Music

"1. In My Arms - Plumb"

I'm on Rhapsody today and I see that I can post songs to my blog. I'm very excited about this since my life is one big song. I decided to try it out with Plumb's song because I had posted the lyrics here a little while back. Hopefully this works. Let me know if you can link to it! I think you have to click on the title of this post (Music).

Back to the Grind

Well, it's back to the grind after another great week of vacation. We started the week with a nine hour miserable car ride to NH, then went to Norway and Paris (Maine, that is) before heading back to Mass. Ben's now been to playgrounds in five different states! He also went on a train ride, went blueberry picking, went swimming and on a boat ride. He also saw lots of relatives, like his aunt, two sets of grandparents and his two great grandmothers. Here are some pictures.

On the train with Grammie and Pepere.

Picking blueberries at Grampy and Grammy's

Blowing bubbles with cousin Brooke

J.R. and I went to Fenway to watch the Sox take on the Yankees. Unfortunately, it was boring game with few hits, and even worse, the Yankees won. We had awesome seats though and J.R. was able to be at Fenway for a game.

Every time Jeter came up to bat I'd shout "I hate you but you're hot!" Hey, Yankee or not, he's hot.

It was Papi's first night back.

I'm still horrified that the Red Sox have a mascot (Wally - get it, Wall-y the Green Monster?), but here's J.R. sitting with a statue of him.

Other highlights of the night included Leanne Rhimes singing the National Anthem, Kenny Chesney throwing out the first pitch (I'm not into Country music but thought it was cool they were there - even I know who they are) and Jack Nicholaus threw out a ball too. We also saw Beckett pitch for the Sox, and Chamberlain and Rivera pitch for the Yankees. Rivera was not met with kind applause.

The first day back to daycare for Ben was good in the morning...Ben went right to a toy and started playing. I didn't even kiss him goodbye because he was to busy washing his hands. He cried when I picked him up though. He was behind a chain link fence and was all upset because he couldn't get to me. He cried when I dropped him off yesterday and today, and cried again both days when I picked him up too. I understand the dropping off cry, but it's strange that instead of being happy to see me and giving me a great smile (and boy are those smiles great) as he runs to me, he gets upset because he can't get to me fast enough. I'm hoping that now that he's going to daycare five days a week, he'll get better. Although, he's definitely at the age where separation is a stressor on him. Poor guy. Another stage he's in is the "what's that" stage. He points to everything and says "dat". It's cute, but I'm sure soon, it'll be annoying. He likes trucks and loves busses. Today we were in the kitchen and he heard a bus go by and said "dat". He said "ball" over vaca too. He has also signed "more" a few times lately and does "all done". We've been trying to teach him sign language for 7 months now and he hasn't done anything. He recognizes eat, and more, but to him, eat is opening his mouth and more is reaching out and/or opening his mouth. His "more" looks like he's waving to his food. It's cute. Because of that, though, I think he probably did it a few times before we realized what he was doing. Tonight he was eating blueberries and he was making noise/fussing a bit because he wanted more. Well, my back was towards him so he had to get my attention somehow. Once, I looked back at him to see what he was up to (he was in his high chair, I was washing dishes) and he looked at me and did "more" perfectly. He did it over vacation too. What's really great is that he did it, like I said, perfectly, just like J.R. or I would do it (more is making all your fingertips touch each other). A lot of times, kids will point with one finger to the palm of their other hand. We've let a lot of other signs go, but I'm trying to pick back up on "sleepy/tired", and "bed/sleep" as in go to bed. Speaking of bed...yeah, he's back to wanting to go to bed at 10pm. Sigh.

Vacation Ends but the Fun Continues

Well, one vacation down, another yet to come. We finished up at the beach with a fun playground trip (Ben loved the swings and the slide), a water park (Ben didn't love that so much) and a rainy trip to Assateague. J.R. and I got to have a nice night out by ourselves too. We went back to work for a couple of days, then took a pre-vacation #2 trip to Knoebels. It was a long ride, but we really had a great time. Besides the rides at the beach, it was Ben's first trip to a real amusement park. I think our favorite thing may have been Ben in the ball pit. We weren't sure what he'd think of it, but being the kid that he is, he of course loved it. We were also excited to see Ben dance. Yup, he's been quite the dancer lately, moving side to side with a big smile on his face. Now he's adding hand movements too.

This is Ben on his way to sneak a crab onto Grandpa's boat!

I didn't know which dancing video to post, so I decided to post both!

V A C A TION!!!

Woo hoo!  We are on vacation!  We come down to the beach all the time, but it's to visit J.R.'s parents, so it's not like we "go to the beach" a lot.  This week, we are here to vacation.  We came down Wednesday after work.  Thursday we relaxed, Ben wasn't feeling the greatest.  We did manage to visit a few friends.  Thursday night we took the boat over to Fish Tales and had dinner.  It was a lot of fun. Friday - Sunday J.R.'s parents were home so we spent time with them.  We were out on the boat a lot, went back to Fish Tales, Linda and I went to Seacrets for a girls lunch with her two sisters, watched fireworks, and yesterday we went to the boardwalk.  Ben went on his first amusement rides and had his first Thrasher's fries.  He was dancing with a couple of street performers too.  It was really a blast.  Today, just the three of us went to the beach for a little bit.  Ben wasn't a huge fan of the sand, and definitely didn't like the freezing cold ocean water.  Poor guy.  He fell asleep almost immediately in the car.  We are off to a playground this afternoon, then dinner at Aunt Sandy's.  We plan on a trip to a water park and the zoo before we head home on Wednesday.

Dr's appointment

I forgot to post about Ben's 1 year well visit. Ben is now 30 inches tall and 20 lbs. 10 oz. He is tall and thin, but not in a bad way. He's right on track developmentally, and our homework is to work on identifying body parts! That'll be easy I think, whenever he grabs my nose, I always say, That's Mommy's nose. Now we are pointing to Ben's nose and saying, Nose, nose. He thinks its a fun game. He can drink whole milk now, but doesn't really like it. I got him to drink it the other night before bed when I heated it up and put it in a bottle. We're trying vanilla soy milk for a little bit, then may move on to 2%, then back to whole. Try to work him into it slowly. So far, the soy is going OK. I don't think he likes it cold from the fridge. He seems to drink it faster once it's been out of the fridge for a little bit. I'm also trying to work on getting rid of the bottle, however, he's really not a huge fan of the sippie. He really wants to hold onto a glass by himself, so I bought small Dixie cups. That's what they use at school. My mistake though, at school they use plastic cups. I think they are harder to fold. Last night, Ben spilled milk all over us because he squeezed the cup. Sigh.

Relay for Life

Ben participated in his 2nd Relay for Life this past weekend. Last year he was only 2 weeks old. This year he could enjoy the day, and had a lot of fun. He was pushed in his stroller all afternoon/night and had a ball checking everyone out and being treated like a King (well, he is a King after all). He actually walked a lap by himself too. We were lapped a few times by other walkers, but it was fun to see him walk so much. It was his first time sleeping in a tent, and he did well. He spent it with Grandma and Grandpa in their tent. He went to sleep awfully late, and got up early, but he pretty much slept through the night. I was able to sleep for 4 hours, then had an hour nap later. I got to kick out two drunk people too - woo hoo - wasn't that fun!? The Relay raised over $66,000.

It was a patriotic theme this year.

Walking a lap...

He had spaghetti for dinner after Relay.