Spring

Well, life is busy and filled with excitement as always!  We have been loving the days of sunshine, plants sprouting and blooming and all the joys of a blooming toddler!
Ben is super active and busy....all the time.  He loves playing outside (and never wants to come in) and his favorite toys of late are his portable fan, anything with a cord, toy tools, cars and his trowel for outdoor play.  He is a true boy with all the hallmarks: thinks it is funny and laughs whenever he burps or toots, loves to stick his finger in his nose until you say "eww, gross!", loves to be outside and playing in the dirt, and loves wrestling and rough-housing with dad.  Yet we have also been "blessed" with another side of him that continues to develop....the drama king.  Meltdowns, timeouts, and wailing are frequent occurrences in our home, as are comments like "Ben, you are fine....calm down....it's ok, you don't have to cry."  It often takes only a very small thing, or sometimes nothing at all to get a full fledged, open mouth wail, complete with giant crocodile tears within seconds.  Oh boy.  We love our boy tremendously, but are really looking forward to the days when we can talk with him and help him express some of the buckets of emotions he sloshes around all day.
He is gradually adding some new words, and uses them often, even when they don't make sense.  The other day we went for a walk and he got so excited to be outside that he just started shouting out words, just for the fun of it.  Unfortunately he doesn't have many words so I had to walk around our neighborhood with a little boy shouting, "No! No! No!" and "YEAH!!" every couple of seconds.  He does say "Momom" now, but it also doubles for "milk" and "more".  Oh well, at least he is saying it!  My favorite is when we ask him questions, and he loves to give an excited, open mouthed "Yeah!".  It is really fun when we change up the questions to be utterly ridiculous and we still get the same reactions.  There is a video below that shows one of those moments.
So life is full and colorful and we are loving it!  Here are some pictures and video over the last....yeah, month and half.  :)

Hanging out with Life Group buddies

Having fun at our friend Jack's 2 year old birthday party

Jack and Ben have so much fun together on Life Group nights--lots of wrestling, chasing and little boy shenanigans

One of Ben's most favorite things to do, that will always get you a smile and a hearty "YEAH!" when asked, is to watch videos of Wes.  He LOVES watching videos of his cousin and wails whenever we have to stop.

First trip to the Aquarium!

That's my boy--gettin' super excited about dessert!

The boys spend lots of time next to each other in high chairs and have so much fun hanging out together.

Ben and Kyle starting playing sword fighting with tools....yeah, it's a boy thing.

Some of the Littles of Life Group: (left to right) Leyna, Emerson, Molly, Noah, Ben, Jack

Mill Creek community Egg Hunt with friends

there were a few people there....needless to say we only got one egg....

.....but he was pretty darn excited about that one egg!

Easter Morning

Easter brunch with friends and family

Ben LOVES being outside and his favorite toy is a trowel....he walks around with it, digs, bangs things, carries things in it....he is a true boy.

Ben is either shootin' the breeze or making a citizen's arrest of Policeman Wes :)

In this video, Ben feeds Nala from his tray and thinks it is hilarious, which we have deemed a "no-no".  So after he feeds Nala, Jenny tells him to stop.....just watch what he does....little stinker!

This is the "Yeah!" video.....