Benjamin-ism II

We have been trying to get Benjamin to say his own prayers and not have to rely on us to tell him what to say. They other night as he was praying he said "...thank you for Nana, thank you for milk... chocolate milk." I thought that was pretty cute. A while ago in a prayer, Benjamin also expressed gratitude for diaper cream.

"A Digger Came To My House Today"

Stephen is away tonight and so it was just Benjamin and me at the dinner table. He was eating and then said to me; "A digger came to my house today. Was so loud. Had a cover my ears like this (putting his hands over his ears)." So I ask, what did the digger do? "They dig, dig. It picking up some rocks." I then ask why? "Because it dig, dig, dig our house." What else did it do? "Make loud noises." That pretty much sums it up. We did have a digger come to our house today. Where we live now is an HOA, and they are responsible for all outside problems on the buildings. Several of us on the street had some problems with driveways cracking and crumbling. They came today to fix it. Benjamin watched intently as the digger was at our house. He loved it!

Benajmin-ism I

The other day Rebecca and I were a little tired and decided to go out to eat. Even though it's not very gourmet, we settled on Chuck-a-rama. We like it because it is fast and kid friendly. When we told Benjamin where we were going he said, "I love Chuck-a-gramma!"

Stewart Falls

A week or so ago, I was listening to a radio program on NPR. I was only able to listen to a few minutes so I'm not sure what the topic was, but a woman was being interviewed who apparently was an expert on families. She said that when people are interviewed about their memories from childhood, typically most people's responses focus on three things: 1) family dinners, 2) outdoors, and 3) family vacations. For some reason this really hit me. I think I tend to drag my feet when it comes to organizing family outings. A lot of the time, I think I'd rather just stay at home. In part because of what I heard on the radio, we decided to hike to Stewart Falls above Sundance last Saturday.

Initially, we had a bit of a problem finding the trailhead, but we got there eventually. Thanks to my sister Lisa we have a back pack that I can carry Benjamin in. Going to the falls was pretty enjoyable. Benjamin has been a little obsessed with picnics lately. He frequently pretends to have picnics with his stuffed animals, so we packed a picnic lunch. Unfortunately we ate at the top of he falls where there only rocks and not much shade. After eating, we hiked a short distance to the base of the waterfalls. It would have been a much better place to have lunch. You could feel the cool breeze coming through the falls and there was lots of grass to sit on.

Hiking back about killed me. I think it was harder for Rebecca also. For the first half mile I had to stop and catch my breath a lot. Benjamin fell asleep and as the trail flattened out I looked ahead and thought I saw someone familiar. Amazingly, it was Rebecca's brother Andrew and girlfriend Kelly. What a coincidence! I can count on one hand the number of hikes that we have done in our marriage. We talked for a few minutes and then hiked the rest of the way back to the car. We had a great time! I was only sore for the three days after too. Here are some pictures.

The Cheetah Pillow

A few days ago Benjamin and I went to Bed, Bath, and Beyond to look at new throw pillows for the couch. Benjamin found some that he really liked and just wouldn't put them down. I suggested that we go and look for something for his new big boy room in the new house. I have to back up a bit here to say that Benjamin is convinced that in his new house he has a jungle room. The model that we toured had a jungle room with a large stuffed cheetah. Benjamin carried that large cheetah from room to room the whole time that we were touring the house and considering making an offer. I've attached a picture that we took of Benjamin and the cheetah
at the model home. Back to the story. So, Stephen and I agreed that we could do a jungle theme room. Nothing over the top but just some tan walls a neutral comforter. Stephen even thought that he would paint some jungle animals that we could frame for the room. At the store, we came across a cheetah pillow. Benjamin fell in love with it immediately. He cuddled right up to the faux fur cheetah print pillow. He was so cute and just kept saying "My cheetah pillow" over and over. It ended up that it was on clearance so we bought it for $6.00 whole dollars. I ended up finding a comforter set (a great deal I might add-comforter, 2 shams, and the bedskirt orginally $180 down to $30 bucks!) that would match the cheetah pillow. The comforter set is neutral with stripes of different colors of brown- you can see it in the pictures behind the cheetah pillow. It looks like Benjamin will have a new jungle room in the new house complete with a faux fur cheetah pillow. Oh- I forgot the best part the faux fur is a nightmare with shedding. Benjamin was covered with fur by the time we arrived at home. We are hoping that it will stop shedding soon. I'll post pictures of his new room when it gets done. If anyone has any suggestions on how to make a jungle room be sure to let us know!

The New House

I hope that this isn't a surprise to anyone that we are moving to Washington state. We closed on the house on May 31st but have yet to move in. We are thinking that we will be moving there sometime in July. I need to finish a few things with my thesis here before we go. So, I am really excited to finally not be a renter anymore and actually paint the house. I think that I bore Stephen endlessly with all the talk about paint colors! We can't wait for friends and family to come visit! The outside is the picture of our actual house but the other ones are of the model, which I would love. (We surprised the previous owners and so there was a bit of mess with the house. I figure that it isn't very fair to post pictures of someone's clutter!)

Trains, Trains, Trains

We always read stories to Benjamin at night, and he kind of got stuck in a rut with a book called Trains, Trains, Trains. One night Stephen was reading the book to him, and he just started quoting the book from memory. I thought it was so cute so now we start him off with the beginning, and he loves to perform the rest. You can watch the video if you like. Here are the words because he is a bit hard to understand.

"Trains, trains, trains, I like trains. I like trains as they toot and roar as they rumble by my door. First come engines big and strong pulling lots of cars along. Some cars keep things from the rain. Some cars carry trucks or grain or cows or hogs or gas or logs. Some cars carry steel. Some carry scrap or secret stuff that's under wrap. But the best car is at the end. As the train goes round the bend. I wave. I'm glad to see the carry that carries Dad. Trains, trains, trains, I like trains."