August 31, 2010

Holy rain storm! It was pouring pouring pouring rain today.

I snapped a quick picture of Ben as we made our way back into the house. He's definitely giving me a look of "Uh what are you doing, now is not the time for picture taking, it's pouring rain, let's go inside already!"

Grow grass grow!

August 30, 2010

Yummy yummy bread. Ben was on a bread kick this afternoon. At first, I tore off chunks for him, but he found it much more interesting to carry around and munch from the entire thing. We bought a baguette at Safeway with the intention of having it with dinner, but Ipo had other plans and had a nice snack when we weren't looking!

August 29, 2010

Hanging out after breakfast!

Grandma bought Ben some pajamas and he looks like such a little boy when he wears them!

My kid is so cute. :)

August 28, 2010

Ben's latest injury.

Last week, Ben hit the top of his cheek and has a nasty bruise. And now, he cut the corner of his eye and scratched the outer edge of his lid. His eyelid is super puffy and all red and blue-ish. Hopefully this is the closest we come to a black eye. Ugh again.

August 27, 2010

I thought the Play Palace opened at 9:30 today, but it turns out on fridays it doesn't open until 10, which meant Ben and I had 30 minutes to waste before we could go in. And oh man, it was pretty much the longest 30 minutes ever.

It was raining so we needed somewhere indoors to go. My first idea was to go hang out in the library... except the library didn't open until 10 either. Ugh.

Luckily, the community centre is next door so we went there instead. We walked around for a bit, played in this padded kid room, wandered around some more, Ben ate some grapes... and then it was 9:40.

Next Ben decided to sit on the floor and play with my pants. That was fun for about 10 seconds.

Ben was then SO BORED that he decided to lay on the floor. LOL.

Finally it was 10, we went to the Play Palace and when we came out...

Puddles! Stomp, stomp, stomp.

August 26, 2010

Today Ben and I went to the park that's by one of the beaches we go to. It has a pond in the middle of it with some ducks and other birds... maybe geese?

Ben and I were walking around and there was this... let's say it's a goose... walking around as well. It was foraging in the grass and then slowly started to walk towards us. I didn't think the goose would actually come close, but it came about a foot away before I whisked Ben away. You can see Mr.Goose in the background. After we got a bit away, I put Ben down for a picture, but Ben was not about to stand there for any length of time... and it was a good thing because the freaking goose came after us again at a much quicker pace this time. I think he was just looking for food, but he was big and determined, so it was time to go after that.

August 25, 2010

Here's Ben hanging out in the sandbox eating some grapes.

Grapes are his fruit of choice right now. Ben goes through phases with fruits-- he pretty much will only eat one kind of fruit at a time with his interest lasting days to weeks.

The only downside is that many grapes can be thrown in a matter of seconds once Ben decides he's done eating... and even Ipo can't eat that many grapes!

August 24, 2010

Yesterday we went to the beach and Ben actually wanted to go near the water- what?!?! Of course I was completely unprepared, so I said we'd come back tomorrow to play-- this didn't go over well at the time, but I kept my promise!

Ben is sporting some mismatched Fauxbeez since I wanted him to wear something on his feet because the "sand" by the water is actually lots and lots of small rocks (and also weirdly muddy and squishy once you are a little bit in the water). Ben had a lot fun picking up shells and seaweed and rocks and throwing them back into the water. We even took a little walk in the water too. Overall an excellent afternoon adventure.

August 23, 2010

Today's winning picture! I shall call this an Ode to Auntie Celeste, who is also excellent at only taking pictures of Ben with his eyes closed-- this one's for you!

Here is Ben at the Play Palace on a plasma car. It was pointed out to me that in my birthday post I said we rode around on them but didn't show any... which apparently left others who do not frequent children's recreation centers (or centres, as my Canadian friends like to spell it) lost, confused, curious, but not curious enough to google.

