Ben at the zoo

Watch "Ben meets the herons" on YouTube

Ben and his trike

We were given this trike from a family at Tom's school this summer, when it seemed impossibly big for him. It sits in our front porch, and most days as we pass it Ben has to give it a pat.
He can almost reach the pedals and sometimes manages to turn them. Mostly he scoots along, staring at the world, and occasionally making a heart-stopping lunge for the ground. Fun for all! This video is a few weeks old, we go to the woods in a nearby park and Polly can run off-lead while Ben perfects his 'push me, minions!" expressions.

Festive Cheer

I love Christmas. I find the long dark winter so long, dark and wintery that a festival of lights and excess brings me immense joy.  It's not a religious thing, it's a human thing. Give me food, give me music, give me parties and sparkly things, because it is cold and dark and it's going to be cold and dark for a few months' yet... 
So I love the way people decorate their houses here, tacky though it is, I love how our street shines and glows, and I love the Christmas tree and I love a few days of holiday music, and frankly, I'm having a very nice week. I've got a lot of marking to do, so I'm busy and that means I've missed things like today's the zoo trip which makes me incredibly sad. But there are some moments that I got to witness, and Ben seeing the tree for the first time one morning was pretty wonderful. I wish I could have got the first reaction on film, but I was too busy being overloaded with maternal adoration to go and get the camera for quite some time.

Ben at the zoo

Cougar

Ben at the zoo

Ben and fish. He was obsessed

Ben at the zoo

Ben tries to hug a  peacock

Ben at the zoo

Jaguars

Ben at the zoo continued

Ben meets big cats

Ben at the zoo

Making friends with a bear

Takes after his dad

New top from bulgarian granny

Wearing Dad's hat

He lives shopping for fruit and veg

So long as he gets a squash to cuddle.

Thanksgiving

We have so much to be grateful for this Thanksgiving, but I am starting with the fact that I am not expected to participate in the American Tradition of watching American Football all afternoon.  Ben, however, appears to be enjoying it, and Tom certainly is. The Green Bay Packers are his favourite team, and he bought Ben a team shirt ages ago in a charity shop. It's a bit on the small side now!

Bubbles!

This is him saying 'bubbles.'

We were reading a storybook last night that has a bathtime scene and bubbles. At that page, the book was flung aside and we had to race to the bathroom and begin bathtime immediately! He's so much fun at the moment.

Developing language

Ben has been a little behind some of his friends in developing words. When he went to the doctor recently she asked if he could point to his head, or his tummy. Marina had to admit he couldn't, but he would tell you where the dog was, or a duck.

However, today has been a day for learning new words, I attribute some of this to him moving from Baby Einstein to Sesame Street (thank goodness!) Today we learned Banana, because they were talking about them on the show.
Then at bath time Daddy rolled out his newest acquisition; a bubble machine that suction cups to the bathroom wall and blows bubbles down onto the bath. Ben loved it so much he learned to say 'bubble" just so he could ask for more. Pretty impressive turn-around.

Ben learns about bananas

Today Ben watched an episode of Sesame Street that was all about bananas. He now loves bananas.

I'm a little embarrassed that he learned about this fruit from a TV show, but he had ignored them up until now.

One year on

 Remember this little (okay, not very little, but RELATIVELY little) baby?

This time last year, just as it was starting to get cold, I got some pictures of Tom about to take Ben out on a dogwalk. At that point, 3 1/2 months old, Ben had an unfeasibly large head and so I gave up buying baby hats and bought some for a toddler, which were then ridiculously large, and really rather cute

This morning I realised, on the first day that it was cold enough for hats and gloves and scarves, that Ben was still wearing the same hat.

 Now he just looks like a lumberjack!  This effect is even more enhanced when he's in his dungarees:

Where did this great big boy come from? Walking with the occasional trip (just like his Mum), jabbering away in nonsensical talk (just like Dad) and now climbing onto big chairs and sitting in them with squeals of accomplishment. There's no stopping him!

Halloween parade

Today was the Halloween Parade at Ben's daycare.

Ben went as a puppy, it was unbelievably cute, he hated every minute of it.

Trip to the mall

Ben is now grown up enough to sit up in a chair and eat grown up food when we go to the mall.



Given the snow this weekend, the mall was the only warm place for him to run around.

Daredevil son

He enjoys going up and down the steps by the mouth of this slide, but (until 23rd October, 2011, momentous date for history) hadn't shown much interest in going down it. Suddenly he stopped, turned around and gave me a sweet grin, and launched himself headfirst down the tube. Happily there is some serious tum-drag which slowed him down enough for me to get to the bottom in time to catch him. This photo was taken on the nth repeat of the slide, where n = until I got tired of it and dragged him home so I could have some coffee.

At the park

Weekend mornings, we take it in turns to take Ben and Polly out for a bit of a run around, while the other one gets to sleep late (sometimes up to 8.30am!). Much as I love my duvet mornings, there is something equally wonderful about getting togged up nice and snug and roaming around the parks as the sun comes up, watching Ben interact with the world.

One noise, two signs OR: The Dog and Duck

Ben does the 'flat-palm-on-the-chest' sign for dog (it should be 'flat-palm-on-the-thigh,' which if you consider it makes quite a lot of sense for 'dog') and he does the 'tips-of-fingers-touch-thumb' or 'quack' motion for a ducks and geese. I was vaguely saying "oh that's right dear, there are some birds" when filming him because I thought he'd just seem some songbirds. There was actually a skein of geese flying overhead, and so his sign was more accurate than I gave him credit for.

