At the Playground

We found a cute park near our house that contains tons of Little Tikes equipment - perfect for toddlers! Ben loves it and it is always uncrowded so I took the boys there one late afternoon to get them out of the house for a little while.

Here is Ben playing. He loves these Crazy Coupe cars!

Ben loves wagons, too!

Nate and I sat on the picnic bench and watched the action...

Safety Town

Thanks to the recommedation by a friend, I recently joined a local Meetup playgroup and love it. There are activities on the calendar several times a week in the area and you can choose which ones you would like to go to. I've met lots of nice moms and this group has such fun, unique ideas. Today we visited Safety Town at Mason Mill's Park in Huntingdon Valley. It is a beautiful park with picnic areas, a sprinkler and several playgrounds. However, what makes it unique is that a portion of it - Safety Town- is a fenced in area that is set up like a mini town with buildings, parking spots and working traffic lights. The kids can run around or ride tricycles. Ben and Barb's little guy Nicholas had a blast with the other kids. Here are some photos of this adorable little village. The best part is that all of the shops and storefronts are real places so it's like being in a miniature PA town.

Ben at the Willow Grove Fire Department. He's checking out the trucks in the garages!

Exploring the lights and the city with Nicholas:

Ah, here are the two boys in front of Abington Memorial Hospital, where they both were born! (Nate, too, but he didn't make the photo since it took enough energy to keep these two toddlers in line to get a decent shot).

This one is for Daddy...the Home Depot! This little city also had Sam's Club, local delis and shops and Prudential, among others.

I loved this place, Mom, can we come back soon?

Family Meals

All babies always make it a point to be especially fussy during mealtime. Murphy's Law. I remember with Benjamin that we did not have a peaceful family dinner until he was able to eat finger foods at the table with us. This kept him occupied (and quiet) and we were once again able to eat without holding a fussy child or listening to a whining or crying baby. I was thinking about how this will not be too much longer for Nate since he'll be doing the finger food thing in another month or two. And then I remembered our secret weapon when Ben was his age.... mesh feeders! So, today at lunch I propped Nate in the high chair, filled his meshy feeder with a cube of pureed bananas and voila, he was occupied the entire lunchtime so that Ben and I could eat. Whoever invented these things should get an award...

Laughing

Nate is so silly sometimes. All it takes is some tickling on his tummy and he bursts out laughing!

Sitting Up

All of a sudden, Nate is getting very close to being able to sit up on his own. He still needs support most of the time but can now sit there playing for about a minute or two without falling over. Some of our "big boy" toys such as trucks, balls and Little People have really peaked his interest lately and have encouraged him to want to sit up and play. Soon Nate will be sitting up for longer periods and playing with his brother!

Oh no, here I go again! (as he is about to fall over...)

Rolling Over

Nate has been rolling from front to back since he was about 2 months old (thanks to sleeping him on his tummy) and has occasionally rolled from back to front in his 5-1/2 months. Yet to say that he would prefer to be held while observing the action more than actually moving around is an understatement. The difference between Nate and Ben, who was practically rolling around our family room at under 4-months old, merely shows the difference in their personalities. Yes, Nate is the observant one who likes to cuddle and Ben was always in the center of all of the action.

Nonetheless, I decided I should capture some of Nate's movements on camera since he does seem slightly more interested in mobility as of late. Here he is rolling over today on his play mat.

And here is Ben as he lays on the play mat, right after showing me how he can also roll over. What a ham!

Truck Backpack

Ben loves putting all of his prized possessions into his truck backpack and carrying it around with him lately. The last photo looks like he is all ready to go off to school, doesn't it? Well, we have a few more years until preschool but I just thoght he looked so grown-up in that photo. Mom is getting misty-eyed :)

Caught!

I heard some noise during naptime today. So....

Here's Ben's idea of taking a nap this afternoon :).

Caught red-handed!

What a big charmer he is, trying to make up to me with his big grin!

CHL Systems Annual Company Picnic

We had beautiful weather today for the annual CHL Systems company picnic. It's held on a huge farm with a lake, outdoor activities and lots of open space so it is always fun to attend. Today must have been our lucky day, though, since we won a new Canon Powershot 1100 camera and Andrew also won a cash prize in one of the game competitions. Our current Canon Powershot has been taking blurry and delayed pictures lately so we had been considering buying a new one. So now we do not have to :). Due to our winning streak, on our way home from the picnic we stopped and bought a Powerball ticket as well - ha ha!

Here are Andrew and the boys playing frisbee with Ray and Jonathan Greenley.

Nate loved relaxing in our fold-up chairs...it was like his own personal hammock since they sort of dip in the middle!

Ben was not a superstar eater today when lunch and dinner came around but he did not miss a scraping of his make-your-own ice cream sundae and M&M cookie. Anything goes when we're at a party, I suppose! Here, he has just finished his ice cream and is annoyed that I am taking his picture instead of getting him more desserts!

Our friends Ray and Missy Greenley with 15-month-old Jonathan and baby #2 on the way in January.

A family photo of us.

In Need of Attention

Someone was feeling a bit left out when I was photographing Nate today so he took it upon himself to be included!

5-Month Professional Photos

Nathaniel is five months old today so I took him to get some professional photos. Here are my favorites!

ABC Cookies

We made ABC cookies with Ben last night and he had a fun time picking out the letters to cut and especially decorating them once baked. Of course he loves the letter B but he also loves O for some reason so we have many of those in our batch.