Best and Worst of the Weekend

So I was thinking of ways to make sure I write more often. I see other people with daily themes on their blogs. I've seen Music Monday, Super Sexy Tuesday or Thursday (SST), Wordless Wednesday and other things like that. I'll do you all a favor and hold off on the SST until I'm back in shape and Super Sexy again.

Good for those people, but I want to do my own thing, so I thought I'd do something I heard on the Dan Patrick show, Best and Worst of the Weekend. It's not my original idea, but I haven't seen it on any blogs yet, so that's new right? It's not stealing, it's called homage! Did anyone see Cop Out?

After Steve Jobs died, everyone spent the next two weeks talking about how great he was and all the things he's done for the world. While I agree that Steve Jobs was a great man and he had a huge part in shaping all of our lives, I wonder, why do we wait until these people die? Why not honor them in life?

If you're my age, you grew up watching Dan Patrick on Sportscenter. He and Keith Olbermann are responsible for the way sports shows now show highlights in cool, funny ways. It's mostly a good thing, but like with all inventions, there are some downsides (BOO-YAH!)

If you know me well, I know you expect my best to be about food and my worst to be about lack of food or yard work. How boring would that be? So I'll skip the food best/worst unless it really needs to be said. For example, a few weekends ago, we had neighbors over to watch the Jets/Patriots game. We shared 2 pizzas and Allison made Daffodil Dip. Even though the Jets lost, that was probably the best of the weekend.

Anyway, on to Best and Worst of this weekend.

Best: On Saturday we went to Disney World to visit friends who were in town from New York. We're very close to them. She's partly responsible for Allison and I getting together (I'll explain this another time) and their kids call Ben their Florida Cousin.

As soon as we took the Disney World exit, we saw the sign for Disney World and Ben yelled Donald Duck! Then for the next 10 minutes, he laughed, pointed out all the buses and firetrucks and shouted "yaaaaaa, woooooo." All that "woooo"ing woke up Abigail. Now that she was awake, she needed to eat. She let us know in her own special way.

"WWWWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH"

Add the silly songs CD to the mix and I'm convinced we had one of the loudest cars in Disney World.  I was either gonna laugh or cry from the noise. I decided to laugh and take video so I could share it with all of you. This went on for a few minutes until we got to the hotel.

Worst: I'm not sure what the worst was. The Indianapolis Colts had a rough weekend, so the the Miami Dolphins. I guess my worst of the weekend was that I was traveling for work last Thursday and Friday and my iphone4s finally came in. It was sitting on my desk at work waiting for me and I didn't have time to drive to the office to pick it up. That's like opening toys on Christmas, but not being able to play with them. I activated it today and all is well with the world again. 

I'll post my best/worst every Sunday or Monday night. If you're not selected as a best, I apologize in advance. There can only be one best. If you end up being a worst, you need to step up your game! 

Have a good night.

Ben's First Haircut

Every time we go out, someone stops us to tell us how cute Ben is. It's one of those things that you never get tired of hearing. I always feel proud after hearing it. I say to myself "yeah, that's right...I made that!"

Anyway...if you've seen Ben in the past month, you know his hair was out of control. Like his dad, he's a hairy little Italian. (He's 1/4 Italian anyway) I need my hair cut every week and a half, although I let it go 2 to 3 weeks now. I'm married with child, who am I trying to impress?

Ben's hair was in his eyes. He looked like the smallest Bieber fan in the world. It drove Allison and I crazy. So we made an appointment to have his hair cut at the barber shop in the Magic Kingdom in Disney World. Aunt Stephanie and Uncle Steven took cousin Jack there for his first haircut and it was pretty awesome. We decided that day that when we had a kid, we'd be back for the first haircut.

For those of you who don't see Ben often, here are some before pix. Cute, yes, but hair is out of control.

I met Allison and my in-laws at Disney World after work. We had an appointment, but like everywhere else when you have an appointment, we still had to wait. When Ben got in the chair, the lady put about 10 Mickey Mouse stickers on him. They distracted him. I wasn't too happy that they went on his skin. I took video of his first haircut. Mommy and Grammy kept Ben happy and Poppy was in charge of still photography. He got a bunch of good shots. Here are a few of the action shots.

All done! Here's the finished product:

How you doin?

And now we have ice cream to celebrate

What a big day for a little boy...he's exhausted.

Dad vs Parent??

