Ben at almost 26 months

I was looking for something else yesterday and came across this word document. I remember wanting to write on the blog but having no internet connection so I typed it up in Word and forgot about it. I wrote it back on June 30, 2008.

Ben at almost 26 months

• His favorite color is orange and he can pick it out anywhere. He knows the words for his other colors but can’t always match them up to the right color.
• He counts things but always skips five and there is always six of whatever he is counting. “One, two, three, four, six!” Clap Clap
• He is still using a “wubie” at nap and night time and his favorite one is an orange one and he calls it his “orange ooie”. He goes to bed with 3 – 5 wubies.
• He is lately also into taking his toy trucks to bed with him. 1st it was a four wheel he got from Avery for his birthday and then it was his John Deere dump truck and backhoe I used to decorate his cake. This weekend he found in the basement the bag of Bob the Builder toys I won for him on Ebay and he is just in love with them and is now taking them to bed.
• He still loves books and often takes them to bed and to Tammy’s with him. His favorite one at the moment is Smash Crash and Bob’s Birthday. He also really like the Little Critter books. I just won a set of 52 of them for him on Ebay. He likes Just for You.
• He is still going to daycare full time and seems to like it.
• His favorite food right now is “hambbaburgers”. He likes to go to Rosie’s and every time we drive by he talks about it. He also loves pasta, animal crackers, apple sauce and fruit.
• He is starting to watch a little bit more TV but only Bob the Builder. He can sing part of the song that starts the show. (I can too and the other day I had it stuck in my head!)
• He can sing some and parts of Ring Around the Rosie, Old McDonald, Isty Bitsy Spider, ABCs and Happy Birthday.
• He loves to swing on his swing set and swings on a regular swing now. He likes to switch back and forth between the two swings.
• He loves his new sand box and loves to blow bubbles.
• He’s not too crazy about having his picture taken or being video taped but he loves to watch himself on the video camera! It’s hard to video tape him because all he wants to do is “watch Ben, watch Ben”
• He loves to be outside. He loves puddles and mud and loves to have his dirty feet washed off with the hose.
• He’s wearing a size 5 diaper and still hasn’t shown much interest in trying the potty. But he is starting to tell me when he wants a diaper change.
• He’s wearing size 2T shirts and 24 months or 2T shorts and a 6-7 size sandals. His sneakers are a size 6 but he hasn’t worn them in about a month so they may be getting small.
• One of his favorite toys is still his “Scootie” and he still likes to ride around wearing his two sets of beads.

All of the pictures on this post I took on June 30, 2008, the same day I wrote this.

Things you don't say to your wife...

Hope it made you smile!

The "ROCKET MAN" Sir Elton John

It was....AWESOME! It was...AMAZING! I'm so glad I got tickets and got to go. I debated on whether to go earlier in the day. I took Ben to a hair cut at 10 in the morning and it was a disaster. Petri bird at Mary's had past away so there was nothing for him to sit and look at like last time. I had to hold his hands and head and he screamed the whole time. So his hair looks better but it's not very even! Anyway, I then drove to Tammy's and about half way there he started to stay "I want to go my house" over and over. I got him out of the truck and he felt warm and then Tammy took his temperature and it was 101.5 (that explained some the haircut fiasco) and he obviously did not want to be there, so we came home. Had some motrin and lunch but he won't go down for a nap. I tried for 3 hours. The motrin brought his temperature down but it didn't really take it away. But he was actually in pretty good spirits, despite a fever and no nap, so I decide to go. Sarah Kaufmann was watching him and she has lots of experience. Unfortunately she had wanted to sleep till we got home and he didn't go to bed or sleep really well. Anyway, it all worked out. Ben was fine, the concert was great. The weather held and it was an absolutely beautiful night. Perfect temperature, no rain (thank goodness). Our seats were OK, thanks in part to being right below one of the giant screens. We were up close in the front but way off to the right side so we couldn't see about a third of the stage. But the screen made up for it and it was just awesome. I had seen Elton when he and Billy Joel toured together. I can't remember who I saw him with but it was in Montreal in the big stadium up there and we were really far away. So it was so great to be so close to such a legend. I have loved his music forever and still do. But now I need to get back to work since I didn't get anything done yesterday. I just wanted to write down a few things while it was fresh in my mind. Go here for the online article about the concert on the Burlington Free Press website. Patty took some pictures with her camera phone but she wasn't sure how to get them to me. We took pictures of ourselves with the big screen and Elton behind us. If she figures it out, I'll be sure to post them on the blog! By the way, Ben is better today. His fever broke sometime after 3am because we both finally got some sleep from 3:30 am to 8:30 am. He still has the running nose and cold that he developed over the weekend but I can deal with that!

