Let's Go Fly A Kite!

Ben and Donna flew a kite at the beach a couple weeks ago. Ben likes the beach but he's still not all that keen on the sand part. One grain of sand on his hands, and he has to show us and ask us to wipe it off.

Fire Chief Ben

Do you have any fires that Ben can put out?

Handsome Boy

Ben just gets better looking every day..... just like his Daddy. Ha ha!

Merry Go Stop

Who knew you could have so much fun on a broken merry-go-round!

Cool Rider

Ben can finally reach the pedals on his tricycle!

Hurricane Ben

Fortunately, Ben's first hurricane experience was a good one. He slept through all the wind and rain overnight and really didn't care too much when the light switches didn't work. He could care less about the water in the basement, but the water outside was a different story... After I took him for a stroller ride through some deep puddles, ( which he loved and continually asked for "More! More!" ), I let him free in front of our house to discover the joy of puddles! He played for quite a while and got soaked!


Just before lift-off!


Splash landing!

What fun!

Ben Meets Bert & Ernie!

We all went to Sesame Place today and Ben got to meet lots of his famous friends in person! We didn't get any autographs, but we got some good pictures.

Ben's First Date

Ben took a date to the carnival tonight. Ben and Katelyn rode together on this car ride five times in row! The only reason the got off the ride was because the ride operator had to go potty. So they went to ride on the train together instead.

Mr. Toughguy

So I picked up Ben at daycare yesterday and I was told that he was put in 'timeout' a number of times throughout the day...  Of course, I asked, "What in the world would my sweet adorable young son have possibly done to deserve to be put in timeout?"  

 

 

Well... it would seem that Ben was putting some of the other kids into head locks!   

 

Hmm... is this a sign of things to come?  

So I asked Ben what happened.  And while he's not yet talking in complete sentences, he was able to communicate with me using some simple words and his own personal sign language.  

This is a recap of how that conversation went. 

• Steve: "So Ben, did you put some of the other kids in headlocks today?"
• Ben:  "Yeah"
• Steve: "Why did you do that?
• Ben:  He demonstrated to me that the other kids were pushing him by pushing his hands out to me, but not actually pushing me.
• Steve: "OK, so they pushed you first?"
• Ben: "Yeah"
• Steve: "So then what did you do?"
• Ben: Ben then bopped himself on the head
• Steve: "OK Ben, so the other kids pushed you and you therefore put them in a headlock"
• Ben: "Yeah"

Well, that seems justified to me.  

His teachers somewhat verifed his story, but they still don't approve of the headlocks.  We're going to have to work on that.   But just so you all know, most of the time Ben is still our little angel. 

Well, maybe not so little anymore... 

This is  Ben last Saturday morning just before leaving to get a haircut so he would look sharp for his big birthday party later that afternoon.  

I'll be posting lots more pictures from his 2nd birthday party soon.

Stay tuned!

 

Cheesy Smiles

As you can probably tell by my much delayed blog posting frequency, as Ben gets older we seem to have less and less time for the extra things... Unfortunately posting blog pictures has been pushed down lower on my list, but its certainly not off my list.  In any case, I figured I owed all of Ben's blog readers a really good group of pictures to make up for the past few months of missing updates.  Get ready to SMILE!

Looking over the past few months of pictures I notice a new theme...   Ben obviously is a happy kid and loves to play and smile, but many of his smiles were a little more forced than they had been previously.   Often when we pull out the camera we now say "Smile Ben!  Say Cheese!"  Well, he responds and gives us a big "Cssheeeeesssee" and makes what he thinks is a BIG smile.  But well, its usually more of a distorted smile that comes out now.  

I was surprised that the top didn't pop off his sippy cup when he gave us this smile.  He tightened up every muscle in his body!  Still, its a very cute smile.

Then sometimes we get something that's more like a monster with a dirty face smiling...  

Maybe not AS cute...  but still a good one.

Then sometimes we get the reverse of a smile.  Something we refer to as the 'Fishy Face"

No, not a smile, but yes, definitely a great response to our picture requests.  He can only do this so long and eventually he breaks down and laughs.

And then there's the smile that says, "Hey! I'm proud of me!"  Like when he learned how to play pool.

Yes, Ben, we're very proud of you too.  Especially when you learned not to throw the pool balls into the corner pockets, but to gently roll them....

I don't know, maybe he's just taking after his Daddy?

Or maybe he takes after his Mommy...

Just a reality check - Ben doesn't ALWAYS smile. 

Sometimes he gives us the sad look, like when he wants us to pull him around in his wagon around the yard one more time.

Not a smile, but how do you not just melt when he gives that look and do whatever he wants!  Of course we went around the yard five more times...

What does Ben say when we ask him where he gets his great smile, looks and personality?  

Actually, his response to that question would most likely be "ELMO!"