Benjin's One

Exactly 1 year ago today at 11:49am our little Ben was born. He has been such a sweet, cuddly, happy and easy going baby that it's hard to believe he's one. I'm not much for slideshows, but I love my collages, so here's a picture tribute to Ben's first year of life.(you've probably seen a lot of these and click on it to zoom in) More to come of all the festivities today.

Santa Barbara

Last weekend we went to Santa Barbara for the day. We spent a few hours at the zoo, which is one of my favorite zoos. It overlooks the ocean and a lot of the exhibits are open and you walk through them. Check out the prime piece of property this giraffe has in the collage. You get to be so close to the animals and the landscaping is genius. I highly recommend it to anyone who goes up there. The weather was perfect so after we headed to the beach. Amelia is funny about being dirty. She wouldn't cross this line of dried out seaweed for about 5 minutes. Finally after she figured out no one was going to come and get her, she screamed as she tippy-toed across it. Then she refused to put her feet on the sand so she sat in this position until finally crawling on top of me where not one inch of her was touching the ground. When it was time to go sit on Phil's lap, she walked to the end of my feet and jumped to Phil's leg as if the sand were hot lava. I know I say this all the time, but seriously, Amelia is definitely a city girl.

Get your own bed

Amelia comes in our bed in the morning when she wakes up at 6 and goes back to sleep only if she is being snuggled. This particular morning she was so squirmy and started to cry. I asked her what her problem was and she responded, "I need more room. I'm falling off the bed". Look closely. Not only is she not falling off the bed, she has my pillow!!! And people wonder why I am so exhausted half the time. I think I need my own bed.

Don't be Zealous....(this is how a Marshallese would say it)

I'm sorry, but is this not the cutest baby you have ever seen?? And I am trying to figure out his eye color. I used the eye dropper (picks the color of whatever you touch for the non-techies) on his eyeball to make the background color of this collage. Seems like grey to me.

Hilarious

In church today Amelia was reading a Bible book called "Joseph and the Splendid Coat" and she turned to this page and innocently asks me, "Mom, is this a bag of poop?" She was pointing to the bag of fluffy cotton looking material under the words.







I was shocked for a few reasons. One, she said it so loud I'm sure anyone who heard it wondered what we talk about in our house. Two, what is her perception of poop? Three, why on earth would anyone fill a bag with poop and why would we be learning about it in the BIBLE????
After I defensively said no, I was stumped myself to try and explain what exactly was in this bag. Then I just tried my best to laugh silently as I reflected on how hilarious this conversation was.

Up

Amelia went to her first movie in the theater today. She saw the movie UP with Philip (but she refers to it as the Russell movie). She was so excited she could hardly contain herself, but she managed to say goodbye, then run back in to Ben and say, "Bye buddy, I'm going to see the Russell movie and you stay here with mom." I think she was rubbing it in. After she walked out I had a little tinge of jealousy that Philip was going to get to spoil her and see all her excitement without me. Phil said she was good, but insisted on sitting on his lap the whole time because it was dark and loud. He had to keep her quiet by popping jelly beans in her mouth. After the movie ended, Phil said she clapped her hands and told him that she really liked it. She waved goodbye to Russell. He was relieved. When she came home she had lots to say about it and lots to act out for us including showing me how dogs run. The first thing she said to Ben, "I saw the Russell movie. Remember buddy?" Love how she won't let him forget her rubbing it in. Maybe she was annoyed that he wasn't offended by her rubbing so she kept saying it until he got it. It was fun for all of us and I was so happy when later she said, "Mom can I see the Russell movie again with you." I just about went out the door right then and there.

Ben's walking!!!

Ben has been taking some steps around on his own. He thinks it's hilarious and he's completely fearless about it. With Amelia, she was a little chicken and needed a lot of bribing at first, so you can imagine my surprise when I saw him just letting go of the couch and walking 2 steps to the nearest chair. He's pretty resourceful. If there's no chair, he just uses the walls. Let me tell you, he goes EVERYWHERE now. But he's very happy about it. The first video is out of focus, but it is the best one, so you'll have to deal with the blur. (sorry) The second one is his wall walking and you'll have to mute it or prepare to be annoyed and/or throw up a little in your mouth because of my over enthusiastic baby talking.