A Day In The Life Of Ben...

Thursday
7.18.2013

Ben's morning started about his usual wake up time of 8:15 am. He always wakes up so happy and most mornings he starts singing songs!

As I change his diaper we discuss what we should have for breakfast. Today he choose waffles.

As soon as his new diaper is on he is off to the playroom to start playing as I start breakfast.

 Ben has to do his chore before he eats...feed Miles breakfast.

Waffles, turkey sausage and yogurt with granola is whats on the menu for breakfast today.

After breakfast I needed to take a shower. Ben runs and gets my iPad and sets up shop on his step stool while I get to take a shower mostly in peace!

Brushing teeth, getting dressed and picking out shoes is next.

Then is was off to run some errands. Our first stop was Sams to buy one of our favorite snacks!

Then it was a special trip to Toys R Us. We had been talking with Ben about giving up his "b" aka binky for the past week or so. I know I am a few months past due getting this done but it's hard to let yet another baby thing go. To my defense he only has his b sometimes in the car and only in his bed at home. But its time and today is the day. So we scoured the aisles and once we hit the Tonka aisle Ben couldn't contain himself! He was so excited it took a bit of time but he finally settled on a new bulldozer. He was so excited but yet still very sad about the thought up giving up his b. He was worried he had to give up his lovey and blankies but I reassured him he could keep those forever if he wanted. He was trying to convince me to let him keep just one b in his bed. No dice kid-all or nothing. So I told him he couldn't open his new bulldozer until he threw all his b's in the trash....

Ben has been asking to ride an escalator all week. So I took him over to the mall and let him ride the escalator a few times in Nordstrom.

It was nearing lunch time and we happened to be riding the escalator up to the third floor where Nordstrom Cafe happens to be and it also happens to be one and Ben & I's favorite lunch spots!

After our belly's were full we headed home but stopped into Hy-Vee for Ben to pick out some Magic Pops or as he calls them "crunchies". He picked blueberry (shocker) and strawberry!

When we got back home Ben had a timeout to do. He had thrown a tantrum in line at Nordstrom Cafe over a dropped raisin and wanting apple juice.

Once Ben was out of timeout is was nap time. New diaper, blinds closed, fan on and last nap with a b (fingers crossed). He was pretty upset about this being the last time he would have his b.

2 Hours later Ben is up and ready to roll!

Snack Time: Ben decided on some trail mix & some "crunchies".

Snack is generally eaten on the couch as we watch a show on Disney Jr.

Then he told me he was ready to throw his b away so he could have his new bulldozer. So we gathered up as many b's as we could find and then Ben threw them away. So then we opened up his new bulldozer!

We were kinda bored and knew Daddy wouldn't be home for another hour at the best so we decided to make some blueberry muffins. My little baker loves to wear his fire truck apron and stand in his "castle" aka learning tower and help me cook! He loves cracking eggs and stirring! Once the muffins were baked we just had to try a bite because they smelled so yummy!

Daddy got home about 5:30 pm and Ben was so excited to tell him about his new bulldozer and that he had thrown all his b's away.

Dinner was next. Ben hardly ever eats the same thing as Vince and I so on his plate tonight was organic chicken nuggets, mac & cheese, blueberries, orange and the rest of his blueberry muffin. Not much of a surprise that he ate all the fruit and muffin but only took a few bites of chicken and mac & cheese.

Bath time with Daddy follows dinner at our house. I clean up the kitchen and Vince cleans up Ben.

Once a clean Ben in his jammies comes back its time to read some book, pick up toys and hang out before bed.

Bedtime is anywhere from 7:30-8:30 pm depending on Ben's mood and what we have going on the next day. Tonight bed time was right at 8 pm. And it went as I expected since it is the first bedtime without his b-tears, tears and more tears. Poor little guy.

B is for Blueberry

I had been wanting to go blueberry picking all summer and finally decided that the Friday after the 4th we would go! Vince was not very excited about it (boo) so when my dad said he would like to go I let Vince off the hook. We got down to the The Berry Patch late morning and got our buckets and started picking! Ben was in heaven! He loves loves loves blueberries! More blueberries ended up in his tummy than his bucket. He did really well only picking the blue ones as he learned the red ones are a bit tart. After about 30 minutes Ben was hot and tired-he plopped down under a blueberry bush in the shade and informed us he was ready to go. So we headed back to get our blueberries weighted and pay for them. And then it was off to find some ac and lunch! We just finished eating the blueberries we picked and Ben always asks if they are his blueberries from "the garden" that he picked! I am so excited to go apple picking this fall along with our traditional pumpkin picking! 

Independence Day

4th of July 2013 was pretty low key for us this year. We had plans to go to Miege and watch the fireworks Wednesday night but a random thunderstorm came in about 5:30 pm and it was still raining at 8:30 pm so we decided to nix the fireworks. On Thursday we met up with Natalie & Ryan at the Prairie Village 4th of July Festivities in the morning. The boys had a blast! They sprayed the fire hose, rode the train, saw the animals at the petting zoo, got their faces painted and got free bike helmets! Our friends Andrew & Meryl came up to check out the celebration too! After a few hours it was hot and the boys were getting hungry so we grabbed some lunch at BRGR and then it was nap time!

After nap we headed to my parents house for dinner. Ben had a blast playing in his pool and playing in my old Radio Flyer! After dinner we sang Happy Birthday to America and Ben got to blow out the candles-this kid really loves birthdays!

Lake Trip 2013

The last weekend of June was the annual Rupp Lake Trip! This year we got a special treat and Vince's Uncle John came all the way from San Francisco! Everyone was at the house by Thursday night and the fun began! Times sure have changed over the years as the years tick by and more babies join the family-long gone are the  late nights drinking on the dock. Well I should clarify the boys are great at keeping with that tradition but us girls not so much! The weekend consisted of playing in the lake, great company, laying on the dock, boat rides, cocktails and great food! Ben was fearless as usual. This year he decided he wanted to go down the slide on the dock and after doing it once with Vince he decided he didn't need Daddy's help anymore and insisted on going by himself. And he went over and over and over again! He had a blast driving the boat and playing with his cousins! That Friday was Paige's 12th Birthday (I still can not wrap my head around that she is 12 years old) so we had a birthday cake, birthday presents and birthday singing! After we sang to Paige and she blew out her candles we sang and blew out candles for Ben!  Ben hasn't quite grasped the whole concept of birthdays yet. On Saturday us "kids" snuck off to the bar just outside of the cove. It was nice to have a few hours as grown-ups without kids! Besides a few thunderstorms we had beautiful weather! Sunday morning we left after breakfast so we could still have part of our Sunday left to catch up on laundry and grocery shopping.