Ben picked me a flower the other day. It was a dandelion, but those are flowers for a toddler right? It’s not like I’d know the difference, I once pulled daffodils out of my flower bed because I thought they were weeds…
When we came inside I put it in a little cup in the window sill and Ben FLIPPED OUT. He started pointing hysterically at the flower and begging me to give it back to him. Apparently he hadn’t given it to me for keeps. Stinker. I gave it back to him and he started ripping the “petals” off and leaving a trail of flower through the house. Oh well, I suppose it was the thought that counted ;-)

Also, Ben said a full out intelligent sentence today. Previously “Uh oh drop bear” ranked highest, but this afternoon he said “Mommy read book please” as he shoved a Thomas the Train book at me. I was reading my own book and it simply wasn’t good enough for him to read next to me. It was cute, so we read Thomas…many times…
On another note, we just got back from visiting my dad and family in Massachusetts. I have a thousand and one pictures to sort through, but will be posting about all that soon!
We went hiking this weekend and Ben wanted nothing to do with it. Normally he’s happy to sit in the baby backpack, but not this time. He was so ornery and whined and complained the whole time. When you let him down, he wanted to get back up. He just didn’t want to be there. Andy tried ditching him over the edge of a cliff at one point.

Ben retaliated by trying to steal Andy’s hat and put leaves down Andy’s shirt.

Andy tried his best to ignore the little bugger, so he switched tactics. Once he gets hold of a word, Ben repeats it again and again and again and again. This proved effective at annoying daddy.

Success! I have made the hiking trip miserable for mommy and daddy.

I shoot myself in the foot by posting these pictures because you’ll all croon over him and then nobody believes me that it was a miserable hiking trip. Seriously, no fun this time. At least there were really pretty views.

And yes, he’s really cute! It’s a good thing, or he may have gotten left on the trail to be raised by wolves. Kidding. Mostly ;-)
Andy pulled out some of his old play money and let Ben mess around with the cash register today. Ben seemed less interested in the money and more interested in shoving his matchbox cars in the money drawer. The boys had fun with the buttons, beeping and slide out drawer though.

Andy also found some of the money his elementary school had used with students. They were called Dodge Dollars.

He still has a stack of them, 20 years later. Dork!

Andy also admitted he used to iron the wrinkles out of his play money when he was a kid…yeah…he’s definitely my dork :)
Whatcha doin’ dad?

Ooh!

Can I help?

Daddy’s so awesome.

I figure this post deserves somewhat of an explanation :) Besides the fact that Andy is, Andy, lol. He has several remote control helicopters and one of them is a fairly expensive one he doesn’t let anyone else play with. He found this case at a garage sale and it seemed a perfect fit for storing all the helicopter parts and remotes. So he cut out some foam blocks to enclose all his parts inside the case. Ben wanted to help :)
Then Andy posed with my sunglasses and the helicopter case handcuffed to his wrist like he was some super cool secret spy. Which of course, he is ;-)

My inlaws and brother in law gave me the Han Solo in Carbonite Ice Cube Tray for my birthday this year. I’ve been making a lot of iced coffee this summer and my sister Danielle suggested I make coffee cubes to put in it instead of just plain old ice cubes. So I give you the Han Solo frozen coffee cube.