ben version 3.5

so maybe it should say version 3.6?
any who.

it's update time. 3 1/2 years.  here we go!

- is a sausage thief. steals at least one of nick's every morning. if i ask him what he want's for breakfast it's 50%: sausage or cereal. his two favs.
- is obsessed with super heroes. captain america and iron man are his favorites. with green lantern a close third. however, if you ask him what he wants to be for halloween, the answer is 'batman'.
- is still a total love bug. will ask me to snuggle with him on the couch regularly. <3
- can still wear 2t pants. the gut is a bit tight but 3t's are ridiculously long on mr. short stuff. but is wearing 3t shirts with no problem.
- is pretty good with his manners. mostly uses please when asking for something. and will now ask to be excused from the dinner table. {and sometimes he makes us ask him to be excused!} says thank you all the time. even in the wrong context. but hey, he's trying!
- loves fruit. preferably cantaloupe or plums or nectarines.
- corn is his veg of choice. especially on the cob.
- is still obsessed with milk. will usually ask for it right before bedtime.
- if we tell him that he can't do something, his usual reply is... 'okay. maybe tomorrow?'
- is a super helper. likes completing little chores around the house.
- loves playing video games, just like his daddy.
- yells, 'good night. i'll see you in the morning. i love you. you're my best friend and my lovely' every night when we walk out of his room.  {or something pretty close to that string of phrases.}
- has been on a dora kick. i love when he yells map.
- and is a team umizoomi fan. i have no idea where that came from.
- will pick a winning sports team based on uniform colors. he's pretty spot on. even chose notre dame over purdue much to the dismay of his boiler parents.
- is super helpful around the house. will help with picking up his toys and putting things away. knows the routine when we come home every day and will take off his shoes and put them where they belong along with his jacket.
- still a huge, huge fan of baths.
- sleeps from about 8:30 pm to 6:30 am. 
- is still using his favorite baby blankets. especially the frog one. the bumble bee one is a close second. 

i know this blog is heavy on ben pictures. so i'll limit myself to a few.

some that i snapped just last night. pardon the naked-ness. but that's totally benjamin right now, so naked pictures it is. ;)

his 'cheesy' face.

and 'angry' face.

his 'scary' face. 

happy half birthday sweet boy.
momma and daddy love you more than words. you make us laugh every day and we cannot imagine our lives without you.

'don't stress, that's dumb'

my new favorite lyrics.
need to check out this band {ball park music}. totally digging this song right now....

ten on tuesday 9.18.12

- just curious... is it momma or mama?

- love that nick will log onto my pinterest account to pin basement ideas. love him!

- ben wass getting a bit overzealous with 'may i be excused.' before sitting down for a meal, he would ask, 'maybe i be excused to get on please?'

- had someone use upmost instead of utmost. seriously, it's like nails on a chalk board.

- not sure how much posting will happen this week. we're supposed to be switching to electronic records and it's been quite an adventure. might need some time away from a keyboard...

- my fantasy team took a beating this week.  terrible. five of my players had a combined point total of seven. i think nick got beat in his one league by 50+ points {maybe 70?} so i won't complain when i lost by 30. {his opponent had reggie bush who had a freakish 30+ point game.}

- thankful that i had a day off last week for ben's first field trip {separate post someday...} or i would have worked for 11 days in a row. way different from the 4 i'm used too! gotta love mandatory weekend training.

- ben told me he was gonna let his food 'warm off'. he was referring to some fruit that was too cold for his liking.

- looking forward to this weekend. hoping the weather cooperates.

- cannot decide if i want to read this book... i'm afraid even if it's brilliant, it won't be harry potter.

time for yum yums.

another installment {i totally wanted to type instillation but i knew it wasn't right!} of pinterest recipes.

spinach artichoke pasta: so good. so good. i'm sure if you needed some protein, chicken would be a good addition. hmmm, or maybe even a can of tuna or chicken and you probably wouldn't even taste it. ben was a big fan too.

chick pea and tomato salad:  quick and tasty. my basil went bad so i didn't use as much as the recipe called for... added some red onion because i had it and why not. was pretty good!

blt mac n cheese: eh. i blame the velveeta. i'm not a huge fan. but the more i think about it, it didn't taste like a blt. ;(

slow cooker salsa chicken: yum. yum.  yum. nick hates anything chicken in the crock pot. it's rare that i can find a keeper. two days after we had this, he asked if i could make it the following week!

zucchini fries: can't find the exact recipe i used. off the top of my head, it was: sliced zucchini dipped in egg wash followed by a dip in bread crumbs. baked at 350 for 30 minutes, flipping halfway through. i would add a bit of parm. cheese to the bread crumb mixture next time i make em. maybe a touch of garlic powder. served em with my mom's fish stick sauce: mayo, mustard, and ketchup all mixed together to taste. yum.

mexican manicotti: make sure you have the shells under the sauce. otherwise, they can be a bit tough. or maybe cook it covered rather than uncovered as the recipe directs.

red velvet brownies: nick saw them when we were looking through pinterest. he said we needed to make them asap. they were good. the frosting was ah-mazing.

cheesy broccoli orzo: loved that it was a quick and easy side. with ingredients that i always have on hand. 

