Daddy's helper

As work nears an end on our kitchen, Ben continues to be fascinated with the entire process. On Wednesday, Nick built temporary walls in order to take out a section of a load bearing wall - here's Ben helping with that, drill in hand (a real one, without the bit. :)

A humorous sidenote - The other night, Nick was putting Ben to bed and here's how the conversation went:
B: Daddy, come lay down with me for a little bit.
N: Ok, Ben just for a minute. And then I have to go get ready for bed, too. (A white lie - he had a lot to planned to do for the kitchen that night and was anxious to get to work.)
B: No, Daddy. You not gonna go to bed! You gonna go out in the garage and built new cabinets. You gonna go work on the kitchen!

There's no foolin' that kid! ;-)

Bedtime cuddles

Santa, a train, and jumping - oh my!

Christmas is approaching rapidly! Today, we made our yearly outing to see Santa and ride the Christmas train at our local mall. Ben proudly told Santa that he would like a "Diego bike" (his favorite tv character).





As an unexpected bonus, there was a large inflatable jumping tent at the mall today. It goes without saying that Ben had an absolute blast. I even joined in the fun...the worker there took pity on poor Ben because he was in there jumping alone. He said, 'That's no fun! Climb on in, Mom, and jump with him!" So, in I went. If any of you were at Summit Mall today, thinking, 'who is that 30 year old woman in there looking quite ridiculous???' Uh-huh. That was me.

Imagine: This picture was taken a split second before Ben almost broke my nose. You see, neither one of us thought about the fact that the net would allow him to keep going beyond it when he ran into it full speed. Soooo, I hope you all appreciate this picture - ha!

"I made a Happy Birthday cake!"

Tonight we had my dad over for dinner - celebrating his birthday one day early. Ben and I made a cake for the occasion this afternoon. I was very impressed with his interest and helping skills. A fun learning experience for him, and a nice memory for me :)

Greasing the cake pans:

I can't tell you how much self-restraint he showed with this portion of the activity. Ben loves butter. (Reminds me of my sister when we were growing up. Did he get that from you, Aunt Kelly?!) He kept saying, "Mommy, I gonna eat the butter!" Of course I advised him not to, explaining the pans needed the butter so the cake wouldn't stick to it when it was done baking. I could tell he was taking that comment in, that he understood, and decided the butter was better off in the pans than in his mouth. Good boy!

Here he is, glowing with pride, after dumping all the ingredients in the bowl. He even helped with breaking the eggs (hand-over-hand).


Fascinated with the mixer.


Stirring the fudge...it was a marble cake.


Glued to the oven while it was baking.

Well maybe he wasn't completely glued. He broke away to watch "Polar Express" for the fourth time this week. He and Xavier can't get enough of that movie!

Xavier + chocolate icing = one happy mess.


Happy Birthday Dad (aka Papa Paul)! We love you!

Deck the Halls!

This weekend we put up our Christmas tree. Xavier and Ben had a good time watching the process and listening to the obligatory Dean Martin Christmas music playing in the background (I grew up with this tradition, and it just wouldn't seem right to decorate the tree without it!)

Ben was amazed that a tree can come out of a box. :) He watched intently as Nick adorned the tree with lights:


Xavier loves the little twinkly white lights. He would lay under or sit beside a Christmas tree for hours if we let him. He helped Daddy hold a string of lights (and played with them at the same time):


Xavier checking out the 'touchability' of the tree:



I tried my best to get Ben to take a picture - but he was on the photo strike picket line again. "No picture, Mommy!" Xavier is always game for a photo, so here are a few pictures of us(the last 2 taken through the tree :)

Shaved

This may not be funny for anyone else, but we think it's hilarious. Our dogs shed like crazy, all the time and everywhere. So Thursday, when I took them to the groomers for their baths, she suggested a shave may help the situation. I said, "OK! Sounds good to me!"

When I came back to get them, I could barely write the check to pay her because I was laughing so hard. They had been shaved nearly bald on their entire bodies, except their heads and 1/2 their tails. The funniest part, was that they both looked ashamed. Stewart hung his head, as if he had lost all dignity. (OK, so the bandanas the groomer put on them may have had something to do with that, too.)



The boys even laughed when I brought them back into the car. Xavier giggled all the way home. Ben could barely speak, he was laughing so hard. He said - "Ruby and Stew look funny, Mommy! All their hair gone! That's so silly!" Indeed it is Ben! But they have no hair to shed - so its all good in my book!

Bathtime!

Xavier loves bathtime! Here he is, splashing around, with a look of pure happiness on his face. Makes me smile :)