Special Guest Blog Entry From Ana

It is time for a special little treat. It is time for the first "Guest Blog" entry. This week it is from Ana. She wants to bore you all with Ben's 18-month stats....what is it with women wanting to make sure their own kid's stats measure up to another's? :) Take it away Ana!.......

Nice John...Anyways, Ben had his 18-month checkup on Tuesday. We were surprised at how little weight he's gained! He weighs 27.6 lbs. (73%) and he is 34" long (90%). He takes after his mama - tall and thin. :) When I took his diaper off in the doctors office before he was weighed, he peed in the middle of the floor.

He's saying a few words now - truck, wow, cool, mama, he yells for John "DAAAAA". He's said yogurt, pretzel and he's even called his two friends at the park by name, Sean and Titus. He's quite intellectual.

I had to leave him for school for about 8 days this month. We learned that Ben is a perfect angel for daddy. When I came home he definitely made me pay for going away - I guess I deserved it - he's over it now. John did an AMAZING job being a single daddy while I was away. I'm very very lucky to be married to a man that supports me 120% and takes such amazing care of his son. I know there are many moms that wouldn't think about leaving their babies alone with their husbands for 8-days - and many more dads that wouldn't be willing to do it.

Thanks honey - love you.
Ana

Lions and Tigers and Ben, Oh My!

Ok, Here it is...another post about nothing really.....except of course Ben and his pets. The grass in the backyard this summer has not been as green as it could be so I have been watering it more and I let it grow out a little more. Now we basically have a mini-jungle growing in our backyard. Well, we decided to let our cats, Husker and Lola go outside in the backyard while we are out there with Ben so they could get a little taste of freedom and see what it feels like to be like a cat in the wild. They are in-door cats normally. They love grazing on the grass and walking amongst the bushes. Another one of thier favorite things to do is dodge Ben's advances. Ben loves chasing them around and giving them hugs. Husker doesn't mind so much but Lola, the black cat is a little more shy about it. It's taken her a long time to figure out that Ben is not gonna hurt her.

Trip to Newport Beach

Last week we took a little trip to Newport Beach to visit our friends Cori, Brian and their son Ryan. We stayed in a condo overlooking the ocean that is a time share owned by Brian and Cori. We felt very lucky that they invited us and we had a great time even though Ana was sick and Ben was getting over his cold. On Sunday we went to the Tall Ships Festival in Dana Point. The weather was really nice and Ben got to ride a bus and go on the ships with me. Monday we went to the South Coast Plaza to go shopping. Ben and Ryan got to go on a Merry Go Round. It was Ben's first time and he had fun. Then we went to the Rainforest Cafe for a late lunch/early dinner and Ben absolutely loved the place. They had lots of animatronic animals that would come to life and Ben especially liked the gorillas and leopard that were sitting right by our table. On Tuesday we went to Sea World. The weather could not have been better and we all had a good time. The highlight for Ben was the Arctic Exhibit where he got to see Polar Bears, walrus and Balooga Whales. Ben couldn't take his eyes off the walrus and Whales as they swam by the window. Ben actually went up to strangers and said, "See", and then he would point to the animals. He must have done this about 100 times. Brian and Cori, thank you for a inviting us, we had a great time.

Grandma Cindy Visits Ben

Over the Labor Day weekend Ben's Grandma Cindy came to visit from Friday until Monday. A good time was had by all. We enjoyed the visit with her and Ben always likes it when Grandma Cindy is here. She always makes him laugh and Ben thinks she is silly. On Saturday Grandma, Ana and Ben went to Gymboree in the morning. Ben is not really into the whole "sitting around and everyone singing" thing but he got to climb around on everything with Mom and Grandma. Ben helped Dad wash the cars on Sunday. He got more water on the ground than on the cars but oh well. On Sunday afternoon we went to the neighbor's house to go swimming and visit with them. They moved into the house right behind us about 2 months ago and we are really lucky to have them as neighbors. They are really nice people.

Spending Labor Day with Papa Wayne

On Labor Day Monday, me and Ben went to Thousand Oaks to visit my dad. This gave Ana a whole day to study at home alone and gave Ben a chance to visit his Papa Wayne. It has taken a while for Ben to warm up to my Dad. My Dad is a big tall guy with a really deep voice and I think that scared Ben a little. It used to be all we had to do was walk in the house and Ben would start crying at the site of Papa. But to Papa's credit he never let it bother him. He knew that Ben would come around as he got older. Now, while he sometimes acts a little shy, after he's been there a while he is usually fine. It helps Ben to know that when he goes to Papa's house he gets ice cream. Ben got his love for ice cream from his dad (me). :) The other day we had barely arrived when Ben walked straight to the freezer and pointed to it. He knows that ice cream is on the freezer side. Sometimes he'll get a Smoothie made for him from Letecia and other times it is straight ice cream from the carton. It doesn't seem to matter what flavor it is. I have seen him eat several flavors. Also when he goes to Papa's, Ben loves to go to the backyard and run around. Ben is a "free range" kind of boy who has to walk all around the backyard to see what's there. He especially loves to help Papa pick up apples that have dropped from the tree. When Papa takes the rake and knocks apples from the tree, Ben just starts laughing as hard as he can. The best part of raising Ben is seeing life through his eyes. Ben, like all kids his age see life alot simpler than adults do and they actually take time to "stop and smell the flowers". When Ben sees joy in the small things it makes me happy and makes me hope that he can hang onto as much of that for as long as he can. Real life will come at him fast enough. After he does all of these activities, Ben likes to take a nap on Papa's lap. But anyways, we had a great visit with Papa Wayne on Monday and we will go over again this weekend sometime.