Benjamin’s First Trip

On Saturday morning we packed up the car and the kids and headed to Boothbay, Maine. 

First stop on the way up.  We left RI around 6am and we made it all the way into Maine before we stopped for a break! 

The next stretch in the car wasn’t too long, just about forty-five minutes up the road to LL Bean where Julia “swam” with the fishes in the bubble.

Most of them were bigger than her!!

But she wasn’t intimidated!

After our shopping excursion, we made our way to Boothbay Harbor and explored a little bit.

We started Sunday with a perfect breakfast, complete with Bloody Mary's, at a cute little café in town.

Benjamin appeared to be eyeing Daddy’s drink!

Of course, we had to find a playground and do some swinging…

And some digging…

and some napping for the little one.

The afternoon was spent at the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens where I attended a baby shower for Andrew’s sister-in-law, Helki.  The gardens were beautiful even with just the Spring flowers in bloom and I can’t wait to make a summer visit as well.

In the gardens, Julia found a bunny…

Tip-toed through the tulips…

and tagged Uncle Jeff!

It was a short trip but we had tons of fun.  It was great to get away for a couple of days and we were pleased that both kids did really well in the car and the hotel.  That makes us even more excited for future trips, especially since on the next one up there we’ll get to meet the newest Crowder!

3 Months

For a little guy Benjamin has been very busy.  So far he has doubled his birth weight, learned to roll over, found his hands and fingers  though he doesn’t suck his thumb or fingers – he just gums his entire fist!, started smiling and laughing, started (and then stopped) sleeping “through the night”, and learned how to grasp a rattle.  He has continued to be an easy-going baby even though he has started teething and is obviously uncomfortable at times.  He is starting to prefer to be propped up in a sitting position rather than lying down and he likes standing up as well… very similar to Julia’s preferences at his age so maybe we’ll have another early walker?  He has also won over his sister, as evidenced by his buddy in the picture below.  She doesn’t share Bunny lightly!

And I can’t resist posting this picture as well.  It’s going to be hard to say “no” to this smile as he gets older!

Waking Up

I’m hesitant to write this post because I really do not want to jinx our current situation but I also want to share more about Benjamin’s personality!  I am amazed almost every day by what a relaxed, easy-going baby he is.  In sharp contrast to his sister, he is perfectly content sitting on our laps (as long as he can see what is going on), or playing on his playmat batting at the rattles and toys, or laying on his blanket trying to roll over or just wiggle where ever he can (he’s not necessarily quiet while doing this but he is content), or sitting in his bouncy seat watching all the action around him.  He also has been a terrific sleeper.  He still gets up 2-3 times a night to eat but once he’s full he goes immediately back to sleep and is content until his tummy rumbles again.  He’s been consistently going to bed around 7 or 7:30 and waking up for the day around 7 or 8:00am.  Andrew and I are so thankful!!  One of the best parts though is just how happy he is when he wakes up.  His last stretch of sleep from 4 or 5:00 until he gets up is usually in his swing in our room.  There have been several days that I have gone downstairs before he is awake and then come back up awhile later to check on him and found him sitting happily in the swing, just looking around and apparently enjoying some time alone.  Then when he sees one of us he invariably breaks into a huge grin!  It’s such a wonderful greeting!

Sweetness

Julia and I had two especially sweet moments yesterday. First, at lunch, we were playing and I was tickling her and gave her kisses on her cheek. Then I went to wipe food off her face and she said "don't wipe off your kisses mama!"

Then at bedtime, I gave her a goodnight kiss and started to sing her songs. After the first song she said in a very sweet voice "your kisses dried up mommy; I need another one".

What a perfect way to end a day!!

Easter Morning

The expressions say it all!

Rolling Over & Footsteps

Last week was an exciting week here at the house.  The first major accomplishment was Benjamin decided to rollover, not once but twice.  The first time I was in the kitchen and Benjamin was on his play mat, which he loves, I heard him start to grunt and whine a little bit but not enough for me to worry about him.  After I finished what I was doing I went to check on him and low and behold he was on his belly, although he still needed to pick his head up and move one arm over.

After that I flipped him over and he rolled over again.  Although this time he picked his head up and moved the arm!  At which point he realized all he got for his trouble of rolling over was being on his tummy so he hasn’t done it again.

The other major event of the week is Julia created her first installation art piece.  When I came down from my office at the end of the day Julia brought me over and showed me this:

She told me it was called ‘Footsteps’.  Which I thought was very appropriate.  Her Grandma Su-Su will be very proud that there is another budding artist/sculptor in the family.

Happy Easter!!

The bunny came to our house. Julia found the eggs and then made them into a "J"!

Easter Crafts

J and I have been in the swing of Spring lately and spent yesterday afternoon doing a couple of Easter related projects.  First, we baked flower sugar cookies and then we used the salad spinner to paint some Easter eggs I had cut out of construction paper.  This was a great project because Julia could do most of it herself (she needed a little help to get the spinner started a couple of times) and she ended up with some pretty cool eggs.  I was also very impressed with Julia’s cookie making.  The process was a little involved – rolling the dough into balls, then rolling in sugar, snipping the tops with scissors, and then peeling back the “petals” and adding an m&m in the middle.  She did almost all of the steps (funny enough the one thing I thought she would have fun with, rolling the dough into balls, was her least favorite part and I did most of that) and they came out great!

 

 

J-U-L-I-A

Julia has begun to be interested in letters and spelling.  At school they spell their names each day before snack and when they do show and tell so Julia has become very proficient at recognizing the letters in her name and spelling it when she sees it.  She has also started to try to create letters on her own.  Of course, her medium of choice is pom-poms!