Winter has Arrived!

Ben's first time ever to play in the snow came last Saturday. We had our first snow of the season...very brief, but beautiful, too. It was a perfect snow for Ben to see, with big fat flakes that made him smile as he tried to eat them!

He loved throwing snowballs that Daddy made for him......and we even had enough to make a Ben-sized snowman!

Hallo"scream"

Well, this Halloween was a bit "un-traditional" in that we were out of town for the big day. Our annual family reunion in Chapel Hill, NC fell on this weekend, so we weren't at home to do the Trick-or-Treat thing. That turned out to be OK, though, considering 1). Ben's never eaten candy in his life and at age 15 months could not care less to miss out on all that, and 2). he hated his blue dinosaur costume worse than going to the doctor for shots ~ oh,no!!

"Help me, Mason!"
We had successfully done a "test run" a few weeks before, but the combination of it being past bedtime (for the second night in a row) and all the excitement of everyone returning from the fun football game was just too much for our little dinosaur. The longer the costume stayed on, the harder Ben cried :( So, we just threw on the "Mommy's Little Pumpkin" shirt and went to visit everyone. Let's hope next year isn't such a "scream"!!

Fender's Farm Fun

Ben recently took his first trip to a real pumpkin patch! We went to Fender's Farm in Jonesborough for some corn maze, hay ride, and pumpkin pickin' fun. It was a gorgeous day, and we were so excited about a little family trip....and then poor little Ben bonked his lip on the open dishwasher about 10 minutes before we left the house. It bled a lot and really hurt, I'm sure, so our little sweetie-pie was not in the best mood after that. He was a trooper, though, and the sight of mini pumpkins and the playground perked him up some when we got there :)
I think his favorite thing was this huge tractor. He made lots of Brrrrrmmmmmm noises ~ so cute!

Ben was really interested in the animals, but only touched them once, while sitting on my lap. Maybe he could tell I was nervous about them biting him! Hey, they say goats will eat anything!!Ben was so funny at the pumpkin patch. The ground was pretty bumpy from the rows of vines and pumpkins, so he was a little annoyed that he couldn't just run everywhere like he wanted. At first, he was excited about the pumpkins!"Oh, yay! A big orange ball for me to play with!""Waaaait a minute...why can't I pick it up?!""Stupid orange ball! I don't wanna play anymore!"

Whew! After that was over...fun times with Daddy in the corn maze!

Mommy's Little Pumpkin

I believe my heart could just burst! I love you, little Ben!

Fifteen Months Already?!

Wow! Fifteen months old...Ben's looking more like a little boy than a baby every day. I think he looks about TWO in this picture:

At his 15-month check-up, he weighed 23 pounds (25th %-ile) and was 31inches tall (75%-ile). He also had to get MORE shots, including his flu shot....let's hope this winter is as healthy as last year! Ben's tried a few new foods and was actually a great eater....for about 2 weeks. Now he's back to semi-picky: ham, cheese, yogurt, pasta and fruit are still the mainstays of his diet. Oh, and how could I forget Cheerios?!

Sleeping is going still going pretty well. He started waking at 5:30, 5:15 a.m. for a few days and had me worried (soooooo early!), but I think it was just due to some (MORE) teeth coming in. He has 12 now with more on the way. Check 'em out!My "baby" got his first big boo-boo this month when he lost his balance and hit his lip on the open dishwasher :( There was blood everywhere, and we weren't sure at first if his teeth hadn't come through the bottom lip, but fortunately, that wasn't the case. A cold popsicle and crushed ice dried those tears up pretty fast, but it took about 2 weeks for the four gashes on his lip to heal.

Lately, Ben loves trying on our shoes. He will play forever just putting his feet in them or carrying them around. He's also saying a few more words. Uh-oh is a favorite lately (everything's an Uh-Oh!!), and yellow and flower ("Fla-la"). His most-used word is "Up", which means Up, Out, Down, and In right now, ha ha ha! He's also getting good at pointing at body parts. He can point to four or five, with Bellybutton being a favorite that he's trying to say the word for ("Bay bay")....he's got a cute one, for sure!

It's a SIGN!

For months on end now, we have been teaching Ben sign language. It's supposed to help babies communicate sooner and therefore eliminate frustration on everyone's part. Just here in the past month, he has started to use the signs when prompted. He can "say" More, All Done, Milk, Bath, and Eat. Typically, he will use the signs when he grunts or whines and we remind him to sign.

A few days ago, we had a breakthrough, though!!! We were all eating dinner, except Ben because he had eaten earlier since it was going to be a late one. He was running around playing and going in and out of our room (connected to the master bath where he takes a bath every night). He kept peeping out, so we assumed he was playing Peek-A-Boo, and started playing along with him. He then walked right over to Mark (the main bath-giver) and rubbed his tummy (very close to the sign for BATH), right out of the blue! We were so excited and could NOT believe he was using his signs, unprompted, to ask for a bath!! This was also proof to me that he knows "the routine" at night, and likes sticking to it.

Here he is, all cozy in his Halloween jammies after a bath :)