The pool

Loren and Benjamin went to the wading pool the other day, with Luca and his dad Agnish. I think its pretty funny that both babies are totally fine with being in the water, not bothered at all. I guess it is really not that disimilar to giant bath, which is not weird or scary, so I don't know why it surprises me. Anyway, I also think it is funny that Benjamin is so pale he is actually reflecting light. Sorry buster, that is mama's pasty white skin you have. Sunscreen will be key in your life, if you expect to go outside at all.

Basket o' Baby part four... recycle baby!

I continue to amuse myself by putting Benjamin in funny baskets. Somehow I can't help it. He is just calling out to be basketed. And really, he seems to like it. He is all about the new experiences. So here we have him sorting the recycle. Newspaper - crinkly. Heavier paper ads - better for eating.

Goofus

So I am super lazy lame blogger, I know. Fully a week between posts. And Benjamin went on his first trip to the beach and I do not even have pictures to post. Very sad. We've been having some technical difficulties. Namely that the charger for the camera was lost, and the batteries were dead. But now the charger is found, the batteries are all charged up and we are ready to go! Here we are, goofing off on the couch. It turns out Benjamin is a goofy kinda guy. Thats about it for now.

Our grand prize winner..... and the Uber charming and talented super genius baby!

For all those you of who participated in the first ever babyjammy contest, thank you, you rock. And mostly everyone guessed correctly, it was in fact the peepee teepee that Benjamin owns, so Josie is the big winner as the first to guess it. (Josie - I am thinking if I were really super smart I would send them to soccer with Loren tonight, but we'll see how far I get with that. Otherwise, you will get them eventually, I swear! And also I definitely want to borrow the book about Enzo the racing dog, so whenever you are done with it pass it along.) I am going to pass on the peeing contest, although I'm sure Benjamin would be a tough competitor. I have seen him pee up over his head, and hit the diaper stacker on the wall. Top that Luca! (I'm sure Luca is also quite talented in the arts of long range peeing. Before you know it they will be writing their names in the snow together, or some other super boy like thing.) Wow, I think that is enough of that for the day.
In other news, the uber charming and talented super genius baby slept from 8:00 last night until 7:30 this morning. Woo-hoo! And it only took one (very hideous) night of re-ferberizing to get there, so I don't know why we waited so long to re-ferberize. He also very enthusiastically ate sweet potatoes last night, so maybe he has turned a culinary corner, and will start eating something besides pears.

Motor boat chuckle

Ok, more video for you today... This one is pretty funny, starting with the motorboat mouth, and moving into the giggly chuckly. Fancy exersaucer toy courtesty of Tess (thanks Tess!)

Traumatizing Baby

Welcome to the first ever Babyjammy contest, complete with prize! Here are the rules:
1. Read the following article:
http://www.cracked.com/article_16475_20-baby-products-great-traumatizing-infants.html
2. Guess which item Jammy actually owns and post a comment naming said item. (It was a gift.)
3. Win the item!
4. No cheating. If you already know, you can't play. But you can still check out the link, because its pretty funny.

Sunday morning paper

Loren and Benjamin read the paper together this morning, which I think could be the start of a lovely tradition, as it allowed me to sleep in a smidge. And by a smidge, I mean I was up at 6, but then got to go back to bed until 7:30. Which is not really what I like to think of as sleeping in, but I'll take what I can get. Sleep is a precious commodity these days, what with the little dictator deciding he should get up twice a night again. Benjamin's participation in the Sunday paper reading was mainly trying to eat the paper. I'm guessing here, since I was in bed, but I bet I'm not too far off. I'm thinking he also liked its crinkly noises. He is wearing his cute new little Old Navy outfit, one of only 2 clothing purchases I have ever made for him. This, like the first, was necessitated by a very wet oufit during a shopping trip. My mom and I initiated him into the Nordstrom anniversary sale yesterday, and he was quite the excellent shopper, aside from the outfit wetting. You'd think I'd learn and put an extra one in the diaper bag, but maybe I am just looking for an excuse to pick stuff out for him. Also, you can buy a whole baby outfit for $12, which is roughly one tenth of what I can buy a new outfit for.

