A little music...

Benjamin has discovered Johnny Cash. Johnny joins such favorites as Ray Charles, Adele, Mumford and Sons, Pearl Jam, The Black Keys, and anything that comes out of Jack White's studio. It's so funny to watch his musical sensibility develop.

BenTV 024: Benjamin and the Snow

video courtesy of Uncle Mike and Auntie Bek

His Latest Obsession

chamomile tea and making silly faces

Me and My Girl

photos by Grandma

Quick Report

We just returned from a week at the family cabin in Aspendell, a little village nestled in the aspen trees in the Eastern Sierra Nevada mountains. Photos and video are forthcoming, but here are a few tidbits I learned about my children while we were there.

#1: Kid Sunshine likes the old lady.

Benjamin thinks Phyllis Diller is a hoot. We were watching episodes of The Muppet Show, which vary in their ability to connect with a three-year-old. On our third episode, he encountered Ms. Diller for the first time (well, so did I). It didn't matter that half of what she said surely went right over his head - every time she let loose her signature raspy laugh (at her own jokes, of course), Benjamin about guffawed himself right off the couch.

#2: Bright Eyes has earned her belly.

It's not like this surprised us or anything. Sadie Lou is known for her love of all things edible. It's just that she encountered some new foods on the trip, a few of which she grew positively quivery about eating. On Thanksgiving she EAGERLY consumed...turkey, mashed potatoes (oh, how quickly she could devour the mashed potatoes!), stuffing - with pine nuts, yams, green beans, cardamom rolls, and sweet cranberry sauce.

#3: Kid Sunshine likes chardonnay.

Well, we didn't actually give him chardonnay. But he did get his own stemmed glass filled with Martinelli's, and he DID run around clinking glasses with everyone and proclaiming joyously, "Cheers!" And he did think he was drinking apple chardonnay.

#4:  Being an American Man requires running around the house with no clothes on. 

This one surprised us. Sort of. Actually, not really.

The Scene: Papa, Auntie Bek, Uncle Mike, and I were sitting in the living room downstairs. Benjamin was in his room upstairs, in pajamas (so we thought), experiencing some much needed "calm down" time. Suddenly...

"Mamaaaaaa! I'm all ready!"

"You are ready to come down and calmly put your clothes on?"

"Yesssss!"

"OK, come on down!'

He peered through the railing from the upstairs hallway that overlooks the living room. He was naked. White buns glowing in the morning sunshine. Not a lick of clothing.

"I'm an American Man!" he shouted, and began to prance down the stairs. Now. I knew he was naked, but no one else had noticed this yet. The stairs are behind a half wall, so his bare skin remained hidden. But then...

"See? I'm an American Man!" he said proudly. "I am NAKED!"

We all held back our giggles as I attempted to get him into his clothes. But he was not ready to get dressed, so I said, "Fine...but American Men who want to hang out with everyone downstairs need to wear clothes. You are welcome to go be naked in your bedroom."

So he turned around and marched his spotless bare buns back up to his room - until he decided it might be more fun to play outside. 

The Backstory:  Apparently, Grandma had passed through his room and found him nakedly dancing around. She asked him what he was doing, and he said he was being an African Man. She said something like, "Why don't you be an American Man and put some clothes on?"  As is wont to happen with little people, the message got scrambled and reinterpreted.

Of course, he might have been right on the money, had he included references to Woodstock...

#4:  Bright Eyes met Baby Einstein.

And ohhhhhhh, did she LOVE it!  Of course we brought videos on this trip. One can't be in a small cabin with seven adults and two little people without the occasional numbing DVD experience. So we broke out a video that has not been in effect since the nebulizer days: Baby Einstein's Lullaby Time. Sadie Lou was drawn toward the TV. She stood with her hands on the TV stand -  completely still (this is NOT normal for her) and staring at the screen as marbles rolled down a track or the ocean water caught the sparkling reflection of the sunset or globs of what appeared to be pink hair gel dribbled and bubbled. STILL. This child is a wiggler extraordinaire, and she was mesmerized.

#5: Kid Sunshine knows precisely how to decorate a snow man.

Unlike American Man, the snow man must possess several essential accessories. Benjamin was very clear that the nose HAD to be a carrot, the eyes HAD to be two black rocks, and the arms HAD to be sticks. Sadly, Benjamin became quite perturbed by the end of the snow man experience and refused to pose for a picture with his creation. The next day the sun bore down warmly, melting said snow man enough that his nose slipped out and his eyes became mere sockets.

Perhaps I will think of more bits to share in my Thanksgiving at The Cabin post. For now, enjoy!

Someone's been working out

Those are eight and ten-pound weights.

Deep Dress-Up Box

One of the benefits of having a lot of stuff in one's dress-up box is the complete freedom to change up one's Halloween costume depending on one's mood.

So while Benjamin chose to be a superhero for a pre-Halloween party, and chose to be that same superhero on Halloween night, he decided to don an early explorer outfit for the harvest festival over the weekend.

I asked him if he was Lewis or Clark. He was insistent that he was Clark.

He seemed to know that an early explorer should have a gruff expression on his face.

Don't mess with him. He might shoot your eye out.

Happy Halloween

from Super B and Jazzercize Baby

Sadie's Eight-Month Milestones

(Two weeks late...but better late than never...)

Weight: 19.5 pounds

Sadie can...

* balance while sitting on her knees
* feed herself Cheerios, banana chunks, and other soft, cubed food
* get from one end of the house out the door on the other end in three minutes or less (this includes a short flight of stairs)
* push a 5-pound dumbbell across the floor
* babble with an inflection that makes her sound like she's really talking
* walk with her push-truck walker thing. Walk fast. All the way across the room.



Sadie can almost...

* stand unassisted
* walk

Miss Sadie Lou is getting used to the stroller. It seems that she has the kind of personality that doesn't like new things simply because they are unfamiliar. But once she is exposed to them a few times, she adapts. In fact, it appears that Sadie really enjoys our walks in the stroller. She grabs onto the tray and leans forward sniffing the air with excitement.

She is trying to talk, now. No words, but lots of babbling. She likes to babble most when we are out on a walk, and she is in the baby backpack.

All of a sudden, the vacuum scares her. This is a new fear - and she was completely trembling, poor thing.

She is now wearing size 12 months. Her belly gets in the way.

Sadie is learning to sit sort of still when you read to her. This is yet a challenge, but she is really looking at the pictures now instead of trying wiggle away.


Want to see how far Sadie's come?
Seven-Month Update,      Six-Month Update,      Five-Month Update,       Four-Month Update, Three-Month Update,      Two-Month Update,   and    One-Month Update.

**Note: I am photographing Sadie each month in this chair. Look at past months to see how she's grown!

She does love her doggie