Shootin' Hoops

Here's Ben playing with the basketball goal he got for his birthday - I think he likes it!! 

Look Who's Two!

Two and Terrific!!  :)  Ben's just cute as a button (sorry about his braggy mommy, ha ha!) and his Elmo Party just fit him to a tee!  We invited about five friends and went to the pool to have cupcakes and go swimming.  

Check him out swinging on a BIG BOY swing!  I think that was the first time he'd done that!

 

The theme of his party was Elmo.  Although he's not into TV in general, much less Sesame Street, he does seem to be interested in Elmo and has a few books and stuffed Elmos that he likes to play with.

We had cupcakes (with Elmo's face on them, of course!), fruit, goldfish (Elmo's pet is a goldfish, ha ha!), and "Elmo Oreos" ~ it wouldn't be a celebration without Ben's favorite food, you know ;)  The swirly lollipops are favors that said "Thanks for coming!" 

Lighting the candle for the birthday boy!!  We practiced the night before and he LOVES blowing candles out, asking, "More Candle"!



Ben's friends Sophia, Clara, Liam, Ensley, and Addison were there...

...and also Mimi & Pop, Grandmama & Grandaddy, and Great-grandfather Pawpaw & Ms. Alice (all the way from Gastonia!)

He had a ball opening presents (here he is wearing his new Baby Banz sunglasses he got!), but it was a little hard for him not to play with what he had just opened...I can understand that!! :).

Sliding on the playground with Chandler...

And last, but not least, (thanks to the Oreos ) looking more like Cookie Monster than Elmo ~ Ben and Mama :)

Anna ~ 32 Weeks

These days, little Anna is stilllll kicking a LOT.  I just read that this week is the peak of her movements and from now on she'll move less and less because she'll be getting cramped in there!  She is turned head down now, and should weigh about 4 pounds.  Mama is feeling a lot better, maybe because I started taking probiotics and iron supplements.  I try to remember to take a Tums every night before bed because I've started getting bad leg cramps in the middle of the night like last time.  The doctor told me that Tums would help even more than eating bananas!  I'm also trying to stay out of the pool (anything to avoid more Cryptosporidium!), but it's hard with Ben...he keeps saying, "Mama in!  Mama in!"

Anna's room is finally coming together!  I found curtains,

fabrics, paint colors, a cute storage bench...

I only need to get a crib (trying to narrow it down between two choices), dresser and chair.  They're not washed yet, but I did put all her clothes on hangers and organized them by size to get a better idea of what else we might need.

At my 32 week doctor visit today, everything looked great as it always has so far - Praise God for that! :)  My feet are starting to swell a little some days, but other than that, I'm so blessed to have had a GREAT couple of weeks here lately!  Here's the latest belly shot progression...we missed a few weeks in between 20 and 28, but we'll try to make up for it in the next few weeks!

Edisto Part 2

More beach pictures!  Hopefully they're not boring, being so many, but I sure do think they're cute :)  Case in point:  Ben's "smile" for the camera...

Looking cute at a shrimp boil we went to one night:

Mark and Ben ~ I do think Ben's got his daddy's feet :)

Mama and Ben (and Anna!)

This one's alive!!  Ben liked finding these and would say "CRAB!"

More naps - this time with Daddy.

Ben's absolute favorite thing to do is play with water in any way...here he is with Grandaddy.

The whole gang (except Grandmama and Grandaddy, who were taking the pictures and getting Ben to smile!)

Edisto 2011

This year, we tried out a new beach for our summer vacation.  We went to Edisto Beach, SC with the whole family, and Grandmama and Grandaddy!  Ben was LOVING all the family time, of course.  We had a great time just relaxing on the beach, as that is really just about all there is to do there, ha!! 

One thing we thought was really cool was that there were SO many dolphins!  You could look out at almost any time and after a minute, see several swimming in front of you.  Fun!  Ben was a little hesitant about the sand and water at first, saying, "UH OH!" about his feet being sandy.  We laughed and laughed and just told him he's going to be sandy for the next week or so!!

He got used to it pretty quickly, thank goodness.  I guess he still didn't like it, though, because at least once a day he'd ask me to go "home"...one day he even asked me a few times for "home" and "bath" ~ ha ha!!

There were so many great pictures from our trip, I couldn't decide, so I'm going to make two posts from them all....here are the first few.

Ben eating his favorite food, Oreos.

Finally getting used to being sandy!

Fishing with brother Chandler...

and Mason!

 I'm so cute!!!

Fun times splashing Daddy :)

Napping on Mama's lap at the beach (Love Mason's action shot eating lunch in the background!)

"Otter Island" (no, there were no actual otters..ha ha)

Allllllmost Two!

Only a week and a half until my baby is TWO!  Here are a few pictures of him lately that make me smile :)

Ben's favorite pair of shoes are his boots.  He has yet to wear them in actual rain, but wants to put them on all the time!  The cowboy hat is fun, too, but a bit too small....ha!

Still wearing his rain boots....a favorite outside activity lately is to play with the water hose.  At first he wasn't strong enough to pull the handle, but he quickly figured out a way!  He's pretty good about not squirting water in the garage when we tell him not to, but it is everywhere else!  That little booger has actually squirted both of us with water in the face a time or two as we were coming over....REAL funny as long as you're not the one getting wet!

Ben also had his first visit to the dentist last month.  He's got all his baby teeth in except for three molars.  Dr. Bowers was really great with him, even though he absolutely did NOT want to open up -  not even just for a look!  I guess we'll attempt a cleaning next time :)

Ben and Bunny.  Bunny's presence is requested/required at every nap and night-night time.  He's already getting a little worn and dirty, but thank goodness, they sell more "Bunnies" on Amazon.  I've got the page bookmarked in case Bunny #1 goes missing!!

Some highlights for "What's New?" with Ben...

He's very loving lately, giving us lots of kisses and wanting to snuggle.  This makes my day!!  Sometimes he comes up and says, "I love you, Mama" totally unsolicited!  When I'm rocking him for a nap, he'll often reach up and touch my face and say I love you....

Ben asks for "appy jacks" and Oreos all the time...at dinner every night, even though we NEVER have them for a meal, ha!  He also asks for eggs a lot, and likes them with ketchup. (He must have gotten this from his Dad!!)

Favorite Books:  Yummy, Yucky and I Spy

Funny sayings:  “Mama Eat It!” when I'm trying to feed him something he doesn't want, and "Baby Aunt Anne" is what he calls Baby Anna because I taught him Aunt Anne's name right before we told him about Anna, and the two just run together, I guess!

Mr. Smarty Pants knows how to open childproof bottles and unlock deadbolted doors (yikes!) and can count to 20 and knows all his ABC's by name and in song!

Ben and big brother Chandler playing with dandelions and blow pops at Mason's baseball game:

Jonesborough Days

Today, Ben and I had a great time at "Jonesborough Days".  We'd never been this local festival before, so decided to brave the 90° heat to check it out.  It was VERY hot and tiring (Mama had to rest for FOUR HOURS when we got home, ha ha!!) but turned out to be all worth it....check out the video of Ben on the train ride!!  He loved it!

Here he is watching the parade.  He really liked the firetrucks...

Major refreshments were in order to survive this heat!

Ringing the bell on the choo choo :)  (AND, riding all by himself, too!  I couldn't believe what a big boy he was being.  He only tried to stand up once or twice before we got moving...thank goodness for the seatbelt!)

What a smile!!!  It makes my heart sing :)

Here's a video of Ben's first train ride!!