Happy Halloween!

The carving and the treating

After getting off to a super soggy start, the sun came out Saturday afternoon right in time to kick off the evening's fun.

First up, turning our big-city pumpkin (from Lowe's) into a silly greeter for our costumed visitors.

Then it was show time!

Ben and mommy hit the street, candy bag and hot chocolate in hand, respectively.

"All I gotta do is say 'trick or treat' and 'thank you'. I think I can, I think I can..."

"Trick or Treat!

(well he didn't actually say it - to anyone's face at least - but they knew what the super serious face staring into their candy bowls meant.)

We met up with our neighbors and their family along the way!

Sam, the giraffe, and the Homewood Jr. Fire Brigade: Charley, Ben and Noah

Success! Sampling the loot after his first trick-or-treating.

A Halloween drawing by Ben - thanks for the "titters" Aunt Jess!

kolor-koordinated kiddos

what I won't do for an alliteration...

Here's Ben and Z-bone acting like they don't like each other.

And sometimes they don't.

But sometimes they love each other, and it's really, really cute.

It's fall ya'll!

And we've kicked it off in high gear.

Wearing our FrankenBen shirt during "arts and craft" time

"Chopping up my playdoh like you taught me, Nana!"

all tatted up

Picking up our mums at Lowe's
dainty little flower, isn't he?

Playing with our friend Owen

Ben says "biiike!" Owen says "Tuck!"

Going to the fall festival in our neighborhood

"Step on it, Dad!"

Why start at the bottom when you can take a chunk right outta the middle?
(he ate this entire piece)

first carousel ride

After rotating in about a 6 ft. space for five minutes, we were both a little stumbly.

Tyler and Ben getting ready for a kamikaze train ride

Pedal to the metal, Ben!

Isn't it weird?

That used bathtub pictures for last year's October post?! Kinda spooky...

Twenty-one months old!

Ben is just a parrot these days. He will repeat anything you ask him to...and sometimes you can even understand it! Some of the sweetest things I love to hear him say are "yuh oo" (i love you) and "maymay" (amen).

But he does more than mimic. Today as we pulled into a parking lot, he shouted "Mommy! Datch!" (catch) and threw his lovey at me. When he can't find one of us in the house, or sometimes even when we're in the same room, he'll call, "Daddy, are ooo?" (where are you?) If you sneeze or cough, he'll sometimes "beh ooo" (bless you). And he'll always let you know if he needs "ulp" (help).

In the past couple of weeks, he will bring me a pillow if we're in his room and lay it on the floor, pat it and tell me "nighnight". If I don't lie down on my own, he'll hold my cheek and make me! Then he'll bring me his lovey and not let me pick my head up without squealing "nighnight!". It's neat to see his little imagination develop and also his skills at playing with people rather than just beside them.

He is still what I'd consider to be a picky eater. Pasta is off limits, doesn't even get a second glance, as well as cheese in any form other than shredded. But bring on the "muh" (milk), "sahsa" (pizza), taacos, jeece (juice), "gogurt" and "sayad" (salad). He'd eat "tuties" (cookies) all day if we let him and has a very keen radar for when they are in close vicinity.

We're working with him on colors and letters and numbers, as we know they do at school and don't want to impede their progress by spending all our time wrestling and cuddling! So far, he'll repeat them all to you...but isn't really offering up his own thoughts! But he does try to sing the ABC's, and it sounds like "B,B, C, B", and the other night he gave a countdown before pouncing on me - with one finger in the air - that went "two...two...two!"

Last month was "transportation month" at his school and it only deepened his love for bikes (motorcycle, road, mountain, anything with two wheels). We found out that he rides the little tricyles on the playground and have given that message to Santa to keep in mind. But whenever he hears a motor of any kind, he stops and looks for the source, be it a "biiike", "buh" (bus), "tuck", "cawh" (car), "piepane" (airplane), or "bow" (boat). In fact when we turned the heat on for the first time this month, he wandered around the house pointing up and asking about the "piepane"!


He's going to bed between 7:30 - 8 at night and sleeps until, ugh, an average of six a.m. There was a glorious week recently where he slept until 7 each morning, but that was only a tease. At school he take 2.5 - 3 hour naps, and at home, about oh 1. 25!

Ben wears size 5 diapers (although we use size 4 during the day b/c I bought in bulk!) and is in mostly 18-mth clothes, some 24 mths. His eyes are green like mine, but we just don't know about that blond hair!

