a boy and his blocks!

Christmas Signing

Ben has started to sign the word Ball very clearly in the last 2 weeks. It is cute. I was walking through target with him and mentioned to Matt that we should get him a new ball for Christmas and he started signing ball to me! I thought everyone might enjoy seeing him do this!

Present Peaking

this is what happened once we got him interrested in the present. He played with this for 20 minutes before we opened anything else!

First present

we had to talk Ben into opening the first present. There were Vanilla wafers in his stocking and he was much more interested in eating it and playing with the ornaments than figureing out how to open gifts. After the first couple he got into it and wanted to open Mom and Dad's too.

Christmas 08 Round 2

After Ben's nap we started into presents again.This is the Train that Grandpa and Grandma Steadman gave him, it is quite possibly his favorite toy! He has figured out what button to push and it goes constantly!

Quite possibly his second favorite gift was from Nana and Papaw! We opened the Cars movie and he would not open anything else until we had watched it. We tried to set it aside and keep going and he would go get it and bring it to me. He loves this movie! We have watched it several times already!

Pretty much everything Grammy sent was a huge hit! I had to hurry and cut the blocks out of the netting they were in because he was starting to yell at me once he got the paper off and saw what was in there! He got a really cool computer game, there are not really any pics of it here, I have a video of it that everyone will really enjoy, so for now this is all!

Christmas '08 round 1

Some pictures from Christmas. I am not going to narrate all of them all right now, just get them up so our fam's can see what the little man is up to. Thanks to everyone for the gifts! We love you all! He woke up a little grumpy, but warmed up pretty quick!





After silly sally, which he sat still for the entire story, Ben needed breakfast and a nap. Presents continued afterward. (hence, my wardrobe change!) While he napped we got cleaned up and set up his computer game!

Good News!

As I was moving the love seat to put out Christmas gifts tonight I received and early gift! I discovered the keys that have been missing for days!!! I swear we had looked in that couch and under it. It seemed like they fell from some where when I moved it, Ben must have stuffed them some how inside it? I don't know, but I am sure glad to have them back!


Also, we got some great news yesterday when I took Ben to have his ears checked again. They are completely healed this time!! hooray! We took him to the chiropractor and I truly think that made the difference! Dr. Amy said she was surprised that they were so completely healed, she had been worried about him. But he is doing much better! Merry Christmas to Mom and Dad!

a place for the stockings

Our house does not have a fire place. Matt was very concerned that Ben would not have a place for his stocking and that Santa would not have a chimney to come down to bring Ben gifts. So, he took matters into his own hands and we now have a sock holder/santa entrance! I love having such a creative and handy husband!

The Tree

This is what we started with. It is about 4 feet tall, so we put it on a box!







This is Ben mesmerized by me putting lights on, or more accuately, the lights.

Each year we get an ornament to add to the tree. This year we bought a roll of "designer" ribbon from Sam's club and I made these bows. We figure this way if Ben gets a hold of our new ornament, we wont feel bad or get mad at him, 'Cause he can't break them!

Or Tree topper had a bad fall last year when getting packed up for the season, it was un saveable. SO this is our new one. I think he is very very cute! The story behind this little guy is that we found him in Hobby Lobby for half price, he was meant to be a table decoration. After about 20 minutes of inspection and deliberation we agreed that with some minor surgery he would make a lovely tree topper. And if he did not survive the surgery we were out very little $!

THis is Ben's new ornament for the year. He is a HUGE train fan! His cousin is letting him have his train table as his christmas gift! so I guess this is the year of the train! Matt painted this little train! When Ben found it on the tree he wanted to play with it and play and play!

Ta Da!! here it is the whole thing all put together! Tree skirt and all. I think it turned out pretty well! Ben has not tipped it over once! and for the most part doesnt bother it much!

Ben did help me do the decorating! I has soo cute. I was helping and videoing at the same time. so sorry for the randomness of the video, but I think it is still cute!

Ben Likes to add his toys to the tree. Here he is trying to add a small board book. It is soo sweet!

The key to success...

I certainly DON'T have the key to success when it comes to life with a kid! Ben got a hold of my keys yesterday. Now I can't find them. If we leave the house using the spare car keys we can not lock the house. Hmm.... I wonder how long it will take me to find them?

Ben's Hair, what there is of it...

I was messing with Ben's hair the other day while he was in the bath. He has quite the potential for real hair issues. So far there has not been enough of it to really worry about. I have posted pictures in the past of the little duck tail he gets in the back. Well, here are some more interesting observations about Ben's poor melon!

This first picture is mostly just funny because he was trying to get the camera from me!

The next one shows how along his forehead he has a row of cowlicks that push his hair back away from his face. incidentally one can also see how sparse his hair is up here!

This next one shows the crazy pattern on the back of his head that rules which way you can comb the hair. His picture and the next show what happens if you try to comb his hair away from his face, or against the grain. So, I ask you, what am I going to do with this kids hair?

He seems to like this look. Maybe with enough hair gel we could make it work? you see it stands nicely when wet. but after just a nice towel drying it looks like this...

Ear Tubes

We have not done, or decided to do this yet but Ben is working on becoming a candidate. Ben had one infection last march and no more until October. I took him in on the 27 and both ears were bad, it took 2 courses of antibiotic to clear it up. We got a clean bill of health just before heading to TX for Thanksgiving. 10 days later when we got home I took him back in and both ears were again infected. His Dr gave him an injection that day and followed with a 10 day course of oral antibiotics. We went back in today for our 10 follow up, still both ears infected!! So we are starting yet another course of antibiotics. Dr. Amy said if he keeps up like this he will soon be a candidate for ear tubes. She is obviously waiting to make that a last resort. However, I like to be as informed as possible on any and everything that may come up. So, I know some of you have had tubes for your little ones. I would like to gather as much info as I can, both professional and personal experiences. We are hoping we won't get to this point, but we may.

Rocking Horses

The Discovery Museum has a rocking horse collection. Ben tried out as many of them as he could! He even tried to make them rock! It was really cute. He had never been on one before. I think he may have asked Santa for his very own!