Freeze.

Sweet Little Ben,

If I could just stop time, I would freeze you right here. At 15 months you are at such a happy, happy, easy, easy, easy, fun stage. There is just a tinge of "baby" left in you, but the growth, development, independence, and hints of "little boy" are so fun to watch emerge. I would change poopy diapers and cut all of your food up into little tiny squares forever if it just meant that you could stay this way.

I'm not sure if you were a high maintenance baby or I was a high stress mommy (yes, probably both), but the first year of your life was filled with so many questions. "Why won't he sleep?" "Why won't he poop?" "What do we do?" I went to every well-check with a list of questions for your doctor. You have an appointment next week and I can't even think of one thing to ask him. Everything seems to be right on track and we are enjoying every bit of you.

You love to brush your teeth and ask to do so several times a day.



You smile and laugh at everything. Life is a delight for you. While we were on vacation, Gramma said, "Dangit!" and slapped her knee. You thought it was the funniest thing you'd ever heard, so she did it again and again and again. Now you say "Dangit!" and slap your knee, too. We really have to be careful because you are beginning to mimic everything!



You run and climb and explore everything you can reach. By the end of the day, we are even more exhausted than you are. We just smile and sigh.



You still have an odd infatuation with the vacuum. Gramma and Grampa finally bought one that is just your size, and the fact that Dirt Devil makes one leads me to believe that you aren't alone among your peers.



You eat what we eat, which makes life simpler, too. Here you are enjoying your first corn dog at Kincaid's.



You have a crazy sweet tooth, too. A boy after my own heart. Dark Chocolate ice cream from Cold Stone? Yes please!



You love to watch animals, but every animal makes a "woof, woof, woof!" sound, just like Gramma and Grampa's dog, Buck. We'll work on that.





Our only "challenge" might be the fact that you're not going to sleep quite as easily as you used to in the evenings. We used to be able to just lay you down and walk out of the room, but now you demand some rocking and singing (sometimes it takes 30 minutes before you pass out!). This doesn't bother us a bit, because it's the only time during the day that you're still enough for us to snuggle you.

Sometimes you just want to get out of bed and hang out for a little bit longer, and we are generally happy to oblige. Sometimes we even give you a graham cracker and let you watch TV with us, just to sweeten the deal. Maybe this wouldn't win us any parenting awards, but we enjoy the "bonus" time.



You are pure joy, my boy, and we couldn't be more thankful.

Mom

Like a Weed.

Ben is growing so quickly and I've been itching to transfer all of the measurements in his baby book onto a growth chart on the wall.

I put a lot of thought into what kind of chart we should do. I ultimately decided that I want one that isn't too "babyish/kiddish," (so it can grow with him), and one that we can use for any future children (so we can easily compare their heights at different ages, etc), which means it needs to be gender-neutral and not too personalized. I decided on one of the giant, vintage ruler growth-charts I've seen online and I whipped it up over the weekend. I love the way it turned out!




I bought a 1x8x6 at Lowes (I believe it was about $7) and went to work. I'd seen some cute charts online that were darker, but I wanted mine to be light so the measurements would be easy to read, so I stained it with two coats of Minwax in "Natural" and then did a little "aging" on the edges with some "English Chestnut." The Chestnut really gave it some good dimension and made it looks a little more "vintage."



Some of the tutorials I've read said to seal it with polyurethane, but I decided not to seal ours. I want it to be easy to write on with pen, so I stopped after two coats of stain.

After the stain dried, I commandeered Tim's carpenter's square (hello, memories of 7th grade woodshop!) and marked off every inch on the board with in pencil and then sharpie. The carpenter's square helped me get the lines nice and straight.



I used "century schoolbook" font (size 250) as a template for the numbers, and finished those in sharpie, too. I started the chart at 6" and it goes up to 6'6". Tim thinks it is a little tall, but we have some tall genes in our family, and yes, I will measure Ben until he stops growing. :)

Finally, I transferred Ben's measurements out of his baby book onto the chart. It is so amazing to see the actual growth he's done in just a little over a year.



I hung the chart in the hall just outside of Ben's bedroom and thanked the Lord for our healthy, growing boy.

14 Months.

Ben,

You are 14 months old today and you're changing so quickly! You have three primary loves in this life:

1) Driving- We meet daddy out in the driveway every evening when he gets home from work. You love to sit in his lap and "drive" the car. You turn the wheel, press all the buttons, turn on the windshield wipers (which always make you wince and blink), and dance to the radio. Maybe you'll be a race car driver someday?



2) The Garden Hose- Of course, you love when we turn the hose on and you can shoot water all over the place, but you'll play with the hose even when it's turned off. Maybe you'll be a gardener or a pool boy someday? You'll sit out back and swing that thing around for hours. It delights you.







3) The Vacuum- This is not just a love, this is sheer obsession. Every morning when I pull you out of your crib, the first thing you want to do is go look at the vacuum. You just stand and stare at it. Sometimes you jiggle the attachments. Usually you whine for me to turn it on. My floors have never been cleaner. We'll be in the middle of reading a book or playing with your toys and you'll stop and point towards the laundry room and go "Ugh! Ugh! Ugh!" until I pull the vacuum out and we start it up. If the door to the laundry room is closed, you stand and knock on the door until I open it and give you access to that big, loud machine. When family and friends come over, you want them to vacuum with you. I've never seen anything like it. Maybe you'll be a custodian someday?








Today you spoke your very first word. Of course, you're babbling constantly (including ma-ma and da-da and ba-ba), but we haven't been able to say with confidence that you've actually attached meaning to those words. Until today. We were packing up to leave the house and I said, "Ben, let's go see Gramma!" You looked at me and said, "Yama!" You repeated it over and over and over again, even as we were walking up to her house and you were pointing at the door. Predictably, once Gramma opened the door and I gave her the good news, you refused to perform. My feelings aren't hurt. Really. You love your "Yama."





In the last month, you've gone from crawling to running! Nana came up to visit from Houston and decided she wanted to buy you your first pair of Stride Rite shoes. We ended up with these adorable little Ernie shoes:



Ernie's hair is your favorite part. The whole experience was fun, and you got to leave the mall with the new shoes on. Thanks, Nana!







Up until recently, I've been willing time to slow down. I look at old pictures and videos and can barely believe how fast these months have flown by. Now that you have a baby brother or sister on the way, I'm a little less sentimental about how quickly you're growing. After all, I can't have two babies, so I guess it's a good thing you're becoming such a smart, independent little boy.

Water Babies.

Ben,

We bought you a little $11 kiddie pool for the backyard and you are in love.



Although there's nothing cuter than your little naked derrière, I had to make these images suitable for public consumption. I'd prefer if you're still speaking to me at the age of sixteen, and I'd hate to start racking up strikes against me this early.

But back to the pool. Your favorite activity thus far has been throwing all of your toys out onto the grass and then pulling yourself up on the wet, slippery edge and leaning precariously over to retrieve the stray items.



When I put you in the pool after lunch today, the sun hadn't had quite enough time to warm the water, but you didn't care one bit.

I threw a big Spring Creek cup in the water for you to play with, and you thought it was so fun to fill it with water and drink it. The water had some grass and sunscreen in it, so I said, "Eeeew, yuck, don't drink that! Pleh!" You thought that was the funniest thing you'd ever heard. You laughed and laughed and laughed, which made me laugh. Then you did it again. And again. And again. We must have gone through that same little jig sixty times, and every time you laughed just as hard as the first time I said it.



I am cherishing these simple, rich days with you. I'm thankful I have a front row seat to your development. And you are thankful for your pool.

Growing.

"How big is Ben?!? Soooooooooo big!"



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