buffalo chicken tenders:  wasn't very buffalo-y. next time i would use panko crumbs instead of plain ole bread crumbs. which was my plan but i didn't have any! good flavors in the breading.

crescent cinnamon rolls: super tasty. so much less work than cinnamon buns. and nick said that they aren't as cinnamon-y so he liked them even better than the real thing. 

zucchini brownies: different. good. like that they have fruit and veg in them. and no oil or egg. fingers got a bit sticky but that's okay!

red, white, and blue burger topping: this was delish. totally adding it to our regular rotation of burger recipes. definitely needed a crunch on the burger though. will serve with lettuce on the burger and not just plain next time. maybe even celery?

four cheese baked skillet rigatoni:  reminded both nick and myself of fondue. nick loved it. had multiple helpings. was a bit rich for me.

crock pot chicken and noodles: i have no idea where the recipe came from. none. sorry. i'll share it here though! 3-4 chicken breasts. 42 oz chicken broth. 2 cans cream of chicken. stick of butter sliced. package of egg noodles. combine first four ingredients in crock pot. cook on low heat for 8 hours. shred chicken. add uncooked noodles. cover and cook an additional one hour. {stir about halfway through so you don't get any stiff noodles!} delicious! so homey. very fall. too bad i made it on an almost 90 degree day. would be good with some veg tossed in too: corn, peas, carrots. and ben said it was his favorite. love when that happens!

good guys wear black.

we are big sox fans in this house.
had the opportunity to go to a game this season. couldn't pass up free tickets. was a little tricky considering the game was on a tuesday {9.4.12} after the holiday weekend. {our busiest time at work.} but we made it work and were able to get up there with plenty of time to spare.

ben figured out how to prop up his movie player on his knees!

ben didn't want to walk around. he wanted to watch the players on the field.

after a long walk, we found ben a tshirt, hat and he insisted on owning a pink, wooden bat.  couldn't convince him to get the black or silver one. oh well, if pink makes him happy, then he'll have a pink one! then we couldn't get him to change into his new shirt. oh well, at least he's in black and white!

found our seats. only 9 rows up! nick was really hoping to nab a foul ball.

there was no one at the game. {yes, this picture was taken early. but it still seemed like attendance was way down.}

thought this was pretty cool.

pregame band was pretty good. apparently, he was on the voice. 

play ball!

had a really long inning. i tried to entertain ben. we sang, 'swing batter batter swing' and 'we need a pitcher not a belly itcher.'

he ended up falling asleep. so strange for him.

funniest picture ever. nick trying to snap a pic of ben asleep on momma. look at the concentration in his face. hysterical.

that one is better!

had a few insane innings. lots of scoring. wish it would have been by the sox...

he's up! i guess he had a quick power nap.

the stands really cleared out after the 10 run inning. 

trying to pass the time. {i decided to wear ben's new hat.}
ben only wanted to stick out his tongue. wouldn't agree to any other funny faces.

enjoying some fairy floss. 

the moon coming up over the scoreboard.

game over. 

they tried for a come back. i mean, 27 runs in a game, that's a lot. at one point we were googling the most in an inning. thought maybe we would see history!

the weather was perfect. traffic there and back was a breeze. so glad we were able to fit in a game this year. and for free!

wordless wednesday. opposites.

{totally crappy iphone photo. but too funny not to share. check out what ben thinks the opposite of quiet is... 8/2012}

ten on tuesday. 9.11.12

- i yelled during the purdue game this weekend. ben turned to me and said, 'you scared my ears momma.'

- ben will ask which team is the good guys/bad guys, so he knows who to cheer for.

- something will happen and nick will turn to me and say, 'put that in your phone for your ten on tuesday post.'

- i dislike that people are losing their sense of responsibility. you made the choices and decisions to lead you where you are. no one should have to pick up your pieces. {unless it's a complete emergency, then i get it. but when it's something that could have been planned ahead, i'm not gonna help you and i don't think that anyone else should either. maybe if you've tried on your own. but if you can't even make an effort? nope.}

- an example of above bullet:  white sox lawsuit. now i don't know all of the specifics, but this totally caught my attention. why can't the guy that was in the car with the drunk driver take responsibility for agreeing to get in the car with an inebriated driver? why is it acceptable to just blame someone else? wasn't he wrong for letting his friend drive?

- ben was sick this past week. tried to take his temp orally. he refused. said, 'no i want it in my butt.' sigh. must work on getting him to do it orally!

- nick and i figured out that i'm a commitment-a-phobe. probably deserves it's own post. lucky for him, it doesn't apply to our relationship. xo!

- made an oops at work... went to call my patient in the waiting room and i said virgin instead of virgil. :blush: the entire waiting room laughed as did virgil and his wife. thank goodness they are regulars and it wasn't a new patient.

-i think our neighbor has the most annoying voice on the planet. it's so whiney and loud. some days i want to close the windows and turn the air back on so we don't have to hear her!

- had a patient today complain that a cop gave him a ticket. said he should have had a free pass because he has cancer and diabetes? what is that? again, with the sense of responsibility? tried to explain that there are a lot of sick people in the world. that yes, it is unfortunate, but it doesn't give him the right to do whatever he wants, whenever he wants. i swear sometimes my patients are like my children! ;)