Growing up WAY too fast...

Its amazing how fast Ben is growing...   I thought I'd share some pictures from the past few weeks to demonstrate.

Ben and his friends have learned to perform coordinated peek-a-boo!

How cute it that!

And Ben's feet are growing so fast he's started wearing Daddy's shoes!

And he's getting SO tall he needs to duck when going through doorways!

No one's going to believe this... but Ben also started hanging around in bars with some friends and playing with GUNS!   Just look at that dastardly little smile...

 

Notice the 'skull-n-crossbones' sweatshirt Mommy bought him?  He's one bad-ass little kid!  And then after a few glasses of seltzer and the orange out of my beer, things started really getting crazy.

I bet our little frat boy that he couldn't balance a pizza dish on his head, and wouldn't you know it, I lost that bet!

 

With his new found confidence, he's also taken to walking up to the ladies and asking them out on dates.  Would you believe this one said yes?

After trying to buy cigarettes, I thought it was time to set this kid straight.

Ben, you're only 19 months old...  you're not old enough to be doing any of these things!

We've got to get you out of this place and get you back to being our little angel.

Now that's better!



The Cold Weather Kid

Its obviously been a tough winter this year with very cold temperatures and lots of snow.  For the most part we've been staying indoors like everyone else, but there have been a few days were Ben REALLY wanted to go outside.  Cold, snow, ice?  Ben doesn't care...

Its hard to play in the yard when there's a couple feet of snow, so we actually played in the street a couple times this winter.  Making snow balls, kicking the snow and trying to JUMP! 

Ben has been trying to jump so hard!  Its so darn cute watching him try to get his feet off the ground, but he's just not quite there yet. 

So fortunately this day was before all the really deep snow came and we were able to make it into the yard and play for a while.   We made a path over to Ben's little house and he ran right in!

Aunt Donna was over and she helped clear off slide and catch Ben at the bottom!

Playing outside in the winter is fun because there are some different things you can do that you certainly can't do in the summer...  Like eat icicles!

And get adults to do things that they normally wouldn't do - like pull little kids in sleds!

Ben really enjoyed sledding!  I'm sure we'll be doing it lots more times in the years to come.

Gotta love that smile!!

2010 Wrap up

Yes, I know, its been way too long since I've provided Ben's worldwide fans some pictures and an update on his adventures.  I know winter's almost over now and no one's evening thinking about the 2010 holiday season anymore, but I feel as if I need to catch up a little, so I'll start out with a quick update from the end of last year.  But first I have to remind everyone that Ben is STILL the coolest kid ever.



The holidays in general were fairly quiet for us this year.  We stayed local and didn't do a lot of running around, and that was alright by us.  We had a great Thanksgiving surprise this year when Ben got to meet his Grandpa Hank for the first time!

We had to take advantage of the situation and take a very rare photo of the three generations on Jill's side of the family all together.

Ben met Santa briefly last year, but it wasn't that impressive of an event.  He was only about 6 months old so he didn't really care much about presents.  This year's event was a little different...

Santa came to visit Ben's daycare again and Ben pretty much wanted nothing to do with that big hairy guy.  (There is a face somewhere under all that white hair.)

(I think Mommy liked sitting on Santa's lap!)

Things starting looking a little better once a present was introduced into the picture..

But only for a second.

 Things got better once we got off of Santa's lap and got to open that present

 Christmas morning went much better because Santa was long gone by the time that Ben got up.

 Ben got a new table and chair set and he just walked right over to the chair and sat down like it had been there for years.   Oh, and he also got lots of new toys (uh huh, MORE toys!)

Including a toy camera that he decided was more useful as a cell phone.

"Ello?"

 And a piano that you play with your feet!

 And lots and lots of more stuff, but he would always like one more, of coure..

More!  More!  More!  He says...

But by the end of the morning I think he had more fun playing with the torn up wrapping paper and putting it into the garbage.

 And playing with the packing peanuts.

 I don't know why we even bother spending any money on presents when little pieces of styrofoam and ripped up paper provide more entertainment than anything that the Fischer-Price and Step 2 can create!

And then with all these new toys around the house to play with, what does Ben want to do next? 

Go outside and push his electric car around...

You gotta just love this kid!