Ben's smile, bumps and bruises

Ah, Mommyhood.

I swear to God, that kid's smile melts my heart everytime. As he's grown, he's developed this special little grin that starts in his eyes and spreads to his mouth. By the end of the smile cycle, it's a big, squinty-eyed smile that shows all 8 teeth.

My dear Ben was banged up and gashed on Saturday. It was a rough day to be Ben. We started out the day by going to our old apartment to get a headstart on the cleaning. What mischief could a 12-month old possibly get into in an empty apartment? He found it. Our old apartment was the lower half of a duplex, originally a one-family house. So a closet in our dining room was actually stairs going up to the second floor (but led nowhere since it was converted). Ben thought it would be fun to climb the stairs while Mamma and Daddy weren't in the room. Bang.

He got a big old egg on his left eyebrow, complete with little cut that didn't bleed much. But geez, it looked like it hurt. We held him for about 30 minutes until he finally fell asleep. He wasn't crying after a couple minutes, but he DID NOT want to be put down.

Later in the day, as Chester was "fixing" the tub faucet in the bathroom (he broke it), Ben was helping and slipped and hit his forehead on the tub. That's the reason for the nice red bruise above his right eye.

Then, when he toddled into the bathroom to find trouble for himself, he played with the toilet seat. We're buying a lock for that thing tonight. Why? He whipped the seat cover down on his head so hard, it knocked him to the floor. Ouchie.

Yesterday was a good day, though. He seemed a lot happier in the new house. No crying jags, no whining and neediness. Just exploring and playing and cuddling.

Saturday night, my mom took me and my little family and my sister-in-law and her two boys out for dinner after we got done cleaning. I ordered chili as my soup, and I let Ben try a few kidney beans. After he got used to the slight spiciness of it, he seemed to really enjoy it. I felt better to know that there is now another food he will eat. French fries are still his favorite. One in each fist.