We're Having a Baby!

Benjamin unwrapped this picture at his birthday party and that's how we told our family. I'm not very good about telling people because it's so random - "oh, by the way, we're having a baby." Benjamin is really good at telling people, though. He is super excited and totally gets it. We were at his 2 year old check up chatting with our nurse practitioner whom we love and Benjamin patted my belly and clearly said "There's a baby in Mama's belly." So when I catch on to him about to tell my students or others I quickly bring it up so he doesn't beat me to it!

Michigan and Ohio

We had Free Enterprise Celebration in Toledo at the beginning of October. We figured since it was a week before Benjamin's second birthday we would take him with us since it was our last chance to have him fly free. We were unable to find a sitter in Toledo, however, so we ended up flying Grace out (her first flight!!) last minute, so that defeated the whole purpose of the free ride. Oh well. It was still fun. :-)

I will spare you the details of the nightmare of almost missing our flight (despite getting off at the airport exit 2 hours early), but it's a good story if you want to hear it. You really can't beat it.

Look how awake he is at 4 a.m.!!

Asleep at the hotel. I thought the mini-crib was adorable.

We got to meet some cousins on my mom's side in Ann Arbor, Michigan. One of the little boys is exactly Benjamin's age. Look at that fun play room!!

 Lamoni got to reunite with his sister, Kalli, who he hasn't seen in a long time and I got to meet her. We stayed with her in Detroit our first night (we got in at 7 a.m., so I guess you can hardly call that a night!).

Benjamin had fun playing with her son, Kaiden. 

We were happy to bump into some friends and mentors, Frank and Joan Mazzeo, at the conference.

September

Looking at my pictures it looks like we did 2 main things in September: Go to the fair and go to Utah for my sister-in-law's wedding.

Trying my hand out at 2 kids. Benjamin has to do anything I do with Katheryn. 

Isn't this picture just the sweetest??

Mama/son selfies

Lamoni's sister, Courtney, at her wedding in SLC.

I'm bummed the lighting didn't turn out very good on the family picture, but the one of me and Benjamin is at least nice.

While we were up there we went to Faith and Jason's hotel to swim. You can see how pleased he and Jared were with that. He mostly enjoyed the hot tub - getting in and out "myself!"

 Church in SLC. On the left with great-grandparents (Grandma and Grandpa Bear) and on the right coveting the lolly pop cousin Christopher got in class. He was nice enough to give Benjamin a few licks. ;-)

After church on Sunday we stopped by temple square so Benjamin could check it out. He was actually scared of the Christus statue! He loved seeing the "big temple!"

We also took a tour of the roof of the conference center roof and met a couple from Germany there who were visiting a few weeks and I got to speak German! They said SLC was their favorite of all the places they've been in the U.S.

On our way home we stopped to see the other set of great-grandparents. Here is Benjamin showing us his smile and kissing Grandma Mary's cheek. 

The Fair:

He was very hesitant about being near the animals but loved to see them from a distance. We forced him into touching and pretending like he liked it (yes, we are those parents).

Checking out the wolves and getting excited about different things he saw.

I think the tractors were by far his favorite part of the fair.

Oh, and the trains.

Grandma Kara gave him these little bears for counting and sorting. He loves them but they are so messy so they only come down when I remember to bring them down...

We had to document this. His first McDonald's. We left right after his nap for a long afternoon of errands and realized he hadn't eaten lunch. There was a McDonald's right there, so we figured (or hoped) that one time wouldn't kill him! ;-)

Silliness.

Our grocery store had a re-grand opening so we had to try out the 10 cent ice cream cones - another first for Benjamin.

He still loves reading books all the time.

His new-found love of climbing.

This is hilarious - the light saber is his cello and the car remote is the bow. He plays his cello and sings songs then takes a bow. He will also tell you all the parts of his bow and cello (on the light saber and remote..."this is the tip, this is the frog eye, this is the hair 'don't touch it!") I was going to get him a cello for his 2nd birthday but our instrument shop here doesn't have them in his size to rent, so I'd have to buy online and I want to get some cellist opinions before I do that.

At a friend's wedding reception. He obviously missed his nap.

Grandma Kara gave him stickers - he used them up in about 24 hours all over his body.