So I'm really good at being a dad, but I'm horrible at being a parent. What am I talking about? Well I'm glad you asked.

Being a dad.
I think being a dad includes taking care of Ben. Feeding him, changing his diaper, playing with him. Basically keeping him alive and safe. Keeping him clean and also making him happy while teaching him things. Direct interaction with Ben. I'm awesome at that.

Being a parent.
I think being a parent is how I interact with other children/parents when I'm with Ben. Basically interactions with others that have an effect on Ben. I'm finding out that I am really really bad at this.

Here are two examples, my defense of my actions and my realization of what I should have done in the situation. If you have any advice, I'm all ears. Seriously. I need to get better at this parenting stuff.

Example 1:
Location: Disney World - Waiting in line for the monorail.
Time: Very late after 11:PM
Ben: Sleeping in his stroller.

A little girl 5-8 years old was fighting with her brother 10-12 years old over a Nintendo DS. The little girl was standing directly next to Ben's stroller. I saw the two kids fighting over the Nintendo DS. They were pulling it back and forth, one of them was going to get that DS.

I played out the scenarios in my head. 1) The little girl will win the DS, but she'll have to pull so hard that she wont be able to control the DS. It will go flying and hit Ben in the head. 2) The little girl will lose the DS. She'll go flying and crash into Ben's stroller. Maybe hitting Ben in the head, definitely waking him up.

I was not OK with either of these scenarios. So I politely tapped the little girl on the shoulder. When I say tapped, I mean I used 2 fingers and gently tapped, like you would pet a baby bunny or stroke a baby human's head. I wasn't hitting a buzzer on Family Feud!! The little girl and her brother stopped fighting over the DS. Disaster averted.

Allison yelled at me. She said "Just say excuse me" My defense 1) They didn't speak English. 2) "Excuse me" would not have worked while the kids were in the middle of a DS battle.

Allison told me that I got a lot of dirty looks. My reply, pardon my French, "Who gives a shit about dirty looks? I'm protecting Ben. They can give me dirty looks all night, but they should be controlling their kids" I said it loud enough for the family to hear, but like I said, I don't think they spoke English. After the fact, after I calmed down, I realized I should not have touched the little girl at all. I should have somehow moved the stroller.

Allison response: "How would you react if someone touched Ben?" I can't tell you how I would really react. That would take my PG-13 blog post and make it R rated. But it wouldn't be pretty.

Example 2:
Location: Beach - 4th of July
Time: Around 8:15PM
Ben: Playing on a blanket on the beach.

We were on the beach waiting for fireworks to start. There were lots of families on the beach lighting off fireworks, but they were 1) small fountains and 2) far away from us.

A family of 5 or 6 people came onto the beach followed by 5 kids 10-13 years old. They all had huge rockets and lighters. The adults kept walking down the beach, but the kids stopped directly even with us (but 10-15 feet back) and started trying to light the rocket.

I was OK with the fountains, but I was not OK with 5 kids, trying to light one rocket 10 feet away from my family. Call me crazy, but it left me feeling very uneasy. I went up to them and very nicely asked if they would move a little further down the beach.

They moved down the beach then one of the adults walked up to the kids and I read his lips. He asked the kids "what did that guy say to you?" They kids said "asked us to move down" The guy made a face like WTF, what's the big deal and looked over at me. I looked right at him and nodded my head as if to say "what's up?" Nothing happened, but I was waiting for that guy to do something stupid. Needless to say, I didn't enjoy the fireworks on the beach and I had to have a few beers to calm down when we got back to the room.

I felt like I was playing Missile Command in real life. I had my head on a swivel looking for stray fireworks and also seeing if the dude in the Adidas sweat suite was gonna start something. It was a rough evening.

Allison said that I probably should have gone over to the adults and asked them to have their kids move down. My defense 1) By the time that happened, the kids would have gotten the rocket lit. 2) He's a douchebag in an Adidas sweat suite, is he really gonna do anything?

Allison's response: How would you react if someone went up to Ben and said something? You would get very defensive wouldn't you? My reply, I can actually share with you this time. I would go up to the guy and say "what's up? you have something to say?" I would be very defensive of Ben.

Then Allison said I need to calm down. That I'm being too protective and it's gonna get me into trouble one day. She's probably right.

