Dresser

I finished painting Benjamin's new dresser. It came from my Grandmothers house and I really like it. Joseph rebuilt and fixed the bottom drawer and now it fits perfectly in Ben's room. I originally intended to paint several coats but the because the dresser is old the wood absorbed much of the paint and created a crackle-type finish. I like it and think I'll leave it as is.

We are getting a huge snow storm. We probably have a foot of snow already and are expecting that much more tonight. The roads will be closing at 6 pm. I think we will enjoy a quiet night at home.

Green Hat

We have been spending some time in Ben's bedroom this week. I have been painting his bedroom furniture. He has been arranging his animals. These are his favorites. Baby, woof, and Grover. Grover plays his sax. Monkey would make the list of favorites (the monkey from his birth-mom, and the one from Aunt Gina), but they didn't make the pictures.

Mascara

I went downstairs to get something and was only gone 1 minute. In that time frame my cute little 2 year old went into the bathroom rummaged through my makeup bag and decided that he needed to apply mascara to his eyebrows and sweatpants. He met me at the top of the stairs saying look mommy. It is amazing to me what he can manage to do in a minute or two.

comments

We have enabled comments on the blog. I studied up on comment moderation and find that will work for us. Thanks everyone for your kind words in emails about our cutie. Benjamin is the best!

Blast Off!

We spent the afternoon playing in the living room with Benjamin. First we played with cars then Daddy initiated the countdown to blast off.
Benjamin thought it was fun!

Carrousel ride

Ben kept saying "wee".

Tool time

Mini Wegmans

Strong has a mini Wegmans where the kids can shop and check out. They even get a receipt. It was interesting to see what Ben put in this cart. His food choices included (we were limited to 5) strawberries (no surprise, he loves them), a carrot, juice, ice cream (his father's influence), french bread and a lemon.
What a healthy child.

Knight in shinny armor

We went to the Strong Museum of Play in Rochester on Thursday with our neighbor and her son John. We had a good time, but there were gobs of people. They were on track to break a week long attendance record. We look forward to going back when there are fewer people and having a chance to play with all the neat things we missed this trip.

Ben got car sick on the way and ended up throwing up 3 times. I was down to the last change of cloths in the diaper bag.

Ben liked being a knight and loved wearing his crown.

Benjamin's New Look

Joseph thinks that the socks make the outfit.

Potty Dance

We are doing the potty dance around here. Benjamin went in the potty! He was very pleased. He wanted his privacy, so we weren't around to see the actual event, but we saw the results. We called both Grandparents to help Ben celebrate.

Egg

We went grocery shopping today. I was selecting some cheese and turned around to put it in the cart and there was Ben covered with egg. He was in the basket part of the cart and apparently wondered what he could make the egg do. I didn't see it happen, my guess is that he thought it was a ball and tried to throw it. I wondered what to do next because the egg had leaked down to the floor and made a mess. Luckily a employee was in close proximity. I didn't want anyone to slip and fall.

One other quick story. Today Ben wanted to call Daddy at work and asked him to bring home a bone for woof (his stuffed dog) and a map. True to his word Daddy walked in with both. Ben was thrilled! He immediately fed the bone to woof and put the map in his backpack (affectionately known as backy.) Ben is looking at the map in the picture. The map was a Daddy original that marked home, irk (work), the zoo, and grandma's house.

We sure love this little boy. He makes us laugh hard!

Retraction

We were apparently to fast in stating that the TV didn't work. After we unloaded the entertainment center and took the TV downstairs we plugged it in just for kicks, and to our surprise it worked. I guess we got a new TV for the basement out of the deal. Benjamin is off the hook.

Overalls

I came up with a way to keep Ben from taking his diaper off. --Overalls.
He looks so cute in them that I had to post his picture.

He likes that he has funny pockets.

Hair cuts

Doesn't Benjamin look sharp?
For FHE we did haircuts last night. Ben is getting really good at sitting for a haircut. He is learning that he has to pay the barber with a kiss, and loved his pop-sickle that he got for being such a good big boy.

Febreze

Oh where do I start?
I have been frantically working on a photo book as winkflash is having a sale that ends Thursday. Of course I wait until the last minute to upload and arrange pictures. As a result Ben has been feeling the brunt of Mommy being busy.
Yesterday he was watching Diego (his new favorite) He still likes boots, but now requests Diego. He came to me without his pants and diaper on. We have been having that issue lately. When he has to go he takes off his diaper. Usually I whisk him to the bathroom but yesterday I thought, oh I have a minute and tried to finish a page. Big mistake. Next I knew he was saying poopie and I knew he had done his business in the family room. That got my attention. We went to the bathroom changed the diaper and I grabbed the Clorox wipes and set out to investigate the damage. As we were leaving the bathroom Ben picked up the bottle of Febreze. I thought that was probably harmless and to appease him let him have it. I now know that the trigger is very easy. (Isn't hindsight fabulous?) As I cleaned up the poopie Benjamin walked around "eliminating the odors in our fabrics, carpets, and air," as well as our woodwork, tile, walls, entertainment center, and TV. He somehow sprayed the controls on our TV and short circuited the blasted thing. Who would have thought that the small little spray bottle and one very fast small little toddler would have covered so much ground.
After I finished cleaning up his first mess I found Ben glistening, completely wet in the kitchen in a pool of febreze. He was smiling. He always seems to say "Hi Mommy", when I stumble upon him doing something that he probably shouldn't.
I will say I handled everything well. He did have to sit in timeout later in the day for climbing the computer hutch. Yes, he's a climber.
Tonight we are going to pick up a TV posted on Craigslist. It's a flat screen and a little bigger than our old one. I wonder what it's fate will be?

