It's the Simple Things

As of yesterday Ben is one month old. Boy, does time fly by! He looks more and more like Grant everyday. Even though Ben has different facial expressions (and some of the same) than Grant, holding him takes me back to Grant being that small. Although Ben has begun to have crying spurts in the evenings, he's still a pretty laid back baby. We're working on his nighttime routine... bath, bottle, bed. He's doing well with that and only wakes up once in the middle of the night now for a bottle. I still can't get over how much he and Grant look alike. Check out the last two pictures in this section (Grant's picture is on the bottom). Ben is a little older than Grant was in this picture, but, even still, see the likeness?

I started back watching Tristen full time this week and so far so good. All of the boys were so good yesterday and we actually went out for a little while to run an erand. I'll have to say that I'm pretty impressed with myself (ha, ha!). I felt like I was driving a daycare bus or something with three kids in the back of my car and listening to Barney on the dvd player. My days are going by faster than ever, but I still wouldn't trade it for the world. I've even managed to get some housecleaning done in between the feedings, diapering, playing, and putting down for naps. I'm still working on getting our schedules down pat, but they're coming along.

Grant has been having a blast playing outside lately. We bought him a sand and water table (half sandbox, half water with toy boats), and he has so much fun playing in the water. I got him a kiddie pool at Wal-Mart last night so I can't wait to see how much fun he has playing in a pool. All the way home he just kept pointing at the pool and saying "weee!" He says "weee" whenever he sees something fun like a slide or swing. He's also taking a liking to eating popsicles like a big boy outside. I just let him go at it and make a mess of himself. It's so much fun watching him enjoy something for the first time.

The day before yesterday I was changing Grant's diaper and Ben was crying in the other room. I said to Grant, "you're brother just cries, cries, cries." In response Grant said, "cy, cy, cy" while shaking his head. He's become quite the repeater these days. His vocabulary is definitely expanding on a daily basis. So, now when I ask Grant what his brother does all the time he says, "cy, cy, cy." So cute! Grant is still doing exceptionally well with Ben. However, Ben is going to have to learn to be tough pretty quick. Despite his best efforts, Grant has a hard time with being "easy." He still likes to give kisses to his baby brother and when Ben cries he will bring him his blankie and paci. He loves helping mommy!

We got to go back home for about a few days a couple of weeks ago. We had a lot of fun and enjoying visiting with everyone. Steph had a cookout at her awesome new house and it was good seeing family we hadn't seen in a long time. Nathaniel took Grant for a ride in his Hummer and loved every minute. We also got to visit with Grannie, Papaw, and Samantha a couple of times. Below is a pic of cousin Sam holding Ben.

Hopefully, I will get back into updating my blog more often since I'm settling back into some sort of routine.

Love,

Jen