Someone got a haircut this week.  This is the before picture… obviously!  Ben’s hair is super light so I didn’t really notice till I took this picture with the sun behind him.  But yeah that hair was getting a little crazy.  He’s cute, regardless!

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I did a little informal photo shoot with each kid to record what they were like around their birthdays.  I will post Nata’s in the next couple days.

Ben’s eye color changed from blue to the exact same green/brown combination that Andy has!  Andy is very pleased by this.

Ben is fascinated by the airplanes that we frequently hear flying near our house, as seen in the picture above.  He always asks, “What’s ‘at? What’s ‘at?” (what’s that– his favorite phrase).  Then he imitates the sound of a plane! We think that must be a boy thing.

This might be one of the last good pictures of Ben crawling.  He is a pro at walking now!

Okay, so he’s not really that troublesome!  But it is pretty funny when he looks up with a mouthful of blue chalk.

Our fun little boy turned one on March 31!  Being a second child and all, Ben’s birthday cake (carrot cupcakes) was definitely not his first experience with sweet baked goods.  This boy knows exactly what to do with a cupcake.

For the kids, one of the highlights of dinner at my parents’ house is feeding crickets to Mike’s “dragon” (as Natalie calls him).  Ben is fascinated!  What a fun birthday treat.

Here’s our Ben, about to open his classic first birthday present from Grandpa Wilkie and Lennie, a soccer ball!  Natalie is smiling big because she honestly thought it was a giant piece of candy.

Happy Birthday, Ben! Don’t let your sister take all your stuff!

Lately, Ben has become very good at climbing and moving things around.  The other day I found him perched on top of Natalie’s chair, looking out the window.   Probably not the safest place, but he’s pretty careful when climbing up and down (and mostly supervised).

Ben loves his “Nah-nuh” (Nata) but does occasionally cause some trouble for her.  Within 15 minutes of the first chair climbing incident, he pushed Natalie’s chair right out from under her, leaving her hanging precariously.  She said, “Mom? Help!” but kept right on coloring.

But could this be the face of a trouble maker?   His first birthday is this week, by the way!