It's been almost two weeks since our youngest and most adorable little man turned one. It's high time he had a blog post about it with some pics.  Of course a little recap of his first year is in order (poor Ben has a paucity of entries about him--just due to the challenging nature of finding free time as a parent of three). 

Ben joined our little family on February 7 on a very cold cold morning.  I have to admit that I was nervous to go back to square one with the whole newborn thing. I also think there is some anxiety whenever you progress past your first born ( or in our case first borns) because you can't imagine how you can love another as much as your first. What if your first child (or children) feels slighted by this whole process? I remember looking at the sleeping twins the night before Ben was born and feeling guilty about what this new addition would do to their little world. 

As soon as Ben was put in our arms all that vanished. It has enriched all of our lives to have our little guy added to our family. He is so laid back--mainly because he doesn't have a choice I think with 3 year old twin sisters. He gets pushed around and has toys frequently yanked from his hands by his older sibs( we are working on it and I think progress has been made) but usually just rolls with it. He is a mover and gets into everything. I knew we were going to be in for it when Ben moved twice as much as his sisters combined when I was pregnant with him. He can master nearly any cupboard and drawer, can open the dishwasher, is reaching for doorknobs and is very close to mastering the oven. The toilet is his favorite toy (putting a lock on it flies in the face of reason with two potty training girls) and we finally had to revamp the entire kitchen which included moving EVERYTHING off of lower shelves and putting the dog food and dog water in the basement (it challenges Bocce to find her food--animal enrichment).  Some of my favorite moments of parenting three involve the kids interacting. Both girls are good at making Ben laugh. If he starts crying they pull out all of their tricks including frequent fake sneezes which get him every time :). Something else that is a little funny or maybe quirky thing about Ben is that everyone always thinks he is tired. 99% of the time when a stranger says something to him or to me about him it involves one of these phrases "look who just woke up", "who's ready for a nap?", "Aww, are you a tired little guy?", "looks like somebody is sleepy".  I have now just started saying, 'Nope, that is just his look' which isn't always well received :). 


We are thankful for him every day and look forward to seeing his little personality come out more and more every day. 




Benson on his actual birthday




















Amanda who made his cakes asked what Ben likes so she could design his cake around it. My response was . . .uh, toilets and cell phones? So we ultimately went with a Monkey.












He enjoyed being sung to by a room full of people












Ryan trying to show him what all the hype is about











Starting to get it













Hmmm, not quite the right idea 















There it is














The girls took turns feeding him bites






We left him in his chair for probably 30 minutes before I remembered he was still there--this is what I found.  Guess he liked it :)