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  • From Benjamin's New Camera...

    Stacey and Alex 11:30 am on December 26, 2007 | 0 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , , , , , toys,

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    Benjamin got a VTech Kidizoom camera for Christmas (thanks Nana and Papa!), and here are some of the pictures taken with it so far; all of these pictures are from the Christmas gathering this year in Sheboygan.

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    The camera is a 0.3 megapixel toy, and not a serious camera by an stretch of the imagination. The images in this post are reduced in size and slightly sharpened; one or two have had contrast/brightness adjustments as well.

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    The camera specs are as follows (taken from VTech’s website):

     .3 megapixels with 1.8" color screen

     Double viewer or LCD screen for easy photo taking

     Connector cables for TV or PC hook-up

     Photo editing capabilities

     SD card slot for extra memory

     3 preschool games for added fun

     Large hand bumpers for easy grip

     Changeable faceplates

     16MB internal memory (stores 200+ photos or up to 5 minutes of video)

    It’s very, very cool for what it is, and pretty inexpensive, too. It’s rubberized/ruggedized, and quite sturdy; it’s already been dropped quite a few times with no ill effects whatsoever. Oh, and if you buy one from Target (available both online and in their stores), it comes with a case, too…something that seems to be a Target-exclusive deal.

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    None of the pictures in this post were taken by Benjamin…yet. He’s still getting used to using it (and LOVES the thing!), but as he gets a little better with the camera, you can bet we’ll post his pictures, too.  :)

     
  • The Big-Boy Bed!

    Dad 22:52 pm on August 2, 2007 | 0 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , , , , toys

    Benjamin is in his new room tonight, in his new toddler bed!

    We got the room more or less ready (minus a few decorative details) a few days ago. He’s been in there to play several times over the last few days, too. He seems to love the room. He’s got his own little table and chairs, his toddler bed, a toybox, a beanbag chair, a bookshelf with some of his books, stars on the walls, etc. It’s a space theme, and the bedding/toybox and table/chairs all match with rockets and stuff on ‘em. We have a corner hanging rocket storage dealie from Ikea, and a little toddler-sized rocking chair we got from Goodwill for…3 bucks?

    All his favorite stuffed animals are lounging about in all of his chairs and he just goes batty in there. It probably sounds cooler than it actually looks, since we have bare white walls in there still, but hey, as long as he likes it… Pictures/posters and blue and silver stars are planned for the walls, any day now.

    Anyway, I spent about an hour and half today putting him back down over and over again getting him to realize he was in there for a nap today. His first time sleeping in there at all. He finally fell asleep, but he was half hanging off the bed with his blanket all piled up over his head–his standard thing for some reason. Mom went to put him to bed tonight and he pointed at his new room! He went down very easily, and he’s not been awake or fallen out of bed yet. I’ve got the baby monitor next to me here at my desk, though, just in case.

    Anyway, pretty cool! He’s transitioned so well with everything so far, and we’re soooo proud of him. Yay! :)

     
  • The Mouse

    Stacey and Alex 0:08 am on January 21, 2007 | 0 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , , Disney, , flying, , , , , , toys,

    Didn’t really get a chance to mention it before, but for Christmas, Lyle and Vicki popped for all of the grandkids and their parents to go with them to Disney World in Florida.

    We just got back on Thursday. It was a great trip! Really good experience for Benjamin; lots of socialization, lots of animals and sights and sounds for him to experience. He seemed to really enjoy himself!

    We were really concerned that we might have some trouble with him as far as naps and food were concerned, but he managed to nap when he needed it, falling asleep and staying asleep during some louder show finales, for example. He ate well, and he slept well during the overnights. He handled the later evenings just fine, and loved all the attention and company, playing with his cousins, etc.

    The most impressive aspect of the entire trip was how well he handled flying! While everyone else drove from WI down to FL, we ended up flying down, because 20 hours in a car seemed like a bad idea with an 11-month old. He was perfect on the plane in every way. Didn’t cry or become upset during takeoffs or landings, and lasted the entire flight with no trouble, despite being a lap passenger and not having a seat or an opportunity to get down and crawl around at all, being held the entire time, etc. He ate, he drank, he made faces and flirted with the stewardesses and other passengers…he is such a great social being!

    We ended up with a few souvenirs from the trip, and a few pictures, too. We’ll try to post some of the pictures soon.

     
  • Took him out to the ballgame...

    Stacey and Alex 10:59 am on July 29, 2006 | 0 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , , , , , , toys

    Benjamin’s first baseball game was last night, Friday night: Brewers home game against the Cincinnati Reds (Brewers lost, big surprise, 4-3). The three of us went with Mom’s parents, and we had fun, although it was waaaay too hot.

    Benjamin himself seemed to have had a good time… The big crowd (attendance was around 33,000) seemed both interesting and scary to him. He looked around a lot at all the people, all the activity, but when there was a big play and lots of cheering, or some sudden yelling or catcalling, he freaked out and started crying. :(

    Closer to the end of the game he seemed to be handling it a LOT better; we made sure to see that it was happy yelling and cheering, showing him that we were clapping and being excited and all that. It seemed to help.

