Birthday 2.0

Well, today marks the momentus second anniversary of Benjamin's birth, and if you think I am late in posting, I say hah hah! You are wrong! He wasn't born until 11:10, so I still have almost a full hour before I am late! Also, I was busy all day doing fun things with the young man, which was more important anyway. Today Loren and I played hookey from work to hang out with Jamtot on his birthday. We had pancakes with strawberries and whipped cream (cake! berry! whip!) for breakfast, which Benjamin helped make. He is becoming quite the chef these days. He then refused his fork, and opted to eat his pancakes, which were little mini baby sized pancakes, with a giant red spatula instead (spatul!). We opened presents (omp! omp!) after breakfast, which was a big hit. In particular the birthday boy was a fan of the little wooden knife which came with one of his presents, and wanted to use it to open the other packages, and then to do things like install batteries with it. After that big excitement we went to the aquarium. The big news at the aquarium was the diver, which Benjamin did not stop talking about all morning, followed by the fish that looked like Nemo. Sadly not one single good picture from the aquarium. Sigh. We will have to go back. We went to lunch at a very touristy fish and chipsy type place on the pier, and rode the carosel after lunch, which was a big hit with Jam (he had woken up in the morning saying "red horsie!" I'm not really sure what that is about.) We also ran into my big boss (big important, not big in size) on the way to the car, who was spending his rainy lunch time running, probably doing something disgusting like 5 miles in 30 minutes. So it was a good thing I didn't call in sick. We pushed the poor guy way past his nap limit and he zonked out in the car on the way home. After nap time we gave him his big deal present, a vintage (fancy way of saying bargain second hand) radio flyer red trike. He was a little unsure about it at first, but then kitty rode it, and he got more excited. The bike is just a squidge too big for him, and he can barely reach the peddles, if they are positioned exactly correctly, which made it all a little tricky. We will either need to modify the bike a bit, or wait for another inch or so in height before he really gets going. So after a little trial biking, it was time to go rake leaves and shovel dirt (digger!) in the back yard. Then Pop and Grandma stopped by with a birthday balloon, bib and cup for the boy. He was really excited to see them and was at the window shrieking "citey! citey!" when he saw Pop get out of the car. After that it was dinner, cupcakes and ice cream, followed by watching the Jungle Movie on the couch with mama, which is just a cheap ploy on my part to get him to snuggle with me. It was all in all a great day, and much fun was had by all. I have high hopes of a more thoughtful and reflective post on how great my two year old boy is, and how much he has learned and changed and grown since I have known him, but that will happen maybe later this week. Right now I must tuck myself into bed, as I am very tired and a little sniffly nosed.

Hair Cute

Well, I have been sadly remiss in my contributions to the bloggisphere. But I am vowing to return to blogging with viggor! Dedication! And snacks! Photos of Jam's first hair cut below. I can't even remember when this was, sometime in March. We went to Kid's Club at the Willage, and they were fantastic. He started wailing the instant his little tush touched the yellow cab, and kept it up steadfastly until he was removed, at which point he started looking around and pointing at things and chatting with people, not a care in the world. Little turkey. The haircutter lady was not even phased by his tantrum though, just kept cutting away. He scored majorly with tv watching, a balloon and post hair cut pizza. Sadly his surfer boy goldie locks, and his startled Einstein wings are no longer. On the plus side, neither is the Joe Biden/mullet. And he is still darn cute with the big boy hair cut.

Fridge Art

The other day Marnie took Benjamin to the Children's Museum, where he produced his very first fridge art. What a little artistic genius.

blog slacking continued

I continue to be a super lame blogger, sorry. Instead I am in massive closet cleaning and organization mode. But I will run out of closets soon, and be back to being a better blogger. Instead of anything new, here are some pictures from the snow storm last month.

Oooh, oooh, but I forgot! I do have a new story. Grandma Anne was with the boy today, and in the late afternoon the dog started barking, as she does when someone is at the door, and the boy said "mama"! And then, when it wasn't me, he cried! I know, its mean of me to be so happy that he cried, but yay, he missed me! And then when it really was me later, he said mama again! Of course he won't say it in front of me, but thats ok.

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

Snow Baby!

We had some snow this weekend, just enough to be fun, but not so much to cause us any problems. Benjamin did see snow last year, but it didn't make a big impression. This year, a little more, but still not super excited about it. Maisy, on the other hand, highly approved of it. We walked over to the Cowen Park ravine, and it was all very lovely.

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.