of "Take Me Out to the Ballgame." He will occasionally pause and ask his animals (we assume) if they want to listen.

•Ben wanted to spend his pre-bed play time playing the piano. Ben chose the "Mommy Goes 'Round the Sun" song and we repeated it multiple times for different family members and their pets. He played the piano with great gusto on the "Boom!" part at the end of each verse. He is now trying to fit his full name in to the song as he sings in his crib. He still can't quite grasp that the order goes first middle last name; he keeps trying first last middle.

•At daycare, Ben is beginning the transition to the three-year-old room, spending short spurts of time there before returning to the 2's. He had a hard time at first but has been doing better going back and forth. Yesterday kept asking the 2's teacher if he could go to the 3's.

•Last week was the start of my third trimester. Baby girl is kicking up a storm and had a strong heartbeat at our appointment last week. We were kind of shocked when the doctor told us it was already time to start scheduling appointments every two weeks instead of monthly - hard to believe we're at that point already! We will be starting to transition Ben to a twin bed so he's used to that by the time she arrives and needs the crib.

Trip photos, part 2

2011-10-07T21:34:00.001-05:00

Ben helped Mom go through her stash of scrapbook paper odds & ends by punching & gluing them for a collage. He would've played with those punches for a couple of hours every day and probably started trying to punch shapes out of everything in the house if we hadn't put them away after a few days.

Grandma refereeing as Dad & Ben race cars down the hallway:

Ben LOVED trying out Dad's golf clubs. Note that Dad is wisely standing far out of club range from the very enthusiastic toddler golfer. Please note that the slightly Unabomber look was entirely selected by the two-year-old despite not actually needing his hood up or sunglasses on.

Hanging out with my grandma:

On Sunday we went over to Tony & Jen's house to see their newly remodeled kitchen and play pinball & drums downstairs. Ben really did quite a good job exploring Uncle Tony's drum set and stretched on his tiptoes to hit every possible cymbal. It took him a little while to figure out the foot pedal for the bass drum.

Baby bump picture of me & Jen. She & Tony are expecting baby Gwen 3 1/2 weeks before our baby girl is due. Possibly some of the belly was because we'd just eaten lots of salad and pizza at Buddy's!

Mom had a small surprise gift for Ben every morning. He liked the big box and packing paper that his Magna Doodle came in almost as much as the actual gift.

On our last full day in Michigan, we took Ben to Yates Cider Mill, one of our favorite places to visit in the fall. Their cider & donuts were a great treat! The cider mill was the first thing that Ben told his teachers about when he returned to daycare.

Two ducks were splashing around in the river. Ben had a great time watching them and quacking.

He wasn't quite sure about the goats at first but insisted on seeing all of them and yelling "HI, GOATS!" and "BYE, GOATS! BYE, BABY GOAT!" before we left.

He also helped Mom get her exercise by instructing her on running down the trail above the river. He kept repeating, "When I say 'ready, set, go,' that means you run." They'd then run about 8 feet before he'd stop and tell her the same thing again.

Crib concert & trip photos, part 1

2011-10-07T20:42:00.001-05:00

Ben is in a singing mood again tonight. His crib concert thus far has consisted of "Take Me Out to the Ballgame," "Hey Diddle Diddle," and a remix version of daycare's days of the week song ("Mondaaaaaaaaay, Tuesday, Wednesday, Wednesday, Wednesdaaaaaay...").

We flew up to Michigan last week to visit my family & attend my sister-in-law Jen's baby shower. Dad brought Grandma up from Ohio for a few days as well. We took Ben apple picking at the orchard, to the cider mill, to my favorite pizza place, and to see a marching band practice as part of the "boys' party" while Mom, Grandma & I were at the baby shower. We also spent a lot of time cheering on the Tigers, who were kind to my blood pressure last night and beat the Yankees to move on to the American League championship.

People seemed to like turning Ben upside down, possibly because he kept asking, "upside down, again!" We warned them that they were responsible for anything that fell out.

We went up to the Big Red apple orchard, got to take a hayride pulled by a tractor (Ben was thrilled!) and went apple picking. Ben also tried to pick up a giant pumpkin. He was thrilled to help stir and eat the applesauce that Mom & I made with some of apples we picked.

Coming soon in concert...

2011-09-10T20:08:00.001-05:00

Benjamin has been playing piano a lot lately. Here is his concert from yesterday - a rousing medley of "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" (with bonus improvised ending), ABCs & perennial favorite "76 Trombones." The "violin" he wants me to play consists of 2 handmade wooden dowel fishing poles which also serve as violin and bow and occasionally, when used as marching/dancing props, dangerous weapons.

Cooking with Ben: Hummus edition

2011-09-07T22:51:00.001-05:00

Last Friday Ben & I ventured to one of the newly opened Trader Joe's, which was finally having a slow day after the initial shopping rush. One of the new things we picked up was a package of frozen falafel. Dave and I have tried to make them from a mix before and failed miserably, so we thought we'd try these. They were good and went well with the hummus that Ben helped me make. It wasn't quite as good as Mrs. Kennedy's model, but still delicious! Here are some of his tips:

Dump in the ingredients (he was especially enthusiastic with the lemon juice & olive oil):

Grind the pepper (tough for little hands!) and make sure we put in all of the ingredients:

Decide to eat all of the minced raw garlic pieces that were left in the measuring spoon:

Stare at the food processor spinning:

Stir, sample, evaluate:

Get really excited at the finished product!

It's a girl!!!

2011-08-26T16:22:00.000-05:00

We had our 19-week ultrasound this morning and baby cooperated! We are having a girl! All the measurements looked good and she is measuring on target for our January 17 due date. Above is a profile shot of her head. It is really fascinating how much detail the ultrasound shows - we could see the chambers of her heart with her heart beating and her ribs, spine and other big bones.

Happy news!

2011-08-01T21:18:00.000-05:00

Ben thought getting to hear the baby's "heartbeep" was kind of neat and asked to hear it again on the iPod. We have an ultrasound at the end of August to find out if we're having a girl or boy.

Crib concerts part 2

2011-07-16T21:30:00.001-05:00

This morning Ben woke us up by singing at the top of his lungs, though thankfully he quieted down after a while so we could get more sleep. He is also continuing his nighttime singing.

Ben was quiet for 10 minutes after being put in bed, and then we hear:
"Hi Penguin [his stuffed animal], how are you? How are you, Penguin? I'm taking my nap. I close my eyes."
--30 seconds later--
"Leave me alone, Penguin! Leave me alone!"

---5 minutes of quiet ---
"B-I-N-G-O! There was a had a dog and Bingo was his name-o, And on this farm there was a ...cow ...he says moo..."
"And on this farm he had a...A-B-C-D-EFG..Now I know my ABCs, HIJKLMNOP."

And now he's mixing "Do Re Mi" with the ABCs in a very loud voice. A few minutes later it was this version of "Happy Birthday" to his teacher Vivian and various family members. Dave caught the audio, though there's no picture as the room was dark.

Swimming class went fairly well today. We got there early and took gradually longer walks down the pool ramp before class started. Ben clung to us and said "I don't want to be in the water" several times, but the teacher kept him well-distracted with toys and games. The promise of a post-class jellybean also helped. We'll be going for 5 more weeks.

Ben's crib concerts

2011-07-15T20:51:00.002-05:00

Lately, Ben has been dozing off (or at least quiet) for 20-30 minutes after we put him to bed. Then we'll suddenly hear him talking or singing to himself. Sometimes he goes on for 15 minutes, sometimes it's 30+ before he suddenly goes quiet again. Tonight's concert has thus far included multiple repetitions of "This Old Man" (he did sing both 2 & 3, but still skips over "paddywhack" and slurs some of the rest so it sounds like "with a mick mack wiffleball a bone") and "Old MacDonald."

The other morning he'd woken up an hour earlier than usual and woke us up by singing loudly. He went through "76 Trombones" and a variety of other favorites. While I was ironing my work clothes, I also heard him say "Rock chalk, Jayhawk...is that right? Rock chalk, Jayhawk..." Dave sang that to him earlier in the week when he was wearing his KU Jayhawk shirt to daycare.

Tomorrow we have our first parent & child swim class at the YMCA. It's a 6-session class for kids 6 mos-3 yrs. We've been showing Ben some videos of kids swimming to get him used to the idea of a pool. Hopefully after the initial adjustment he will love it!

Summer Fun

2011-07-10T16:52:00.001-05:00

After having seen several children in her neighborhood enjoying this outdoor toy, Cousin Ruth in Houston sent one for Ben:

It's a beach ball sprinkler, and with the summer settling in, it's been a great way to beat the heat! Ben was a bit unsure of what to make of it at first...

... but he quickly got the hang of it.

It wasn't long before he was dashing in and out of the water, splashing Mommy and Daddy (and getting splashed in return), and generally acting like a nut. He didn't stop giggling the whole time. Thanks, Cousin Ruth!

Blast off!

2011-07-08T13:16:00.001-05:00

Ben got out his space shuttle playset this morning and it reminded me that the final NASA shuttle launch was today. Luckily, we were just in time to see it. Ben got a little antsy with the countdown but was captivated by the launch itself.

After the launch, he decided to cram himself into a tiny space between the fireplace and a toy bin to call Uncle Tony with a morning report. He loves those Mr. Potato Head glasses and never seems to notice that they're so small they leave little marks on his cheeks!

"Give me back my money!"

2011-06-27T22:21:00.000-05:00

Ben's new phrase is "Give me back my money!" We have no idea where he picked it up, but he thinks it's hilarious! He giggles like a nut when he says it.

Haircut

2011-06-24T22:34:00.002-05:00

Ben's hair was looking a little shaggy, so we got it trimmed today. He threw a little tantrum when we first walked in, but with some encouragement and a lollipop, he sat nicely in the fire engine chair and watched a little "Finding Nemo." We also filled up our day with finger painting, Candyland, library books, outdoor play, a too-short nap, and a delicious dinner at our little neighborhood Mexican restaurant.

Before the haircut:

Reading family favorite "Mr. Bun" with Daddy

After:

Finger painting "just like Elli" (he loves a video of my goddaughter Elli finger painting Easter eggs!)

Ben's week

2011-06-15T20:14:00.000-05:00

Last week Ben asked, "Bunny can play piano?" He climbed up and sat with the bunny that his great-grandma gave him for Easter and helped Bunny play the keys with his ears!

I was away at our hospice's bereavement camp this weekend, and while I was gone, Ben decided his tent was the best place ever. He camped out in it with a large selection of stuffed animals and books.

He has also been having a lot of fun with his Mr. Potato Head, especially the mustaches. Sometimes he has very specific rules for how you are & are not allowed to put the Mr. PH or other toys together, but it's usually hard to tell other than a general sense of "Mommy, you're doing it wrong." Decoding a 2-year-old's rules for play is very confusing!

Ranch Trip

2011-06-08T20:54:00.000-05:00

We spent our annual weekend down at the Clark ranch in Texas. The drive to & from the ranch was not the most fun with a 2-year-old, but we had a wonderful time while we were there. Ben is head-over-heels in love with our friend's daughter Gracyn, who was so sweet with him!

