"All boy"

No doubt about it, Ben is "all boy." Something that causes this girly-girl's chest to tighten as he smears the mud that's permanently embedded underneath his fingernails onto my khakis, and develops that sweaty little boy smell at the end of a warm day. But he sure is fun to play with!

A few of Ben's telltale "all boy" traits and pastimes:

Playing with/tormenting the dog

Here he started flicking her ears and thought it was hysterical. Notice the desperate plea in Zoe's eyes.

Reclining in his chair

Is it me, or is he enormous in this picture?

Chasing and throwing balls

And this is where his form breaks down. He usually drops it right in front of himself...but I cheer and he claps anyway!

Getting mad when he doesn't get his way
"She's so mean to take pictures of him when he's crying." I was trying to capture how cute it was that he pulled out his placemat, spoon and food from his backpack this morning and tried to put his bib on himself. Then I made the fatal mistake of saying "eat" before walking away to get the camera... Don't worry, he recovered quickly once I gave him a little pre-breakfast snack.

Confused by flowers

Yes, technically a dandelion is a weed...but it's the only flower our yard can claim at the moment.

Playing in the dirt

Task-oriented lad that he is, he spent a good 20 minutes relocating the pine straw to various points along the sidewalk and stairs last night.
I couldn't even lure him away with bribes of food!

swiffer, slides, scissors and suds

Normally I would agree that those things don't belong together (especially the middle two), however this weekend was different. Started out with some chores around the house and Ben taking over the Swiffer. At first he was just playing with it, but then I decided I might as well put him to work so I stuck a pad on the bottom and let him go to town!



All that work deserved some play, so off to the playground we went! After a couple hours of spoiling his fun by redirecting his paths from splashing in the carwash soap, toddling down the driveway towards the street and stumbling into the bushes, it was nice to let him have free reign of a fenced-in safe zone.

And after much dragging of feet (mine), it was high time to give this boy a haircut. Not sure why I chose to do so when I happened to be home alone (probably out of fear of Tyler giving Ben his second army cut), but with the help of his sippy cup, snack cup and the good old Bumbo that he amazingly still fits into, we made it work!

Shaggy lil mutt

How did I let him out of the house like this?!
(the front to back bibs are supposed to keep hair off his clothes...didn't work so well)

Voila! The finished product.

So it's not totally perfect, but it is much improved.

It's a salon and a saloon - bottom's up!
(notice both snack and sippy cups are in one hand)

Next we broke out the bubbles! For a while, he just watched them fly away in amazement, but then he discovered how much fun it is to chase and pop them too!

More video to come...and hopefully more good weather too!

Mr. Popper No Pants

Ben gets the biggest kick out of the popper he got for Christmas! This is from the other night when he spotted it across the room as I was trying to get him ready for bed. So without further adieu, I give you Pantless Ben and his Popper*.

*subtle shout-out to my dad,
who also likes to sport black socks with bare legs...
but at least he wears shorts!

monkey business

It's still so funny to us to see Ben walking down the hall or climbing off the couch. Just a couple pictures to show how his wobbly legs and inquisitive spirit get him into the oddest places.

Sitting in a diaper box after filling it with a variety of items he dragged in from all over the house! This proved to be a much safer perch than the first time when he tried to sit on the flap and landed on his back.

Squeezed between my dresser and the wall,
sitting on my hot rollers.
He would soon discover the thrills of pulling out all the rollers and pins and handing them to me one by one, then taking them back, one by one, and trying to fit them all back in again.
(Somehow one roller got lost in the transfer...so now my hair/roller ratio is totally off...)

Sharing Daddy's breakfast - new morning ritual that Tyler has yet to really appreciate. You don't mess with Prentice men and their cereal though, so I just let these two work it out!

addicted to socks

What started out as cute game of playing with his socks every now and then, has developed into a mild obsession. While I was looking for clean pj's to put him in one night this week, Ben somehow rounded up all the socks in the laundry pile and proceeded to take them on a tour of the house.

Ben and his sock posse

That's a lot of socks!

Then he tried to enlist my help as his sock pack mule. He worked very hard on this transfer and needed a break once the task was completed.

The mission continued from here...stay tuned!

Still a cutie

I can only handle my kid looking like a weirdo on the blog for so long before I need a new dose of preciousness. And, in my opinion, nothing's better for that than a coat with ears! So, just a couple of shots from our yard last weekend before we had to pack his now too-small bear coat away.


And this one...

Even though I would've love to have captured this from a different angle, the look on Ben's face sums up his complete adoration for Zoe...who even lets him pet/grab her once in a while now.

So there you have it: babies, fuzzy coats and puppy dogs. Doesn't get any cuter than that! Ah, I feel better already.

"Uh-oh" is right!

Ben's been working on saying "uh-oh" for a couple of weeks now (although I have yet to get a witness), and now I know why...

He's got a piggy snout for a nose!

Grubby daycare kids...

Got my baby sick, they did. After one week rolling around the ball pit together and slobbering on community toys, Ben developed a cough and runny nose. That's to be expected, I guess.

What was not expected was a sleepless night on Sunday due to Ben's inconsolable cries. After deciding that it was a reaction to something he ate, off to school he went at 10 Monday morning. At 1:30 I was on my way to just check in on him, when I received a call from his teacher saying that he had a fever of 101! We were at the dr's office an hour later. Dr. Simpson had to use a special tool to clear out the wax in Ben's ear so he could get a good look. After that, the ear-infection diagnosis was really no surprise!

So we got hooked up with antibiotics and ear drops and have been amazed at how quickly they helped little man out. We've all slept through the nights this week, and if it weren't for the hacking cough and dripping nose, you wouldn't even know he was sick!

In fact, he's been back at school since Tuesday afternoon, when the administrator said that since the fever was due to an ear infection and not virus induced, all he needed was a doctor's note to come back. So that's where he is now...returning grubby gifts of snot and slime to his little classmates. Ah, it's a vicious cycle.

What we thought was a precious discovery of his thumb on Sunday afternoon, proved to be an early warning sign of the doom and gloom about to befall our household that night. All week, he's found comfort in his thumb, which is fine by me, because (unlike me) it's always within arm's reach!

On the upside, I was able to get a picture of Ben playing with his beloved tissue paper on the doctor's exam table! Aside from the rosey cheeks, you can't even tell he's a sickey here. That's how much he loves that paper!

Skinny Dipping

Two tickets for Lilith Fair, please!

I found out yesterday that my boy has a love for quirky female folk songs...or at least off-key renditions of them. After the third round of "Itsy-Bitsy Spider" (complete with captivating hand motions), I was racking my brain for a real song that I actually know all the words to (besides, unfortunately, "Baby Got Back") and Jewel's "You Were Meant for Me" sprung out from the recesses of my mind, circa, what - 1997? Well Ben just lit up for the first verse, and by the time I was yodeling out the last verse, he was fast asleep! I think we'll break out a little Sarah McLaughlin or Dixie Chicks for the next naptime...Tyler will certainly not approve.

"that lunch lady cracks me up!"

I wonder if he's faking so I'd stop singing...

A few things Ben had to say lately...

First laugh for daddy! He's a funny looking guy.

Hello ladies. Welcome to the gun show.

If you can get past the fact that my shorts are buttoned to my shirt and come up to my chest, you'll notice the cool choo-choo smocking and realize I'm quite a cool guy.