Ben's birthday party

Here are just a few choice pictures from Ben's birthday party (and one crazy video). Two is much more fun than one!

The classic bow on the head routine:


With Grandma C:


New trike!


Note crazy, ultra-stainy ice cream (it's Rainbow Cream flavor from TCBY):


The W cake!


Grandpa with Ben:

Other stuff that happened in December

Yep, we did lots of other stuff besides going on a cruise. Like:

Getting an easel (which we love) from Ben's friends, Connor and Owen:


Decorating the tree (we're tree minimalists):


Decorating cookies:


Visiting the NorthPark train exhibit (Ben found it fascinating, as you can see):



Going to Santa's Village:



Getting to see Linda and Gale at Great-Gram's:


Playing with Sam:



Just for reference, this is what it was like the last time we played with Sam:


Having Christmas brunch with Grandparents:



We had a lovely and busy December, and we hope you did, too! I think we're still in denial that 2009 has begun!

Not exactly in season, but ...

It may not look Christmassy, but our cruise with "Pa" (Grandma and Grandpa) was really fun and got us in the holiday spirit. Here are some highlights:

Fun with lifejackets:



Grandparents next door = 100% undivided loving attention:



Swimming in the "moat" at the kids' swimming pool:




The "tickle carrot" (a nose-tickling concept introduced by Grandpa):



What is this place?



Ben's obsession with letters and numbers continues:



Hamming it up for Pa:

Courtesy of my stomach virus: a recipe for homemade ginger ale

1 1/2 c. sliced fresh ginger
1 1/2 c. sugar
1/2 c. fresh lemon juice
1 1/2 (1-liter) bottles club soda or plain seltzer, chilled

Combine ginger (don’t bother to peel it), sugar, and 1 1/2 c. water in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil, stirring to dissolve sugar. Lower heat and simmer mixture about 15 minutes, or until it reaches the consistency of pancake syrup (you should have about 1 c. syrup). Strain syrup and cool to room temperature. Stir in lemon juice. Place 2 T. syrup in 8-oz. glasses and fill 3/4 full with club soda. Gently stir to blend. Add ice and more club soda or syrup if necessary.

We just returned from a cruise yesterday that we went on with Grandma and Grandpa, or as Ben calls them, "Pa." (Michael and I call them Pa: the Collective.) More soon on the trip when I'm feeling better. Christmas preparations are getting away from me!

Dum-ba, and other fun facts

So, I've been really bad about updating. It's not because nothing new has been happening. In fact, something really exciting is happening! Ben is really starting to recognize letters and numbers! For some reason, fellow parents hadn't warned me about how exciting this milestone would be.

It started with the letters I and J, and then moved on to the number 6, and it's just exploded from there. And then ... and then ... we moved to the magical letter Dum-ba. What is Dum-ba, you ask? That's just what we asked ourselves as we failed to notice that Ben was usually pointing to a letter when he said it. Finally, after weeks of frustration for Ben (we guess), I realized once that he was pointing at a "W" on my shirt at the same time that he said it. W! Dum-ba! For some reason, I just can't recover from how cute his pronunciation is!

I hope everyone had a lovely Thanksgiving. We had it at my house this year, and my parents, grandmother, mother-in-law, brother, sister-in-law, two nieces and nephew came. Who knew that Ben would laugh hysterically when his cousin taught him how to spike a football? Not me. I probably wouldn't even have known how to show him! He had a great time hanging out with everyone and feeling thankful, and so did we.

I'll leave you with a photo of my sister-in-law futilely trying to teach Ben how to blow bubbles (she said he usually just ended up putting the wand in his mouth):

This one goes out to our moms

Ben telling my mom about clocks

Ben got visits from both of his grandmothers last weekend, but I only remembered to take pictures in the afternoon. Sorry, Cynthia! I've been trying to remember to take pictures more because Michael, the obviously superior photographer in the family, never ends up showing up in any.

We took Grandma S to Chipotle, then we hung out at home for a while, futilely waiting for Ben to take a nap. (He fell asleep in the car, which almost always ruins nap prospects for the day). Then we tried to see if Ben could say some variation of "Grandma." He can repeat "Nana" and other stuff like that but it seems too contrived. He can't really say "grandma" yet and typically he won't attempt a word until he can say it perfectly. I bet both grandmothers will end up being "Grandma" and not a cute variation. I called both of my grandmothers "Grandmother"!

Then when Cynthia left, we went to visit my mom at her hotel nearby, where she was in town for work. She had brought a whole bunch of watches of my dad's for Ben, feeding his obsession with clocks. (In the picture I'm fairly positive he's saying, "clock, clock.") She, like us, was filled with joy and love upon hearing how cutely he says "clock." She also brought a big book of words that he loves! He has spent hours telling us about the shapes (especially moons) and colors, and demanding that we immediately label items he doesn't recognize. I found out he knows a lot of words that I didn't realize, just because this book covers so much ground!
I really wanted to recommend the book to other parents, but it doesn't seem to be in print anymore. Oh well.

Next, Grandma W took us to Blue Goose, where we ate pretty good fajitas and stellar sopapillas while receiving incredibly poor customer service. Ben nibbled on a lemon and charmed his grandmother some more, then we took her back to her hotel!

Ben really enjoyed his day with his grandmothers and looks forward to seeing both again soon at Thanksgiving! Thanks to both of you for the visit.

What I found on my camera ...

I found some old photos on a camera we don't use as often this morning. Here are the highlights:


Ben bumped his head (note huge red area) around naptime and required prolonged holding afterward, then fell asleep and didn't wake up when I put him down in our bedroom (highly unusual behavior for him). Can you guess which pillow is mine and which is Michael's?


A great picture of my dad and Ben at Dad's pinning ceremony in August. He was graduating from nursing school (note crisp white scrubs) and we were all very proud!