The Lemon

I'm going to blame this one on Uncle Jared.  He wanted to see Ben's reaction to trying a lemon.  Of course as a mother I never want my child to experience anything that will make him unhappy.  But let's be real, those videos of babies trying lemons for the first time are hilarious.  I didn't give Ben the lemon, but I did let this happen.  And I taped it.  Come on, who doesn't want to remember that face?

You can see the video of Ben having his first taste of lemon here.  Priceless.

I don't think he'll be eating a lot of lemons.  Sorry to do this to you, Ben, but you are just too cute!!!

-Kim

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving from Team Cartwright!  We are so thankful for all of our friends and family, along with all the blessings in our lives.  Lots of love to all our friends and family!

Full heart, full mouth, happy boy

-Kim

The Yogurt Experience

This week I decided to see if Ben would eat some yogurt.  He hasn't been too into it in the past, but I know you have to offer a food many times before kids will start to like it.  We eat Greek yogurt, so I thought it might be too tart for his liking.  I added some strawberries in an attempt to lure Ben into eating it.

Well, it wasn't working too well.  He just is not interested in the yogurt, despite having strawberries in it.  I rinsed off one of the berries to show him it was real and something he loves.  He ate that.  I gave him the spoon, thinking maybe he would like to feed himself.  He enjoyed holding the spoon, but instead of dipping it into the yogurt, he held the spoon and used his other hand to scoop out yogurt and strawberries.  You can imagine the mess that made...

In the end Ben was happy with his yogurt experience.  I think we'll keep offering it to see if he will enjoy it more, but perhaps I'll drive the spoon for a little longer. :)

-Kim

15 Months!

Happy 15 months to my wonderful Ben!!  I love you and all your busy little ways.  Here are some photos from Ben's day.

Being silly

Music table!

Snack time!

My sweet boy!

Ben really got into his dancing today too.  You can see him rocking out here.  Thanks for making every day so wonderful, Ben.  We love you so much.

-Kim

Stylin'

Who is this good looking kid?  Oh yeah, my son. :)  Ben was looking very nice for church this weekend.  Thanks for the new clothes, Gramma!

I just want to show that we do clean up Ben and dress him nicely sometimes.  Remember this when I post all the pictures of Ben with food all over himself.

-Kim

Working for your keep

Ben knows he has to help out around the house to earn his keep. ;)  He helped us put the groceries away this weekend.  Well, he helped wheel them up and down the hallway.  We had to catch him to get our food!  He loves to push the little cart around.  

He really earned his dinner!  Pat and I really appreciated all Ben's help.  We're lucky parents.

-Kim

More food

I know, more food pictures.  But what can I say, the kid loves to eat.  He's just like his mommy.  :)  Last night Ben and I got the opportunity to join Meo and Omi for a mid week dinner.  Pat and I had to do a hand-off between our tutoring sessions, and it didn't seem worth the time to head back to our place after work.  Luckily Meo and Omi live close to the tutoring center, so it was the perfect excuse to have dinner with them!  We decided to let Ben try some pizza.

What's this?

I'll try it

Get in my mouth!

I think he likes it.

It is so much fun to see Ben try new foods.  Pizza is a sometimes food, but it is nice to know he likes it!  Thanks for dinner, Meo and Omi!

-Kim

Some kid stole my lunch

A kid stole my lunch today.  I'd like to say he was bigger, or mean somehow.  But he wasn't.  In fact he was pretty cute.  Okay, if I'm being totally honest he didn't exactly steal my lunch either.  I gave it to him pretty willingly.

Full story, after Ben had finished the first part of his lunch, he reached out toward my sandwich.  I of course gave it to him.  I did that for two reasons.  The first is because I am his mother and I'll always let him eat my food if he is hungry.  The second, well, I didn't think he'd actually eat it.  The fact it was a sandwich made me think he wouldn't like it.  Ben is strange about carbs and usually doesn't want anything to do with sliced bread.  At least if that sliced bread is given to him in his high chair.  (Serve it out of the garbage though, and apparently it is delicious.)  Besides the bread issue, it was a salami sandwich.  I know, not the healthiest of lunch meats.  But come on, it is tasty and it was on sale.  It is also a meat that can be hard to bite if you are still working on mastering the teeth you've only had for a few months.  Finally, it was a new-ish food that came from Mommy.  Ben eats most things Daddy hands to him, but he is suspicious of things from me.  Probably because I hand him so many vegetables and not as many bites of frosted flakes (ahem, Pat).  Despite all of these things, he took a bite.  Then he took another.  Then he dropped the sandwich.  But he picked it up and went at it again.

