Playing Hard

Lately, Ben has really been a funny little guy to be around. He's become quite nosey, imitates and laughs at funny faces we make for him, and just plain babbles constantly. Between the loud raspberries he blows and his excited squeals of delight, he definitely draws attention to himself whenever we go into a store! Here he is blowing a raspberry at me while he ignores all of his own toys and shows a clear fascination for the water bottle I got free at work (why do we buy him toys again??):


His sitting has become more and more stable and he is now able to sit unsupported for very long periods of time while we play. This morning he did have his first "accident," though, when he tried to turn too far to the side while sitting and fell backwards onto the carpet. He bumped his head (lightly) but scared himself so much that the sad little quivering lip we haven't seen on him for quite some time now returned as he bawled. Poor little guy :( but he was fine the second I picked him up! Here he is squealing and blowing raspberries (wish I could post audio clips) as he plays with my water bottle:

And here he is showing some interest in his new Drop and Roar Dinosaur that Daddy couldn't resist buying him last weekend. He loves to watch the lights and listen to the music:

Finally, here is a picture of Ben stopping mid-play to "do his business"...ha ha! It's so cute how serious he gets and I found this picture even funnier because the outfit he has on is very large so it's really baggy on him and is just gaping at the neckline. It's tough to find clothes that fit him really well since he's tall and thin. Cute little guy!

Fun With Nana

Ben and I were up in northern NJ last week so that I could go bridal dress shopping with my friend Michele whose wedding I am in next summer. While I was out, my mom watched Ben for me and had a great time playing with him. Here are two cute photos we took the following morning, one in the bath (Benjamin's new favorite pastime) and one where he is all smiles with his nana.

Lombard BBQ

Today we visited David and Aunt Cinty Lombard for a BBQ out in Downingtown, PA. Kim and her boyfriend Taylor were also visiting for the weekend from Virginia so it was really good to see them as well. Another family that they are friendly with was also there and we all had a good time eating, swimming, and chatting.

Andrew in the pool cooling off...



Kim and Taylor, David and their friends' son...

Although the weather was nice enough to hold up for the most part, despite predictions of rain all day, the water in the pool was a little cold for the baby so he went in for just a little while and then sat out the rest of the time. But, forget the pool when there was so much more excitement outside of the water to keep him entertained...THE GIRLS! David and Aunt Cinty have two adorable Cocker puppies named Emerald (aka Emmie) and Ruby. They are so cute and were really exicted to see all of the company. Both of them spent the afternoon frantically pacing around the action and basically showed up as two big blurs of brown fur in every photo we tried to take!

When "the girls" were first allowed to come out of their cage to meet everyone, Benjamin was more excited than I think I have ever seen him. He was hysterically letting out a deep belly laugh and was literally squealing in excitement as the girls scurried around him. Seriously! I guess the girls are more exciting to him than Barney is since he usually just stares at Barney in wonder!!

Meeting Emmie and Ruby (guess which one has the red collar and which the green?)...

Doggie kisses from Emmie and Ruby were a little overwhelming but nothing compared to the big Barney smooches Ben's used to!

Sharing his toys with Ruby...

Showing off his tummy and getting lots of attention from his favorite Aunt Cinty :)...

We were laughing because after Ben got used to the pups, he gave them the old non-chalant Barney treatment and basically ignored them. Quite a contrast to the initial excitement of meeting the girls!

Since I know you are part of our devoted blog fanclub and will be reading this, thanks Aunt Cinty and David for having us over. We had a great time today! :)

Such big toys!

We have the cutest children's shop in town called The Little People's Shoppe and Benjamin and I like to take a walk there every so often. This morning we stopped in on our walk and I happened across this adorable Little Tikes ride-on zebra rocker for an amzing price so I couldn't resist. Ben is still a little young for it but he did allow me to pose him on it and seemed to enjoy viewing the world from a different position. Here are a few photos of him on his newest toy! Oh, and the red rash on his neck in the second photo is from teething and drooling. It doesn't seem to bother him but I have tried just about everything to make it go away to no avail. Hopefully soon his teeth will come through and it will go away on its own! Poor guy... :(

More Sitting Up Photos

Benjamin has been practicing sitting up everyday and is becoming more and more balanced. Yesterday he was sitting up for close to 10 minutes at a time and was able to reach for and grasp the toys surrounding him and also to catch himself from toppling over a few times. He is certainly enjoying this new position and seems so proud of himself when sitting up!

Reaching for his butterfly toy as Barney supervises:

The best photo! Barney just doesn't look impressed with Ben's achievement, does he?

Sitting Up!