She said when I'm out with Ben, I'm not a happy guy. I put on a mean face and if anyone comes close to us, they get the look of death. She also said I do not speak nicely to people when Ben is around, that I'm kind of a dick. (more French, I'm very international today)

Well, I don't know how to change that. My job as a dad is to protect my son. If I have to piss off a few people to do it, no sweat off my back. As long as my boy is safe. I'd rather have a family give me nasty looks then Ben get a DS to the head and I'd rather have a DB stare me down all night then Ben get burned by a stray rocket.

Seriously, if you have gone through this, I'll take tips. I'm a quick study.

Disney Vacation Day 3 - The Big Cheese

Sunday started the way Saturday was supposed to. We woke up early, had breakfast and caught a boat to Disney's Hollywood Studios.

It was Ben's first boat ride. I don't know where he learned it, but he was singing cool boat songs. What's a boat song? You know, Yo ho ho- a pirates life for me. And of course the classic Boats and Hoes. ;)

We didn't wait long for the boat and it took us straight to the park. I know I'm over protective and paranoid, I think it's a good thing, but one day it will get me into trouble.

As soon as we got aboard I started looking for the emergency exit and the life belts. The next thing I looked for was who I needed to fight through to get Ben and Allison to the exit should the boat sink. There were two ways I could go, but YOU, yes you in the Flyers jersey...if it comes down to it, I'm coming right at you.

Anyway, we got to the park safe and sound. We didn't realize that along with Gay Days it was also Star Wars weekend. Coincidence or smart planning? That's a discussion for another blog.

There were storm troopers patrolling the line. They pointed at me and asked for my identification. I played along, but they punked me. As soon as I showed my ID, they said "We don't need to see their identification. These are not the droids we're looking for" It was pretty funny, but I felt like an idiot.
The plan was to go straight to the Playhouse Disney show, but we were early and decided to see if Ben could meet some characters. We went inside the character area and got the schedule. Pluto was going to be out for another 10 minutes, then Mickey Mouse was coming. That's right! The big cheese himself in just 10 minutes!

We got in line to meet Pluto. This could go either way. Either Ben will LOVE the characters or he will scream bloody murder in about 3 seconds. Ben saw Pluto and he immediately though "That dog is much bigger that Molly (our Boston Terrier) Where are his toys? I want to put them in my mouth." He was very interested in Pluto.

We got to Pluto and Ben had a ball. He immediately smiled and laughed and grabbed Pluto's nose. He reached out for Pluto to hold him, but Allison held onto him. I don't think the characters are allowed to hold kids, and even if they could, the probably shouldn't. Ben kept smiling and pointing at Pluto's nose. It was really cute and I got very excited at the whole thing.

Even when we posed for a group picture, you can still see Ben is mesmerized by Pluto.
We said goodbye and got on line to see the big guy. The head mouseketeer. We waited for about 15 minutes and there he was. MICKEY MOUSE. Ben watches Mickey Mouse Clubhouse on Saturday and Sunday mornings. They go way back. And of course you know Allison and I go way back with Mickey too. He came to our wedding remember?
There were about 6 or 7 people before us and then we got to meet Mickey Mouse. Ben looked a little confused, but Mickey knows how to handle that. He did this "jazz hands" wave to Ben and kept moving his fingers closer to Ben's face. Ben responded by trying to bite Mickey's fingers. It was pretty funny. We joked that Ben could smell the cheese on his fingers and was getting hungry. Ben liked Mickey, but he enjoyed Pluto better. I took video of this encounter, so I only have group pix. Once I figure out how to transfer the video online, I'll post Ben trying to snack on Mickey, but in the meantime, here's the group shot.
After this we went to check out the Playhouse Mickey show. It was HOT and we got sweaty and disgusting pretty quickly. Handy Manny and one of the Baby Einstein guys walked by, Ben just look at me like "DAD! DID YOU JUST SEE THAT! THAT WAS HANDY MANNY"
I was a little upset that Special Agent Oso wasn't there, but hopefully they'll add him soon. Don't know who Special Agent Oso is? Check him out, but be warned...the Three Special Steps song is VERY VERY dangerous. Once you hear it, it gets stuck in your head for hours. 2:50 mark.



The show was fun but I think Ben was too young to fully enjoy it. He jumped when there was music, but when bubbles and leaves fell and when everyone was supposed to clap and stomp, he really couldn't do that. In a few years, he'll love it.

