My Sweetie Pie

Valentine's Day was on a Monday this year, and that is also the day we go to Kindermusik class. So, we got to take Valentines to all Ben's little buddies. We thought bubbles would be fun since there's not much candy-eating going on around this house (yet!)...
Then it was time for a little Valentine's Day gift from Mama and Daddy. Oh, the fun of opening a present!!

A new bath toy!! This cool thing has stackable pieces, and even has a battery and squirts out water....F-U-N!! Daddy's idea for a new "do":

One happy fella!! ***love him***

Let it Sunshine!

I'm a little behind on posting, but had some pictures from a wonderful weekend we had a few weeks ago! FINALLY, the snow was all gone away and the weather was beautiful (and warm for January!!). For starters, Ben slept until 7:30 both days ~ YEAAHHHHH!!!! That was a heavenly treat that rarely happens. Saturday, we ran errands and just hung around the house playing with Ben. I put a roast in the crock pot, so dinner was DONE with minimal effort. On Sunday, we took advantage of the gorgeous sunshine by picking up Pal’s and going to Winged Deer Park. Ben loved running around in the open field, and was so cute testing us to see how far he could go before we called him back to our blanket. He’d run 10 steps and look at us, then run 10 more and look back, until we said, “Ben, come here!” The he’d come all the way back and do it again.





When we first got there, we got all the food out and he was toddling around the blanket, eager to go explore in the grass, so he didn’t respond the first few times I asked him to come eat. Then I said, “I’ve got French fries…” and BAM! He did a 180° and was ALL ears, ready to eat! We laughed and laughed!!

It was a wonderful lunch, despite the fact that Ben managed to step on not one, but two sandwiches…mine AND his. He was even sitting down when he stepped on his – I have no idea how that happened, but there was indeed a cheese-covered piece of bread stuck to his shoe….more belly laughs!!! (yes, I ate my hamburger anyway!)

After we ate and relaxed a little on the blanket while Ben played, we headed over to the slides where Ben had a BALL. It was an hour past his nap time when we finally left, and he was still signing “MORE”!!

The "Bens"

I recently saw this picture of my brother Ben on Facebook and was really surprised to notice that it looked a lot like my baby Ben!! Little Ben was about 14 months in this picture....check out the shape of their mouths and eyes ~ wow!!

Christmas 2010

Well, YES, Santa came to see Ben this year ~ ha, ha!! Here he is on Christmas morning in his cute little "Santa's Helper" pyjamas with reindeer feet. Santa brought him a climber with a slide and a tunnel to crawl through! He loves it! So much, in fact, that it has taken the place of our coffee table in the den because he uses it so often.

Ben also got a cool puzzle-type board with all kinds of different latches for him to learn to open and close...right up his alley!

Big smiles at Grandmama and Grandaddy's house....

His own personal rocking chair from Grandpa and Sue ~ as soon as he saw it, he hopped right in like he KNEW it was his!

17 Months Old

Almost a year and a half?! I still call Ben my baby, but he's more like a little boy every day. At 17 months old, here's what he's up to these days...


-Down to one 1.5 hour nap a day, and at night sleeps from 7:30-6:30
-Still getting more teeth - he's only got one more bottom canine to come in, and then his second molars. Whew!
-We still do one bottle before bed. I think he'd be ok if I dropped it from the routine, but since he kind of eats like a bird sometimes, I don't want him to wake up hungry!

He's getting really good at sign language, and we've added a new sign for diaper. Here he is saying "more".

He's also starting to say some more words, like Go!, yellow, I La La (I love you), and Nana. Plus, he's decided he really likes saying Mama, which I LOVE :) He loves to dance, and it's such a cute little jig: he stands completely still and just bobs up and down bending his knees anytime he hears music (even a cell phone ringtone, ha!!)

Ben also just recently starting mimicing us. His favorite thing to copy is vacuuming. He used to just pull it around everywhere, but lately, he actually rubs the hose on the floor like he's cleaning it! He'll also take anything he sees, such as a bottle of hair goop, and act like he's putting some on his toothbrush like toothpaste to brush his teeth.

I love to see his little personality coming out more and more. A lot of mornings when I go in to get him up, he's waiting for me with all his pacis in hand, and THROWS them out of the crib all at once! I guess that's his way of saying Good Morning! He can hear me open the dishwasher from another room, and comes running in to "help" me unload it, and the same for the washing machine. It's his job to throw all the wet stuff into the dryer :)

Last but not least, he's actually starting to mind a tiny bit now...if we say "No", most of the time, he'll comply. And, if he knows something's "no-no", he'll look at you and start shaking his head No - so cute!! But even when he's not minding one bit, I'm amazed at the patience I have (so far, ha!) There's nothing I wouldn't do for his precious little grin!!!

Daddy and Me

A few weeks ago, Mark tackled the task of clearing our yard of all the leaves. Ben's favorite thing is to be outside, so he was all about helping Daddy...

He dragged that rake around and chased Mark all over the yard, having a ball! Then fun times playing in the leaves.

We love, love, love our new house and the great backyard. It even had a swingset with it, and lots of fun trees to climb on :)

Ho, Ho, Ho!

We had a "successful" (i.e. no Stranger-Danger crying :) visit with Santa last weekend! I was especially excited to see that it was the same Santa as last year....look back here and see if you can believe how much Ben's grown in a year!!

Family Reunion Fun

A few weeks ago, we attended our annual family reunion, “Sumner-Caldwell” weekend in Chapel Hill, NC. Ben had a GREAT time seeing extended family and playing with his cousins and brothers.

Roadtrip!!

We weren't there for 10 minutes and Ben wants a beer already...SHEESH!

Family time with Cousin Hank...



...and Meme...


...and Pop!

The WHOLE Gang! Every year, we gather and hang out at this same spot on campus and have the best potluck picnic with another family named the Caldwells. Then it's off to the football game to cheer on the Tarheels. It's a family tradition over 50 years old!!
Last but not least...my little Tarheel!!

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!