November

Ben is now 10 months old and so CUTE! The weather this past month has been fantastic- clear and sunny most days, with temperatures around 75-80. We spent a lot of time outside on walks, at the park, and in the backyard. Ben loves to move around and get into everything. He crawls up on his knees now, not just army crawling, and he is really fast. He walks really well around the furniture and moves from one piece to the next easily. He can balance himself on his feet standing for just a few seconds at a time. He got another tooth- the lower right incisor Nov 3rd. I think he is working on several more.

Ben loves to:

• flush toilets- he discovered how to do that on his own on Nov 3rd. Then he kept trying to do it. Now he tries to go around the toilet every time he is in the bathroom- not a place he should be, sigh! He also stuck his hand in the toilet water- yuck.
• Open doors and cabinets to see what is inside
• examine anything and everything trying to figure out how it works
• throw balls- he is really good at throwing them too!
• unroll toilet paper and try to eat it. He can unroll an entire roll super fast!
• chew on anything paper or cardboard
• take a bath- he enjoys splashing and is very tolerant of being washed. No tears!
• play with my iPhone. He screams when I take it away.
• kiss my face. His version of kissing is to open his mouth and slobber all over my face. It is so precious and it makes me feel loved! We usually start out the day with kisses, I talk to him and he "kisses" my face. I really want a video of it but have not quite captured it yet.

He can say "Uh Oh" and does so on a regular basis! so cute! His version is not exact but is really close and he definitely uses is correctly! It sounds more like Uh Ew. I think he can even say Ainsley. He has said something that resembles her name a few times over the last week when she is around!

He climbs on everything. He climbed up onto Ainsley's rocking chair and stood on the seat and started bouncing. He climbed up the attic ladder stairs on his own when Dan had them down yesterday ( 11/27). He got his knees up, then pulled himself up to get his feet on each rung. He was halfway up with me spotting him and he wanted to keep going. CRAZY! Ainsley was NOT a climber.

Ainsley still loves her little school and has several new friends. She loves her little brother and likes to help with him. She tries to pick him up which is a little worrisome, but she is usually very careful with him. She likes to cuddle and kiss him- which is so sweet to see! She is so smart and inquisitive. She will come up with the most thoughtful questions and I realize her brain is always churning. She seems so much older than 3.75... She wants to know why the moon changes size. Why the days are shorter. Why it is fall, and how we know it is fall. She asks "why" a lot, and you can tell she processes all the information. She says "goodbye! I love you! Don't hit anyone!" when I leave in the mornings! Her version of stay safe and it cracks me up. She is so sweet and funny!

My cute kids in their pajamas looking out the front door!
Ainsley- crawling with Ben
reading
The park!
Crazy hair!!
Celene came to visit for a few days just before Thanksgiving. We had not seen her since February. We had a fantastic visit and wish we saw her more. Ainsley enjoyed having her Auntie here and they did lots of special things together. I was not wanted, she wanted Celene for everything.

Making cookies with Auntie Celene

Ainsley is so pretty! She is changing every day and her features are becoming more pronounced. She is a little girl, not a toddler anymore! Her hair has gotten longer and smoother too and she actually lets me style it occasionally.


Thanksgiving outfits!

Fashion diva!
This is a cute hat Ainsley made in school!

Thanksgiving we celebrated with the Coffey Family- we all enjoyed it thoroughly!

Ben played with a balloon- he thought it was fascinating and entertained himself for a while! He took a nap at the perfect time in the afternoon and allowed us to eat our fancy dinner without having to entertain him! I was a little sad he missed his first Thanksgiving, but I was very happy to relax and enjoy my meal!


The girls had their own special table.

Decorating the tree at home.

We put up our Christmas decorations the day after Thanksgiving. It was really fun! Ainsley could not wait to decorate and put up most of the ornaments. She helped me put up the other decorations around the house too! We did not do all of the decorations that I usually do- mainly because we worried about Ben tearing stuff down and eating it- HA! (just like having a puppy). We only put up the unbreakable ornaments on the tree this year...we did not want to risk all of them with Ben. Ben has pretty much taken off all the ornaments on the bottom half of the tree and they have bounced around on the floor, so I think this was a good decision.




We went to the mall over the weekend so I could do a little shopping (<1hr). The kids walked around with Dan and got ice cream. There was no line for Santa- amazing! so we stopped off for pictures. Ainsley did great- she sat on his lap and smiled, but would not tell him what she wants for Christmas. Ben was great too- no crying! He kept looking at Santa and staring with his serious little face. I thought he was going to reach up and grab his beard, but he resisted the urge!

Later, Ainsley told us she did not know if that was the real Santa. I was pretty surprised, and asked why, but she did not specify. I told her that sometimes Santa has helpers because he has so many places to be. I kept thinking that she is so young to have these doubts. But, she is SMART!

Ainsley has not been very informative on what she wants for Christmas. When we ask her, she says she wants a bike for Ben. How sweet is that? But, Ben is not quite ready for a bike, so we will have to figure something else out.

Santa Pictures

Dan has had all of his childhood toys stored in boxes in our attic. He went into the attic last weekend and brought a bunch of them down. I have to admit, they are pretty awesome! The original Tonka trucks- actual metal toys that were made in the USA! An ET doll. Star Wars stuff. Optimus Prime (transformer) and many other things. The kids loved playing with the toys. It was funny to see Ainsley running around in her pink tutu playing with Dan's toy gun. I was not excited to introduce her to guns, but...at least they were toys

This is Ben playing with a helicopter. It took about 2 seconds for him to spin the rotor- I was impressed!
the gun- toting outfit
I am so excited about this upcoming holiday season with my awesome family!