18 Months!

How did this happen?  My tiny baby turned 18 months old this week!  

How's I get so big?

He had his 18 month well check this week.  This was an exciting visit, it was the first time he wasn't in the baby room!  He got weighed on the big scale, and his height was measured standing up.  So many changes!  Sadly I didn't take any pictures.  Ben was not a fan of the whole experience and kind of cried the whole time.  I can't say I really blame him, I hate getting weighed at the doctor too. ;)  He is healthy and growing well though!  He's 27.8 pounds and 31.5 inches.  He is a bit on the shorter side, but I don't think that height measurement is 100% accurate.  He did not like having the measuring device touch the top of his head, and was kind of ducking down away from it.  That being said, the poor kid comes from a long line of less than tall people on both sides of the family, so we aren't really expecting him to be too tall.  The important thing is he is growing and developing!

Despite his not liking the doctor, the visit went well.  We don't have to go back until he has his 2 year old well check.  I feel like there is no way my baby could ever be 2 years old, that is way too far away.  But I suppose it's going to happen.  I am loving every day with my sweet little toddler.  Ben, you are busy, bright, and fun.  You make us all laugh and enjoy life with you.  Thank you for being such a sweetheart and making me the luckiest mother ever.

We love you, Ben!

-Kim

New Favorite Toy

Ben is in the stage where he loves pushing buttons.  Not like he likes to annoy people, he enjoys pushing literal buttons.  No button is safe around this kid.  He has always been interested in our computers, but that interest has soared lately.  He wants nothing more than to push all the buttons on the keyboard.  Ben has several options for button pushing.  He has a music table, a toy tablet, and even his own toy laptop.  This doesn't include all the other countless toys he has that have buttons.  Buttons that light up, make sounds, make pictures change.  None of these are as good as his new favorite toy.  An old keyboard.

Meo got a new computer at the office yesterday, so she no longer needed her old keyboard.  We unplugged it and gave it to Ben.  He can't get enough of it.  He carries it around the office and sits to type on it.  This morning he brought it into the room I was in, then ran and got his milk and snacks to 'work.'  I wonder where he got that from?  (As I sit here with my water and pretzels, typing away. ;) )

I suppose the fact that it is 'real' makes it better than his toy items, or perhaps it is just because it is new.  Either way, he is loving this toy.

Typing away!

With his snacks and football. 

Such a hardworking little sweetie!

-Kim

Happy Birthday, Aunt Lindsay!

Sigh, another birthday I'm a day late on.  Sorry, Aunt Lindsay.  But Happy Birthday!  We hope it was a wonderful one for you.  Thank you for being such a great friend, sister-in-law, and aunt.  Ben loves you and can't wait to visit with you again.

Back from this summer, besties!

Happy Birthday!!

-Kim

Uncle Jared's Visit

Uncle Jared came to visit!  He loves the car show, and come into town to go to it with Meo and Omi.  Pat, Ben, and I couldn't go, but we were able to have dinner and hang out with Jared a bit.  It was great!  Sadly we don't get to see him very often.  I was thrilled for Ben to have a chance to hang out with his Uncle.  I was super happy to get to see my brother.

We had dinner over at Meo and Omi's house so everyone could relax and Ben could go to bed.  We had yummy deep dish pizza, cake, and caught up with each other.  Ben of course kept everyone entertained with his busy explorations of the house.  He never stops moving!  He had a lot of fun playing with Uncle Jared.

Sitting with Uncle Jared!

Talking car stuff with the guys

Yummy Pizza! (Yes, I cut it up for him after this)

Playing with Uncle Jared!

It was wonderful to spend time with Jared.  We're so happy he was able to visit!

-Kim

Coloring!

I can't wait until Ben gets into coloring.  I love coloring with my nieces and nephew.  There is something so soothing about sitting down with a picture and a box of crayons.  Ben has colored with crayons a little bit, but he tries to eat them sometimes.  He also doesn't quite have the 'only color on the paper Mommy gives you' rule down yet.  Coloring remains a heavily supervised activity right now.  Meo and Omi decided to help Ben out.  They got Ben one of those great water coloring books from Melissa and Doug where you fill the little pen with water and the colors appear.  Ben loves it!  He sat quietly and colored for a good chunk of time.  The colors appear as he puts the water on, and they dry back to normal so he can color again.  It was so fun to watch him get into it.  Thanks, Meo and Omi!

