Lake Tahoe & Oakland

August was a busy month! There are 2 more posts below with pictures of Benjamin's activities. We finished off August with a week trip to Oakland, California and Lake Tahoe with Nana & Poopah!

Going on a hike in Oakland. As you can see, all the walking tired Benjamin out :)
















Playing with Nana








Picture time with the family (Benjamin's Great Aunt & Uncle Barbara & Ken - whose house we stayed at in Oakland, along with Nana and Poopah)


Hanging out with the family at Lake Tahoe
























Lake Tahoe was just a little too cold for Benjamin!






Warming up with mom after swimming in the cold water!



Keeping warm on a cold day. Was it ever nice having a break from the AZ summer!



Hiking with the family

Swimming

This is one of Benjamin's favorite activities to do with Grandma! The two of them probably spent an hour in the pool every day.

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August

August started off with a visit from Grandma....and like usual we were very very busy! Benjamin went and got his first official hair cut (which he did not like at all!)

He was much happier when he was back at home, although he had more gel in his hair than I ever put in mine!
He has finally learned to sit still for story time and not try to eat the books
And he's starting to learn to crawl! He's focused on the orange block in front of him.
Here are more of his blocks that he just loves to play with!
And of course there is always play time with Maully :)

I've been tagged

Well technically this is Benjamin’s blog, but I (Marlene) was tagged by Jessica so here we go….

THE RULES:
1. Post these rules before you give you the facts.
2. List eight (8) random facts about yourself.
3. At the end of your post, choose (tag) people and list their names (linking to them).
4. Leave them a comment on their blog letting them know they’ve been tagged!

Eight random things about Marlene:

1. I like to read the end of books 1st. I TRY not to, but if the book gets too suspenseful I will read the end before I continue on with the book (and yes I will still read the whole book)
2. When I set my alarm clock, the number has to end with 7. if that doesn’t quite work with my wake-up time, I sometimes let it end with a 1.
3. I have a hard time sitting through whole movies, I tend to get up and down. Although I can last the whole time if I’m knitting or reading a book while watching.
4. I only like talking on the phone if I’m in the mood for it, I usually much prefer emailing.
5. John Cusack is my favorite actor.
6. I LOVEEEE getting good bargains on stuff and hate buying things at full price or new (unless they are an amazing sale new).
7. I use cloth diapers on my son and am currently sewing him 1 wool cover from a lana wool scarf (that I got for an amazing deal) and knitting a 2nd one at the same time.
8. I hate magicians. It drives me absolutely insane not knowing how they do what they do.

I tag
Randi and Wendi

6 month pictures

Green Peppers

So far I have been making all of Benjamin's baby food and there has been nothing he doesn't like (although avocado and asparagus he wasn't too sure about, but he did eat it). We finally tried green peppers...

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6 months

Benjamin is half a year old and appears to be slimming down! At his 6month checkup he had dropped to the 90th percentile in weight (21lbs-4oz) and was 97th for height (28.5"). He has mastered rolling over both ways, his bottom 2 teeth have come through (the 1st one appeared about 1 week before his 6month birthday), and he is able to sit on his own for longer stretches of time (he started sitting on his own when we were visiting in Canada). We are also finally getting him to generally give us a decent 1.5 to 2 hr nap in the morning, and again in the afternoon. Took us 6months but I think we've finally taught him to nap (although I probably jinxed it by typing this...)
The 1st 2 pictures below are a comparison from when he was 3 days old, to his 6month birthday. He really has changed!

Maully and Ben

Benjamin and Maully have become very good pals. Benjamins face lights up whenever he sees her, and Maully wants to always be right beside him hoping that his waving arms will pet her, or he'll spit up so she can get some free food ;) We are currently trying to train her to NOT wash his face and to not paw him when she wants to be pet. But she doesn't care less if he's yanking on her face or grabbing for her tongue, she'll take any attention she can get.

Rolling Over

Thanks to Benjamin's mastering of rolling over from front to back, nap times and bedtime has become quite a fight at our house (he only sleeps on his tummy). So we have spent the weekend working on teaching him to turn from his back to his front, and we're starting to get somewhere!

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More play time

Playing twister with the family

Enjoying the swing and nice weather with Julia
Hanging out with the twins

Canadian family and friends

Aunt Carolyn

Teddy (classmate of sams)
Uncle Edward
Cousin Jonathon
Cousin Julia
Cousin Joel

Hanging out in London

First trip to Canada

Well Benjamin and I have been in Canada for 4.5 days and we already have a ton of pictures to show our activities :) He didn't sleep much in the 4 hr flight or the 4 hr car ride, but he was still very happy and the two of us had a wonderful time traveling together.

Jumper

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Birthday party

Benjamin went to his very first birthday party on the weekend for his friend Andrew (Andrew turned 1).