Playtime with Daddy

This was a couple hours after Mike got home from his tour this week. They got to playing right away! Nobody makes Ben laugh like his daddy. Benjamin loves waving, often with both hands at the same time. He still loves to look at the photo album with pictures of Nana and Grandpa from our visit last summer.

Daddy's Home!

Mike got home a couple days ago. Benjamin was glad to have his play buddy back. I do my best, but it's just not the same.

Benjamin is actually standing on the edge of this toy. His balance has gotten really good since he started walking.

Eating kiwi and playing with my digital kitchen timer. It beeps loudly every time a button is pressed. One time I let him have it in the car when he was fussy. It kept him calm but drove me crazy.

Being sneaky.

We are in the honeymoon period with his walking. He is playing by himself for long stretches of time without getting into much trouble. Often he's content to just walk around the living room, or down the hall and back. I know it's just a matter of time before I have to start chasing him all over the place. He's taking long naps and eating a ton of food. A lot of times he wakes up really early in the morning for a bottle of milk, but then he goes right back to sleep.

Toddling with Bread

He has a slice of bread in each hand. He likes leaving little bits of food around the house to snack on. I'm not a fan. He's getting really good at carrying stuff while walking. He can just about walk from one end of the house to the other without falling.

Slurping Spaghetti

The noise at the beginning is Benjamin noisily slurping spaghetti noodles. He also likes to hold the end of the noodles and swing them around. Then he tosses them. Noodles are fun in so many ways.

Chicken fingers

I promised Mike I'd take a picture of Benjamin eating chicken fingers. Don't worry, Nana, he tears off little bits and chews well. It's tough getting him to eat much meat. Yesterday I made meatballs with ground turkey, and that was a hit. Plus he looooves scrambled eggs, so at least he's getting some protein.

Lately he has been walking over to the kitchen table and reaching for whatever is up there. I'm guessing he was pitching a fit here because he wanted his pacifier. I love the pacifier, I hate the pacifier.

Don't know what he's doing here, but he looks cute doing it.

I was summoned by His Highness while I was in the middle of putting away some CD cases. I made the mistake of taking the stack with me, and Benjamin grabbed all of them. If you look closely, you can see that he had been in his play tent and tried to crawl out - except that the bottom edge of the tent is caught around his waist.

Calvin was supposed to be the subject matter here, but I got him in mid-run. He had been taking a nice nap when Ben decided to make his move. Later in the day, Calvin switched to the other wicker chair and hid under an afghan. But Benjamin found him there, too.

Just playing

Ben's not doing anything extraordinary in this video, but I thought Mike would appreciate seeing something current while he's on the road. Benjamin is getting brave with his walking. He's not as stunned when he falls now. I've seen him walk from the living room almost all the way down the hall. Yesterday he walked from his nursery, across the hall, through our bedroom, and into our master bathroom...because he knew it was bathtime!

One-Man Band

Many mornings I listen to the news on NPR, and then we listen to whatever music is on Performance Today. On this morning, I guess Benjamin wanted to skip the news & go right to the music, so he tried playing all of his percussion instruments at the same time.