Ben Paints

Someday, the world will thaw out and we can go to the park. But in the meantime, I thought it would be a good idea to give Ben paint. He's done really well with it - meaning the paint has stayed in the jars and on the paper. He absolutely loves it, and has produced countless masterpieces. Sadly, because the paint is made out of milk, I can't keep his masterpieces. They smell like sour milk once they dry. I found the recipe in a toddler busy book. The paint is evaporated milk, thickened with flour, and colored with food coloring. I don't have to panic if he tries to eat it because it isn't toxic. (He hasn't tried to eat it, though.)

I love the combination of concentration and delight on his face in these pictures.

"Oh no!"

Ben and Simon make up little games to play with each other. (They also fight over toys, but that's not cute enough to try and get on camera.) Usually they stop as soon as I get out the camera, but they did eventually go back to their game in this clip. You'll be able to tell why this game is named "oh no!"

Scooter

Simon is channeling his inner soldier, and gets around great with this Army crawl.

Christmas morning

Merry Christmas, honey! I hope you're feeling better. Here are the boys playing with the presents you bought them.

Simon at the museum

Shawn and Kris and their kids came down for an afternoon at the Dinosaur Museum. Kris is homeschooling two of her kids, so this was officially a field trip. Simon got to play with his Uncle Shawn.

Cuzzins

Ben went to visit his cousin, Emma. He took along his favorite toy, a green plastic caterpillar that he calls his bee. He was quite happy to play with Emma's toys, but was pretty possessive of his bee. Emma was curious about the new toy, and persisted in trying to get it. In the video clip, Emma had gotten the bee while Ben wasn't paying attention.

Jumping Ben

Ben has learned how to jump off the furniture! I figure that's better than jumping on the furniture.

Little Mozart

Here's our budding musician!

A sad moment

When Ben misses his nap, these are the kinds of things that just rock his little world:

Ben's birthday again

Yes, I know I've been posting about Ben's birthday for more than a week. Anyway, a few days after his birthday, we made it back over to ride the ponies, since he had gotten rained out on his birthday. Here's my big boy riding a pony!

Simon's first bite

I found the video clips I took of Simon's first bites of cereal! He was really tidy this first time. Probably he didn't know how to spit it out of his mouth. He's since perfected that maneuver, and lunch time is much messier than it was on the first try. Go baby!

Birthday in the park

Ben had a great time at the Willden party in the park. Besides the fun presents, he got to feed the ducks!








And he found a feather to take home with him!

New toys!

Ben got new toys for his birthday! So Simon got one too. Why not?

Ben's birthday

I was going to take Ben to ride ponies on his birthday, but that was the morning we had a gale, and hail and other unpleasant weather stuff. We went to the Dinosaur Museum instead! Ben had a good time, and discovered the erosion table for the first time. Usually he just walks right by, but this time he stayed to play.

Ben's birthday book

Dirk sent Ben a book for his birthday, and a DVD of him reading it. Ben likes the music soundtrack the best, but he has also watched Dirk read it to him lots of times. Here are some photos and video of the first time Ben and Simon got to watch daddy's DVD. Yay for modern technology!

Happy flaps

He's just cute when I walk back in the room and he catches sight of me and flaps until he about launches. This video clip is a mellow version of it because he was interested in the camera.

Suburban Wildlife

Ben found ants!

Laughs

He flies! He laughs! Simon has the greatest baby belly laugh.

Ben's letters

Ben gets a kick out of finding letters he recognizes in his books. As far as he's concerned, it's as fun as finding the ball, or the dog, or the bird in the pictures. He likes finding the "o" or the "t" or the "s". This makes the fridge fun too!

I didn't get it on video, but sometimes when he tries to put the letter back on the fridge, he has it facing the wrong way so the magnet doesn't stick. When I tell him to turn it around, he turns himself in a circle and then tries to put the letter on the fridge again. That's worth a couple giggles.

Ben's got rhythm

So you think you can dance? Watch Ben rock out with his stomp dance to "Five Little Monkeys!" Oh yeah! My boy's got rhythm!