We have a lot to be thankful for this Thanksgiving

And this turkey tops the list!

We're leaving early tomorrow morning for the farm in VA. Last Thanksgiving was spent in Wilmington with our little family of three, but this year we'll be cooking and eating a HUGE meal with Joel's uncle Johnny and cousins Dave, Sarah and Logan. We're so thankful that Joel's extended family lives within driving distance, and that they're people we love to visit! I hope you all have a wonderful time with your friends and family. Happy Thanksgiving!

It's November, and Ben is 19 months old!

Joel sure appreciated Ben's help in the yard last weekend.

Especially since we live in this suburban forest/jungle/nature preserve. If anyone would like to come help with our yard, feel free! We'll give you our undying gratitude and Joel will take you out on the boat if you want. That would be a win-win situation for Joel, really.

What?!! That's not enough for you?! Geez...people are so greedy these days. *Side note: For all of you who don't know the saga of our yard, here's the short version. Eccentric old lady moves into house, and immediately spends 20 years tearing out every bit of existing vegetation (including grass) and replacing with ground cover, about 50 azaleas, 4o dogwoods, wildflowers, and HUNDREDS of randomly placed bulbs. And then acquires turkeys, geese, and chickens. Eccentric old lady gets sick and moves away. House goes on the market. Yard turns into overgrown mess full of dirt and weeds. Nobody is crazy enough to buy this house because the yard needs too much work. A young, optimistic, couple full of dreams and lacking money come to look at the house. Fall in love with it, and explain that the husband "loves to garden," and "we just love the bohemian feel." Couple buy the house and immediately start working in the yard. There is no end to this story. We're still working.

What? Like you've never felt the urge to take your pants off and play the harmonica?

Benjamin took a call for Ladybird. I didn't get a picture of it, but he ever so gently lifted up her ear flap so she could hear better.
Ben and Carson , livin' it up at the beach!

Here are some bullet points about Benjamin:

• He loves shoes and will try on every pair in the house. Sometimes I'll look over and just see him casually walking around in my sneakers. Flip flops still elude him though.
• He gets very impatient for mommy to get up in the morning and make him breakfast. He brings me my slippers and then gives me a not-so-gentle shove.
• He is really into imitating us. He tries to put deodorant on, and likes to take my blush brush and sweep it on his cheeks. I've seen him trying to figure out the eyelash curler, and today he picked up my can of mousse, touched the top with his fingers, and rubbed them in his hair. (And yes...I am aware that he is a BOY, but he's also 19 months old and spends most of the day with his mom.) The quickest way to get him to do something (like put on a jacket) is to show him that mommy or daddy have on their jackets. Whenever someone sighs and says "hmmm" he shrugs his shoulders and does the same.
• He loves his stuffed animals, and they have to do whatever he is doing. He likes for me to read EVERYONE a story, and wants Winnie the Pooh to sit next to him while he eats. The other day he tried to change Winnie's diaper, and I've seen him hold his sippy cup to Winnie's mouth.
• His new favorite "joke" is to put toy animals or people in his mouth....like duplos, bath toys, etc...Then you're supposed to say, "oh no! Don't eat me Benjamin! AAAHHHH!!!" He thinks this is hysterical. A variation on this game is for me to make his little plastic chicken or duck walk down the handle of a pot on the stove, have them peek over the edge, and then say, "nooooo!!! Don't put me in the pot!!! AAAAHHHH!!!" I don't think anything could be funnier. Is this disturbing?
• Ben still loves to be outside. His favorite activity is just walking around and looking at nature. He's alway bringing me rocks and leaves.
• He enjoys counting, and will randomly pick multiple objects to count. I DO NOT push him to do this. Five is the maximum. He loves to count our pumpkins on the porch (5) and his toy trucks (4.) Today we counted three chairs in the doctor's office.
• He is such a gentle and kind little boy. We believe that children need to be taught empathy, and we've been working on that with Ben. He's getting to the age where he needs to understand that his actions affect others. It's not easy teaching a toddler that they're not the center of the universe! I don't want him to always feel guilty about things, but just be more aware. Like, if daddy is trying to nap, we should be quiet. Or if we are at the grocery store, he needs to be patient until we leave. I've been explaining to him the meaning of the words whining and patient. It doesn't always work, but I can try! He's learned to sign "please" and that has really helped. Many times I've noticed him start to whine for something, stop and think, and then sign please. Anything that encourages him to think before acting is great!
• New favorite books are: Clifford the Big Red Dog, Mother Goose Nursery Rhymes, and anything Elmo. Favorite toys are his farm animals, duplos, push mower, and harmonica. Favorite foods are greek yogurt, any and all breakfast foods, and anything Italian. Favorite word? Noooooo!

