after golf on friday, december 29th, we went back to uncle joe's house for dinner with his family. caran and joe also came up and brought ben along. he's had camera's stuck in his mug every since his first day alive a little more than a year ago, so by now he knows the drill. but today's digital cameras are different from their film counterparts in that they often shine an orange light before the picture is taken to help meter the light. so now ben is trained that when he sees that orange light, he immediately breaks out into this cheeseball smile for the camera. it's actually at the point where it's hard to sneak a shot of him as he really looks without getting the funny smile. i mean, the cheesy face is still really cute too, actually it's just a riot seeing him react to the camera.

not pictured above is my cousin kevin, who for christmas got a brand new nintendo wii. we had a good time playing tennis and bowling, and the fun part was even the old people (like my dad) could get in on the fun since it's so easy and intuitive to use.

ben, meanwhile, found his own fun ways to play with the wii accessories. for some reason, ben loves electronic things, he just loves pushing buttons. but his real passion is phones. he loves to play with anyone's cell phone, and the amazing thing is he really understands the idea behind them. he'll open it up, push a few buttons, then hold it up to his neck under his ear and start babbling. he often says a phrase that sounds like hi ya and when he says it in the phone sounds just perfect. what's really funny though is he thinks anything electronic is a phone, like he'll pick up the tv remote and hold it up like a phone. so too with the wii nunchuk controller, he started carrying that thing around and talking into it.

tagged: baby funny smile