ONE YEAR OLD!

October 17th, Ben turned one Year old! How time flies. It's the most bittersweet thing in the world.

The difference one year makes. 365 days...and this is how much he's changed!

At 1 year, Ben's stats are: 50% for weight, 90% for height. 21 lbs, 10 oz and 31.5 inches tall. His pediatrician said his speech and pronunciation is "outstanding and surprising" for his age, and that he is "setting the curve." He encouraged us to get him talking on video because "no one is going to believe you when you tell them..." :)

Our little man still LOVES books. His favorite book at the moment is "Mr. Brown Can Moo" and will finish the animal sounds in the books. He knows the book very well, and will quote it "boom, boom, boom" and "knock, knock" while playing. Ben continues to have quite a bit to say. His little vocabulary grows by the day, but here is a list of words Ben says regularly at one year old:

Mama, Daddy, Nana, Papa, dog, Myla, Shooter, Kitty, bottle, ball, up, down, throw, go, water, bear, turtle, boom, shoes, wow, poop, ear, apple, fun, more, dunk, and banana. And signs these words regularly: more, all done, book, drink, and please. Quite the little communicator.

He's still usually a happy kid, offering lots of smiles to anyone who cares to pay him a little attention. He doesn't often laugh out loud, other than little chuckles. It's pretty precious when he does though.

We got some family pictures done:

We celebrated Ben's birthday with family and friends. Ben dug right into his gifts, like a pro. Then repeated the digging in on his cake.  What a fun day!

Party Puggle !

Other bits from October :

 Eric's brother, Matt, playing with Ari. 

 We took my eldest niece, Wynn, and nephew, Conor, to a local haunted house ("Nightmare on Grelle Ave"). It was really good. Pretty creepy. Old abandoned nursing home (shudder!) 

 Riding Halle-Bear

 Shooter is a creature of many talents. Or something. 

 Ben's hand crafted (thanks Nana!) Broncos shirt! (Look at those curls!) 

 First (of what I'm sure will be many) golf lessons from Daddy! 

 Pretty Autumn view from our back porch

 Ben, with his buddy Hank. A look back on when they first met: Ben meets Hank

 'ghetti!!!

The easiest way, possibly for me to share videos is to just post a link from when I uploaded them to FB :) Here is a cute game between Ben and daddy: GIGGLES