He didn't actually eat that much of it, but he did thoughtfully sneeze on it before handing it back to me.  He then went on to eat most of the apple I packed for us to 'share.'  About half an hour later, he dove into Meo's sandwich from Potbelly's as well.  You'd think we never feed the kid.

I'll try this

Oops, dropped it

What's in here anyway?

Who's sandwich? Ben's sandwich.

It's pretty good.

Nom, nom, eating all the apple...

Whew, I am getting full

Time for second lunch!

Yum, sandwich the size of my face.

  I think I'll be packing two sandwiches from now on...

-Kim

A First Word

I have written before about how much Ben loves Dagger.  He adores her.  He hears her bell or sees her and just lights up.  Now that he is mobile he crawls after her.  He will sit on the stairs and babble at her while she sits where he can't get her.  He loves to touch her and pet her.  Fortunately, Ben is getting a little better at being gentle.  He occasionally gets too excited and grabs on to Dagger, but we separate them as soon as that happens.  Dagger is learning to run away from Ben when she doesn't want to be loved too much.  Overall though, they are sharing a wonderful relationship.

I recently got a few pictures of Ben and Dagger snuggling on the bed.  Well, Dagger is laying there and Ben is loving on her.  She was wonderful about it.  We never make Dagger interact with Ben, she always has the option to leave.  Sometimes she does.  This time though, she stayed on the bed and let Ben hug and kiss her.  She readjusted a few times to get him off of her.  This is understandable, the kid weighs almost three times as much as she does.  But overall, she just purred and nuzzled back.

The pictures are a little blurry, for a few reasons.  One is that I took them on my phone, and another is that Ben doesn't really hold still well.  A big reason was that I was taking them one handed, while making sure that no one fell off the bed and trying to help Dagger out with a bit of defense.  (Toddler hands are grabby hands)  All good reasons, but I do apologize for the picture quality.

It was so wonderful to see my two little loves love on each other.  We are so blessed to have such a wonderful, patient, loving kitty.

So much love...

It is no surprise, seeing how much Ben loves his kitty, what his first word is.  The first official word from Benjamin: Dagger.

-Kim

The Blueberry Pancake Experiment

This weekend I decided to try making blueberry pancakes for Ben.  He wasn't sure about them at first.  He rejected the bites I gave him, but he came around.  It helped when Pat offered him the pancakes.  Obviously if Mommy offers food, avoid it.  If Daddy offers it? It must be amazing.  Toddler logic right there.  Overall I think Ben enjoyed them.  They will remain a weekend food, specifically weekends when we have enough time to find Ben under all the blue.

These are pretty good!

What a messy boy.  But a happy one, and that is all that counts.

-Kim

Steak-ish Dinner

 This weekend Pat and Ben took me out on a date!  The plan was to go to Outback.  Pat and I love that place, and we had a gift card!  When we go out to eat with Ben, we usually go pretty early.  It is just better to get in early, not have a long wait, and get Ben home in time for bedtime.  Well we left our place at 4:30, but when we got to the restaurant the wait was already an hour!  We were not about to stand around and wait for an hour with Ben.  That is just not a good game plan with a 1 year old.

Nearby was a different sort of steak option- Steak n Shake!  Yes, I know, not really the same thing.  But we don't go there very often because it is a little far to drive for fast food.  We had already driven all that way though, so we went for it.

Ben loved it of course.  There were so many people to watch!   He enjoyed the food as well.  We had a great time being silly and eating some tasty food.  It wasn't the steak dinner we thought it would be, but it was a wonderful date night.

There is so much to see here!

Hmmm... what do I want to eat....

What is this?

Not happy about wearing the hat.

No more hat!

Ooo, a car!

Daddy totally rocks the hat.

Trying to get a picture with Mommy

Having too much fun to look at the camera

Oh my goodness!

Mommy, not another picture!

Being silly

My handsome date!

-Kim