Talkers

Happy Days

We're all smiling after a fun day. We're really enjoying the cooler temps this week. This morning we went to story hour and then to the park, ate chicken nuggets for lunch, and then played outside again after nap.

This is the better picture of Mollie, but you can't see that Ben's smiling at her like you can in the first pic.

Mollie is losing hair fast. She may be mohawk baby at her baptism October 10.

Mollie looks a little scared in all the pictures I took of them together on the playmat. I don't blame her.

Getting dirty. We're getting ready for hunting season with a new camo hat and boots. When I pulled the boots out of the bag Tuesday, he was so excited. "Cowboy shoes! Cowboy shoes!" He wore them to the library this morning. When Mrs. Melanie asked how he was doing he told her he was wearing his cowboy boots.

It's time to feed the birds (and squirrels).

Riding his bike. Ben got this bike for Christmas last year from Will and Danielle. Since he's gotten really good at going forward in the Cozy Coupe Flintstone style, I thought it was time he learned to petal. NOPE! Even though this is made for 2-5 year olds and has adjustable petals and seat, his legs are still too short. He just has really short legs. He still likes to ride it, though. He just pushes himself around with his feet.

Being silly.

Fall

The calendar says it's fall. Some leaves are starting to fall off the trees. Now it just needs to cool off some. We are looking forward to playing outside after 10 a.m. and before 6 p.m.

Changes

Mollie loves her thumb. You can hear her "smack, smack, smack" on her thumb, especially if she's hungry or sleepy.

Mollie gets to ride forward when she's awake now. Getting to see the world around her has to be more interesting than just staring at my neck. I still face her in if it's naptime so that she can sleep.

Imagination

Ben is reading "Rumpelstiltskin" (really a Hank the Cowdog book). He doesn't actually know the story of Rumpelstiltskin, he just knows of it. It's the story that the librarian reads to Grover and his friends in When is Saturday.

Here's how his story went:
Rumpelstiltskin is asleep.
Rumpelstiltskin wakes up.
Rumpelstiltskin is hungry.
Rumpelstiltskin decides what shirt to wear.
Rumpelstiltskin decides to play toys.

Ben is planting a garden.

McDonald

We visited McDonald both Thursday and Monday. Bottle stops take forever. Monday, I got out of the car at 10 a.m. and got back in at 11 a.m.

Maybe the stops would be shorter if I didn't take pictures. Ben has recently discovered the hand dryer.

It makes a good hair dryer too.

Dressed Up

John was a groomsman in David's wedding this weekend in Lafayette. Mrs. Elder told Fran that she wanted pics of us together dressed up. My dress, which I love, has pockets so I carried my camera with me to the reception.

Amazingly, these are Mama's shoes. I was planning to wear black ones until she saw my dress and told me she had shoes that matched.

John, Rena, Fran, and Jim.

John, Rena, Jim, Fran, Will, and Audra. You can see just a peek of the bride over Audra's shoulder.

Spending the Night

As I was heading to my parents' house Thursday, Mama called and said she had thrown up. I was not taking a chance that we might get the stomach virus so we made a quick change of plans and spent the night with MawMaw Wilma and PawPaw Sherman. I was near Ferriday when I finally reached them on PawPaw's cell phone. They were near Bo Gray, but made a quick turn around. By the time we arrived, MawMaw had been to town and bought all of Ben's favorite foods -- Popeyes chicken and mashed potatoes, chocolate milk, and grapes.

It has been a long time since I spent the night with MawMaw and PawPaw. I used to stay there all the time when I was little. I was relieved when Cara told me that Aubrey and Olivia had rated an air conditioner in the front bedroom. When I was little, that room was cooled by just a box fan. I wasn't looking forward to that.

PawPaw stayed up to give Mollie her 10:30 p.m. bottle and was awake for her first bottle of the morning.

