The Halloween Special!

Its Benjamin's first Halloween!  And I'm going to do a big holiday picture posting today!
Ben can't really go trick or treating yet, but Jill got him TWO costumes to wear around the house today.   Our little pumpkin started out the day looking really cute...

We wanted to walk Ben around the neighborhood today, but between the on and off rain and his sleeping and eating schedule we never made it out of the house.  So a little later, he did his second costume change of the day, and he got even cuter...

His pumpkin isn't full of candy... its full of baby food that our neighbor Mrs. Colucci brought over for him.  She is Ben's honorary Grammie.   She takes care of Jill & I pretty good too - she brings us dinners!!

We took a few fall family pictures earlier in the week that also came out nice.

Here's our nice family picture on our new swing that I built...

And on the front porch...

So cute!!  Both of them!

This is Ben's rocking chair...  he'll grow into it eventually.

Here we are hiding in the weeds.

And finally, Ben will leave you with this message...

Remember, only YOU can prevent forest fires!!

Yup, Its confirmed...Ben really is the cutest kid ever!

We all went to Babies R'Us the other night to get some clothes and general baby supplies for Ben.  I like going to the store with Ben because I find it fun to walk around with him and show him off.   He always gets a lot of attention.  Its especially fun at Babies R'Us because there's lots of other babies there to compare him to.   While Jill shops, Ben & I look around at all the colorful toys and we talk to the other babies.  We met a little 5 month old girl who already had earings and a curly up-do.  Ben didn't especially take to her - I think she was trying to hard.  There were a few other babies that we tried talking to, but they were all just stuck in the car seats and staring at the ceiling and not quite as outgoing as Ben. 

So then we moved on to a woman who was nine months pregnant and about to give birth.  She was there with her husband and mother to pick out a rocking chair.  At the time Ben & I were testing one of the chairs out ourselves and we couldn't help but give some advice.  Jill came over to us and we all wound up talking for a while - and then Ben started flirting with the pregnant lady's mother.  He was smiling at her and laughing - he was being very cute.   Then the lady started following us around a little.  She couldn't get enough of Ben!   Then she starts saying - "Oh, I want to see Benjamin again!  Can we meet here another day?"  Oh boy...  it was time to go.  But it was definitely confirmed once again that Ben is the cutest baby ever!  And its also confirmed that Ben is just like his Daddy - Back in my "prowling days," the Mom's always loved me, and it was the daughters who would give me the time of day.  Ben & I are going to have to keep working on this.

You'll be amazed to know that we didn't bring our camera to Babies R'Us to take pictures of him there.  I know, I know, what what was I thinking!   And I can't create a post stating how cute Ben is without a cute picture!  So here's a few pictures from when our little family went to a local Fall Festival a few weekends ago. 

That was a nice day out!  We love fall festivals...

Will the REAL Baby Einstein Please Stand Up!

I just can't help myself...  Ben might not like the Baby Einstein videos, but I certainly like to comb his hair to look like Einstein.  

Jill & I also like to make all the other Baby's Mommies jealous of Ben and all his hair...  After all, his hair makes him quite the super star where ever we go...

Bumbos and Bopies and Binkies, Oh MY!

Now that Ben has gotten past the three month mark, he's really starting to become more aware of things and develop a little personality. He also discovered that he has a voice last week that can make noises other than just cry. Its absolutely adorable to hear him trying out making different sounds. Although, its not so adorable when he really wants to be fed now - instead of a little cry, he will now add a scream or two in there...  Yowch.... So we do out best not to let him get to that point.    I keep trying to get a video of him 'talking,' but soon as I pull out the video camera, he shuts up and looks at me wondering what they heck I'm doing.   I'll get him one of these times and post a video of him.

Ben is also doing very well with holding his neck up now. We even tried putting him in the "Bumbo" the other day and I think he liked it!

He looks awefully cute sitting in the Bumbo. The names of these baby things crack me up.  Ben has a Bumbo, a Boppie, and lots of Binkies.   I think Jill even has a 'Breast Friend,' although she never used it.  Someone has a job out there where they just get to make up names for baby items to get mommies to buy them.  I want that job.

SO Big....

Oh my, Ben is growing so fast.  And let me tell you - he is quite a big boy for his age.  He's 14 weeks old today, and he's already outgrown all of his 3-6 month old clothes and he's well in to 6-9 month old sized clothes.  Its a shame too because he has so many outfits that he only got to wear and spit up on once or twice, and now they don't fit!  You can get a pretty good idea of how big he is in this picture below with his Grandma. 

