Benjamin at 18 months

Well Spring has sprung and so has Benjamin.  We are so excited to be getting a few warm days because Benjamin loves the outdoors.  Our house does not have a basement, but the next best thing is our back deck that has a huge gate (thanks to my Sister).  He loves to go out and just sit in the Little Tikes car.  He hasn't quite figured out that he can move it himself by shuffling his feet Flintstone like, so he just sits and enjoys the view.

Ben's newest addition to his vocabulary is "Pee-ty".  Let me explain....in the North when someone covers their eyes with their hands and removes them in front of a child they say "Peek-a-boo".  In the South some say "Peep-eye".  We have said both and evidently Ben picked up on one.  He is still jabbering words all day, but there's times we're convinced he says "I don't want that".  Someone told me when he starts talking that he would talk in full sentences.  I don't think I'm ready for that yet.

Charlie borrowed a mower for one of the first mows of the Spring and Ben immediately wanted to ride.  We're praying this excitement stays with him through the years.  He doesn't look excited in the picture because Charlie was coming to a stop.

Easter in PA

Aron - 4 months old

You would never guess that this little guy had weight issues a couple of months ago.  I know our home scale is not as accurate as the scale at the doctor's office, but he is currently weighing in at 18 lbs.  

He has graduated from his bouncy seat to the bumbo seat.  He has also discovered he has a voice which if anyone knows our daughter Emily, knows that she gets slightly annoyed with cooing noises (understatement of the year) so we are all relearning about having patience. 

Emily - 4 years, 8 mo. - Apr. 16

Emily is featuring her "pets" this month.  Her pillow pet had a baby.  :o)  I will be curious if her occupation is working with animals of some kind when she gets older.

I knew when we had kids that they would ask questions, but I don't think I was prepared for the daily amount.  One of the most interesting questions this week was "Mommy, where does water and cheese come from?"  Send us your child's most interesting question.

Benjamin at 17 months

This month shed a little more light on Ben's personality or maybe it's just a phase, but we are finding he is quite dramatic.  These days when he gets hurt or scolded, he will put his hands over his eyes while crying and then take them off to see if someone is looking.  It's difficult to hold back a little chuckle.

Ben is still jibber-jabbering for the most part, but he has added a few more words to his vocabulary such as baby, no way and Mommy, which actually sounded a little like Mammy when he first started saying it.

You know you're loved when your child shares their most coveted food item with you.  Recently Ben was eating some Lucky Charm cereal while I prepared his oatmeal.  As I was getting ready to help him eat his oatmeal, he reached his little hand up to my mouth and offered me one of his marshmellows.  Now that's love. :o)

Ben is expressing his displeasure in having to sit still for 3 seconds.

Did someone say squirrel?

Aron - 3 months old

This little guy has been through quite a bit in his 3 month of life in comparison to his siblings.  We went to his 2 month well-baby doctor visit and found that he had actually lost one pound.  The pediatrician referred us to an endocrinologist to get him checked further.  Having an inkling already that my milk supply was low we asked the pediatrician if we should start supplementing with formula.  She was not optimistic that it would help, but gave us the thumbs up.  So, in the meantime we did begin supplementing and saw noticeable differences even in the first couple of days and by the time his endocrinologist appointment rolled around (2 weeks later) he had gained a whole pound back.  The endo. doctor did want us to go ahead and get bloodwork done just to be safe.  Long story short, he had his endo. follow up appointment and all the tests came back normal and he had gained 3 pounds from the time of the last endo. appointment.  We can't thank everyone enough for your prayers and words of encouragement.  God is so good!!!

I call Aron Mr. Smiles because he seems to smile the majority of our day.  He loves hugs from his big Brother which is a good thing because Ben likes to give lots of hugs.

Emily - 4 years, 7 mo. - Mar. 16

You can see it on her face....quite the personality. If I could only capture an ounce of her energy.

Recently we have been dealing with bad dreams. We have our regular prayer time at night and ask that God would help keep her mind on Him and we encourage Emily to talk to God about her fears. One night after I left her room I could hear Emily praying and it went something like this....Dear God please help me not have any bad dreams and please keep bad people away from our house and if there are any bad people in our house please kill them with your mighty power.

Since then, a great friend of mine recommended reading a few pages from our Systematic Theology book regarding children's dreams. On page 430 it says, "Children from a very young age can be taught to say, "In Jesus' name, go away!" to any images that may appear in their dreams or in mental images that trouble them at night, and then to pray to Jesus for protection and happy thoughts of Him. Such action by those little ones who trust in Christ will often be remarkably effective, for their faith in Jesus is very simple and genuine."