The fabulous tree house:

Trying to figure out what the giant moving chair-thing was:

Ben didn't take a nap the whole weekend (and learned how to climb out of his Pack & Play!), so one of the afternoons he was protesting nap time, Dave let me take a nap and they took all the kids down to the closer lake. Ben thought throwing rocks into the water was so cool.

First fishing rod. We didn't put a hook but did put an artificial worm, which Ben kept wanting to pet. Kelly caught a giant fish and a couple of the kids caught & released smaller fish.

This is his "say cheese" face now:

Getting a little shade at "the ruins" while the others fished for a little longer:

Aidan let Ben wrestle with him,

made fish faces,

and played lightsabers. We asked Ben later if he had fun playing "Star Wars" with Aidan and he was totally confused. He did remember the word "lightsaber," though.

Chalk drawing on the patio. Ben wanted me to help him draw rainbows for each of the kids.

We saw a whole bunch of cows on our last night at the ranch. Ben, Bobby & Lindsay had the best time mooing excessively loudly out the windows of the truck. We also saw some turkeys, deer, and cranes but no pigs.

There is no joy in Hockeytown

2011-05-13T19:47:00.000-05:00

Despite Ben's adorable modeling of this shirt yesterday, it wasn't enough for the Red Wings to pull off a come-from-behind win against the San Jose Sharks. We are disappointed that they are out of the playoffs, but when Ben woke up this morning (having not seen the game), he assured me, "The Red Wings are okay!" Thanks to Grammie & Papa for the shirt!

The Pioneer Woman's Pulled Pork

2011-05-08T13:16:00.001-05:00

Taking a brief respite from the Ben photos (sorry, grandparents!) to share this delicious recipe we tried last night. The Pioneer Woman has a huge collection of recipes on her website and most of them have step-by-step photos. We tried her Spicy Shredded Pork yesterday. It was so tender it was falling off the bone when Dave removed it from the pan. It's not a weekday meal, since it takes several hours to roast - our 6 lb. pork shoulder roasted for 5 hrs and then had 15-20 minutes extra at a higher temperature to crisp it up and render more fat. You could probably also cook it in the crock pot.

It's called "spicy" but there's not much heat, for those who like milder flavors. It did have a nice flavor blend and needed no extra sauce other than a squeeze of lime juice. We have a 9"x13" pan of leftovers, so it would be great for a crowd or to make some freezer meals. We will definitely be trying it again!

Visit from Grammie & Papa

2011-05-08T13:06:00.000-05:00

My parents drove out from Michigan for a long weekend. Ben had a day off of daycare for teacher inservice, so I took an extra day off of work and we got to have an extended visit.

We finally took Ben to Fritz's Railroad Restaurant in Crown Center. The food isn't anything beyond basic diner food, but it's delivered by overhead train, which makes it so fun! They also have model railroad trains that go through windows at each booth. Ben got excited anticipating when the train would come back to our booth.

This has been the goofy face we've gotten when we tell Ben to say "cheese" lately. I'm pretty sure this is a regular preschooler phase, because I remember my friend Sarah's son doing the same thing.

We also visited the Crayola store in Crown Center. Ben & Grammie colored on big easels & Ben played with a giant magnetic tic-tac-toe board.

Shortly after this picture was taken, Ben tried climbing into the fountains outside Crown Center. Luckily, Grammie was too fast for him!

Helping Papa wash their new car:

Helping me collect branches from trimming an overgrown burning bush. He really wanted to help and was getting a little frustrated when I didn't have any more small twigs for him to carry.

My dad assembled this Radio Flyer wagon we got at a garage sale. Ben was pretty unsure of it - he would only let us move it about 3 feet with him inside, but would pull it himself with his stuffed animals riding. He'll probably get used to it with a few more tries.

Mom had Dena make Ben an adorable apron & chef's hat as he's been having so much fun helping with baking. Dave & I also got coordinating aprons. Ben & Grammie were having fun making imaginary oatmeal in this picture.

Passover & Easter

2011-05-08T12:50:00.000-05:00

We celebrated Passover at Dave's parents' house. We got Ben some fun Passover books from the library so he would be familiar with some of the food & rituals. He liked repeating Moses' command to "let my people go!" Here are Ben & Grandma reading My First Passover Board Book. We also thought The Little Red Hen and the Passover Matzah was funny, though less specific on the details as compared to the other book.

The next weekend we dyed Easter eggs with Ben for the first time. Ben kept trying to reach in the cup with his hand and pull out the egg. He had a typical two-year-old's impatience at waiting for them to dry, but loved eating them!

On Easter we went over to Uncle Kenny's & Aunt Lynn's and had such beautiful weather that much of the after-brunch time was spent outside. Ben had a blast with all of their toys and playing with his cousins. Most of these photos were taken by Jerry; the lighting & all the flowers outside made for wonderful pictures!

Trying to help Ben learn how to use the pedals:

Running back and forth with the shopping cart:

Ben bringing cousin Tara some "food." Earlier, Tara & Karastin were ordering imaginary groceries and Ben was so excited to deliver them with his shopping cart!

More running. Very dangerous for the unprotected toes of innocent bystanders!

Ben & his other young cousins had a great time with the kitchen that Kenny & Jeff carried out. I think Ben thought it was just dropped from heaven; it wasn't there, and then suddenly it was! And entirely stocked with food and dishes!

Kalimba!

2011-04-22T18:51:00.000-05:00

Here is a video of Ben & Stacey playing the kalimba. He was so excited!

Haircut

2011-04-22T18:02:00.000-05:00

We took Ben to get a much-needed haircut today. He did a pretty good job sitting still once given a special treat of a lollipop. Here is a before picture from a few days ago:

And after:

We also had a practice Easter egg hunt with Ben's plastic eggs so he would have some idea of what to do if we have a hunt on Sunday. He had a good time finding them and we counted them after we had them all. We're planning to dye real eggs tomorrow, which means we should probably remember to boil them tonight...

Kalimba!!

2011-04-13T21:18:00.000-05:00

My friend Stacey flew in from Chicago last weekend to present at our regional music therapy conference. She and Ben bonded over goofy books, barbecue, and her kalimba (thumb piano). Ben has been entranced by the kalimba and the other instruments in the wonderful Bela Fleck documentary "Throw Down Your Heart," so I asked Stacey to bring her kalimba out when she visited. Ben was so excited!

Playing kalimba & making his Elmo slippers dance:

He would not let go of the kalimba to take a family photo. I'm frankly surprised that he didn't throw a fit when Stacey had to put it back in her suitcase.

For some absolutely fantastic kalimba playing, check out this scene from "Throw Down Your Heart." It's so celebratory and fun, and I'm surprised how much the kalimbas sound like steel drums.

Ben's tent

2011-04-02T15:20:00.002-05:00

Ben is finally feeling better, though he is still what would be labeled at daycare as "sensitive" at times. He is definitely a two-year-old testing his limits! Sometimes they use a tent at Ben's daycare as a place that kids can go to read or chill out, and his teacher said he enjoys it. We decided to get him one for home (thanks to Jennie for the Target tip!). He was a little afraid of it at first but now thinks it's great, especially for hiding in if it's time for a diaper change or a nap! This morning he camped out in it and looked through his books and photo album.

Ben has already enjoyed the culinary goodness at Arthur Bryant's & Jack Stack BBQ several times. Today we were headed to US Toy for some craft supplies for Ben and decided to head next door and add to his barbecue education with some Gates BBQ for lunch. I hadn't been to that location before but it was a little less intimidating, at least with the lunch crowd. At the location near UMKC, they yell their "Hi, may I help you?" riff as soon as you set foot in the door. The State Line location was a little busy so we actually had to wait a minute before they called out to us. Ben enjoyed sharing my ham sandwich & Dave's burnt ends and kept trying to steal my fries!

He loved playing outside yesterday and we'll try to give him extra outside time this weekend as the weather is supposed to be gorgeous!

The Musical Education of Ben

2011-03-27T16:48:00.004-05:00

There are only so many times you can listen to "Seventy Six Trombones" without going mad. The same goes for "Ya Got Trouble", "Wells Fargo Wagon", "Goodnight My Someone" -- any song from The Music Man, really -- "Do Re Mi", and a host of tunes from Sesame Street and other assorted variations on The Alphabet Song. These are Ben's musical touchstones. I doubt anyone outside of Meredith Wilson's heirs has such an abiding interest in Prof. Harold Hill's River City Boys' Band scheme. If Ben spies you at the computer, he will insist you navigate to YouTube. Then he will proceed to make your ears bleed as he makes you watch his favorites again and again until he falls asleep or the power goes out. Every day, several times a day, I deal with it.

"I want to hear 'Seventy Six Trombones', Daddy."
"Daddy, sing 'I Like Trouble'."
"Play it again! NOW!"

The boy has a talent for killing songs, one rivaled only by my college roommate, minister at my wedding, and generally good guy, Howard. But Ben hasn't had nearly as much practice at it, which makes it all the more impressive.

So, in an effort to broaden his musical palate, steer it in a direction more in line with my own tastes and thus save my sanity, I've been judiciously introducing some pop and rock into his YouTube diet. Nothing too aggressive at this point -- I don't need him, in his best Axl Rose impression, bellowing, "You know where you are? You're in the jungle, baby! You're gonna diiie!" at teachers and grandparents just yet. Anyway, there have been several successes and a few failures. Here's how it's going:

Successes

"Army", by Ben Folds Five

I'm an unabashed fan of Ben Folds. My hope was that it would be relatively easy to get Ben to feel the same -- Folds' piano-based tunes are very melody-forward, allowing Ben to focus on the songs easily enough, and contain plenty of verbal hooks for him to latch onto. Plus, with eight albums, 3 EPs and bunches of B-sides, live tracks and side projects, his catalog is large enough to keep Ben happily caught up in the music without resorting to annoying levels of repetition (even after weeding out the high percentage of crude and profane songs that populate the catalog). I just needed a gateway.

"Army" is that gateway. It's the perfect pop song, with a catchy melody and bright, bouncy energy to it. The video is theatrical, involves several set changes, isn't edited in a way that will induce epileptic seizures, gives Ben plenty of instruments to name, and, as he never fails to point out, has balloons at the end. It's become a favorite, one that Ben will request by name and sing to himself. It also helps that the video uses the edited version of the song, in which the opening profanity has been removed. The album version that gets played in the car or on the home stereo most decidedly does not say, "Dad said, 'Son, you must be high.'" Emily and I have gotten in the habit of yelling, "Ben, it's the ARMY SONG!!!" over the second line, which has become noticeable enough that Ben often does the same thing. Going forward, this could be problematic; still, it's a small price to pay.

"Lullabye", by Ben Folds Five

With "Army" going over so well, it was time to introduce another Ben Folds song. "Lullabye" is what its title suggests it is, and along with U2's "MLK" was one that I had hoped to use as a nighttime wind-down for him. Plus, I wanted him to learn the lyrics so we'd have perplexed teachers from his daycare asking why he kept talking about James Earl Jones. (I'm still working on that last part.)

This particular version is from a Ben Folds performance with the Western Australia Symphony Orchestra in Perth. While Ben seems to like the song, what has really grabbed his attention is the presence of a saxophone. He refers to "Lullabye" as "Saxophone Song", and gets impatient for the appearance and reappearance of said instrument. Actually, the whole performance with WASO has been a big hit with Ben. He loves identifying all of the instruments -- I see chimes! I see violins! I see bass! I see tenor Stuart Haycock! -- and I'm slowly figuring out what songs go with the names he makes up for them (he was near tears as I stumbled my way to figuring out that "Violin Song" meant "Narcolepsy").

