Monday, June 27, 2011

Sweet Summer

Happy Birthday, Papaw! We celebrated Friday night at the Indians game. The Pawtucket Red Sox played the Indianapolis Indians (red sox won!). Playing on the lawn and watching the game is a great way to spend a summer evening. We are working our way toward making it through an entire game to see the fireworks at the end...maybe next summer.


Generally speaking, where you find Carson...you find Bennett. He loves his cousins, but has a particular fondness for Carson. Sometimes Bennett will say, "...mommy, I Carson." Zach jokes that Bennett has 2 idols in his life - Carson and our neighbor across the street, Riley. We use code word "idol" when Riley is outside playing.


The weather Saturday afternoon could not have cooperated any more than it did for an afternoon cook-out and "camp" experience with Zach's colleagues and their families. The host family offered horseback riding, fishing, bounce house jumping, swimming, basketball AND great food.

Snickers, the horse, checking out Elly Rose. It was a little too close for her comfort. Following Zach snapping this photo, she let out a panicked scream of "get away!"

Bennett fed Snickers lots of grass. And later in the evening did a little bareback riding on Snickers. He was fearless!

I love Bennett's imaginitve play. I talk about it often, but it is often what we do. On this morning it was ladders, firemen and bulldozers in the sandbox.




He likes to role play...pretending to be a doctor, a construction-man or daddy. He assigns roles to Zach and I, as well. He will switch us...daddy is mommy and mommy is daddy. Or daddy is Lofty, I am Bob the Builder and Bennett is Wendy.


She claps!


We are quite close to a first tooth popping through on bottom. She chews relentlessly for relief.


Our weekend was made complete last night when we joined Zach's family for dinner and first meeting of Charley for Bennett and Elly Rose (I cheated and went Saturday night after our babies went to sleep). She is precious...filled with so much sweetness. She has our hearts.

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Construction Site

We have long known that when Bennett discovers an activity (or equipment, as the case may be)that fascinates him, he finds a way to incorporate it into all that he does. His imagination makes us laugh. It is not unusual for his tennis racquet to be used for, well...tennis, a guitar, a leaf blower and a weed-eater...all in one 20-minute span.


Lately, we have been on quite the bulldozer, excavator, crane truck, dump truck, mixer truck, ladder mission. We go out of our way to pass them and it never disappoints. So you can imagine Bennett's excitement with a recent trip to a real construction site. Thanks to daddy, he was able to talk with the "work-men" and spend a morning watching as all this heavy equipment went to work.

He wears this hat for a better part of his day, almost everyday. He wears it backwards. His hammer "...in my belly." and his measuring tape in his pocket.


We read "Goodnight, Goodnight, Construction Site." before every nap and bed-time. He has recently expanded his gear to include a tool belt...daddy's actual belt.

Inspecting the rebar for papaw...

...and back home playing with his bulldozer and mixer truck. Bennett is always the bulldozer and Zach or I is always the mixer truck.

I discovered this little lady sitting up in her crib yesterday afternoon. Good thing we lowered the bed on Sunday. She is such a joy and we adore watching her discover her little world a little more each day. She will shimmy across the pavement from her towel to play in the water at the pool, she sheds giant tears each morning as I leave for work (would have had my money on B doing this, but not her), her hands are faster than I think...grabbing for food off our plates and phones sitting nearby. Her new favorite sound is a happy repeat of "da, da, da, da, da" which arrived just in time for Father's Day.



This is Bennett's first real lesson in patience. He loves all fruit in the "berry" family. We inherited black raspberry bushes with our house and they are a hit with this little guy.


It is a struggle to teach him that black means ripe and ready for picking, red means wait one more day. Mid-last week, only 6-8 ripe berries a day, but now we have more berries than I have time to pick.




I love Oscar the Grouch peaking out between Bennett's hands. There is something so rewarding (maybe even addicting if I had the time) about walking out to your backyard and "picking" nutrient-rich foods to feed your family.

Sunday, June 12, 2011

Great Visit

It is difficult to describe how amazing it is for my children to know my grandfather. We cherish each and every visit we have together...realizing the unique history and experiences four generations of family bring together. My grandpa keeps up quite well and Bennett was no doubt putting him to the test. We started out calling him Great Papaw, but Bennett quickly shortened it to Great-Pa.


Bennett had Great-Pa playing basketball with him, eating dinner next to him and watching his favorite television program. He never let Great-Pa get too far away before requesting him to "do this..." or "help with that..."


Our oldest and our youngest. And this was after an hour plus of playing in the 94 degree heat. Huddles frozen yogurt was promised in exchange for cooperation in a few group photos.

He met her just minutes after she entered this world, but they didn't have much of a chance to get to know one another then. This meeting was just as special...

We love our Great-Pa and Tootie. Thank you for a wonderful visit! XOXO


Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Determination

Bennett oh so determined to figure out how he will cut down this tree, "...like the tree-man did, mommy." He even has a pretend delimber (daddy's real drill, minus the bit) - which we think might not be a real word, but we will continue to keep it a part of our everyday vocabulary in the meantime. We even found a "delimber" video on you tube.


7 1/2 months old and she crawls. I didn't think she had it in her to do this early, but her determination to reach her brother's toys proved to be enough. And when she is on the hardwood floors...she is fast. Bennett is not so sure how he feels about this accomplishment. And while I couldn't help but cheer her on, I am with Bennett. I would have been okay with a stationary little girl for a bit longer.

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

welcome, summer.

Today is June One, yet the past four days have me feeling behind....like get your act together with the pool bag and toys because it went from barely 60 degrees on Friday to nearly 90 degrees on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and today. So be it. We gathered what felt like our entire house and brought it to the pool. Happy to have a routine return that includes lathering our babies in sunscreen.


Chest-bumping the good news...pool is OPEN!!


Not sure what all the hype is about. Actually, she loved it. Kicking and splashing.


Happy hot weather! (and thank you to my sis for taking pictures. part of bringing my whole house to the pool did include my camera, but couldn't find a free hand to actually take it out of the bag.)