Serious Jam face

Bake me a cake as fast as you can!

Benjamin and I did some baking, for who knows what occasion, as this was at least 6 weeks ago. He was a very enthusiastic (bossy) helper. I think he has watched and learned from expert cookie maker Madelyn and the other Fernies. A good and choclatey time was had by all.

Travel baby

Well I figured if I didn't post something soon, everyone would stop checking, so I have made a valiant effort to stay up until 9:58 to post something. Its the first round of Maui pics, from the airport and the plane. I know, kinda lame, but they can't all be beach pics people. Anyway, my little Jamcake was a total champ on the plane on the way there. A teensy bit of trouble taking his nap, but that was about it. I mean, we bribed him with Vanilla Milk ("baby crack") from Starbucks and goldfish crackers and new toys, but he did a great job. The trip home was not quite as smooth, but I am trying to block it from my memory in order to travel again in the future. Beach photos coming soon, I promise.

So, I have some catching up to do

I know, I know, its been almost a month. I have no excuse. I am very sorry to the three little Fernies, who I know check all the time, only to be disappointed. But look! I am back now! Back with so many things to update on that I don't know where to start. Here are some of the highlights from the last month:

• Jam's first words. We have a tie here. He now says both "up" and "dog" and I could not tell you which one was first. Its a little like the walking. You think there will be this grand definining first moment, but its a lot more gradual than that. He said dog probably a lot before we realized what he meant. Up started as "Hey you, pick me up right now" and evolved into other meanings as well, like "help me" and "I want that". Dog refers mainly to Maisy, but also to Georgia, pictures of dogs, and all cats. We are working on the defining features of what makes a dog a dog, but its hard when you consider everything from Great Danes to those little fluffy dogs are dogs, when really, they don't have a ton of features in common. My mom claims that signs count as words too, so we have a couple of others to include. Waving, which he is a big fan of. Likes to wave good bye and hello, and likes to look out the window and wave. Also does an adorable sign with his hands which means "Give me that", "Pick me up", "you come here" and some other things. I will try to get it on video, as it is hard to explain but it is a two handed gesture, repeatedly folding his fingers into his palms. It is super cute.






• Christmas! What a big fun event! Many cool giftys were exchanged, and Benjamin made out like a bandit. This kid got a haul of presents, everything from power tools, to books, to puzzles, to golf clubs and on and on. Very funny key board with microphone, which he sticks entirely in his mouth, and then makes noises like Charlie Brown's teacher, or whale song. We also learned about Benjamin's sophisticated palet, where dark chocolate is concerned. He got a hold of my 78% cacao content fancy dark chocolate from my stocking and went to town! I had to arm wrestle him to get it back. Apparently the little turkey loooves the dark chocolate.






• Snow storms. We were basically blizzarded in for a few days. It was like Laura Ingalls Wilder in the Long Winter, when the trains almost didn't make it with the Christmas presents. We had to postpone the Nutcracker until after Christmas, miss the Peps Christmas party, and some other parties, skip the second round of Santa photos, and a whole bunch of other sad stuff. On the plus side, we did put Jam in the backpack and tromp through the snow, which was very satisfactory all around.






• Benjamin has mastered climbing the stairs. This was first officially witnessed in Issaquah on Christmas Eve (big night/place for milestones. Christmas Eve last year was the first roll over. We now have a gate at the bottom of the stairs in addition to the old one at the top.






• We had the first swim lesson this week, which is unfortunately scheduled right at nap time, so the poor guy spent most of the half hour rubbing his little eyes and crying with tiredness. Not sure what to do about that, since there is no other time we can take the class together. Stupid work, getting in the way of swimming lessons.






• Other events included a doctor's appointment, a new tooth, a new bathroom, new professional portraits (we love you Cookie!), eating grapefruit (yum!), and most likely some other stuff.






• Some other miscellaneous new tricks:






• Brings books when asked (sometimes)






• Shows tongue on command (rarely)






• eats with a plastic baby fork (more or less)






• feeds stuffed cheetah ("Kitty") dog treats when the real dog is not available to feed. Also now cuddles Kitty at bedtime. Sigh. So cute.






• Dances (so adorable I practically cannot stand it. Must capture on video).






• Can identify which toy is the duck toy and which toy is the frog toy when asked. May say "duck" but it sounds suspiciously like "dog"






• On one memorable occasion, he lunged toward the pack n play when he decided he was ready for his nap.