Ben had lots of fun. He was ready to get outside and play when we arrived. He was tired of being in the car seat. Around Natchez, he freaked out because he couldn't "scoot." He was trying to figure out how to get himself out of the carseat so we stopped for an icecream break and a bottle at McDonald's. At MawMaw and PawPaw's house, he rang the bell, rode the four-wheeler, rode a toy tractor, and slid down the slide.

Cara gave Ben and Aubrey a bath together. Ben and I slept together and Mollie slept in Aubrey's pack-n-play. Around 12:30 a.m., I heard "THUNK." Ben had rolled over the pillows and onto the floor. He didn't cry, but it did wake him up. It took him a LONG time to go back to sleep.

Thankfully, Mama just had bad indigestion and was able to keep Ben and Mollie for the rest of the weekend while John and I went to David and Claire's wedding in Lafayette.

Big Boy

Ben got his hair cut this morning. This was the first time he sat in the chair by himself. He did really well. He talked to Mrs. Bonnie the entire time. He told her about Nana visiting, that he was going to watch Sesame Street when he got home, and commented on her "really big spoon" (the hand mirror hanging on the wall).


Bem took this picture of "beehive." Looking at the picture, I can better understand how he sees a beehive when looking at the fireplace. The links do sort of look like a hive.

Ducklings

We just saw these ducklings this morning. We waded through Mr. Gerald's sprinklers to go see them. Mrs. Judy came out and fed them. I said, "the ducks eat fast." Ben told Mr. Gerald that they were eating "fast food."

Ben managed to get really wet while looking at the ducklings.

The ducks played in the sprinklers too.

Fascinated

Reading begins early. Mollie loves looking at this cloth Sesame Street book. I prop it up where she can see and she reaches for it and looks at it. While Ben was taking his bath yesterday, she was talking to Elmo on the cover.

Watching her mobile while I finished getting dressed for church.

Ready for church. Something is wrong with my camera. It's making a black circle in the bottom left corner when I zoom.

Water Fun

I was taking a picture of Mollie in the bathtub to show that she is now reclining in the water not in the sling. She was so interested in the letters on the side of the tub that I couldn't get her to look towards the camera.

This was probably Ben and John's last swim in the backyard this summer.

Playing ball.

The grass was very thirsty.

Ben and the Beanstalk

Ben is familiar with Jack and the Beanstalk because Jack made a guest appearance on Sesame Street. However, he had never heard the whole story. Yesterday, I got the book from the library. Ben was not bothered by the scary ogre or the fact that he wanted to eat Jack. I was a little hesitant about reading fee-fi-fo-fum. It's pretty descriptive: "Fee-fi-fo-fum, I smell the blood of an Englishman, Be he alive, or be he dead I'll grind his bones to make my bread." But Ben the the plant lover only got upset when Jack chopped down the beanstalk at the end. He kept saying, "But he can fix it." Finally, John told him that of course Jack fixed it.

Ben's shadow is jumping.

Watching the wind blow.

Picking "apples" from the "apple tree."

We were outside during Mollie's naptime. She did wake up when it was time to go inside and drink a bottle.

Three Months

Mollie was three months old on Monday. She is becoming much more verbal. "Gaaa" and "Ahhh" are her favorite words. She was in the swing talking to the animals above her. I tried to video her talking, but her brother is in the background fake coughing. I may be able to clip together several videos.

Slowing Down

This has been a busy week. We got home Monday afternoon. Tuesday morning was ZooTots. Wednesday morning we grocery shopped and went to church in the evening. This morning we went to Story Hour at the library. This evening was our first time this week to just go outside and play.

Ben scratching his back on a tree stump. He said his back was itchy.

He said he needed to rest a little.

Ben was writing the number 11. This is his favorite number right now because he can write it himself. He can also make it out of blocks. And sometimes when the sun comes through the window in his room just right, he finds a "hot" number one on the floor.

And Mollie was snoozing in the Snugli, of course.