12 Month Check-Up

Ben had his 12 month check-up today. It was pretty uneventful. He is doing well and on track. He is 30 inches and 23 lbs, 5 oz.

We switched his car seat from rear-facing to forward-facing, and he seems to like that much better. Mom sure does. It is so nice to be able to see him and reach him better.

This may be the most boring blog entry ever.

Birthday Boy

It was a work/school night, so we couldn't party too hard. But Ben does love to party, and we had to celebrate his first brithday somehow, so we decided on a quick dinner out at Biaggi's.


While we waited for our food, Ben shared his snacks with dada.

Not only was it Ben's first birthday, but also his very first kid's meal. It was a total waste, as he barely ate anything, but it seemed appropriate to get him his very own meal for his birthday.

While he didn't eat much of his kid's meal, he did make a good dent in the sundae that came with it. Surprise, surprise, my kid loves sweets.

That's good stuff!

We got home with just enough time to open presents before a much needed bath. Ben was way more interested in the wrapping paper than the gifts themselves.

Happy birthday Ben!

Happy 1st Birthday!

Today my baby is 1 year old! Crazy.

To commemerate Ben's first year, I created a shutterfly album with some of the highlights (thanks Emily for the idea). Enjoy!

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0Acs3Dhw0YsmTC8g

New Shoes, Two Shoes

Now that Ben has completely traded in crawling for walking, it was time to get him some big boy shoes! Saturday we took him to Stride Rite to pick out a pair.



He tested out a few pair (and by testing, I mean grabbing various shoes and wandering around the store with them).

Here he is carrying around the winning pair.

He did a lap once we got them on him. There is not much funnier than watching a kid try to walk in shoes for the first time. Here he is taking a break from all that walking to admire a pair of shoes that I am afraid "dada" will never let him wear...


Here is a video of him walking around in his new shoes at home the next day. Yes, I did the video vertically again. Ooops. One day I will learn.



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Happy Valentine's Day

We're not much for celebrating Valentine's Day or giving Ben sweets, but being Ben's first Valentine's Day, we couldn't let it go by without some sort of treat for Ben. Ben thoroughly enjoyed a little chocolate wafer cookie in honor of Valentine's Day. Perhaps you can tell by the pictures that Ben got more of the cookie on his clothes and hands than in his mouth. But he had a heck of a time!

Super Bowl Sunday

On Super Bowl Sunday, we had Mike's parents and Brad & Denise over to watch the game.

Before the guests arrived, Ben and Dad shared a little down time. Check out how Ben has his feet crossed like such a gentleman!

Once the game started, Ben and Denise practiced their football moves. Dee was eager to get in on the action.

But Ben quickly tired of the football, and moved on to other entertainment.

He didn't catch much of the game, but he did seem mesmerized by the Puppy Bowl. Maybe next year he will be a little more excited...

And maybe the Bears will make it to the Super Bowl. We can dream.

Uh Oh, Spaghetti-Os

Clearly, Ben is a fan of Spaghetti-Os.

Daddy's Helper

Last week when we got 20 inches of snow, Mike came home from a long day at work, only to be faced with shoveling 2/3 of the driveway. (I managed to shovel 1/3 while Ben was napping.)

Ben felt bad for his dada, so he tried to help.

Unfortunately the shovel was just a little too tall for him, so Mike took control of the shovel while Ben gazed adoringly at him.

While Mike shoveled the driveway...

Ben and I played with some balloons that his buddy Scarlett gave to us after her birthday party.

Multipurpose Race Track

Ben really loves this race track toy he got for Christmas. But last night he decided that it would make a pretty good chair too.

Party Animal

Apparently, my kid loves a good party. He really lived it up at the 1st birthday party of his friend Scarlett this weekend.

He was the only kid who was willing to wear a party hat around. He kept this hat on for several hours, until it accidentally slipped off and he realized he could eat it. So that was the end of the hat.


He loved the ice cream.



But most of all, he loved the little wagon Scarlett received as a gift. He quickly comandeered it.


He handed out rides to the ladies. Here he is giving Sarina (Scott and Uzma's daughter) a spin around.


But what he REALLY loved was letting everyone push him around in it. He charmed Meg into pushing him around for a bit.

Then the birthday girl herself took him for a spin around the room.

This is the reaction we got when we took him out.

So we put him back in, and all was well again. He happily played with toys while seated in the wagon for quite a while. I think he might have stayed in there all night if we'd let him.

Let's hope he has this much fun at his own upcoming party.

Heading to the Bath

Ben really loves bath time. He knows by now that his bed time routine is for Dada to get him undressed while Mama fills up the bath tub. Lately he has taken to bringing himself to the tub rather than letting Dada carry him. He can walk, but he usually crawls to the tub for some reason.






I think my favorite part is how he doesn't like putting his knees on the hard tile floor, so he crawls on his feet instead of his knees once he gets to the tile.