Happy 1st Birthday Baby!

Benjamin is one year old today! I have already had a few good cries, because now I know the true meaning of time passing too quickly. He has changed so much that he barely resembles the little baby in his newborn pictures. He is becoming a little boy right before our eyes.

We had more birthday balloon fun today, so I wanted to share a few of my favorite pics. The bottom one is Ben getting in trouble...you can tell he is taking me seriously. He loves the stockings and is always trying to pull the eyes off of frosty. I guess my "no no" means smile at mommy until she caves. He also spent the majority of the day pulling around his new "dog" that he received from his party and dancing to Old MacDonald. We did go out for a bit of shopping today, as it was very pretty outside. Chad had to stay behind to do homework, or so he says, so it was just me and bunny. I decided not to use the stroller since it is quite bulky. So when my arm started giving out, I decided to let him walk. Bad idea. When he wasn't pulling displays down inside the stores, he was trying to pick ABC gum off the sidewalk. Don't worry - I did stop him in time! It was a very short trip though because I was exhausted yet again and decided that at least one of us was going to nap today. Ben was the lucky one, and I cleaned up a bit. Tonight when we were playing though he bumped his head on the leg of the coffee table. I immediately felt like the worlds worst mother. Poor little guy. We can't baby proof the house enough it seems. He will be ok thank goodness, and he is sound asleep at the moment. I think I will follow him. Goodnight!

(I can't figure out how to rotate...but all the fun exhausted him!)

It's over! Ben's first birthday party (minus the fam) went great. We had a household of friends who cheered Ben on as he made a mess out of his cake. He received some very fun toys and a hoodie. After Ben's party, we went to Karra's and partied some more! He is out for the night, as the day of fun and surprises was a lot for him to handle. It is so hard to believe how big they are and how much they have changed this year. Happy birthday babes!

Friday night we had a Christmas party for my work and Ben was lucky enough to stay the night at Karra's house. It was great to be able to go out and have fun knowing he was well taken care of. Apparently he didn't do such a good boy job of sleeping like he does at home, but I think he was all to excited for his slumber party.

Tomorrow we shall relax and hopefully do a whole lot of nothing.

So, we cleaned out Ben's closet yesterday and found more cute outfits for him. This one has little ears on the hood and I couldn't resist smooching his chubby little cheeks when he was wearing it. He has started bringing us books and wants to sit in our lap while we read them. Of course if we don't flip fast enough he gets a little restless. However it's just so darn cute when he drags the book over. He loves the pictures. We have a Christmas song book, so he can look at the pictures while we sing. It's so much fun! We also went for his one year photo shoot the other day. He made a mess out of the cake and spread icing all over the floor. We made sure to brush his teeth extra good that night! Chad bought him an old school ball popper for his birthday. Ben just carries it around like a golf club, although we have seen him push it a few times. He is just at that stage where he wants to carry everything. He will pick up things that are far too heavy for him and grunt like he is in the strong man competition. He is a little buff though. It must be the army crawl moves that gave him all his boy muscle.

Finally, here are some new pictures of Benjamin. We have been quite busy lately with holiday events! These are some pictures from the past 2 weekends. We did put up Christmas lights last weekend. Shortly after we realized that we need to to a lot more next year! they look nice, but I'm thinking deer and more lights in the future. Ben had fun playing with the lights anyway. This weekend we spent a lot of time with some friends of ours visiting cow town and having a few play dates with their little ones and another friends baby. Christian is the newest baby and I must admit to not remembering Ben that little and fragile. It felt a little strange holding such a small baby that I can't sling onto my hip.

Some new things for Ben include bringing us something (usually a book) and then wanting it back immediately, and I mean immediately. It's a little game we play for several minutes until he finally gives up and walks away with it. He has also taken to covering his face or entire body with a blanket and walking around the house. It's quite amusing when he walks into the couch. He doesn't get hurt of course, but he falls onto his bottom and giggles. New words are kitty cat and cookie. He loves to eat graham crackers and teddy grahams, which we call cookie. So when he wants one, he lets us know. He also tried some new foods this weekend, including dill pickles. I was expecting a terrible face, but he acted like he had never tasted something so good. He ate a whole one, and I had to stop him there. It is kind of like his love for canned green beans. I am fairly confident that he would eat the entire can if we let him. The videos below are some random, yet rather entertaining ones from tonight. He loves to give wet, sloppy kisses while making fart noises with his mouth. If you can hear him over my laughing (and bad camera job) it's worth it. The other showcases a bit of Ben's dancing. He loves to shake it! As soon as Chad put this song on he started to rock. I only caught the end of it before he was tired of us cheering him on. Please ignore my bad dancing - Ben doesn't know any better.

Hello! I typically try to blog on Sundays, but after the long holiday weekend I just wanted to clean house and then watch TV. Sorry about the wait. Also, since I have temporarily lost my camera card and am in no mood to go find it, this is a picture of Ben from a few weeks back at a basketball game. He made it out onto the court a few times.
We definitely enjoyed our first Thanksgiving as a family with some out of town friends. I cooked up a storm and we ate way to much every day. It was wonderful! Ben ate everything that we did, including turkey, stuffing and green bean casserole. The only thing he didn't eat was the cheesecake or pumpkin pie. His teeth will thank me later! We went to the botanical gardens for a very festive light and music show. Ben sat on Santa's lap again and this time he didn't cry one bit. In fact, I think he kind of liked him. He really liked all the lights and music too.
We have found Ben's biggest fear, by accident of course. He loves the bath, but it was time to graduate him from the ducky tub to the regular tub. He loved it! More room to splash and play. However he could slip around too easily, so we purchased what we thought was the solution...a bathmat. Oh no we didn't! Ben was terrified of it. He screamed as soon as his little bum hit the mat. Then he held onto us for dear life. I must admit, I loved that he held on to me like a monkey. I did feel awful though that he was so terrified. I tried it out with him, because I thought if mommy would do it then baby would do it. Nope. We tried yet again today and although he was a clinger at first, we were able to get him to sit down long enough to bathe him.
Ben also has eight teeth now. According to the tooth chart from the dentist, he should have about 6 until 15 months or so. Well he had 8 at 11 months. Yes, I think that makes him a genius. I think I remember reading that somewhere now that I think about it. As long as he doesn't grow chest hair at five, I think I can handle this. It does make for a difficult time at night when I brush his teeth though. We have to hold him down to do it and he screams so loud. It's awful, but again his teeth will thank me later. I put a little baby toothpaste on it now because he seems to scream less with a bubble gum flavor in his mouth. Go figure.
He is definitely walking, or should I say running now. There is no stopping him. I remember that that long ago he wouldn't even crawl. As soon as he mastered that, it was not long at all until he started walking. Now he bobbles into everything. I was very clumsy at that age (and still am according to my parents), so I fear he will be the same. Poor kid.