18 months (almost)

Well, 1.5 years later...life is certainly different! And a very joyful, fun different at that. Benjamin is such an adorable, sweet, kind little boy. He is sleeping from 8pm-5:30am every night. He laughs a lot, jabbers a lot, and is generally a very cuddly happy boy. He loves "helping" clean up, cook, throw things in trash, etc. His favorite word these days is light, but sounds like "ight" He can turn on the Christmas tree lights himself (we have a push button switch...he is not plugging anything into the wall), and is very particular on what ceiling lights he wants on. He would be happy if we would turn on our fireplace all the time, but he doesn't get his way when it comes to that! He is also becoming very sociable when we are out and about. My mom and I took him Christmas shopping with us last week and he insisted on waving and saying "Hi" to most everyone that came into the restaurant. Ever since he recovered from a sinus infection he has been ravenous....putting away almost as much food as I eat! He loves fruit of all kinds (blueberris, apples, mangos, banana, peaches, pears, watermelon, etc), green beans, carrots, cucumbers, almond and peanut butter, pretzels, crackers, cheese, yogurt, and now lettuce. And now for some pictures:

Benjamin enjoying bathtime

Reading Llama Llama Red Pajama with mama and wombat at naptime

Reading all by himself

Family

Our first attempt at our "holiday" picture.

October

Benjamin is now 16 months old.

Benjamin had about 1 week of the most picky eating known to man. I was not sure what to do, so I stressed out unnecessarily, and let Benjamin eat lots of applesauce, bananas, and pretzels. Thankfully, that didn't last too long, and now he is back to having fun at meals.

Benjamin's current vocab: Dad, Moon, Up, Light, Baby, and something kinda like "wombat"...which is his nighttime snuggle animal at the moment.

He loves running.... up and down hills, in circles, around our house.... basically any running is just plain fun in his book.
Benjamin has also fallen in love with reading, Hallelujah! There was a time where I had to read to him while he was running around, and he refused to ever sit still long enough to read a few pages. His favorite books: Kiss Good Night, Goodnight Moon, Llama Llama Red Pajama, Global Babies, and Baby night night flip book. He often finds a book, finds me, then runs to where ever he wants me and grunt and points at me to sit down, it melts my heart when he backs up and sits on my lap.

Benjamin and I visited "Papa Charlies Pumpkin Patch" last weekend and had a blast. We got to go on a hayride, go down a big slide, climb on large hay bales, and see a mini horse, calves, chicken, rabbits, turkey. And, he got to ride on miniature tractors.


Benjamin loves playing with "sprinkles". Yes, he has been known to eat a few when I'm not looking : )

Happy Halloween!

I dressed Benjamin up as an Oompa Loompa from Willy Wonka's & the Chocolate Factory. We just stopped by a few houses in my parent's neighborhood, and he quickly found out what people were heading out. He loves chocolate!

Benjamin waving "bye bye" on his way inside the house.

While the contractors away...

the homeowners will play....






Man oh man will we miss it when all the "tractors" are gone!



And yes, we have grass seed and hay down! Grow grass, grow!

Hey , where did mom go?

...to visit this adorable baby!



Yep, I was away from Benjamin for the first time ever overnight this past weekend. We both did great. I got to spend some much needed time with my sis, her hubs, and her adorable, happy, easy baby. I mean, come on, who wouldn't need some time with that hunk. My sis and I also got in some much needed shopping (skinny jeans and all), a stop by an art fair, and some smoked meat from her hubs. yum.

Following pictures:

Beautiful sunset over the lake behind our house

Benjamin watching the deck being built. Very fun!

Playing outside

Pointing to the birds flying above

Wearing my rain jacket****WARNING****
Gross pictures below!!!!




Scott's poison ivy. both ankles as well as arms, abdomen, etc. here are the ankles. ek.

Fast and Furious

The weeks and months of summer have flown by. More than ever, I am enjoying working 3 days and spending my other two weekdays playing with Benjamin. We get to go to "story-time" at the County Library, play in the park, watch the bulldozers outside our house, climb stairs, dance, talk, and most of all, just enjoy spending time together. I will admit, when B was younger, I didn't really enjoy my days off...but these days, I look forward to it. I'm not one who gets a ton of stuff done on my days off, but I hope when Benjamin is old, he will remember... my mom played with me.

Snacking on a banana and watching the tractors

Snacking on an apple. yum.yum.

Sitting like a big boy at his table and "reading" a book

Running at mommy thinking " I'm going to get that camera!!!"

Driving at Grandma Mooherd's

Oh Boy

After work, my mom came my house to drop something off. When she left, Benjamin was quite distraught, screaming and crying at the door (I was busy starting dinner) The next moment, he stops crying, I go around the corner...and Benjamin was outside. AAAHHHH. He has opened the door himself and was standing in the driveway waving bye to Grandma Cow. Runaway baby begins. Time to start locking all the doors!