Now, he'll often ask to hear Ben Folds, and it doesn't matter what song I play for him. He has his favorites, of course: Army and Lullabye, as mentioned, and Eddie Walker. But he's content with whatever I happen to play, and I now keep an 18-song mix cd in the car and a longer "Ben's Ben Folds Playlist" on the iPod.

"Buddy Holly", by Weezer

This is one of Ben's long-time favorites; it's been a part of his iPod playlist for at least half a year, so his interest in the song predates his interest in the video. The cd it's from is also the only album he's ever shown any interest in. By that, I mean he likes the actual physical cd, not the music. The album cover simply shows the band standing against a blue background; he likes saying "Hi" to it as well as playing peek-a-boo ("Where Weezer go? There it is!"). He has also had to apologize to Weezer for intentionally stepping on them and cracking the jewel case.

I'm not sure how or why we introduced "Buddy Holly" to Ben, or if it was even a conscious effort. However it came about, once he heard it, he immediately latched on to the "woo-hoo"s in the chorus. For a long time, it was simply "The Woo Hoo Song", though he has recently started referring to it by its proper name. In any case, he's been singing this one for a while now, as Emily previously documented. I've been teaching him the names of the various "Happy Days" characters in the video; we're still working on saying, "Aaay!"

"We're Going To Be Friends" and "Hotel Yorba", by The White Stripes

I really didn't expect Ben to like these videos. The songs had a fighting chance; I figured they'd go over well via iPod. But the videos are pretty sparse, especially for "We're Going To Be Friends." I thought the lack of activity would bore him and that he'd quickly ask to move on. I was wrong. He frequently requests "The Friend Song" and never fails to point to Meg White and say,"She's sleeping!" "Hotel Yorba" has been renamed "The Counting Song", thanks to the "1-2-3-4, take the elevator at the Hotel Yorba, I'll be glad to see you later..." part of the chorus. Thankfully, he hasn't started jumping on beds as a result of the video, but he seems to like the fact that Meg uses a cardboard box as a drum, and will drum along on the edge of the desk. To this point, I'm sticking with the more jangly White Stripes tracks; Ben's not a fan of the distortion-drenched wall of sound that makes up a good portion of the catalog.

"Stand", by R.E.M.

(R.E.M., their label, or both have decided that they don't want to allow video embedding. So you'll have to view it here.)

There are far better R.E.M. songs, and outside of "Losing My Religion" and "Everybody Hurts", none of them were as overplayed as this one. But most of those songs aren't as catchy as "Stand", and I needed something catchy if I was going to get Ben to eventually accept fifteen albums-worth of R.E.M. (I made the executive decision to rule out "Shiny Happy People", out of fear that he would like it too much and I would be forced to jam Q-Tips in my ears.) It helped that the video seemed like something that would be up his alley -- spastic dancing, jumping band members, and a bunch of random images that could serve as an "I Spy" game ("I see a bicycle! I see a chicken, Daddy!").

I was right. Ben's been requesting Stand with greater frequency, which means I need to figure out the rest of my R.E.M. strategy.

"I'm A Boy", by The Who

There's not a whole lot to this clip, really. The song is fun and goofy in a way that wasn't unusual for The Who's early recordings, and I could certainly imagine Ben stomping around the house yelling, "I'm a boy! I'm a boy! I'm a boy!" But those are arguments for the song, not the YouTube clip. No, the only reason I show him the video is in the hope that he will add some trademark Pete Townshend windmills to his "guitar playing". I make sure to point them out every time we watch it. And while Ben hasn't added that move to his repertoire yet, he does seem to like the song. So there's hope.

Failures

"Here Comes Your Man", by Pixies

Of course, Ben wasn't going to like everything I exposed him to. While "Here Comes Your Man" isn't especially representative -- it's much further down the pop spectrum than the Pixies' norm -- they influenced so many other bands that I figured it was worth seeing if I could get him interested, and then branch out from there. Besides, it's such a bright, straight forward little surf tune that I thought Ben would enjoy bouncing along to it. Perhaps if I had introduced him to the song rather than the video, that might have been the case. However, it only took one viewing to send him screaming from the room. I can sorta see why -- the distorted heads, dead-eyed stares, and intentional lack of lip-syncing are kinda disturbing.

"Short Skirt/Long Jacket", by Cake

I'm not especially surprised that Ben didn't like this one. I had hoped the song would win out, but knew the "Man on the Street Interview" style, with it's lack of anything going on and constant song interruptions would probably turn him off. He tuned out after 30 seconds.

"Smoothie Song", by Nickel Creek

I'm still not sure why Ben hasn't taken to Nickel Creek or this video specifically. There are so many elements to the "Smoothie Song" video that he loves: a ceiling fan, a fiddle, a roomful of guitars, and couple other instruments to boot. The only explanation I can come up with for his rejection is that he isn't interested in instrumentals, though his sporadic interest in Count Basie seems to counter that. Maybe it's just Chris Thile's lurching style of mandolin playing that he doesn't like. In any case, I'm not giving up on Nickel Creek that easily.

"Safety Dance", by Men Without Hats

Listed here not because I failed to get Ben interested, but because Emily would kill me if I tried.

Under the weather

2011-03-25T17:43:00.000-05:00

Ben was pretty congested last night and today he's not feeling very well. His temperature isn't much above normal but his poor nose has been running all day long and he's really practicing his heavy mouth-breathing technique. He spent most of the day curled up with me or on the other couch with a glazed look in his eyes. We watched some TV, read some Dr. Seuss stories and he played with his toys a little, but his frustration tolerance and energy are low. His nap seemed to help a little. I think another kid in his daycare class was ill earlier in the week so I'm guessing he picked that up. Hopefully it will pass quickly.

Dave has been in California since Tuesday on a business trip but is on his way back from the KC airport right now. We got to have a video chat with him on Wednesday and Ben seems to understand that Daddy went on an airplane for work. We are both looking forward to having him back home tonight!

Creative little guy

2011-03-04T20:29:00.002-06:00

Ben has been creative lately, doing more pretend play, enjoying art & music, getting interested in helping in the kitchen, and talking up a storm. In the last 3 weeks or so, he's been using a lot more sentences instead of short phrases and getting better at describing things. We had parent-teacher conferences at daycare Wednesday and his teacher said he continues to be further ahead on his verbal skills than his motor skills, which is consistent with how his development has been previously. Overall, he's doing well and especially loves storytime, playing in the kitchen area, and art/music activities.

A few things we've been up to:

Playing the guitar with Mommy. He also loves the baritone ukulele that Dave's mom had found at a rummage sale for $1(!) & given me a few years back. I finally got new strings for it and after a few adjustments, it seems to be playing great. It's a really nice size for him. Other than a fascination with the tuning pegs, he does a pretty good job with playing them gently.

Playing drums with Daddy:

Playing peekaboo with a Cheerios double-sized box. You would not believe the wailing when we wouldn't let him take the box to his room one night! I think he would've wanted to play peekaboo all night long if we'd let him bring it.

My parents visited a few weeks ago and Ben was fascinated by Papa's touch screen phone and the photos on it. When he saw this photo on the monitor, he got excited and said, "I helping Papa!"

My guitar needed to be repaired and my regular guy didn't have time for it, so he sent me to Mass Street Music in Lawrence, KS. It was a blustery day but we enjoyed some brief window shopping downtown with my parents. Ben was thrilled to see the giant inflatable Jayhawk (the University of Kansas' mascot), as he has loved pointing out the "birdie" in the local college logos decorating our grocery store.

Grammie & Ben playing with Mr. Potato Heads:

Having fun painting:

Today we got really ambitious and decided to use some of the beautiful blueberries Dave got at Sam's Club last week for blueberry muffins. Ben has so desperately wanted to help with cooking (and everything else) lately that I pulled up the stepstool and had him help with the measuring and stirring. While I was measuring the wet ingredients, he figured out how to open the pinch-top plastic flour container and was scooping the flour into an extra bowl. He had such a good time with it that I let him continue playing after the muffins were in the oven...at least until "I pretend eating muffin, Mommy" turned into actually eating some raw dough twice after being warned about it.

The final product. Alton Brown's instructions have you flip the muffins out upside down onto a towel so the bottoms can set, but he must do it a little smoother than I was able. Some got kind of smushed. But they were pretty tasty and Ben was so proud.

Showing off the muffin:

We put Ben to bed and I went in the next room to write this post. He was quiet for a little while, but about a half-hour later, he suddenly started singing to himself. He just finished a long rendition of "Where is Thumbkin?" and is now singing "Picking Up a Baby Bumblebee." Now we've moved on to "Wheels on the Bus." ...and now I think he's finally fallen asleep, 45 minutes after we put him to bed. Pretty typical.

Arts & crafts

2011-02-13T20:10:00.000-06:00

Ben and I did a few arts and crafts today. There are so many cute ideas on the web but Ben's attention span and tolerance for limits has been pretty short this weekend, so I picked a couple of really simple things. The easiest Valentine's Day craft that I could think of was the construction paper heart person we probably did for 5 years running as a kid. I cut out all of the shapes and Ben was excited to use the tape to stick them together. He probably would've been even more excited had we just let him pull out the whole spool of tape and play with it by itself. He also found the scrap of paper from which I'd cut the hands, and decided it needed to be taped on as extra decoration. I drew on the eyes & mouth but he picked the colors. It's hanging on his door now, just high enough so he couldn't pull it down!

I was also excited to try this neat idea for coloring sugar cookies seen at the wonderful Artful Parent blog. She cut the cookie dough into heart shapes before painting, but a) I didn't feel like messing up measuring cups and bowls to make homemade dough and b) Ben would not have tolerated having to hear the dough being mixed, then get to help roll it out and cut shapes, then freeze it for a little while (helps make it firm enough to paint), then paint & bake. So we took a shortcut and sliced store-bought refrigerated cookie dough. I diluted gel food coloring (liquid would probably work too) and we painted the cookies with Q-Tips. Ben liked poking the Q-Tip through the cookie dough and making holes. He also decided he liked painting the cookies, then squishing or pulling them apart.

I was too busy running interference while painting to get pictures, but here is him saying "cheese" as he squishes the dough:

I used some melamine-ish bowls for the "paint" and a cutting board for Ben to keep the cookies on.

Our finished cookies were a little overdone, but still good. We each had an initial cookie & I managed to squeeze Ben's name onto one! We also used a mini heart cookie cutter to make hearts in the middle of others.

The cookies got Ben's stamp of approval!

A sign of the times

2011-02-09T19:54:00.000-06:00

A scene indicative of Ben's current very-two-year-old mindset:

Dave: Ben, are you being contrary?
Ben: NO!

Snow day scenes

2011-02-01T22:28:00.005-06:00

I stayed home from work today and Dave worked from home in expectation of the big snowstorm (I love this fake forecast map!). My offices closed around noon anyway. By this afternoon, the snow was really blowing & cars were having a lot of trouble navigating the north-south crossroad next to our house. One poor little Prius had to be pushed! This evening MODOT closed I-70 between St. Louis & Kansas City because of dangerous driving conditions. The central part of the state was really supposed to get hammered.

