Happy 2nd Birthday Benjamin!!!

Benjamin was born 9/15/09 at 4:33:AM. He was 7lbs 7oz & 20 1/4 inches long. Now he's about 29/30 lbs and 36 inches tall. He's walking & talking and is cuter and happier than I could ever have imagined. Here is the link to the recap of year one.  And without further ado, year 2: 


October 2010 - 13 Months - Ben was Woody (Toy Story) for Halloween and we went pumpkin picking.

November 2010 - 14 Months - We took a trip to NY. Ben met a shark, attended his first Christening and took lots of trips to Disney World.

December 2010 - 15 Months - Ben enjoyed Christmas and Chanukah.

January 2011 - 16 Months - HAPPY NEW YEAR & Playoff time! J-E-T-S JETS JETS JETS

February 2011 - 17 Months - FORE!!!

March 2011 - 18 Months - Touchdown! Football season is over...I SAID TOUCHDOWN

April 2011 - 19 Months - Finger painting and feeling sick. :( 

May 2011 - 20 Months - Watching the Royal Wedding with mommy.

June 2011 - 21 Months - Daddy's birthday 

July 2011 - 22 Months - Happy 4th of July. Vacation in Ft. Lauderdale.

August 2011 - 23 Months - Let's Roll. Riding my bike is serious business.

September 2011 - 2 years! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!

Ben Speaks

Since I haven't posted in a while, those of you that don't see Ben too often have really fallen behind in your Ben coverage. The last you saw of him, he was laughing like a hyena and running to the door screaming when Mommy got home from work. So this post will serve as a Ben to English dictionary.

His vocabulary has grown a lot recently. Some words are clear as day, some not quite as clear, but you can figure it out. Then there is a last group I'll call The NFC (No Effing Clue) Group.There are a bunch of words in this group, such as "Do-doo-waaa, seeeet, babablabadababadada" There are full sentences in this group too.

Anyway, here is a breakdown of some of his best words. (in random order)
Dada! (Random order after this one that is! HA HA HA Dada #1  Dada rules!!!)
Mama
Baa-ba - Poppy (Allison's Dad)
Gwee-Weee - Grammy (Allison's Mom)
Choo-Choo - Choo-Choo trains
Pease - Please
Don-woo - Thank You
Hi
NO
Yeah
COOKIE
Mealk - Milk
Jews - Juice
Cheese
Hot
Pool
Shoes
Ball
MOOOOOO - What a cow says.
Woof woof - What a dog says.
HSSSSSSSSSS - What a snake says
Meow - What a cat says
ROOOAR - What a lion says
Melmo - Elmo
Doooouwg - Dog
Cat
Nigh Nite - Night night
Yellow
Geen - Green
Reed - Red
Whie - White
Bwack - Black
Dawone - That one
Theeeseone - This one
plane
heli-babter - helicopter
Tiger
Wow
Woody
Buzz Lightyear

Wow, that's a lot of words and he knows a lot more than that, I just can't list them all here.

He's also been learning sign language. Here are a few of the signs he knows.

This last one is more of a body language signal. The red face is a dead give away. The definition is below, but it also means RUN!!! RUN and let someone else do it.

Happy Labor Day

WOW! Who knew? It's been a while since I posted anything. No big deal, nobody reads this anyway right? WRONG!

In the past few weeks, I've had friends, co-workers and neighbors ask me about the blog. So I guess it's time to bring it back. When I started the blog in April 2009, I was like Macaulay Culkin in Uncle Buck. I had tons of questions and thoughts. I just needed a place to get them out of my head.

I didn't know anybody would read it. I didn't realize it would inspire people who were thinking about children, but needed that extra push. I didn't know other parent bloggers would read it and share war stories. I didn't even know I was a dad blogger, but I guess I am (don't worry, I don't plan on doing any stupid product reviews.) 

I figured I have a new baby girl on the way, so I should do something new on the blog. Without being annoying, I'll post about Allison & I, Ben and Abigail. It'll be mostly about the kids. So here we go. Time for some new posts.

