Roll out the Barrel

This is for grandma Jan, who has requested some video... Ben has now begun to master "grabbing for" toys and has just started the "playing with" toys phase.


He loves to sit in the high chair and likes to practice standing on mommy and daddy's laps.

He also has discovered his thumb and will put himself to sleep by sucking on it (sometimes).

We just had a really nice visit from Grandparents Tom and Barbara - we celebrated our Nordic roots by having an Oktoberfest meal on the patio with grilled brats, sauerkraut, corn on the cob, rice, beer, apple cider while listening to a great polka music CD that my dad burned a while back. Feels like the leaves should start falling any day now. Tom and Barbara had a great time with Ben - he put on a good show - lots of smiles with minimal spit-up. It's so fun watching how Ben brings out the kid in everyone!

My first week with kids at school went very well. It feels very weird to leave at 1:00 when there are kids still in the building. I'm feeling pretty on top of my game - learning the names of my 100 students - still have a few to go... We'll see how this next week goes - the first 5 day week.