one month old!

hi (it's me, ben). luke is already one month old (plus three days)! we love having him around (although he does cry a bit too much, if you ask me) and love watching him grow and discover the world with each new day. here we are hanging out this morning...

and here i am wearing daddy's slippers around a bit...

and luke is napping right now - this is what he looks like! sorry kid, momma has to take the naps however she can get them at this point... he used to be really good about napping in his bed, or really anywhere for that matter, but lately he's been a little high maintenance (not at all unlike how i was at that age, sorry mom!) and has to be "worn" to sleep and then gently placed in the swing.

mom and i can usually get a little quality one-on-one play time in throughout the day, but usually not for very long. i'm trying to be an understanding sport about it though, and can occupy myself by coloring (which i love to do lately) or reading books to myself. and i still love to play with anything on wheels and am actually doing really well at keeping myself entertained. but of course i still manage to fit in several tantrums a day and love looking forward to the next snack time, so i'm managing pretty well. okay, i guess that's all for now. since things are kind of crazy around here, we'll try to post again soon, but it may not be for another couple years or so, once things settle down a bit. :) bye!!

my little bro...

hello! well, it's been 4 weeks since luke was born and i've decided he's pretty cool and i think we'll keep him. he does cry a little bit but otherwise is pretty low maintenance and an overall good little brother. and i've been working on sharing things (like momma's attention) and have decided i would share my blog with him. so now it's the "ben and luke" blog, although i will likely be doing most of the posting still, since luke doesn't appear to have been born with the talents that i was (poor kid). so far, things are going great with him around and i wanted to show you some more pictures of him recently (he changes fast!). but first there are just a couple of me too... the one above pretty much describes how things are around here now - fun but crazy. :) and the two below are of me trying on the sling that momma usually carries luke around in...

and here's what luke looks like lately... isn't he so sweet? (i think so! i like to give him little kisses and pats on the head, even if he's upset and crying)...

here are some funny faces he makes when he's stretching...

and sometimes he makes really goofy faces like this one!

one time he had a question, so he politely waited to be called on... (he was probably thinking, "um, excuse me miss, but could i trouble you for some milk, please?)...

at this point, he's still not completely sure how he feels about being on the outside with all of us, and he just stares in amazement (or confusion)...

and sometimes he even throws a few gang signs while trying to look cool...

and this is him thinking, "whatever" (aunt elaina style)...

and finally, this is him realizing that momma likes to give waaaaay too many kisses, but being the good boys that we are, you just have to give in and let her...

well, that's us for now. thanks for checking in and we'll try to post more again soon. bye! :)

as promised...

as promised, pictures and a few stories of what we did the week before luke was born...

here's what momma and i made on the felt board most recently...


and here's me helping daddy sweep and rake the leaves in the front yard (note that i stayed on the sidewalk and did not go out into the street). daddy works hard to take care of the house and yard, and as i'm getting a little older, i really like to help him out when i can. i'm using the fireplace broom - just my size!


and momma took me to a farm outside of austin to pick strawberries - yum! this was the same place that had the pumpkin patch last fall, if you remember. they have strawberries and blackberries in the early summer, so we couldn't resist. i loved pulling around the red wagon with our boxes...

and i especially loved playing in the dirt, while momma did the picking...

afterwards, we ate strawberry ice cream made right there at the farm - it was so good! i'm not sure what this face is about... then when we went home, we used some of our berries to make our own ice cream too, and it was delicious!! incidentally, we saw lance armstrong cycling on the side of the road on our drive home. totally cool! (sorry there are no pics of him. mom was tempted, but she was driving and decided against it.)

here i am in the car doing something i made up recently, which is a hand gesture for "crooked"... mom and dad have no idea what this is about or where i came up with this, but it's my own little secret and they think it's funny, so i'll just keeping doing it to be cute when i need to be...

and here's what i look like with a yellow shirt on my head...

that's all for this post - just wanted to get those pictures up here so you didn't miss out on any action before luke was born, although clearly we were ready for him to come since we were doing things like making hand gestures for "crooked" and wearing shirts on our head. we needed a little fresh excitement around here... :) more later...