first food

Benjamin recently took his first foray into the world of "solid" foods. First up on the menu: oatmeal! (What? Oatmeal instead of rice cereal? I know, we're rebels.)

Doesn't he look tiny in the big highchair?

"I'm not sure what's going on here. Should I open my mouth?"

"What is this slop you're feeding me?"

"Okay, well, maybe it's pretty good after all. Give me more!"

"You're too slow! I'll just have to feed myself!"

pennsylvania (summer vacation part 4)

We had a blast on the next leg of our vacation in the lovely state of Pennsylvania! It was a visit full of family, and we all had a lot of fun.

Benjamin got lots of love and snuggles from everyone - especially his two great-grandmothers! Once or twice I was afraid there might be a tussle over who got to hold him - he definitely got used to napping while snuggled up to his loving grandmas! What a lucky boy.

And at times he was doted on by a grandma and two great-grandmas all at once! Tell me, does it get any better than this?
Ben also had some quality time with Aunt Lissy (and Duke) and Uncle Alex.


Daniel had SO much fun during our visit, mostly playing outside. Daniel thinks the hose is just the absolute best toy in the whole world, so every chance he got, he dragged someone out to play with him. He also managed to shed his clothes just about every time he went outside - must be a guy thing? Anyway, I'd post more pictures, but he's naked in most of them and I just can't do that to him! He tried out the pool, but the hose was more fun.
Wrestling with Uncle Alex was also a lot of fun!
He even managed to drag us outside to play in the rain!

Daniel and his second cousin Samantha got together to play some tunes on Daniel's new guitar.
They were also forced by their moms to hug each other. I'm not sure they were happy about it, but they obliged! It was so much fun seeing them play together and interact with each other!

Of course, Daniel had another birthday party, this one shared with his Aunt Ashley. He got his own personal cake since he couldn't eat the cream cheese frosting on the big cake. He was getting pretty good at blowing out candles by this point! And he also learned to respond, "two!" and hold up two fingers when asked how old he was.


Before we left, we had to snap a couple of group shots! The proud grandparents...
And the whole crew (at least, the part of the crew that was still there when we left).
Finally, just a couple of photos of my sweet boys - Daniel trying to pull Mike up off the ground to play, and Benjamin just hanging out!

Can you tell they had a good time? I'm pretty sure we all did! We are so lucky to have such wonderful families.

traffic (summer vacation part 3)

What would a road trip be without a traffic jam? And really, not just a little slow rush-hour traffic. I mean the kind of traffic jam where people get out of their cars and hang out on the side of the road like this:
The kind of traffic jam where you can stand in the middle of the interstate and take a picture like this:
After we realized we weren't going anywhere in a hurry, Mike and Daniel took a walk, petted a dog, and chatted with a trucker. Meanwhile Benjamin was hungry so I stayed in the car and fed him. Fortunately, traffic started moving again after an hour or so. Mike and Daniel ran back to the car, I strapped Benjamin back in his carseat, and we were on our way once again!

motormouth

Little Benjamin sure has a lot to say these days! Here's a sampling of his chatter - he can go on... and on... and on. He's also demonstrating the newly acquired skill of grabbing his feet. And just so you know, he didn't start out right on the edge of the rug - he's a pro at scooting around the room on his back. I believe he was originally in the middle of the blanket. The kid can really cover some ground!

the joy of cooking

Daniel loves to help me cook, and recently he discovered the best part of baking - licking the bowl! I'm pretty sure he enjoyed it.

new york (summer vacation part 2)

After Raleigh, we made the looooong trip up to New York, with a brief stopover in Wilmington. We had a fantastic time with Mike's family, highlighted by a birthday party for all of the July/August birthdays in the family - which I hesitate to list for fear of missing one! This was the first of three birthday celebrations for Daniel, and to say he enjoyed it would be putting it mildly.

"Mmmm, sugar!"

Meanwhile, Mike pretended to be taller than John...
... Joanne, Nana, and Grandpa enjoyed some cake too...
... Benjamin got some love from Aunt Cathy...
... and Daniel convinced Aunt Joanne to give him more dessert.
One of the most fun things about this trip was seeing how much fun Daniel had with his cousins. He absolutely idolized them, and just couldn't get enough time with them. This is one of my favorite pictures of Daniel with his cousins - he just loved being one of the big guys!
And of course we had to get a photo of all of the boys together: Richie, Joey (holding Benjamin), Andy and Daniel.

And Benjamin had a great time hanging out with Aunt Betty while Daniel played with the guys!
Trips like this make me realize how much I miss being closer to family. Can't wait for our next visit!

murphy (summer vacation part 1)

We took a marathon three-week trip up the east coast this July-August, covering over 2900 miles, so we could take the boys to visit all of their grandparents, aunts, and uncles. Obviously this trip will take several posts to detail, so stay tuned for more! We made two important purchases before we left, this being one of them:
The second was a portable DVD player. Believe me, a steady stream of Curious George and Little Einsteins is a good antidote to looks like this (which are often accompanied by pleas of "OUT!")
Benjamin, fortunately, slept during a large portion of the driving, although only occasionally did he fall asleep with his fingers in the rings hanging from his carseat. Mike and I both became pros at reaching behind us to blindly replace the pacifier in his mouth. Really, though, they were both great travelers.
We began with a stop to visit our friends Holly and David and their adorable boys Matthew and Ethan in Winston-Salem. Unfortunately, I completely forgot to take any pictures during our overnight stay! We did have a great time visiting with them, and Benjamin had probably his best night of sleep to date while borrowing Ethan's pack-n-play (I threatened to move in).

From there, we moved on to Raleigh where Mike was attending a conference. Not too many pictures from that part of the trip, but I did capture one of this notable first in Daniel's life - in our hotel in Raleigh, he got to sleep in a Murphy bed! Really, how many 2-year-olds can say they've done that?