Benjamin at 6 months

Wow, it's amazing what a difference one month makes.  To everyone else Ben probably doesn't look bigger, but to me he looks huge.  He will get weighed at the doctor this week, and if he is anything like his Dad was at this age, he will be close to 25lbs.  He basically loves any kind of food as you can tell.....he even loves my homemade green bean baby food.  It's really funny to watch him get excited the second after I put him in his feeding chair.  His arms wave up and down, he gets a big oval shape to his mouth and starts making a sound like a fake cough.

As most babies do, Ben has begun pulling my hair when I get ready to put him down for nap and bedtime.  It's not too bad until he grabs a hold of that little superfluous hair at the base of my neck.  OUCH!!!!  Yes, we will be breaking him of that habit very soon.

Ben is very ticklish.  Practically everywhere you touch makes him wiggle.  He also cracks up when Emily plays peek-a-boo with him.

Emily - 3 years, 8 mo. - Apr. 16

I call Emily my little "Mommy" these days. She is doing such a great job helping me and seems to really enjoy it.  We have the opportunity this month to watch our niece while her sitter is on maturnity leave.  Emily will sit and entertain the babies during their wake times and loves to "help" me put them down for naps.

I've been enjoying seeing Emily's imagination in full bloom recently.  She is now very interested in her dress-up clothes she received a couple of years ago.  Usually during our morning routine she will go from wearing pjs to one dress then to actual clothes then on to a different dress then back to actual clothes all within a matter of minutes.  All I can say is I am glad she can dress herself with ease now.   Along with dress-up clothes, she can be found at times sitting with a book "reading" and of course making up her own plot.

Emily was very excited to have Mommo and Pappaw back.  Now we don't have to listen to her sit in a corner and cry while looking at my Mom and Dad's Christmas picture and listening to a voice recorded card Mom sent.

Emily is doing very well with potty training and I believe we are almost 100% trained minus night time.  We told Emily when she completed her sticker page she could get a special pet.  Stayed tuned for a future post to find out what pet is now a part of the Groff household.  Anyone want to venture a guess as to what we bought??  Folks at church won't have to wait long because I'm sure by this Sunday all will know.

Slate Run Farm

We had the opportunity to go visit Slate Run Historical Farm a week and a half ago with our good friends.  This is a free park with animals and it's operated as farms were in the 1880's.  We had a blast and will definitely have to go back.  There's so much to see and do, but we mainly went to see the shearing of the sheep since we missed the opportunity before Easter.  Emily now tells me she wants to be a farmer.

Thank you Val for planning this visit.  I've lived in Ohio now for almost 20 years and never been to Slate Run Farm.

Spring is here

Ready for bike rides

Easter in PA

Happy Easter

Annual Easter Egg Hunt

Benjamin at 5 months

Well even with some irritation in the gums, Benjamin remains our very happy boy.  He smiles at a lot of things, but his biggest smile comes when his big Sister is talking to him.

He recently realized that he has a right hand and it is attached to his body.  I catch him quite often just staring at it in awe.

I decided to go ahead and try Big Ben on cereal and after a couple of spoonfuls, he acted like he'd been eating it since birth.

The Two Tribes

Who says girls are more fun to dress up than boys and what fun is it to have babies close in age if their mommies can't coordinate their outfits? Benjamin and his friend Levi are 4 weeks apart. His mommy and I like to get together every week or so, so all of our children can play ... ok mostly so we can enjoy adult conversation. :) These pictures were taken last Sunday at church.

One, Two, Three, Four I declare a thumb war...

I think I won....

Winner gets to slobber the other's hand......ah sweet victory

Can't wait to show these kiddos this picture in about 12 years.

Emily 3 years, 7 mo. - Mar. 16

This month has been another fun month with Emily-isms.  Emily has 2 wonderful Sunday School teachers who are very creative with the lessons.  This past Sunday the kids learned about when God created people and had fruit as their snack.  After class one of Emily's teachers shared with me that Emily stated her fruit was scrumptious - oh the words she remembers.

As most of you with preschoolers know, this is the age of questions.  The question for the month from Emily is "Mommy, how tall is God?".  I had a good answer, but heard a better one from our Pastor today - tall enough.

Texas Trip 2010 continued

The second week of our trip we were able to spend with the rest of the family. We took walks, played games, fed the animals, climbed trees, visited Aunt Neva and Uncle Bob's house, went to many playgrounds, toured the San Antonio Missions and went to a play.