I'm a big brother now!

Hey everyone! My baby brother Tristan was born on Monday, August 3, 2009 at 5:53 pm. He was 8 lbs 5 oz and 20.5 inches long. I think he's very interesting and I love holding him! Tristan has his own blog - http://tristanbentleybaxter.blogspot.com

2 Year Appointment

Last week Ben (finally) had his 2 year check up. He's 37" tall (more than the 90th percentile for his age) and weighs 32.6 lbs (90th percentile). He's developing well and Neil and I were impressed with the new doctor down here. The "office" is basically a mini clinic. They have 2 waiting rooms - sick child and well child. They have people there after hours and someone on call 24/7. The doctor also told us they do stitches and most broken bones right there - I'm sure with 2 boys I'll end up with one of those eventually...

The Zoo!

So Hogle Zoo had military appreciation days July 1-3, so we decided to go yesterday. Ben was so funny with this statue - he must have thought it was real or something... I finally got him to come over and pet them, but I just couldn't resist.... :)

I'm a big brother!

Ben is excited to tell everyone he'll be a big brother soon! The ultrasound tech was very kind to draw an arrow between the legs to point out the important part! ;)

Now I know my ABC's...

Don't even ask me how he figured out all these letters... My best guess - he really likes playing with his fridge phonics set (when you put in a letter, like B, it sings "B says buh, B says buh, every letter makes a sound, B says buh.")
One day we realized he knew a couple letters (W??, O, and T). Over the next week, we found out he knew almost every single one. V and Y were confusing sometimes. Well now he knows all of them. By the way, when we did letter Z, what he says (Zoobaza) is Zebra. He'd been watching Rusty and Rosy and they say Z is for Zebra!
Enjoy!

More Snow Fun

Ben thought it was super cool to go out and play in the snow again. Our neighbor across the street was using his snow blower, which Ben was a little unsure of, but he got used to the noise.
I got a couple videos of him and I was watching them to see which was the best, the one to put on the blog. It was definitely the one below, but the best part about this video was that Ben came to watch it with me and he thought it was so funny when he was waving his arms around, and especially funny when he threw the snowball at me... I don't know why it made him giggle so much to watch himself (if he even knew it was himself)!

Mmmm.... diaper rash cream....

Ben's usually really good about not putting things in his mouth that don't belong. I was working on the computer when I heard him whining a little bit - I looked over and saw he'd found some diaper rash cream and had a big glob on his pants. I thought that was why he was upset. Turns out he was whining because he wasn't particularly fond of the taste... Having no idea how much he'd eaten and reading "if ingested, call poison control" I found the number. The lady on the other end assured me that even if he ate more than I thought, he'd be okay. It was actually kind of funny when I think that he was upset that it tasted so terrible, yet he was still licking it off his fingers when I came over. And in case you think I'm a terrible parent for taking a picture before taking care of my son, I didn't actually realize he'd eaten any until I took the picture and noticed some on his fingers...

Cool Dude

Ben recently discovered that many of his pants have pockets! He spent most of the morning walking around like this! Unfortunately for me, soon I'll have to start checking his pockets for all kinds of gross things a boy might keep in there... :)

Big Brother

Here s/he is, Ben's little sibling. Estimated due date: August 6. I attempted to label some important parts for those who can't understand what the heck this is a picture of... :) Ben will be sure to tell you if it's a little brother or a little sister when we find out!

6x6 Photo Tag

Charisse tagged me (I think - do you know someone else who spells their name the same as me?) so I went for the 6th folder in the My Pictures folder. It doesn't exist. But this is Ben's blog anyways, so I went for the 6th folder in Ben's Pictures. The file has pictures from June of 08, so Ben would be just barely a year old. This is my 6th picture. The "story" behind this is that this is Ben. This was how he was responding to picture taking at that time. The orange "ready light" would come on and his face would just light up!

Ben and the helicopter

Ben thought it the helicopter was SO cool, even though he was a little antsy about it getting too close to him at first... :)

Snow Fun

Ben had so much fun going out in the snow and walking around!

First Haircut!

Ben was finally in need for a haircut. His hair has been so thin that I've been really hesitant to cut it. I didn't want him to look bald! I finally decided it was time. We have the before picture and the after picture. He wasn't sure about the razor right at first but he sat there patiently and got his hair cut. Now he looks so handsome!

Watchin' TV

I know it looked like he's naked, but he's in his diaper, I promise! I make him sit in that chair to eat suckers because he can't get out of the chair very easily. It's a nice way of getting him out of my hair for an hour or so. Put him in the chair, give him a (small) sucker, and put on Signing Times or Animusic. He was so cute sitting in that chair I just had to take a picture!

Ben loves to read (textbooks)

Ben LOVES textbooks for some strange and unapparent reason. Neil likes to switch his position up when he reads to help him stay focused (i.e. moving from the couch to the floor) but when he gets to the floor, Ben comes running. And I mean RUNNING to lay out just like Dad. Then he wants to "help" read the book. We ended up giving Ben an old textbook that just wasn't going to resell anywhere, so we can usually distract him with that... :)

I heard Ben kind of grunting like he was struggling to do something and I glance over at him and there he was, sitting in a bin. I think he tried to sit on the edge of it and it tipped over or something. And the part where he runs back and forth - I think he was trying to look at me around the camera so he kept trying to get around it...

They grow up so fast...

Today has been quite funny and it's only 10:20! Ben loves to play with the phone, and this morning it started doing the "off-the-hook" beeping. Ben promptly brought it to me and let me take it from him so I could "fix" the phone. (Generally I only get the phone away from him with much screaming and upset-ness)
During breakfast we were playing peek-a-boo. Ben would cover his eyes and I'd say "Where's Ben? Where IS he??" When he would uncover them, I'd say "There you are!!" Well as I was getting ready to pick Neil up from Trax, I was down the hall from Ben. I heard him calling "Maaaaaa? Maaaaaaa?" I turned around and started walking towards him and he said "Deh yah." (I'm pretty sure he was trying to say 'there you are!'). I should mention this isn't the first time he's gone looking for me. I usually try to get him to climb up the stairs on his own when we go somewhere. I brought him to the stairs one day and then remembered I needed something from the storage room. I ran back, thinking he would just climb up and be ready for me. Instead, he followed me down the hall calling "Mama.... Mama...."
Lastly, I was putting some clothes in a garbage sack for the next MWB garage sale and Ben was trying to help. The big coat he was trying to put in the sack just wasn't going to fit because the sack was already full. I tied off the garbage sack and stood up to get another one, but he decided he would just find somewhere else for that coat to go. He dragged it down the hall and tried to stuff it into the closet under the stairs. I tried to get video, but he just wasn't interested in the coat after he "put it away."
Kids are sure funny sometimes, and they get big so fast. I'm sure if you're reading this post you've seen the videos of him trying to act like Neil and I (laundry, piano, computer...) I sure love this little guy! :)

We keep a laundry basket in our living room/family room/kitchen/rec room/etc room because so much happens in there. On laundry day, I go sort that basket into whites and darks. Ben decided he needed to help me this time around. After I emptied the basket onto the floor for sorting, he started working on it. We have rather large laundry baskets in our bedroom, so I usually just drag them down the hallway. Ben must have seen me do it a time or two... :)

Ben is such a little observer! He must have seen Dad doing this a time or two and thought he'd give it a try!

I bought the fleece for his Halloween costume (pictures to come soon) and I laid it all out to cut out the pieces and he came over and laid on top of it and started playing with it. Afton came down to help me get the pieces laid out correctly and we just couldn't resist having a little fun... :)