A Special Day with Nana

Ben and I spent Tuesday night in Jackson with Mrs. Elder. Mr. Elder was hunting with a friend in Alabama and John was working in Grenada training the new manager. We had lots of fun. Ben particularly enjoyed playing the piano with Nana.

On Wednesday morning, we took Ben to the "Jim Henson's Fantastic World" exhibit at the Mississippi Museum of Art. Ben loves Sesame Street and had a great time looking at the puppets, pictures, and videos on display. Although we were specifically told that no pictures could be taken in the exhibit, I had to slip this one of Ben with Bert and Ernie. They were his favorite.

Ben looking at a Sesame Street book in the reading area and coloring a "Between the Lions" color page. "Between the Lions" is a PBS children's program actually filmed in Jackson (who knew?).

Below is a clip of Ben and Nana playing on the piano. Ben is singing B-I-N-G-O. Since I don't think Nana had any idea I was filming and not just taking pictures, I edited her singing out of the clip.


This shot looks backwards from the picture because I filmed it vertically and it won't just rotate counter clockwise like a picture. When I forget and film that way, I have to rotate it 90 degrees clockwise and then flip it 180 degrees on Windows Movie Maker.

Sing Fountain

Ben loves to sing. Today he was sitting in the rocking chair with a hymnal singing. I grabbed my camera and videoed him. Although he's holding the Heavenly Highway Hymnal (a favorite at Ebenezer Baptist Church) you can tell by his song choices that he's presbyterian: Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing, the Doxology, and Holy, Holy, Holy.


Here are the lyrics in case you can't quite understand:

Come, Thou Fount (fountain) of every blessing,
Tune my heart to sing Thy grace;
Streams of mercy, never ceasing,
Call for songs of loudest praise.

Ben starts the Doxology in the middle with "creatures." And just skips to the "Amen" without singing the last line.

Praise Him all creatures here below;
Praise him above, ye heav'n-ly host,
Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost. Amen.

Holy, holy, holy! Lord God Almighty!
Early in the morning our song shall rise to thee.
Holy, holy, holy!

Mr. Independent

We had a beautiful 70 degree January day. Since we don't get too many of those, Ben and I spent as much time as possible outside today. We went out at 9 a.m. and didn't come in until lunch time. He was determined to do everything by himself today. He just learned yesterday how to get in and out of his Cozy Coupe by himself and make it go backwards.

He also insisted on climbing the ladder to his slide by himself.



Here are a couple of videos. Make sure to have your volume on because he talks the entire time. (Warning: The Cozy Coupe on the asphalt is a grating sound.)


I didn't video him going down the slide because he still needs a hand to stay balanced.

Birds of a Feather

Ben is definitely my son. Last night when I went to check on Ben before going to bed, I found him sleeping in this nest of books. I was able to ease four of the five out from under him.

Ben's also John's son. He refers to his Matchbox cars by model name: Corvette, Chevelle, Camaro, Challenger, etc. Last night as I was preparing supper, I could hear John trying to teach Ben "DeLorean" (like the car on Back to the Future).

In the Church

I don't think we were supposed to take pictures of the actual baptism, but I slipped Cara my camera and asked her to take a few pictures with the flash off.

Our pastor holding Ben while the congregation sang "Jesus Loves Me." John's dad is an elder at First Pres Jackson and was able to take part in the baptism. He prayed for Ben after he was baptized.

A family picture where Ben doesn't look like he's trying to escape.

Our whole family group that attended the baptism.

Will, Danielle, Emalee, and Rylee.

Cousins

Aubrey was very interested in Ben.

Emalee started playing with Ben as soon as she came through the door. They are cooking together from Ben's basket of bowls and jugs.

Mama and Rylee.

Ben loved Emalee. He would say, "Hold Emee hand" and then lead her to where he wanted them to go.

Emalee really liked John. She asked him to brush her teeth after he brushed Ben's.