Ben had a pretty good day and played with his toys this morning so I could get some paperwork done too. For a special treat, I thought I would get out the Trader Joe's giant gingerbread man that my godparents sent us for Christmas (thank you, Jeanne & Dennis! All the great TJ's stuff just made us more excited for the 2 TJs that are finally opening here this year!). Ben immediately wanted to chomp down on the cookie but was wary of the icing & M&Ms I was trying to get him to put on the cookie. He actually wiped off the icing and M&M until I told him they were okay, it was a special candy treat. Then he decided the M&Ms were pretty darn good! He still didn't want anything to do with the frosting but did allow me to help him put a little yogurt on for eyes. Then he just wanted to chow down!

(Note: This video was too big to host on Blogger, the way we usually do it, so we hosted it on YouTube & linked that. That's the reason you'll see thumbnails for other unrelated videos afterward - YouTube just searches for other videos with the same generic numerical name and suggests those.)

We also did a lot of singing (Aunt Jen, you got "Happy Birthday" sung to you about 10x! Opa & Great-Grandma also did, but it's not their real birthday!) and playing with the new wooden school bus that Mr. D. made for Ben. He loves rolling it on the floor & singing "The Wheels on the Bus."

We will see how tomorrow's commute looks. My family back in Michigan is expecting snow tonight & tomorrow too. Hope everyone is staying warm!

Christmas & Birthday photos

2011-01-18T22:35:00.000-06:00

We have many more photos from Christmas & Ben's 2nd birthday party, which we held on Sunday, but here are a few of our favorites to start.

Ben really liked ripping off the paper this year!

We made the mistake of leaving the Little People farm unwrapped as Santa's gift. Ben saw it first and it was like pulling teeth to get him to open any other presents. We eventually decided just to let him play with it, and we opened the rest of the presents Sunday.

Showing off his monkey pj's from Grammie & Papa:

Relaxing & reading his stack of books:

Christmas at Kenny & Lynn's. Ben had a good time playing with the toys and the other little boy cousins.

We postponed Ben's 2nd birthday party until after the craziness of the holidays was over. The kids had a great time playing with the Mr. Potato Head accessories and I don't know that they ever actually got out one of the potato heads! Here are some of Jerry's photos.

Wearing sunglasses from Great-Grandma:

Ben wanted one of the cupcakes the moment I put them on the table. Uncle Jeff & Opa ran interference. We did a stars & moon theme for the cake (chocolate) & cupcakes (vanilla) because Ben loves going outside each night when we get home and looking for the moon & stars.

Hanging out with Eric

Insisting that Opa try out the microphone from Uncle Jeff, which was a big hit!

Ben sings the "Woo Hoo Song"

2011-01-11T22:54:00.000-06:00

I know we still have Christmas pictures to share...we are way behind! I thought I'd at least upload this short clip from tonight. Ben still loves listening to music & watching music videos on YouTube and the song "Buddy Holly" by Weezer is one of his favorites. He calls it the "Woo Hoo Song" because a repeated part of the song is "Woo hoo - but you know I'm yours. Woo hoo - and I know you're mine." This is Ben singing the first 2 lines of the chorus. The words are "Oh wee oh, I look just like Buddy Holly. Oh oh and you're Mary Tyler Moore." I didn't even realize he knew that many words until I heard him muttering something about "Mary Tya-Mo" in the car yesterday! He continually surprises us with how many song lyrics he picks up and how many songs he recognizes when they come on the iPod.

Everyone needs a crying with Santa picture

2010-12-17T19:50:00.001-06:00

...and Ben got his today.

We did get a calmer one.

That green elf over on the side looks kind of evil, though. I think he's plotting something.

Ben was just having a moody morning and started being more clingy as we got toward the front of the line. God bless the sweet Santa at Bass Pro; he was really good with Ben and all of the other kids! Plus, the pictures are free! Ben did like getting to see the model train set and the duck pond after the pictures. For some reason, although he liked the giant fish tank before seeing Santa, he started crying when we brought him back afterward.

Tony & Jen arrived last night and they got to witness Ben's Santa meltdown and his subsequent refusal to take good naps for the rest of the day. However, Ben did turn on the charm when we went to the pediatrician this afternoon for his 2-year-old well checkup. Other than a little eczema, everything is looking good and his developmental skills are where they should be.

His current stats are:
Height: 36 1/4" (92nd %ile- the height of the average 2.75 year old!)
Weight: 32 lbs (89th %ile)
Head circumference: 19.75 cm (86th %ile)

The doctor said all of his measurements are in line with each other and following the same growth curve they have been. Other than some eczema & chapped cheeks, everything was fine! Ben really liked the stethoscope and was impatient for the doc to listen to his heart. He'd spent a good portion of Cookie Baking Day last weekend running around trying to use Grandma's stethoscope to listen to his heart go "bah-buh."

Gingerbread Lady's visit

2010-12-11T16:41:00.001-06:00

Our cousin Phoebe from Raleigh enlisted our help for a school project. She and her kindergarten classmates were supposed to color a gingerbread person & send it off to someone who lives outside of North Carolina. That person was supposed to take photos of interesting places in town and send them back to the class so they could learn about different parts of the country. It's similar to the Flat Stanley project.

Ben thought the Gingerbread Lady was pretty cool and immediately wanted to give her high fives and fist bumps

We have to send the Gingerbread Lady & her pictures back next week, so we didn't have time to go to all of the neat places in KC, but we got some pretty good pictures over the last two days. We also picked up some brochures of attractions we weren't able to see.

At the Liberty Memorial & National WWI Museum yesterday. Note the lack of wind and our lightweight coats.

Skyline picture with the under-construction Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts on the left with all the cranes (there were several workers on the top of the roofline when we drove past - yikes!), Union Station in the foreground, Sprint Center in the middle and the neat Western Auto sign to the right.

At Union Station - it was a challenge to get a decent picture between the lighting and chasing a runaway Ben who thought the deserted balcony was the perfect track.

Poor Gingerbread Lady, being from North Carolina, probably hadn't had any proper barbecue in her life, so we brought her to Arthur Bryant's for lunch!

Today we took a quick trip to Independence Square for some pictures with the Harry Truman statue and also to the Sports Complex. Note that we are now all bundled up in warm coats, hats, scarves, gloves, and blankets...and were still cold. It is incredibly windy! Ben had a great time, though, and was excited to see several stores with Christmas lights on their awnings.

We had a lot of fun with this project and the photos might make a neat Kansas City photo book for Ben.

Playing around

2010-12-10T21:11:00.001-06:00

We are gradually recovering from the random throat ailment that Ben & Dave had and my strep throat. Ben was a pretty sad little guy Wednesday and part of Thursday and still is kind of sensitive and easily teary. But things are on the upswing and we have had some fun this week!

Ben sat in the living room chair and read to himself. This is Freight Train, a favorite picture book.

Playing around with his cat puppet. He also has inherited the koala and alligator puppets I had as a kid. He thinks it's hilarious when someone else has the puppet and says, "Hi Ben!" through the puppet.

Decided to try on Daddy's shoes...for some reason, he kept putting one on backwards & one on forwards. I was amazed at how far he managed to walk that way without falling!

Getting Big Sleepies to chase off the germs, curled up with his stuffed animals and blanket. We really don't know how he can comfortably sleep in some of the positions he does...he sometimes flops down on top of several stuffed animals or has the blanket bunched up under his belly while his head and neck are contorted into all sorts of crazy positions.

Ben is also getting ready to move up to the two-year-old classroom on Monday! He has spent time in there over the last few weeks and reportedly done well. I'm sure he will miss Miss Tierney & Miss April in the older toddler class - they have been wonderful teachers this year and he talks about them all the time at home! He even sang "Happy Birthday" to them last week when he was on a singing spree in his crib instead of being asleep!

Playing catch-up

2010-12-07T20:53:00.001-06:00

So we've been a little delinquent with the blog...it has been a busy few months in between trips, work, broken dishwashers, and various plagues. Here are some pictures to catch you up.

We flew to Michigan in mid-November for my brother's & sister-in-law's at-home wedding reception. Ben did fairly well on the flights, though he freaked out on the jetway when we were boarding the first flight. Once we were settled in our seats and he was given snacks, he calmed down and was very good for the rest of the flight. On our layover in Chicago Ben discovered the magical moving walkways and his Elmo slippers (bought to make taking shoes off through security a little easier) were a huge hit with airport crews and fellow passengers. He even got a compliment in Detroit from a nun! He wasn't quite sure what to make of the group of about 8-10 fully habited nuns walking through the terminal.

While we were in Michigan, my parents & Dave took Ben to the park one day while I was getting a much-needed haircut. He had a good time, although reportedly the geese thought he looked like a yummy snack.

We also took Ben for his first cider mill experience at Yates Cider Mill, founded in 1863, and one of my favorite places to be in the fall. Ben loved the water wheel ("round & around!") and got to try their wonderful cider & doughnuts.

Tony & Jen had their reception at Dave & Buster's. The food was really good and the cupcake tower had too many tempting choices! My Uncle Bill & cousin Bradley drove up and we got to catch up with them, which was wonderful. We didn't play any games because it was already past Ben's naptime when we got done eating and visiting and Ben was a little cranky & overwhelmed by the noise and lights in the gaming area, so we went home instead.

Niru "Nani" took a turn chasing Ben around the private dining room after dinner and managed to catch him. He looked really cute in his striped button-down shirt!

My dad brought my grandma up from Toledo and we had a nice day together. We had been prepping him for the trip by telling him who he was going to see, and on the plane rides, he would frequently ask, "See Great-Grandma?" Ben colored some Christmas ornaments while she watched & had fun repeatedly saying hi to her.

Four generations of our family:

Tony, Grandma & Jen:

Ben wearing his blanket as a cape:

We also had a nice amount of down time during the trip. Ben enjoyed playing with toys & reading books. Mom found a drum that Niru & Neilam had brought me from India during high school and Ben thought that was great!

Playing with the rocking chair that was my Grandma's (I think? I'm sure Mom will correct me if I'm wrong). Tony & I had this chair & another when we were kids.

One night we drove to my favorite pizza place, Buddy's Pizza, and then went back to Tony's & Jen's house. Tony has taken an interest in pinball games and has a couple that he's restored beautifully, along with an old game console that's got an emulator to play hundreds of old electronic arcade games. I could've played down there all night!

Ben was really unsure of the drum set at first, which was surprising, but eventually warmed up and decided it was the coolest thing ever!

Our flights back to KC were fine, although Ben started the first one by saying "All done airplane?" He got his own seat on the second flight and was happy as a clam with the sandwich & fruit we'd packed for his dinner. He turns two in about two more weeks (!!!) so those were the last free flights he gets! Once he turns two, we have to start buying him a seat.

We had Thanksgiving dinner over at Dave's parents' house. Ben liked the attention and LOVED the food. He was asking for Grandma's rolls & sweet potatoes for several days afterward.

We are expecting a new dishwasher to be delivered this Friday, as ours started leaking the day before Thanksgiving and the appliance repairman/plumber said Saturday morning it couldn't be fixed. Luckily, we were able to get one of the Black Friday sales that was still in effect Saturday night and got a great deal on a Whirlpool. We're especially glad that it has a lock-out feature so Ben can't repeatedly start the wash cycle or play with the settings as he's enjoyed doing with the old dishwasher!

