Have you seen this boy?

With a vacation to Hawaii coming up in 12 weeks, we have to get Ben a passport. This is the picture.. looks to me like he was kidnapped and this is the ransom photo on the carton of milk! At least the wounds have healed up a bit!

Happy Dinner!

Tonight I was making dinner (hamburger soup to be exact! Ben's new favourite!) and I thought I would cut up half a hot dog bun up for him to dip in it.. look what was inside!! Amazing! It is like finding the face of Jesus on a potato chip, or in my dryer lint. Maybe I should eBay it.

Cuts, scrapes and bruises.. oh my!

I had always heard that boys hurt themselves more (usually!) than girls, but nothing has prepared me for this. In the last three days he has bruised his left eye (nearly cut it), gave himself a bump/bruise on his forehead in a tantrum at daycare, and fallen in the bathroom and cut/bruised his right eye and nose.. and a bit of a bloody nose to with it. Luckily I wasn't home for the last accident. And this doesn't include the bruises on his legs.

The kid looks so terrible right I have to laugh. He handles it really well, thank goodness, but I want my sweet skinned little boy back with no marks on his face. *sigh* He is so clumsy sometimes, especially when he is tired. I am just SO thankful that he is having good days at daycare, that I feel like I no longer have to worry all day wondering "Is he behaving? Am I going to have to stop working to take care of him?"

Here is Ben on Sunday as we were going to the pet store. His granny knit him this comfy sweater and I just love it on him. So comfy!


I just have to brag about a couple things Ben has done today:
This morning when I took Ben to daycare I was leaving and I daringly asked Ben for a hug (I normally just wave and get the heck out of there). He came walking over and gave me the sweetest hug and then went on his way!

After his evening milk, I take him into the bathroom to brush his teeth. I asked him "Are we going to go brush our teefies, Ben?" and he then started to shake his head as if to say "No no no no!". Made me snicker.

15 months!

Ben is 15 months old now, and growing like a weed! A glorious, adorable, cute, funny, smarty-pants, healthy weed!

He is cutting two more teeth, his bottom incisors, which should hopefully be up soon. His smile will look so different!

We love you so much, Ben! We love your hugs and snuggles, your wet sloppy kisses and the little pats on our back when you give loves.

Happy New Year!

We had a wonderful Christmas on the Island. It was great to see Mike's family and have them spend time with Ben. He was a funny boy.. wasn't quite sure what to think of all the presents on Christmas morning, a wee bit overwhelming, but he handled it like a champ.

He is trying to say cat & dog (at least I think he is!), he learned to say Santa (which comes out as "danta".. cute), if you ask him where is tummy is he either pats it or lifts his shirt all the way up to show you! And the most exciting thing.. HE LEARNED TO CLAP! I have been trying to get him to clap since he was very young, knowing he would do it someday of course, but that day finally came! He knows what it is.. you can simply say "clap" and he starts! Pretty funny.

Ben also loves the song "Jingle Bells". Start singing it, and he will drop whatever he is doing (literally) and start dancing. Full on boogie. Head down, knees bent, bum shaking, arms out. It is the funnies thing I have ever seen. Not many other songs get such an effect, but this one is guaranteed. Will have to post a video of this... priceless.

He got totally spoiled, of course. And to be expected he quite enjoyed playing with the big boxes and paper!

Part of our Christmas had a Hawaiian theme since our major gift (from Mom and Dad) is a trip to Hawaii with them and Travis and Natalie in April. We all got from Santa a box of macadamia nut chocolates, a lei, flip flops, little bottles for our shampoo.. and our invitation to Maui of course!

We brought in the new year at our friends' Rick and Deanna. Ben got to play with Lauren (4) and Marie (his age) all evening, then he slept like a great little boy in the play-yard while we played Cranium and toasted at midnight! We bundled him up and brought him home and he went right back to sleep for the rest of the night! Was a successful night!

Welcome 2007! I just know it will be a great year.. we have Hawaii to look forward to in April, Mike completing two terms of school (yay!), hopefully the end of house reno's (double yay!) and Ben changing SO MUCH!

Here's to a new year, a wonderful year, full of exciting things :)