Mr Benson, In the Kitchen, With Mom's Makeup Compact

 "Um...What?  I don't have anything in my hand.  Oh that, smeared all over the floor.  That's not eye shadow, its...uh...purple dirt.  This!  This thing in my hand?  Well, it's a...a...uh...toy!  Yeah, it's obviously MY toy Mom!  Whats with the 411?!"

"Okay!  I did it!  It was me!  I couldn't help myself.  An open makeup compact on the floor!  What is that? Oh course I had to poke at it and them smear the contents all over the kitchen floor.  What else was I going to do?!  I had no choice.  Look, I'm sorry OK!  I never thought I'd get caught."

Lately

 Benson helps me with the laundry everyday.  He enjoys it a little too much.  Each time I lift him down and close the laundry room door he throws a giant tantrum.  But, I am happy for the help.

 Again with the rocks.  This time he was bringing rocks to his Dad so that Dad could throw them back.  A fun game for a 19 month old.

 Oh that face!  I love this boy so much.  Doesn't he look so grown up.  Oh my goodness.
A couple more words that Benson says lately:
Hi (he says this almost all day long and to anyone new he sees)
Haoo? (interpretation - Hello?  My phone is pretty sensitive so he often calls the people on my speed dial.  I know they here this phrase often.  He actually puts anything at all up to his ear and says Haoo?

Don't wash my blanket Mom!  I did eventually get the blanket in the wash, he was not happy about it.

I Heart the Park

 It was uncommonly warm here the last couple weeks.  Benson and I have gone to the park any day it seemed like we wouldn't freeze.  This happened to be very often.

 The problem is trying to get Benson to sit still long enough to take a pic of his face.  So...this never really happened so I have many pics of his backside.

 Notice he only has a long sleeve shirt on!  Crazy huh.  This day at the park nearly got up to 70 degrees.  Loved it!

 This is the park by our house its close and there are very seldom many kids there.  This gives Benson dibs on all the toys.

 Of course, he loves the slide.

 Another pic of his back.  Slow down buddy!

 All smiles at the bottom of the slide.

 

The only thing I don't especially love about this park is the wood chips.  Benson likes them though.  He gathered quite the collection here.

Oh...so close to getting his face.

A Slide and His Boy

 We have some pretty amazingly generous friends, Mike and Summer you know who you are, who showed up at our house the other night with the slide in tow.  We had dinner at their beautiful new home and Benson surely enjoyed this slide while we were there.  They are letting Benson borrow it for a while.  Man, is he grateful!

 He was a bit nervous about going down by himself at first, but eventually he did it. 

 He quickly found out how fun it was to have his animals go down the slide and then he could fall into them.

 His Blue Bear was, of course his favorite, was also his number 1 pick to go down the slide with him.  He tried to climb up the slide a thousand times.  Blue Bear makes it tricky to get a hold of the side.

 He almost made it completely to the top climbing up the slide itself!  Very proud moment for him.

 You go first Blue Bear.

 Pretty sure this time he's gonna make it to the top!

 Weee....Squash!

Thank you Thank you for the slide!

Bensonisms

Benson is such a joy in our lives.  He is constantly challenging us, melting our hearts, and making us laugh.  Here are some things he has done lately that I want to remember.

One of his favorite things lately is to hand anything he finds interesting to Mom or Dad.  He especially loves to take ornaments off the tree and give them to me.  I end up with a pile of ornaments next to me at the end of each day.  This makes for a very, um.....how to put this nicely, BUSY trip to the grocery store.  As you can imagine, Benson thinks everything on the shelves is interesting and he wants to hand everything to Mom or Dad.  He refuses to ride in the cart most of the time, so he is either pushing the cart or trying to run away.  It is difficult.  He did amuse us the other day though.  We were in the pharmacy department and Benson was picking each box and bottle of pills of the shelves and handing them over.  Bryce and I were deciding what type of children's pain reliever to buy, for a boy with hurting teeth, and we turn around to find Benson is gone.  We turn the corner to the next isle and he is standing, with and hand full and outstretched , next to an older man and wanting the man to take whatever medicine he had in his hand.  He was being very patient and standing there waiting for his hand to be once again empty, but the man wasn't paying any attention.   To Mom and Dad this was funny.  Hilarious really.  The picture of Benson holding out his full hand to a man who crouched and looking intently for heartburn medicine.

I am a very bad at waking up in the morning.  I have never been a morning person.  So, when Benson wakes up early in the morning I simply grab him and he lays in bed with with us until we finally can't take him crawling all over our heads.  For a few minutes he is so calm and lays there in between his Mom and Dad.  I love to lean over and kiss my baby on his cheek, and sniff that lovely Benson smell, while he shares my pillow.  These precious few moments in the morning are special for Bryce too.  He has a busy schedule and he gets a chance to see Benson before he goes to work.

  Benson doesn't say many words.  But the words he says are adorable:

*When he wants to go outside, he grabs my finger, pulls me toward the door and says "go go!"

*Over the holidays we visited family and Benson fell in love with my sister Holly's dog Cocoa Bean and my parents dog Bo.  He affectionately calls them "Puppa."

*Benson loves his socks and shoes.  When I tell him we need to put his shoes on, he grabs them and says "Shss Shss."

Of course, Benson now knows how to tell his Mom N-O.  Except he says "Na Na Na."

Benson LOVES his Dad.  Yes, I am with him all day so he does address me as "Mama." But most of the time I am "Dadda."