Let's start with a Labor Day weekend post. It started out pretty rough, but got better as it went along. I hope tomorrow will be the best day, but seeing as the agenda includes food shopping and house cleaning, it doesn't look promising.

Ben woke up with a temperature on Friday. Allison took care of him and he did well until nap time. After nap time he woke up with a worse temp and a stuffy nose. He cried until he puked, but good news, Allison caught it all, well most of it in a tissue box. LOL

I stopped off to get cold medicine and ice pops, then rushed home to tag in for Allison. I got Ben to stop crying and chill for a bit, but then something strange happened with is face. It looked like his tongue swelled and he couldn't close his mouth.

We called the doctor and got the answering service. The doctor closed early for the holiday and they are closed all weekend. You know, because nobody gets sick over a holiday weekend. Why would anyone want to actually see the doctor? (that's a topic for another post) They said if you don't get a callback in 25 minutes to call again.

25 minutes? GTF out of here. If I don't get a callback in 25 minutes I'm getting a new doctor. I changed from my work clothes into shorts and 2 minutes later I was ready to go to the Urgent Care Center. I said "let's go."
Allison said "you don't want to wait for the callback, do you?"
I responded "absolutely not. I'm a little upset we're not out the door right now"

We hit the road, but I couldn't help but play fight scene from Independence Day in my head "...this isn't happening fast enough, get them outta there..." We were pulling into the parking lot of the urgent care center when the nurse called us and said Ben should be seen immediately.

He had swollen glands and a red throat. It wasn't strep. They said it was probably just a virus. Luckily, or unluckily depending on how you look at it, we already met our deductible, so $27 was all it cost. I wonder if my insurance would cover a haircut. Normally I just buzz my head myself, but for $1.20, if insurance covers it, I'll take that. I work for an insurance company, 'll see what I can do.

Saturday Ben was feeling a little better. I took my car to Honda for a $25 oil change. I left with the oil change, a new battery, new front brakes and a new AC fan motor. This is why I usually lease. No maintenance just gas. I hit 50,000 miles this week. 50K, I can't complain too much. The car has been very good to me. We went to Target, it smelled funny in the store. Like a fire or something. We shopped then left, the store was surrounded by cop cars, ambulances and 3 fire trucks and a bunch of firemen in full gear. Target, where we care about our customers. Thanks for looking out for me and my family Target. There's a fire in the store, no need to evacuate.Take your time...buy some goods. 
I went to the UCF game Saturday night. They won 62-0. It was a video game score. Very ugly game, but fun and great weather.

Today was a cloudy day. We played in the backyard in a kiddie pool and blew some bubbles, then we went to a BBQ/Pool party. I made my homemade mac-n-cheese. No leftovers. It must have been good. Allison made her special double stuffed chocolate chip cookies. Ben spent all but 15-20 minutes in the pool.He fell in love with a Lego boat & Lego cars.

The cutest thing Ben did today, he dipped potato chips into onion dip and feed them to Allison and I. I don't like a big dip. Dip is not the meal. The chip is the meal. Dip is an accessory. I'm a light dipper. I had about 3 years of dip today in about 5 chips. Thanks Ben.

Abigail -
It appears that Abigail has turned and is head down, facing the exit. She's kicking and moving around a lot in there. More than Ben did, but I gotta tell you, I didn't feel a thing either time. ;) 

Have a good Labor Day...back to work on Tuesday.

Daddy, This is MY BLOG!!

I hope this isn't a sign of things to come. I think Ben got a little jealous of my post about Baby Girl C yesterday. Tonight at bath time there was an incident. An attention grabbing incident...which was probably my fault. It was like Ben said "Daddy, you know that song that you play in the car, that you're not supposed to play, but you play it anyway, then you turn to me and say, Don't say those words Ben, well, this is my blog! It's All About the Benjamins Daddy!"  It sounds like something he would say. That or, "My question to you sir, is this my blog or not?" Yes, I'm watching too much Casey Anthony Trial.