Aside from the biting incidents, which seem to come in waves, and his roller coaster of emotions for the bathtub, this has been another fun month of toddlerhood. We love watching him learn and discover and play and laugh and just so proud to call him our son!

and yes, we used hand sanitizer

A few weekends ago when Tyler was out of town, Ben and I spent part of Sunday afternoon at the state fair. Not the most frugal way I've ever spent $19 ($3 surcharge for getting money at the wrong ATM, $5 parking, $8 admission, $3 for lemonade), but we needed a scenery change!

"Bring on the funnel cakes and bearded ladies!"

Yes, those things were there, as well as poorly constructed ferris wheels, chicken-on-a-stick and some sketchy people watching. But the main draw for me and my one-year old at the fair was the free petting zoo, which did not disappoint.

Ben and the Longhorn

Just wasn't sure about him. "moooo?"

He did like the goats...and there were a LOT of goats.

Doesn't this one look like a British-speaking professor from Narnia?

Sticking out his tongue like the goats

After much prompting, he finally got brave enough to touch one. Hand as stiff as a board, he timidly reached out, touched maybe a hair on its nose and squealed triumphantly as he quickly retreated into my shoulder. It was all fun and games with the goats until he got his lovey a little too close to the fence and one of the baby goats decided it would make a nice snack.

"Oh no you didn't!"

(should've seen it coming, the way they were oggling lovey)

After that, he preferred to "baah" and point from a safer distance. He also really liked watching the pony rides and helicopter as it lifted off, made a loop around the fair and landed a minute later...only $8 folks!

But what he liked most was my "fresh squeezed" lemonade, which I made the mistake of letting him taste.

Goes without saying that he had some energy to burn off after that 20 oz. sugar high, so we wrapped up our day at the Spain Park playground before welcoming daddy home!

On a side note, anyone else think it's time for Ben to get a new hat? Here it is almost exactly a year ago!

Extra! Extra! Read all about it!

Ben got a new book...

We'll be reading this a lot between now and May 1st when his little

brother

or

sister

arrives!

all by himself!

Yesterday I was greeted with yet another biting report to sign at Ben's school. Beginning to fear that we're raising a Cullen, I think Ben may go as a vampire for Halloween. Sigh. If anyone has any great ideas for nipping this behavior in the bud (pun intended), I would l-o-v-e to hear them!

But it wasn't all bad news! Ben's sweet teachers are always quick to brag on him and whipped out their camera phones to show me his latest feat. He is a project-loving boy to say the least, but he apparently led a classroom clinic on building yesterday, with sky-reaching results. Ms. Paris and Ms. Bre were so proud that he did this all by himself!

"The yellow one goes into the green one."

"Then the blue one goes into the green one,"

"You listening, Will?"

"And voila!"

"Well, no I don't know what it is either. But it's tall...and I did it all by myself!"

See Ben run

Most of the time, Ben enjoys life at his own dawdling, toddling pace. But sometimes, an inticing park or a excited playmate will light a fire and off he goes!

(forgive the motion blur....I even had the camera set at the little golfer icon.)

See Ben (and Zoe) walk

See Ben run.

See Ben sit...and cheese it up!

at the car wash

Watching daddy wash his car, Ben decided the mini-coupe could use some TLC too!

scrubbing off some tree sap

Look at that shine!

mmm mmm good

It's nice to think that he looks this sweet and clean whenever he dines, isn't it?

This, however, is far more often the scene:

Yes, that's three drink options, and his bucket of "bapoos" that he carried around the entire weekend. And no, he didn't even glance at that dollop of spinach on his plate.

But he sure does like some yogurt!

You can see from the fruit-flavored line on his forehead, that we get our money's worth on yogurt purchases. When asked if he'd like some yogurt, we're answered with a resounding chant of "gogut! gogut!" complete with fist pumps.

Benjamin T Prentice: MIT (Man In Training)

Between his intense, if not skilled, love for his new toolkit and his navy socks with shoes*, we are certainly raising a future man.

*this is not a look that I am promoting. Ben wears socks with his pj's at night and didn't want to take them off on Friday morning. I thought Tyler was going to take them off in the car at school, and I guess Tyler thought I wanted him to make a fashion statement. Ugh, men.

a couple more...

Guess you can only upload three videos per post. These were too cute to keep to myself!

"Zoe! Come!"


How many lovies does one kid need?

runnin', jumpin', and yellin' at Daddy.