Happy Halloween 2007

We almost didn't go Trick or Treating. I convinced Ben to put his Dragon on after supper.. and I guess it was a little warm in the house.. and I wasn't fast enough getting him outside to the cool 50 degree temp., and the fleece of the costume was a little warm on his body and he started taking it off.. and then REFUSED to put it back on...
I tackled him and strapped it on anyway - all while he was kicking and screaming -- NO WAY am I going to slave over this costume and HE NOT WEAR IT! **grin** We quickly took him out back - b/c it was too early to go trick or treating still - but we wanted to give him time to transform into DRAGON BOY...
We walked up the street to see if his buddies - Hagen and Layla - were home.. (they weren't) and he decided this was going to be fun! He LOVED the reaction people gave him.. and he was having fun carrying his pumpkin and light... and from the top of the hill he would scream "DAD DAD DAD..." and run all the way down to the house.. exploding with information that he just had to tell his DAD...

Ben and his first trick or treat house... (and their groovy jack-o-lantern)


OPEN IN NEW WINDOW

The picture book

We made a book for Ben to help with face/name recognition before the grand Florida trip this summer. It has a picture of everyone, and he used to love to flip through it and tell us over and over who everyone was. The coolness sorta wore off when the Florida 90th Birthday book appeared on the coffee table... Never fear - SuperBen is near - and today he runs like a straight line wind to the dining room (were we are slaving over this ridiculous dragon costume) and excitedly announces...
"Dad Dad - picture book"
"that's right Ben, that's your picture book"
"Dad Dad - The ChooChoo train man"
I just about fell out of my chair....
as a reference - the ChooChoo train man - and Ben (at Easter)



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2nd week of Wee School - and Ben is doing really well... He's singing (the correct words) more to a lot of the kid songs .. and hits more of the letters when he sings his ABCs. He's also annunciating his words more clearly. So that's all great and fantastic, right.... But he's picked up some bad habits..
He now makes this 'pfftt' noise with his tongue sorta stinking out -- you know like motor boating.. problem is - he uses it only when he's back talking... Pete or I will tell him to do something and we get 'pffttt'd" on..
Do you realize how hard it is to keep a straight face when Ben "pfftt's" on Pete and Pete puts Ben to time-out... OH MY GOODNESS... the tears and drama... all because of a little "pfftt"

A little video update

Just because we haven't published a video in a while..

TO OPEN FULL SIZE

Gorgeous October afternoon

The other day I went next door and took a ton of pics of baby-girl, Amriel, and her grandaddy - before he left to go back to Arkansas. And it reminded me how much fun it is to be out taking pics that today I bought Ben a sweater and we went out back to take some photos after nap time. Yeah = not the smartest thing in the world... he was very uncooperative.. But we still had fun playing with the girls and the leaves and tossing around the football...

Got Milk?

Ben was moved up to Wee-school from the Toddler Class... And even though he leaves mason and hank behind, he has a new friend - EMILY!! Part of the move was because He's doing so good in the potty department and breaking out of his shell by actually talking to the teachers. The wee-school kids are a bit older and therefor have a larger vocabulary so we will be entertained the next few weeks as Ben learns new words (and habits) from his new 'classmates'.

Ben with his sleeping bag from NanaMom and Pa

Getting ready for halloween

Pete found this great "Mr Potato Head" ensemble for pumpkin decorating the other day and Ben had a blast watching us put it together.. He helped a bit after we got all the holes in the pumpkin and assembled... took it apart and let him go at it - He thought it was great fun until I made the "arrrrr" sound.. and for some reason the pumpkin pirate arrrr scared the snot out of him.. and now he wants nothing to do with it.. I tried to get him to sit next to Mr Pumpkin head so I could have a pic.. but - no sir-ee...









It's been getting cooler -- and I tried my hardest to convince Ben to wear his cowboy hat the other day -- but he's over that phase I guess.. He wanted nothing to do with it - threw it down and walked away..I have no idea what to do for Halloween costume this year. Ben refuses to wear anything on his head or face.. and it such a snob when it comes to clothes...
Pete suggests he should be something scary.. and the only thing scary Ben knows is a vacuum cleaner...