    There were some fireworks at the start of the game; Benjamin LOVED them.

    Our little guy got hungry while we were there, too… Mom was a little nervous breastfeeding in front of 33,000 people, but did it anyway. Mom’s really not afraid to feed him pretty much anywhere, anytime. Go, Mom! :)

    Benjamin was pretty hyper duing a lot of the game, mostly due to the craziness of the crowd, but closer to the end, he managed to fall asleep for a while, which helped his demeanor. He was up past his bedtime, and it was starting to show. It was also really, really hot; we stripped him down to just his diaper, which seemed to help, but we were all dripping with sweat.

    Over the course of the game, he dropped almost every toy we brought on the peanut-shell- and beer-covered floor, too, so he was running out of things to play with…

    In the end, it all went pretty well. It looks like we can take him to another game sometime and not have any real problem. Dad’s pretty excited about eventually taking him to some hockey games now!

     
  • Rockin' and rollin'...a general update

    Stacey and Alex 20:13 pm on July 27, 2006 | 0 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , toys

    Benjamin’s getting to be more and more active. He’s also wanting to be more mobile than he’s currently capable of being, and it seems to be frustrating him a little bit. He’s rolling over back and forth like there’s no tomorrow, and he’s even kind of figured out how to mini-steamroll around the room, but only for a couple of flips before he stops… He can spin himself around pretty easily, either while on his back or his belly, and if you’re not paying close attention, he can move about ten feet across the floor and be in a totally different orientation, leaving you wondering how he even did it…

    He’s still not quite crawling, but he is up on all fours now pretty often (and more and more every day). He rocks back and forth now, and he’s been occasionally bunny-hopping his way across the floor in very short spurts. He’s got the idea of crawling down, we think, but he’s not quite coordinated enough to make it work; he gets on his stomach, realizes he can’t do what he wants to do, and eventually gets frustrated and needs some help.

    He sits up for an hour or longer at a time now, so we think he’s got that pretty well under control, unless he’s hungry or tired or bored, in which case he very readily falls back/over and cries for assistance or additional entertainment. Smart kid, heh. He’s getting so much better at entertaining himself for longer stretches of time, too, playing with different toys…and he’s quite the little talker when we’re playing with him, too! He is increasingly ticklish and loves to laugh–great sense of humor so far!

    Benjamin’s still on cereal twice a day (in addition to regular breast/bottled-breastmilk feedings), and that’s going really, really well. We’ll be introducing some vegetable baby food in a couple weeks or less, we think. He’s been sleeping really well all night long, too, which is fantastic… it’s so nice to have some quiet, alone time for Mom and Dad in the evenings. He’s up earlier in the morning now as a result, which has obliterated Dad’s morning 1.5 hours or so’s free work time…but Dad will get used to it.

    We started babyproofing the house recently, too. Fun! (ok, not really…) Outlet covers, some cabinet locks, etc. Crawling around on the floor trying to see things from his vantage point… We have some openings between rooms that aren’t the right size for standard baby gates, so we’re not sure what we’re going to do about that just yet, but we’re shopping around still hoping we’ll find some that will work. We finally got around to buying a new vacuum cleaner, too, so that’s taken care of now.

    We were also talking a couple days ago how he’s starting to look more like a little boy and less like a baby (cue Dad’s excuses about the lack-of-pictures situation here). We were also talking about how everyone has told us how quickly this time would fly by, and how we were prepared for it to go by quickly, but we’ve still been stunned at just how much more quickly it’s gone by than we ever could have imagined! We’ve probably said it a billion times in the last nearly-six months: amazing!

     
  • "Good news, everyone!"

    Stacey and Alex 23:45 pm on July 15, 2006 | 0 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , , , toys

    We found Benjamin’s (exact replacement) giraffe today!

    Gurnee Mills, IL Carter’s Outlet store. They had two, and we bought them both.

    Several people this week–some complete strangers–offered help and did some checking for us, and we want you to know we really, truly appreciate it.

    In the end, Carter’s Corporate was no help. Kohl’s was no help. And by no help, we mean not even a thanks-for-contacting-us response. Sad.

    ["Hello, Kohl's? Carter's? How about some customer service, please? Hello? Is this thing on?"]

    Anyway….Benjamin recognized the thing right away, and immediately started chewing on its head. heh. Good times…

    A picture of Benjamin’s “new” giraffe is here:

    Ben's 'new' giraffe rattle!

    Dad’s from-memory text description wasn’t too far off!

    Anyway, yippee!!!

    Finding the thing (all two of ‘em) didn’t just make our day, it made our MONTH (Dad’s in particular). We’ve been spending so much time calling checking around, emailing places, visiting stores, begging people online for help, etc, trying to find the thing. We sauntered into the store today expecting to be totally disappointed…AGAIN.

    We were totally in disbelief when we saw one hanging on a hook…and then another one behind it!

    If they’d had 10 of them, we probably would have bought them all ($10 a pop, ouch, heh)..no lie. Crazy! Dad about busted into tears today when he saw it…and again when Benjamin recognized it on the spot. He had it good and slobbered up before we’d even paid for it…

    Phew! :)

     
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