Hop, Hop, Hop!

I don’t have much time, but I just had to post this video of Benjamin attempting to hop. He is so cute. I didn’t edit it down, so it has a lot of craziness going on… but still funny! In the background is Katie, my friend who came to visit us.

Here are some photos from our trip to the zoo. Benjamin LOVES the carousal. He especially likes to ride the elephant, the gorilla or the zebra.

Benjamin snagged Katie’s glasses and decided they were pretty neat.

Here he is trying a very odd looking cucumber that Jeremy brought home from work. It is round.

Just a side note, we went to a splash park today, and I forgot my camera. I must go back with a camera, because it was so cool. Benjamin LOVED the waterslide best. I couldn’t keep him off it! He is fearless and a tough little guy. Those other kids kept sliding right into him, and he didn’t care.

New words this week include house, elbow, eye, Advil (yes..we give it to him far too much with his teeth!) and tomato!

We are working on a word a day to try to build his vocabulary. He is such a character, and I love seeing him express himself. He still loves to say “hippo!” and make his animal noises. I will post that video later. He also now holds a finger to his lips and says “shh.” So precious!

Tomorrow, we are heading back to the children’s museum. We surely are keeping busy around here! Our social calendar is quite full!

Hi! Hi! Hi!

I love when Benjamin waves his hands at passers by and yells, “Hi! Hi! Hi!” He usually gets a grin in his direction and an occasional greeting in response. He especially loves when someone stops to address him, like today in the grocery store parking lot when he hailed a woman who was walking the other direction. She stopped and told him how cute he was. He just knows it too!

This week has been quite crazy for us. Benjamin still is coughing a bit, but he is much better and almost recovered from his cold. Still, his last tooth is causing him fits! He has cried quite a bit of the day, and keeps opening his mouth to show me where it hurts. So sad!

On Wednesday, we drove up to Findlay to visit my mom and dad. Then, we headed over to Lorain to spend time with my dad’s side of the family! It was so wonderful to see my aunt and uncle from Texas and also my grandparents. Unfortunately, I caught Benjamin’s cold, so I am still coughing and sniffling nearly 10 days after the onset of symptoms. Sigh!

Anyway, here are a bunch of photos from my long lost camera. I didn’t get nearly enough from the weekend, but I was quite busy chasing a crazy toddler who loves nothing more than to escape when I am not looking!

Here is a Kayle family photo taken at my Great Aunt Nancy’s house.

Earlier that day, we went to the beach with my grandma, who brought along quite the supply of sand toys!

Benjamin has never been to a beach, and he was fascinated by the sand and how it felt in his hands.

But, quickly, he tired of this game  and was off to bigger and better things…like climbing this wall over and over again to go down the slide.

This playground was just his size! I wish so much that I had a photo of Benjamin’s great grandma “GG” sliding down a spiral slide after him. Priceless!

He had quite a bit of fun with another little boy who was visiting. They played so nicely together, even though there was a four-month age difference.

My cousin, Mike, is like 7 feet tall… and Benjamin LOVED playing with him! He had the best view of the ceiling when Mike held B up high.

 

Now for a photo dump from the past few weeks. Here is Benjamin at his cousin Claire’s b-day party…with a ball theme! What fun!

We stopped to visit my best friend Amber in Columbus, and Benjamin went right for her bookshelf!

 

One night we were playing outside, and Benjamin picked this blade of grass, and tried to smell the flower on top.

Hmm… no smell…

He and Daddy played some tennis in the driveway.

 

We colored the porch with chalk.

Maybe that is where he got the idea to color our walls with non-washable crayons. The bigger the medium the better!

 

Below, we had a visit from Uncle Pete. Can’t remember if I posted those photos. Here they are giving high fives.

And, these are the photos I had from our visit with all our nieces and nephews. Here Sadie took a picture of Benjamin and Lydia, who was adopted by my sister-in-law Monica. She is the prettiest child!

Levi took this photo.

Uncle Brian was holding Tess, and Benjamin made sure he got equal attention!

Monica and Rachel spent quite a bit of time unwinding the braids from Lydia’s hair.

I think the result was ADORABLE!

Jeremy spent enough time with Tessa, that he kept asking me, “Doesn’t she make you want to have another one…”

Not sure where Jeremy put the family photo, but I will post that tomorrow with all the kids if I get a chance. B decided not to nap today, and I still have a bunch of work to catch up on. But, we will see!

No more teeth!

OK, well, that is just wishful thinking. We have two more to go, and I have slept very little the past two nights. Add to that a cold, and I have one unhappy Benjamin on my hands.

He finally is napping, and I am in the middle of trying to get my final newsletter finished for Partners in Prime (the new job I have) and cooking some spaghetti sauce. The little stinker keeps spurning all his favorite foods, so he BETTER like my sauce and meatballs, or I will be none too pleased! We need him to start packing on the pounds, and he just picks at his food lately.

I have been wanting to post a few blogs, but I left my camera in Columbus after my cousin’s birthday party. So, you will have to wait until I get that back later next week, hopefully.

I do; however, have a photo from a couple weeks ago when we went to Bluffton to see Jeremy’s sisters from Michigan and Colorado (and the rest of the family too.)

We tried to take a grandchild portrait (and got one I think) taken by Benjamin’s grandma. I will post that when I get a digital copy. Benjamin was the stinker in the group that wouldn’t sit still and wouldn’t smile. He was in a mood after not napping. So, he will be the one in the photo holding an iphone, playing Angry Birds. I have this foreshadowing thought that perhaps when he is 13, we again will be trying to get him to smile for a photo and will have to pry an electronic device from his fingers.

We did get a good photo at his grandpa’s house one night with all the grandchildren. Again, B didn’t want to cooperate. Sigh. But, I suppose we will chalk it up to the phrase I am sure we will be using quite often: “He is 2".” (well… almost.)

 

A day at the museum

We had SO much fun today at the Cincinnati Children’s museum with our friends Emily and Claire. We started the morning with a story time. Benjamin wasn’t too thrilled with the idea, but he was pretty good.

Then, we went to a giant ball room, followed by a water room!

We saw some turtles.

And, then we played on a giant spider web!

Beep beep!

The museum was filled with child sized rooms for play. This one was a veterinarian's office. We played with the dogs and looked at x-rays.

There were so many big cars, trucks and machines!

STAIRS!

Blocks!

We built a rocket ship, and had so much fun knocking it down!

While Benjamin flitted from activity to activity, Claire showed off her engineering skills.

Light switches!

All aboard the city bus!

There were so many things to see, I just couldn’t get enough photos and chase Benjamin! I had to drag him away from a sand table so we could leave. He was so sad. I promised many more trips in the future. I am considering a seasonal pass, because it is just so cool!