Pass gas on the potty and "Nope, I'm good"

It's late and I really should be going to bed because I'm exhausted and Ben did not sleep well last night. He is cutting is two year molars! Yippee! Poor guy! But the funniest and cutest thing happened tonight and I just wanted to write it down before I forgot, which would be by morning I'm sure. After bath tonight, I asked him if he wanted to go to the bathroom on the potty, he was willing to sit on the big potty with the insert in and sit on the little potty. (But he didn't do anything) He loves to have a little square of toilet paper and he pretends to wipe then throws it in the big potty and wants to flush it. So I let him have a piece and when he asked for a second, I said he had to go in the potty first, so he scrunches all up and passes a little gas and then asks for some paper. So give it to him, thinking just a coincidence. Well he does it again! and again! At least four times! By the third time it's getting hard for him to squeeze out some gas, so his face is getting all scrunched up and working hard and I just couldn't help laughing out loud. It was so funny! And I'm sure a complete "you had to be there moment" but it was one I didn't want to forget so I'm typing away at the computer with my tired eyes all blurry just so I can record it and never forget it! Priceless!

On another note, today he started coming out with the phrase "nope, I'm good."

Me "Do you want to use the potty?"
Ben "Nope, I'm good"

Me "Do you want some more dinner?"
Ben "Nope, I'm good"

Me "Do you want to read another story?"
Ben "Nope, I'm good"

Me "Do you want to go to bed?"
Ben "Nope, I'm good."

:) It's the little moments that mean so much!

Hopefully an update of the last few month and weekends coming soon!

Not getting much work done and cruisin' blogs

So I'm in the office but not getting much done (it's been a crazy couple of weeks..mostly self inflicted...more later) I'm cruisin' some of my favorite blogs because I haven't done that in forever. (Mostly because of internet outages over the last week. You don't realize how much you use it and need it until it's gone!) Anyway, I came across Jessica Spraque blog and she did a Photoshop Friday last week about photos editing. So I went up and got the camera and downloaded all of my photos off of it (255 in about a week and a half) and started viewing them and playing with them with the Photoshop Friday Photo Editing Tutorial. ShaZAM! is right. Take a look.

Before (This one is by far my favorite!)
After
Before
After
Before
After
Before
After
Before
After

Pretty Awesome! Anyway, I do have to go get some work done. More on our activities over the last couple of weeks soon!

A must see

If you haven't already heard about this or seen it, you really really must! Will definitely put a smile on your face!


Where the Hell is Matt? (2008) from Matthew Harding on Vimeo.

I found the link on Ali Edwards. I love her blog! Anyway, in case the embed does work. Go here Dancing Matt 2008. More later!

Mini Seeley Family Reunion in NJ

On Thursday April 24th, we rented a mini van from Enterprise in town got packed up and loaded, including Dick, and picked up Ben at daycare at about 12 noon and headed for Oxford, NJ were John's step-mom Trudy lives. Ben did an amazing job riding in the car! I was so amazed and pleased! He only slept in the car about 30 minutes on the way down and we only made one stop at a rest area off the NY Thruway right before heading into NJ. We arrived down in NJ about 6:30 pm, not great time but not too bad either considering we hit some slow spots were traffic was just crawling. John's sister Anna, her husband Jason and their daughter Kate were already there from San Diego, CA. They cooked dinner for us that night and we just hung around talking. Yonik (John's brother) came and picked up Dick after dinner. Dick stayed with Yonik and Margaret in Branchburg, NJ about 30 minutes from Trudy's house. Here are some on my favorite pictures from that 1st night in NJ

Ben and his cousin Kate playing
John pushing Kate and Ben on the "tire" swing (so cool! a horse cut from a single whole tire!)
Pretty Kate in the chair
Me reading stories to Kate and BenThe three of us slept in Theo room. John and I in Theo's very bounce bed and Ben in the pack n' play. Ben didn't do so great sleeping but I think alot of that had to do with being over tired and over stimulated. But it wasn't too bad. I just hated waking everybody else up.

