We've already got our tricker treating done. We went down our street with Ben in his wagon. He didn't fuss about his costume at all. He still has his hat on.
Headed out.
He's actually saying, "knock, knock" instead of "trick or treat."
John had been washing my car.
Last night Ben created this bit of artwork on the wall by the desk. He was so pleased with his "drawing" that I felt bad getting onto him. I had to tell him, "No, we don't draw on the wall," though. The crayon marks and only a minimal amount of paint came right off with the help of a Magic Eraser. 
Ben and I went to the zoo today. Since it's small, I didn't put him in his stroller. That was good when he wanted to walk around and look but not as much fun when he got tired and wanted to be carried. He is still adjusting to not taking a morning nap and starts getting cranky as it nears lunch time.
I know Ben isn't smiling (and my smile looks totally fake), but he really did enjoy riding on the train. We were the only two people on the train that trip around zoo and after we got back to the "station" the driver let us sit up front on the engine.
Stairs must be climbed.
Rylee Clair Stapleton was born October 26. She is 8 lbs 13 oz and 21 inches long. These are pics that I got from Danielle's mom.
Notice Emalee's "Big Sister" cap and "Big Sisters are the Coolest" t-shirt.
It rained all night and for a while this morning, but then the sun came out and it warmed up. I decided it was the perfect opportunity for Ben to try out his new rubber boots. He's never worn rubber boots before and didn't think he liked them at first. He kept them on because I told him Uncle Zac wears boots, but he would just stand still and not take a step. I put on my rubber boots (which belonged to Zac many years ago), found a puddle, stood Ben in it, then demonstrated how to splash. He caught on to the fun and loved stomping around in his boots. Water was not necessary. We went up and down the street, around the house, up the ladder, and down the slide. 
Ben is feeling much better today. He's had no fever and only one litle spot of hives.
Crawling through a box tunnel. We still have lots of boxes.
Ben has not had a good day. He's had a cold for several days, but last night he started running fever. I gave him Tylenol and his fever was down by bedtime, but I continued to give him medicine through the night. I waited a couple of hours this morning to see if his temp would go back up and it did. He also kept breaking out all over. First his legs after his bath. That went away. But after nap, they were back on his stomach. That's the picture. 
Ben swinging with Danielle, Emalee, and Will. While they swang, Ben sang B-I-N-JO. They also talked about chickens. Ben told Will "chicken nuggets very good." 
Emalee holding her "little cousin" Aubrey.
Ben and my cousin Susie's daughter, Hadlie Jo, checking each other out. She is four months older than Ben.
Ben never lets me feed him. MawMaw Wilma managed to slip a small bite in his mouth, which he said "tastes good." Then he happily let her feed him.
I was beginning to wonder if Ben would ever eat with a spoon. He's shown no interest in doing more than stirring until tonight. It was funny watching him try to figure out how to get it off the spoon once he got it in his mouth.
Fall arrived, at least temporarily, last night. Ben has a cold so we even pulled out the hat with earflaps to go to the store this morning. This is the first time Ben's worn jeans since spring. He has such short legs (Can't imagine where he got that from). These jeans are 12 month and they're a little baggy.
"Ummm, good." (His actual words.)
Bigger bite.
And bigger.
Lesson learned.
I took this picture a couple of days ago and hadn't posted it. Ben climbs up so that he can move the mouse around and punch buttons. When I looked at the computer later, I found a picture of him from the blog opened multiple times. Once he opened a web page 17 times before I could get it stopped.
This afternoon we went to the park. Last week we went to the park by the library. It is very, very nice but all the equipment is for bigger kids. Today we tried out the park by the Y. I was glad to find that it did have a play area for the smaller kids. Ben and I were the only ones there so he could climb and run around without me having to worry about him getting trampled.
It made me kind of nervous to let him climb up by himself, but he knew exactly where he was going -- to the slide. I had meet him at the slide because he couldn't figure out how to go from standing to the sitting position needed to slide.
In the late afternoon, we went for a ride down the street in Ben's wagon. I took this picture of Ben in front of our new house for our former neighbor who asked me specifically to take this picture and send it to him. 
There is a big sandy circle in our backyard where a UFO landed (or the former owners had a large blue plastic pool that killed the grass). Ben had lots of fun playing there in the dirt this evening.
He's saying, "Uh-oh" as if I didn't watch him pour an entire bucket of sand in his lap. 
Ben finally figured out how to use a shovel. That made moving sand much easier than one tiny handful at a time. 
Ben loves Hal and amazingly Hal has extreme patience with Ben. When he gets tired of Ben he hides or climbs where Ben can't reach.
