Football Season is Upon Us!!!

Ok, I know that this blog is mostly for giving updates about Ben and the goings on in the Wilkinson household but I have to let everyone know about a little holiday that is coming up in a few days. No, I am not talking about Labor Day weekend, although I love having a 3-day weekend. No, I am talking about the beginning of football season!!!!!!! It starts this Saturday with the first weekend of a full schedule of college football followed by next weekend with the start of the NFL season. Me and Ana are both football fans and we love the fall when the air turns crisp, the leaves turn, the days get shorter and the pigskin flies through the air. Ben is a football fan also, he just doesn't realize it yet. There is no chance that he will not be with the parents he has.:) But anyways, my college football teams are the Nebraska Cornhuskers (I'm from Omaha), the USC Trojans and the UCLA Bruins. Yes, it is possible to like both the Trojans and the Bruins. My pro team is the Green Bay Packers....even without Brett Favre this year. We will see how they do.

The "No Hugs, No Kisses" Stage

Last night as we were laying in bed, Ana remarked how it seems that lately Ben doesn't give hugs or kisses much anymore. Ana was usually the main recipient of PDA from Ben and I was probably 3rd, 4th or 5th on the list. The truth is that lately,Ben hasn't given us many hugs and kisses, but he sure loves on our two cats, Husker and Lola whenever he gets the chance. In fact, Husker our male cat taught Ben the feline way of giving kisses by rubbing up against him , lowering his head and nuzzling his nose against him. Well, while Ben has given kisses the traditional way, he more often will lower his head against someone and rub against them. I'm ok with it because all I need is a smile from Ben to melt my heart, but I think Ana would like more lovin from him. As most people know when it comes to young kids, they go from one stage to another rather quickly. Ana says right now Ben is going through a stage where he thinks Daddy is cool and no one else matters. I don't know about that but I do know that no matter what is going on, when Mommy comes into view Ben has this special smile that just lights up the whole room and she is the only one who makes him react this way. I hope he always feels that way towards his Mom and I will do my best to make sure he holds his Mom in a special light that all Moms deserve. But, for right now, Ben seems to love his cats more than his parents. :)

Ben Turns 17 months old!

Tomorrow on 8/20/08, Ben will turn 17 months old. In these past 3 weeks or so we have seen alot of changes in Ben. It seems that he has lost the "baby look" a while ago and he is turning into a little boy. The term "toddler" does not seem to fit sometimes. Ben is the kind of kid that wants to do almost everything himself, when he wants to do it. If he is not ready, he will let you know it. If you are not ready for him, he will let you know it.

This past week he has learned to feed himself with a spoon or fork. We put the food down in front of him and he will put the spoon in his right hand and scoop the food up from the bowl and feed himself. While he does that, he will grab food with his left hand and feed himself also, but mostly just spreads it all over his face:) When he is finished, he takes the spoon, remaining food and the bowl and drops it on the floor.... We can only work on one thing at a time. It has really freed some time up for me and Ana to actually enjoy our dinner without having to sit right there with Ben. We also have taken the bottle away from him but I don't even think that he realizes it is gone.

Ben's vocabulary has gotten a little bigger also. He regularly says yes (usually in the form of "yeah"), truck, plane, jet,cat, mom, dad. He has a friend that he met at the park named Titus who is turning two this week and Titus' vocabulary is pretty advanced compared to Ben's. It really shows me how much Ben will grow in the next 7 months.

Ben loves going to the park.....actually I am not sure if he likes going to the park more than I do taking him to the park. I pick him up from Sharon's (our babysitter...also known as Grandma Sharon) house and take him to the park everyday. Ben has become a little daredevil. He doesn't have much fear anymore. He loves the swings and any slide he can find. He walks up the high platform and goes down the big twisting slide. Unfortunately this week, he has discovered the joys of eating sand......I'm trying to cure him of that one quickly. The park is kind of like therapy for him and me. I let him just run pretty much where he wants to go as long as it is safe and I think it helps him with his independance. He gets to interact with other kids and he feels free. Me, I get to relax and let the stress of the work day evaporate......plus the weather is always good. Ana will meet us on her way home and then we go home to eat dinner.

So, Ben at 17 month is ALOT of fun and I think it is gonna get better.

Can't Sleep

Well, here I am at 1:28 am and I cannot get back to sleep. Thankfully it is a Friday night (Saturday morning) and I don't have to work tomorrow but I do have to go to the gym at 7:00. Ben woke up at about 12:15 am and I have been awake ever since. It is the 2nd night in a row he has awakened. He is usually very good about sleeping through the night but he did'nt eat much for dinner last night. When that happens there is a chance he will wake up hungry. At least this time Ana was able to get him to go back down with no milk or anything. Did I tell you I have a kick a$$ wife? I sometimes call her the "Baby Whisperer". She doesn't give herself enough credit for being a fantastic Mom but I see it from a different angle than her. She sets the tone for Ben. She always knows exactly what he wants and needs and he follows her lead. It is fun to watch them interact. It's not easy being a parent sometimes, especially of a young one but no matter what, she always makes it seem easy. That's the way I see it.

Second Post.....But what's it about?

Hello there, it's me, John. I realize that for right now I am writing this to myself. Or at least until someone else reads it. I decided I wanted to have a blog because I have seen some of the blogs that our friends have and thought it was a great idea to keep everyone up to date on what's going on in our household. While there will be lots of family news, mostly about our son Ben and what he is doing, there will also be some information from me that have nothing to do with our home life. I might write about the weather one day, then muscle cars the next. I might touch on the subject of movies then talk about how nice our bookshelves from Pottery Barn look in our office. The only thing I won't mention here is politics (not much of a choice to vote for in '08, where is Ronald Reagan when you need him?) and religion. At least there won't be much talk about those subjects......for the most part they bore me. Anyways, the idea is to spend a little time each week on this as I get time. So I hope you find some of the unimportant stuff that Iput in here interesting or funny. I will talk more later. John

Our First Post!

Hi,

Many of our friends have blogs - and we thought it was time we had one too. Bear with us as we figure this out. Although this is a collaborative effort, it was actually John's idea - and he will be the one updating the posts.

We call our blog "The Lion's Den" because we lovingly refer to Ben as our "lion cub"...he's really cute to look at, but packs a loud roar.

Love,
John, Ana and Ben