On Saturday the 25th we hung out at Trudy's house and everybody came over. We had a nice party to celebrate Trudy's 60th birthday. Here are some of my favorite pictures from the day.

Ben and Kate drawing together

Grandma Trudy making the puppet dance for Ben & Kate

One of Ben's favorite part of the whole trip was feeding Trudy's ducks. He thought it was the greatest thing ever. Everytime we went inside, he would immediately start saying "Outside", "Outside", over and over until somebody took him back outside. Thankfully the weather was great the whole time we were there and we could spend a lot of time outside!

Trudy's dog's name (the one in the picture) was Chinook (sp?) and by the end of the weekend Ben was saying his name and calling me Chininnook. Chinook loved to chase sticks and balls and whatever so Ben had a great time throwing for him.

Cute picture!

Trudy had this great motorcycle. I can't remember what it was called. I was like an off road one with big fat tires. John got it running and it was a great hit with everybody. 1st row, John's sister Theo, brother Yonik giving nephew Jason a ride and brother-in-law Jason (Anna husband)

Second Row: John and brother Yonik gives Kayla a ride (I love the motion in this photo!)

This is great group photo of the day. I think the only people missing are Anna (inside cooking) and myself (behind the camera). From left to right, Kayla, Margaret's Mom (can't remember her name right at the moment), Margaret (Yonik's wife), Dick, Trudy, Theo, Jason, John and Yonik and Jason on the bike.

Ben and his Uncles Jason & Yonik checking out the ducks


Kayla and Kate helping Grandma Trudy blow out her candles

Woohoo! A picture of me and Ben from the weekend! I got out from behind the camera!

These next two have got to be my all time favorites from the weekend! I think they are so funny and cute! Future biker in the making!

Kayla and Kate riding Obie and Trudy on Obie

Cass and his friend made it up late Friday night so we all sat around and had a snack once they got there.

On Saturday, Kayla had her first Communion. Everybody attended except Jason, Kate, Ben and myself. We stayed at Trudy's to get the kids naps and then joined everybody later at Yonik and Margaret's house (after driving by the turn and getting a little lost!)

While we had everybody together, I set up my tripod and we took some group shots. Then at home I used Photoshop Elements to Photomerge the best of the 3 into one good one. Here it is. Back row: Me, Dick, John & Ben, Cass. Next Row Standing : Yonik & Kayla in front, Trudy, Theo & Jason. Sitting on the bench: Margaret, Kate, Anna and little Jason standing next to Anna

Ben absolutely LOVED his cousin's swingset. He couldn't get enough of going down the slide and climbing the wall with Dad's help.

Kayla and her cake

I so wanted to get a good photo of the three generations while everybody was clean and all dressed up but Ben won't cooperate and this is the best I could get!

Ben and Uncle Yonik playing with his cousin's awesome train table.

Ben and cousin Kayla swinging

Ben also loved his cousin's chocolate brown bunny rabbit. It was so soft to pet!

On Sunday, we all had breakfast together and started packing up for the ride home. We did manage to get a picture of Trudy with all of her grandkids.
We also made sure to feed the ducks one more time before we left.

One last group shot group shot of us loading up the van and everybody standing around. Yonik and Margaret gave us a ton of hand me downs and we had that van packed on the way home. We brought more stuff home than we took down. I was certainly glad we rented the van. (It was also so much better on gas mileage than my truck would have been!)

Last picture, a cute shot of the Dads and their kids!

It was so great to see everybody and get a chance to get away for a weekend. We left about 2 pm on Sunday and Ben slept for about an hour and a half in the car this time. We stopped in Glens Falls and had dinner and he wasn't too excited about getting back in the car but he did great! I was just so impressed with how well he traveled considering it was his first real road trip for such an extended period of time. I'm so glad I was able to capture such great photos of the trip, especially of everybody together. So it's posted a little late and a lot long. But I got it down, that's what's important!