Who's That Little Elkhound?!

Ben is his favorite doggy for Halloween! Grandma B made him his little Elkhound costume. It's pretty darn cute. Check out the awesome tail!

Creepcakes

These are some cupcakes I made for Halloween parties.

Look at All These Tasty Leaves!

Stop Barking, Monster

Listen to Ben after he hear's Monster barking. He is trying to say Monster. Sometimes it comes out better than others, but he definitely associates his 'ra-ra' word with Monster. (By the way, Monster is trying to protect the homestead from the evil lawnmower next door).

Just Having A Good Time Playing

9 Months - And With New Teeth!

At 9 months, Ben is crawling at the speed of light and is starting to let go while standing up. He's working on building more confidence for walking, but he's not quite there yet (thank god...) He has all sorts of new teeth coming in. He has one top tooth with two more on their way and perhaps a few more on the bottom. Daddy is very excited for more teeth in hopes that Ben will start chewing his food better.

Fun Flashcards!

Ben loves these flashcard things. They have Mother Goose rhymes and number on them and areas of fabric for touchy feely. He has them literally sprawled all over the house. He concentrates on them very hard sometimes.

Ooohhh, Fire!

Ben is learning about fire from Daddy. Nothing good can come of this...

The King of Mardi Gras!

We figured since Ben slept through most of Mardi Gras this year, we would revisit it with a trip to Mardi Gras World last weekend in New Orleans. We dressed Ben as a Mardi Gras prince and played with some of the fun props. We saw some of the floats from the parades last year and got a preview of some of the floats for next year.

But, alas, Mardi Gras got the better of Ben again, and he was asleep before we left.

Ben's First Trip to the ER

Well, now that we have our inaugural visit out of the way...Ben made an appearance at the Toledo Peds ER last night. We ended up deciding to go to the ER when Ben woke up around 9:30 last night with a strange cry, a fever and labored breathing. The doctors and nurses at Toledo were very good and we were seen quickly. Ben was a very sad little boy. He had to get a chest x-ray (which was honestly the most tramatic thing for me). Ben wasn't a huge fan of the rectal thermometer (can you blame him?!) But not long after the chest x-ray, he started to get better. The nurse gave him Motrin when we got there, and that was bringing the fever down. Ben was diagnosed with a virus that had caused the fever. And to cope with the fever, Ben was basically panting like a dog which to me, looked like labored, shallow breathing. But, in the end, we left the hospital around midnight with Ben happy and playing and talking again. He and I stayed home today to make sure he was fully recovered, which he appears to be. These pictures were taken after he started to perk up. We thought we should capture the first (of presumed many based on family history) ER visits.

This Picture Just Cracks Me UP

The Official Wolny First Halloween Pumpkin

Today Ben got his very first pumpkin! Grandma Lee came up and painted it just like she painted Daddy's first pumpkin! It was a very impressive recreation. And then we took pictures for a scrapbook page. The first two pictures are of Adam, 28 years ago...and the rest are the legacy

McQueen's Festival

We went over to the McQueen's Apple Festival with Grandma Lee today. Ben was kind of tired (see second picture, which kind of makes me laugh). But we still got some smiles out of him.

Zoom Zoom Zoom

After a brief break to work on language/vocalizing skills, Ben is back onto refining his gross motor skills and cruising all over the place. He is getting very good at walking around the coffee table and loves to push his bus thingy around the living room.