Thursday, December 30, 2010

Caught up!!

Ok, I'm caught up! Confession time! There were two reasons for my 2 month hiatus from the blog:

Reason #1 was related to the difficulty in getting pictures of Ben. He LOVES the camera and wants to see pictures of himself or take pictures himself. Often when I pull the camera out, I end up with a crying, frustrated child as he doesn't understand that my camera is not a toy. So I guess you're in luck that I didn't have a million pictures to catch up with after these two exciting months.

Reason #2....I have been feeling quite under the weather, taking lots of naps and going to bed early because WE ARE HAVING ANOTHER BABY! The baby is due July 11, 2011 and we couldn't be more excited. Take a look at the baby's first pictures taken just this morning!




Now that you've heard our news, please enjoy pictures from November and December 2010. :)

Ben's Photo Shoot

Ben had professional pictures taken just before Christmas. We didn't get them electronically, but these are scanned so you can see them. How handsome is he?




Christmas!

Santa came!


Ben's trip downstairs on Christmas morning. Such anticipation. We had the video camera and the regular camera.


He comes around the corner...


And skips all the presents and runs right over to my sister's purse to find her cell phone. Oh well. Maybe he'll "get" it next year!


I forgot Ben's stocking in PA so we used my old stocking. All he cared about were the snacks.


Starting to get into the spirit with delivering Daddy a present.



"Mommy, do you see THOMAS on this blanket!?"


"I don't know what play dough is, but this looks fun!"


"I promise I'm not going to mess with the ipod again!"


"SNOW!"


One of Ben's favorite toys.


Examining the aftermath of part 1 while we broke for breakfast.


Ben has officially learned to "jam" with this new guitar. He even says he's "jamming."


Reading a new book with Aunt Jen.


Ben put Mommy to work putting together a giant fire truck puzzle.


Christmas in VA

I helped Ben decorate a gingerbread man.



He ended up enjoying eating the candy more than decorating. :)


"Ho Ho Ho!" Ben's new FAVORITE saying.


Christmas Eve bath time.


Ben meets Santa

On the way to meet Santa, Ben was saying "Ho Ho Ho" and showing me how he was going to smile for the camera ("cheeeeese"). I was so excited to be taking him to see Santa this year now that he was going to understand a little more. Boy, was I disappointed.

As you can see, Ben looks terrified. I had to be in the picture with my sweat pants and ponytail (Ben wouldn't sit without me). To put the icing on the cake...do you notice something wrong with Ben's feet? A mom of 2 years and I put his shoes on the wrong feet? Hmm. I'm soooo glad I bought this picture to capture this moment. HA!

Ben at 2

What a little boy Ben is turning into! I'm sure he's going to change and learn a ton more, but I'm still amazed every day.

- Ben has started to play "pretend." He enjoys to cook, to play with his trucks/bus/airplane/trains etc., to play "bath time" in his lego bin (which he barely fits into), etc.
- He talks a ton. Lots of it is difficult for others to understand and it's mostly one word at a time, but he's definitely communicating with us and seems to pick up new words all the time.
- He loves his grandparents, aunts, uncle and cousins and asks for them constantly. Thank goodness for modern technology and the ability to video chat and call whenever we want to for free.
- He has so many new toys (birthday and Christmas), it's hard to say what his favorites are. Some of the highlights are his toy fire truck, anything with trains on it, airplane, guitar and keyboard.
- He has started to do what I think is one of my favorite things....he sings! Most of the time, it's "la la la la" but he'll sing about Elmo and Bert and will also sing (and demand we join him) Jingle Bells.
- He's a good little dancer and likes to "dance like Ellen" and act out different animals. Some recent favorites are a kangaroo (which is really nothing like a kangaroo) and walking like a penguin.
- He still impresses me with his memory. We got a holiday card from my college roommate, Bern with a picture of her family on it. Ben looked at the picture of Bern's husband, Mike, and said "FIRE TRUCK!" He remembered that in September, Mike took Ben to see a fire truck. How he remembers things like that amazes me.
- Ben is obsessed with pancakes and asks for them at every meal.
- He still loves the vacuum and broom and enjoys cleaning the house (wish it actually worked)!

Happy birthday Ben!! You've come so far and learned so much...what will the next year bring for you? :) We love you!

Ben turns 2!!!

Choo! Choo! Look who's turning 2!!

We had a train birthday party for Ben with a musical entertainer. She sang lots of songs and brought instruments for the kids to play. Ben, as you can see, was dressed his part as the train engineer!





He applauded for himself after blowing out the candles.


During the party, we put all Ben's gifts behind a chair. The following morning, he spotted the gifts, climbed behind the chair, sat down in the middle of the gifts and started opening. He got a lot of present opening practice before Christmas.


This was a favorite of Ben's gifts. A firetruck that makes sounds, lights up AND squirts water!


A few early birthday presents

A "BUS!" arrived in the mail from Ben's Great Aunt Nancy and Great Uncle Tom. He loves buses and spots every single one when we are out and about. Now he's very happy to have his own bus. (Not sure why he doesn't have any clothes on.)


Waiting patiently for me to open it.



Mimi and Papi came over before Ben's birthday party and gave him another handmade masterpiece...an excavator!


Ben tried on some handmade pjs and store bought snow boots.


Random...

Ben agreed to pose in front of the Christmas tree with his awesome train Papi made.


He loves the tree.


Nana came to help us get ready for Ben's birthday party. He enjoyed helping her vacuum.


So handsome...

He looks so old here!


Decorating the tree

Ben really enjoyed decorating the tree. It took a while to convince him the ornaments stayed ON the tree after we put them on...but he got it eventually. He kept grabbing them off the table, walking over to the tree and saying, "help!"