Lil Stinker

Devon (my work) host a Spooktacular event for the Devon employees and their families each year. With the 1,000 Devon employees downtown, it can get quite hectic because all events are in the Chase Building on 10 different floors. However this year it was way more organized and they had the Chase lobby decked out with fun balloon decorations (a huge spider) cookies, drinks and a DJ for the families to enjoy. My lil stinker was focused on one thing... SUCKERS! He would keep the head piece on, IF he had a sucker. He is my little stinker and my little sugar phene. I was hoping he would be digging in the buckets for candy, but no as usual, he was the observant skunk just watching everyone. So I scooped up candy for uuumm John and I :) I felt kinda weird but someone had to take the candy! And to my surprise he wasn't on a sugar high, he passed out in the car on the way home and then took a 30 minute power nap once we got home. Ben cracks me up, he LOVES to watch everyone and is so content in doing so... he is such a calm boy! (probably going to regret saying those words)


I'm gonna spray you!!


Cooling off on the tile floor.


The ONE family photo with Ben looking



I can't see anything but the SUCKER!!

Enjoying more sugar

Pre-trick or treating in mom's cube

Whoa walk

Ben came home from daycare on Monday walking... he is really attempting to get those legs moving and perfect his balance. Finally our boy is getting the itch to walk!!!
(Sorry the video is the other way, I don't know how to turn it :)

Swingin Away

After a busy morning of cleaning out the garage and trying to eat dead beetles (yes I looked over and thankfully pulled it out), Ben got to go to his first outing at a park. John and I took him to Dolese Park where Ben went swinging, sliding down slides, and duck/geese chasing. He didn't quite know what to do when the goose had a stare off with him and continously squaked at him.

John and I for sure had a good time and I'm pretty sure Ben would say the same! Another first for Ben, SHOES. They were a tad bit large, lets hope those feet grow. Poor fella, with my size 5 foot and John's 11, the kid's large foot size doesn't look promising :)

The past 4 days Ben got 3 of his canine teeth (the fangs). We felt one on Thursday and then 2 more came over the weekend! My poor baby just doesn't get a break with these teeth, he has been teething since 4 months old and it hasn't been a pleasant teething experience to say the least.
Ben has been VERY chatty lately, these "words" are hilarious. He will go on and on saying what sounds like "i-do, i-do", cracks us up. I was in the kitchen cooking today and he comes in and sits there with his arms at me and yells "mmmaawwww"..... he wanted his milk. He is slowly learning momma and da-da. Not much else new coming from Ben's world... he will get to debut his little Stinker attire on Wednesday at my work for Devon's Spooktacular event :) Lets see if he even wears his costume, it has a head piece :)

I was trying to capture how "fall" it was out there

Yyyuuummm mulch - what else can I get in my mouth?!?

Hide and Seek

Ben likes to play "hide and seek" in our closet. I tried to capture it on video, but like always he gets distracted when the camera comes out. So the video's don't really show anything new or fantastic from Ben, but you can watch him being silly :) He thinks he is sneaky... we close the door and he zooms up to it, barely pushes it and runs back to the end of the closet.

A couple times this past weekend, he took 2 very exciting steps!! The first real attempt to start walking.

(you can see his bandaged up chin... he busted it open on something, but it didn't really bleed that much, it was weird but good for Ben)

Gerber ain't got nothing on us

For the past 6 months, my mom (Grammie) has made all of Ben's food. She offered to do it, obviously I didn't object. It never really even crossed my mind to make his food, but now I can't imagine him having anything other. As most of ya'll who know me, know that I am not a crazy mom who only eats organic and all that jazz, I just know no other than home made food for Ben and I'm not hating on store bought food :)
Anyways I was running low on food, so I had to get my rear in the kitchen and start cooking (my parents were in College Station for the week, so Ben's chef was out). My mom prepped me on the "how too" last week, so after my voyage to Wal-Mart (whole 'nother store there), I went full steam ahead. In the end, Ben now has a full menu of butternut squash, yellow squash, peaches, applesauce and pears'n'bananas. I have left to make pumpkin, avacado and green beans. The Magic Bullet was my secret weapon yesterday, we got it for our wedding and after 3 years I finally opened it! It was so handy to puree everything up. I can't believe I have lived without, can't wait to make some smoothies in that bad boy. We'll see if I do the same for the next Forrest baby.... hopefully Grammie will keep up the chef duties! A great book is by Jessica Seinfeld "Deceptively Delicious" - she has a "how too" on making puree foods and also recipes that includes the puree foods to hide the veggies from the kids. I cooked up all this food because Ben started hating on anything other than cheerios and his pureed food. He would seriously act like he was gagging on foods, even stuck his tongue out and blubbering at my mom. The past 2 nights, he has eaten what we ate for dinner, of course!!! Oh well, he'll have some fresh fruit and veggies on the side.
Ben was a complete angel on Saturday... yesterday not so much. He is STILL working on his lower left molar, which makes for a cranky bebe. Below are pictures from the weekend that we spent indoors. We got out an old pillow top for our bed, which has turned into Ben's lounging pad while watching his cartoons :)

Rainy day with Ben

I got to stay home today with Ben, while Grammie travels to College Station to see the Pokes play. John took off tomorrow, it will be nice for him to get a break from work. I get every other Friday off, so I fortunately get breaks from the 5 day work week :) It has been a dark, literally, lazy day... I wanted to bake but of course didn't have all the ingredients and there was no way I was getting out in the down pour. The rain makes me want to cook, which tonight will be chili and I do have everything for that. Below I posted 2 of my favorite super easy meals, easy to prep and cook! They are Chicken Ole and Taco Chicken.
Ben's new thing is he likes to open is mouth real wide and do this funny laugh. I captured it today while he was pushing his truck around. He also discovered he could reach the door handle... yep got up on his tippy toes and started pushing it down, gotta watch that now!

