Children's Museum

We took Benjamin to the Children's Museum in Indianapolis on Sunday for the first time. He had soooo much fun! There were lots of fun things for him to do and we even went ahead and got a membership. Here's Benjamin on his first carousel ride!


They have a really cool dinosaur exhibit and they have these little tunnels that you can go through and then look up onto the dinosaur fossils. You can see Dave and Benjamin in the little bubble looking up!


This is the tunnel that you go through to get to the bubble. Benjamin really, really, really, really liked the tunnel! He spent about 10 minutes going back and forth in it and having the time of his life! I really like the expression on his face here (I even made it the background on my computer)! :)


In other news, Benjamin has become quite the good sleeper. He is absolutely ready to go to bed between 8 and 8:30 (unless we are out somewhere). Now some of you may know, this was not always the case. The first year of his life he was quite the night owl. For the first three months or so of his life he had a fussy awake period everyday from like 10 to 2:30 am (very exhausting for mommy and daddy)! Then he started going to bed between 11 and 2 am every night, but only with lots of rocking and trying and sometimes putting him down, him waking up and then we started all over again (also very tiring). At around nine months we started putting him to bed still awake around 9 or 10 by the urging of our pediatrician. He would go to sleep this way, but only after 15 to 40 minutes of screaming and crying. Lately he has been going to be earlier and earlier with less and less crying. The last few nights he has reached for his bed and his blanket as if he was asking to go to bed and he doesn't even let out a cry anymore! Well tonight, I had quite the surprise. Instead of my holding him (and Elmo and his blanket) on the way to his room while we cuddle and hug.....he walked from the living room, into his room, to his crib and pointed to it and started uhhhing that he wanted in it! How crazy is that? Things sure do change!!!!! He's a really sweet boy and we are so blessed! I love watching him develop and definitely enjoy his new sleeping habits! :)

Tool Bench

Benjamin got a new toy today. I've been very excited to give it to him and put it together last night so Dave and I could give it to him today. It's a Sesame Street tool bench with a tool belt and everything. We had it hidden in the bonus room of our house and while Dave and Benjamin were playing on the floor this morning, I brought it out and you should have seen the smile on his face as soon as he saw it!!!! It was priceless! It's quite the cool toy (even dad enjoys it) and I think he'll get many years of playing out of it!

Here's a picture from above so you can see how big it is! It's pretty tall and comes up to Benjamin's chest.


Working the Cookie Monster drill!


And the Bert/Ernie saw!


I didn't think he'd like the tool belt, but he left it on the entire time he was playing and even got upset when I took it off! One of the tools in the belt is Big Bird pliers and while we were playing with them, Dave and I got Benjamin to say Big Bird 4 or 5 times. It was really cute and took me totally by surprise!

Checking on his tool belt! He really liked the hammer the best and as always with Benjamin, two is better than one!!!!

All in all a pretty fun morning in our house....I'm so glad he likes his new toy!

Long Weekend

Benjamin and I spent a long weekend with my parents. We had a lot of fun and went to see their horse race, got our family pictures taken, and went to Chuck E Cheese for the first time!

This is Benjamin last week....he learned how to go down the slide head first and that is now his preferred method!

This is us at Churchill Downs. We got to go into the paddack and see the horses up close before the race. Benjamin definitely enjoyed that! As you can see....he's pointing at the horses as they are walking past us!

This is the horse that my parents are partial owners of..... her name is Grand Nita and she's really neat looking (gray with spots). It was really cool to finally see her race. She didn't do so good...but it was her first time on the turf and my parents said the distance was too short for her.

Katie had been wanting to go to Chuck E Cheese, but you have to have a child to get in. So the three of us went (Benjamin's first time). I was quite pleased....they had a lot of toddler type activities and he had so much fun. His eyes would just light up when he was on one of the rides and they started moving. We'll definitely have to go back very soon! I took some pictures, but my camera was messed up and the pictures came out all blurry. So you'll just have to imagine how cute he looked!

Happy Mother's Day

We had a wonderful Mother's Day yesterday. We were in New Albany for Samantha's graduation party (which went great by the way). I was planning on coming back after on Sat, but am still feeling lousy so instead of going home and going to the Indianapolis Zoo we went to the Louisville Zoo. They have done so much work there and its really a great zoo. Plus we got to see their new baby elephant, which was crazy cute!

