All Boy

My kid is all boy. Here are some reasons why:

• He loves trucks and trains above all things.
• He loves--loves--for his Daddy to pick him up and throw him across the room. Actually, he loves all forms of horseplay.
  
• He still does not care at all if his diaper is dirty. Dirtiness in any form is no problem for him. This makes me think potty training is a little ways off....
• He absolutely loves to be outside, especially in a wooded or natural area. This is more a reflection of how much he is like his daddy than how boyish he is, but still.
• He loves to yell loudly and make loud noises.
  
• Nathan made him a fort for the first time this weekend out of couch cushions, and he no sooner had it up than Noah went straight in. It cracked us up that he knew exactly what it was for and knew exactly what to do.
• He does daring things that make me afraid for him.
• He likes to throw things off the front balcony. Nathan often has to go downstairs and wade through the plants in the front yard to find a stray toy.
  
• He is pretty athletic. He's a fast runner, I'm telling you.
  
• He has a six pack. No lie.

Imagination

My son officially has an imagination now. This evening, he opened up my closed hand, pretended to pick something out of it, then pretended to eat it. So funny!

Boring? Sorry.

Hey peeps.

Sorry if the blog has been boring lately. This week, Nathan is out of town in Canada, and his sister, Deb, is here to keep Noah and me company. So we've been having fun with her this week and haven't had much time for posting. And if I did post about our week, I have to say it'd be pretty uninteresting, since we're having a nice but LAZY time. Which has been quite lovely.

Anyway, give me a couple of weeks, and I promise the blog will get more interesting.

Until later....

4th of July

On the 4th of July, we headed over to our Aussie friends Jason and Jeanette's apartment. We were all in the same Bible study for several years, but J&J moved home to Adelaide a few years back, yet somehow ended up back in the States in Seattle for a while. They are here in Boston for a couple of months this summer, and we are enjoying hanging out with them, as well as getting to know their little girl, Hannah! Jason, Jeanette, and Hannah are the three on the bottom right of the picture.

Anyway, the apartment they're subletting for the summer is on the 22nd floor, overlooking the Charles River, where the city of Boston fires off tons of fireworks from a barge in the river. So they invited everyone over to play together and enjoy the fireworks at their place. It was a great time!

I feel that I should also mention that the people in this picture are some of our closest friends in Boston, yet somehow their pictures never end up on the blog. I think we just don't take pictures of each other when we're together. Thankfully, though, Jason is a very gifted photographer and had his fancy dancy camera out for the evening. Anyway, considering that these are our good friends, you should know who they are. From left to right on the top row, there's Carey, Bethany, Bonnie, David, little Nathan, Bryan, Noah, Nathan, and me. Left to right on the bottom row is Sara and Abigail (they belong with little Nathan and Bryan), Jeanette, Hannah, and Jason.

Noah's New Stats

Noah had his 18-month well baby appointment yesterday. Here are his new stats:

Length: 34-1/4 inches (95th percentile)
Weight: 27 lbs. (65th percentile)

Lookin' good!

Noah's favorite activity:

Free Arbonne Discount for a Year

Hey peeps,

So Arbonne is running a pretty awesome special this month, and I thought that I'd let you all know about it, in case you want to jump on it before it expires.

Basically, you can sign up as a Preferred Client and get a 20% discount for a year. There is usually a $29 fee associated with this, but they are waiving it for the month of July. I've been with Arbonne since 2005, and they've never waived that fee.

On top of that, you can get a free product with your first order, up to a $79 value. (!) In order to get it, your order must be at least $150. So a possible order might look something like this: Anti-aging Wash, Toner, Eye Creme, and Serum. Then you'd get the Night Creme for free. Plus, you'll get 20% off of that $150. Not a bad deal at all!

If you're interested in signing up, just email me at laurenbenesh@gmail.com, and I will send you the link you need to get set up for a year's worth of Arbonne savings for free.

If you have any questions, please feel free to email me. And if you'd like to take a look at the products, you can find them all at www.arbonne.com.

Remember that this offer expires on July 31.

How Did He Do It?

Often, I rock Noah to sleep for his nap while listening to the classical station on the radio.

Today, he went to sleep while listening to the finale of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony (the one that sounds like "Ode to Joy"). I don't know how anyone can go to sleep while listening to that! It's too exciting. But he did. It just made me laugh.