Ben's First Haircut

Ben and Jack playing

Here are some videos that Nancy took of Ben and Jack playing last week. From what I'm told, in the first one, Ben is trying to play peekaboo with Jack. In the second one, Jack is trying to play tag/chase with Ben. Of course, neither of them understand what the other is doing. Too cute!


Edit: Tossed the URLs into hyperlinks... Nodoby really wants to try to copy and paste a bunch of random crazy letters and numbers no matter how cute the videos are... :)

Edit: Thanks! I couldn't figure out the easy way to do that and it was too late to think about coding it in html. :)

Ben opening pressies

Had to edit the post and shrink the video display sizes... I gotta stop showing Kristy how to do stuff without explaining how it all really works. :)

Ben's 1 yr Check up

Weight: 21.0 lbs
Height: 31 1/2 in
Having a perfect, healthy baby: priceless

Happy Birthday Ben!!!

My little baby is growing up! He turned one today. I am amazed at how fast this year has gone and how much he has grown and changed. It hit me after seeing him in his "Birthday Boy" shirt and jeans, he looked so much more like a little boy than a baby.
He had a pretty eventful day. This morning, he stood at the window and said bye to daddy. This is a new skill for Ben. He's been waving and saying "bye" to everything the past couple weeks and is doing it on command now. After Paul left, I needed to run some stuff out to the car. He was completely content to stand at the window and wave bye to me too!



Babies are supposed to be in rear-facing seats until they are 1 yr and 20 lbs. Ben's been over 20 lbs for awhile now and has been so ready to face forward, but we had to wait until 1 year... so, without wasting any time, this morning, Paul turned his seat around. He absolutely loved being able to see out the front and to kick his legs without hitting the seat.



The sweet ladies at school gave Ben a birthday card and spoiled and loved on him today. There are only 5 babies in his room these days (there are normally 8) and 3 of them are little ones that sleep a lot. So there is lots of one-on-one play time. They are also working on transitioning him to the 1+ room and he gets to spend some time next door with the "big kids." He's loving it.

We had our thanksgiving potluck/open house at work today. Paul, Ben, and my parents were able to come and see where I work and eat yummy food. Ben was really shy around all the new people - I think he was just overwhelmed. He was more than happy to get back to day care and play in the "peace" of the nursery room.

After work, Dad, Janet, Suzie, the Wilsons and the Voigts came over for dinner and birthday cake. The Voigts have a 3 week old baby girl. She is so sweet (and tiny!) and let Paul and I hold her for most of the night. I'm not sure we're getting the baby bug yet, but it was nice to hold her for awhile.

Ben did NOT like his birthday cake!! I think it was a combination of him being tired, overwhelmed, and Grandpa and Mom not letting him play with the fire... He had a complete meltdown and would have nothing to do with the cake. I'm a little disappointed, but I guess it's a good thing he doesn't *love* sugary sweets. We'll have another party on Saturday after Paul's parents get here, so we'll adjust the circumstances and see if he'll enjoy it then - I need that cake-all-over-the-face picture!





Ben got lots of fun presents tonight, a drum/music set, books, a shape sorter, and a Little Einsteins ride-on toy. He wasn't too into actually opening them, but he liked playing with them and I'm sure they'll bring hours of fun (and noise!!). He and Jack had fun and made a huge mess with all the toys and balloons. I had three mylar balloons, which are always a hit, and a whole bunch of regular balloons. I was a little worried that Ben and Jack would try to eat the balloons and pop them in their mouths, but they did great. Ben actually managed to put a small whole in one balloon without popping it, it just gradually lost air through the night.









It's been a whirlwind of a year, but I wouldn't trade it for anything. I'm so proud of my little guy and can't wait to see how his character continues to develop. So much fun!

These boots were made for walkin

Ben took his first steps today!! :)

His daycare hosted a thanksgiving lunch today for all the kids and their parents. It was really nice - the food was great and we got to eat as a family, meet the other parents and get to know Ben's teachers. So, after lunch, Ben was playing with Ms. Elizabeth and then turned and walked towards me. It was only about 3 steps, but he did it without holding on and without falling! He then proceeded to do it 3-4 more times between Elizabeth and me. :) We are so glad that we both got to be there and see his first steps!

Don't worry, you haven't missed it either... Paul got video. He'll post that tonight.

I am such a proud mommy!!!

Ben eats a snake, swings by for a visit, and conquers mount brown chair.

So, my son (aka The Bacon Lord) has been a busy little guy this last month and a half or so. He still isn't walking, but don't let that fool you! He's fully capable of getting himself from point A to point B. Kristy told me Ben managed to climb up in the brown rocking chair in our living room not too long ago, and he keeps getting bolder every day. He's "talking" a lot as well, and I caught him on video babbling while he put a giant snake in its place. You'll just have to see it for yourself!



Insert by Kristy: He was so proud of himself for climbing up on the chair. He actually posed for this picture, waiting at least 30 seconds for me to get the camera ready with this big ole grin on his face. He then proceeded to rock the chair and sit there watching TV for awhile. He was so proud of himself, and I'm so proud of him!



Ben swings by for a spell and does some other randomly cute stuff:


Ben's Holloween adventure at Orangefest:


Ben being cute, as usual: