Ben in the snow

Here he is- ready for his first steps in some snow (from last Monday's big storm)...

His first few steps didn't turn out so well for him, as he ended up with a face full of snow. Boy, wasn't he mad! Can't really say I blame him, poor guy.

We did finally get out and enjoy it though!

Happy Retirement Mom/Nana!

Yay! Mom has retired from the Maine State Library and can now focus on her quilting/sewing projects. Congratulations Mom/Nana! We love you & are excited to be able to see you more now! Check out Mom's website: www.bonniedwyer.com

He's a-walkin' all the time!

Here's Ben-jam with Great Grammie Wentzell. They were racing their machines down the hall at Great Grammie's place.

He loves to walk around outside in the driveway- especially when there's action with the building of our barn.

This was taken today (Sat) and it is COLD outside. I bundled Benners up in a great fleece suit (thanks Owen & Andrew!), hat & mittens and we walked the fire engine around in the driveway and filled up the bird feeder. That was enough of the cold for a bit- the wind from the lake took our breath away, but Benners loves to be outside...

Happy Thanksgiving

Here Ben is helping me cut up the pumpkin for a pie. :) This is the pumpkin that his Grampie grew for him and put his name on.


Happy Thanksgiving! Here's a shot of the Dwyers & Jewetts (minus Jay, who had to work on Thanksgiving). Ben with his cousins~ surrounded by girl Dwyers!

Barn Raising Part One

It has begun. We've got a frost wall and are waiting for a slab to be poured. With the cold weather (and rain!) we've been having, the slab hasn't been able to go in. Maybe this week?

Fall

Ben loves to be outside & we go walking through the woods more now (since he's actually doing a lot of the walking himself!)

We went to Nezinscot Farm in Turner last weekend for breakfast, and Ben and Jay spent some time watching the animals have their breakfast.

At Longfellow's Greenhouses this past weekend. Ben's biggest interest was in pushing one of the worker's carts around. She said if he could push that cart, she'd give him a job (little did she know that he actually could push the cart!)...
It was neat to see the holiday decorations already~ we're getting into the spirit! =D

The Big Dig

It's finally happening~ we're having our garage built. It's getting pretty exciting around here! The excavator came in on Friday and cement could be poured as early as Monday. We'll have the earth work done this coming week, then the structure will probably start going up next month~ it's going to be a timber frame 2-car garage w/a workshop for Jay, and a 2nd floor for storage and... whatever! Yay!
Ben (AND JAY) have enjoyed watching all the big machines in the driveway--- they've both been in another world watching all the big rigs.

2007 WORLD CHAMPIONS

It's great to be a Sox fan! :)
Jay was the real trooper during the season~ he actually stayed awake to watch most of the games! I, on the other hand, knew that Benners' 5am wake-up would hurt less if I went to bed at a decent hour. So I did. But Jay recorded most of the exciting parts, so I didn't miss much.
GO RED SOX!!! WOO-HOOOOO!!!

October, really?

Today was a GORGEOUS day here in Maine. Hot even, some might say. Ben was enjoying being out in his birthday suit, and Jay caught a great picture of us in the late afternoon light.

I took this shot this morning~ a view from our porch out across the lake. You can see the colors, which would make you think "Fall", right? But it got to, like, 80 degrees today!

Oh, yeah~ And GO RED SOX!!!!!

No fear

I walked into Ben-jam's room to find him standing on his rocking horse. He loves to get on it from one side, stand up on it, and get off on the other side... then he walks around and does it again and again. No fear! He's able to get down off the couch himself, climb the flight of stairs with no problem, and has started to climb onto just about everything he can reach. I think we're in trouble... :) I'm thinking we should start him on a rock climbing wall...

Visit w/the Stewarts

Jake and Cyn arrived from Texas for a long weekend visit & met Benners for the first time. We had a great time with them. Jay took Ben and the Stewarts to Camden for an afternoon and B found that he enjoyed smooshing his nose against the window of a coffee shop. Jake showed Ben the 'real' way to play the guitar, and Ben's love for music seemed to blossom with the Stewarts' visit (lots of dancing and moving to the groove)...

We also went out for Thai food, watched the Red Sox, enjoyed some margaritas, hiked up Mt. Pisquah, and spent a lot of time playing with little man. Great visit! It's our turn to head to Austin...

Go Red Sox!!!

Sitting in the driveway in his brand new, hand-me-down clothes (thanks, Henry!!!).

Ben-Jam is all decked out in his red, white, and blue and it worked!
Nice work, Sox... Now let's just hope the Yankees lose tonight. :)

It's been so nice out, and Jam just loves to be outside. He'll ask to be picked up then throw his body and point towards the door. He'll also reach for whoever is closest to the door, in hopes that they'll take him outside.
He's really started walking a lot~ across the living room and into the kitchen. He's still a bit unsteady, but he's figured it out. So fun...

Such a good sleeper!

We've been working on Benjamin's sleep and are happy to report that he's sleeping through the night for the past almost-two-weeks! He's going to bed between 7:15pm-7:45pm and sleeping all the way through until 5:30am-6:30am! :) It feels nice to get such a stretch of sleep in. We're so happy for the little guy (and ourselves!)...

Apple Picking

We took Benjamin on his first apple-picking outing (and mine!) over the weekend. We had beautiful weather and got a nice big bag of apples. I'm hoping they will magically appear in the form of an apple pie one of these days when I arrive home from fieldwork. :) We went to Lakeside Orchards and got a ride to the trees on the wagon pulled by a tractor. Ben had a great time, and I've never seen him so interested in apples before!

Apple Pickin' (and eatin')

Table Rock Hike

Here's a photo of Pops and I at the top of Table Rock yesterday. We had a great hike and despite the lack of view, we got some nice sunshine on the way down...

Extraordinary View?

Pops and I went hiking in Grafton Notch yesterday~ our annual hike to Table Rock. It was a great hike, but there were no views! The fog socked us in at the top & here is what we saw from the top:

13+ months old...

... and such a big boy! Benjam had us thinking he was going to be walking any time, but after a week or so of taking lots of steps, he's decided to stick with crawling for now. Guess he's more interested in getting to where he wants to go than in standing up and walking there! He's got 6 teeth and really looks like a little boy. Here's a picture of him just about to pick up the pumpkin that Grampie Dwyer grew for him (he did manage to pick it up and roll it off the step, much to his delight). And another photo that shows his big blue eyes!
Ben gets his Mumma around this week, but starting on Monday she's back to fieldwork four days/week. Lucky for us we have beautiful weather this week.

Our Outdoors Boy

Ben-jam (also, latest nickname: 'B-Sting') loves to be outside (no, he's never been stung by a bee...). He points to the door frequently, and just loves to be outside~ walks in the stroller, sitting at the beach with his legs in the water, and even (today) out in the rain (he'd look up at the sky and laugh when drops of rain hit him in the face). He's very interested in our retaining wall & we think maybe he's practicing to take up rock climbing. He's an adrenaline junkie, for sure. Wonder where he gets that from! :)

Sleep ideas?

Hi all... I'm sending out feelers to see if people can give us some ideas on how to get Benjam to sleep past 4:30-5am... He goes to bed around 7 or 7:30 (we've tried later with no difference in when he wakes up), and usually sleeps through until 4:30 or 5am, at which time he's raring to go! I've tried nursing him/rocking him back to sleep, bringing him into bed with me, doing nothing, offering him toys in his crib... Wondering if there's something I'm missing & if y'all have any suggestions or stories to share about a similar situation? We're SO pleased that he's sleeping 8-10 hours at a stretch (the getting up 1-2 times/night was getting hard), but are wondering how (IF???) we can encourage him to sleep later in the morning. Any thoughts would be appreciated. If you don't want to post here on the blog, just email me.
Thanks!
Katie & Jay (very proud, and tired, parents of ONE-YEAR-OLD Jam)

Katie's Fieldwork

I have just 2 days left of my first fieldwork placement! It's hard to believe how quickly it's gone by. It's been really interesting and I've liked working in the mental health setting. I get a few days off and then start up my 2nd (and final!) fieldwork placement~ working with kiddos. That should be really interesting as well. If all goes according to plan, I'll be done at the end of the year and will (finally) have my masters in occupational therapy! Wish me luck with the kids!

Around the lake

We had some visitors in front of Sue and Phil's house recently~ a flock of geese. Very cool. Buzz cat was spending lots of time down on the bank, watching the birds float by. :)

We also had a skid steer for a couple of days. Jay had a blast with it, and Ben thought it was pretty interesting as well. Jay was able to move around the loam and gravel piles we'd had delivered, as our landscaping slowly comes together.

There's always some project going on around here! It's never dull, that's for sure.

Hope everyone has a wonderful Labor Day weekend.

He's lots of fun!

Benjamin is learning new things all the time. He's just about walking, but not quite... He's having fun eating, playing the guitar, and playing at the beach. He's really getting into his personality & is laid back, funny, and starting to get into so much trouble!

Happy Birthday Ben-Jam!

Benjamin Thomas is a year old today! We had a small birthday party for him on his Daddy's birthday. He had his first taste of chocolate cake and opened up his presents. Guests included Uncle Matty, Auntie Jessica & cousins Claire, Gracie, and Madelyn; Grammie & Grampy Simpson; and Nana & Grampie Dwyer. We had a good time & good weather!