Dada

I still have to post some pictures from last weekend, but in the meantime here is a video of Ben saying Dada/Daddy (which he started saying in the past couple of days). He says it clearer in other videos, but he is so sweet in this one. Ben and I watch it together several times a day on my phone. :)

On to Toddlerhood...

It seems like Ben has truly gone from baby to toddler overnight. He has done several new things today. First, he likes to watch a short show called "Dance a Lot Robot" that comes on before Mickey in the morning. Every morning the robot teaches a new dance. This morning Ben started imitating the robot for the first time and was lifting his legs up like him.

Next we were in the kitchen and it took Ben all of about 30 seconds to figure out how to remove the cabinet lock that Josh installed yesterday.

Then after his nap I heard some strange noises in his room and turns out he somehow knocked his Yankees lamp off his nightstand.

After lunch he started pointing at the ceiling in the family room. I couldn't figure out what he was doing. Then it occurred to me that he was showing me the light. I asked him where the light was and he got a huge smile on his face like I understood what he was trying to tell me.

Shortly after that he walked across the family room all by himself pushing one of his new toys. Whew! What a day!

August 31

We had a nice day yesterday celebrating Ben's birthday quietly at home. We had to change some plans because all 3 of us were a little under the weather but we still enjoyed the day. Ben opened a gift at breakfast, we watched the video from his first few days, played in the backyard and then enjoyed cake after dinner.

Party time!

We started the birthday celebrations a couple weeks ago with a visit from Uncle Adam and Makiko. They couldn't make it to the birthday party so they came for a visit. Ben enjoyed their company and Sophie his new teether.

Of course his big party was last weekend and I think he really enjoyed it. He was a little overwhelmed during the singing/cake, but we did a re-do yesterday on his actual birthday and it went much better. We are so thankful that so many people were able to come celebrate with us, especially those of you who drove in from out of town. We just wish we had been able to spend more time with everyone. If anyone has any party pictures, please send them to us!

Walking is fun

Recent Pictures

We had a busy week and Grandma was here watching Ben while I got some stuff done around the house. Popi was here this weekend. Ben is getting better at standing every day. He is pretty good at walking by himself with just a little help balancing. And he is great at climbing steps. Before his bath tonight he climbed from our foyer all the way up to the 3rd floor (with Josh behind him to make sure he didn't fall). That's a lot of steps for a little boy! Somehow we didn't get any pictures with Grandma while she was here, but here are some recent ones.

Ben Talking

Josh took this video a couple of weeks ago at breakfast. Ben had just started to say "Gee Gee". It's amazing how much he has changed just in the past couple of weeks. He has been talking a lot more this week and has been saying "Ga Ga Ga Ga" and sometimes it sounds like he's saying "Da Da Da". We haven't gotten a good video of it yet, but we'll post it when we do.