Luke, Kristen, Benjamin & Eli

Saturday, March 26, 2011

Grandma & Grandpa's House

No one better touch my marionberry pie!

The amazing full moon from the window during dessert (no tripod...).

Monday, March 14, 2011

Big Mouth

We have noticed a common facial expression of Benjamins...

...I guess it will make tonsil examinations easier!

Dirty, Happy Dog

Remember when the topic of our blog was about this poor neglected dog? ;)

I think we've got a left-brained kid. He sorts everything; stacks his blocks by color, lines up his cars end to end, divides out his crayons, and even likes his food in neat piles. He has quite the sense of humor, quickly picking up on what you think is funny and repeating it. My mistake for laughing when he called me "Kristen!" I'm not "Mama" for the time being. He thinks he's magical when he blows open the garage door, and turns on and off the lights. He loves when we sing to him, and he's learned how to weasle "one more" song out of us at bedtime. He's perfected the fist bump and the high five. He loves to be covered up with pillows and blankets. Today when reading "The Three Little Pigs," he told me all about how the wolf went down the "chimpanzee" (chimney). He sings a cute version of his own ABC's and counts to 20. Still a very cautious little boy; doesn't like horse snuffles, the sound of the blender or vacuum, or when Mom leaves his sight.

Sick Baby

Benjamin succomed to his first real illness with a fever and the lovely upchucking. Before this, he has never sat in one spot long enough to watch TV. This is a picture commemorating his first TV watching experience- Sesame Street!! He's officially a fan now. His watching repertoire now includes Winnie-the-Pooh too. :)

The Daily Stroll

When the weather is nice, Benjamin's favorite thing to do is walk to the park down the street. He does everything without Mama's help now- he runs down the sidewalk in front of me, climbs up to the slide and goes down without any help and is pretty much our little independent "Mini-man."

Happy Valentine's Day!

We were all matchy-matchy.

Saturday, January 29, 2011

18 Month Recap

This is Benjamin's friend "Elephant". "Elephant" is a very important part of the Gehring family these days, and goes most places with Benjamin.

Benjamin has become quite the little parrot and is astute at echolalia. A funny example happened on a recent walk: I had Ben in the stroller and Sadie on the leash and we were trying to pass a family that was dwaddling. The mom of the family told her kids, "Let's let this family pass because we are a bunch of slow pokes." As we're passing, Benjamin looks over his shoulder at them and says, "Slow Pokes!"

He seems to have outgrown "scary baby," which is kinda sad. He would run around waving his arms and saying, "Boo!" No one was better at acting more scared than Papa. His new favorite word is, "Snuggle!" If we are trying to get him to do anything that he doesn't want to do, he knows all he has to say is, "snuggle," and we immediately stop what we are doing, pick him up, and snuggle!

We often tell him, "You can do it," whenever his seems frustrated. Now when he can't do something or drops something he says, "You do it," or "You get it!" He hasn't quite figured out "I," and he sounds so demanding when he says this! He also says "stuck" whenever a toy gets wedged or he finds himself in a position where he can't move; unfortunately, it sounds like "Suck!" Add this to "Mean Mama" (interpretation: My Mama) and "O Sh**" (interpretation: Ocean) and it sounds like I have quite the potty-mouthed son.

Our little guy is showing more personality, and it is obvious he is a fan of books, music and food! He is actually pretty timid and it surprises me when I am around other little boys that are screaming, racing around and tumbling. Ben is super cautious and often says, "Careful" and "Feet First"....hmmm, wonder where he learned those phrases? He is enrolled in a Music Together class and Ben requests his favorite songs by his invented names, "Tumbala," "Button Moon" and "Bum." He is now starting to pretend and likes to find "hidey holes" to play in and feed us pretend meals. Best of all are his great bear hugs and his sweet "I You!'s" (interpretation: I Love You!) before bed.