This morning at the park, Ben had the time of his life playing in the big sandbox for close to an hour. It was a beautiful morning so after walking around the park and playground, I think he wanted to just plop himself someplace and not move around too much for a change! There was hardly anybody there so he had almost all of the toys and shovels to himself and was singing and making truck noises as he filled two trucks and a bucket with sand and then dumped them out again. So funny!
What a nice Memorial Day weekend we had relaxing and spending time with some of our friends. It's always a special treat for Ben to have his daddy home on the weekend or a holiday since he does not get to see too much of him during the week. Here are the two boys watching tv together on Saturday morning.
Yesterday we had some of our local friends over for a barbeque and it was tons of fun! Luckily the weather held out for us - they had been predicting thunderstorms - so it was warm and dry all day. There were lots of kids attending so we set up Ben's kiddie pool and his sand and water table for them to use. Of course they all had a blast getting sandy and wet! Unfortunately I was busy bustling around most of the day so I didn't take as many photos as I would have liked but I do have some and will update this post if I get any emailed to me.
Ben, Elaina and Olivia in the pool cooling off. (Well, Ben had been in the pool before and is making a rash decision to join the girls in the water again!) How funny that the girls are sitting so refined in the water playing while Ben is diving over the edge like a burst of energy - the difference between girls and boys, I suppose!
Amy with a smiley Samantha, enjoying a cuddle from her mom.
Tyler and Elaina in the sand and water table after the water-side had been taken over by sand too!
Julie (and Mark in the background resting) watching our friends' son Nicholas play with a big truck.
The two Mini-Me's and their daddies: David holding Nicholas and Andrew holding Ben. Neither of these men can deny their sons!
Sometimes Ben gets overstimulated around large crowds and prefers to play alone. Here he is chilling out by himself with his favorite truck while the rest of the party continues without him. It's so cute that he knows when he needs a little downtime.
Finally, our friends Ray and Missy made an appearance with their TWO WEEK old son, Jonathan. Mom and Baby are doing well so they decided to brave Jonathan's first party...and he was wonderful for them so that they were able to relax a little. We were so glad that they all made it!
After all of yesterday's excitement, we literally did nothing today - slept, ate leftovers, played with Ben, slept, ate leftovers, played with Ben :). Andrew had been in the garage getting some things for the barbeque yesterday when he came across some of his old toys from when he was a little boy. He decided to pull out his collection of Matchbox cars since Ben loves his few new Matchbox cars he has and is fascinated with vehicles (and their sounds) overall. Here are the boys as Andrew shows Ben his cars. Ben was intrigued and Andrew loved sharing one of his favorite childhood toys with his little guy.
Benjamin has been off and in with his morning nap for the past few weeks but finally this week he has been consistently successful in skipping his morning nap and instead taking a longer afternoon nap. Now he is up for about 4-5 hours in the morning, then takes a 3-3.5 hour nap and then is up for about 4-5 hours before going to bed and sleeping 12 more hours. Not bad - he's our little sleepyhead! It took a little work but I found that tiring him out and keeping him busy all morning uses up his energy and doesn't give him time to remember that he is sleepy (and cranky!) when he normally would have been taking his morning nap.
So this week we have been doing lots of exploring - local parks, the backyard, new toys and things around the house, even baking with Mommy! Here are some photos from our week.
Exploring Spring Valley Park. This was Ben's first time on a slide and he was a bit nervous at first, but warmed up after a few tries (yes, I helped him down it but let him explore getting off at the bottom on his own). 
He loved the see-saw but unfortunately there were no other kids there this day so he had to go on it by himself. He liked when I just bounced it up and down for him.
Finally, of all the things to do at a park Ben was most fascinated with the wood chips and kept putting them wherever they would fit...over and over and over again! Here he is playing SO seriously...
We're so excited because we found out this week that my brother Mike and his girlfriend of two years, Chang, are engaged. We are so happy for them! I actually found out accidentally a few days before they were going to tell us (oops...) but they surprised my parents this weekend with the news. We are going to be seeing them in a few weeks and cannot wait to congratulate them in person. We're so happy to be getting a new sister-in-law!
Here is her ring - so pretty!
Our cousin Kim was visiting from CA this weekend so she and Aunt Cinty came over for a visit today. Ben entertained us for a while and later on we had a girls' night in our home theater watching Dreamgirls. Here they are with Ben, clad in his jammies and trying to appear not the least bit tired so that he can stay awake longer and not miss out on the fun! 
We took Benjamin to Chuck E. Cheese's today for lunch. Wow, this place has not changed since the 1980s, when I was last there! It was a lot of fun, though, and Ben had a great time eating, going on rides, watching the shows and staring at all of the other kids around him.
Eating lunch and the first time with a juice box. After spraying himself a handful of times and sticking the straw down his throat, Ben decided to stick with his sippy cup!
Here we are in the Toddler Zone playing. He went on a few different rides - the Barney train, a Tele Tubbies ride, and a car ride with Chuck E. Cheese himself, which he liked the best.
Ben has recently discovered Barney's "treat drawer" in our kitchen and has also noticed that when he takes one of Barney's toys, the dog will play with him. So, of course he has run with these two new ideas and has been taunting Barney to no end.
Here's Benjamin playing in Barney's drawer, a cruel trick to someone yellow and furry who views going near this cookie jar as very serious business!
Ben is picking up a handful of Barney's biscuits, waving them around and then throwing them back into the cookie jar...while Barney watches hopefully from the sidelines.
Barney inches in for a better view in hopes of getting a treat but Ben prefers to taunt Barney instead of feeding him. Don't feel too bad for Barney, though, he is getting many more treats and food droppings than he used to before Ben was around!
Benjamin's next game entails filling his shopping cart with all of Barney's toys and then walking around the house with them while Barney follows behind, trying to retrieve his toys. Poor dog!
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