Another thank you goes to Gramma and Grampa for Ben's super cute Steelers hoodie.  With the freezing temperatures around here lately he has gotten a lot of use out of the warm hoodies.  Doesn't he look like such a little boy in his hoodie and jeans?  I know, he is a little boy.  But he looks less and less like a baby every day,  Sigh, it's very bittersweet to watch.  He is so cute.  We love him so much!

-Kim

Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day!  It was fun that Valentine's fell on a Saturday this year.  I remember back in high school thinking it was terrible if Valentine's was in the middle of the week.  I mean, you couldn't go out with your boyfriend on a school night!  Now of course, that doesn't matter as much.  We're adults, we can go out whenever we want!  Oh wait, we have a kid, no we can't. ;)  Nonetheless, it was fun to be able to spend more family time together to celebrate the holiday.

We started strong and exchanged cards and gifts at breakfast.  We don't go big for Valentine's Day.  Our anniversary is a month away, and really we don't feel the need to buy big gifts for this one.  Although we do exchange something because I make us.  This year Pat got me some Peeps and Ben, Dagger, and I went in on some mini snickers for him. Yummy stuff.  After cards, Pat ran out and got us some donuts!!  Pat loves donuts.  I really think they may be his all time favorite breakfast food.  But, well, they are donuts so we don't have them very frequently.  It was a nice treat to get them!  I made us some eggs in a basket, heart shaped of course, to balance out all the sugar.  Ben did not get a donut.  I am not handing over that kind of stuff until he can ask for it.  Even then it will be a rare occurrence.  I think this was probably one of the last times Pat and I could go all out with a sugary breakfast before we need to shape up for Ben.  Ben did get his own special treat, we let him try graham crackers for the first time.  He seemed to enjoy them!

I had to tutor, so Pat and Ben got to spend some boy time together.  After I got home and Ben got up from second nap, we headed out to celebrate.  Our first stop?  Walmart.

Yup, Walmart.  I have to say it isn't exactly my favorite place.  But we really had to pick something up, and it is right next to where we went to dinner.  What did we need?  A new bed frame, as ours had broken the night  before.  Now, no scandalous thoughts, this is a family blog.  Friday night we were playing with Ben in our room before bedtime and one leg of the bed just bent.  I am happy it happened then and not in the middle of the night.  Pat tried to fix it, but we had to prop it up.  Unfortunately all we had in the house was a coffee can.  It worked for that night, but it was looking quite dented by Saturday.  I did not want to have the bed collapse in the middle of the night.  That would be annoying enough, but it would wake up Ben too.  No good all around.  Fortunately, Pat had Monday off since it was President's Day.  Walmart has bed frames, hence the visit.  We also needed something sturdier to do under the bed in the mean time.  The only thing we could find was a cord of wood.  Eh, it worked.  Of course I thought this adventure would take a while, and it didn't.  We had no where else to be, so we walked around Walmart for about an hour before dinner.  Pat and I really know how to play up the romance of the holiday, don't we?  Luckily Ben loves riding in carts and looking at things.  He had a great time.

After we had made our purchases, it was time for dinner.  Valentine's Day is the one time of year we go to White Castle!  Seriously, they really play it up for the holiday.  It's sit down service, all decorated, and you have to have reservations.  As I said, our anniversary is a month after Valentine's Day.  I like the idea of being taken out and treated on our anniversary, but I think Pat deserves to be taken out too.  I decided to compromise by having Pat handle anniversary plans, while I take on Valentine's.  I think I got the easier end of that deal, since every year we do the same thing.  We started going to White Castle our very first married anniversary, and have gone every year since.  When we started going it was a fun and cheap way to go out, but not put too much pressure on the day.  We also thought it would be an easy way to add kids to our celebration.  So far, it has been great!

We had an early dinner, and Ben loved it.  He had a blast just looking around at everyone and everything.  There was a cute little girl at the table next to use who appeared to be about two years old.  Ben kept smiling and waving at her.  He knows what Valentine's is all about.  After our dinner we grabbed ice cream for Pat and I to eat later in the evening, then headed home.  

Overall, it was a fabulous Valentine's Day.  I got to spend it with my two boys, had some yummy food, and shared lots of love.