San Francisco!

Before I show ya'll these pictures, I just want to state that my husband and I are BIG dorks. I don't know what our problem is, but we just don't take pictures. Ever. We take our camera places and pledge that THIS time will be different, but then we always forget to actually REMOVE the camera from our bag. That means that during our trip to San Francisco, we took a total of 56 pictures, of which 21 are too blurry or dark. The remaining pictures consist of incredibly uninspiring shots of the Golden Gate bridge and some redwoods at Muir Woods National Park, and dumb pictures of us that we took ourselves. So without further ado, here are pictures of us in various places.

We are ridiculous.

San Francisco was great. It was around 70 degrees and sunny every day, and the people were SOOOOOO nice. It is probably the friendliest city I've ever visited. People said "excuse me" in the subway station! No one seemed to have a sense of urgency about anything, and the energy was definitely different than the east coast.  I guess it must be the whole laid back, west coast thing. We had plans to eat our way across the city, and that's what we did! 

This is what we ate:

a tamale from a street vendor at the Heart of the City Farmer's Market

dim sum at City View

raw oysters at the Hog Island Oyster Company

prosciutto di parma, mozzarella, and bread at the Ferry Plaza Marketplace

pastries from Miette (SOOOOOO good. I'm sad just thinking about it.)

Coffee and belgian waffles from the Blue Bottle Coffee Company. This was absolutely the BEST mocha I have ever had in my life. If you love coffee and ever visit San Francisco, this is the place to go. It's kind of a "scene" with lots of gay men dressed in black sipping espresso, and young trust fund hipsters on their mac books, but the employees are nice and the coffee is worth it.

Indian food from a little place in the Mission district

Cal-Mex from Mijita. This place was awesome. We had fish tacos, a quesadilla, and a salad of jicama, grapefruit, and roasted pumpkin seeds. I know...the salad sounds weird but it was VERY good. And the quesadilla was amazing. Instead of a tortilla with fillings, it was a fresh masa fritter filled with roasted green and red peppers, and lots of cheese. Probably similar to a gordita. That quesadilla was one of my favorite food items from our trip, along with my mocha from Blue Bottle and pastries from Miette.

cheese from the Cowgirl Creamery

Lunch at the Pelican Inn

A BIG Italian dinner Stella Alpina Osteria in Burlingame. This was right before we had to board the redeye back to NC, and I honestly didn't think I was going to make it. I ate so much I was almost doubled over in pain. NOT a good idea before traveling. 

We did a lot of shopping, too. We went to the pirate store, and Paxton Gate, and lots and lots of other places! We saw the Golden Gate bridge and Muir Beach Overlook, and I almost had a heart attack while Joel drove our rental car down the steepest hills of all time. 

We missed Benjamin and talked about him quite a bit, but it was good for us to get away and rediscover who we are without a baby around. In the immortal words of Ferris Bueller, "It is so choice. If you have the means, I highly recommend it."*

*Note: I am not trying to suggest that we have means. That is just a quote that always pops in my mind whenever I get to do something super amazing. 

Life is fun!

October

I think Fall is FINALLY officially here in Wilmington. No more 80 degree days, PLEASE!! Halloween was hot and humid, and I was about ready to pack up and move a little farther north. I know wearing a sundress in October is paradise for some people, but I guess I'm not cut out for paradise:)

We visited the pumpkin patch a couple of weeks ago, and Benjamin was a little overwhelmed. Heck....I was a little overwhelmed. There were pumpkins and squealing kids everywhere you looked. Benjamin was determined to pick up a pumpkin, but he couldn't quite make it happen. Now that they're on our front porch, he's still testing his strength every so often. It'll happen one of these days!

Sorry for the out of focus picture. We took most of our Halloween pics with Mimi and Poppy's camera, but we haven't gotten email copies yet (*hint *hint.) In case you can't tell, Ben was Einstein for Halloween. Even with all the product I put in his hair, it only stayed sticking up for about 10 minutes because of the humidity. Surprisingly, he kept the eyebrows and mustache on for about an hour before finally ripping them off. We stopped by a party earlier in the evening, so by the time we actually started trick or treating he just looked like an exceptionally well dressed young man! His friend Owen started out as a lion cub, but also stripped off his costume and ended the night as a boy in pants and a Linus t-shirt. BABIES! They never cooperate! 

I like to think Benjamin wants to say, "Guttentag! Vat ees happening!" He's very "method" about his Halloween costume.

