June 27th

Ben is now 5 months old! He is still a happy, healthy, entertaining little guy. Ainsley loves to help us with him and is a great big sister. She sings when he cries and helps us entertain him some. Snuggling with little brother Ben- such great pictures!



I think these pictures just show so much of the kids' personalities- all their facial expressions are priceless.

Ben can roll over in all directions now- front to back and back to front, both ways. He blows raspberries, he smiles all the time and he is laughing more and more. He loves to put everything in his mouth and try to chew it. He pulls hair whenever he can ( Ainsley does NOT like this).

Yesterday Ben put his hands on both sides of my face and pulled me towards him. He opened his mouth and put it all over my mouth and nose. I started laughing out loud because it was just too funny and cute. When I started laughing, he started laughing too- it was adorable. I wish I had a video of it!

Ben has a thin layer of hair all over his head and it is still dark brown. However, when I was looking at him today, it almost looks like there is an auburn tinge to it. His eyelashes have gotten really long - fitting in with the rest of us! He still has bright, blue eyes. He has dimples and chubby cheeks. He does not have any teeth yet, though he bites and chews everything.

Dan had a good Father's Day with the kids. I love this picture- one of the best yet! Everyone looks so happy!

Bath time




A great sight! I came home from work on Saturday to find Dan vacuuming with Ben- it was too cute not to take a picture!

We all got to go on a boatride a few weeks ago with some friends. it was so wonderful! We had dinner at a fun restaurant on the water and our friends brought the boat up to meet us. We then went for a boatride and swam in the water for a while. It was the end of the day so it was a bit cooler ( only mid 90s or so- ha). This was Ben's first boat ride and he did great- he even tolerated his life jacket.

Ainsley had fun playing in the water too- but it was too hectic to take many pictures so these are the only ones we have.

Below is Ainsley and cousin Samantha having ice cream with Nannie. They sure enjoyed it!

Ainsley and Ben snuggling on the couch.

Ben is touching Ainsley's face and grabbing for her hair and her teddy.

Ainsley- trying to get away, Ben holding tight! Mommy intervention was needed.
I started Ben on solids 2 weeks ago. We started with rice cereal. This is a picture of his first meal- he took it pretty well. However, it goes a lot better when he doesn't "help" with the spoon. We did 2 weeks of rice cereal once a day and I introduced oatmeal yesterday. If he does well with that, I plan to introduce sweet potatoes soon!

Unfortunately it is extremely hot here- it has been 100 or over for at least the past month. This makes it so hard to take the kids out and do fun outdoor things. We have been trying to go to the pool fairly often- we go early in the mornings. Ben and Ainsley really like the water and it is nice to cool off. We have a sprinkler ball that Ainsley likes to play with too and we do this while Ben is napping inside.

My garden already looks kind of sad- more like an August garden than a June garden. Most of the plants are very heat stressed. We would really love some rain- even an entire week of rain would be fine by me!