11 months ~ 5th Anniversary ~ A visit from Grandma

Well, we are having quite the busy weekend! :) Saturday Benjamin turned 11 months - which means only one more month until he is 1!!!! Wow that happened fast! Saturday was also our 5th Wedding Anniversary! And with a visit from Grandma Wegner, we had a built in babysitter and actually got to go out to a nice restaurant and enjoy an evening out! :)

Here are Ben's 11 month photos. I was introduced to Picture Monkey - a website that let's you edit photos...so these photos contain their own wonderfully awesome captions! :)

This past month, and even the past few days have brought many new adventures for Benjamin. He is a crawling machine and can crawl circles around us now! Yesterday, he figured out how to climb the stairs (so far just the first two steps - but it's only a matter of time - hence the 2nd photo here!)

EDIT: Caught my little man on video now that he is a pro! http://youtu.be/6YSr8m9Vap4

 He pulls himself up like a pro and can even walk a few steps with his walker toy! He thoroughly enjoys torturing our dogs! When Ozu (our 100lb dog) is laying on the landing, Ben crawls full force, laughing all the way towards him. Poor Ozu gets scared and jumps down and runs to his crate. Ben then proceeds to change direction and head straight for the crate...again, laughing all the way!!! All of this means Eric and I are also in constant motion - the next two months are going to be rough as it gets harder and harder to crawl with him and bend over to scoop him up to safety! And we had been using the boxes from his carseat to block him in the living room, but he can now move them out of the way! Oh boy!  And he is learning to wave Bye-bye too!

Benjamin still only has one tiny little tooth! I feel like the other one is coming in, but who knows how long that will take! Other than that we are just enjoying  all the new adventures this little boy is bring us! Here's a photo of where he pulled himself up on the tv stand to watch Big Bang Theory one evening!

To celebrate our 5th Anniversary Eric and I went to Buku ~ a tapas style restaurant in Raleigh. We enjoyed some sushi rolls, empanadas, pork dumplings, and a hot pot with mussels, GIANT scallops, and prawns in a red curry and coconut broth. For dessert we had a trio of creme brulee - but they were in very tiny little cups! Overall it was a good meal! :) Here's a picture of us before we left. I have on my new blue pearl necklace, earrings, and bracelets! I made Eric a beer flight tray (with the help of a friend!) that he will be able to use when convincing others to try his fancy beers! :)

As I mentioned, Grandma Wegner is visiting. She came in Wednesday evening and is staying through Monday afternoon. Thursday, she and Ben spent the day together as Eric and I both had to work. Friday Eric was home and the three of them hung out while I worked. Saturday morning/afternoon, we all went to Durham (you're surprised aren't you!?) to the farmer's market, where we got to see the end of the doughman relay race! We first heard about this on an episode of Man vs Food. Basically, teams of 4 take turns doing a leg of the race. You eat some outrageous thing and run a leg of the race before tagging the next person to eat something else and run, etc. There were some interesting costumes - including capes and people dressed like ninjas! Here's a picture of Ben hanging out by the parking lot where the raced finished up, while daddy and grandma got donuts and coffee from local food trucks!

After we walked around a bit and had some more treats from food trucks, we got some strawberries and let Benjamin crawl around a bit and try strawberries for the first time! He LOVED them!!!! Here are some photos from our grassy adventure! Side note...Benjamin is not a huge fan of grass, but I think this time he had a chance to get used to it more than before and he was crawling around like it was nothing! He even was bold enough to try to crawl over to a family having a little picnic! He'll do anything for food! :)

Standing with Daddy

Hanging out at the Farmer's Market

The grass comes out when you pull on it! Cool!

 My little guy is all smiles as he giggles and begins to crawl!

I am sure he is thinking "Freedom! Sweet Freedom!"

Trying to get a picture with Grandma.

I love the look on his face as if to say "Who are you? And what are you doing to me?"

 That's better...I think this is one of the best shots we got! :)

 A family photo - We didn't get Ben smiling in this one, but that's okay!

A fun shot as daddy swings Ben around!

 Trying strawberries! He did a great job biting the strawberry...I had to make sure I had a good grip on the leaves!

 I call this the Zombie Picture! Ben likes to make zombie noises and here it looks like he is eating like a zombie! :) LOL!

 Eating juicy strawberries is messy business!

 Yummy!!!

 Just chillin in the shade!

On Sunday, we took it easy. We went to Tyler's for brunch and then stopped at Target and Sweet Creations (new yogurt place) on the way home. Oh yeah, and we made a pit stop at the park as well. Benjamin got an early birthday present from Grandma & Grandpa Wegner - and because there was a sale he got two things! :) A zoo activity playset and a farm playset. Now we can start working on learning that not all animals are dogs! :) When we got home, we put on Ben's new swimsuit and let him take a dip in his pool! :) He was having a great time until Daddy poured a bucket of cold water on his head and mommy realized it was past the time for his bottle! But he sure had fun splashing!

Our park adventure

Loving the swing as always!

 Riding the froggie for the first time!

This is so totally fun!!!

 Daddy just loves to make me hang upside down!

I am going to get his face and giggle the whole time!

Looking so handsome in his swimsuit!

 First time in his pool. He had so much fun splashing around!

 Rubber Ducky, you're my friend!

Helping daddy pour the water in the pool.

 Checking out all the noises in his new farm toy.

 Daddy showing him some tricks on the new zoo toy.

One more time,,,trying to get a good picture with Grandma, but the TV was more exciting!

 At least he's looking in the general direction!

It was a great three day weekend! One more busy, busy week at school then I will be off for 4 weeks to spend time with my favorite little guy and finish getting ready for our little girl! I can't believe my next monthly post will be about Benjamin turning 1!!! The monthly post after that will be anticipating the arrival of our new baby! Time is just flying by! I hope the next month goes very slowly!