Ben rides around on them like his ride-on car, but you can also put your feet up at the front and move the steering wheel back and forth to propel you. It's really fun. This would be another thing I would say I want to get "Ben" but you pretty much need an empty ice skating rink to use it since I don't think anyone is allowed to play out in the street anymore and Vancouver appears to be a driveway free city...

August 22, 2010

Here are Rick and Ben at Kits Beach.

We went to KitsFest there this afternoon... and I'm still not really sure what it was about, but we got some free Vitamin Water and Weetabix and there people playing volleyball and basketball tournament-style.

Yay free stuff!

August 21, 2010

Today we went down to Point Roberts... but the line to cross the border was crazy long so we made a stop at the park right before the border crossing.

Ben was swinging on the babyswing and I was eavesdropping on the woman next to us talking to her granddaughter about getting down and going to see the ducks and turtles. I watched where they went and after a LONG while on the swings, we took Ben off so that we could go see the ducks.

Ben was not happy about his swinging time ending, but once we were there, he was beyond excited. The ducks would quack and he would quack back at them. He kept pointing and quacking with delight. A little further down was a dock where you could see some fish and turtles too. Ben loved it all... and we did too, except for the terrible terrible terrible smell.

August 20, 2010

As you can see from previous posts and the background of this picture, our entire front yard is dandelions. We decided to de-weed a section (yikes), throw some grass seed down, and try to get a lawn started there instead.

Ben has been an excellent gardening buddy. His favorite is the spade, which obviously is for Ben since it's a Ben-sized tool. He uses it to scoop up some dirt/seed mixture and then dump it onto the cement pathway... I guess he wants grass there too, lol.

Here's Ben taking a break from his hard work... I don't know what it is about these steps, but he LOVES sitting there...

... and now it's time for Ben to catch up on some phone calls.

August 19, 2010

About a week ago, Ben became super awesome at driving his little red car around. He used to only be able to go forwards and backwards, but now he goes anywhere and everywhere.

Earlier in the week, Ben convinced Grandpa to take his car outside and they ended up going around the block and now it's one of Ben's favorite things to do.

He has Grandpa take him out multiple times a day and loves it so much that he will happily wear his hat-- he even goes to get it when it's time to go out!

Here Grandma has the pleasure of following Ben around. Ben wanted to go out at night and Grandpa said no, but Grandma said okay and took him... how come that never worked when I was a kid? :P

August 18, 2010

Whenever the grandparents come to visit, the following conversation takes place:

Me: Soooo... do you want to go anywhere today?

Grandpa/Grandma: No, it's RAINING. (During the summer, "it's raining" is replaced with "it's too hot." Further comments follow about how depressing all the rain is or how I should have air conditioning or how they don't need to go anywhere because they came to see Ben... (and after a long pause) and me and Rick. LOLOLOL)

Anyway, today wasn't too hot and the rain is supposed to start tomorrow, so we went to Granville Island for lunch.

Here's Grandpa, with his very stylish hat, and Ben and Grandma eating delicious fare offered there... all not the healthiest of things for Ben to be eating, but that's what hanging with the grandparents is all about!

August 17, 2010

With the grandparents arrival also comes delicious treats!

Here's Ben digging into the oh so tasty red velvet cake. I figured it was a good snack... the frosting does have cream cheese after all, hello calcium and protein! Kid tested, mother approved. :)

August 16, 2010

Today I kept trying to take pictures of Ben, but every time I took out the camera, he grabbed it from me so that he could play with the lens. I managed to push the take-a-picture button (what the heck is that really called?) before his finger covered it though and voila! now we all know what Ben looks like if we were something he was about to poke with his finger. Good stuff.

August 15, 2010

Ben loves to sit with Grandpa at the table and play cars. It's one of their "things." :)

You can also really see Ben's bruise on his cheek in this picture. He was doing all sorts of falling on Friday and fell against this little table we have for him. So close to his eye, ugh.

August 14, 2010

Grandma and Grandpa have arrived!

Here are Rick, Grandpa, and Ben are fixing Ben's car up with some nicer wheels. Ben was extremely concerned during the operation, but it all worked out and now Ben's car is a nice, quiet, smooth ride!

