thanksgiving revels

farmer boy

andrew took these pictures one warm day a month ago when we were doing yard work. just now i was looking out at the frosty back yard, knowing it'll be a long time before we can go out and play in the dirt.

moseying through the day

ben gets a charge out of playing with balloons leftover from his party. i found a few left in the drawer and inflated them, and he made a most earnest effort to bite them.




we've had a week of pretty good sleep, thank the lord! and i'm cautiously optimistic the trend may continue...but who knows...




he calls that train "too too," in an approximate imitation of the "chug chug choo choo" noise i make when he rides it.


his new favorite thing is stirring any bowl with any utensil. it started at grandma arlie and grandpa ray's house, when he practiced stirring a little sauce pot with a wooden spoon. and now, if i don't let him stir the contents of his breakfast yogurt cup or bowl of prunes, he feels himself treated most ungenerously. it's really not enough to stir the stuff, he also likes to dip his knuckles in and then draw broad smears of prune on his tray or, alternatively, on my hands and face, if he can get that close before i deflect him. we're changing our clothes a lot these days.

better late...

here are some snapshots of ben's first birthday party. a good time was had by all.

auntie em

with the schroeder tribe gathering to celebrate the upcoming nuptuals of our beloved joycee and her mike, ben has plenty of opportunity to play with members of the family who otherwise live out of town. here he is frolicking with emily. i believe she's teaching him to say "ha cha cha cha," like a miniature marx brother.

faster, stronger, smarter

ben playing with our friend anna













daddy ticking ben's tummy















and looking serious for the camera

greetings from the rockies

here are a few new pictures from our wonderful week in beaver creek. ben's enjoyed the lavish attentions of the whole family, and the whole family has enjoyed his remarkable capacity to entertain.

his latest trick involves making a series of faces in quick succession: first, an excited face, with eyes wide and mouth making an "o," while saying, "oh! oh!". then a dark scowl andrew dubbed "the stink face," and finally a scrunchy-nosed, eye-squinting, teeth-baring grin accompanied by happy snorting (shown under the caption, "ferociously yours"). it's really something to see. if we can get it on film, we will, but it's sort of illusive. spend a little time with him, though, and you'll get the show.

in other ben news, he's made progress toward being able to crawl, and is learning to move from a sitting position to getting down on all fours. the only item exciting enough to motivate him to try is a little red and silver plastic donut-thing that goes on the top of the classic donut-thing stacker. he also loves the running water we see in little streams all over town here, and in some these photos, he's looking at a huge boulder with water gushing around it. we think he looks a lot like grandpa ray in his little cap.

miss you all and see you soon!

ferociously yours

a few new pictures and some excellent news

three cheers for ben!



hip hip hooray!

last night he slept from 8:00 pm to 6:00 am.

this is a first in his life.

it took a good deal of strategery, carefully timed periods of crying and painstaking intervention, but we finally achieved our first REAL full night of sleep. praise the lord.

i DO feed him...

ben is taking his sunday afternoon nap on our bed as i write this, and just a minute ago i went to check on him. i found him with his face buried in a pillow, with an entire corner bunched in his mouth, as you see. i stood there thinking, really?

we are happily settled into our new house and - best of all - the wireless is now up and running. i look forward to resuming more regular posts. thanks for all the disgruntled comments about my lack of updates (emily). i know it means you care.

henry doorly zoo: the next generation

earlier this week, ben and i enjoyed a play date with elena, keyan, and joni at the good old henry doorly. joni and i kept saying how crazy it was to be there, where we often played as kids, with our own little ones. although ben's a bit too little to really get into the exhibits, he did particularly love meeting keyan (lately ben's been frightening other babies away with his enthusiastic roars - he recently reduced little aaron to tears at a graduation party - but keyan was brave enough to grab his foot and smile). and elena is a lovely, sweet little person with an eye for butterflies and the colorful coral in the acquarium exhibit. although the opportunity for grownup conversation was limited, it was really fun, and sort of surreal, to be there together with the next generation of zoo-goers.