Feeding Frenzy

We had a house full of people Saturday evening who had come to see Ben baptized Sunday. We are Presbyterian and our church baptizes infants. Ben hasn't been an infant for a while, but we had not gotten it done while we were in Grenada. When we joined the church here in December, we decided it was time to get Ben baptized.

We had a great time. Ben's announcement (with his shirt) that he was going to be a big brother added to the excitement. We enjoyed visiting and eating pizza together.

Read Ben's Shirt

Choo Choo

Ben is very into Thomas the Tank Engine these days. He has several DVDs and a wooden Thomas train, but he had no track. After Christmas, I wished I had gotten him a train set, but decided that would be a good gift for his birthday. I didn't make it until April. I took him to Toys-R-Us today and bought what was labeled the "beginner set." It's a simple figure 8 with a bridge and tunnel. I put it together while he was napping. You should have seen his face when he first saw it. It was priceless (and I forgot to have my camera ready).

There were many wrecks on the line.

The House John Built

This is the house John built with Ben's new blocks. We all three love playing with them.

This is Ben, totally engrossed in his Thomas library book, tripping over the blocks and knocking them down. You can see his foot coming in the first picture. I'm not sure if Ben even noticed that he knocked down the blocks. He was probably busy asking "What's tha-a-at?" He's developing a funny accent. "That" is three syllables. He repeats this questions over and over thoughout the day even asking about things that he knows the answer too. I've identified the trains in that book countless times today -- Thomas, Gordon, Percy, Henry, and James.

Air Ben

This rainy, cold day seemed like the perfect time to put together the basketball goal Santa brought Ben. He really likes it, which is good since I had begun to question whether Santa should have brought a Thomas train set. He's been watching the Thomas DVDs he got for Christmas and has realized that all the trains aren't Thomas. He knows Gordon, Percy, and several others.

The basketball goal is in the living room at the moment, but I plan to move it to his room by bedtime.

A Good Nap

You can tell by Ben's hair what a good nap he had this afternoon. He is in serious need of a haircut.

Making faces.

From the other side.

Helping put up the Christmas decorations. We finally took down the Christmas tree this evening.

Ben and John enjoy playing with blocks and cars in the evenings. This is John's over-sized load.

The Great Outdoors

Our backyard has been like Wild Kingdom for the past week. Our little deer friend that we see every few mornings breakfasted on the corn from the deer feeder Wednesday. That was the first time we had seen him since John hung the feeder.

In the afternoon, I looked out the window and Ben's swingset was surrounded by turkeys. I counted twelve. I couldn't get them all in one picture. Here are just a few of them.

Bambi's Father

We spent New Year's Eve at the hunting camp with John's parents and Big Will. I'm not sure if anyone remembered it was New Year's Eve. I didn't. I went to bed at 9:30 p.m. and never thought about it. At 7 a.m. the following morning, John texted me, "I just shot a deer. If you are awake, call me." I was awake (thanks to Ben) so I called and got the whispered account (just like on the hunting videos) of the buck John shot. Will had his camera with him on the stand and took some great pictures of John and the deer still in the woods.

John and his dad with the buck.

Three generations of Elder men, although the third generation is really wanting to get down and splash in some mud puddles.

Finally Nana takes Ben walking.

Can you see my great leopard rain boots? I got them for Christmas from Will and Danielle. I didn't wear them hunting (see next post), but they were perfect for wearing around the camp. You have to wade to get from the camp to the car.

The Good Wife

John wanted me to go hunting with him. Nana watched Ben and I layered on the clothes and headed out. According to John, the camo pattern on my coveralls went out of date in the late 80s.

The view from the deer stand. I had on so many layers of clothes I could barely move. There was no where to stick a book so I simply sat, listened, and watched.

We saw lots of birds, a few rabbits, and one squirrel.

The stand was enclosed (there were open windows) and I was comfortably warm except for my face. I spent most of the afternoon holding a hat over the lower part of my face trying to keep it warm. Next time I'll bring a scarf and wrap it high.