Chuck E. Cheese

We took Ben to Chuck E. Cheese's today. Chris and I were more excited than Ben. I haven't been to Chuck E. Cheese in a LONG time. The pizza still tastes the same! I became a member of the Chuck E. Cheese club so that I could get good coupons before we went. We saved a lot of money, but we also spent more money on tokens than we should have. We had so many left that Chris and I were just kind of trying to spend them as quick as we could because it was 12:30pm and it was getting crowded. We ended up with 480 tickets and got Ben a cute Chuck E. Cheese stuffed animal. We had to pay the difference, but oh well.



When we first got there, Ben was very apprehensive about things. He's never been to a place like this before and I think it was just a lot to take in. It wasn't crowded at all when we first got there, which was great. We ordered cheese pizza and some fruit punch, both of which Ben loved. Ben did not like the kiddy rides at first. They scared him once they started moving. He kept saying "all done!" and trying to get us to pick him up.

He liked this motorcycle cop one more than the bug car thing. There was a little screen he could watch to chase down bad guys.

I thought this clock ride was going to go all the way around, but it didn't. Ben still didn't really care for it. He was more about watching other kids spaz around and play.

One of his favorite things to do was to bring all of the tickets Chris and I (sometimes Ben) won and bring them back to Mimi. She mostly stayed at the table, watching our cameras and purses. Thank you! One time Ben had two long strings of tickets, one in each hand, and was dragging them back to Mimi. A few women laughed at how cute and determined he looked on the way back to the table to give them to Mimi. He was on a mission!

This is one of those simulator rides that you can choose a roller coaster or a flying thing, and the screen makes it seem like you're in the rollercoaster/fly thing. The seat also moves. Ben was more interested in watching the kids play air hockey. Chris seemed pretty into it, though.

I can't figure out how to flip these pictures (the blogger flipped them this way for some reason). Anyway, if you put a token in the booth, you can get your picture sketched! It was worth it. Ben looked at the camera right as it took the picture. The entire time before that he was looking away.

Chris got a good nostril shot. Ben was getting fussy and Chris accidentally pressed the button before they were ready. I still think it's a funny picture.

Kim and Jeremy came with a child from Ben's school, but I don't think I'm allowed to post pictures of him due to confidentiality? I'm not sure. Better safe than sorry! Anyway, they had fun and it was good to see them there. Tiffany was also there and took some cute pictures. I'm excited for her to post them!

Slide

Ben got his first slide last week (bed-head pic above). Mimi bought it for him. It's kind of big, but we're keeping it in our living room until it's not over 100 degrees outside and until the mosquito population drops a little bit. So, it'll be in our living room for a while. Ben loves it! At first he was a wuss about it, then fell off the ladder a few times so he started to get a fear of it, but then I went down and "wheeee'd!!" enthusiastically a few times and Ben decided that he wanted to have fun, too.

We have to put socks on his feet because sometimes he loses his bravery and tries to stop halfway down, using his feet. If he does that he flies forward and lands on his face at the end of the slide, so we just decided he can't do that anymore. We keep a padded playmate at the end of the slide because sometimes he has rough landings, but he's getting very good at Kerri Strugg'in it and sticking his landings.

Sometimes he can't quite position his feet at the top of the slide, like one foot gets stuck under his butt. At first, he would scream/cry about it until we would help, but Chris and I decided to put an end to that and now when he gets stuck, he just looks at you and says "Please?" while signing please. I pretty much give him what he wants when he says please, it's so cute!

July Really Sucked.

These pictures are the only July pictures that are worth posting. They're from the Fourth of July in Hot Springs. :)

I haven't updated because July was much busier than I would have ever wanted it to be. I had two grad. classes going at once and the amount of homework I did was unbelievable. Chris is awesome and pretty much raised Ben by himself for a month. I had to lock myself in my bedroom (away from prying little boy hands that slam keyboards and rip papers) so I could get my work done. I turned in my last summer class assignment today, so I'm very excited to take a few weeks off from homework before my next class starts.

Lets see...Ben has been...destructive? Accident prone? Pretty much all boy. I've come to not stress out about the amount of injuries he gets while climbing the couch, sliding down his slide, and playing around the living room. This past month Ben has managed to injure himself (not severely) multiple times. It's a good thing he's got a thick head. I think he's built like a pachycephalosaurus, the dinosaur with a thick skull used to ram things. Ben bounced himself off the couch and landed on his head on the hardwood floor, then when I picked him up he was spitting out blood. I calmed down slightly once I realized it was just a tooth bleeding and not brain matter leaking out his mouth. That happened on our 3 year anniversary. Friday at school Ben fell off the teacher's computer chair he wasn't supposed to be climbing and reinacted the couch incident, crying hard and spitting out blood. Awesome. At one point he somewhat fell into our open vent on the bathroom floor (we leave it open because it's SO HOT and the vent actually prevents a lot of air from getting through) and cut his toe on metal. It was just his left leg that fell in, but still. He was trying to close the bathroom door on me because he knows he's not supposed to be in there, so he kind of deserved it.

Speaking of the bathroom door, Ben also locked himself in the bathroom by opening a drawer right next to the door and placing a plunger in it so the drawer couldn't be inched closed. By the time I got into the bathroom (using a puzzle board to push the plunger out of the drawer through the crack in the door), he'd spread out all of his tub toys on the ground, a toilet wand, and of course the plunger. All of these incidents happened on my watch. I'd just like to say that I'm allowing Ben to explore his environment and learn his boundaries. :)

Chris and I are going to Branson this weekend to celebrate my summer grad. classes being over. I'm very excited! Hopefully we'll have some good pictures to post.