This week's pictures

2010-10-29T15:12:00.002-05:00

Ben asked to play outside the other day after daycare so we ran around and kicked a ball in the backyard before dinner time.

Ben is still incredibly drooly from cutting his molars and his poor stuffed animals have been ruthlessly used as chew toys.

He's continuing to play with his new rocking horse and manages to rock it far enough back to make us a little nervous!

22 Months Old

2010-10-27T20:57:00.001-05:00

Ben turned 22 months old yesterday. He continues to talk up a storm and loves music and reading. He likes pointing out letters, numbers, and every random thing he sees. We went out to a restaurant a few weeks ago and the shop address was above the door. He pointed to it in the middle of dinner and yelled, "1-2-3! 1-2-3!" (his generic term for any numbers). Mr. Eric (a Mizzou fan) will be crushed to hear that Ben also loves pointing out the "birdy" (Kansas Jayhawk) when we are at the grocery store.

His new favorite word is "yeah" and it is the answer to most questions, including those requiring a choice. He will answer "yeah" when asked if we live in a house, but also when asked if we live in a space ship. He continues to like to go for walks after he gets home from daycare, probably because we were trapped inside for so much of the sweltering summer.

His little table is a nice place for him to color or play with his mixing bowl.

I think we have several recent photos of him with this expression. I think he was either yelling or singing when we took the picture.

He was trying to drink out of the cup he puts his crayons in. I have a feeling he probably nibbled on a few random crayon shavings as well. Ick! Well, at least he looked cute in his The Cat In The Hat "Thing 1" shirt from Tony & Jen.

Ben was in a cuddly mood yesterday evening and we played for quite a while with his airplane. We've also checked several airplane books out of the library to try to prepare him for riding on an airplane up to Michigan next month. I am kind of frustrated that none of the children's books we've found really give you a good walk-through of the steps you now take to get on a flight. There are a few okay ones, but they're kind of old (e.g., "Then the stewardesses bring you your food!") and poorly organized.

He has a few new toys. Cousin Ruth brought him some little trucks which have already run many races across the dining room floor, and a set of flutes for the bathtub which will hopefully deter him from stealing my recorders out of my work bag! You can tune these flutes by putting in a certain amount of water and when he's older he can use the set to play songs with the color-coded music. Ben blew out a few notes, then quickly discovered he could just drink the water straight out of them...

and then looked like he was trying to use it as a blow dart gun like in "Raiders of the Lost Ark."

He saw them on the counter the next morning and was not happy when I told him he couldn't bring them to school.

Ben was also given 2 handmade rocking horses from the longtime neighbor of his grandparents. He'd made them several years ago but his grandkids are grown now and he is moving, so he sweetly gave them to Ben. Ben also has a cricket bank that Mr. D. made just for him.

After Ben rode the rocking horse repeatedly, he decided Harry the stuffed dog should try it. I guess Harry wasn't listening to directions because Ben kept telling him in a very stern voice, "Sit down!" Tonight he rode with his baby doll.

I was cracking an ice tray the other day and Ben was curious, so I gave him an ice cube in his bowl. He carried it around for a few minutes just watching it melt.

Dave & I were at the breakfast table the other day and Ben was sitting so quietly by the stairs, just playing with his Megabloks.

Ben just has a pumpkin shirt for Halloween. We figured he is too little to care about trick-or-treating and he's in a phase of hating to have any shirt put on, so might not even tolerate a costume if we got one. Plus, he already has tons of energy and does not need extra sugar!! He has liked seeing all the pumpkins and Halloween decorations and has a mini pumpkin in his room.

Day at the park

2010-10-12T20:59:00.001-05:00

On Sunday we met friends at Harris Memorial Park and the kids played for an hour or so before we headed off for lunch at the always good Waldo Pizza. Ben had a blast running around and climbing up and down. He was not too sure about the swings or the slides. We liked that they had separate playground equipment for the little kids & big kids, though Ben liked walking around (with close and nervous parental supervision!) on the big kids' playground too.

The big kids' play area is a giant castle and Ben liked looking out of the "windows." He looks like he's imprisoned in this pic, though!

There is an old lion-shaped water fountain that Ben liked. He is also obsessed with the water fountain at school, which usually leads to water all down his shirt, so I wasn't too sad that this one no longer works!

But the best part was the vandal who channeled Admiral Ackbar:

Ben sounded excited at first about the swings, but did not like the toddler swings and was very cautious about swinging with either of us on the big swings. He was not too happy when he saw the bigger kids swinging by themselves but was told he couldn't.

Ben slid down the slides a few times by himself (feet-first on his belly, which we thought would hurt but he didn't blink!) and let us help him slide down while sitting a few times.

Didn't want to go down this slide, but loved looking down it and yelling "Tunnel!"

We will definitely come back to this park again and also plan to take Ben to Summit Waves, the water park next door, next year.

Congratulations to Tony & Jen!

2010-10-10T19:51:00.001-05:00

My brother Tony and Jen were married today, 10/10/10 at 10:00 a.m. on beautiful St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands. We wish we could have been there but are sending all our love and prayers for a beautiful day! We will be flying back to Michigan next month for their reception and are counting the days until that.

Ben was quiet during most of our video chat with them last night, but of course 5 minutes afterward, it was, "Yay, Tony! Yay, Jen!"

21 Months Old

2010-10-07T20:11:00.001-05:00

Ben is in a really fun period of development right now. He is learning so much and talking almost all the time (except when we have webchats or try to get him to talk on the phone). At 21 months (plus a little...), Ben:

Dances and stomps around joyfully and sometimes sings.
Likes books about trains and has rediscovered the lovely picture book Dimity Duck. He particularly likes the "Surprise!" scene where the frog & duck play peek-a-boo. It's one of my favorite children's books too.
Is going through a wicked period of teething. I got him a new teether advertised as "for back teeth" in desperate hope that he will chew on that and leave his poor stuffed animals alone. They have been chewed and slobbered on so much, they're disgusting! We have been washing them frequently & also have a backup Teddy (thanks, Mom!). We also finally got a look at his incisors which came in last month and they are SO sharp-looking! I'm not sure if those are still descending or his molars are coming in, but those must've really hurt coming in. As you can see from the picture below, his chin breaks out from all the drooling.

Identifies several favorite songs in the first few phrases and will yell out his name for the song. It's really kind of crazy. Maybe this tells you a little about how many times we've listened to Kermit and Jimmy Buffett sing "Caribbean Amphibian" ("FWOG!"), "Do-Re-Mi" (or "re-mi-do" as Ben insists on calling it), and "Rubber Duckie" ("Ewnie!"). We've added some new songs onto his iPod playlists so hopefully we won't go nuts!
Loves trying to jump but hasn't quite grasped the concept that feet have to leave the ground...
Loves animals, especially puppies, whether in person, in books, or on TV. He was distraught on our walk the other day when he saw a tiny puppy, got distracted for a minute, and looked back to find out the puppy's owner had taken it back inside their house. He stood on their driveway asking, "Puppy? Puppy?"
Likes the new kid-sized table and chairs we got for him a few weeks ago.
Still loves Giada. He wanted to run up and down the block again this afternoon and was fighting going back to the garage after a short walk. I reminded him we'd get to see Giada's pictures in her section at Target and he was more compliant. When we got to the store, he immediately started asking, "Gida? Gida?"

Still eats like he's got 2 hollow legs.
Thinks the most random things are hilarious. Today it was a cartoon of Peanuts characters bowling. He was freaking out and yelling with delight every time they tossed the ball!
Doesn't like the sound of the vacuum.
Must announce whenever he hears an airplane. Also frequently points out motorcycles, trucks, cars, and birds. Sometimes we can hear them too.
Is talking like crazy and most things are understandable to us. We've taught him to say thank you and it's so sweet when he spontaneously says, "Tank you, Mommy" or "Tank you, Daddy." He often says something that sounds like, "More hem" at bedtime and seems to be pointing toward the bathroom. We are baffled as to what that means.
Has been taking a while to get to sleep each night. He fusses for a few minutes, then we hear him randomly talking to himself. Sometimes he counts, says letters, or people's names ("Yay, Tony!" "Opa!")
Likes to hear people talking to him on the phone and is getting a little better at actually saying hi but rarely says much else.
Almost always asks to go for a walk when we get home in the evenings. Sometimes he gets mad when we finish the walk and tell him it's time to go inside, even with the promise of dinner.

Visit from Grammie & Papa

2010-09-21T20:48:00.001-05:00

My parents flew in from Michigan for several days and we had a great time with them. Mom & I went to a consignment sale on Friday and found a fantastic heavy-duty plastic table & chair set that Ben already loves for sitting & coloring. We went to the zoo, had breakfast with his other set of grandparents and splashed in the fountain, and attempted to see some hot air balloons. There was also plenty of down time at home, reading and playing.

We ran into some bad luck on Saturday evening. We met Jerry & headed to Overland Park for the Great Midwest Balloon Fest. My parents took me to a hot air balloon festival in Michigan several times when I was little and we had a great time. We were really excited to take Ben. Unfortunately, the weather was not in our favor. We saw the handlers fighting with the US Bank & ReMax balloons, but they seemed unable to keep them up with the winds. Both the evening launch & balloon glow (where the balloons are tethered but kept inflated; the propane makes them glow) were canceled and we made it to the shuttle bus (definitely the best parking option!) and then back to our cars just as it started raining. But Ben liked looking out the shuttle bus window and watching the crowd while he ate his snack for the short time we were at the festival. Hopefully next year we will actually be able to see the balloons take flight!

On Sunday after Ben's splashing adventure (see previous post), we spent a few hours at the Kansas City Zoo. Despite the cool morning, it turned muggy and hot in the afternoon so we all tired easily. It was a good first trip, though, and was probably about the limit of Ben's attention span.

The first thing we saw was the new polar bear exhibit. Nikita is about 3 1/2 years old and was born at the Toledo Zoo. He was having a blast swimming around his rock and then twisting up through the water. It was really mesmerizing! Here is Ben watching him dive.

We also watched part of the sea lion show. Ben thought it was funny when the sea lion made noise.

A sweaty Ben & Papa watching the smelly llamas get fed:

I think this bird is a lorikeet. We were amazed at the incredibly vivid colors of their feathers. It was a huge mix, like they had been splashing around in a paint box!

We also saw the elephants (leading to requests of "More ey-ye-font!"), meerkats, lemurs, ducks, swan, and river otter. I think next time Ben would probably like to see some of the apes. The chimps are always so entertaining, but they're at the far end of the zoo so it was way too far for us to walk that day.

Splash time!

2010-09-21T20:25:00.000-05:00

Ben had breakfast with his full grandparent complement Sunday at the always-delicious Ingredient at Park Place in Leawood. He was getting restless after eating, so I took him outside to run around. Surprisingly, he headed for the fountains that he's been terrified of on previous trips. I guess they weren't so scary this time! He ended up happily soaked and was not too happy to be dragged away. I know Jerry took a lot of other pictures so we may add more later.

Drummer boy

2010-09-15T07:37:00.000-05:00

Ben has been enjoying clomping around the kitchen in his shoes, especially when "Do-Re-Mi" ( or "re-mi-do?" as he says) is on the iPod speaker. It is one of his current favorites, probably due to the YouTube video of a flash mob dancing to it in Antwerp. He had a little meltdown the other night because we refused to let him listen to it a third time while we were making dinner!