Taco Chicken
4 small boneless skinless chicken breast halves (1 lb.)
4 tsp. Taco Seasoning Mix
1/2 lb. red potatoes, thinly sliced (about 2 cups)
3/4 cup Shredded Four Cheese
1/2 cup Thick 'N Chunky Salsa
1/4 cup Sour Cream

HEAT oven to 400°F.
SPRINKLE chicken with seasoning mix. Place 1/2 cup potatoes on center of each of 4 large sheets of heavy-duty foil; top with chicken, cheese and salsa.
BRING up foil sides. Double fold top and both ends to seal each packet, leaving room for heat circulation inside. Place in baking pan or on cookie sheet.
BAKE 30 to 35 min. or until chicken is done (165°F). Cool 5 min. Cut slits in foil to release steam before opening. Top with sour cream.

Chicken Ole

4 chicken breasts
2 teaspoons vegetable oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
3/4 cup salsa
1 (15-ounce) can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 (11-ounce) can whole kernel corn, drained (optional)
1 cup (4 ounces) shredded Mexican cheese blend, Cheddar, or Monterey Jack cheese
Toppings: chopped fresh cilantro, sliced black olives, sour cream, guacamole

Tear off 4 (18- x 12-inch) sheets of aluminum foil; lightly grease 1 side of each sheet.
Place 1 chicken breast in center on lightly greased side of each foil sheet. Brush both sides of chicken evenly with oil; sprinkle evenly with salt and pepper. Spoon salsa evenly over chicken. Top evenly with black beans and, if desired, corn.
Bring together 2 sides of each foil sheet over ingredients, and double fold with about 1-inch-wide folds. Double fold each end to form a packet, leaving room for heat circulation inside packet. Place packets on a baking sheet.
Bake at 450° for 20 minutes. Carefully open foil packets to prevent burns from hot steam. Sprinkle evenly with cheese before serving. Serve chicken with desired toppings

Mowing the living room

Ben is a busy man at nights now... so many toys to push around. Below are some short videos I took tonight... you can hear John in the back ground yelling at the tv (Twins game was on)... John had to take apart the mower and put weights in it so it would stay up for our little lawn boy. Might have to take the "poppers" out next :) This is how our nights usually are with Ben going from one end in the living room to the other and then over to the fireplace to find more toys! He prefers to put all toys in his mouth first (if possible) and then push them around, he loves his hammer... spent one night hitting the walls and doors. It was nice on our ears. I love this age and I love that he is getting such a distinct personality. I especially love, that he loves getting kisses :) Next we have to work on him giving kisses!

Birthday party, check-up and family departures

It has been quite a busy week for the Forrests. Last Sunday (9/27) we celebrated Ben's 1st birthday at my parents house...aka Grammie and Grandpa. It was obvious at the party that Ben is a very loved little boy... thanks to all my family and my girls for coming to celebrate Ben's birthday! He choose (or lets say I choose) a slight Cookie Monster theme. We ate bbq, okra and devored a YUMMY cookie monster cookie. Ben was quite shy and bit overwhelmed with everyone there. Once everyone left my little stinker-boodle came out of his shell. Got his clothes off and he was a free bird roaming with his uncle Nathan. Ben loves to be naked and he has perfected his famous pose, not sure why he loves to be so provocative!?!
Today I took him to his 12 month check up. He now weighs 21.5 lbs and is 31 inches long. Long and lankey as my doc put it. Still mommy's lil string bean.
We've had a very necessary and sad decision to make, we had to find our 1st baby, Clark the dog, a new home. He snipped at Ben and yesterday scratched his face with his paw. Ben is "baby scarface". Once Ben was on the move, Clark felt very threatened. All very scary! But Clark found a new mommy and I think he will be king of his new house. Very strange to not come home to a jumping frantic excited dog... it will take time to get use too. Worst of all, Ben for the past couple weeks has been laughing, following and talking to Clark, but we had no choice. Oh why must we think dogs are humans, makes it so much harder.
Below is what Ben has been up too.....
* Attempting to stand on his own! His crawl is very zoomy fast... no needto walk right?!?
* Walking his new truck around and discovering all his new birthday toys
* Working on getting #9 and #10 teeth
* Singing, lots of laughing and blubbering his mouth (unfortunately slobbers flies everywhere)
* LOVES to play with mommies broom and mop
* Finally his hair is coming in... part blonde and part strawberry blonde
* Lastly very curious, still sticks everything in his mouth and has learned to throw a fit!

I'm back as a blogger

After creating a blog when I was pregnant, then switching to shuttefly to share the million pictures of Ben, I'm back in the blogging world. (thank you Milam). I am still trying to figure out how to make my page all cute like everyone else's, I don't understand but as Milam put it, just like good ole myspace. I don't want to turn into a technology challenged mom, so I have to conquer this. I don't have an iphone and I was told by a good friend I needed to get one so I wouldn't be that dumb mom who didn't know anything. I am still holding out strong and have my trusty ole flip phone. I just don't see the need to have internet on my phone when I sit at my desk all day in front of the internet, with the exception of the blocked sites by Devon.... too much facebookers at work. Rumor was, at any given moment during work hours, there were 200 + employees on facebook alone. They blocked our social networking sites, so we will all become socially retarded now. HAH
Many more posts to come... John will be so happy I'm back on here :) I might overload with Ben pictures, he is just so darn cute I can't resist snapping 24/7.