Big Kid.

Almost exactly a year ago:

A couple days ago:

Oh how time is flying.

Putting the toddler rail on felt a bit like putting the crib together all over again. Ben was SO excited about it, too. I wish I would have caught video of the 2314532 times he climbed in and out and in and out. He felt the big-kidness of it, too.

American Family: Updating a Portrait

This NPR piece really hit home...

The abstract:

"It’s the day before Thanksgiving, and waves of Americans across the country are surging toward family.Three quarters of Americans say family is the most meaningful part of their life. Eighty-five percent say the family they live in today is as close or closer than the one they grew up in.But that family – today – may look nothing like the one they grew up in. Family can mean all kinds of things in America now. And marriage? All kinds of change there, too. And kids? Well, we think the kids are fine, but we’re checking.We look at the changing American family.

-Tom Ashbrook"

I could go on and on and on about my thoughts on it but... I'll let you listen yourself if you feel like it.... y'know, while you quit procrastinating on the internet and finally fold the laundry or make dinner for your "family"...

Backwards Ben

I'm not sure where it started. But somewhere along the way, ben insisted that THIS:

is the proper way to wear his sweater.

Hey, as long as it keep him warm, right?

It is yet another sign of him becoming an individual. First with the refusal to wear tie dye, which followed of course the refusal to wear all pants, and now insisting that his sweater be applied backward.

I love it.

My little Weirdo.

Back by popular demand

Turns out. You can type big. But you can't big type.

Or can you?

thanks for not telling me i had crap in my teeth, Jared. Yeesh.

This just in: There are 16 days of class left to attend in this semester. Wow. Time flies.

This also just in: Ben is 17 MONTHS OLD!! jeepers. Time to start researching potty training?

Nah, we're not ready yet either, Ben. Maybe when you can say "poooop!"

Latest breaking news: someone's vocabulary is blossoming and I'm not talking about mine... although I can say benzobisoxc________ol. just don't ask me to spell it apparently.

The list thus far:

most common: "uh.... oooooh" ...for anytime anything falls.

followed closest by: "GOGA!" errr... dog. maybe dog mixed with "luda"

In competition with: "chooo chooo!" the train noise

And of course: "shhhhhz" for "shoes"

the funniest: "tickle tickle tickle tickle!"

followed closely by: "no no"

and: "move"

We count animal noises as words because... animals share conversation too SO:

Penguin: ah ah ah ah

Elephant: the elephant noise, quite impressive.

Tiger ...this one he does repeatedly and is the same noise as

every single dinosaur to ever roam the earth.

Dogs: high pitched ar ar!

ah crap... I'll just make a video. He knows a lot of animals. :)

green poop

I am not sure what ben ate the other day but... we had to take a picture.

I know - it is Exactly what you wanted to see. Bright, Green, Poop.

Our flood and calzones

Unless you have been living in a cave (or you just don't watch news, which is perfectly respectable as most of it is Crap...) you may have heard about Ames flooding.

It may be a tad bit late to inform you that we're perfectly fine up here (in case you hadn't heard from us and assumed our certain drowning...). In fact, on the day of the flood - or when we woke up and realized what had happened over night via Facebook... We stuck Benjamin in the trailer and cruised out to see what all the fuss was about. I did have a 2hour ride planned so it was also a mission to see if there was Any way out of town:

This was the road and the softball diamonds to the east:

This is usually the way we head west:

This is how one would get south:

and though I didn't get a chance to get a shot of the flooded north routes.... this aerial photo may persuade you to trust me...

We weren't going anywhere! And certainly not to campus/work for the day!! RAIN DAAAY!!!! (it is like a snow day except with rain!)

Though we were stuck, we were of the most fortunate in that our home is up quite a way above the flood plane, something we did check before buying!!! We also have no basement which sometimes creates a space crunch, but in this instance... we'll take having a crowded living room over a flooded basement any day.

On the upside... there were still garage sales this weekend!!

Ben found a lawnmower Right away and... wouldn't let that thing go. So for $.25 I splurged...

He still hasn't let that thing go.

We also found an X-Men flip book thinger - he has made us read that about 25 times. He might be able to identify Wolverine before a real Zebra.

In cooking news:

Entirely fresh garden, except the cheese... Calzones. Dough made from scratch...

Yum... Yum. Yum.

I can't recommend enough picking your own veggies/herbs and trying your own custom calzones!!!

round on the ends, hi in the middle

At some point last week (I guess the week before at this point!) we took off in the cr-v (what we call the "curvey" or also "the insect slaughtering mobile") to Ohio.

We picked up a few hitch hikers along the journey:

Jared and I (in all of our bacon loving thoughtfulness) contemplated what members of PETA think of such journeys. I mean, that group just lost by like... 210,000 animals. I appreciate them helping out the chickens and such but... maybe they are racist against the insect variety. Or maybe they really are all Frogs!

Back on track... We went to Ohio for some family visiting!

I think my personal favorite was maybe the tractor ride out at grandma and grandpa's

Grandpa's seat cushion...

g-ma and g-pa:

and their dog Lady. She was VERY fond of Ben. It is hard to believe that a dog who chases out rodents, birds, any other living thing threatening the garden would be So in love/gentle with a little Benjamin. She's a good girl.

Ben's favorite was probably the mass quantities of fresh blueberries:

or possibly pulling this towel in and out of the pool 231243423512356 times.

I mean it. He would take it out. Put it on the ground. Pick it up and throw it in. Repeat. 20 minutes at a time. It was fantastic! He didn't even care if anyone was around, watching, helping... something about it fascinated him and I really wish I could have been in his head at that moment...

He did however end up with soaked pants/shirt from all of this hard work. Of course he then chose to sit in a mud puddle. The result was a delicious bottom:

Benjamin wasn't alone as a young'n. Two of his cousins were there too! It was really helpful having some other young, energetic souls (and their parents) to help harness Ben's energy and entertainment needs.

We also ate more melons than... I have probably had all summer. And they were AMAZING melons. I don't think we took pictures of them though... but we should have because they were Great.

That is all for now folks!