The other day he decided to follow me around by clomping on the hardwood and so I turned it into a stop/start game. Video is on our YouTube page here (there are also a few other videos that have been posted in the last few week). I was tired by the time he finally agreed to give up!

Ben has also been in a very musical mode the last few days, singing, dancing and drumming up a storm! He will sit in his crib or high chair and repeat words of favorite songs, like "Twinkle twinkle...star...up 'bove...sky...star" or "rain, ah ah ah" for the Raffi song "If All the Raindrops." He loves the Remo drum that Uncle Tony gave him and likes carrying it around, hitting it, yelling into the bottom, and sometimes sitting on it (we're working on extinguishing that!). But sometimes he runs into a little trouble carrying it up the stairs, as seen here.

I can't imagine what he will think when he sees Uncle Tony's big drum set in November!

Blankie

2010-09-10T09:52:00.001-05:00

Ben takes his naps on a cot at daycare and they recently started asking the parents to bring in a sheet & blanket instead of supplying them. We decided on this light fleece blanket that Dena made for Ben and he's decided he loves it. He brought it home to wash last night as it's the end of his daycare week, and has been wandering around with it, playing peekaboo and wearing it like a cape.

Ben, in his Team Grandpa shirt, would also like to wish an early Happy Grandparents' Day (it's Sunday) to his wonderful Grandma, Opa, Grammie & Papa. We also wish Opa Herb L'Shana Tova, a good and healthy New Year, as it is Rosh Hashanah.

Visit from Neilam & Jen

2010-09-09T20:57:00.000-05:00

My friend Neilam, whom I've known since kindergarten, flew out from California with his girlfriend Jen for Labor Day weekend. We had a great time hanging out, being tour guides, and introducing them to some local food & beer. Jen was also excited to find out that we had a local Penzey's Spices store (she'd seen our well-stocked spice cabinet!), so we wandered down there on Sunday.

On Saturday we headed to the downtown Kansas City library, which is in a former bank building that's been beautifully renovated. Ben had his hat and Puppy and was ready to go!

Here are Jen & Neilam in front of the neat book facade parking garage.

The recently renovated kids' and teens' section had its own floor with all sorts of neat touches. Ben liked the cow, stuffed tree, climbing cushions and flexible giant Legos. The entrance is flanked by giant book pages with quotations from children's literature and the steps are painted like books.

We went up to the upper floors and Ben was surprised to see that Neilam had snuck all the way across the library. He ran to the glass divider to try to get closer.

Jen & Neilam in the library's bank vault-turned movie theatre:

On Sunday evening we took a quick walk around Union Station. This was where Dave and I had our first date.

After Union Station, we headed back across the railroad bridge for a great barbecue dinner at Jack Stack. The weather was lovely so we sat on the patio. Ben especially loved it because there were 5-6 trains that went past on the tracks just beyond the parking lot. We all think that Ben ate us under the table at Jack Stack. He had a huge appetite and LOVED the onion rings & barbecue! After we were finished, he snuck a french fry from Dave's plate and reached for whatever else he could grab!

On Monday, Neilam treated us to some songs on guitar. Ben was fascinated.

Hmm, that looks like fun!

Look! I'm helping!

Trying to contain Ben a little while so Neilam can finish his song

Jen and Ben listening

We had a lovely weekend with our friends, although too short, as they all seem to be. Ben is still asking about "Nee-yum" and "J-J-Jen" so we will have to print out a photo of them to add to his little photo album.

Random photos

2010-09-09T13:49:00.000-05:00

Ben has started going to the door and saying "I ready!" or "bye bye!" when he wants to leave or just wants to pretend. Here he decided he needed his bag of sports balls for wherever he thought we should go.

He still loves playing peek-a-boo but sometimes forgets to dump out the stuff in a container before putting it on his head...

Jen and I made the Nutella Chocolate Chip cookies while she and Neilam were here. They were tasty, but flatter than expected, possibly because of our baking soda? We would increase the salt to 3/4 tsp. and the Nutella to 1/3-1/2 cup next time. They made a yummy combination crumbled over the French vanilla ice cream Dave made.

Long weekend!

2010-09-03T16:48:00.000-05:00

We are thrilled to have a long weekend so we can have a little down time. My friend Neilam, whom I've known since kindergarten, and his girlfriend Jen are flying in from California for the weekend. Their plane just touched down so Dave should be meeting them soon! Possibly on the agenda: Jack Stack barbecue, Union Station, KC Public Library & the bookshelf-facade parking garage (Jen is a grad student in library science and Ben & I haven't been there since the children's section was renovated), 75th Street Brewery, in*gre*di*ent for breakfast, and Neilam's favorite subs he can't get in Cali, Jimmy John's. We are also planning on trying a new recipe for these amazing-looking Nutella chocolate chip cookies!

Hope you all enjoy the Labor Day weekend!

Yay, Tony!

2010-08-30T20:32:00.001-05:00

My brother Tony does contract management for the Army. Last week, he and the other members of his team were given an award by the Undersecretary of Defense for the project they are working on. U.S. Senator Carl Levin was also there to speak. We are so proud of Tony! (Ben also liked the shiny stars on Tony's coin/medal!)

Another consignment score!

2010-08-29T17:05:00.000-05:00

I ran over to the Just Between Friends consignment sale this afternoon and finally found some blocks for Ben. I got a 75-pc MegaBlox set for $8 and also got the Little People farm for a fantastic $4! He loves animals and making animal sounds so it will hopefully be a big hit. It doesn't have any people or animals with it, but those can easily be bought later. So that will probably pretty much do it as far as big birthday & Christmas gifts for Ben along with the Little People market I got at the last sale. Ben was napping when I came home, so the gifts are safely hidden in the basement. I also found some jeans and shirts for him which should round out his fall wardrobe nicely.

Something I forgot to list in Ben's 20-month post was his new obsession with rice. He didn't even like it to begin with, but has gotten used to it and lately started pleading, "Wice, please?" almost every night when we're making dinner. We really don't know when or why he decided it was the best thing ever. He should be thrilled when he finds out we're having chicken tikka masala with rice tonight!

Ben had a great time kicking and carrying a ball around this morning. He even figured out how to carry it up the stairs.

He also decided that the variety pack of local Boulevard Beer we bought to share with Neilam & Jen next week was a perfect-sized seat.

Ben at 20 months

2010-08-28T15:21:00.004-05:00

Ben is now 20 months and keeping us constantly on the run. He tromps around the house, climbs up and down the stairs, and talks a LOT!

At 20 months, Ben:

loves this ABC video from Sesame Street and can sometimes be heard in his crib chattering "A-B-C-D...woo!" Between that and the Leapfrog fridge letter toy, he is fascinated with letters and tries to point them out when we're wearing shirts with words or reading the newspaper. He's rarely accurate at this point, but does occasionally get an A or M right.

frequently points out cars, trucks, airplanes, and birds, whether or not they're actually there. When I get him up in the mornings, he almost always points to the window & tells me there's an airplane out there. We are amazed at the times when he actually hears or sees an airplane before either of us have noticed it.

is still head-over-heels for "Gee-da" (Food Network host Giada DeLaurentiis) and sometimes cries when we cut him off (although he does that with other videos too). He also has seen a few episodes with her toddler daughter Jade (slightly more age-appropriate crush!) and yesterday asked for "more Jade?" when I pointed her out in the credits.

Generally, though, he will pay attention to something on the TV for a minute or two, then go back to playing with his toys. Dave found out last week, though, that even if Ben is not looking at the screen, he'll still notice and object if you change the channel from Giada!

loves his daycare teachers and talks about them a lot. He told me "Apool [April] read book" the other day. We are so lucky to have a great daycare where even the administrative staff knows him.

generally fusses less when he goes to bed, but sometimes stays awake chattering to himself for 30+ minutes.

has been using his toy phones a lot to talk to Grandma, Opa, Grammie, Papa, and Tony. Of course, if we have a webchat with anyone, he clams up half the time...

has several favorite songs he requests and sometimes dances to them. Here he is dancing to "The System is Down" from homestarrunner.com.

also likes playing instruments, of which we have plenty! He found a recorder and a flutophone (pretty much the same thing, just cheaper and slightly easier to play) in my work bag the other day and tried to play them. On the second day he actually got sounds out of them after I demonstrated. After a few minutes, he got bored and ransacked my bag again and found a woodblock, which he proceeded to tap using the flutophone. I figured that the small stick that actually goes with it would be in more danger of being used as a chew toy, so I helped with using the flutophone!

can identify stars, ovals, crosses and hearts. We're still not entirely sure how he picked up on stars; ovals he learned from his shape sorter, hearts from his play dough cookie cutters, and crosses from the cross on his wall. Stars are his favorite, though, and he gets really excited if he sees one. He played a little bit at the mall playground yesterday and was thrilled to point out the stars on the carpet & star-shaped lights. I painted some wooden stars to match the hanging ribbon on his art gallery hangers and he says good night to them now.

has discovered a love of cooked or roasted bell peppers and onions. Still not a fan of the raw ones, but would probably scarf up 1/2 a pepper if we let him! He also enjoyed the Venezuelan food he tried at El Porton Cafe and had fun playing peek-a-boo with a very sweet waiter. His Opa, who grew up in Caracas, was excited to introduce Ben to arepas, plantains, and flan.

continues to love reading books and will plop in our laps and demand we read a book over and over again!

We are looking forward to a visit next week from my friend Neilam and his girlfriend Jen, and my parents 2 weeks after that. We hope to take them to the Great Midwest Balloon Fest, which benefits the non-profit I work for, among other charities. We went to a hot air balloon festival in Michigan several times when I was growing up and it was always fun. We think Ben will really like it!

Busy Ben

2010-08-15T11:43:00.000-05:00

Ben has been keeping us busy, running around, playing, and talking up a storm. He loves looking out the windows and telling us about every car, truck, or airplane he sees, hears, or imagines. He realized that his magnetic Leapfrog fridge letters could also stick on our front storm door (something neither of his parents had thought of) and enjoyed tromping back and forth from the kitchen to the living room, sticking the letters to the fridge and then to the front door. We have listened to the alphabet song so many times that he's starting to repeat letters, and can say "ABCD" with the song. We're also encouraging him to put words together so it's clearer what he wants than just saying "more." One of his new favorite phrases is "read book" - he loves his library of books and brings several over to us every day to read, sometimes over and over and over and over...

We went to a consignment sale last week and got this whole pile of fall/winter clothes, toys, book, and instruments (the lollipop drum and ladybug xylo are for work) for ~$65! Ben's closet is now stocked with 2 nice fall-weight hoodies ($2 for the pair!), 3 pj's, 4 pants, a nice argyle sweater, 6 long-sleeved shirts including an already-beloved Elmo one, and another tanktop since the weather's been so oppressively hot. We put away the Little People Market for a Christmas or birthday gift as Ben already has enough big toys to play with now. I was also thrilled to find the beautifully illustrated book The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats, which had been on my list to add to Ben's library. Ben's favorites are the four small Tonka trucks we found; they have been his most played-with toys since we bought them!