August 13, 2010

Ben spinning around! Hee!

I try to encourage this as much as possible because I find it so amusing, but usually Ben just stares at me and wanders off. I'd like to thank the Wiggles for showing Ben how to do this during their song "Can You Point Your Fingers and Do the Twist?" TV is great!

August 12, 2010

Happy Birthday to me!

Ben and I went to the Play Palace this morning. It's been packed lately, but everyone must have known it was my birthday because it was practically empty so Ben and I could actually play at foosball and ride the plasma cars!

Then we came home and spent the afternoon baking my birthday cake. Ben was a super helper as usual and our cake turned out fantastically delicious.

And FYI, Ben is an expert frosting taster... should you ever require his services. :)

August 11, 2010

Choo choo!

Ben and I went to Kokopelli for breakfast this morning. Ben had the whole play area to himself for a while, so he had a blast running back and forth handing me all the different cars and trains he found.

And then when he was done playing, he came over to me, took my hand, and lead me out while waving bye bye... guess it was time to go and get on with the rest of our day!

August 10, 2010

Today Ben figured out that he can just push the babygate out of the way to get to the forbidden zone. He was quite pleased with himself and kept going back there to hangout. Good work Ben! No peanut butter sandwiches in the Playstation please!

August 9, 2010

Smudge greeted us when we came home this afternoon and Ben was delighted. He loves to follow (er, chase) Smudge around the front yard. Ben is getting closer to saying "Smudge" and now calls him "Smaaaah." Though Rick thinks Ben is actually saying "meow" and it comes out "meeaaaah." Hmm...

August 8, 2010

Well Ben has refused to sleep in his crib for about a week now, so instead of letting Ben's crib lay empty, Rick put some toys and a cardboard box in there and now Ben has a new play area! Ben loves it!

August 7, 2010

Well it was rainy today, so we went to the Play Palace... just like everyone else with children in Vancouver! Haha.

Despite it being ridiculously busy, Ben had a good time wandering around anyway and even crawled through a tunnel-- usually he looks through it, shakes his head, and walks away, but he went through today. I hoped to take a picture the next time he did it, but I think it was a one shot deal, lol.

Anyway, here he is banging on the big drum. He doesn't stay at the drum very long at one time, but likes to give it a good few hits every time he passes it.

August 6, 2010

Today was the Fiesta Del Sol party at Westside Family Place. It was crazy! Ben used to be overwhelmed easily if there were too many people around, but ever since he turned 18 months, he is totally fine and just goes about his business.

Here's Ben hanging out eating the free Tim Horton's timbits (aka donut holes). I had picked them up for me to eat, but Ben took the bag from me and proceeded to take a bite from each one and hand me the rest. Good sharing Ben! :)

August 5, 2010

I used to be concerned that Ben liked watching tv too much... oh silly me.

Now he would much rather do anything else (such as walking around the house in circles) and he even turns it off when we try to put it on.

I also think he got wise to the fact that I let him watch tv when I needed to do something else, like fill the dishwasher, make dinner, etc, which are infinitely more interesting according to Ben.

But today, he paused for 5 minutes and sat down with his Coke can (an empty one he found on the dining table- uh since when can you reach up there Ben?!?!) and so I took a picture to remember this nice quiet moment when I could sit down.

August 4, 2010

Today was going to feature Ben being able to drink from a cup all by himself, but he wanted to show off his super fork-in-water-stirring instead. Both equally awesome, no?

August 3, 2010

Beach time again!

August 2, 2010

Happy BC Day!

Here's Ben at the park carrying around his trusty car... and a lid he found on the ground. O.o

In other news... Yay, the babyswing has returned!

August 1, 2010

It's Ben in a box! The mega blocks sitting next to him are what goes in said box, but Ben dumped them out and decided that he should sit in the box instead. He didn't quite fit, but he was perfectly happy anyway... it was quite the "Charlie" move.