What's for dinner?

Every evening Benjamin keeps me company in the kitchen while I cook. Sometimes he doesn't last through the whole process and I resort to Baby Einstein until I can get done, but often he entertains himself by pulling out and flinging around the various stashes of goodies we have - pots, food, tupperware, etc. Here's a few cute pics I snagged before he saw me and promptly came after the camera.

Say Cheese!

Benjamin has gone from hamming it up for the camera to an all out fascination with it. I can't ever let him see it or he immediately stops whatever cute little thing he was doing and dashes over to grab the camera. Needless to say, here's what 99% of my recent pictures look like:




Cute, but not really what I was going for. :) As you may also have noticed in those pics, Benjamin seems to have developed a spring-loaded tongue. He never seems to be able to keep it in his mouth. I guess with no teeth to provide a barrier, that slippery little bugger just shoots right out there.





Kind of hard to tell in that last one, but trust me, it's out there. Of course, it's not entirely true to say "no teeth." He does have two and I finally managed to get a picture of them. He'd eaten (and clothed himself) in sweet potatoes and I got the perfect grin out of him (right before to lunged at the camera) to show his pearly whites. Alert the orthodontis if these crooked little guys are a sign of things to come.


A last cute photo taken while Benjamin was being restrained (and distracted) and thus not attempting to eat the camera.

Happy Easter!

Today was a wonderful spirit-filled day spent remembering the marvelous resurrection of our Savior. I taught Sharing Time in Primary and was so grateful I got to teach this amazing principle to some surprisingly well-behaved kids. As for the other aspect of the holiday, Benjamin didn't get an easter basket this year, but he got a new Sunday outfit and a new "My 1st Easter" bib. (He also got a second tooth on the bottom next to the first one. Still haven't managed to capture them in a picture, but eventually they'll show.) I look forward to the day when he's old enough to color and hunt for eggs and excitedly see what the Easter Bunny brought him. For now I'm enjoying not having to orchestrate the whole thing. Here are some pics of Benjamin in his new duds. Looking at these picturs, his collar looks a little 70s retro, but I promise it really doesn't look that big in real life.





One more cute picture of Kelly and Benjamin goofing off. I think it's so cute how happy they both look.

9 Months Old

Our little Benjamin is nine months old now and doing well. He's also following in the footsteps of his father and exploring everything imaginable. He loves to help me unload the dishwasher (even if I'm actually loading it) but if I don't roll out the bottom rack, he uses the opportunity to climb inside and then stand on it to reach the counter top and anything that happens to be on it. Same goes for the fridge. Whenever I get something out, he races over to it, stands up, and climbs the shelves like a ladder until he can reach the top shelf and remove anything there.

He also adores the vaccuum and I have to be very careful I don't run over his fingers as he's constantly trying to grab it.


So, from his repeated head-first dives off the side of the couch, to his daily improvements in walking, to his newest obsession with sticking his hands in anything I'm feeding him, he is keeping us quite entertained! It's a riot. We are having so much fun watching him develop. It never ceases to amaze me that this beautiful little spirit is our child! We are so blessed to have him.