Ben thinks the old stethoscope that Grandma gave him is an awesome toy, and ran up and down the hallway with it around his neck last week.

We were out at Uncle Kenny's a few weeks ago when Dave's Aunt Lynn was visiting from Las Vegas. Ben and Little Peter had a great time playing with building blocks and Ben and I petted Kayla and tried to catch the skittish new kitty, awesomely named Kitty Kitty Bang Bang!

Ben is also now able to get on the rocking panda that Kenny & Lynn got him all by himself and says good bye to the panda at night.

Lastly, here are some photos that Jerry has taken over the past few months over at their house. Ben has had grandparent time the last 2 weekends as Dave & I had 2 baby showers to attend. Ben, of course, had a wonderful time and regularly chatters about Opa (which he's been able to say for a few months), Brandy (their dog), and is working on "Grandma." Jerry reports that yesterday's favorite word was "grass" and it sent Ben into peals of laughter when they looked out the family room windows at the grass.

I think this is one of my favorite Ben pictures:

Yummy Yucky

2010-08-01T16:08:00.000-05:00

As part of her baby shower gift, my friend Stacey (wonderfully skilled finder of randomness and fun!) got us the book Yummy Yucky by Leslie Patricelli. Ben has recently decided it is the most hilarious book he owns.

We videotaped his crazy giggles in response to the book but the video is too big for the blog. You can watch it here. Thanks for the book, Aunt Stacey!

Happy birthday, Andi!

2010-07-30T15:43:00.001-05:00

Today is my cousin Andi's birthday. Ben happened to pick her family picture as his fridge photo obsession of the day and we started working on the names of the people in the picture. "Phoebe" came out as something vaguely ending in "bee" and "Chris" is still a little too tough. But he got Andi's name pretty well (and kept repeating it over and over!), so I grabbed the video camera. Happy birthday, Andi! We hope you have a great day!

Here is a photo from our trip to visit Andi, Chris & Phoebe last fall.

Family photos

2010-07-25T15:33:00.003-05:00

To finish off our photos from our trip, here are a few family photos. As expected, it was difficult to get a "perfect" picture with everyone looking at the camera (I screwed up a great one by blinking!) and with a squirmy 18-month-old, but we'll share them and enjoy them anyway.

Ben was more interested in looking at Uncle Tony than the camera.

Ben had just about had it with sitting still at this point.

Dave got Ben to smile for this one by tickling his feet!

Jen and Tony - they're getting married in less than 3 months and we are so excited for them!

Ben is wearing his "Team Grandpa" shirt.

Ben decided we didn't really mean it when we said, "Don't touch Grandpa's glasses." Dad dodged the glasses grab, but got fish-hooked instead!

Today is also my parents' anniversary. They are spending a few days in Chicago to celebrate. Dad said they didn't make it as extras into "Transformers 3" which is shooting a few blocks from their hotel, but they did see some of the vehicles and hear some explosions.

Happy anniversary, Mom & Dad!

Fun Saturday

2010-07-24T20:26:00.001-05:00

Although Ben declined to sleep in, or subsequently let us sleep in, we ended up having a fun Saturday. Dave and I have been craving barbecue for a while, so we drove down to Arthur Bryant's for lunch. Ben has been to Jack Stack a few times, but this was his first time at Bryant's. We arrived about 1:45 and there was still a line out the door! It seemed like there were quite a few out-of-towners (good for business, bad for speed!) so the line moved a little more slowly than usual as a couple of big groups ahead of us were confused about the way to order and move through the line. Ben was amazingly patient and bided his time looking at all the photos on the wall and flirting with the lady in line behind us. But we were all glad when we had our food and were sitting down - he is getting so heavy to hold and it gets a little toasty holding him for so long inside a packed building!

He enjoyed trying my ham sandwich and Dave's burnt ends. One of the employees was busing a nearby table while we were finishing our meal and commented that Ben must've enjoyed it since he had a ring of sauce around his mouth! Ben just smiled a big barbecue saucy smile at him.

Ben also stole one of my fries while I was taking pictures. Later, he still reached over to my plate several times to steal more ham if he didn't think I was giving him enough!

I have been wanting to make some homemade play dough for Ben but hadn't gotten around to it yet. I made some tonight while he ate dinner (Dave and I are still stuffed from Bryant's. I don't know how Ben was hungry.) and he played with it for nearly an hour! I gave him a choice of colors and he picked blue. I used this recipe but added just a little more oil and some vanilla extract since it smells kind of funky on its own. I was a little worried because it was still sticky after several minutes of stirring, but I kept cooking it on low and it came together nicely. Kneading it after it's off the heat also gets out the lumps. It was too hot for a kid to knead it for several minutes, though.

I got out several cookie cutters and my Pampered Chef rolling pin. The play dough instructions from a toddler art project book we read recommended cookie cutters with handles. I only have one with a handle, but Ben actually did fine with regular cutters.

Ben liked rolling out the dough with the rolling pin. He needed some help to get enough pressure, but it worked better than I anticipated.

Gradually, he got more used to actually manipulating the play dough with his hands and was having a blast squishing the dough balls I made. He also tried to see if they would bounce and felt the need to say hello to them. (Earlier in the day, he said hi to the rain, thunder, Arthur Bryant's portrait, the composer's photo on one of my piano books, and photos of our friends' dogs.)

Here's a video of Ben chattering and enjoying the play dough.

Sleeping through the storm

2010-07-20T22:43:00.001-05:00

We are lucky in that Ben doesn't seem to be bothered by storms. The sky started getting very dark around the time I pick Ben up from daycare, so I hustled there and got him in the car before the rain started. His teacher said he'd been hearing the thunder and saying, "raining, raining." It's one of his favorite words and he was excited to watch the rain through the windows. The wind was really strong too.

The rain tapered off around dinner time and we put Ben to bed, and maybe around 8:30 the thunder & lightning started again. Somehow the glass table top of our patio set shattered; we're not quite sure what happened, if lightning struck or what. We were sitting downstairs watching TV and just heard a funny thump. It wasn't raining yet and it didn't look like anything else was on the deck that could've hit it. We'll take a better look tomorrow.

When I came upstairs, I checked on Ben, who was sleeping through the loud thunder. He looked so cute, all snuggled up with his stuffed animals, that Dave grabbed the camera. He's got Teddy, Duck and Peter Rabbit up by his head, and the light blue bump under his bottom in the second picture is Puppy which was probably underneath him in the first picture. Half the time we find him sleeping on top of his animals or in strange bunched-up positions; we're not sure how he doesn't wake up aching every morning!

Pictures from the weekend

2010-07-18T15:31:00.001-05:00

Our goofy little guy has had a pretty happy and chatty weekend. Here he is modeling his Tony Packo's gear from Uncle Tony. I can't imagine how excited Ben will be when he actually gets to go to Packo's, considering how much he loves hot dogs! He got a much needed haircut on Friday afternoon; these pictures are pre-haircut.

I made hummus Thursday night; Ben has had it before and loves it. I gave him a few samples as I was perfecting the flavors, and when I walked into the other room for something, the little sneak grabbed the spatula off of the counter and started licking the hummus off!

Here are his post-haircut pictures:

We all had a lot of reading time this weekend, including a trip to the library where Ben enjoyed running up and down the rows of shelves and giggling. At home, I read one of my new detective books while Ben found the University of Dayton alumni magazine.

"Daddy, I'm trying to read! Stop bothering me with that camera!"

It has been miserably hot and humid the last few weeks, but this morning we snuck outside while it was still relatively comfortable for about 15 minutes of playtime. Ben tromped around and repeatedly asked for "more bubbles." We also played with one of his bouncy balls.

Ben also liked walking under the steps and peeking through.

He thought he should get a turn blowing the bubbles and reached for them. This attempt was followed shortly with a bubble spill of 1/4 of the bottle. This is why his job is to chase and pop the bubbles, not blow them!

Great Lakes Trip 2010 - Part 3

2010-07-16T12:06:00.005-05:00

On our first night in Detroit, we had to go to Buddy's Pizza. Ben came along last year, but wasn't eating solid foods other than rice cereal (yum!). So this was his first time eating their pizza, and he thought it was delicious, as he should!

After Buddy's, we headed back to visit Tony's dogs. Ben had a great time with them. He also had fun running around the living room, bouncing from Jen to Tony to Mom and giving lots of hugs.

The next day, Jen & Tony came over and spent the day with us. Mom & Dad had gotten Ben an inflatable pool and we thought he might like to splash in it since it was a warm day. I need to mention that they have "Splash Days" every week during the summer at Ben's daycare, and he has to wear his bathing suit, swim diaper, and swim shoes. The teachers always report that he loves it, and gets soaked. Dave and I always assumed that "Splash Day" meant they got to splash in a little kiddy pool along with the other kids in his class.

We were wrong.

Ben got into his bathing suit and let me put on his sunscreen with a minimum of fuss. He walked over to the pool, leaned over, and started splashing his hands in the water. He was having such a fun time that I figured I'd help him into the water. That was when the screaming started.

Now this is a child who LOVES bathtime and hates to stop splashing and actually get bathed. Dad and Dave had filled up the pool a few hours before, so it had plenty of time to get warm in the sun. But somehow this was different from the bathtub for Ben and caused weeping & gnashing of teeth. He eventually calmed down a little when Grammie got into the pool with him and Uncle Tony got him playing with his buckets & squirt toys. But he still wasn't entirely happy, and seemed glad to sign "all done" about 10 minutes later and get out of the pool.

When we got back to KC, I asked his teachers exactly what "Splash Days" entailed. Apparently regulations don't allow the kids to actually go in pools, so they have splash tables that they play with.

On Friday, Dave, Tony, Jen and I drove up to Frankenmuth for my free birthday chicken dinner at Zehnder's. We didn't think Ben would have the attention span to sit for a 2-hour all-you-can-eat meal plus the drive, so he stayed home with Grammie & Grandpa. We did bring him back some of their wonderful fried chicken and he approved.

We also got the chance to spend a few hours with Niru ("Mom #2" since high school) and sample some delicious Indian snacks! Ben loved that her windows were low enough so he could look out.

Ben getting his hands washed by "The Moms" after snacks, which he devoured!

Great Lakes Trip 2010 - Part 2

2010-07-16T11:13:00.001-05:00

After a few days with the girls, we headed up to Toledo to visit my grandma. She found a bear for Ben that sings "I've Been Working on the Railroad" and he loved it! In his explorations of the house, he also found a wind-up flashlight, which kept him asking, "more peesh" when the light ran out, and one of the rosaries Grandma had made. He spent several happy minutes putting those things and his books in the box that the bear came in, then taking them out & repeating the process. Packing & unpacking is definitely one of his favorite games right now.

Great Lakes Trip 2010 - Part 1

2010-07-16T11:05:00.003-05:00

We headed out on our trip to Michigan & Ohio right after I got done with bereavement camp at the end of June. We drove to Effingham, IL, which is about the halfway mark, and stayed there overnight. Our room was on the 4th floor and looked out onto the parking lots for the hotel and the Wal-Mart right across the road. Little did we know how fascinating this would be for Ben! He stayed at the window pointing and saying, "car!" over and over again.

