meet Bob McManus

This is Ben's first pet, Bob. We were going to name him Red, since Owen's beta fish is Blue, but Ben chose the name Bob instead. He's a handsome guy and seems happy in Ben's room. Ben says goodnight to him each night and has been a good caretaker.

ben turns 2!

Our beautiful baby Ben has turned 2- probably should try to stop calling him a baby...

Ben woke up on his birthday morning excited to see the cupcakes we had made for him and chose one for his breakfast. Owen had already gone to school and didn't know about the cupcake for breakfast option. Richard and I had one more day of vacation, and loved getting to spend it with Ben on his special day.

Ben hadn't realized that his day would include a trip to the doctors for his checkup. He did the best he could despite some unhappy memories from that office. Ben weighed in at 41 pounds and measured 39 inches. For those of you not intimate with growth charts, that's the average weight of a 4.5 year old and the average height of a 3.5 year old. The good news is that his weight to height ratio is a little better than it was at his 18 month check up, so we are hoping that with lots of growth and a less meat-oriented diet over the next 6-9 months he will be proportional again. Both Ben and Richard were able to refrain from telling the doctor about the cupcake for breakfast.

We tried to give Ben a nap, but he was just too excited and sat in his crib singing "Happy Birthday" to himself for close to two hours.

When Owen got home from school, he helped unwrap Ben's birthday gifts- some great clothes, books and toys from family (animals with hats!) and a football and plastic snake from us. Ben had asked for a snake to take baths with. The Muhly's and the Stokes' joined us for a spaghetti and meatball dinner- though Ben opted out from dinner, playing instead of eating. I am not sure if this is the beginning of him being shy around groups of people or if he just wasn't hungry (maybe dieting after the doctor's trip?). He came around for cupcake time, loved having us sing Happy Birthday, and loved picking out and eating a special cupcake.

We are looking forward to a big year of growth for Ben- just during our holiday vacation he became more verbal, stopped using his bottle, and got his first haircut . He still loves to draw, pretends to count, adores animals and dogs, and wants to be doing whatever Owen is doing at any given moment- especially if it's Legos.

ring in the new year

We had a fun New Years Eve with some of our favorite people: Russa, Christian, Andrew, Nicole, Susie and Laurel. The kids liked the party hats and noise makers. The adults liked the crab cakes Richard made and the fun drinks. We celebrated with the kids on East Coast time, and everyone was pooped by midnight on the West Coast. Andrew and Nicole spent the night with us, and we got to enjoy the first part of 1/1/11 together.

Heres to a healthy and happy 2011, with lots of great adventures and pictures of the kids!