Good Eater

I often get asked if Benjamin is a good eater. Not sure if they are asking because of his lankiness, people just want something to talk about, or they had particularly difficult eaters, so they like to see if other people's kids are like mine. (like when I ask if other babies are good sleepers : )

Benjamin is a great eater. His number one food of all time (for the time being) = graham crackers.
He also loves things he can hold and eat like bananas, cheese sticks, pears, and apples.

He also likes: any fruit, green beans, sweet potato, butternut squash, carrots, edamame, tomatoes, cheese (cheddar is his fav), pasta, spaghetti sauce, yogurt, garlic bread, almond butter, peanut butter, cream cheese.

Today, he ate chili and chicken salad for lunch and quinoa for a snack! So yes, while he prefers graham crackers at all times of the day, he will eat most things that i put in front of him, especially on a spoon or fork.

Vacation

**Warning, lots of pictures***

Two weeks ago, we were able to get a way for a vacation to Milwaukee. Best possible vacation with a 1 year old. My awesome aunt allowed us to stay at her second house, tromp around her property, use her car, and she stocked the fridge, got us a pack n play, and a bunch of toys that Benjamin loved loved loved. We spent most of the time relaxing, playing in parks, spending time with my aunt and cousin, and just enjoying being away from home. My amazing aunt watched Benjamin one evening so we could dine at an awesome restaurant to celebrate my birthday, and the next morning so we could enjoy some adult activities. (ok, we went on a brewery tour, we were properly brainwashed into thinking it is "miller time" all the time, and we found out that Miller thinks that a 6 pack/day is "responsible" drinking. whoa.)
Silly us, we never managed to get a family picture. argh. so much for the token Christmas picture from vacation. OH well.

Benjamin's first plane ride

as you can see, there were lots and lots of empty seats. The trip there, which was at 10am, was a breeze.

Benjamin, my aunt, uncle, and cousin

Benjamin and his favorite thing of the entire trip, Tiger, the cat.

B modeling his new sweater and shoes my aunt got for him

Benjamin "riding" the airplane.
MMM, just like my mom, I love chips and guac!

Sandbox fun!

Enjoying snack time at the park

Smiling with Auntie after stealing her garlic bread and eating it all!

Seriously, swinging makes B the happiest boy in the world

Headed north

Hi family and friends.
We are headed up North for vacation so I"ll post a few pictures before we leave.
He loves making baskets with his basketball hoop, playing in the dirt, and being an all around wonderful little boy. He is jabbering all the time, which is adorable to listen to.

Benjamin "organizing" his new clothes"

They'll stone you when you're at the breakfast table...

they'll stone you when you are young and able.....everybody must get stoned!
- Bob Dylan
My house totally got stoned today. (Ok, ok, I do know the original intent of this song)
Still about 8 more columns and 55% of the stone wall to go, but YIPPEE the house is nearing completion!

14 Months

1 month later, and here we are. A lot has changed in the Cady Household.
For starters, Benjamin is now a certified STTNer ....that is "sleep through the night"er! Yippee. I would like to thank Dr. Ferber. I can't say that we followed it to a "T", but I did read the whole book before starting (a must) , and them implemented changes slowly. Benjamin goes to sleep at 8pm with 5 mins or less of crying most nights (tonight is not one of those nights, but alas), and sleeps until 5:30ish. He then eats and gets up at 7-7:30am. He has been getting two more teeth, one on top and one of bottom, so he has awakened at 2ish a few nights. We just give him some acetaminophen (Tylenol, folks) and he goes back to sleep.

As noted above, he has two more teeth, which brings the total up to 8. Thank goodness he loves to brush his teeth!

He finally had his 1 year check-up last week. Benjamin weighs in at a whopping 19lb 11 oz (5%), and is 29 and 1/4 inches tall (25%). While B is a little shrimp, the doctor assured me that he wrote "good growth" in his chart. I hear that hubby was a rather skinny baby. This visit was the first visit I had driven Benjamin to KC by myself. B was an excellent traveler, and even put up with me doing a little shopping at the Legends. I learned to keep a large stash of toys in the front seat to throw back at him to keep him entertained, and to also have lots of little containers of graham crackers for him to munch on.

Benjamin got a bag of clothes from his older cousin Carson, who is potty training, so he can't use his onesie anymore. At the bottom of the bag, some adorable frog galoshes that Carson had outgrown. They are Benjamin's size, so I put them on Benjamin. Let just say...he loves them!


Benjamin had a play-date with a little girl who is 2 months older. They don't quite get the "playing together" thing.


Benjamin and Grandpa



Benjamin riding an elephant at the Omaha Zoo