This is the video from the other night when we were out walking around.

Sweet

The picture is from yesterday..it's maybe a little girly, but still cute. He was climing the steps outside of our apartment.

Anyway...here's a great story...well, I think it's great...

A couple days ago Rick and I were out for a bike ride. We were riding on the bike path and as we rode we approached two women walking (even though there was a sideWALK running parallel to the bike path) I didn't want to be rude and yell at them that we were coming so rick told me to ring my bell. (Yeah, my bike has a bell, bc I'm totally cool). Anyway, I rang the bell and the woman on the left stopped dead in her tracks and whipped around. (She was huge by the way, thick and like 6ft tall, amazon style)

My first thought was, "oh crap, I'm going to get beat up."

She stared for a minute and then started looking around on the ground.

I said, "Excuse us."

She said, "Ooohhh! That was you with the ding!!! I thought I dropped my earring."

Then she and her friend started cracking up.

Um, I'd just like to know what kind of earrings sound like a bike bell when they hit the ground....

Here are a couple pictures from the past two days...

Any chance he gets to climb the stairs, he's all about it. Getting really good at "almost" running. He likes going down hills. He loves birds, he was pointing at a big black crow. And this is what he looks like when he barks like a dog. He has moo'ed a few times and oinked a few times (it sounded more like geck geck) But he barks consistantly and LOVES dogs. Which really makes me sad that we left Gunner behind. :( Here is a sweet picture of my feet. I know you will find them as shockingly attractive as I do... ;)

11

My Baby Boy...

Benjamin is now 11 months old!

Here is the list of recent accomplishments from the past month:

• He walks almost everywhere now, unless he is trying to be fast or he is tired
• He says, mama, dada, yes, no, and I think he says this too. We are working on please and thank you.
• He discovered he can use his voice for screaming, a tad annoying, but something new
• He's sleeping through the night (FINALLY, yeah, I know it was all my fault...)
• He's still a dancin' machine
• He plays well with others
• He lost interest in nursing so weaning was very easy and we are completely done
• He eats all "people" food now
• He's a pretty good copy cat and is very interested in doing whatever daddy is doing.
• Can get in and out of the bathtub on his own

I think that's all. He is very opinionated about what he wants (he has been for quite some time). I have become a pro at knowing what he wants but I will be excited when he learns to say more words. I attempted to teach him baby signs for a little while, but he wasn't interested and to tell you the truth, neither was I.

Look at his little butt chin. :)

"Can you believe she hung up on me?" lol...

Aunt Margaret's Hippo

Benjamin recieved a stand and ride block eating hippo from Aunt Marg and Uncle Cliff for his first Christmas. As soon as he could stand I took it out for him to play with and it's been love ever since.


Today, I was thinking of ways to wear him out since he tends to sleep better at night if he is able to be active, like on days when we have play dates...

In the house, the very small house, the hippo bumps into everything and makes Benjamin mad. So I decided to let him walk the path outside. He LOVED it! He thought it was the greatest thing ever. When it was time to go inside he frantically tried to drag the hippo and himself out the door before Rick closed it. He could only be distracted by a bath.

I am in constant awe of how he grows and changes with each day. He is SO smart. I am always amazed when he figures out how to do new things. He brings us joy in the truest form. :) I'd better stop or I might cry...

In other news...Rick and I got bikes. It's been a lot of fun just riding around town. I don't have any pictures yet. Well, I've got one of Ben in his cart. I got a Trek 7.5FX, it's black with blue and white detail. Rick got a Gary Fisher Piranha and his is green. Benjamin got a blue and grey Giant Peapod. He really enjoys cruising around in there.

I could get into bike riding. It's fun and it is something we both enjoy. We both have sore behinds now. I told Rick I was going to buy the biggest bike seat I could find for my bike. :)

Anyway...it's time to get my baby B in bed.

Look Papa!

Benjamin's first Cucumber...and he liked it!

I didn't take this picture, it's from our BBQ/playdate this afternoon. But I took the rest of the pictures...

They had a really cool sand box. Ben got completely filthy, but he really loved it. He didn't even care when one of the other kids dumped a bucket of sand on his head... :-/