There was a Star Wars parade on the way out. The coolest part about it and the coolest part of any parade was Billy Dee Williams. It doesn't get cooler than Billy Dee. R2D2, Chewy, the Ewoks and Darth Vader were there too. What a day and it's only noon. Come back for the next and final post about the Disney Vacation. Day 3 - Return to the Pool.

Disney Vacation Day 2. Saturday, In the park (Not Really)

Saturday was day 2 of our Disney World vacation. The plans were as follows:

1. Wake up early, eat breakfast, go to Disney Hollywood Studios
2. Go to the pool w/ Rene & family
3. Showers, downtown Disney, dinner
   

Line items 2 & 3 were pretty much fine, but line item 1, never had a chance. We slept in. We slept until 10:15. It was incredible. I used to sleep into the afternoon all the time. It was great. I slept my day away, but I stayed up all night. I don't bust your chops for missing the whole night, so don't bust my chops for missing the whole day! (sorry early 20s aggression still working it's way out.) 10:15 was the latest I've slept in years. I could go for that once a month.

We missed our window for Hollywood Studios, so we put on our swim gear, and headed to Picabu for breakfast. It's an overpriced cafeteria style 24 hour restaurant at the Dolphin hotel. The food is really good, just over priced. I had an excellent blueberry cheesecake 2 nights in a row.

After breakfast we headed over to the Beach Club. We got ID'ed and were granted pool access. It was better than awesome. I don't even know what word to use. There was sand like you were on a beach, but you were in a pool. There was sand on the bottom of the pool! What Disney Magic is this?? It was awesome. And if that wasn't enough, they had a pirate ship water slide! This thing really moved too. I bottomed out a few times, I had that much speed.

It was hot, so I decided Ben and I were going to get into the pool while Allison went to get us some drinks. We were splashing around, having fun, playing with sand, then at about the 15 minute mark, Ben started getting really upset. I tried all my tricks to make him smile and nothing worked. I needed reserves...MOM!!!

When Allison got him she immediately started laughing. She knew what the problem was. We never switched Ben from his regular diaper to his swimmy diaper. The diaper was so full that it looked like it was about to burst. No wonder he was so upset, he was getting squeezed like a push-pop. Sorry buddy!

I thought he was good to go. I didn't even think to check if he was wearing a swimmy or not. Well now I know for next time.



He wasn't hurt and it was hilarious. I swear the diaper weighed close to 10 pounds. After that we all splashed around in the pool and on the slide. I walked Ben around on the BoardWalk to get him to sleep, then as it got cloudy, we eventually to just head back to our rooms to get changed for dinner.

As I was about to jump in the shower we got a call from Rene. She needed to get a new supply of sun screen for the girls. I guess the one they had wasn't protecting them properly. So we planned to head out to WalMart. I hate Walmart, but they sell everything and it was off property so prices would be close to normal.

I picked them up and we were on our way. I don't know what it is about the people in Walmart, but clothes never work harder or scream louder anywhere else on Earth as they do in Walmart. There was some scary sights. We also saw a baby as red a tomato. That guy needed to buy sun screen for his kids too. I hope he did.

I dropped Rene off and called Allison I figured why take the bus when we can drive. I already have it out of the parking lot. She thought it would be nice to take the bus. Oh joy of joys! I was a little pissed, I hate waiting around for the bus, but it's no big deal, we're on vacation right?

I parked at the Beach Club and decided to walk back to the Dolphin. It was a hot day and a decent walk, so for safety reasons, and safety reasons alone, I purchased a Mickey Ice Cream Bar. You have to stay cool on those hot hot days! It was awesome. I really shouldn't have had it since I'm not supposed to have chocolate, but it really hit the spot.


We caught the bus and were on our way to meet up with Rene and her family again, this time at Downtown Disney. We got lucky and we were able to get a table for 8 at the Rain Forrest Cafe with no wait. Actually if we would have taken another 2 minutes to get to the restaurant they would have given our table away and the wait would have been 2 hours.

Ben and Rene's older daughter really loved the fish tanks. Ben was watching all the fish and was smiling, jumping and trying to touch the glass. Rene's daughter was in love with this one big silver fish. She named it Sara. I know I took pictures of this, but I can't find them. We'll have to go back and recreate them I guess.

