cozy

After all the excitement of our weekend, plus with the drizzling weather, Benji & I had a nice low-key day together yesterday making forts, snuggling up with books, baking cookies, & making play dough creations. :) Today is raining again, & we're having the same type of cozy time. :)

Happy 4th of July!

Happy late 4th of July! We had a bunch of friends over, & I didn't get pictures of everyone, but here's a handful of friends & festivities from the day... Benji LOVED the fireworks at the end too! He kept snuggling into me & excitedly squealing when each one would erupt in the night sky. I loved seeing everyone & particularly watching all of the kids play! The tiny little sweetie, new baby in one of the pictures is only a month old! Our friends Mike & Robyn's little Sara- she did beautifully with all of the commotion & I was in hog heaven with another baby around! :)

Cousin love

My dad's sister Beckie, her hubby Chris, & their "kids" (not so little anymore!) came up for the weekend & we had SO much fun with them! Here's a little glimpse of our weekend... lots of swimmin', playin', talkin', & loungin' fun. We miss you guys already- thanks for loving on us!

traveling pool

I think this was last Tuesday, but I'm not entirely sure. Time is like that now. :) Anyhow, this is a daily ritual for us when it's nice out- the whole little pool routine. But this day, we discovered a new fun idea: the "traveling swimming pool." We got the mail in his "pool," talked with the neighbors, & pretty much spent a couple of hours doing this. Love it!

Home sweet home

I love long summer days at home with my sweetie. You can tell he's still kind of not feeling 100% in some of these pictures here, but noting like your dog & your sandbox to boost your morale! :) In the picture where he & Crash are looking down, he was scolding Crash, telling him not to eat the gravel (like I do to Benj all the time). So comical!

no more crib!

On top of having a cold, Benji decided he was ready to climb in & out of his crib last week. Great. Just great. Once I asked him to show me, so I could see if it was going to be remotely safe or not & he would have fallen flat on his head if I hadn't been there to catch him. NO FEAR this boy! SO, this was his last time in his crib, saying "goodbye," we talked about together while he danced in there to some music. Then we put the mattress on the floor for a while, which led to four or five LONG nights of broken sleep... I don't have a recent picture, but finally we settled on keeping the mattress on the floor, & we added a bed railing to the side & this seems to finally work, bringing sleep back to his normal 10-7 sleep pattern. Woo hoo! Did I mention that I despise parenting transitions! AHHH!

summer cold

Poor little Bear had a cold last week. He was so miserable for a couple of days. I tried to just get him to rest on the couch some with tv & juice boxes (normally his very special treat), but not to fear, he wasn't so sick it stopped him from his usual things like balancing on his giraffe or climbing inside of his kitchen to play. :) He's mostly better now, just a lingering cough here & there, praise God. :)