Our classy bed fix.

Cartwright Tradition!

My super cute dates

Being silly with Daddy

Enough with the pictures!

I love Valentine's Day!

Kisses from Mommy

I love my Ben!

-Kim

Happy Birthday, Uncle Jared!

So I have to apologize to Uncle Jared, but I didn't have a chance to post this yesterday.  Happy Birthday to Ben's Uncle Jared!!  Even though you fed him a lemon, Ben loves you bunches.  Thank you for being such a great uncle and big brother!

Happy Birthday!!

-Kim

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day from this little cutie!

-Kim

Quiet moment

Every so often Ben does actually pause his constant motion, and not just when he is sleeping.  Today it was to stop and look out the window with Dagger.  I love my two little sweeties.

-Kim

Ben and the Puddle

You can tell from previous posts that we like to try to get Ben outside as much as possible.  Ever since he was born, he has loved to be outside.  Seriously, he could be fussing and we would take him outside and he would be instantly calmer.  I love getting him out because I think it is healthy for him to run around and get fresh air.  Plus, well, he's a little kid.  All little kids pretty much love to play outside.  He already never stops moving, so I think we will be spending as much time as possible outside as he grows up.

This past weekend it once again hit the upper 30s, and out the door we went.  Most of the sidewalks outside our house were clear, but some were still snowy.  However at one point, we came upon something amazing, something Ben hadn't experienced before, something wet.  A puddle.  It was love from the first splash.

Ben looked very serious as he walked through the puddle, but you could tell he thought it was amazing.  He went back and forth, back and forth.  He walked backwards through it.  He walked through the shallow part.  He walked through the deep part.  He walked quickly, then slowly.  He glided gently, then stomped hard.  He walked back and forth through this puddle for a good long time before we were able to continue on our walk.

To get home, we had to pass by the puddle again.  It of course had to be examined all over again.  This time though, after a few passes, Ben had to bend over and examine it more.  He reached out and touched it.  It got his mittens wet.  This was interesting and had to be repeated.  Now, I know it was chilly out and that being wet in the cold is a bad idea.  But I didn't think too much of it.  We were about 20 feet from our front door.  A few minutes of cold wet hands wouldn't cause any lasting damage.  The thing is, these wet hands had to be examined very, very closely.  The only way to do that?  Yup, sit down.  Ben sat right in the middle of the puddle.  Pat was super fast, snatched Ben up, and had him half way home before I could even do anything.  Me?  I am an awesome mom so I did what anyone would do.  I laughed.  Hard.  Pat had Ben in the house and I was still laughing on the sidewalk.

Ben of course was fine from his whole experience.  Well, he was a little annoyed at being pulled away from his puddle, but he got no-pants time instead.  That's a win for Ben.  I think when it is warm out this summer we will take him puddle jumping in his swim suit.

You can see Ben in action here and here.  You can see he looks pretty serious, but is loving the puddle.

I love this picture of my boys.

Ben, meet the puddle.

What is this?

Testing the waters.

This is amazing!

Sitting- After.

As you can see Ben sat, and Pat was so fast picking him up I didn't even get a picture.  Just the drips coming off of Ben.  Yes, instead of worrying about my son sitting in water outside in February, I was trying to get a picture.  Priorities, right? ;)

-Kim

Soccer Star

As you can probably tell from the small amount of snow, these pictures are from before our big snow day last week.  The day before the blizzard we played outside with Ben for a bit.  We brought out the soccer ball and attempted to kick it around a little.  Ben liked chasing it down, but when the ball is up to your knees it is hard to kick it around.  We had some fun running around the back yard.

I was going to post these pictures, but the snow ones were just too much fun.  So a bit late, here is Ben playing with his soccer ball.  Big contrast from the snow we got that night, isn't it?  I hope we see the grass again before summer.  Snow ball isn't too bad though, and we love playing with our little soccer star.

Passing with Daddy

Snow soccer!

Trying to get it from Daddy

He looks like he's ready to hike the ball.

Future goalie?

Pat and I both played soccer growing up.  We are going to try to pass on our love of the game to Ben.  So far so good!