We hit a few stores after dinner and then all hell broke lose. Ben got cranky, Rene's daughter fell asleep standing, it was going downhill quickly. We all headed our separate ways to get the kids to bed. As we were approaching the bus stop, we saw a bus pulling away. I'll give you one guess which hotel it was going to. That's right! The Dolphin. I said some choice words and tried to remain calm. My dinner didn't fill me, so I was hungry and cranky to begin with. This didn't help. I had my mad face on, but another bus came no more than 5 minutes later. Thank God for that. It could have gotten really ugly.

As soon as we got on the bus Ben perked right up and was happy again. We put him to bed and he went right to sleep.

Disney Vacation - The weekend in review (day 1)

Two weekends ago our good friend Rene (who we recently found out from her daughter is family) came down with her family to Disney World. Allison, Ben and I decided that meeting up with them was a great idea, so we booked a Disney World vacation too.

Rene and her family stayed at the Beach Club Villas. We aren't high rollers, so we had to search online for deals at other hotels. ; ) We found a great deal at the Dolphin, which ended up being perfect because the two hotels are walking distance from each other. But I'm getting ahead of myself here. Let's do this in order.

Friday started at Ben's survival swimming class. I talked a lot of trash leading up to the class. I was planning to jump into the pool and drop-kick the teacher like Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka if I didn't like what she was doing to Ben. That wasn't an issue. Ben was a champ. He cried a little bit, but every time she put him into the water, he kicked and spun until he was floating on his back. Good job little man! I was very proud of him. The teacher was really nice and I felt bad for ever wanting to drop kick her in the face.

Now we're off to Disney. Ben slept in the car during the 35 minute drive there. Our room was ready when we arrived, so we brought everything upstairs, unpacked and headed out to the Magic Kingdom, but not before they hit us for 2 tips. First the guys help you unload the car, then they hand you off to someone who brings the cart up to the room. I can already tell this is going to be an expensive weekend.

We took the bus to the Magic Kingdom then upgraded our "Give a day, get a day" passes to seasonal w/weekend passes. If you are looking for us, this fall & winter, check Disney World. If you really need us and we don't answer at the house or our cells, just call the main Disney World number and have us paged. Oh, also, if we don't answer at the house...don't steal our stuff. Thank you.

We called Rene and decided to meet in front of Cinderella's castle for a show. There was a cool dance party going on when we reached the end of Main Street. Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Goofy and maybe even Chip and Dale were dancing in the streets, doing a conga line and just going crazy. At one point the MC started singing "the roof, the roof, the roof is on fire.." He stopped before the next verse, but I was really tempted to be "that guy" that sings the inappropriate lyrics.


We found Rene and her family. It was good to see them. Her little girls got so big and cuter too. Rene got me a "Happy Birthday" pin. It was pretty awesome until I sweat so much that my name wiped off the pin. Here is the pin and it's replacement. Yes, I do realize I'm a big baby. Thanks Rene for getting me those pins.

The show started. It was pretty cool. Ben was confused. He just looked around at everyone. It was cool watching him trying to figure out what was going on. Eventually he started smiling and wiggling, trying to reach out to touch other people and the characters on stage.

After the show the seven of us walked around the park for a bit. When it was time for lunch Rene and her family went back to the room to make sandwiches. We spent over 20 bucks in the park. In hindsight, after getting our credit card bill, sandwiches may have been the better way to go.

Once we finished lunch, Allison took Ben on his first ride, Dumbo. I must have looked like a big dumbo running around with the camera and video camera trying to capture it. He didn't have too much of a reaction, but I think he was just too hot and tired to care.

After cooling off and a nap(for Ben), we hit the carousel. Ben LOVED the carousel. He was all smiles and screeches. After the ride ended, Allison said "I'm not getting off" I made an inappropriate but hilarious "that's what she said" joke and started testing out other horses so I could capture some good action shots on the next go around. I took video and 36 pictures. I say that's just being a dad. I was told that was definitely not regular dad activity. Either way, sorry Charlie. You're stuck with me and my overactive trigger finger.

We hit It's a Small World and Winnie the Pooh next. We were lucky. It poured both times we were on those rides. We stayed dry, but the cold rain really would have helped cool us off. We played around in the Pooh store and ate ice cream until the storm was over. Ben enjoyed both rides.

We met up with Rene and her family again and we used fast pass to go on Splash Mountain. The girls didn't want to get splashed, so I got to go on with Rene's husband and oldest daughter (4 3/4 years old.) She was excited. I can't remember everything she said, but she's a really funny girl. She comes up with some hilarious lines.

