Pretty Pillows

Since my last doctor's visit three weeks ago, Nana has been busy at her sewing machine. She made throw pillows for the full-sized bed in the nursery and covers for the rocking chair cushions. Only the seat cushion is pictured below because she decided that the back cushion needed embellishment and is adding buttons covered in the leftover fabric from the roll pillow.

As for my doctor's visit, I had gained one pound and go back in two weeks.

Sardines in a swimming pool

This has been a water weekend. John used his air compressor to blow up last year's swimming pool this afternoon. I don't remember it being so tiny. I think Ben and John have out grown it.

Ben enjoyed pouring water on John's head. John would blow the water out of his face. Ben thought this was hilarious. He would say, "Daddy said 'Puh'" then laugh and laugh.

Eventually he got brave and started pouring the water on his own head.

He got completely soaked pouring water on himself, but he never did sit down.


He would stick out his tongue and go "blah, blah, blah, blah" while the water ran down his face. Hopefully he didn't drink too much of it. Yuck!

Friday Family Fun

John washed my vehicle this evening while Ben played in the water.

SPLASH!

"The moon is watching me."

Stopping to smell the flowers.

Ben took his car for a ride in the water.

3 1/2 Changes of Clothes

Today has been a laundry intense day. First, Ben refused to wear a cape when he got his hair cut. He told Mrs. Bridget, who cuts his hair, "Ben don't wear a cape." After several unsuccessful attempts to convince him to wear it, I told her to cut his hair without a cape. I could take him home and bathe him. He really needed a haircut. He calmly let her cut his hair without the cape. I don't know what came over him. He's had his hair cut lots of times.

It's rained a lot here this week and we haven't been outside much. We had a heavy rain while Ben was napping. Since the rain had stopped by the time Ben woke up from his nap, I decided we could go outside and wade in puddles.

Ben began by "dancing" in Mr. Gerald's (our neighbor) puddle.

Then he found deeper water and decided to put his hands in.

And then Ben fell in soaking his shirt, which I took off of him because he hates having even a tiny bit of water on his shirt. We went inside, changed clothes, and went back out.

Throwing rocks into the water to make a splash.

Checking out a tiny worm. These shorts got soaked, too, and I changed him into his pajama bottoms once we came inside for the evening.

Official Toast Maker

I've posted lots of pictures of Ben helping in the kitchen. He's an excellent pourer and stirer, but his egg cracking skills still need work. His current favorite job in the kitchen is making toast.

I have to help him push it all the way down. He can't quite get it.

He stands and waits until it "POPS," his favorite part. Today we had BLTs for lunch. Ben got to toast lots of bread since John eats three sandwiches.

Self Portrait

Ben has figured out how to work the camera. The only problem is that it's normally pointed right in his own face. Here are a few of the better pictures he's taken of himself.

2009 Blog Book

Last night our computer experienced a major error. I was afraid I had lost everything -- AGAIN. I was particularly sick because my 2009 blog book was saved to the hard drive. I had spent many hours last fall laying it out while John was still working in Grenada, but hadn't proofread it. With the help of Dell Technical Support, our computer is back running, but I decided it was time to quit proscrastinating on the blog book. I proofread it tonight and uploaded it to Blurb.com. You should be able to view it below. Even in full-screen mode, I was only able to view the pictures. The text was too small to read.

our growing family by Rena S. Elder | Make Your Own Book

An Initial

Before "Baa Baa Black Sheep" Ben was stuck on Maggie. Could M be for Maggie? Or maybe M is for Cara's favorite Molly? MawMaw keeps asking if it's a Bible name. It could be Mary, Martha, or even Magdalene. Perhaps a family name like Mabel. Or Zac's middle name had he been a girl, Makayla. Maybe it's Macy, Mackenzie, Madeline, Madison, Makenna, Mallory, Mandy, Mara, Margaret, Mariam, Marisa, Marley, Matilda, Mattie, Maura, Maya, Meagan, Melanie, Melissa, Melody, Meredith, Mia, Micah, Michelle, Miranda, Monica, or even Morgan.

Nursery

The ticker shows only 66 days until my due date. I had set 60 days as my goal to have the crib put together and the nursery in decent order. I realized this morning I should get to work if I was going to meet my self-imposed deadline.

When we moved the crib out of Ben's room, we couldn't get it out the door in one piece so we broke it down to five big pieces. Putting it back together was very simple. Cara gave us the cute bedding. Right now there isn't a sheet on the bed. The two white crib sheets in Ben's room turned out to be pack-n-play size so I have to pick up some pink or yellow ones next time I'm at Wal-Mart or Target.

This is the room from the doorway. Right now it looks pretty plain. The brightly colored accessories are still works in progress. MawMaw is making a baby quilt out of the two fabulous pieces of material below and Nana is making a cover for the rocking chair cushions out of the green fabric and coordinating throw pillows. I also still need to hang the curtains.

Notice the cute lamp Cara found at Target.


I'll be honest these are "before" pictures. I had to move several bags for Goodwill and several more things that go to the attic back into the room after I took these pictures. Hopefully that will all be gone by the beginning of next week, though.

Ben's Sister's Name is . . .

Baa Baa Black Sheep, according to Ben. When we talk about Ben's baby sister at home, Ben often calls her by name. This weekend, I told Mama and MawMaw that they might be able to get Ben to tell them the baby's name and they would know before Cara (who was still in Mexico). When asked, Ben told them Baa Baa Black Sheep. When Cara got home Saturday night, she even tried to bribe him with a Mickey Mouse toy. He still wouldn't tell. Maybe by the end of the week I can get him to say it on video, but for now he thinks Baa Baa Black Sheep is hilarious.

Driving PawPaw Sherman

Ben and I went home this weekend for two showers: Rita's bridal shower and Wendy's baby shower. After the showers, we had lunch with MawMaw Wilma and PawPaw Sherman. PawPaw let him drive the tractor. Ben had never ridden on a tractor before.

Morning Out

Ben and I had a fun morning out of the house. We began by shopping for a present for his baby sister. Ben told me the other day that he thought his baby sister would like a toy like Cat. I think Cat is a Carters product (I cut the tags off) and I knew Kohl's carried Carters brand so we went there. They did have several plush Carters toys, but none were exactly what we wanted so we'll keep looking. We plan to visit Jim and Fran at the end of the month and there is a Carters outlet there. After Kohl's, we spent some time browsing in Books-A-Million. They have a great kids area with a train table set up with Thomas and his friends.

From Books-A-Million, we walked next door to PetSmart where we looked at the fish . . .

and the guinea pigs. As well as kittens, rats, reptiles, and birds. Ben was very concerned about the birds getting too close to him. He kept repeating, "They won't hurt you. They won't hurt you."

We met up with five of Ben's friends from church and their moms for lunch at Chick-fil-a. After eating their chicken nuggets, the kids spent about an hour playing on the indoor play equipment while the moms chatted.

Ben was exhausted on the way home, but we kept talking and talking and talking so that he would stay awake. If he falls asleep in the car, he tends to wake up when I'm getting him out and then has trouble going back to sleep for his afternoon nap.