Benjamin had a lot of fun in his tent with all the balloons from the party! Isn't his hair so funny all standing up?!?!?!


Benjamin learned how to say ball a few days before this and so he called the balloons ball.....he's saying it in this picture. He can also say fish and bird now too! At the zoo he called most of the animals bird, which was pretty cute!


Benjamin and his daddy riding the train around the zoo.


The baby elephant......so very cute!!! We got to see him up close and he is absolutely adorable!

Happy Mother's Day! Look how little he is compared to his mama!!!

Another mommy and son celebrating Mother's Day......we had a pretty special day together!

We had some silly time too!!!!

Benjamin really had fun with the penguins and birds in this exhibit. He really likes birds! We had fun getting to have Frankie come with us too!!!!

We were both pretty worn out after our fun day at the zoo!!!!

Lastly, Zoe got groomed today and looks pretty darn cute!

Life Lessons

Some lessons little Benjamin has learned lately:

1) Building fences with Grandpa and Daddy is fun and hard work.

2) Spaghetti is messy.


3) If he sits down in his Elmo chair, it wiggles and giggles.

4) Zoe is just so darn cute!

Hope all of you out there are learning as valuable things as my son! Me, I'm learning that having the flu is a real bummer!!!!

First Haircut

Benjamin had his first haircut yesterday in New Albany from Kelly, the girl who cuts my hair. He got scared when she put the cape on him and cried while she cut it. So we stopped and Kelly cut my hair and then after she finished Benjamin's (without the cape this time) and he didn't cry at all that time. So I think we are going to forgo the cape from now on. He looks so cute and like such a big boy with his new cut. Here are some pictures to showcase it!

On the way home from his haircut, Benjamin enjoyed a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. When I got out of the car to get him out, I had quite the surprise. He had the sandwich smeared all over himself and the car seat. My life is always full of surprises!!!!! :)

My Grandma's Blanket

When we got back from the airport Tuesday we finished going through our stuff to get rid of things for our yard sale. When I was going through my linen closet, I came across the baby blankets that I got for Benjamin and one very special one. At my baby shower, my grandma surprised me with a blanket that my other grandma (who passed away 3 years ago) had crouched. Needless to say, it was a very touching and emotional surprise. When I came across it yesterday I decided to show it to Benjamin (even though he never uses/likes blankets). He was so sweet and wanted it wrapped around him and kept pulling it on his lap. So I put it in his bed that night and when I checked on him after he was asleep he had it cuddled up to his face. So sweet!

Florida Trip

We had a great time in Florida for Dave's cousin, Lindsey's wedding. The wedding was really beautiful and we had so much fun seeing all of the family. Here are a bunch of pictures from our trip. I made them small because there are a lot of them and because I just realized that I have a limited memory on my blogs. So if you want to see any larger, just click on them.

Benjamin enjoying a smoothie before getting on the airplane and enjoying the window seat before we took off. He did really well on the plane both times!


Water fun: Playing in Dave's grandma's kiddie pool and after we went swimming at the pool in her development. We enjoyed two days of swimming. It was so nice!

It looks like Benjamin's grandpa has stolen his stinker face! Here he is making it two times the day of the rehearsal dinner!!! :)

Me tickling Benjamin, Benjamin pulling my hair! A common occurence with us!


Our family all dressed up for the wedding!

Dave's grandma and all of her great-grandchildren! A very cute picture, I think!

Grandpa stealing Benjamin's stinker face again!!! I think he has a good excuse this time though considering Benjamin is feeding him a lemon!

The beautiful bride and groom during their first dance!

Benjamin didn't take a nap that afternoon and he finally just passed out!

Glad he got some good rest, because he needed it so he could show us his moves on the dance floor!

Dave holding a very cute little Cohen, the ring bearer and the bride and groom's son. He was so handsome in his little tux and was so good all day long, I couldn't believe how good he was!


Dave really likes Dancing With The Stars and got to watch it live Monday since he was on vacation. He was really excited and it was so cute because he and Benjamin started dancing with the show!