My big two year old boy!

Two years ago today Benjamin made his way into the world. A wee thing of 8 lbs 6oz (didn't seem so little at the time! ha-ha!), and now here he is, a whopping 33 lbs and 36 inches tall. The bluest eyes you'll ever see, and such a sweet, kind, gentle soul. And it is my absolute pleasure and privledge to be his Mama. I simply cannot imagine the world and our lives without him.

A few days old:

Two years old:

Here are some Benjamin factoids.

Ben likes:

• cars, trucks, airplanes, diggers, and trains
• playing "Daddy Whoa!", a game where Ben tackles Daddy and knocks him down ("whoa" means "fall"; Ben plays many variations of this game, like "Pablo Whoa!", "Car Whoa!", etc.)
• the Cars movie, especially Mater
• strawberries
• cats (which he calls "maow-maow")
• his cousin Emma (who always takes a great interest in and plays with Ben when we get together)
• water, particularly swimming, but he enjoys the bath too
• running like a maniac in shopping malls
• debating, e.g., looking at a picture of a dump truck the following debate ensues...
  Ben: digger!
  Mama: it's a dumper!
  Ben: big digger!
  Mama: no, it's a dumper!
  Ben: digger!
  you get the idea
• Pablo (from the Backyardigans)

What Benjamin is doing these days:

• started potty training (if he's pantless he uses the potty pretty consistantly without any encouragement from me)
• three word sentences
• identifying and naming some primary colours
• expanding his pallet, recently he's started trying more dishes and has even started eating some raw vegetables, under close supervision)
• more imaginary/role playing, like moving his little action figured around and having them do things; it usually goes something like this: Ben sweetly says "do-di-do-di-doo" while maneuvering a little person up a set of stairs, then he yells "whoaaa!" and tosses said little person across the room
• playing independantly; Ben's always been fairly independant, and this continues as he gets older. in the mornings he happily entertains himself while I get myself ready and make the beds, etc.
• climbing in and out of his car seat on his own

Overall, Ben's a pretty easy going kid. As he was during infancy, he still eats well, sleeps well, and so far isn't prone to many tantrums. He sleeps about 12 hours at night and has one two to three hour nap daily; that doesn't leave a lot of time to be cranky!

And here are some birthday pics:





Benjamin in 38 years?

Mama's special Christmas present!

I was completely surprised on Christmas morning. Nic had this blog printed through a self-publishing site and gave me the book for Christmas. Hooo... did I ever cry, and it was ugly crying too.

Here are some pics.

Nic felt awful that he typo'd Ben's name on the cover, but I didn't even notice!

Our Christmas

We've had a wonderful Christmas here in our part of the world. Christmas eve we opened presents of new flannel PJs and Ben watched his new Thomas and Friends Christmas DVD.

After a good night's sleep we all got up in the morning and opened stockings. Here are some pics of Ben opening his stocking.


And here he is pushing his Thomas and Percy trains around the coffee table. Christmas could have ended here as far as Ben was concerned!

Thomas helps Ben open a present.



Yesterday afternoon we had Christmas with the Granny and Granddad Bloomfield, as well as aunts, uncles, and cousins. Granny and Granddad gave Ben a GeoTrax set which Daddy set up last night after Ben went to bed. Here's Ben and Daddy playing with it this morning. Ben *loves* it!

Ben can identify and name some colours!

Today I was showing Ben different coloured markers, asking him to name the colour, and he did!

Red, blue, green, and orange he knows very well. Purple he can name most of the time. Yellow is a bit more challenging, but I think it's the pronunciation of the word that confuses him because he can point to the colour when asked to find something yellow.

Yay Ben!

Rub a Dub Dub

Mama went out, so Daddy and Ben had a photo shoot. Here are a couple of pics of Ben with his stuffed friends.

Almond extract isn't always extracted from almonds -- who knew?

**Since posting I've noticed this particular entry has been getting a lot of hits and would like to remind peanut/nut allergic folks to always check with the manufacturer of any questionable product to verify ingredients.**

So as everyone knows Ben's allergic to peanuts and egg white, as well as mildly allergic to egg yolk. He's outgrown his milk allergy (at least to the best of our knowledge -- he's been consuming cow's milk for several months now with no eczema, or any other symptoms).

Anyway, because of Ben's peanut allergy we're additionally avoiding tree nuts. The majority of peanut allergic individuals also react to tree nut proteins, so until we've had further testing done to confirm one way or the other avoidance is our only (and best) option. As a result I've been doing all of our Christmas baking (also because of the egg white allergy) and even going so far as to make our own chocolates (so far I've made peppermint chocolate truffles and chocolate covered cherries, I have a great fondant recipe to try out still).

Fortunately I've been able to verify my baking ingredients are peanut/nut free, like the baking chocolate, and the chocolate chips, etc. Which brings me to the almond extract. I had always assumed almond extract was from, well, almonds. But much to my surprise it usually isn't.

I contacted McCormick's Canada yesterday to inquire about the simulated almond extract I purchased (thinking simulated would be the route I'd have to go if I wanted to use almond extract). I wanted to double-check that there indeed wasn't trace peanut/tree nut protein in the product. This is when I was informed that both the Club House brand "artifical" almond extracts and "pure" almond extracts were actually derived from peach and apricot kernels, and not from almonds. Apparently this isn't uncommon, and often in baking crushed peach and apricot kernels are used in place of crushed bitter almonds. News to me!

Anyway, that was an interesting discovery. Thought I'd share.

Naw-Be

Is Benjamin for "snow ball." :)

What a helpful kid!

Now that it's wintertime I use a hair dryer on my hair while Ben plays in his playroom. When he hears the hair dryer stop he comes running, announces "Mama all done!", pulls the plug from the outlet, takes my hair dryer, and stuffs it back into the cupboard. Then he collects the hairbrushes/combs and throws them in too. I don't know what possessed him to start doing this, but it's hilarious!

Benjamin meets Santa

I brought Ben to our local mall this morning. Fortunately we had a heap of snow dumped on us last night there was no one waiting to see Santa. We just walked right up! Practically unheard of.

I wasn't sure if Ben would be nervous, but he was great. Santa won him over with a candy cane.

Here's the pic I'll be sending out with our Christmas cards this year. Merry Christmas! :D

An early Christmas + birthday gift for Ben!

From Nanny Anita!

Nanny Anita sent some money to pick Ben up a table and chair set. Nic picked it up yesterday and we couldn't wait to set it up, so we did so last night. Ben loves it. It's so cute seeing him climb onto his own little chair and sitting at his own little table. :)

Benjamin helps Mama bake cookies.

First, get all the ingredients together. Dumping them all on the counter is a good start. Then sift the dry ingredients into a bowl.
Add various bits to the mix, like say, withered red pepper that was forgotten on the counter.

Prepare for the oven.

Stand proudly in front of the oven unaware that Mama pulled the ol' switcheroo and put her cookies in the oven.

Discover icing sugar is pretty tasty while waiting for cookies to bake.

A new sentence today!

"Buh-bye Mama uhn-weh!" which translates to "Bye-bye Mama's underwear!"

Ben was helping me put away laundry. I gave him all my socks and undies to put away and that's what I heard as he was closing the drawer. Funny kid!