I always forget how long Splash Mountain is once you get inside the mountain. It was awesome watching her as we went down. I was partly watching her to see her reaction, but mostly watching her to make sure she was OK. I think of her as my niece. She was born exactly one week before my real niece. I worked and lunched with Rene all through her pregnancy. So I feel really close to them. (There's also a story about Rene trying to convince me to make a move on Allison that I'll tell you another time.) She loved the ride and asked to do it again. Look for us. Don't blink or you'll miss it.

We couldn't ride it again because we had to get a good spot for SpectroMagic and Wishes. We found a spot by about 8:25 for a 9:00 parade. Next time I think we should start looking for a spot by 8:00, it was a mad house. I thought we were going to get into a fight with the 2 crotchety old hags standing in front of us. Nothing went down, but there were lots of dirty looks between her party and our party.

The parade was cool but again, Ben didn't quite get what was going on. He did enjoy it towards the end, but mostly he was just looking around like "what the hecks going on? this isn't my bed. It's nighty-night time guys"

It was fun watching Rene's oldest daughter. She loved it. She said afterward "I waved to Minnie, but she didn't wave back. She signed my book earlier" I said "I'm sure she remembered you, but she had to wave to other kids who's books she didn't get to sign." She replied "yeah, that's right. she had to wave to the other kids. that's probably why." It was really cute. I think her youngest daughter fell asleep.

Another 30 minute wait and it's time for Wishes. We love Wishes. It's our favorite thing at Disney World. If you don't know what Wishes is, it's a fireworks show at the Magic Kingdom and it's worth the price of admission. I was worried that it would be too loud for Ben and he would cry, but he was fine. He actually watched a lot of the fireworks. We killed some time after Wishes ended, then decided to catch the bus back to the hotel. We all had tired kids and we were very disgusting from our day at the sauna, I mean park.

Stay tuned for the breakdown of Saturday and Sunday of our Disney World vacation. I don't think the posts will be a mega post like this, but I really didn't intend for this to be a mega post, so who knows what you'll get.

Santa & Hanukkah

We aren't going out of town for Christmas and nobody is coming from out of town to visit us, so there was no need for me to take any time off Christmas week. Instead I took off today.

Let's start at the beginning. I slept in until 7:00, took Molly out then went back to bed until 8:45. Normally I"m at work by 7:30, so this was a wonderful start to my day. Next we went out to breakfast. A trip to Friendly's. Benjamin's first trip to Friendly's. Hmmmm What should I get?
The breakfast food was good, but I prefer a Big Beef Cheeseburger with a 5 scoop m&m sundae. I think Ben enjoyed his first visit. He passed out about halfway through.
(If you are wondering, NO, Ben did not have coffee or pancakes)

Next stop on our busy day Disney's Marketplace to visit with Santa. (see 31 seconds)


There was about a 30 minute wait. That's not bad for any Disney attraction. Rumor has it that this was the real Santa. Disney spares no expense. They flew him in from the North pole. That's what we told Ben anyway. He was very excited while we waited online.
He finally made it through the line. He sat on Santa's lap and told him what he wanted. I couldn't really hear them, but I imagine it went something like this:




After Santa, we decided to see some of the Christmas decorations in the Disney Hotels. We went to the BoardWalk, Yacht Club and Beach Club. The decorations were made out of chocolate and gingerbread. They all smelled delicious. Disney as always thought of everything and put up a sign.
Lastly, tonight is the first night of Hanukkah. Ben's 1st Hanukkah.
I made Allison a traditional Jewish/Hanukkah dish. I whipped up a pretty mean Chicken Souvlaki. LOL (for those who don't know, chicken souvlaki is not a Jewish dish)
Allison said the prayer and lit the menorah. It's going to be interesting when Ben gets older to celebrate both holidays and explain the differences in the religious beliefs, but for now all we need to worry about is presents. We didn't get Ben a present for each night. We'll probably give him the same gift for the next 7 nights.
He looks pretty excited. What could it be?
It's a phone! What do you guys think is a good nickname for him? Baby Phoneguy or Phonebaby? It's a cool toy and to be honest, I think I had more fun with it than he did. I was pretty proud of him tonight. It's for children 6months+, but he was pressing buttons and having fun.



That's all I have for now. Happy Hanukkah to all who celebrate.