I will post more pictures and updates later. Joel's parents came to visit and we have tons of pictures from the beach, PLUS Joel and I just got back from San Francisco! Stay tuned....

18 months

It's COLD here! Very rainy and a high of 60 today, which might not seem chilly to some of you, but it counts as winter weather in Wilmington. Time to add a sweatshirt to the pajamas and boots combo.

I feel like I have been going nonstop. Benjamin officially dropped his morning nap a few weeks ago, and that took a little adjusting. That event coincided with some major separation anxiety (Benjamin), and major overtime at work (Joel), so I haven't had as much downtime lately. I'm not complaining, just stating the facts. For some reason, I also felt like this would be a good time to tackle some home projects. In the past month, Joel and I have installed a new closet system in our master closet, upholstered our own headboard, ripped out our half bathroom and installed a new toilet and light fixture, and done some VERY involved furniture rearranging. We were lucky to received some hand me downs from Joel's parents, so some of our old pieces are going on Craigslist, and others are being repurposed. Don't tell Joel, but I have big plans involving furniture and paint. GASP!! What is it with people FREAKING out about painting wood? I mean, the tree has already died, ok? It's not like I'm running outside and polyurethaning a crepe myrtle or something. Anyhoo...Joel was out of town this weekend and I used the opportunity to stay up until midnight repainting our living room. No tape or drop cloths...just me and a super professional cutting in brush from Lowes. I hate to brag, but it's probably the best painting job I've ever done. I was in the zone! Unfortunately, I have to recommend that no one come to visit for another month or so. We're using our guest bedroom as a catchall for all of our displaced furniture. Right now it contains four side tables, two dressers, bookshelves, a desk, two chairs, Ben's old highchair, a bed, a tv, and about nine pictures/mirrors/paintings stacked against the wall. Make me an offer people!

Joel's parents are here and they've rented a house at Wrightsville Beach for all of us, so I'm off to pack our bags! Staying at the beach is awesome, rain or shine! I'll leave you with these photos of Benjamin, who turned 18 months on Monday. Big boy!

At the park, looking pensive for some reason. He might be thinking about taking someone's snack.

The toothbrush is his favorite thing in the world. And not just his toothbrush, either. I recommend you not leave yours out unless you like toddler slobber and multiple drops on the floor.

During a bath, his favorite activity is filling a cup with ice cold water and pouring it all over himself. This is his "I'm freezing!" face.

After dumping potting soil on his head. He could stay outside all day, just playing in the dirt and searching for lizards.

17 Months

I'm a few days late with this one.  While Ben and I were taking Ladybird for her walk this morning, I had one of those moments where reality just takes your breath away. I have a toddler! A walking, breathing, communicating, 17 month old. Everything about his first few days is still so incredibly vivid for me that it's hard to believe it's been well over a year since his arrival. I don't think I'll ever stop being amazed by this miracle tearing around my house:)

He's still climbing everything non-stop, only now he's moved on to bigger and better challenges. The kitchen chairs and couch are soooo 16 months. Don't freak out grandmas, but Ben has figured out that if you stand on the handle of the warming drawer of the oven, you can just peer over the top and reach all the burners. Also, did you know that if you push a chair or stool over to the dresser, you can climb up and reach all the contraband that mama and daddy put up there to keep out of your reach? He hasn't figured out how to climb OUT of his crib yet, thank God, (I'm not ready for non-containment) but scaling the outside is easy peasy. Also, I guess crawling down the steps is for babies, because Ben thinks he can just walk down them like the big boys. After a few falls, he reached a compromise with himself--the first step is no hands, but on the next two or three he'll hold onto the railing. It's working out so far. He's going through a fussy phase. Everything is heartbreaking for a 17 month old. Sitting down, putting on your shoes, diaper changes, naps, not being allowed to play with mama's makeup, put daddy's toothbrush in your mouth, throw things in the toilet, throw all your Duplos down the stairs just to see what happens, etc... If he weren't so darned cute I'd be pretty mad! 

Here are a few pictures from the last week. I got him these rain boots at Wal-Mart, and they were a great purchase. They're perfect for mucking about in the back yard. He loves to help daddy take Ladybird out and get the paper in the mornings.

A walk in the park

On Tuesday we picked up Joel on his lunch break, and went to Greenfield Lake Park. We saw lots of ducks and one BIG goose.

Benjamin thought they all wanted to be friends, and tried to chase them.

Then he and Daddy went for a little walk around the lake....

....where we saw one of THESE.

Ya'll can still come and visit. We won't let the gators get you, I promise!