October 31, 2010

Happy Halloween!

This morning we carved our pumpkins (the ones we picked at the pumpkin patch last weekend!). Ben helped Rick scoop out the gook inside. I thought he would want to squish the seeds, but he was much more interested in the scooper and playing with the actual pumpkin.

And then it was time for some late afternoon trick or treating in Yaletown, in downtown Vancouver.

Ben had a blast running around in his costume once again and picked up some yummy candy. He is definitely a fan of Halloween!

October 30, 2010

Woo hoo, Halloween weekend!

Today we met up with some of Ben's friends and went trick or treating at the shops around Dunbar...

... even at the liquor store!

October 29, 2010

Ah, the magic of the internet.

Here's Ben watching videos on youtube. He likes to point to the next video he wants to see. I like to see it as him working on his hand eye coordination and developing those decision making skills.

October 28. 2010

Westside Family Place had their Halloween party today. They had a fun little pumpkin patch for the kids in the yard full of Ben-sized pumpkins. Ben loved his and carried it around all day!

October 27, 2010

I present Ben's Halloween costume... Ninja Turtle Ben!

Here's Ninja Turtle Ben practicing his gymnastic skills.

Go Ninja Turtle Go!

October 26, 2010

Thank you!

Ben's been picking up more words lately, most of them are in Ben-speak a la mama for banana, nah for meow/cat, and neh for no, but hey, they still count!

His latest and greatest is "gah goo" for thank you. :)

October 25, 2010

For serious rain days, we have the serious rain gear.

October 24, 2010

Pumpkin Patch Day!

We went to the Richmond Pumpkin Patch today with one of Ben's friends.

By the entrance were some chickens. Hello chickens!

Once inside, the sky opened up and POURED rain. Thankfully it stopped after about 15 minutes, so we made a dash for the hayride to take us out to the fields before the rain started up again.

Rick found two perfect pumpkins.

It was muddy and puddly. No lost shoes this year though!

Here's Ben by some pumpkins I lined up. Ben was less than thrilled, but was a trooper nonetheless. Yay photo op!

Time to go!

October 23, 2010

Ha, look what we found at Safeway!

October 22, 2010

Here's Ben sporting his raincoat and first pair of rainboots. It was raining earlier in the day, but stopped by the time we went outside.

Ben was still able to put his rainboots to good use though and had fun stomping around in puddles!

October 21, 2010

If Ben's going out, he's going out in style!

This morning Ben was trying to empty his Lego table by picking it up and turning it over. He was almost successful but then ended up falling with his head landing squarely on the backside of a Lego...

... which left a Lego-shaped mark above his right eye. It's terrible but kinda cool, no?

October 20, 2010

Ben loves cats. Ben loves stickers. Ben loves his cat sticker book!

October 19, 2010

Hey, who's in charge here?

Yesterday, I rented a dvd from the machine at Safeway. Ben and I had to return it today, which we did... and then Ben stood there, not leaving, not moving, pointing at the machine. I hadn't planned on renting another movie, but Ben is sick and I'm tired, so we found something else to get and he happily trotted after me back to the car.

Here's Ben holding the DVD victoriously in the air once we got home. Victorious!

October 18, 2010

Ben has a rather gross cold so we stayed home today.

I made some playdoh, but had no idea where the food coloring was, so it stayed tan colored. At first, Ben tried to eat it-- and you really can't blame him for that, since he saw me cook it and it is food-colored-- but he decided it tasted terrible and that even if it was food, it was not Ben-friendly. So he was perfectly happy squishing cookie cutters into it and putting little pieces into a cup.

Get well soon, little Ben!

October 17, 2010

What's a Ben to do on a cold and rainy Sunday afternoon?

Why play with mini marshmallows on the windowsill, of course!

Ben was highly amused lining them up along the ledge and was very pleased when he discovered they were the perfect size for sticking in the track of the window screen. And after Ben was done, Ipo had a nice little treat and I didn't have to pick anything up later on. Win win for everyone!

October 16, 2010

Afternoon siesta time.

Ever since 18 months, Ben refuses to nap in his crib, so every day, he and I take a nice long nap around 2 on the big bed. What's fascinating is that he doesn't really move that much during his nap, but if he's in bed at night, he will kick you in the face almost immediately, like his foot is somehow magnetically drawn to your head.

October 15, 2010

Today at Westside Family Place, Ben decided to go up to the front ALL BY HIMSELF and sit with the big kids during circle time.

