Raising Arizona

So, I recently got back from going to Arizona to see some of my family. My brother lives there with his wife and three kids. My mom and my sister also came down from Utah to see everyone and all of us wanted to see the musical that my cousin wrote. It's called Blackbeard, and it was fantastic. You can check it out here http://blackbeardthemusical.com/ My cousin, Rob Gardner, put the same show on as a workshop last summer. He made some changes and worked on it and put it on again all through September. It was impressive. I've seen a lot of musicals and it's definitely one of my favorites. The characters are interesting and the story is engaging. But the music is just amazing. The cast really did it justice, too.

Anyway, the play was awesome and Ben and I had a great time with all the family. Nick and Alex were really sweet with him. Mom and Courtney were excited to see him, too. It was good to see Adam and Karlie and their new house. Being there reminded me how huge Ben is. I'm pretty sure he could eat Dylan, who is a month older. Actually, he tried to a couple of times.

Unfortunately, I got back and realized I didn't take any pictures except on my phone. I guess I was too busy having fun. The only not fun part was the flying. Let me tell you, traveling by yourself with a baby should be a part of the World's Strongest Man competition. I must have been lugging 150 pounds of stuff around the airport and getting to the bus and such.

La Dee Dah

Life isn't overly exciting here in Rockford. Ben is super adorable. He's a real chatterbox and a total flirt. He makes friends with everyone we pass on the street. He loves his daddy. I don't know who looks forward to Jon coming home more, me or Ben. Ben won't take his eyes off of Jon for at least ten minutes after he gets home. The other day, I was feeding Ben some prunes and Jon walked in and went into the bathroom. Even after he was out of sight, Ben kept looking down the hall waiting for him to come back.

Jon reading to Ben. Ben seems to appreciate books a little bit more now. Mostly he just constantly tries to grab them, but I do think he likes the pictures.

Ben just loves his daddy so much.

Ben is eating solids more and more these days. I've tried my hand at making my own baby food. So far I made carrots and pears. It's not so bad since I only have one kid and no job. He likes his oatmeal cereal better than rice cereal.

Ben's about as good at eating as I am. Maybe Paige can get me an awesome pilot bib. He does seem to enjoy cereal and he's even had some carrots and prunes.

As for new tricks, Ben rolls over from his back to his tummy now. He isn't super good at it, he has trouble getting his arm in a good position. He was on his tummy when Jon went to get him in the morning the other day, though, so he can do it on his own. He is sitting up really well, but I wouldn't quite say he's mastered that skill, yet. He still leans too far over sometimes and topples over. He also has a lot more interest in toys now that he's got better eye-hand coordination.

Here he is with one of his favorite toys.

And here he is ready for some basketball. Is anyone wondering if mommy wants the little guy to play sports some day? I can't help it, I think he looks so adorable in the sportswear. I like to think that if he doesn't want to play sports I'll be totally cool with that.

Also, we got a really sweet package from great gramma and granpa Workman the other day. It had some really adorable clothes and some chocolates.

Here Ben is modeling one of his new outfits. He's pretty stinking adorable.