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Crazy Kid

Everyone by now knows the news of the 'new truck'.... (yay tundra)
~ However you might not know how much the kid LOVES "his" new truck
Last night Pete got home and suggested that if Ben was good and did x,y,and z then we would take a ride in the new truck. 1 hour later Ben runs out of the bathroom screaming RIDE NEW TRUCK RIDE NEW TRUCK, LETS GO... *rolling eyes* crazy kid.. But it doesn't stop there...
He was crazy excited to go to school today! why you ask? Because he got to ride in the new truck! and he was telling us about it before we even went downstairs to leave.
There's more - I went to pick him up from school.. and Ben was sitting on the stairs as usual, reading books, while the others kids go down for nap. He jumps up runs the books to Miss Corey and runs back to me.. Throws out his arms like he is going to squeeze me, then quickly drops them to his sides grabs his bag and says "come on mommy - new truck"
YOU HAVE TO BE KIDDING ME RIGHT??!! Not hi mommy I love you mommy ... hrumph!
But we also realized its a bit of an incentive too.... We went out to the park and Ben was dawdling and falling WAY behind until I said "hey ben, you want to go ride in the new truck?" It was like there was fire in the kids pants, i swear to you I've never seen him run so fast..

Sunday at the Zoo

My office buys annual membership zoo passes for a few privileged people (that would include me). And we've been a few times.. but not enough... so this afternoon we took Ben. And the kid LOVED IT... granted you've all seen the pics of him at the zoo this year.. but this time we went to "The Kingdom of the Nights" which is below the "Desert Dome" and its full of bats, alligators, snakes, turtles, and all kinds of other night time animals. He was a little freaked out when we got too close to the glass when the snakes were actually moving.. but for the most part it was cool...
We also got to see the 4mo old baby Siberian tigers and their 3-legged momma... (not sure of the significance in that information but the zoo decided it was significant enough to post- so I did too :D )... And for the first time in ALL of our zoo patronage.. we rode the steam engine train.... I wish I would have had a camera for this one instance only.... When Ben finally realized that we were telling him he was ON A TRAIN - and we were going to RIDE THE TRAIN.. the kids smile got HUGE and he was ecstatic.. HE LOVED the train... (don't know where he got that from)...

**
His favorite toy of the week - His handmade prized wooden truck from Uncle Bill...
He will even tell you "uncle bill truck - not uncle pete" *shrugs shoulders* - who really understands why???

Saturday and another Lake Day!!

It was high 80s today - and a bit windy - but who cares about wind when its OCTOBER and we are still hitting the lake!
We made it out to the lake before we remembered the towels sitting in the laundry room... whoops. The water was a bit chilly -- but since it was so nice outside - we ALL enjoyed the water a little.... Even Ben decided to jump in a few times after testing the water at the end of the boat... You can see more pictures in his online albums....

Pumpkin Patch

This morning - Ben and I decided to have a little Ben-fun.. We went the one of the local pumpkin patch kingdoms... (Valas Pumpkin Patch) We went on a hayride, rode the tractor pulled wagons thru the 'farm' and watched the Pigtucky Derby... We saw all of the goats, calf, donkey, goats, llama, camel, and goats... Ben liked all the animals besides the goats -- and there were LOTS of goats..

Ben also got a haircut this morning -- this was the "I want to keep the bowl cut I just want it faded in ok.. " cut... and the "I'm a freakin idiot" hairstylists interpretation.. But what good does it do to scream and yell after the first chunk in already gone

Spin and get sick

Yesterday - Ben and I played at the park for a few hours - and oddly enough there were A LOT of kids there. Most of them older than Ben - but he didn't care.
I was pushing the spin-and-get-sick (merry-go-round) and Ben was doing his fake HARHAR HAR laugh -and so another kid started too but added a snorting noise... Ben's repsonse -- HAR HAR HAR "oink oink" har har har --- he actaully said OINK OINK... The little stinker...