Ben - 41 Weeks to 1 Year Old

I just realized that I never loaded the last few weekly pictures that I took of Ben. I decided to stop taking his picture every Saturday once he was a year old. I'm glad I did it for the first year but honestly, it was hard to keep up with it all. Of course this doesn't mean that I've stopped taking his picture altogether so you can definitely keep checking back to see how big our baby has become!




41 Weeks





















42 Weeks












43 Weeks














44 Weeks












45 Weeks




















46 Weeks












47 Weeks















48 Weeks
















49 Weeks












50 Weeks














51 Weeks












Happy 1st Birthday!!!!!!!!

Thanksgiving

This year we had Thanksgiving dinner with Joe's family at his Mom-Mom's house in Delaware. It was nice for us because we didn't have far to travel, especially since we went to my Aunt Maureen's for a 2nd Thanksgiving dinner later that night in PA. Both dinners were great and we were stuffed! Ben had fun playing with all his cousins too.

Walking

Ben began walking independently without holding on and by his own choice on November 15th. Of course, he chose to do this while I was at work but Joe was home with him and called with the good news. I was a little sad to have missed it but luckily he did it again for me that night. At first he took just 1-3 steps at a time but before long he was walking all over the place. I don't have a good video of his first few attempts, but here's a link to a video I took about couple weeks later. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LkohvuP0VYA

Wedding Weekend

The weekend of November 10th and 11th, we attended 2 weddings. One was for my co-worker Stacia and the other was for Joe's cousin, Bobby Dale. Unfortunately my camera ran out of batteries for Stacia's wedding, but she was a beautiful bride and we had a great time at the wedding.

Bobby Dale's wedding was in Maryland so we left Ben overnight with my mom and headed down for the night. We got lost on the way there but luckily found the venue before it got started. It was a small wedding and the ceremony and reception were at the same place. Here are some pictures of the good times we had.

The happy couple, Michelle & Bobby Dale Sikes

Joe's Mom and Victoria

Chrissy & Matt

Victoria & Joe

Joe's Aunt Sheila & Uncle Jack

Joe's Dad and his sister, Aunt Arlene

Joe's cousin Jeff and his wife Debbie

Joe's Uncle Freddy and his fiance, Claire

Joe's cousins Bob, Megan and her boyfriend

Michelle and her new sister-in-law, Joe's cousin Mandy getting their groove on

The Dancing Queens - Chris & I had to drag Victoria out onto the dance floor but I think she secretly had fun

First Haircut

At some point I had heard that you should wait until after a baby turns 1 year old before you cut his hair. For a few months before Ben's 1st birthday, Joe kept telling me that his hair was getting too long and it really didn't matter if we went ahead and cut it. Apparently most people agreed but they didn't bother me too much about it. I found out later that one of our friends put her daughter's barrette in Ben's hair during a playdate because it was in his eyes (if only I had a picture!!).

Anyway, I waited stubbornly until after Ben's first birthday (plus 2 weeks) before I finally agreed to cut his hair. On November 10th, we took Ben for his first haircut. We went to Michael's Barbershop which is the same place that Joe has been getting his haircuts since he was a little boy. The whole experience was a little sad for me and traumatic for Ben. He doesn't really like to have his head touched and he kept swatting his hand at the barber. Finally Joe gave Ben his cell phone to try to keep him occupied so the barber could finish...Ben's crying in the last picture not because he didn't like his haircut, but because afterwards Joe tried to take the cell phone away! In the end, I have to admit that Ben looked much better after the trim and he looked so much more grown up!

Happy Halloween

Ben was born 2 days before Halloween and was still in the hospital for his first Halloween. So, although this was officially his 2nd Halloween, it was the first time he was able to dress up and enjoy the festivities. It was also the first time that Cooper got to join in on the fun. Unfortunately, Ben wasn't feel very well but he tried to have a good time. His favorite part was seeing the kids come to the door...he cried when they would leave because he didn't understand why they weren't coming in to play with him!!

Linvilla Orchards

Joe and I took off from work the day after Ben's birthday weekend. We decided to go to Linvilla Orchards to pick a pumpkin and take Ben on his first hayride.