He signs for 'dog' when he hears Polly sneeze in another room, he signs 'duck' for rubber duck, mallard in stream, goose... it's amazing watching him thinking out loud with his signs. He only makes the one noise for both, though, "DA!" - which could be the noise for 'look at that interesting animal!'' for all I know. It gets said with increasing emphasis until you agree with him, I know that much.

Some of our favourite things

Ben isn't talking yet, but he's making some extremely expressive noises. There's a noise for placing a storybook decisively in your lap for IMMEDIATE reading, thank youverymuch, and there's a noise for "I'm so clever did you see what I just did?" and there's also a noise for "well, this is very satisfactory and not a little exciting!" - which is the noise at the end of this little clip. It was taken in the park nearest to our house (playing fields and some swings and slides) two weekends ago. You can tell it's not today cos it's not under 3 inches of snow.

No Girls Allowed: a story

The number and quality of photos about Ben has rapidly declined since he started walking, because he is in constant, constant motion. It is easier to get film clips and I know Tom has a few on his phone which we will upload to here today. Ben has a habit of picking up interesting things , wandering somewhere, and then putting them down to pick up something else. This means I have no idea where our regular camera is, which is annoying but small beer compared to some of the other things we have lost...
Ben has been waking at 5am this week, which is not exactly delightful, but I shimmy up the little attic steps to his little attic bedroom and lift him onto a twin bed we have set up for storytime and night-time nursing/early morning feeds. We snuggle together under the duvet, he feeds and dozes, and I tend to drift off as well (depending on how kicky/scratchy his is at any given point, of course). Today we cuddled and dozed until 6am when he climbed down off the bed and set off (at a run, of course) for the door. We are done here, Mum, the world is full of fun things for me to run at, trip over, and purloin. Let's go!
This morning, however, was my turn for a lie-in and Tom 's turn to get Ben dressed, breakfasted, and read "spot the dog'' and "maisy" flap books, as well as "Don't put your finger in the Jelly, Nelly!" which must be read at least seventeen times each morning, or the sun won't rise, apparently.
So, No Girls Allowed - We were racketing around this flat as Tom and Ben got geared up for a chilly, muddy dogwalk (with a stop at the swings!) and I put the kettle on and thought about slinging some sausages in the oven. Tom was putting his shoes on in the bedroom and Ben followed him in, I followed too as we were talking about something, only to have the door closed -and latched shut- in my face. There was a brief pause then I heard "HAH! No girls allowed! This is the BOYS clubhouse now! HAH! ....."
Then silence as Ben picked up something with a triumphant "Da! Da!"
"Oh.... fabulous, darling. Lovely. Very nice."

The door to this all-male bastion of coolness and exclusivity was opened, to reveal Ben proudly wearing one of my bead necklaces, and doing a little shimmy of delight.

Polly and I looked at each other. Boys, eh?

In the park continued

When we love him best

Ben didn't fancy sleep at five am. We are on the way to visit friends and clearly this morning's activity have taken their toll. I wish I could have a nap.

Two videos of Ben

so much to show you all

I have some really lovely photos of Ben with his extended family, but not the time or space to upload and sort and edit, just at present. For now the biggest news of the trip is that he is a confident, if wobbly, independent walker. He also cut  2 new teeth and outgrew all the shoes he owned, and has learned to wave and say " bahh" as a farewell- often when the person has already gone!

He is very happy and charming, though clearly missing his dad and more clingy to me than usual. His adoration of my mum - a passion entirely mutual - continues apace.

We return to the US on the 31st August. Photos to follow, jetlag permitting.

toyhouse and jetlag

an artistic study.

Once a week I tutor one of the students in my advisory. Her family are very sweet and clearly have decided that Ben is the method they are going to use to clear out their attic. So every time I go to tutor they have dug out another baby item for me.

So far this has included a really nice baby-gate, a pop-up tunnel and an awesome tricycle.

However, yesterday they outdid themselves.


There are loads of awesome books in these bags, all hardback or board books. We are really impressed by their taste in books and have yet to find one we don't love.

So sweet.

Ben in a hat

Ben is obsessed with hats. This may be because it is the only baby sign he really has down, it may also be because his parents are terrified of the sun.

But of all hats, Daddy's hat is the bestest.

A trip to the park

We took a trip to the park with our friends Mary Kate and Nick. Ben wanted to show off some of his "one hand" walking.

Then he wanted to walk over a bridge, he was surprised to find Daddy underneath him.

Finally Marina and I both agree that slides are an important part of a boy's development.

Cake!

To nobody's surprise, Ben loves Cake. I wanted to share with you a collection of Ben's favourite moments.





Yes? Can I help you?






He's terribly efficient.






Where did the cake go?






Cake beard.

Birthday party

We had a lovely party at a local park. About half a dozen lovely parents came with their kids.
.

A year ago right now Ben was still not born, we were in the labour room bone tired and weary. He was just a few hours away from appearing.

It's very odd to think that he's been with us for a year.

July 2010
Tiny and pink.

August 2010
Still so new we were terrified of breaking him.

September 2010.
Still a raisin.

October 2010
Starting to have a personality.

November 2010
Breaking hearts already.

December 2010
International traveler

January 2011
Discovering swings and snow.

February 2011
Food you say?

March 2011
Little boy

April 2011
Ben really discovers volume

May 2011
He's a handsome devil.

June 2011
Helping us move house.

July 2011
Where did this grown up boy come from?