Here he is following along to the motions of the B-banana song!

Little Ben is growing up, what?!?!

October 14, 2010

Doo doo doo. Ben taking a break during our walk.

"I'm tired. I shall sit down here in the middle of the sidewalk in front of a random house."

October 13, 2010

Grumpy Benjamin after waking up from his nap. Besides the trademark eyebrows, Ben also inherited the grumpy-just-after-waking-up Kohaya gene! Ha.

October 12, 2010

Ho ho, one handed cup drinking skillz!

October 11, 2010

Happy Thanksgiving Canada!

Two months later, I finally managed to take a picture of Ben drinking from a cup. Here he is showing off his two handed skillz.

October 10, 2010

On our way to the Wiggles show!

Rick is carrying our "Ben loves the Wiggles" sign and Ben has his bone for Wags the dog! I made a Wiggles logo sticker and put it on Ben's shirt, so he was dressed like Sam.

Ben dancing along to the music!

Captain Feathersword picking up our roses for Dorothy... Wags' bone is already in his pouch!

Ben watching the show. We loved every minute of it. The Wiggles wander the crowd all the time and they have things going on in lots of different places to keep the kids engaged.

Sam read Ben's sign too.

Family photo op! Ben's first concert!

Time to head home. Ben is carrying the activity sheet they have on every seat. He would not let it go.

October 9, 2010

Do you know what tomorrow is?!?!?!

It's the Wiggles concert!

I read on the all knowing internet that the Wiggles read every sign that kids bring and that they come around to collect bones for Wags and roses for Dorothy. So of course, I had Ben make some stuff for them, so that we could get the full Wiggles concert experience.

Here's Ben working on his sticker art. He colored and put stickers on a bone for Wags (it's the thing sticking up next to him) and he liked doing that so much that he wanted to continue the sticker fun on another piece of paper. It was Ben's first time using stickers and he is a big big fan now.

BTW, the shirt Ben is wearing is my favorite shirt of his so far... too bad it's stained from "washable paint." Oh well, I suppose it just gives the shirt character.

October 8, 2010

It's Canadian Thanksgiving on Monday, but we are going to have turkey dinner on Saturday instead.

It is also a Celeste and Nicole tradition to have pumpkin pie for breakfast on Thanksgiving, so we made a pie tonight!

Ben was a very good helper and did a super job stirring the filling. It was my job to make the filling every year growing up, so it's looking good so far that I can pass that uh.... "tradition" onto Ben.

Happy long weekend!

October 7, 2010

Come on Smudge, let's go!

October 6, 2010

It seems Ben likes to have props while on our daily walks-- he'll collect leaves, carry his snack, drag a bag of groceries, tote a piece of paper to stomp on... and today's item of choice was the cell phone!

He must have been having a very entertaining imaginary conversation because not only was his chatting and laughing hysterically, he also pretty much completely ignored me until it was time to cross the street.

October 5, 2010

Zzzzzzzzz...

Nap time!

October 4, 2010

Ben walked all the way to the park today-- 4 blocks! That's the furthest he's ever gone. Once we made it to the grass, we sat down for some water and a little snack.

On the way back, when Ben got tired, he would sit on the sidewalk and rest, awww.

October 3, 2010

Today we paid a visit to the boat.

And we took a walk around the marina.

Ben liked touching all the leaves along the way... which was kinda at dog pee height, but I tried not to think about that too much, lol.

October 2, 2010

Halloween sneak preview...

October 1, 2010

Afternoon walk with Ipo and Smudge!

September 30, 2010

Today Ben and I spent the afternoon at the park.

Ben found a stick and had fun running around with it. It was covered in moss, so I'm pretty sure Ben is going to get some kind of tree disease now.

I found a cool leaf that was see through.

And then we spent some time visiting the ducks.

Ben threw some rocks in the water... and then he stuck his hand in the water to get them. Ewww. I am usually pretty lax about outside ickiness, but this was a little much.

So besides the exposure to tree disease, duck plagues, and pond grossness, it was a great afternoon.

September 29, 2010

Gymnastics day!

September 28, 2010

Aw, look at Ben finding cars to play with at the Westside Family Place... wait a second... is that... hm... Benjamin it appears your pants are on backwards. :P

September 27, 2010

What awesome place did I take Ben to today?

The parking lot of Safeway!

And actually, it was pretty fun. Ben liked climbing on the chairs outside, picking up leaves, and collecting little rocks.

September 26, 2010

Ben loves cottage cheese!