Canada Trip May '10

Well Benjamin and I had our semi-annual trip to Canada and it was once again quite busy!!! The highlight of this trip was meeting Benjamin's new cousin - Zane Buhler! He was just 1 month old and Benjamin absolutely adored him. He would sing him songs when he cried and was quite eager to help with bath time or give Zane lots of kisses and hugs. He didn't even mind at all when I carried Zane for 2hrs while he slept :)
Benjamin also loved playtime with his other cousins and I REALLY loved that playtime as he was old enough to no longer require much supervision from me. I sat and read and they exhausted him.
Grandma with all her grandkids.
Nana and Grandpa also stopped in for a quick visit with Benjamin. The 2nd picture Benjamin took of them all by himself!
And this time while I was away at work, Benjamin was also 'working' doing tons of crafts with Grandma. His favorite was definitely his kite he made at 1 of the playgroups she took him to.

Sports class

Benjamin took a couple sports classes through the city for a couple months at the end of winter. He played basketball, baseball, football, soccer - and just loved it! In this picture his friend Jonathan is beside him as they took 1 of the classes together.

God is so Good

So once again I got quite behind in updating the blog. I'm blaming it on the new camera that created video files I couldn't convert. This video is from back in January. This is 1 of Ben's favorite songs and yes you can sing it to any type of music :)

Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing

Zoo

Another one of our activities during Christmas week was to go to the Zoo with friends of ours. Benjamin and Nathan had a wonderful time running all over and they really did see more animals than just the goats shown below!

Sledding

Christmas isn't complete without snow so we took Benjamin 2 hours up North into the mountains to go tobogganing. We played in the snow for an hour and he still didn't want to leave but Daddy & Mommy were exhausted from carrying our bundled up boy everywhere (he was too bundled to be able to walk!!). We had found the perfect little hill that he could go down sitting by himself on the sled - but still after 20 times of carrying him up it we needed a break!

Christmas Afternoon & Evening

It was a good thing Christmas morning was quiet and relaxing as we had a very full rest of the day! Friends of ours came over around noon with their 2 girls and we enjoyed an activity packed day. The kids played with the toys and playdough while we finished preparing the meal, then it was naptime for the kiddies while the adults enjoyed our feast and then a partial game of settlers in quiet. Once the kids were up it we did our best to tire them out with a trip around the block on their scooters (Ben's scooter matched theirs perfectly!), bouncing in the bounce house I had borrowed from another friend, playing the girls new Hungry Hippo game, out for a walk to see Christmas lights and then we ended the kids night all cozy on the couch in their PJs as they watched a short video before bed. At that time the adults returned to our night of board games and more eating!

Christmas Morning

So for Christmas morning Benjamin received Jung fu panda underwear in his stocking. Once they were unwrapped they were immediately put on and as you can see from our photos below - his pants were never put back on again! He then had to run to the bathroom and climb up on the counter so he could admire himself in the mirror :)

We had a wonderful Christmas morning watching him get excited about each gift and stopping to play with each item he opened. He also loved to give gifts (including trying to give his own gifts away...) so we enjoyed that as we know next year it probably won't happen again :)

Trevor Dayley Photos

These are the 1st professional photos we have had done since Benjamin was around 6 months old and we were thrilled with the results. It was pretty hard to narrow it down to just a 'few' to put on the blog.

Halloween

Benjamin had an amazing time on Halloween. Sam took him trick or treating to about 5 of our neighbors and then he spent the rest of the evening hanging out with us and giving out candy. Haloween in AZ is MUCH nicer (warmer!!) than in Canada and most people on our street were camped out on their driveways to hand out the candy (1 neighbor had a movie playing on their garage door). So we joined 1 of our neighbors on their driveway and we spent most of the evening laughing at Benjamin. He made sure every child got at least 1 candy in their bag. If a child went to bypass the house (usually because he/she had already been here) Benjamin would chase him/her down the street to give them the 'honey' (what he was calling candy). No child was missed at our house :)

Canada Oct 2009

Sam, Benjamin and I were able to be back in Canada for Thanksgiving and the wonderful fall (well wonderful for those days where it wasn't freezing!!). Sam and Ben spent 1 week in Kanta with Sam's family (while I was at work). Below Benjamin is hanging out with his Uncle Chris.
Ben spent the 2nd week in London with my family (again while I was at work).
Then the day before we flew out, Benjamin & I stopped in Waterloo for a short playdate with my friends girls. And I did not dress him - it was his choice!!!

Carlsbad California

Sam and I decided to head to California for a weekend so we could take Ben to the ocean and beach to play. We left right after breakfast on Friday morning and drove back Sunday. It was a 6.5 hr trip each way but Benjamin did amazing. He and I sat in the back and colored, read books, created tinfoil shapes, played with magnets....I had a very large 'activity' bag packed :) And for a boy that LOVES to run, he didn't even fuss at us only taking 2 five min breaks on the way up. Although he definitely spent all that pent up energy at the beach once we got there Friday and all day Saturday. We are definitely going to have to do this again!

Baking

I found a recipe for eggless apple muffins and thought I would try it out with Benjamin. He liked the muffins, but I think making them with me was more of a hit. I had to keep telling him that you don't get to lick the spoon and bowl until we were all done.

Yearly Allergy Test

It was time for Benjamin’s annual allergy test last week. I was sure this was going to be the year he would finally outgrow his egg allergy and we could introduce him to the wonderful world of baked goods and restaurants for dinner. I am finding this egg allergy a lot harder to deal with and more restrictive than the nut allergy although I definitely miss having peanut butter on apples to snack on in the house :) Well within 2 min of his test, Benjamin had welts popping up all over his back. It was a very interesting 15 min trying to keep him from scratching his back and watching a red rash creep up his chest and onto his cheeks. I should have taken a picture but at the time we were busy doing jumping jacks, races around the tiny room, tickling contests – anything to prevent him from scratching.

What we discovered at this year’s test is he is still extremely allergic to egg whites and now egg yolk as well (last year the egg yolk was just mild). His peanut and brazil nut severe allergy has expanded to include ALL nuts. And then ragweed and grasses showed up as well, along with cats and dogs. The bright side of this appointment though was we have a new breathing treatment for his asthma. This winter we get to do his daily breathing treatments with an inhaler attached to a tube & face mask – and it takes less than 1 min!!!!! I will not be missing the 10-15 min breathing machine fights this year or having to pack that thing in my carry on whenever we travel.

And this next picture has nothing to do with allergy tests:) I figured I just couldn’t have a post without a picture so here he is enjoying the splash park at the Phoenix Zoo.

Boys and Lipstick

We now try to keep our bathroom door locked at all times.