Happy Halloween!

It was our ward Halloween party tonight and Benjamin went as Tigger or a Tiger, whichever you prefer. Either way he was adorable. I can't wait to take him trick-or-treating on Tuesday.


Not much else to report. He keeps getting bigger and stronger all the time! He doesn't need any blankets propping him up in the johnny jumper anymore and he has become more consistant at rolling over. We love our little boy.

That red-eye feature creates some mighty dazed and confused looks. But even then, he's adorable.

Becoming Mobile

The biggest news to hit our home this week was that Benjamin rolled over for the first time. We were playing on the blanket when he kicked his legs up, and then over to the side and once there, rather than flop back onto his back, he continued to pull himself over onto this stomach. I was so excited...and so frustrated that I had dozens of movies of the previous days' attempts and not one of the actual event! However, I couldn't get him to do it again. A couple days later he did it once more, but so far that's been it. I guess we'll see when it becomes a regular occurrance and post a video. However, I do have a cute video Kelly made of him talking. Yes, talking! :) It's the funniest thing, 1. because it truly sounds like he's saying, "What's the matter?" and 2. because he tries so hard to sit up by himself, only to flop over in a most adorable way. Check it out.



Here's another video taken right after that of another attempt to sit. However, sometimes sneezes come at the worst possible times, don't they? :)



In other news, I returned to work last week and had a wonderful time. I only work Thursdays 4-10pm and that's just perfect for me. It felt a bit like a family reunion - got to see everyone and catch up on what's been happening. Got to show some pictures of Benjamin and listen to everyone ooh and aahh over him. Always a good thing. Plus, Kelly gets one-on-one time with Benjamin while I'm gone. Otherwise, the big thing currently is the Detroit Tigers in the World Series. Noisy neighbor guy is having his usual building-shaking sports parties each night and we've actually taken to watching a little too! It's hard to live in such a sports crazy state and not get swept up in it, I guess. But as usual, what we mostly did was adore our little boy. Here are some more cute recent pictures. Enjoy.

Our camera has a red eye feature that can sometimes actually be more detrimental to photos in that it scares Benjamin out of whatever cute pose he was just in. This was a cute picture of him cuddling with rabbit. (Rabbit looks a little freaked out by the red light too, doesn't he?)



We still managed a few cute ones, though, when he wasn't looking.




Spunky, the barking blue dog, is also a favored playmate. Benjamin smiles every time it barks.



The playmat fish are also favorites, but he's always pulling them out. Luckily he doesn't seem to mind a bit when they fall on him. He laid there for 10 minutes with a fish mustache, seemingly undisturbed by it.



Trying to roll over.


It's getting really cold here, so for our most recent walk, I decided to pull out the snowsuit, despite it being too big still. He may be swimming in it, but at least he stayed nice and warm! It was the best walk we had all week.



A couple left over pictures from our trip to Grandma's. Modified tummy time and visit with cousin Katelyn. Katelyn, sadly, was less than enthused.

Forget what I said

I take back all the nice things I said about Michigan. I woke up to snow this week and it's been so bitter cold I've hardly gone outside for days. However, the howling winds and frequent snow falls have had one good result - we've done more tummy time and it has yielded wonderful results. He's using his arms now to hold himself up and he's almost figured out how to roll over. Sometimes he gets so close that I run for the camera, but no complete rolls just yet.

I tried setting out toys for him to look at so that he'd enjoy tummy time more, but none of his usual toys had any effect...


...Until Daddy brought out the "Tummy Time Bunny." Something about this furry friend calms all tears. Hey, whatever works.

The Color Tour

We've lived in Michigan for over a year now and have never seen much beyond our little area around Detroit. So, we decided to take this opportunity before the snow came to see more of this state that people claim is "much better up north." So, two days after I got home from grandma's house, off we went again. We drove to the upper peninsula and then down along the western coast of the state, along Lake Michigan. Truly, people have not been exaggerating, this state is wonderous. It has gorgeous beaches, beautiful forests, and really charming little towns. This time of year also happens to be "The Color Tour." This is what Michiganers do for fun - drive around and see all the leaves change color. (Besides throwing loud football parties every Sunday and Monday while smoking inumerable packs of cigarettes - or is it just our neighbor that does that?) So, we got to experience gorgeous displays of nature's finest colors...and some colorful people as well. Appartently the favorite way to see this color tour is on a Harley Davidson. And, let us not forget, that it's also hunting season. Lots and lots of men in camoflauge gear in every hotel. We almost didn't get a room one night because so many bikers and hunters were in town. However, we found a cute little 10 unit place that gave us their last room. As we carried our bags inside, I saw the owner pull off the paper that covered the "no" in the "no vacancy" sign and saw two bikers pull into the parking lot exclaiming, "There was a vacancy a minute ago! What do we do now?" Benjamin did quite well on his first long road trip. It wasn't until the last day that he really started getting sick of sitting in his car seat for hours on end, but by then we were sick of sitting in the car that much too. After this trip, though, I really have to admit, Michigan has some really beautiful areas and I look forward to seeing more of it in the future.

A small glimpse of the changing colors.



After a while we got sick of driving and let Benjamin take over.




Kelly was getting Benjamin to smile so we'd finally have proof that he really does. The funny thing was that every time he'd see me with the camera, he'd scowel. Thank goodness he has a short attention span and a short memory.



Benjamin enjoying a windy day by the beach.



Look, Daddy's wearing a funny hat too!




Benjamin explores the water.



Can you believe this is Michigan?!

Home Sweet Home

We returned from grandma's house a few nights ago. The trip was a good one, but I'm glad to be back home. Benjamin was great on the flight and noticeably happy to see Daddy again. However, he had a hard time adjusting to his own crib again the first night and cried for over an hour before finally falling asleep, but the second night (last night) he settled right in and slept through the night again (8pm-7am). It was wonderful. We currently have no second car so Benjamin and I have spent our last few days visiting neighbors in our apartment complex and playing with some new toys that he's getting the hang of now that he's starting to reach and grasp. I laid a few toys around him on a blanket and he managed to pick one of them up and bring it to his mouth. Well...he jammed it in his eye first, but it eventually made it to his mouth. :) Didn't manage to get a picture of it, though, and he wasn't too consistant with that game. There's still a lot of arm waving going on, but he's definitely improving.



Also, he's expanded on the superman arm pose during changing time. He's now turned it into the dead bug pose. He kept his arms and legs up almost the entire time and every time his legs fell, they'd startle him and his eyes would get really wide. Then he'd lift his legs right up again. It made diaper changing a little difficult to say the least, but still highly entertaining.


Still working on getting a cute smiley photo of the two of us. I guess he's just such a studious guy.