A Cozy New 'Chair/Couch'

Apparently Monster's toy basket makes a very good chair/ couch for Ben. It took him a couple of tries to figure out how to make the most of it - by adding 4 blankets.

Fall Photo Op

Today we did our fall photo op at the Toledo Botanical Gardens. We actually had a short shoot with a professional photographer first and then I took some additional pictures. It turned out to be a perfect day for outside pictures - cloudy, warm and a light breeze. I'm hoping that some of the family pictures the photographer took turn out good. But, I have to wait a few days before I found out!

Little Boo at the Zoo!

Today we went to the zoo for Little Boo! Ben was a Deviled Egg, Cameryn was Strawberry Shortcake and Andrew was Tigger. They were all so cute in their costumes! The zoo had the Fisher Price toys set up again, like they did in the summer. Ben got to ride a Thomas the Tank engine ride on toy and play with a bunch of other things. The kids also got some yummy candy, pretzels and animal crackers. Ben got the animal crackers and most of the pretzels. His sibling got the candy and other half of the pretzels.

The Potty Chair Game

Ben's new favorite thing is 'going potty'. A few of the kids at daycare are potty training right now and Ben is completely fascinated with it. The kids get praise and claps for going potty on the potty chair, and Ben is all about that. I bought a potty chair about a month ago, but it has been more of a toy at this point. Yesterday Ben was sitting in time out and all of the sudden yelled POTTY! So I asked him if he needed to go potty and he said yes and ran to the bathroom where he sat on his potty chair. He has done it a couple of other times today, too. Right now it is just a fun game to sit on the potty, but it's a good step in the right direction to potty training.

Last Gymnastics Class

This Sunday was the last gymnastics class for a while - at least until January. The theme for Sunday's class was Daredevil. Fitting. Ben had a good time climbing the latter and walking the balance beam and in the 'roller coaster' where he barrel rolled down the incline. Note how Ben RUNS away after finishing the balance beam - that pretty much what he does non stop in gymnastics class. Next up - more swimming class in Ben's most favorite thing - water!

Color

One of Ben's favorite words right now is color (the others are water, boat and mine). It's just so funny how he says color

Nature TV Shows

Ben loves to watch nature shows. I've put Planet Earth on a few times for him and he gets all excited and makes animal noises. Nature shows are actually the only thing he pays attention to on TV. Here he is watching Life on Discovery Channel.

Storyland at City Park

We went over to Storyland in City Park in New Orleans this weekend. Storyland has all sorts of little houses and statues, etc from fairy tales and what not. Ben was most interested in the pond (we have a serious obssession with water these days), the firetruck and the little amusement park next to Storyland. Ben was still a few inches too short to ride any rides, but watch out Cedar Point next year! I have a feeling someone is going to be quite the roller coaster rider.

I Think It's Time To Turn On the Heat

Um Daddy, I think it's time to turn on the furnace. No, really we were just trying on all of our winter gear. Ben is going to be toasty warm this winter!

Watching Football With Daddy

Watching the Browns game with Daddy after a high energy gymnastics class. Note the number of blankets on the couch and daddy...

The shock of the Browns winning!