The next day we got back on the road to spend a few days with my college roommates and their families. Ben had a blast seeing the other kids and playing with the cool trucks that Gideon & Evelyn had gotten out for him. The weather was pretty toasty so Monday night they got out the Slip & Slide and the older kids played with squirt guns and sprinklers. Ben wasn't quite sure about the whole thing...

but loved going down the slide and tromping around in the grass.

We also finally got to meet beautiful baby Petra! She is such a cheerful and content little girl.

Special kudos go to Sarah's dog Soren, who is so sweet and tolerant with the kiddos. He patiently sat as Ben enthusiastically petted him and tried to point to Soren's teeth and point at (aka poke) his nose. We quickly redirected him to petting Soren's ears and back instead and tried to work on what it meant to be gentle.

The next day the other Sarah & I took the kids to walk around Dayton's campus for a little while. We stopped at the beautiful new bookstore and got new t-shirts for Ben & me and a new window sticker for Henry the Honda. Ben enjoyed watching the waterfall in the prayer garden while the bigger kids walked back and forth across the rocks.

And despite all the renovations and new building that's going on on campus, some things never change:

M&T - still just an ugly square brick building! It also looked like the band building, Reichard, had not changed either. We took a snack break in the echo point in front of the chapel before heading back to Sarah's. Ben didn't really seem to notice the cool echo when you yell at that specific point, but Dave and I think it's pretty neat.

Of course, while we were in the area, we also had to stop at Dorothy Lane Market. Not only do they have their Killer Brownies, they now also carry select varieties of Jeni's Ice Creams from Columbus. Expensive, but worth it! We chose one old favorite, the dark chocolate (my favorite ice cream!), and tried the Buttermint, which was also delicious.

On our last morning, we had breakfast with Heather, Jeremy & my goddaughter Elli, who had just returned from their vacation the night before. We were glad that we were able to squeeze in a visit with them before we left.

Captain Adorable

2010-07-14T07:37:00.001-05:00

Fashion tip of the day from Captain Adorable: Tupperware can also double as a stylish hat.

Our little bookworm

2010-07-10T20:38:00.002-05:00

Ben loves to read and has a nice collection of books. We also go to the library about once a week and try to find good books among their sad board book collection which seems to have an inordinate amount of Christmas and Hannukah books. Thankfully, we can request books from other branches if the local branch's collection is slim. I thought I'd share just a few of Ben's favorite books.

Older books

Good Night Moon by Margaret Wise Brown. I also have this in Spanish for work and it's simple enough for me to read to Ben too.

Dr. Seuss' ABCs.
We read this aloud when I was pregnant with Ben and it still calms him when he hears it now.

I Am a Bunny by Ole Risom & Richard Scarry. My mom says this was her favorite book to read to Tony & me, and Dave and I love reading it to Ben. Simple, flowing text and typically great Richard Scarry illustrations that follow Nicholas the Bunny through the different seasons.

Hand, Hand, Fingers, Thumb by Al Perkins
We are on our second copy of this one (thanks, Uncle Tony!) because the first one got so loved/chewed up! Fun rhyming text.

Going On a Bear Hunt by Michael Rosen & Helen Oxenbury. Ben likes the action words and sometimes chimes in on the repeated "uh-oh!"

I See, also illustrated by Helen Oxenbury. A very simple book, this entertained Ben through many diaper changes when he was 6-12 mos. Ben loved saying "baby!" and pointing to the different objects introduced. We also borrowed I Hear, in the same series, from the library. Another delightful book by Oxenbury and Mem Fox is Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes.

Newer Books

Is Your Mama a Llama? by Deborah Guarino. Memorizing this book and being able to recite it to Ben while driving has staved off many a road trip meltdown! It is now one of my favorite children's books; nice but not overly-cutesy drawings and clever rhyming text.

That's Not My Dinosaur! by Fiona Watt and other That's Not My _____ books. We have a great video of Aunt Mary reading this to Ben on our trip to South Carolina last fall.

Good Night, Gorilla by Peggy Rathmann. We had to take this out of Ben's bedtime book choices because he wanted it read over and over again. He melted down one night because we wouldn't read it a sixth time. Now it's a daytime book. He will also sit and flip through the pages by himself for several minutes at a time. Simple text but detailed illustrations that encourage the reader or child to add their own observations and details.

There are so many more he likes, but those are some of his top choices to read repeatedly. What are your favorite books for young children?

Dancing boy

2010-07-10T19:46:00.001-05:00

We spent the late morning outdoors at Ben's friend Ava's birthday party. Ben LOVED the bubble machine and stayed by it for almost the first hour. He got a little more adventurous later, but still chose the bubbles over the pool or sand areas. We came home after lunch and Ben and I both took naps. He woke up from his nap in a goofy, cheery mood. He was chatting and giggling like crazy most of the evening!

Here is a short video from after dinner when he was dancing to his Leapfrog fridge letter set (a fabulous $5 find at a consignment sale which has led to hours of entertainment for Ben!). Ben has been dancing a lot more the past few weeks. He had a highchair reggae dance party at TGI Friday's and boogied to the jazz music at the seafood restaurant in Michigan with Uncle Tony cheering him on.

18-month checkup

2010-07-09T20:45:00.000-05:00

Ben had his 18-month checkup today with his fantastic doctor. He is staying on the same growth curve; doc says his height & weight are proportional. His adult height estimate is still 6'2". He got 3 vaccinations but is now done until his pre-kindergarten shots at age 4 or 5. He cried when the injections went in but quieted immediately when I picked him up afterward and happily tromped out of the exam room and tried to invade the nurses' work area a few minutes later!

His current stats are:
Height: 34.25" (90-95th %ile)
Weight: 29 lb 12 oz (90th %ile)
Head circumference: 49.1 cm (80-85th %ile). Ben was surprisingly cooperative when the nurse put the measuring tape around his melon!

So he is a pretty big guy, and the doc said he looks like a two-year-old. It is nice that he's walking now, because it was getting tiring carrying him everywhere! He loves sitting in his plastic booster seat and coloring on the tray, but we feel kind of bad because his poor chubby legs get squished when the tray is snapped on. It's just not made for chunky babies! But Ben doesn't seem to mind and keeps asking us to "peesh" put the tray on for him.

Ben's language development is going really well. He says about 35 words or approximations consistently, uses about 6 signs and understands a few more that we do like "mommy" and "daddy" but doesn't actually use them himself. He loves to chatter and talk and has really been imitating and trying new words like crazy over the past few weeks. It is a really neat stage!

We just returned from a great trip to Ohio & Michigan so we will upload some photos from that soon.

Walking!

2010-06-11T17:55:00.001-05:00

Ben is slowly figuring out that walking can get him around just as well or better than crawling. His daycare teachers have really been working with him on it and we have at home as well. He has been taking more and more steps and we finally got it on video!

(Note: Ben is wearing the kids' version of the great shirts Kelly got for everyone at the ranch for Memorial Day!)

A few photos

2010-05-24T22:21:00.000-05:00

Here are some pictures of Ben from the last few weeks. He has been chatting up a storm!

He is still working on walking, but now will stand on the stairs and use the banister (with supervision!) to walk up or down the stairs. Unless he decides it's time for a quick belly slide down the stairs, just for fun! (Or to run away from Mommy who is trying to get him to bed!) He has also discovered that if he stands on the 3rd step, he can reach the light switches and spend minutes flipping them on & off!

"Bath" is now one of Ben's favorite signs. It may look like he's trying to sing opera in the photo below, but I think he's just signing "bath." We have to be careful not to use the word around him unless it's bath time because he gets very disappointed! He really loves splashing and playing with his bath toys. We've started saying "bye bye" to the water as we drain the bath to work on transitions, but it is still a challenge to get him out of the tub & dried off without a major protest.

Ben's stuffed animals regularly get hugs & kisses & occasional nibbles. He adores his teddy & puppy but also is the third generation to cuddle with Georgie, below. In the mornings he will often point to the stuffed animals next to his bookcase and ask to "peash" have them in his crib until he ends up with a whole pile. Even his beloved animals aren't immune from his new game of holding something up high and dropping it with enthusiastic force! Here are some photos of his gentler moments.

Happy day

2010-05-16T00:21:00.001-05:00

There was nothing particularly noteworthy about today, but it was just a really happy day for Ben. He was smiling & laughing so much! We gave him blackberries for the first time and he scarfed them down. He decided he doesn't like raw red peppers as much as he likes the cooked ones he had the other day with his fajitas. He LOVES his baths and signed "bath" hopefully several times this morning before his bath, which was needed as he got soy butter in his hair again. We didn't bathe him again tonight after he rubbed hummus on his face during dinner. Thankfully, a washcloth sufficed for that. Ben did love the hummus, though!

Full-out walking is still a work in progress, but Ben is taking several sets of a few steps at a time. He slides down stairs backwards on his belly for the sheer joy of it. We had a video chat with Grammie & Grandpa this morning and he waved, smiled & played peek-a-boo. He flirted with a nice lady at a neighboring booth at Red Robin. We sang "Baa Baa Black Sheep" about 5x because Ben requests it over and over by saying "baa!" and signing "music." He's getting a little better in climbing into a lap to read a story, but if he can't exactly get the movements, he'll settle for just tackling you. He really is just such a joy!

Happy Mother's Day!

2010-05-09T22:26:00.001-05:00

Happy Mother's Day wishes to our moms, grandmas, "second moms" and friends who are moms! We love you and appreciate all of your support and often behind-the-scenes hard work!

We had a lovely breakfast at Ingredient, walked around Town Center for a few minutes, then headed home for a nap. After nap & his lunch, we headed over to Jerry & Herb's for dinner & dessert with the family. Ben was kind of clingy and Serious Baby this morning as he is teething again but had an awesome new friend to console him, thanks to Uncle Jeff & Rebecca, who went to see Alice Cooper last night!

Ben has seen Alice Cooper's appearance on "The Muppet Show," but somehow did not seem to make the connection between that and his new super-soft bear. Think it's too early to show him some "Wayne's World"?

Ben also independently decided he wanted to push his stroller for a while before getting in it. He pushed Alice Cooper & Teddy around 2 sides of the restaurant with only a little steering help (he was managing to only turn it in circles for the first 30 seconds!).

Ben also got a haircut Thursday night as his hair was getting unruly. He was kind of tired after a hard day of play & learning at daycare, but did perk up a little at the end! Again, I was happy to fork over the small fee so that I didn't have to try to cut his hair in a straight line as he continually turned and twisted to look at everything! I really appreciate that these stylists have the skill & bravery to do so! I guess some kids just get transfixed by the movies they have, but Ben really didn't know what to make of Thomas the Tank Engine and didn't care about Dora other than to have the DVD box to hold. Maybe I should bring a Giada DVD to his next haircut!

Ben's new word

2010-05-02T20:12:00.002-05:00

Ben is already good at saying or signing "more" and is even getting closer to the actual sign instead of his original clapping approximation. We decided to work on adding "please" to his mealtime requests and he has picked it up quickly. It usually comes out "peash" or "peas" as his l's aren't too good yet. However, he still hasn't quite grasped that just saying "please" doesn't get you whatever you want, right at that moment. He was trying to get my lemonade yesterday and seemed to think that if he said "please" enough times with a sweet look on his face, that would be the magic combination to get the drink.

Ben also seems to be in a kind of window of learning this last week or so- he's talking so much and trying so hard to imitate new words and new signs. It's really fun to watch!