Band-aides

Ben is loving his Buzz light-year band-aides. He has a owiee on his hand but prefers to wear the band-aid on his sweater. He insisted that we go to church with it.

Deals

I am posting these pictures for the benefit of my sister-in-law in Utah. She shares my love of decorating and finding deals. These pictures are our guest room and our bedroom. The last ones are our newest discovery, I found the dressers at a thrift store this week for less than $50 each. Initially I thought that I would paint them, but I like the black so I might touch them up black paint. They will complete the new baby room.
Yesterday, Joseph finished the pantry closet in the kitchen. We are now ready for the demolishion phase of our kitchen re-do. We will take out part of a wall and the floor next. We were just remarking that we have a long to do list. Joseph just recently started putting expected completion dates next to the items on the list.....it's too bad that the list keeps growing exponentially.

Chair or Ladder?

My friend brought this child chair home from her last trip to IKEA. She has used them in her family for years and loved them. We initially thought that Ben would use it to sit in at the table but he thinks it is a ladder. He pushes it all over the kitchen and gets up on the counters etc. One day I expect it to take it's place at the dinner table. For now it's a handy stool. Ben was still in his church cloths and hoping to get his hands on some of the chocolate peanut brittle I made today.

Random Thoughts

I have been thinking about the little things that I love about Ben and realizing that I need to write some down because he won't do them forever. He is so cute when he blows on his bathwater because it is to hot, or when he kisses his own owies. When we lift him from the bath water we say go and he runs in the air. (It is a crack up.) He has a new favorite ~ he loves Buzz-lightyear and the movies ToyStory 1 & 2 and LOVES our neighbor John. He enjoys playing the piano, and if he thinks that no one is listening he will sing.
We love this little boy!!! It is amazing how much he completes us.

Last week we completed our home study as we have applied to adopt again. We had such a great experience with Ben. We love his birth-family and just feel so grateful. Our social worker just needs to right up the home-study paperwork and we become official adoption candidates again. Our social worker also suggested that we make our blog public and mention it in our it's about love profile. So..... we are going public. We did restrict the comments that could be posted on purpose and knew everyone would understand. Happy reading.

Stuffed Tiger

This is a better picture of the Zoo shirt. We got it free as Ben is a charmer. The stuffed Tiger was the same thing. We picked that up at a thrift store where the elderly cashier thought that Ben was so cute that she gave him the tiger which he now loves.

Favorite Past-time

Benjamin loves my new counter-top too. It is now his favorite place to sit. This picture was too cute. I pulled on his toes and he laughed. I'm glad I caught it on film. I love it when he laughs. He was wearing his Zoo shirt with the monkey that we will have a hard time getting off him.

Quilt

I spent the last week making a quilt for Benjamin's new big boy bed. I still have to quilt it but I am pleased with the way it came together. I think it looks nice and will really match Ben's room well.
My plan is to paint Ben's bed and dresser white to match some of the other furnishings and also make some accent pillows. His nursery was cute, but his big boy room will be even cuter. I'll post pictures when it's all put together.

New CounterTop

Last weekend Joseph finished the island counter top. I am very pleased with the whole thing. We have a sliding garbage can on the far left. I love the extra room and the way it looks and feels in the kitchen. We have to finish the island and frame the drawer, luckily we can stain it the same as the existing cabinetry.
The next project is the pantry, moving the closet, and then the floor. We already have the floor tile. It is fun redoing so much of the house. In Nampa we had a brand new house. I prefer the character and charm of an older home.

Zoo

Today we went to the Syracuse Zoo with my Sister-in-Law Jenni and her children Caleb, Joshua, and Lydia. Benjamin loves his cousins. He talks about Josh lots. Ben was really good and enjoyed looking at the animals. We saw tigers, and bears, elephants, lynx, monkeys, all kinds of birds etc. Ben's favorite were the penguins. They would swim right up to us. Lately Ben has been walking like a penguin. We had a really good time. Winter is a good time to go as there were hardly any people and most of the animals were out. We have a zoo membership hopefully with the reciprocal admission we can see lots of Zoos or aquariums in the area. We had a great time. Thanks Jenni ~ it was a great idea!