Lights! Camera! Action!

Its very exciting, we are now adding video to babyjammy! For our anniversary on Wednesday, I got Loren this uber cool little video camera: http://www.amazon.com/Video-Ultra-Camcorder-Minutes-Orange/dp/B000V1MLCI/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1216613592&sr=8-2 . Now we will have all sorts of video to play! Which will be slightly problematic when I turn the blog into a book, so I guess I better not go crazy. Anyway, here is a little of Benjamin' s (finger assisted) walking.

Herbology and Care of Magical(ish) Creatures

We have begun the young laddy's outdoor education, starting with Laurel leaves (not edible) and yellow dogs (want to keep their tennis balls to themselves, thank you very much.)

My shadow

The clever baby has discovered his shadow. (Yet another reason to be grateful for the sunshine.) The whole thing was pretty funny to watch. He clearly had no idea what it was, but he was very interested. He kept trying to step on it, with these funny exaggerated stompy steps. I had never really noticed his shadow before, but it is pretty darn cute (surprise! I think another thing about my son is cute!). His little shadow ears stick out from his little bald head, and his little shadow fingers are just like regular fingers, but tiny.

mmmm.....water....

One of Benjamin's new favorite things is to share a glass of ice water with some poor unsuspecting adult (sucker. mostly me.) And by share I mean backwash in, spill all over, wash his hands in, and fling ice cubes from. I'm not sure if he actually swallows any of it or not, but he definitely enjoys the whole experience.

Future Dentists of America Unite!

So BAM is fascinated with teeth these days. I don't know if its because he is so excited to have been recently inducted into the people with teeth club himself, or if its just because he likes to grab onto stuff. Either way, he wants to put his hands in my mouth an awful lot. He is most likely going to be a dentist. I think he is maybe a little disappointed that he can't figure out a way to get my teeth into his mouth, so he can gnaw on them a little bit, to see if that helps him figure them out. Are any of the other babies out there teeth obsessed (obsessed might be a tad strong), or is it just Benjamin?

Walky walk walk

In a seemingly futile attempt to save my back from developing a permanent hunch, I have purchased a walker for Benito. ($15 on Craigslist. Craigslist is maybe the greatest invention ever.) He seemed to be very interested in the little toys on the tray, and determined to ingest the plastic flower, but was totally oblivious to the walking capabilities of the device. He did manage to push off on his feet and slide backwards a few times, but was totally unaware that he was the one piloting it. I got the phone (most favored toy) and temptingly pushed a lot of beepy buttons on it, just out of his reach, to try to entice him forward, but he just kicked his little legs excitedly and pushed backward again. So, so far no success in saving my back from the finger walking, but it was just his first try. We will keep test driving the walker until he hopefully figures it out.

Peps goes the beach club

We had a bbq at the Laurelhurst Beach Club (I know, aren't we super fancy!) with PEPS this afternoon. It was loads o' fun (and totally made me want to move to stupid expensive Laurelhurst. Hmpf.) Sad Loren had to miss it, but he seems to have had a good time reliving the glory days of grunge with subpop and all the other Seattle garage band graduates in town (more details at http://adventure-dad.blogspot.com/2008/07/sp-20.html )But anyway, the babies are all getting so big and so funny! Benjamin's first move was to try to lean over and grab everyone else in the cheeks/eye. It was not a popular move. There was lots of stealing and sharing of toys, and showing off of tricks. (Ardashir crawls like a fiend. Anya is standing mostly unaided. Many babies have impressive teeth.) Everyone is sitting up, and when we first got there, they were all sitting up on a blanket, and they looked like a little group of buddhas. They have come a long way since the first meeting, when no one could even hold their head up.