Happy Halloween! We went to my parents this weekend for their halloween party so he could see all his cousins. He had a great time trying to follow them around, but is still just a little too small to play with them. All the costumes were great and in case you can't figure it out, Ben is a garden gnome.
All the cousins
Our little gnome
On saturday we went to the St. Louis zoo and for some reason it didn't click to me that it was Boo at the Zoo so Ben was one of the only kids not in costume that day...oops. We did however run into my cousin and her darling little girl Audrey! What a great surprise! Apparently Ben isn't the only one who doesn't like to share as Audrey did not like Ben in her wagon for a picture so the only pic with them together is one neither of them were to sure of.
Jenny, Audrey, Ben and Brian
Ben and a monkey
Ben and Deebo
Ben and Papa
Then I was able to meet up with my friend Pam and her newest addition - Daniel. For some reason I was much to interested in holding and playing with Danny that I forgot to get a pic of him. He's precious and I'm so excited for her and Chris.
We also were able to meet up with my other cousin Katy and her little girl Hadleigh. She could not be any cuter and full of smiles. Ben of course had trouble sharing with her and used his favorite word (NO!) way too often. But it was great to see so much family this weekend and can't wait til next time.
Ben and Hadleigh
Tonight we went to a few houses around our block to get the full effect of Halloween and Ben did a terrific job. He loved walking from house to house and peeking in through their doors, but was not to fond of when people were actually in the house and answered. Nonetheless, I am hopeful that he already has the Halloween spirit and will love trick or treating in the future. Even the scary houses didn't bother him! Too bad I couldn't get him to keep his beard on, but at least he hat stayed on!
So this past weekend when my sis was in town we went to Holiday Mart and there was so much to see. We definitely had a good time and could've easily spent a full day there, but in the short amount we spent there we found a few unique items.
I have a new favorite shirt and so does Ben (or at least it's my favorite shirt for him). Maybe it's the irony of the shirt that I like best or the fact that it's him wearing it - my son, who cries at the drop of a hat.
JoCo Tough! - So true!
He's still a handful, but a ton of fun especially since he's talking a lot more now which is awesome. He can say (in his own terms - and these are our loose interpretations for his gibberish) outside, dog, dada, mama, papa, turtle, shoe, sock, sit, what's this, please, thank you, ball and his favorite...NO! We've been working on our use of said word, but he still has that as his favorite and chooses to use it constantly. If it's not outside (ow-sigh) or dog it's the word no. What I love most is when we read to him and he tries to repeat the words you say. He's really been working hard to put the sounds together to make them match. The animal book is still one of his favorites and turtle and penguin are the two favorite animals in those books. He can't quite say penguin although he tries (shenhoo is what comes out).
A few new things he's been doing lately that Bri and I can't resist are when he reaches out to hold our hand. He uses this a little too much to his advantage though as generally we're being led to the door for outside play. Apparently he's more of a take charge and director type of personality since his other trick is to sit down on the ground and then point to the spot next to him and say 'sit'. He will repeat this word until you finally sit next to him and then a few seconds later he's up and moves about 5 feet away and does it all over again. This is easier for Bri than I as my bump is starting to get bigger and getting up/down from the concrete driveway is not all that easy nor enticing. He's also getting much better about stairs and he tries to take them on like a big boy if holding your hand - he prefers this actually. He's even mastered the stairs on our lower deck outside which kind of made me sad. He seems so big and grown up already!
Here's a video since it's been a while on that front. The end is the best part!
Also - for those of you that don't know or don't read my facebook page, we are having a girl in March! We had a sono two weeks ago and I'm just really delayed to get this updated here, but nonetheless, here's pics from the sono.
This weekend my sister and her family came in town for a visit. They ended up getting a puppy yesterday also. Tell me this dog is not adorable?! It's a Coton and only 8-1/2 weeks old.
Charlie
Ellie of course was a little unsure of the smaller dog even though Charlie left her alone for the most part.
Ellie hiding from Charlie
Ben watching 'Dog-dog'
Riley, Mallory and Charlie
Ben had fun playing with his cousins and all three of them had fun with the puppy last night/today. We also carved some pumpkins to get in the Halloween spirit since we're only a week away!
Brian's Wraif, Mallory's Dog, and Riley's Peace Sign Eyes
Today we went to the pumpkin patch and had a great time. It was a neat farm that had animals, playgrounds, mazes, and a hay ride to the pumpkin patch. Well worth it for the price and pumpkins we found. We even got to see a pig race!