Yesterday marked Benjamin's first true "sitting up" feat. He has been doing it for a few seconds for the past few weeks but was finally able to keep himself balanced for over a minute a number of times yesterday afternoon. He is still wobbly and needs to work on his balance but he's a determined little guy so we're sure he'll be sitting up for longer periods of time very soon. Right now, we are so proud of him since at just under five months old he is a bit on the young side to be sitting on his own!

Here he is working up his energy to attempt to sit up on his own. He's laying on his new favorite toy, his big floppy "Otis the Dog" stuffed friend. He loves to lay on it, chew on its head, and even spit up on it if Otis is really lucky :).

Hooray! Sitting up and still managing to play with his toys while doing it!!

Again...

Oh no, getting wobbly...

He's down!...

Right over onto his tummy to try again. We can't keep this little guy still nowadays!

Resting up for another try...

Busy Weekend

This past weekend we had three separate visits from friends and family, making it a very busy and fun few days. On Thursday and Friday my brother Mike and his girlfriend Chang visited; on Saturday and Sunday my good friend from high school, Aliza, her husband Todd and baby Zachary visited; and on Sunday evening our good friends from college, Jim and Jenn Birdsall, visited all the way from Switzerland.


Mike is finishing up his clerkship at the end of this month and will be starting his first job as an official lawyer in September. He found himself with a handful of vacation days to use up over the next few weeks so luckily we have been able to see him three times over the past week and a half! It was the first time that Chang had visited us at our house so we had a fun two days showing her around good 'ole PA and she even showed me how to cook some authentic Chinese food, so I had a great time doing that. The Lai Lai Brothers takeout will never be quite as good to me now that I've had some of the real deal - yum!

Here are a few photos of Chang with Benjamin. She loves to see him and he loves playing with her too, especially to grab and pull her long hair!!

We took Chang to the infamous King of Prussia shopping mall on Thursday afternoon and wowed her with the prospect of every store you could possibly imagine under one roof! Chang sat in the backseat of the car with Benjamin as we drove there, taking pictures of him and making silly faces at him to keep him amused. He certainly liked that! It helped to distract him from remembering that he usually doesn't care to lay back in his infant seat. All smiles:

In a moment of weakness, Ben remembers how he really feels about sitting in his seat. Luckily (for Andrew and me!), I just purchased Ben's new big boy carseat online today so hopefully he'll like this one better since he'll be sitting upright in it. He loves his upright stroller since he can sit up and view the world so we're hoping the carseat situation will be the same!

Ben always loves when his mommy and daddy act goofy and make silly noises for him and has recently started to unmistakeably imitate us. Chang got the biggest kick when I was blowing raspberries onto Ben's tummy while getting him dressed and playing the PEW! "stinky feet" game with him. He was smiling and letting out deep belly laughs the entire time!

Here we are going on a walk during the day on Friday since it was perfect weather. Ben loves to go on a walk so I try to do it as often as I can. Plus, with so many shops closeby, it's fun for Mommy too :).

Our fun continued on Saturday AM when Todd, Aliza and Zachary Sherman came from Hoboken, NJ for our annual weekend visit together. We had seen the Shermans on Mother's Day but hadn't seen each other since then and it was fun to see how much the two babies had grown in the past three months. Zachary is nearly nine months old and Benjamin is close to five months old. Aliza and I have been friends since George Washington Elementary School in Wyckoff, NJ and love how much fun we can still have together nearly 17 years after first meeting (!!).

On Saturday the big guys played golf in the afternoon while Aliza and I stayed home with the little guys and spent some quality time together. As usual, we had some good laughs and just had a great time seeing each other. We took the babies on a long walk to get the boys out of the house for a while (and to firm up our post-pregnancy Mommy thighs and tushies) and joked about how our husbands were out all afternoon while we were stuck at home with the kids!! We also jokingly instructed the boys to call us "Mrs. Sherman" and "Mrs. Martin" since we have always had a laugh at our old Wyckoff formality where we and all of our friends referred to each other's parents with the Mr. and Mrs. prefix instead of calling them by their first name. It's so funny to think that WE'RE now those "old" parents!!!

Here are a few photos of Zach and Ben playing.

Yesterday all four of us took the little ones to the park and Ben had his first go on a real playground swing. Zachary loves going on the swings in his park back home so he was able to show Ben the ropes and soon both boys were having a great time!

Wheeeeee!! Gotta love those legs, huh?:

Mommies and babies:

Ben and his daddy...Andrew was having such a good time pushing his little guy on the swings!

Last night Jim and Jenn visited and although we didn't take any pictures, we had such a good time visiting with them and introducing them to Benjamin. We're working on Ben's manners, though, since he has been teething lately and was a bit cranky last night for our visit :). With all of the drooling and fussiness he's been doing lately, we'll hopefully soon have a few little teeth of his to show off!