Home and Garden Show 2011

We ventured out in the rain to the Home and Garden Show this year.  Emily and Cameron were excited to get to see the python and the little playhouses.  The show itself was ok, but not as good as prior years.

Benjamin at 16 months

Oh our little man is getting so big.  Even though you can't understand a lot of the words he's jabbering about, he has such emphasis when he speaks.  Two helpful "words" that are understandable are "all duh" which he says when he's finished eating.

I'm not sure if you can tell in this picture, but Ben's shirt is soaked on the arms and from the waist up.  The reason is that he is oh so fond of playing in water so we have instituted water time into our daily routine.  He will stand at the kitchen sink usually after breakfast while I am cleaning up and pass his plastic dishes from one side to the other.  

Another past time during our day is exercise time and recently we have enjoyed running around our kitchen table since we can't run outside yet.  Ben loves to get me to chase him and will laugh out loud when I am on the opposite side of the table as he peers through the rungs of the chairs.

Aron - 2 months old

Aron is a little peanut, but he is mighty strong.  His little neck and head pop right up when we pick him up and he loves to look around at his surroundings.

Here's a smile shot.  Thank you Shelli for capturing our happy boy. 

Emily - 4 years, 6 mo. - Feb. 16

Like Mother like Daughter, Emily has begun humming around the house while she's playing.  She used to hum little diddys that she would make up, but now I can tell she's humming along with the music we play in the background.  She really enjoys her music class she attends on Sunday nights at church.  Her favorite song right now during our music time at home is Father Abraham.

I love to see little children's excitement when playing dress up and it's even more special to me when kids play dress up in their parents clothes.  Emily is very fond of a comfortable dress that I usually wear during the Spring and Summer months.  She put it on recently and said "Mommy, lets pretend this costs 35 million dollars".  I had to laugh.

Emily's question for the month was "Mommy what does honor mean?".

Family Time

We had the chance to hang out with Aunt Kristen for an extended time back at the beginning of February.  Ben decided he would rather sit in one of the toy baskets which I didn't think would work, but much to our surprise he fit.

 Snug as bugs in rugs - rug (a.k.a. warmest Steelers blanket ever made)

Benjamin at 15 months

No, this is not Randy from The Christmas Story.  This is actually Benjamin Groff all bundled up for one of our days in the snow.  He loves walking in the snow with his snowsuit even though every 5 or 10 minutes he will fall down and proceed to roll over in order to stand back up.  He especially loves sliding on our playground set and won't even let me finish saying three before he propells forward to build up speed.  We're going to have fun this Spring and Summer.

Well the teeth buds have finally made their grand entrance into Ben's mouth.  Charlie was having his evening wrestle/bonding time with the kids one night and when he tilted Ben back, he saw at least 6 new teeth making their way in.  

Ben loves to give hugs and has recently started patting my left arm again like he used to.  He loves to hug on Emily, but usually he will give her a hug which leads to a mini wrestling match.  They laugh out loud for a couple of minutes during the wrestling and then one of them will just get up and move on to something else.

Ben has surprised us in that he has not attempted to climb out of his crib at this point.  In the mornings he will be softly mumbling to himself before I open his door. 

 

I knew a long time ago when we had our first son that one day he would get to wear his Daddy's boots and that day finally arrived a couple of Sunday's ago.  We were curious if they would fit Ben's rather wide feet, but they slid right on like they were made for him and he loves them.  He slowly walked around in them for a few minutes and then when he hit the kitchen floor and realized they made noise he danced around like he belonged on the Riverdance tour.  I would love to find a picture of Charlie wearing these boots.  

Fun in the snow

I will tell you it is somewhat of a chore to get both kids bundled and out the door, but they absolutely love being outside in the snow.  Emily picks her snowball to chew on and Ben resembles Randy from The Christmas Story trying to get up and walk around.

Aron - 1.5 months old

No, I'm not going to start doing halves with Aron's photos, but I've been a little behind in my postings so I wanted to get one up before the next month rolled along.

Aron is his own little self already.  He has a very long, skinny body that I know will plump up soon.  He is eating like a pro and is a very good sleeper.  We call him our little snort because his right nostril is swollen a little and at times he snorts like a pig.  He recently started smiling and cooing a little.

Just out of curiosity I wondered what Emily and Ben's 1 month shots looked like....