• Rides his toy lion. Hilarious.





• Throws temper tantrums. When he doesn't get what he wants he immediately flings himself to the ground, crying and flailing. It is simultaneously amusing and traumatic for me.





• Made his first succesful phone call. It was not to 911, which was my fear, but to the Washington State Ferry Information line. He helpfully put it on speaker so I could hear them asking him to say "ferry" for ferry schedule.
  

Now, if I were a super organized person, I would divide these all up into separate posts, and spread them out through out the week, but sadly I am not that person. So, instead I will upload a few miscellaneous photos that go with the above events and then go eat cookies and finish my book.

. H

Uh Oh Spaghetti O

We introduced Benjamin to spaghetti at the pre half marathon carbs and Run Fat Boy Run party the other night. (I think this will be an annual event from now on. You too could be invited, if you want to run the half marathon next year. Even if you just promised to come out and cheer, you could probably get an invite. It turns out its not actually that exclusive of a party). He liked it pretty well, but the funniest pictures are from when he was very definitely done with being in his high chair. He went directly from chair to bath as soon as these photos were taken.

Cake pox?

By the time Benjamin got to his fourth party on Sunday, I think he had the presents thing figured out, because he elected to open them before dinner. And we all said, sure Buddy, its your birthday! Whatever you want to do! He got very cool bath toys, flaming guitar shoes, and an electric guitar. All very good stuff. Cake and ice cream was really pretty funny. The ice cream photos are all the way down at the bottom, and it did not elicit the response I thought it would get. I think maybe the cold was too surprising? I'm not sure. We'll have to try it again soon and see if the reaction changes. The cake on the other hand, was very well received. It looked like he had come down with a case of the cake-pox. My poor sweater may never be the same. All in all, a very successful party.

Its a breakfast party...

In my family we have a tradition of celebrating birthdays with pancake breakfasts. This involves home made sourdough pancakes (honestly, is there any other kind?) whipped cream, strawberries and other assorted fruits, little smokies, various syrups, including coconut and raspberry, sparkling cider, and sometimes hot fudge and caramel pecan sauce. Yum. It is a good tradition. So it was Grandma Anne's smart idea to induct Benjamin into the pancake birthday club, since now he can eat pancakes (containing egg), whipped cream (containing whipped cream), and strawberries (who knows why babies can't eat strawberries, but apparently they can't). He already knows about little smokies. Someone, and I'm going to wager it was clever his Granpa Jon, also got donughts, so that Benjamin could have a little doughnut cake, because you can't put a candle in a pancake. And with all this, do you know what the boy's favorite food was? Blueberries. They have always been his favorite. Weird kid. Let me see, whipped cream, sausages, chocolate doughnuts or fruit? Tough choice. Oh well. It could be that it was just since the whipped cream and chocolate was new to him, the blueberries were a safer choice. He also got some excellent gifts, including Noah's ark, (with Noah and his wife Molly) which he apparently picked out for himself at Costco, and wouldn't let go of, and a very cool booster seat like his cousin Tess has, so that it might be slightly more possible to take him to out to eat. And of course a book, because it is just not your birthday unless you have a good book to read. All in all, it was an excellent morning. Lucky birthday boy.

Pickle Baby

Benjamin tried eating a pickle for the first time yesterday. It is always funny to see him eat something new, and he went through his pretty typical routine.

Face one: Concern. What is this stuff? Poison?

Face two: Ok, not poison.

Face three: mmmm, yum!

Bon appetit!

Since the 9 month check up, we have been offering Benjamin waaaaay more food choices, and he is doing a ton better with the eating. He has now ventured into the culinary world of:

*Costco cheese pizza - yum!

*garlic naan - yum!

*pesto pasta - yum!

*French bread - yum!

*kiwi, cherry, blue berry, nectarine - yum, yum, yum!

*vanilla yogurt. hmm. suspicious. wait, no, good. No, not good. No, okay I like it, but I want to hold the spoon.

*cheese - hmm. ok. much better if I get to steal mom's.

*french fry - yum! (no surprise there)

*sun chips - oooh choke hazard! yum yum yum!

*vegan buck wheat pancakes - yum! (this one was the nanny. We are not likely to have this sort of stuff at home)

*carrots, zucchini - hmm. ok sometimes.

*refried beans - love them! Especially since I eat them myself with my hands. Mess mess mess!

*avacado - mostly yum.

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.