Bennett turned 18 months on January 2nd, 2012. That also happens to be the date of Mark and my 5th (fifth!!!) anniversary. Mark and I didn't take any pictures of our evening out, but it was wonderful. My mom babysat Bennett while we went to Fu Kung to get Chinese food (still the best Chinese food I've ever had). It's always nice to go on a real honest to goodness, date. :) Thanks Mom! I'll save you all the emotional gushy stuff, but rest assured, Mark and I grow closer, happier and more in love with every January 2nd that comes and goes :)
On to the Bennett update, since we know that's why people actually read this blog.
Kaela takes Bennett to a park by our apartment pretty often and he loves playing in the sand with his (or anyone else's for that matter) shovel and bucket. On this day he apparently decided that he only needed sand from the farthest corner of the sandbox and no other sand would do. He would then take that sand and dump it onto a slide. Never mind that the same sand was right below the slide. I guess in Bennett's mind the sand wasn't the same so he had to get the sand from the far corner and bring it over. He is so funny and so determined.
Bennett is pretty much non stop from the time he wakes up at 7am to the time he goes to bed at 7pm. With all of the running around he does he basically crashes for his naps and then is recharged and ready to go again. We always wondered how long it would be before he fell asleep in some weird position or in his food and well, he managed to basically accomplish both feats at the same time. I was at school for this but Kaela took this picture and sent it to me. I cracked up. In class. Oops.
Pretty sure Bennett has a love-hate thing going on with his lion backpack.
Following up on the sans pants theme of the picture above, it is well documented that Bennett loves to play with pots and pans and spatulas and anything he can get his hands on in the kitchen. One day he was loving the sound the lids were making if he hit them with a spatula. He was the only one loving the sound, in case you were wondering. But what made it awesome was that he was doing it in only a diaper and he was holding them like he was ready for battle. I like to think that he is posing as an homage to the Nephites of old.
I don't really think there was anything to this picture other than typical Bennett silliness. He was eating some mac & cheese and peas for lunch and decided to make some faces. Go for it dude.
In closing I'll leave you with a picture of Bennett sleeping. It is a great comfort to a parent knowing that your child sleeps so soundly. Bennett is a great sleeper and often finds some...interesting...ways to sleep. It's a fun game to go in and check on him and see how he decided to go to sleep that night.
On to the Bennett update, since we know that's why people actually read this blog.
I'll take over writing the rest of it.
Our anniversary was great. Great food and a wonderful time, just me and Kaela. I love her more today than ever before.
Bennett is so silly and so sweet. We tell ourselves all the time how lucky we are. A good example of the silly is the picture above and below. I'll let you look and say, "Aww." Now I'll explain. When I was serving my mission in New Jersey I realized that you could buy anything and everything on the streets of Newark. One of the things that I wanted was a "throwback" jersey. For those of you not versed in the finer points of urban attire, the "throwback" jersey is a popular choice of the young and old alike. A throwback simply means that the jersey is that of a player who is no longer playing and typically was quite good at their respective sport. Some easy examples would be a Michael Jordan jersey from when he first joined the Bulls or a Kobe jersey from Lower Marion Heights (his High School in Pennsylvania). Well my companion at the time also wanted a throwback jersey and he purchased a John Elway Broncos jersey and I went with the Deion Sanders jersey from when he played for the Atlanta Falcons. I will one day frame the jersey and put it up in my man cave. Back to the picture. I thought it would be funny to put it on Bennett because it's like a 5XL or something ridiculous (smallest size they had - no joke) and not only did I think it was hilarious Bennett thought it was awesome and started flapping his arms kinda like Dracula. Good times with kids.
Bennett is pretty much non stop from the time he wakes up at 7am to the time he goes to bed at 7pm. With all of the running around he does he basically crashes for his naps and then is recharged and ready to go again. We always wondered how long it would be before he fell asleep in some weird position or in his food and well, he managed to basically accomplish both feats at the same time. I was at school for this but Kaela took this picture and sent it to me. I cracked up. In class. Oops.
My totally awesome brother Dave got us Disneyland passes a few months ago and even got Kaela the parking included pass! So even though I can't always take the time to go down to Orange County (well Anaheim, so I use the designation "Orange County" very loosely) Kaela can take Bennett and go whenever she feels like it. She wanted to go and take pictures of Bennett at Disneyland with it all decorated for Christmas and there were some very cute pictures. Big ups to Kaela for managing to do this without any help. I can't imagine how difficult it would be to try and get some good photos of an 18 month old without someone to keep him entertained or to say, prevent him from just taking off after every cool thing he sees.
Pretty sure Bennett has a love-hate thing going on with his lion backpack.
On the days when I don't have to be on campus for work or school until an absolutely ridiculous time, I really love the time that I get to spend with Bennett, especially when Kaela goes out to run errands and it's some good ol' father-son bonding time. On this particular occasion however, Bennett decided that he really wanted to show me his new trick. See, he has really begun to perfect the art of the toddler tantrum, and on this day he was laying it on real thick. He wanted a snack and I was heating something up for him in the microwave and he's going from "Dad, I'm hungry" to "Dad, I really want a snack NOW!" to "HEY FREAKIN GUY, PUT SOMETHING IN MY GULLET RIGHT THIS SECOND OR YOU'LL PAY!" This was the gem that I was able to capture from that meltdown:
Bennett has also channeled his inner architect as of late and has begun working on some preliminary designs for what I'm certain will one day be a building most majestic. Also, notice the lack of pants. All the great ones designed sans pants.
Following up on the sans pants theme of the picture above, it is well documented that Bennett loves to play with pots and pans and spatulas and anything he can get his hands on in the kitchen. One day he was loving the sound the lids were making if he hit them with a spatula. He was the only one loving the sound, in case you were wondering. But what made it awesome was that he was doing it in only a diaper and he was holding them like he was ready for battle. I like to think that he is posing as an homage to the Nephites of old.
In addition to playing with pots and pans in only a diaper, Bennett also enjoys playing with pots and pans a la nude. Nothing will stand in his way.
Kaela talked about our Thanksgiving photo shoot that our friend Josh Blade did for us and this was one of the cutest pictures that came from it. Bennett loves to be turned upside down, so much in fact that we wonder if he was a vampire at some point. A hypothesis that was furthered when he bit me on the neck a few nights ago. No picture of the bite but believe me, it was not enjoyable.
In closing I'll leave you with a picture of Bennett sleeping. It is a great comfort to a parent knowing that your child sleeps so soundly. Bennett is a great sleeper and often finds some...interesting...ways to sleep. It's a fun game to go in and check on him and see how he decided to go to sleep that night.
Love that sweet silly boy!
Awww I love this one! Great job Mark! It's touching to hear you write about Bennett and Kaela like that. They both are pretty amazing. Well, are all are :)
ReplyDeleteI mean YOU all are
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