18 month videos

Colors

I love Daddy and Mama...but especially Daddy

Guitar time

March - 17 months old

Here is Benjamin at his "piano lesson". Most days when I'm done teaching (I teach a few hours 6 days a week) he asks for a lesson. I grab my teaching stool, a pencil, he gets a music book and excitedly climbs up. It is mostly just fun, "birdie and monster"-type games. Today, though, he pointed at a note in the music and said "B" and then with a lot of good luck happened to actually play a B on the piano (total chance I'm sure). We started with the note B because he has a friend, Bea, that he enjoys playing with and says/sings her name almost on a daily basis. It's apparently now his favorite note too.

He is so silly!

Benjamin was given this skateboard from a neighbor while on a walk with uncle Michael. It scares me to death but he loves it and must get some sort of thrill from standing. Note the tongue from concentrating.

This pictures seems so peaceful to me. A clean house, books, Benjamin playing independently, the sunlight just right to be cozy...

One Sunday a month I play the organ at church. I used to have to practice with a screaming Benjamin next to me, but he must have gotten used to it because now he just switches the lights to the chapel on and off - which are conveniently right at his level - and sits and reads books. I prefer when he does the latter. It makes practicing a lot easier without the lights going out!

A favorite activity is watering the flowers every morning. Benjamin is so good about not picking them. I didn't even have to tell him not to pick them (or he would). I just showed him to "pet" them, so that's what he's doing in the picture.

Uncle Michael is so cool. Benjamin wants to be Just. Like. Him. much to Lamoni's chagrin. ;-)

Look at those sad faces as Faith and I pulled out of the garage to go to the General Women's Meeting for our church!

We were bringing bread to dinner at my parents' house one Sunday. Benjamin must have been hungry because when we got there we discovered that he had broken the plastic open, taken out a loaf and had eaten the whole end!

He never tires of keys.

Because I never think I have enough pictures of me and him.

Working on our plethora of family pictures:

Hiking in the Sandia mountains

I think this is such a great picture

We (I) were huffing and puffing hiking and all of a sudden an 80 year old man caught up to us (while we were taking pictures - in our defense). He does this hike twice a week to prepare for a marathon! He talked to us nonstop the whole way up - while I could barely breathe, let alone talk! He took this picture for us.