to remember

Just a couple cute things Ben is doing these days that I want to document.  
On our walks lately, (which usually happen twice a day to release two-year-old boy energy,) Ben stops randomly in people's yards and lays down on their grass and pretends to sleep.....snoring away!!

 After two or three snores he hops back up and off we go.................

He also loves to sit on the steps of nearly any house, dangle his feet for a second and quickly hit the road again.  We also discuss the building material of most houses and retaining walls as Ben is very proud of his use of the word "brick." Boy did I get him stuck with "modified railroad tie" today. :)

Ben got a Sesame Street book about cooking from his Dada and me for his birthday and finally realized the attached spoon and spatula could come off.  He randomly drags me to the pantry (often shortly after a meal,) and asks for a snack.  He then pulls out the spoon from his book that he has hidden nearby and goes to town eating whatever the snack is with the spoon from the book.  Mind you, dear readers, that most meals are a non-stop monologue by Moi that goes..."Ben, please use your fork," or "Ben, please use your spoon."

My goodness my sweet boy is SO INTO EVERYTHING these days.  My mantra lately is clean, destroy, rotate, repeat.  I really thought I knew what "into everything" meant when Ben first started cruising and opening cupboards.  I really try to funnel this energy into help and Ben is wonderful at helping me unload the dishwasher, or put things into the sink or recycle bin.  This weekend he tried to empty the pantry into said recycle bin and push it down the basement stairs.  I thankfully stopped him before catastrophe struck but have resolved myself to the fact that the price for certain accomplishments these days is that many other things might be undone along the way. :)

a little piece of history......really close to home

Wednesday night the first presidential debate of this race took place at Denver University near our house.  Incumbent Democrat Barack Obama is running against Republican Mitt Romney.  Ben will surely only remember these two from history books e-books, but we were able to walk nearby and get in on some of the debate action.  Ryan was forced to come home early by an unprecedented 5 hour closure of 1-25 and suggested we walk over to see what we could see.  We weren't able to get far because the police had the street blocked, but it was with awesome reason! Although the news was reporting that both candidates had already made their way into the debate hall, we arrived to our stopping point right before the presidential motorcade.  Groups from both sides were marching around and chanting and yelling with signs. We stood near a group of freshman fraternity brothers from DU.  Their perspective on the world and the election was quite entertaining and one day Ben-remind me to tell you about it!  Ben thought all the commotion was fantastic and joined in a few times from Dada's shoulders.  A quick moving storm also brought lots of wind and a steep temperature drop of nearly 40 degrees in just a couple of hours.  The weather just seemed to add to the commotion and excitement. You can watch the motorcade here.

The opposite side of the street was nearly all Romney supporters. The Obama supporters were more roving and on the move.

 

The plows were rolling out as we walked home-surely taking advantage of the shut-down highway to get where they needed to go.

This was the last defense swat team really close to our house.  Seeing them combined with no cars on Univeristy Blvd made the whole event very surreal.

get a leg up

Today I went in to settle my wild monkey as he was struggling to start his nap and caught him with one leg over the crib!!!!!!!  One leg was still touching the crib on the inside-thank goodness-and I think I put the fear of everything into him with my reaction.  I told him over and over how dangerous it was but sadly I know the toddler bed conversion is coming soon.  I'm going to go start bottling patience and reading-help!!

cooooookieeeees um num num num!

I tried so hard to get it together to make cookies Sunday and after 2 missing ingredients, I gave up! I decided it would be a great first attempt at Ben and I baking since he had been baking at preschool.  We ran to Target for the missing ingredients and part way through our shopping I mentioned helping me make cookies when we got home.  We finished our trip, checked out, and drove home all with no further mention of the baking.  I was quite shocked when there was no doddling outside the door and Ben beelined for the kitchen saying, "Cook! Cook! Cook!"

He only stuck around for about 3 ingredients but the giggles and smiling while he inhaled the still-warm ooey-gooey goodness were VERY rewarding.  You can watch his gratitude here.