I weighed him the other day and he was over 16 pounds already, which is almost double his birth weight. 

Let me give you some perspective - at his daycare, there are a set of twins who are about 7 months old.  Ben weighs more than them, eats more than them and wears about the same size clothes.  I wonder how long this double-sized kid is going to last.  I can see it coming...  by the time he's a teenager, he might be 10 feet tall and weigh 250 pounds!  Well, I hope not.  But I'm sure he's going to be a big kid.  And I'm sure he's going to continue to want to eat all the time too...  I might have to get a second job.

Ben's not so big yet that we can't still bathe him in the kitchen sink though.  Although, I don't think that's going to last much longer - he's going to graduate to the tub real soon.

Just look at that muscle definition on his arms!!  I think he works out with his stuffed animals in the middle of the night.   Ben likes his baths, although when he's done he usually can't wait to spit up on his nice clean clothes.

Ben got his first cold... but he's much better now

Its been a couple of weeks since I've been able to get the time to write an update for the Ben Blog.  I have a good excuse though, we've all been sick.  I'm not sure who got it first, me or Ben, but we were both pretty sick for about a week.  Then just as we were getting better, Jill finally caught up with us and got sick too.  Its a lot of work taking care of a baby when we're all well, and much harder when we're sick.  Any break we get, we just rest or sleep.   Ben handled his first cold very well though.  He would wake himself up coughing from time to time, but then he would usually smile afterwards.  It took him a couple weeks to fully get rid of that nasty cough, but he's done it.  He beat that first cold and is building up his immunity system!  As you can see from all the pictures in this blog, Ben's a pretty happy baby - but he's not always happy though.  Being sick isn't fun.

Our little prince charming wasn't very happy at this moment.  Although this picture made Jill & I laugh quite a bit...  He looks like such the grumpy old man!  I could just hear him saying in a gravely old voice "Leave me alone... I just want to play with my animals, have my bottle and go to bed!"   I think if I photoshop a cigar hanging out of the side of his mouth it would just make this picture complete.

Ben also is learning the bad habit of watching TV from his Mom & Dad.  He doesn't like the Baby Einstein videos so much though.  He gets bored with them pretty quickly.  He would much rather watch a riveting crime drama like CSI: New York or Law & Order with Jill.   He's also digging Survivor too.  I don't know if this is providing any insight as to his personality as he gets older, but I'm not worried... yet.  We'll see how his tastes progress as he gets older.  I'm not so sure I want to release ownership of the remote just yet though.

Anyway, we're glad that we're all getting better now.  We're all a bit happier and hopefully I'll have some more time to put up a few more posts this week.  Right Ben??

RIGHT!  Look at how much better Ben is feeling! 

Ben gets Hypnotized!

Ben is starting to enjoy his toys more and more every day.  Its fun watching him start to hold and grab for his toys and react more to his surroundings.   Every once in a while he gets completely hypnotized by something and its darn funny.   Take a look at him staring at the little monkeys moving in his bouncy seat....

Too funny....  

Ben's also getting better and better at holding his head up.  He's getting more tummy time each day and he's been doing great.  Take a look!

He's growing and developing more every day!  What a cute kid!

Ben is Starting Young....

So Ben started day care this week in preparation for Jill going back to work starting in a few weeks.   He went just for 3/4 days on Monday, Wednesday & Friday this week to start getting used to the idea.   He did great.  I think Jill & I had a harder time with it than Ben did.  He pretty much takes to anyone at this point and doesn't fuss much.  That will probably change as he gets older, but maybe not...

Apparently there are a lot of cute babies there at daycare, but of course Ben is the cutest.  He gets a lot of attention from the ladies that work there at the daycare because of his good looks and charming personality, along with the fact that he's a good dresser (as seen in the previous posts).   It would seem that he's also been able to communicate some messages to the ladies to help get some more attention - via his bibs.  I believe its been working well for him so far.  Just take a look. 

Pretty soon I think he's going to figure out how to start winking...

And of course, this last one shows off his confidence.  Chicks dig confident guys. 

Oh boy... I think we have a lady killer in the making!  I bet he's going to have some very fun teen age years!!  (and so are we!)