Free toys

You have to love the simplicity of children when they find great delight in playing with objects that weren’t designed to be toys. I mean, all the toy companies spend big dollars on researching and designing the newest and best toy in order to sweep the market. Of course, they advertise the “educational” advantage to their toy because let’s be honest . . . what parent wants a dumb child. But there’s something to be said about creativity when children invent their own games and come up with their own toys. So maybe Ben wasn’t having an Einstein moment today, but he was definitely meeting an innate desire to chomp on something. Needless to say, I saved the cup before his saliva returned the cup to paper pulp. (He already experienced that paper stage this week. A little extra fiber won’t hurt him, right??)

Also, be sure to check out his new 5 month picture in the Crabtree photo gallery. It is posted in the “5 months of growth” folder. It’s pretty amazing to see the difference in just 5 months!!!!

Sitting up!!

Within the last 2 weeks, Ben has starting sitting on his own for short periods of time. He loves trying out this new skill!!! He’s figured out how to wrap his arm around the bar on the play mat in order to balance himself to sit. He will then reach and play with the other hand. (Pretty smart kid!!!) Last night at O’Charley’s we sat him facing backwards in his car seat, just for something different. He was fascinated by the stripes in his car seat and the new outlook on his toys. It’s so amazing to watch his development and notice these little changes!!

More pictures of Ben!

I love taking pictures of Ben!! I love learning how to use this camera too! I was taking pictures into a light source instead of using the light source to illuminate my subject, but given the conditions I think that these pictures turned out pretty well! You can see the rest of the pictures at our photo gallery. (link is on the right side of this page)

Ben and Jack

We got to visit our friends Jack, Rick and Amanda tonight! Here are some pictures from our dinner and play date!

Tags: Ben, Jack, pizza, play date

Backyard pictures

Here are some pictures that we took in our backyard while we were at home over the Labor Day weekend!

At home with whooping cough…

Sometime around Aug. 25 or 26, we noticed that Ben had a cough.  We took him to the pediatrician on the 28th, but he wouldn’t cough for her, so she suspected that it was croup.  On Sept. 2 we took Ben back to a local Urgent Care and they thought that he had whooping cough and started him on antibiotics.  So we had a really long holiday weekend!!  Ben is doing better now and here is a video of him laughing!