*not for little ears*

Ok, so here's the story. I picked up Ben from the babysitter, then headed off to BJ's to pick up a rotisserie chicken for dinner. They didn't have any ready, so I had to walk around the store for 20 minutes.  We stopped by the toy section, the electronics section then the bakery. They gave Ben a frosted sugar cookie. He loved it. He ate the whole thing.

We got home, he was giggling and silly. He had no interest in dinner. We played a bit, then it was bath time. He splashed around, played with his toys, then practiced his swimming. Flipping from his belly to his back, just like they teach him in class (good boy)

While laying on his back, he started making some bubbles. He announced them "bubbles!" Then suddenly he stood up with a panicked look on his face. I reached out to grab him and sit him down. (there's no standing in the bath tub) When I did, he grabbed my arm with both hands and started to grab onto me with his legs too.

I said "Whoa buddy? What's the matter?" He looked at the water, pointed and said "uh-oh" I looked and there was a little poop nugget. "No biggie. I'll fix that for you kid." As I swung him a few inches to the left I saw them. An East River Brown Trout and his friend the Bronze Dolphin. (there's nothing funnier than poop jokes/stories. See past post: Poop, Poop, Poop.)

I scooped him up out of the tub and yelled out to Allison "I need help" she came in, yelled GROSS and started cracking up. We moved him into our shower to finish getting him clean. I jumped in still wearing my shorts, shirt and glasses. Ben took the shower head and tried to spray the dog. He started to giggle. Molly tried to bite the water through the glass door. Ben started belly laughing. This was the hardest I've ever heard him laugh. I was in tears laughing at his laugh. It was awesome. After a few minutes he let me finish his bath and after THREE stories, we put him to bed.

What did I learn today? Next time they someone gives Ben a frosted sugar cookie, only let him eat half.

Shopping for Baby Girl Clothes

Allison and I were shopping and we decided to take a look at newborn girl clothes. I kept picking out fancy dresses, like the ones a little girl would wear on Christmas Day. Allison told me she can't wear clothes like that everyday. She can't play in clothes like that. I argued that she could. What's the big deal, she can play in a dressl??

Allison picked out a jumper/onesie thing. I hated it. I thought it was ugly and that's what I told her. She said it's not ugly, it's so cute. I wanted to keep her in good spirits, so I said "Well maybe once I see it on her."

Without hesitation, she held it up to her belly and said "Well, what do you think?"
LOL That was a good one. I love pregnancy humor.

This is Why I Never Blog Anymore

When Allison was pregnant the first time, I had all the time in the world to write blog posts. (Take some time to read the old posts. They are pretty good, if I do say so myself.)

Since Ben was born, my posts have been few and far between, but my life has never been better.

Here is a clip of how I spend most of my time now. After watching it, can you really blame me?

Yeah, Yeah, Yeah

Allison is doing well. She's 17 weeks today. The baby is forming bones, it weighs about 5-6 oz and is about 5-6 inches long from head to bottom. We have another sonogram in 2 weeks. Hopefully we'll find out the sex of the baby.

Ok onto Ben. Ben is doing great. His vocabulary is rapidly expanding. It seems like every other day he says something new. Today he repeated Donald Duck after I said it. I tried to get him to say Goofy, Mickey Mouse and Pluto too. He repeated them, but it didn't really sound like anything. However, he nailed Donald Duck. I guess no more Lil Wayne in the car. I don't want him to pick up any bad words. He's a good boy though. Just look what he does when I say "earmuffs"

Ben got a balloon last weekend when we went big boy furniture shopping. It's still hovering, so I tied it to his Mickey Mouse toy so he could play with it. I took it off of Mickey and it floated to the ceiling. I picked Ben up, lifted him over my head and he grabbed the string. He was so excited. He ran around the kitchen a few times with it, then mommy got home from work and he let it go.


It floated up to the ceiling again and I asked him "Ben, do you want to get your balloon?" He looked at the balloon, looked and me and said "yeah." Yeah buddy! Good job.

He also knows how old he is. Grammy taught him to raise his pointer finger when you ask him "How old are you?"