John, Jim, and Mr. Elder went to the camp after dinner Thursday. Ben and I joined them Friday evening. Ben had never spent the night at the camp before. He had fun riding the four-wheeler. 
Coloring with Grandaddy.
Sliding down the back of the couch. He would stand up, then somehow let his legs slide out from under him. He thought this was so much fun and did it over and over.
Ben, MV, and Janey played near each other rather than with each other. 
This was so funny. Mary Varner took one end of the jump rope, handed Ben the other, and then they stood in front of Janey as if they expected her to jump. She can't even crawl.
Right after this Janey grabbed hold of Ben's ear and he couldn't get down fast enough.
This is just one of many attempts to take a decent pic of the three of us. Ben's determination not to be in the group pic is a foreshowing of what was to happen the next day when we took him, MV and Janey to have their pic taken together. We arrived first and I had some indiviual pics taken of Ben for Christmas. He did great, smiling, and doing whatever the photographer asked of him. Next MV and Janey had their pic taken together. Finally, we were to seat them all together on a child-sized couch. Ben refused to sit. He locked his legs and wouldn't bend. After several minutes of trying to convince him to sit (or even stand) beside Janey and MV, we gave up. Last year these pictures made me crazy. This year I had lower expectations and wasn't bothered by the fact that we didn't actually get the picture that we went to have taken.
We drove to Jackson after lunch to have Thanksgiving dinner with the Elders. Ben wanted to wear his glasses like Mama and Daddy. He fell asleep about two seconds after I took this picture and slept in his sunglasses the whole trip.
Thursday morning we looked out the window and saw this fawn in our backyard. It saw us but didn't run away. 
It would have been hard not to see Ben in his bright red Mickey Mouse pajamas. 
Eventually, its mama came and got it. You could practically see her telling it, "You do not go in peoples' yards. Get out of here." And then they ran away.
I know it's not quite Thanksgiving, but we're already starting to think about Christmas. Cara bought Ben this Santa Claus hat. I bought him the Fisher Price nativity that plays Away in a Manger. We've listened to Away in a Manger about a jillion times in two days.
This morning I had a cup of hot chocolate. Ben, of course, wanted some. When I got near the end of the cup and it had gotten very cool, I let him have it. 
Ben did much better at story hour today. He didn't always listen, but he did stay in the area. He also, with some persuasion and a lot of help, did the craft. Below is his turkey. I put it together, but he really liked the glue stick. You can see that he colored on it after I got it put together. 
I've been collecting bottles and jugs to use as bowling pins. Ben and I tried them out this evening. He loved the clatter and crash of the pins falling. Ben does not have expensive taste. He loves playing with stuff like this. One of the Dr. Pepper bottles we put peas in one at a time. Another we took outside and collected acorns in. I also filled a laundry basket full of garbage -- a cereal box, an egg carton, a butter bowl, an orange juice carton, a salad dressing bottle, etc -- and he loves it.
Here are some pictures I took last week on Monday and Wednesday. Ben got the stomach virus on Monday night. I came down with it Wednesday night. I think we are both finally completely recovered. We were both starving today and ate and ate and ate. We've been just picking at our food since last week. 
After John had been here the week before, Ben was really sad to find him gone Monday. He colored this picture for John. 
There is a little spot on the side of Ben's face. He was trying to open one of the doors on the entertainment center. It stuck and he jerked it. It slammed into his face and scratched him.
We were making brownies. Ben tried to stick a chocolate-covered spatula in his mouth, I attempted to block it (I was going to wipe some of the batter off so that he wouldn't make a mess) and instead slung chocolate all over his face. 
Both Mama and Cara got on to me for not updating my blog. I've taken pictures every day, but haven't posted. I've just had too much help every time I've sat down at the computer. Ben loves to look at the pictures on the computer. I put it on slideshow and he bangs away at the keyboard. He's managed to change my background every day.
Ben has been learning to drink out of a regular cup. After a few spills and choking incidents, he's gotten pretty good at it. 
Water tastes so much better from a big cup.
Ben's watching himself in the oven door drink from the cup.
He helped Daddy rake the leaves for a few minutes this morning. He wasn't in a very good mood, though. He woke up at 5 a.m. and was getting very tired. So was I.
Today I took Ben to story hour at the library for the first time. We haven't been before because it conflicted with his morning nap, which he no longer takes. He wasn't particularly interested in listening to the book being read. There was simply to much to explore. We'll keep going, though, and I think he'll learn to sit and listen. 
It was nearly lunchtime when we left the park and Ben requested french fries from McDonalds. When we got home, he was so tired that he laid his head on the table and ate his lunch. The time change has him really messed up. He's waking up at 6 a.m., but I'm trying to keep him as close to regular schedule as possible hoping he will adjust soon and go back to sleeping until 7 a.m.
