FFF-Wonder

Since there is no theme from Sarah's blog, I'm posting my latest favorite foto of Ben. I love this picture because you can just see the wonder in his facial expression as he points out the ducks to me at a park near our friends' home in Ohio. I love that he wants to share this new and exciting discovery he is making with me, and I love even more that he is holding my hand to take me with him to check it out. He never ceases to amaze me with the new things he is learning and doing each day, and I feel so blessed to have him in my life.

Weekend Fun

This weekend we went to Cincinatti to visit some friends we met through adoption. Ben and his friend, Hope, had a blast playing together and were sooo cute. We also got to join some other families with children from Guatemala for a while on Saturday. It was great to see some familiar faces and meet some new people too. Hope you enjoy the pics!

Ben and Hope enjoying a snack together.

This is Ben's newest thing-he points to anything and everything that catches his attention and says either "Mama" or "Dada" repeatedly until we look as well and comment on what he is showing us. I LOVE this age!!! (In this picture, he is showing me a bunch of ducks in the pond)
Crawling down the slide to get Hope's balloon. I love how he always sticks his tongue out when he is concentrating on something. It cracks me up.

Hope and Ben waving for the camera at the Tri-State Friends through Guatemalan Adoption event. These two even had fun just sitting in their strollers together.

Sooooo BIG!

Again with pointing to get my attention! This time he is pointing at a model train going around the Highfield Discovery Gardens. I love that he wants me to see what he is so excited about!

Smelling the flowers

Ben loved playing with Frog and Toad at the Discovery Center.

Ben playing peek-a-boo with Daddy around the back of the couch. This was after we got home and right before bed time last night. He is such a funny guy and loves to play games.

Mommy and Ben day

Today Ben and I got to spend the whole day together-just the two of us! We haven't gotten to do this in a long time because the "big boys" were on summer vacation so even on the day each week that I don't have my niece, we still had the big boys to take care of too. Ben LOVED all of the Mommy time, and I loved all of the Ben time even more! He is growing and changing so fast! I can literally see him learning something new every day. Since we had the whole day today, we headed to the Children's Museum and spent most of the day in Playscapes, which is an area for preschoolers only. We had soooo much fun! Hope you enjoy the pics!

Ben's favorite part, as always, was the water table. The hand dryer he got to use after playing in the water might have been a very close second favorite because he spent a looong time drying his hands and repeatedly pushing the button to start the dryer again.

This is the first time I've seen him try to actually WALK up the steps. Here he always crawls. I hope he sticks to crawling here because the walking was SCARY for Mommy to watch!

Smelling the flowers he "picked" from the garden.

This look means trouble every time! As soon as I snapped the picture, he sent the block tower tumbling. I love his expressive face!

Driving the heavy equipment in the construction area

Just for fun

Just wanted to post a few pics since I have been very bad about blogging lately. I've been too busy chasing after Ben to have much computer time:-) You can see in the top picture that he LOVES his push toys. He has two "official" push toys, but also uses laundry baskets, his music table, kitchen chairs, and anything else that moves as push toys as well. He is constantly walking around pushing something (unless, of course, he is hanging on my leg, which is his other favorite pass time!). Hope you enjoy the pics.

Check out this raffle...

www.globalorphanteam.blogspot.com

This is an organization that is focused on helping the children of Guatemala in all sorts of ways. The raffle is for prizes ranging from a Target giftcard to Guatemalan crafts and Christmas stockings. Please check it out since this money goes to a great cause!

Walking

I think my son may be the best con artist I know! He totally CAN walk. In fact, he walks all over the place when I'm not in the room. My nephews have seen him cross the room and back several times, as well as take off down the hallway. I've even seen it once myself-while hiding in the kitchen. However, the minute he sees me walk into the room, he sits down, grins at me, and reaches his arms for me to pick him up. Of course, I can't resist that big grin and I always do pick him right up. I'm pretty sure at this point that he isn't walking more because he WANTS me to carry him everywhere! What a stinker!

Children's Museum

I don't know what it is about this place, but no matter how often we go the kids have a blast and always find something they really, really want to do. Yesterday was especially good because the museum just opened a new exhibit about Egypt that we hadn't been to yet. Hope you enjoy all the pictures!

Ben's all-time favorite: the water play table! At least he is past the stage where he wanted to DRINK the water!

This is like a giant-sized Lite Brite-he can put all of the plastic pieces in to make a design. Both kids LOVE this area, especially looking at the giant glass sculpture that inspired the exhibit.

This is Ben staring up at the glass sculpture overhead. He is always fascinated by it. (That's Drew, my youngest nephew, holding onto him)

Ben climbing on a giant crocodile

I love this picture of Ben kissing Drew and Belle hugging him. They sure do love their "big" cousin!

Drew was a good sport about playing dress-up in traditional Egyptian clothes with Belle. Don't they look lovely?

Belle and Ben "shopping" in the Egyptian market. This was probably their favorite thing they did. They spent at least 30 minutes putting fruits and veggies in their baskets, weighing them, and pretending to pay. (Well, Belle did all of that while Ben mostly threw the fruit at me!)

Ben "talking" to Drew about the fruit in his hand-which he insisted was a "ba" or ball!Strangely enough, Ben was TERRIFIED of sitting on this donkey, which is hilarious since he isn't scared of my dad's full size live horses!

I know this isn't the greatest picture ever, but I just love how it shows the special love between these two kids. They ADORE one another and it warms my heart to know that they have each other to grow up with even if it turns out that siblings aren't in their future.