Come along and play

Sing Along

Exercise

So Benjamin got a teddy bear from Great-grandma Bottoms for Christmas, which has lots of things to do. Like a belt to buckle, a pocket to zip, some velcro and snaps, and finally a pair of red shoelaces. He tries to tie them himself but it's just a bit much for toddler fingers. So he brings the teddy to mama to get the shoelaces tied. Today he had out his ride on near the kitchen, while I was sitting on the couch. So of course the obvious thing to do after Mama ties the shoelaces is to walk across the entire room, sit down on the ride on, and proceed to untie the shoelaces! And then repeat... I tied the shoelaces at least 6 or 7 times just to see how many times he would make this trip across the living room to get the laces tied and return to the ride on to untie them!

Just Some Benjamin...

Perusing the toys... What to play with next??
Oohh, the camera is out, time to ham it up!
A little growing left to do before he heads off to be a Trail Walker too...

He loves to read the Book of Mormon stories. Here he is looking for Jesus...Found him! (Middle picture on the righthand page)

The Kitchen

As you can see, the kitchen wall is yellow! I did not intend for it to be this color- it shows up much browner in everything I looked at. In fact, I think the paint was probably slightly mis-mixed. However, the color is growing on me and I certainly don't have any more energy to paint it again!

This is the island- not sure why anyone would put tile on an island... But I am sure enjoying the extra workspace.
And Benjamin (if you can spot him), with a view into the living room:
The painting in the molding you keep seeing was here when we moved in and inspired the color choices for the kitchen. The previous owners had an ugly gray-brown neutral on the wall. After years of living in bland apartments, I am discovering that I like having color in my house :)
And finally the dining area- Benjamin is eating at the table now, although he still sits in the high chair. He thinks he is hot stuff!
And more Benjamin, with a look at the tile in the kitchen and living room:

Outside Panorama

Above you see the view from the front porch to the southeast, also the corner of the deck that opens off the master bedroom. Below is the view to the east:
Now to the northeast (these are all from the front porch):
And the back yard southeast, looking across the area where the garden will be toward the neighbors (who have three large friendly dogs- Benjamin is not sure about the large size, but he is interested!):
And to the southwest (the buildings you see here belong to a church, as well as the parking lot. You can't see the church because of the row of evergreens):
Northwest here:
As you can see, living on a hill top lends itself to spectacular views (and lots of wind)...

100 Words and Counting...

Benjamin has been much more vocal ever since spending time with grandparents over Thanksgiving and Christmas- I guess he realized that not everybody in the world understands his signs and got motivated to communicate with people besides Mom and Dad!

I decided it was time to count his vocabulary: I wrote down 100 words (that is if you count animal noises; for example he refers to a horse as a "nay-nay")! I have since picked up a few more, but here are some selections:

Up, down, go, help, play, watch, wash, eat, bus, truck, shoes, hat, banana, yoghurt, toast, noodles, egg, nose, mouth, chin, neck, teeth, lotion, crash, trash, mess, book, keys, nice, clean up, more, "I did it," "do it" (this is when he wants to do something himself), two, three, and four (but not one), blue and green, and finally people, including Granddaddy and Grandmama, (Aunt) Beth, (cousin) Kayligrace (sounds like "glace"), Dean and Brit (friends from church), Jesus, and Elmo.

He refers to himself as "B." I guess the full name is a bit much for now, although there may also be a bit of confusion with "me," which he also uses. He can count up to five objects, although he won't say "one." He really seems to like saying "two," so maybe he is just in a rush to get there! He likes to sing and requests certain songs and finger plays, like "Old McDonald" (referred to as "e-i-e-i," and "The wise man built his house on the rock." He can tell me when his diaper needs changing, so I think our next project after getting the house in order will be some potty training. Who knows if it will stick with the new baby coming, but I feel like the time is ripe to try. Maybe if we are lucky the new baby will take to using the potty as well as Benjamin did as a baby and Ben can imitate the little one...Enjoying his bath time with Daddy- bath is one of his words as well. He seems to enjoy the fact that there are two options for bath locations in the new house (me too!)

After a long busy few weeks...

First off, the star of the show- trying on Daddy's hat and shoes. He is in the master bedroom. For those of you who have not heard from us lately, we bought a house!! We are excited to have lots of space and especially a big fenced back yard. We have been doing lots of work cleaning, painting, fixing things, and getting new carpet. We aren't done yet, but we did make the big move. At least we are now living in the house where we are working rather than driving to and from the apartment! Here are a few pictures...
The master bath- there are two doors on the left, one leads to the walk-in closet and the other leads to the shower and toilet. Benjamin (and Mama) love taking baths in the big, deep tub.
This is a view of part of the living room toward the hall. You can see our two new chairs and the makeshift rug which tries to protect Benjamin's feet from cold tile (His comment: "Brrr!")
I'm unpacking the boxes of food to fill the new pantry. You can see the kitchen in the background, as well as our piles of boxes...
Benjamin's room- the most organized room in the house! More to follow as we get a little further... Here's hoping we can get it all done before the baby comes :)