-Kim

Working out

We all have strange little habits we only do when we are alone.  Or at least when we think we are alone.  One of mine is that I do squats while I brush my teeth.  So, now it is no longer a strange secret behavior, it is a strange habit that everyone knows about.  I know, I think it is a little weird too.  But when you are super busy you have to squeeze in fitness when you can.  The thing is, I really do only do it when I'm alone.  Of course in the mornings I am rarely alone, I have Ben with me.  Most mornings Ben is either running around the bedroom like a crazy person, or trapped in the pack and play if he is getting into too much mischief.  I never thought he was paying that much attention to what I was doing.  Until Friday, that is.  I was brushing my teeth, and doing my squats, when I looked over and saw Ben doing squats right along with me.

I tried to get him on video that morning, but he wasn't into it.  Later in the afternoon he did them again with me!  I am happy that he was copying a behavior, that while perhaps a little odd, is at least a healthy one.  Time to really take a look at everything I do now that I know my little shadow is watching and imitating me!

You can see Ben doing his squats here.  I hope this is a good sign for a life of fitness ahead!

-Kim

Knife and Fork

Ben has started expressing interest in imitating us more while eating.  He likes to hold his fork and spoon.  He also likes to hold onto two utensils and try to 'cut' his food like we do.  Most of the time he just plays at it, then picks up the food item with his hand to take a bite.  He is getting much better at it though!  I enjoy watching him explore and try to figure out what we adults are doing at mealtime.  There are so many little things in this world that we as adults just know how to do.  It is fascinating to see them through the eyes of someone who doesn't know the customs and routines.

Ben did pretty well with his bread stick this past week!

Am I doing this right?

I'm getting good at this!

He still needs a bit more practice, but he is doing really well!  I have hope that some day I won't have to pull food out of his hair after every meal.  ;)

-Kim

Snow Day: Beyond the Snow

 Ben had a pretty good snow day.

We knew we weren't leaving the house, so we took it easy in the morning.  Pat built Ben an awesome mega block creation.

After Ben's first nap, we had a traditional snow day meal of grilled cheese and tomato soup.  Ben is a tomato soup fan!  It got a little messy, but all good meals are.  

After lunch we bundled up and explored the great outdoors.  You can see our snow play here.

Ben played with the snow outside and inside, and after second nap I made us a special treat- snow ice cream!  I had never made it before, but I will be making it again.  It is so easy and pretty good!  I got a recipe off of pinterest, just condensed milk, vanilla, and snow!  Pat and I enjoyed it.  We let Ben try some.  True, it's a lot of sugar, but come on.  It was a snow day, we had to live it up a little!  Ben hated it.  We got him to try a tiny bite, and he was not having it.  Silly kid.  Oh well, I know when he is bigger he will like it.  I am excited to have it as a snow day treat for the future!

After our snack, (snow ice cream for Pat and I, raisins for Ben), we had a chance to skype with Gramma and Grampa.  Ben really likes skyping with them.  He ran around and held up his toys to show them.  They played peek-a-boo and patty cake through the screen.  It's great that we can see Gramma and Grampa while we talk to them.

That night was the super bowl, so we had an evening of talking about football and watching the fun commercials.

Overall, I think Ben had a pretty good snow day.  I know snow days can cause havoc on schedules, especially as kids get older.  We got lucky that this snow day was on a Sunday, and we could stay home.  But I am excited to experience snow days in the future with Ben.  I think they are just going to get more and more fun!

-Kim

Snow!

Finally, a big snow!!  After lunch we bundled Ben up and took him out to play in the snow!  This is the first time he's been in a big snow where he could walk.  Okay, he couldn't really walk in the snow, it was too high.  But the only other time we took him out in a big snow he was only 4 months old.  He couldn't really do much then.  This time he could enjoy it a little more!

Cutie in snow pants!

Exactly how many layers are you going to put on me?

Ready!

Why, hello there

Picture with Mommy!

What is this stuff?

Not looking super amused...

The snow is almost to his waist!

Ben liked the snow better from up here.

As expected, we didn't last very long outside.  Ben couldn't walk with the snow practically to his waist.  He didn't like when it got on his gloves either.  But we enjoyed a little bit of time outside in the snow.

We brought some snow inside for Ben to explore further.  I think he found it...  different.  He wasn't entirely sure about it at first, but for the most part he enjoyed it.

Inside snow!

Digging right in

Making a tiny snow ball

That was fun!

I'm looking forward to all the snow days to come as Ben grows up!

-Kim